THE SONGS OF A NIGHTINGAIL

  A bedroom door behind yours truly in 1940. The indoor side of my apartment front door decorated with Christmas cards in 1964. The indoor side of our log cabin front door and the mess after opening Christmas presents.  My husband in the chair, and our son in the playpen – 1969. Eldest daughter standing in front of the indoor side of the front door screen in our ‘old school house’ house in 1975. Youngest & eldest daughters standing in front of the indoor side of the front door in our little bungalow in 1976.  We actually didn’t use it as a door.  We went in & out the kitchen door which was closer to our cars.  That’s why you can (barely?) see a chest sitting in front of this door behind the girls. The indoor side of the front door in our Groveland house. The indoor side of the laundry room door in the Groveland house. Closet doors in the Groveland house.  I loved those louvered doors.  We had them in all the bedrooms.  When the realtor was...

Click on (or copy & paste) the link below for a wonderful rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus done a slightly different way.  I first heard and sang this version of Handel's great work 10 years ago and can hardly sing it any other way anymore!  Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!  :-> https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+hallelujah+a+soulful+celebration&qs=n&sp=-1&ghc=1&lq=0&pq=youtube+hallelujah+a+soulful+celebration&sc=9-40&sk=&cvid=F3A915EAA1E8489FA5F4DA6089B49803&ghsh=0&ghacc=0&ghpl=&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dyoutube%2bhallelujah%2ba%2bsoulful%2bcelebration%26qs%3dn%26form%3dQBRE%26sp%3d-1%26ghc%3d1%26lq%3d0%26pq%3dyoutube%2bhallelujah%2ba%2bsoulful%2bcelebration%26sc%3d9-40%26sk%3d%26cvid%3dF3A915EAA1E8489FA5F4DA6089B49803%26ghsh%3d0%26ghacc%3d0%26ghpl%3d&view=detail&mmscn=vwrc&mid=F3472F58B398D8675E25F3472F58B398D8675E25&FORM=WRVORC  

 I tried to put this video directly into my post, but it just wouldn't work for some reason, so hopefully if you copy the site shown below you will get to the video? Back when we were all going through the COVID shutdown, the Pine Cone Singers - the group I sing with - put this short mini concert together with numbers taken from two different holiday concerts.  Generally speaking, I'm on the left in the second row, second singer in.  The first number is actually an encore number. Just so you know, I am not the soloist, and the gal directing the chorus in that particular number is a sub because our director was playing the piano. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW6NNqb4II4

  My Mom emerging from a bedroom on Christmas Eve with all her Christmas presents wrapped in 1967. Eldest daughter (left) was home from UMASS for the holidays and arranged to have lobsters flown to us from Boston for Christmas Eve dinner! Yummy, yummy!!! “The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.” My Grandma Louise, middle sis, me, and youngest sis checking our stockings on Christmas morning in 1966. My son checking his stocking in 1972.  When we had children we followed my husband’s family’s tradition, in part, of hanging the children’s stockings on their bedroom door knobs so when they awoke at 0:dark-thirty in the morning, they could check their stockings without waking us up, then go back to sleep until we all arose at a decent hour later on.  We would hear them softly giggling and laughing for a little while, but they’d go back to sleep and so would we.  Worked like a charm. When I was growing up we had to wait till we heard the Christmas jingle bells b...

  The woman sitting at the table may be sending out Christmas cards (?), but she’s not the focus of my post.  The decorations behind her on shelves and in cases are. The house I grew up in had a cheery fireplace, so for my first Christmas in my apartment (and Christmases thereafter) I determined to have a fireplace.  It was only cardboard, but it fit the bill and stored easily till the next Christmas.   My two favorite angel trios.  The ones on the right are from 1963. The little tree is from the same period.  It sat on my desk at work.  I acquired the ‘mod’ angels on the left about 25 years ago.   I won the golden reindeer at a silent auction.  You'll see them again in another picture. I bought this very special quartet of angels in 1960.  Their halos have come off – I’ve glued them back.  Sometimes their heads disassociate from their bodies.  I re-associate them.  They will always be part of my holiday decorati...

  What sorts of things do we do round a table indoors? We celebrate a 21 st birthday. My Mom sets a birthday cake in front of her eldest. Turnabout’s fair play. We celebrate my Mom’s 95 th birthday.  She’s first on the left. We celebrate a 6 th birthday.  My son’s, sitting at the near end of the table. We have brunch with the Red Hat Society.  My daughter & I are on the far right end. We celebrate the last potluck of summer vacation with family. We celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with friends & neighbors. We drive to Wisconsin and have lunch with family we haven’t seen in a while.  On the near ends are my Mom and her brother, Jim.  Back three, L-R, are Mom’s Mom (my Grandma Louise), her Aunt Maria, and her sister-in-law Shirley. We have breakfast in a cabin in the snow – my youngest sister, brother, and middle sis, with Dad relaxing alongside (with a cigarette – Ugh). We have early morning coffee round the little table in the kitchen where I grew u...