Monthly Archives: November 2020

finding christmas spirit

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Soon little ceramic elves will be peeking from book shelves. Gnomes and Santas too. Maybe some nutcrackers. The tree will come to life with vintage and other ornaments. And Christmas baking season will begin.

But what will Christmas in the year of COVID19? Will we celebrate in tiny family pods? Will we celebrate. And what about that grinch holed up in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC? What about all the people who continue to be affected by COVID19 including now our former Chester County Sheriff?

So yes, finding my Christmas spirit has been a little challenging this year. There has been a little bah humbug in the air. Usually about now we are planning a Christmas party. But not this year. We won’t even see our entire family this Christmas. Too many people from too many places. That bums me out.

All of our Christmas celebrations will be quieter this year undoubtedly. But we do need to find our Christmas spirit!!!

Yes, even though I had recently discovered a couple of cool little Santas for a table, my Christmas spirit has been struggling.

Until yesterday. Yesterday my friend Kristin had her business’s open house. It was very different than previous years. We were timed, it was super small, we had to wear masks, and there was hand sanitizer. But there was still Christmas magic every which way I looked. She said sometimes we just have to believe and she’s so right!

Yesterday at the Smithfield Barn we were treated to a vintage Christmas. Totally magical so keep an eye out for more small, socially distanced pop-ups. Also check out what my other favorite elf Lisa has planned at Brandywine View Antiques in Chadds Ford! And you can’t forget Life’s Patina starts spreading holiday cheer next week and Meg is another favorite elf who always seems to know what I am looking for!

Also things that you won’t see this Christmas would be the open house I usually have for my friends to promote another friend’s business. But as luck would have it my friend Alice has two fabulous websites to showcase her products:

A Single Strand and ABW Designs.

Also to be considered is Past*Present*Future in Ardmore. Owned by my friend Sherry, you can shop safely with a mask in the store or buy things online! An artist by training, she has an amazing I and hers is a store that you go in and marvel at everything she has collected for her customers. It’s a beautiful place! And if you’re more comfortable shopping remotely right now you can do that too.

Another place would be Magnolia Cottage Shop in Malvern/Frazer and the lovely folks at Frazer Antiques. And also Old Soul Decor in West Chester which is re-opening in a brand new space Thanksgiving!

The last three places I am mentioning today are also special to me an run by friends as well. Clover Market has pivoted to online due to COVID19 and Janet has curated an amazing collection of things and they offer free shipping! Shopping Clover 🍀 has never been easier.

Second to last would be King’s Haven in Paoli which is not just an amazing interior design destination, but has a remarkably beautiful collection of art and gifts. All due to my talented friend Lauren.

Finally, there is Framers Market Gallery in Malvern, Newtown Square, and Haverford. Yes Jayne and Dave are friends, but I am a devoted customer and not just for the framing business. They rep some amazing local artists! And to me one of the best gifts you can give anyone for Christmas or the holidays is the gift of art!

Yesterday I realized part of finding our Christmas magic means #ShopLocal and #ShopSmall as well. So I hope you find lovely presents at some of these places and they are all places I am just a regular customer of. They won’t even know I have mentioned their business until I hit publish on this post. As a customer I like to pay it forward.

So I know this is going to be a holiday season like no other. But we do have to believe in the magic of the season.

Shop local, support small businesses wherever you live!

letter to my father

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Dear Daddy,

I sometimes hate the way the Internet and certain things send you automatic reminders. But that is the electronic world we live in. Today, I received an e-mail reminder that as of Friday you are gone 15 years.

Fifteen years.

November 13, 2005 seems so very far away and long ago. Especially as 2020 has kind of been the year from hell at times.

I wonder what you would have made of a global pandemic? Or this presidential election? Would you have voted for Trump? I think you would have in 2016 because I know you never liked Hillary Clinton, but if you were alive today who would you have voted for?

I think you would be upset to see what a mess the City of Philadelphia has become. You always loved being a Philadelphian.

Can I say again, I can’t believe it’s almost 15 years? But I remember sitting with you on your bed on your last anniversary with mother, just two days before you died watching the original Sabrina in all it’s black and white movie glory and I knew then you were ready to leave us. I remember you lying there in bed and just the way you smiled that our time together was ending.

Ours was not a perfect relationship, what parent child relationship is if we are totally honest? But I loved you then, and love you now.

Did you know we borrowed your wedding date as our own? So yes, it lives on. It made me feel like you were there in spirit to be able to use it. It was the date that felt right.

You would love my husband. He is part of Mumma’s philosophy of going back from whence we came, which is that phrase also attributed to both John F. Kennedy and James Baldwin. To me it has meant my present and future came from my past. I ended up being a very lucky and loved woman. I think you would like that. We got married in a beautiful historic Chester County house called Oakbourne.

I think you would like my garden. I have some of your old favorites planted including one sad sack of a John F. Kennedy rose. Every year it looks like it’s going to give up the ghost, every spring it comes back. I have pussy willows planted. You remember how I loved it when you bought us the big bunches of pussy willows and peonies in the spring from Mr. Cullinan who drove a VW Bus from wherever his greenhouse was to the streets of Philadelphia with his plants and flowers? I also remember the truck farmers who would come from wherever their farms were to sell their produce door to door. None of that still exists today but I do have a milkman!

I still remember your funeral which was at Old St. Joseph’s where my sister and I were baptized. The church was packed. I remember that I had to focus on my friends in the very back. Otherwise I would have blubbered through my eulogy.

Some days I think of you with tears, like today. Other days with laughter and a smile. Sometimes when I am in the garden and I see one of the many bright red cardinals I even talk to you. Sometimes I swear I can still hear your voice and every Christmas I have a moment putting up the decorations when I run across a now vintage box of ornaments with your handwriting on it.

Life takes us on such journeys, and I wanted you to know you are loved and missed. I wanted you to know we are all happy and safe.

Love,

Me

life as we know it

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I have awesome neighbors and friends. Just had a great conversation with one. We laughed, we shared, we even dished politics and we play for different teams. That is what life is supposed to be about.

Life as we know it has changed so very much in 2020. As human beings in the fine category of stupid human tricks we often make everything harder than it has to be.

So now we are in the first footsteps after a brutal and overly extended political season. We can all exhale and not feel guilty about it.

A lovely lady I know said something very wise this evening. She said “Don’t lose friendships today over two men who don’t even know your names. It’s okay to have different political views and still be okay with each other.”

She’s right. And it’s what my friend and I were talking about earlier. My friend had remarked why couldn’t people talk to each other anymore? She and I are on opposite sides of the political fence and even during this election we were able to talk.

We all need to get back to talking. Over coffee and cocoa and tea. Yes like Hallmark Movies but it’s just a nice way to be.

2020 has been brutal. And COVID19 is sticking around. Soon it will be Thanksgiving and Christmas. What will our holiday season look like? Only time will tell.

Exhale America. One day at a time.

things that make me happy include…

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…Christmas ornaments!!! Christmas is coming!!!

Alderfer had a holiday auction. I especially love vintage ornaments and these fruit ornaments caught my eye.

I put in a super low bid and with buyer’s premium and tax it came to $30 and change! I am super excited to have them home!

Christmas countdown has begun!! (Much to my husband’s chagrin.)

peace

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I am sharing one of my favorite photos I ever took. And I had to have taken it 10 or 12 years ago at this point.

My message today is we need peace. I sound like a Hallmark card. I don’t want to sound like a Hallmark card. But it happens to be the truth.

Tomorrow is election day. We are a country steeped in anger and vitriol. I am so sick of it that I am writing about it…again.

I posted something today that had happened to a friend of mine. He is somebody who is a true patriot it has nothing to do with anything other than his personal belief system. And he’s a really good man. He drives a flag painted car. He has since 9/11.

Anyway last night he went to pick up his elderly parent dinner from a place called Giovanni’s in Elverson. When he was getting out of his car to get his order, this woman materialized seemingly out of nowhere and started yelling at him was he a “Trumpette”. OK mind you no Trump flag, no Trump sign, no Trump hat, no Trump shirt. My friends only crime was going to pick up his takeout order and he has a flag painted car.

I mean can we be real here? Donald Trump doesn’t have a trademark on the American flag, that’s OUR flag.

In any event, this woman was practically spitting, screaming angry. And my friend did nothing except he pulled up in his car to pick up a take-out food order. This woman actually shoved my friend more than once. I mean who does that? What have we devolved into when people think it’s OK to just shove perfect strangers on the street picking up takeout food?

And it also blows my mind for someone to do that in a time when people in the hospitality industry are closing businesses left and right. I mean just today we learned that one of my favorite places in Philadelphia is going dark. The City Tavern is closing it’s doors.

Quite predictably some flipped out at me for sharing this. Like it was designed to be “sprung” the day before Election Day. Umm no, it happened because people all over are acting every day like life is a giant reality TV show and are being asshats. And that’s not just some political problem, it is more like a stupid human tricks problem. And it doesn’t matter whose politics are what, a situation like this should not have happened. End of story. And think of that poor restaurant trying to stay in business having to deal with this right?

I am literally fearful of tomorrow which is Election Day. And why I am fearful is there are so many extremes in temperament out there. And sadly I think it’s on both sides.

I just want people to get out and vote and I want them to be able to do it peacefully. If someone tries to intimidate you or harass you or threaten you, tomorrow is the day you call the police.

But that being said, both political parties have a duty to the American people to just cut the crap so everybody gets through election day safely.

However, I still lay a lot of this anger and vitriol right at the feet of the Tweeter in Chief, President COVID.

We as Americans have the ability to stop this. United we stand, divided we fall. We have to stop. We deserve a country that is not full of anger and riots and racism and economically is on the precipice of disaster because Washington DC couldn’t get their act together and fight a global pandemic.

No matter what happens tomorrow, we need to come together as Americans. I’m tired of the crap of you can’t talk to them they are Democrats or you can’t talk to those people because they are Republicans. We are Americans.

As Americans we are a nation born of immigrants who fled hostile nations. Our founding fathers fought, bled, and died for our rights. And then it happened again to rid the country of things like slavery. But now we face harder times. And political extremism is polarizing and destroying this country every day. It needs to stop. We need moderation.

Change starts with us. The most powerful right you have as an American is the right to cast your vote. Cast your vote the way your conscience dictates. Not what anyone says to you. Don’t just vote one way or the other because someone else told you how to vote.

And above all else, pray for peace. And do your part for peace. We need peace. I feel we are on the brink of a modern Civil War, and we don’t want to go there.

Be safe out there and thanks for stopping by.