Category Archives: holidays

‘tis the season, santa for a christmas meander…

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This is a post which is still a bit raw form-wise. This has evolved over several days, ending with today, Christmas Eve.

I will admit this year that I have been having an off and on case of the bah humbugs. I think everyone has a year like that and I didn’t even decorate as much as I normally did.

I’m just starting the Christmas cookies today. Thank God, I remembered to get the Christmas turkey out of the freezer to put into the refrigerator to thaw.

Sometimes the cause of Christmas blahs can be traced to dealing with people who are selfish or unpleasant. I will admit that there’s quite enough of that to go around this year in general given the world and the odd environment in which we all find ourselves living.

I’m finding it hard to be positive because everything around us is so negative and the genesis of that is the grudge keeper in chief living in what was the White House. I don’t know what we call that place now, maybe the tacky palace with not a hall of presidents, but maybe a hall of vindictiveness?

Anyway, I found myself in an awkward situation the other day that I wasn’t even directly involved in but now it’s sitting in my head so I am going to write it out to release it.

We sent some presents to out-of-towners and received a phone call that there wasn’t a present for a particular person. I felt like I was living in the twilight zone because it’s someone who is not in regular contact with us and we don’t really know.

This is very much not a kid, but an adult who also doesn’t know us. If I was going to be in that particular home, I would come up with gifts for all, but since we are just mailing a couple things up and this isn’t someone who lives at that address, it simply didn’t occur to me. It wasn’t a slight.

Honestly it just doesn’t occur to me to get presents for everyone, especially people that don’t actually connect with you or see. I mean, honestly I don’t think I’ve ever received a present from this particular person so they are not on my radar. I’m not being mean or keeping book or anything, it simply doesn’t occur to me because it’s not somebody I never exchange presents with. Honestly, I don’t exchange anything with them except pleasantries if I see them somewhere.

And then there’s what do you do about someone that you were once very close to that seems to be just cutting people out of their life? I mean, this is someone with whom I used to speak with and see quite regularly, but they’ve put a wall up around me and lots of other people who were once in their circle.

They are literally withdrawing. And it’s not because of an argument or a major disagreement they’re just withdrawing.

Sometimes people do that for health reasons, I really don’t know what the case is here, but you know you do just get tired of trying although you don’t stop caring. If it is illness, they will have to tell people in their own way in their own time if that’s what they choose.

I don’t expect a lot out of people, but when you try to include people in things and it’s just like it goes nowhere after a while you’re like OK, the phone works both ways.

I have found that this was a year where I stopped tolerating people being mean. And I’ve gotten tired of the endless criticism of what I should be doing as a blogger, followed by then you should be writing about XYZ. Since I have started to push back on these things oh my goodness, the comments and the private messages that are unsolicited just blow my mind.

I write about what I want to write about, and the people that are in my world are the people that I want to be in my world. It’s pretty much that simple.

But honestly, I’m going to go make some Christmas cookies now because I need to find my Christmas spirit again.

As more random thoughts form I will come back to this post.

So now the cookie dough is prepared and I’m coming back to my readers on Sunday.

You know the simple gift of a thank you, or and I’m sorry when you’re wrong has immeasurable value.

This morning, I received a note from an elected official who said in part:

📌 I…want to thank you for your coverage on issues that always don’t make frontline news but are important for the community to know about and understand. Your coverage has helped me to be a better public servant, and person. Transparency, communication, coordination and humility are not just words but values I remind myself of everyday. Thank you again for being a strong voice! 📌

In an era when so many elected officials are literally trying to figure out how they can “get me” or non-elected officials that just don’t like what I write who are behaving in a similar manner, this means something. Especially because I’m not a compensated blogger I write about things that interests me because I care.

It’s like when you start to wonder if there is hope for humanity left, something happens to remind you it is indeed. And I’m not being overly dramatic saying that, I know plenty of people who have thought that especially this year.

I had one friend who came to our Christmas party who thanked me because she said she’s been having a fit of the bah humbugs. And then I had something unexpected this afternoon.

I heard from the now former sister-in-law of a friend of mine whom I love and miss very much. And it was just that simple contact and it led to me connecting with my late friends now former husband who always meant a lot to us as well. I swear the fey part of me felt like she sent them or it was just a nice god wink.

Whatever the case may be, it was just so nice. And it was just so nice in a world where people don’t know how to be nice anymore. I’m not excusing myself from that statement because sometimes I’m not nice and I know that. I get pushed to a point where I’m just done.

But this has been a Christmas season where the Christmas spirit has been in fits and spurts. I am watching people I know, being hurt, unnecessarily, sometimes by the very community in which they live by the very government that they try to believe in, or should I say, tried.

Municipalities like many others in this country have actually forgotten about the U.S. Constitution and how citizens (mostly through the First Amendment) have the right to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a “redress of grievances.”

Residents can literally under the U.S. Constitution have the ability of direct appeals, which means they can contact government officials themselves. Residents can also perform very simple forms of advocacy and lobbying by using free speech and assembly – going to meetings, etc. they also have a right to peaceful protest. Yet in this crazy world in which we live, apparently our rights are subjective, and I think a lot of it depends on who you know these days which is not the way it was designed by our founding fathers was it?

Democracy is not supposed to be just a word is it?

I find all of that rather depressing. And these municipalities in some cases, need to get over their God complexes. Some are going after residents when there are even traditional media reports to back up their claims, and yes it’s kind of crazy when they’re going after residents isn’t it?

This was the year where I didn’t watch the news as much anymore. And a lot of that has to do with everything that is happening in this country. Most of it is beyond our control. Except then you think about people that live through World War II and other things and what they’re seeing, and in a lot of cases they see more than we do because they lived through that once already.

What was it Joan Baez said this summer? Truth doesn’t age, and neither does courage?

That statement of hers made me think. Just like another statement from Maria Shriver I saw on her socials this morning and am sharing:

May God bless you all during this holy season. May you hold those you love dearly. May you make time to be with those you care about and tell them so. And may you head into a new year filled with hope. I know it might feel tough right now to feel hopeful, but that is exactly why we must all take some time to reflect and find the light within.

So, I’m going to focus on my refilling my light, strengthening my spirit, and surrounding myself with love. I’m going to take a break from social media for the rest of the year, and I’ll see you back here in 2026! ♥️ #takingabreak

She’s not wrong. Maybe that’s what we all need to do? Unplug a little?

It’s now Christmas Eve and yes this is a disjointed meander. My mood has improved and the cookies are baked, Christmas Eve dinner is planned, and the turkey for Christmas Day is about to go brine dunking.

Today has had visits from friends and neighbors reminding me that goodness exists in spite of strife.

I started the day by calling into the WCHE morning show. Barry and Steve and Eric were talking about giant snowflakes. Talk about an amusing excuse to call in, right? Anyway we had a good giggle.

Earlier this week I played Santa with my neighbors. There is a tradition that started when this neighborhood started, way before my time. We leave little gifts for each other. Some have moved away, and others choose not to participate, and one family is so new they probably have no idea why people are leaving presents. It’s a nice tradition, and more people should do it but our neighborhoods are more transient, so in a lot of cases today, people don’t know their neighbors.

So maybe now it’s time to wind up this ramble and wish people Merry Christmas. 2025 has been a crazy year, but now we are on the precipice of a new year, right? What will our future be?

Merry Christmas readers.

….and to all a good night (a little early.)

another wonderful surrey holiday house tour!!!

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And that’s a wrap until next year! Another amazing holiday house tour from Surrey Services for Seniors

I am an in kind and regular sponsor which I am just mentioning so you know WHY I do the photos and that they are done as a volunteer. (Otherwise you’re not allowed to take pictures inside people‘s homes obviously.)

This year, the houses were so beautifully and perfectly festive!!! I have to say the homeowners knocked themselves out for all of us and it was much appreciated!

I loved all the homes and will be going through photos over the next couple of days, but I will be sharing a little video with you guys below so you can get a flavor for the tour and the shops afterwards, which were also so much fun!

I do have to say my favorite house was on Poplar Avenue in North Wayne. I love that section of Wayne. It is so historic and just being in the neighborhoods there makes you happy because mostly everyone decorates.

If you would like to give a Christmas donation to Surrey, which does so much for people follow this link:

https://surreyservices.org/

Here is the little compilation video:

what happens when you ask alexa “trick or treat”?

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Between now and Halloween ask Alexa for a trick-or-treat. Just say “hey Alexa trick-or-treat.”

we hold these truths how?

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It is time for the annual unveiling of the Declaration of Independence everywhere as July 4 is nigh.

Allow me:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

~ https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

So here we are in 2025. It’s been a very long year and it’s only July 1.

We live in a fractious, infighting country, and I had to ask myself today an honest question. My question is simple: are we living up to what are forefathers fought, blood, and died for? Are we what they envisioned just months away from our Semiquincentennial?

I don’t think we are. And I think we are turning into an embarrassment on the world stage. Do people still hold us in high regard in other countries or are we people to be pitied or scorned?

Since when did our freedoms become subjective and don’t tell me they’re not because we all know they are. We are a country founded on the hard work of immigrants, with no respect for immigrants a lot of the time.

One of our more challenged rights are our First Amendment Rights. As a blogger, I’ve certainly experienced that over the years. And it is sad because people in this country have lost the ability to have conversations. You can’t respectfully disagree, you have to destroy the other person. We see this destruction attempted on social media every day. People will tell other people that I am a bully for standing up for myself or choosing not to interact with certain people and how is that being a bully? If you are of a different opinion compared to someone else, are you then supposed to be a doormat for their ire?

Is this post all about me? No, it’s not but as a blogger I am opinion based so these are the things I think about. Today I am thinking about it in context with what we all see happening in this country.

I think about all these people that like to stand up and tell the next guy or gal that they are a better American than someone else. What makes them a better American what makes someone else a worse American? What makes someone judge, jury, and executioner on what it is to be American exactly?

When was it we were all supposed to be the same? Didn’t our forefathers fight for us to have freedoms and rights so we didn’t have to be exactly like the person standing next to us?

I’ve almost stopped watching and reading the news in a lot of cases because it’s not good. And I’m not going to change the world. I can only be myself. I’m not going to go march in protests not because I don’t think people should have the right to protest or shouldn’t protest, it’s just I don’t feel that in my bones. What I feel in my bones is a deep sadness and weariness to be an American.

I love the history of this country in all its imperfect glory. And today, I wonder what kids are actually being taught? Are they being taught the true history or the sanitized versions of our history that other people are more comfortable with and what is that saying regarding if you don’t reflect upon your history, you’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past?

In this country today, are we on the precipice of repeating some of the most heinous mistakes of our past?

OK, I had to go look the quote up and here it is:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

~ George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. 

I know people who legally immigrated to this country who have left or or thinking of leaving. Like those of us who may be a few generations in or a couple of hundred years in to living here, they are disillusioned and sad.

We have shitty healthcare. Sometimes I wonder if we are living the robber barons of our past? Currently on HBO it is being romanticized in the series called The Gilded Age, but it was a time of strife and wide disparity between classes, inequality, racism, monopolies, unethical business practices, exploitation of workers. sexism and wow sounds like 2025? Captains of industry or feudal lords much?

(I guess this is where someone will roll up and say I’m either a communist or socialist and I am neither. I’m just being a student of history.)

I don’t pretend to have answers. I’m just kind of speaking my truth out here in the wilderness.

But when you celebrate the Fourth of July this year, try to remember why it exists and don’t be a bunch of asshats.

Be an American the way our forefathers intended us to be. Hoist the flag, and remember to bring it in if it rains.

Happy almost July 4th. Happy Independence Day as opposed to happy indentured servitude day.

That is all.

holiday season moments: the surrey house tour and shops

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The Surrey Services Holiday House Tour completed their second successful year this past December. I am a proud supporter of this tour and it was magical, and my friends enjoyed themselves tremendously.

I have written about Surrey before and it is a particular favorite non-profit of mine. They quite literally do good things.

This year I was one of the photographers of the event as well as a tour attendee and sponsor. I have to be honest, it was one of the most fun events I have photographed in years. Why? Number one it was pretty, and secondly, there was no artifice to the attendees. People were there because they wanted to be, and the joy on attendees’ faces as they went from location to location and finally to lunch and the shops showed you how great of a day it was.

And I will give a little feedback of my own, having been on 2 years of tours.

First of all, Surrey Services knocks themselves out for this. The staff and volunteers could not ben nicer. And this event has a lot of moving parts. They work hard.

The shops were even better than last year, and last year they were fabulous. The shops I think have found a perfect home at St. David’s Church, and I hope they secure this location for next year. The one thing I will repeat which I stated last year, is the people who have subscribed for the entire day (tour/lunch/shops) should have dibs on parking. They should have people at the shops location at the parking lot entrances to direct patrons, with again, dibs on parking being given to entire event subscribers. And they need to have volunteers literally check the lots for people inventing a parking space where none exists, people not handicapped taking handicap spaces just to go shop, and those who feel the need to take up multiple parking spaces with one vehicle. This is NOT Surrey’s fault, it’s the simple fact that humans can be selfish.

The homes this year were wonderful. My feedback is the homes which were enjoyed the most were the homes where they followed the assignment: that this was a holiday house tour. I think some might feel that decorating for the holidays might be a wee bit passé, or clash with the interior design, or they are a bit fearful of holiday decorating. Look, that is what the patrons are signing up for. No matter what holidays you celebrate, as long as it isn’t a lawn full of blow up figures that are the stuff nightmares can be made of, decorate for the holidays. We aren’t only here to see the interior design, we are there for the Christmas and holiday of it all.

I also need to comment on the fact that the tour goers need to remove their floor protective booties between houses. If you don’t, then it defeats the purpose of wearing the booties to keep from dragging dirt into these beautiful homes. The other reason is just practical: if you don’t take the time to remove them, you are creating a slip and fall risk for yourself and we saw that when we go to St. David’s for the shops and lunch. A woman who still had her booties on in the parking lot at St. David’s slipped and fell.

My two favorite houses were in Bryn Mawr and one of the Wayne houses. They were not only spectacular houses, but they let their holiday spirits fly and the love showed. Those were the homes people connected with and you could see people trying to figure out if they could create a similar look. They were inspirational.

Technically Christmas can stay up until epiphany, so I hope you all are still enjoying at least some of your holiday decorations still.

I am sharing some of my favorite moments of the Surrey tour this year.

I look forward to next year’s tour and a big thank you to Surrey and the homeowners who shared their holidays with us!

happy new year from your (slightly) irreverent blogger

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Well it’s 2025.

Happy New Year.

I read a partially amusing to me article this morning. Mostly local and state elected officials i.e. politicians telling a local reporter their New Year’s resolutions. Some honest and heartfelt and one in particular I found ridiculous and bobbleheadish:

“My New Year’s Resolution is to write more. I think it’s so important to give yourself time to create. For me, writing has always been a way to make sense of the world and what’s happening around me, and I hope that if I give myself that time, I can create something that readers might connect with one day.”

So I have to ask then was her note to me November 10th a work of fiction?

Yeah that was the day this elected official, a politician, contacted me directly to take down a post about election decorum at meetings featuring her latest petite tantrum. Not the first time over her political career is it?

No I am not sharing what she wrote but given the sound byte above, it makes a person wonder doesn’t it?

Look woman, stop trying so hard. We get it, you have higher political aspirations. You tried and backed out of running for State Rep in 2022 right? Latest rumor mill is you want to run for County Commissioner? Be real and do better. You are not there and you need depth. But hey I bet you won’t read this post either right? Just like you did not read the last one that you contacted people I know as well as myself to take down?

And then there was this one:

“My goal for the New Year is to become a more intentional consumer, reduce waste, and find more ways to recycle, reuse and upcycle. I am working to decentralize my household from large corporate interests like Amazon, shop more local, and with companies that treat their workers with dignity and pay living wages and benefits. I’ve been trying to break away from fast fashion culture and love shopping local consignment shops and thrifting. I have been a host for a local CSA, for going on 11 years, and also have found some amazing local flower growers that I love to support.”

Ummmkay. So do you really really think all more localized companies treat their employees well? They don’t. It’s not just Amazon and it is the game of whoever gets the most bucks wins, isn’t it? Define living wages as in how do companies define it and how do employees define it and does it include decent benefits? Be real about this, not sound byte-ish.

As for thrifting and upcycling, etc , a lot of us have been doing this for years. A lot of this is driven by common sense and a desire for things that were better made, better looking and durable.

Supporting CSAs? Always a great idea to know where things come from and are grown. This is another reason why local farmers need more support. As in real farmers.

One way this New Year’s resolution making state elected official and others in Harrisburg could do this is to enact an act of the state constitution in 2025 and comprehensively update the Municipalities Planning Code.

I mean if municipalities themselves are supposed to reexamine and update their comprehensive planning every couple of years don’t you think 56 years is long enough? Or what about our communities? Don’t we deserve not only more open space and less development and more historic preservation, but real protections from pipelines, data warehouses, hydrogen hubs, warehouses everywhere etc?

Listen politicians, don’t just talk the change, be the change. Be the people we actually thought we elected.

Now whenever I write something like this somewhere a politician gets pissy. In 2025 I still fail to see why as I am just one opinion over here. Why do you care when you say you don’t care? Political puzzle for the ages.

Over all, the New Year’s resolution making in this article were very heart felt and earnest and who a lot of these people truly are. They walk the walk and don’t just talk the talk. So I am NOT being a Scrooge on this bus. I am just saying we need more than words from elected officials to read on New Year’s Day. Some keep their word, some shall we say, rearrange them.

The best politicians we have locally, regionally, and even nationally are the ones who don’t forget who they are and the ordinary people who helped them on their journey once they get to office.

And some who are no longer in office need to find a way to retire gracefully, don’t they?

I found an interesting thing on CNN about New Year’s resolutions and their origins.

CNN: The ancient origins of New Year’s resolutions and how the tradition has changed

That article is worth a read.

Did I make any resolutions? Does it matter? Ok maybe just one:

I resolve to continue to not suffer fools gladly in 2025.

I also resolve to continue to be myself.

That’s all I have got…for now.

Happy 2025!

somewhere in my memories

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It’s the end of December. Soon it will be New Year’s Eve and then 2025 will be here.

I marvel that so much of my life has already happened and the inner child in me born in 1964 marvels at all the time that has gone by and all the distinct Christmas memories.

I remember the Christmas processions we did at St. Peter’s with our white robes and candles. The Christmas book fair at St. Peter’s and getting books sign by Marguerite de Angeli. I remember Santa Lucia at Old Swede’s. I remember the year Kitty the cat got into her catnip Christmas stocking and was as stoned as a loon dangling mostly upside down from the top of the Christmas tree. And then she skidded up and down the front hall for a while.

I also am even at 60 reminded of the year my mother told me to stop fiddling with my chocolate milk at Wanamaker’s Crystal Tea Room at Christmas and drop it… and I did…right into my aunt’s lap…as in her sister-in-law not my great aunts. Winter white suit too I am told.

We used to go see all of the Christmas displays at all of the department stores in Philadelphia and then we had lunch at the Crystal Tea Room. I always had scrambled eggs, toast, and chocolate milk. Mostly we did this with my great aunts.

At Strawbridge’s it was the Dickens Christmas Village and the figures were animatronic. At Gimbels the figures also moved, but in the windows. Lit Brothers had the enchanted village and John Wanamaker’s had the light show and the pipe organ and the waterfall. After the light show was when we would go all the way up in the elevators to the huge Crystal Tea Room. It was filled with the noise of other families and tons of kids. I also remember when we were leaving there was almost like a check out line in the grocery store. And all the women who were in the tea room wore crisp uniforms.

It’s sad to me now because Philadelphia during Christmas was once really something. Those Christmas displays drew people into the city almost like a July 4th concert.

I’m told that part or all of the Lit Brothers display is at a slightly creepy cavernous warehouse space in Oaks next to a FedEx hub called the American Treasure Tour Museum. The place is owned by someone referred to as “the Collector” who is supposed to be all mysterious, yet Reddit says it’s the developer behind Audubon Land Development (think Happy Days Farm) which owns that property in Oaks where this is and Arnold’s Family Fun Center etc. is? Also supposedly owns the Classic Auto Mall in Morgantown?

The Wanamaker pipe organ has its own nonprofit now and is being preserved. But the Wanamaker building which is a historic landmark went into foreclosure and it was announced in December that it had been acquired by a developer and private equity firm out of New York and the building will be converted to residential apartments, and my guess is that they will be rental apartments vs. some kind of condo development. Now that is not the worst adaptive reuse I’ve ever heard of, but what will happen to the organ in the future and during construction? And according to the Inquirer, that is where the Strawbridge’s Dickens Village moved so what happens to that now?

Also, the Christmas season always meant The Philadelphia Charity Ball. When we went, it was held at the Bellevue Strafford and it was held on December 23rd. Being in the Cotillion was like being part of a different world. I don’t think it’s the same today and it seemed quite small in event this past year and moved to Merion Cricket Club which kind of takes the Philadelphia out of it, so it could be dying?

Other memories like caroling parties at my cousin Suzy’s in Newtown, Bucks County where we all had a lot of fun….except we were so out of tune I am surprised no one paid us to go away. And when we were there for any kind of a holiday meal or gathering, the plates that were used were Suzy’s late mother’s and they were a pattern I have never seen since with pine boughs and pine cones. They disappeared in her divorce. I still wonder if her first husband has them somewhere. I think it was a Rosenthal pattern.

Then there are all the memories of Christmas parties at my parents’ friends between a Harleysville, Schwenksville, Malvern, and eventually Wayne. Glittering German Christmas celebrations that were just so beautiful in all of their homes over the years.

Also the little girl memories of going with my father in a red VW bug through the snowy streets of Philadelphia to get a Christmas tree sold off the freight cars at the rail yards.

Or other little girl memories of going to 9th street for Christmas goodies from DiBruno’s when there was only one and whatever meat we were preparing from Cappuccio’s. I even have a random Christmas or Christmas Eve memory of my great aunts house on Ritner Street in South Philadelphia and it was packed to the gills and so hot.

Lots of other memories mashed together through the years including my father’s slightly exasperating method and routine for putting up the Christmas tree. And oh yes, silver and gold ornaments only. We eventually snuck in some other stuff over time but they were few and far between and only little white lights. The trees were gorgeous, don’t misunderstand me, but I think this is why my trees have so much color. Of course the other thing about the growing up Christmas trees is they often didn’t come down until almost February and one year almost Valentine’s Day.

And then there was New Year’s Eve party when we had first moved to suburbia and were living in Gladwyne. I think it was New Year’s Eve 1975 into 1976. I remember grown ups dancing in the snow and singing LOUDLY as the clock ticked down to midnight. That was the night when my late godmother’s husband tried to scrape all of the dinner scraps down the sink drain….and there was no garbage disposal….

And then there was the year our friends from Bethesda, MD came up for New Year’s Eve and Abigail the Springer Spaniel ate part of the chocolate sponge cake cooling on the stovetop waiting to be rolled with cream for dessert… the surviving cake became a trifle.

Then there was when a friend of mine named Barb showed us all the art form of the gift basket. We had never thought of blending old and new in a basket full of Christmas treats for people. It was something she did and to this day it’s a favorite kind of Christmas gift to assemble. Back then it was because it gave us more bang for our buck with Christmas presents and a more younger person‘s budget. I still like it because it’s fun to do.

Then came the Christmas Eve party that always felt compulsory. It was a Main Line affair. The parties hosted when it was wife #1 meant the daughters had matching outfits to wife #1’s hostess gowns and they were posed on the stairs when the front door was answered. (Well it was the late 1970s.) Wife #1 set the tone and the woman had enough of a chill she was frosty.

It was no real surprise when there was a divorce and then there was wife #2. (Of course later on, wide #1 would hunt husband #2 who was the father of someone else I knew like big game, and wow all those bridesmaids then, really? But I digress.

When it was wife # 2 the parties became more warm and welcoming. Except when I was in my 20s there was the married guy who had a store somewhere who came every Christmas Eve for a few years without his wife and every Christmas Eve tried to pick up single young women, usually the daughters of the the families attending. One year it was my turn. He asked if I wanted to go to a party with him and leave the current party and I asked him kind of loudly if his wife would be joining us and something else. That took care of that. That was super uncomfortable. Worst of all? Married dude tried to pick me up in front of my father.

Now this was the party where the cool kids hung out in the library, and the younger kids took over the basement. And the adults were everywhere in between.

As time seemed to speed up, I would host Christmas or Christmas Eve and then my sister would host Christmas or Christmas Eve. And then there were years were Christmas seemed to not exist like the Christmas in 2010 that my brother-in-law died.

This has been a really nice but still kind of hard holiday season this year for me personally. It’s the first one without my friend Anna, and when you’ve had 48 years of Christmas and holiday seasons in one form or the other with one friend, you miss them when they’re gone, but I’m thinking now she’s with our friend David, who passed away a couple of years ago. I still keep waiting for the phone to ring or to get a text message from her. It’s just sort of bittersweet in some moments and others just sad. And then I have the random memories of shopping for Christmas presents in Bryn Mawr with her when we were younger than driving age. There was this awesome bookstore next to Parvin’s Pharmacy and then there was KatyDid and looking at the scarab bracelets at Mr. Fish’s.

And then this is the Christmas I found out that a friend of mine from college that I didn’t even know was sick was also gone. She was someone that I was only in touch with infrequently at this point, but it’s still another loss. And she came from a rather large and close-knit family, and I feel for them and her own family. She was so nice and bright and hard working and lived for her own family.

This is also the Christmas that one of my sorority sisters is on hospice. She told everyone before Thanksgiving. She’s just a wonderful person and nice. And another person I know is on hospice. It must be one of those years.

So I have all of these great Christmas memories and then there are the holiday season melancholies I suppose you might call them. Nothing terminal or bad, but bittersweet with twinges of sad. There are people we have all had in our lives that we just maybe thought would go on forever. And a lot of them were the people we knew who also loved the holidays. We carry their memory and our memories of them in our hearts and minds, and it’s ok to get a little schmoopy and sentimental.

Happy and safe New Year to all.

so….yuletide….first it runs until just after new year’s, now it closes december 23?

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This is a great curiosity of life I think right now. Last year at first people were excited at the idea of Yuletide, but then the reality was less than, correct?

So then we had the whole thing about it was coming back at a golf club on the other side of Montgomery County owned by the Union League. (Liberty Hill.)

I wrote about dissatisfaction with the event just recently.

fa la la la …. flat? yuletide 2024, similar issues, different location?

And now here we are 10 days before Christmas and all of a sudden they’re singing a different tune about closing not January 5, 2025, but December 23, 2024? So if you bought a season pass for this, do you get a partial refund? People are asking this question and it showed up on social media.

And the reviews and people being dissatisfied has only increased. And then, as a friend pointed out, the event people seem to be pushing back on Google reviews, which is kind of amusing.

Also kind of amusing is most of the positive reviews you say are essentially influencers and what not so are they comped? It’s a fair question to ask because the majority of the reviews are actually very negative aren’t they?

I’m just going to share a potpourri of screenshots:

So Yuletide, whose fault is it now?

What’s going on?

If people paid for a season pass and you’re closing early, what are you doing for them?

If you’re closing early, how does that affect the vendors who have committed their time and money to this?

How does this affect the employees that were hired to help run this event, and most of all why are you closing?

Last year (2023) you were at Devon, there really weren’t a lot of straight answers after the fact as to where your contract went etc. were there? So you were supposed to be new and improved and smaller and more thoughtful and more fabulous at the Union League’s Liberty Hill in 2024?

Seriously, what is going on?

It seems like there’s a lot of bah humbug in the house? And if people bought a season pass and you are shortening the season what are you doing for them? After all, if you think about it, after December 23 is pretty much when all the schools are on vacation, so if this was supposed to run until January 5, can’t you consider the fact that people that paid for your season pass were really going to use it in that time between just before Christmas and just after New Year’s?

What is going on Yuletide?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

fa la la la …. flat? yuletide 2024, similar issues, different location?

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So they went from Devon Horse Show in 2023 where they fell flat, to a geographically somewhat undesirable and odd location? A golf club owned by the Union League in Lafayette Hill? What happened to that lease that was supposed to be more than one year with Devon Horse Show anyway? It’s one of the great mysteries of life isn’t it?

Anyway, so it’s happening again and the prices aren’t much different. And then there’s this great disclaimer. Basically can it be said they’re there to take your money, but they’re not responsible for anything?

And I’ve been hearing from people that tried it again that said it’s just the same song different radio station so to speak. Now I know where they’re having it because it was an insurance company owned golf club for a long time. It’s pretty but for an event like this? In my opinion, it’s just not another good location. Except I have to be honest, if they had handled it properly, Devon was actually a great location.

Here are two of the recent reviews I found:

So there you have it don’t you? And this is what I’ve also heard from people that went, but didn’t leave any reviews. They didn’t even bother to post about it on social media.

And the other thing is it’s Christmas and people don’t mind paying a tasty per head charge to walk in the door, if part of it goes to a nonprofit so where’s their nonprofit component this year? Or again it doesn’t exist does it?

I think this is sad honestly because I think it had the potential of being something really cool. But this is a special and magical time of year and if you can’t really bring the magic because you don’t have the true generosity of holiday spirit, then this will keep happening won’t it?

My favorite bad review was the one that said it was a crime against Christmas. Buy that man a peppermint cocoa!

I will note I found one very glowing lonnngg new positive yet poorly written review and I have to ask: did that person pay for the admission or were they comped because last year weren’t they at the comped preview? Because they are in influencer category ?

Santa’s watching… do people think they’ll be back for a third year?

I posted all the reviews I saw on Google. They match again what I’ve been told by people I know who went. I’m going to say go up to Bethlehem or some of the other great markets for Christmas. One of my favorites is coming up and it is the Clover Market holiday market at Westtown School.

Also I have to ask how do you categorize the reviews family that’s doing this ? They are liking their own festival? I get that but are those real reviews or like familial sock puppets ?

Fa La La La La.

bah humbug in the 19333.

not being a grinch, so stop criticizing my commentary

so “yuletide” is moving…

the thanksgiving post

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Well, here we all are. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. What does it mean to you?

We’ve had a year, haven’t we? Thanksgiving means it’s winding down so maybe now we can all take time to enjoy a holiday or two with friends and family?

It’s funny. I don’t know that I have anything particularly profound to say, but when I woke up this morning, I was thinking about Thanksgivings past.

I remember Thanksgiving when I was really little. We went to my mother’s brother’s house. They were the ones that adopted our German Shepherd, Lily Marlene, when my parents decided she wasn’t right for them. Lilly had been given to them by friends of theirs who at the time basically lied about everything about the dog. They just wanted to get rid of her. Lily didn’t like being a city dog. I think it was as simple as that and before us she had been a boy dog and I think she missed that. Lily loved my uncle so one day she went home with him, and she had an amazing life with my cousins and my Aunt and Uncle. And among other things, she became a boy dog once again.

I remember Thanksgiving at this their house. The table was packed and it was a small enough house that it got very warm with the oven and all the people. But it was nice and my Aunt was a good cook. She was also a very warm and welcoming woman and loved kids.

Also when I was little, I remember one particular Thanksgiving when my father’s sister and her family were living in a house they rented in Paoli. I think my paternal grandfather was even still alive at this point.

The house in Paoli doesn’t exist anymore. Shortly after my uncle got relocated by his company to either Florida or Cincinnati (I forget which), that house was eventually sold again and torn down. Because my uncle was living a corporate life with an insurance company he and his family moved fairly frequently when I was little.

The house in Paoli was off of Route 30. I remember it either was off of a private road or like a farm road and it was on the right when you were headed west on Route 30/Lancsster Avenue.

Paoli was still a lot of open space farmland then. Even along Route 30. This was maybe 1968 or so and I remember that because my sister was so little. I remember the house though, and it was a beautiful old farmhouse and it was big  and had great woodwork. I believe it was maybe a Victorian era farmhouse if not earlier, but I was too little to know the difference or precise age. I do remember it was white. It had a big porch and black shutters. There was a barn off to the side that obviously my aunt and uncle didn’t use except to pull a car in, and across from them there were still fields. And pretty big trees. 

My uncle is Cuban, and when I was little, his mother was still alive and there. She was very tiny, dressed in widow’s black clothes, and pretty much spoke Spanish to her son. That was the Thanksgiving where I first had black eyed peas. They were one of the side dishes. I was seated at the children’s table, which was set up in the hall at the base of the front stairs. The house had a beautiful staircase, and I still remember looking into the dining room, which was lovely with a beautiful table and candlelight.

Then at some point as we were growing up, we moved to the suburbs from the city and my parents good friends moved as well to Bethesda, Maryland. We started the tradition of state swapping Thanksgiving. Some years we went there, and some years they came here. I liked it better when we went there because the kids could go into Georgetown that weekend after Thanksgiving Day. Also because the mother in this equation, we’ll call her Mrs. C, was an amazing cook. She also never treated the kids like kids. I don’t know if you remember growing up, but you just had some of the adults that basically talked down to you, and like my parents, she spoke to us normally.

I remember being in the kitchen with Mrs. C as she was preparing Thanksgiving. We were all put to work, but you didn’t mind and it was a pretty big open kitchen and it extended into a family room. She used to make giant turkeys and they were just like perfectly basted things of beauty and oh they smelled so good!

One of the Thanksgivings when it was my parents turn to host, we decided to try eating out, because when this family came, it was a lot more people than could necessarily fit comfortably in our dining room, although we did do it a lot of the time. (Besides, if my mother could get out of cooking, she would.)

So this one Thanksgiving, we went to a restaurant in Radnor called The Greenhouse. People today would know this location as 333 Bellrose, which was owned by a friend of mine until a couple of years ago when he sold it. My high school friend opened it originally in 1999.

The Greenhouse Restaurant was owned by a Mary Bentley. Before she opened a restaurant there, according to Main Line Media News :

….Between 1953 and 1975 it was a gift shop and garden center called Radnor House. Part of it is literally a converted stable built in 1769 and although it sounds like a joke, local historians say that George Washington’s horse actually slept there – not George himself, but his horse.

In 1975 Mary Mitchell Bentley, of Bryn Mawr, had survived a traumatic divorce and opened the first restaurant there, the Greenhouse. She had no previous experience in the restaurant business.

“I did it because there was nothing else I could do but cook,” Mary told us 25 years ago. “I could not even type and I had never held a job outside the home in my life. I had to go to work to pay the bills though and I was terrified to go on a job interview, which I had never done, so I figured I’d open a restaurant.”

Despite this less than auspicious track record, Bentley managed to develop the Greenhouse into one of the Main Line’s most elegant and successful restaurants for two decades….After Mary’s departure, the property was converted into another restaurant (Carolina’s) and then another one (Oyster Bar) which both lasted a little longer than a Caesar salad…..

Why so much on The Greenhouse and its history? Because it was an amazing restaurant. Today, if a restaurant like that actually existed, it would be amazing and what Mrs. Bentley did for Thanksgiving precisely was create your Thanksgiving dinner at her restaurant.

You would order an entire Thanksgiving dinner, including your own small turkey. When you had Thanksgiving there, you didn’t feel as much that you were in a restaurant, but it was like you were in somebody’s home. It was really terrific. I am not sure if any other restaurant in the area does it the way they used to. Being able to get in there for one of the Thanksgiving dinners was a big deal. And you got leftovers. 

I remember other Thanksgivings that we spent with my father’s sister and her family once they were permanently back in Philadelphia. Those were more formal Thanksgivings and not particularly warm and fuzzy because my father and his sister did not really get along. It was just a beautiful but cold house and having dinner with a bunch of equally cold people.

My aunt’s children, my cousins, were not friendly really towards us, they were polite… and you always got the feeling that they felt oddly superior to any of the rest of us. And it was a shame because my aunt had a beautiful house in Chestnut Hill and I loved her living room and dining room. Those Thanksgivings while they lasted also included my father’s mother, my grandmother as she moved in with them when Pop Pop died. These are the Thanksgiving memories that are like the echoes and empty rooms.

There was also one Thanksgiving or Christmas that we spent in Ellicott City Maryland, where one of my father’s cousins lived. They most had this amazing Victorian house that they restored and it was great. The holiday was also great because they were always warm and loving

Other Thanksgivings over the years were spent with friends and other family like my cousin Suzy. She and her family settled in Newtown, Bucks County, which was not too far from where some of my mother’s cousins and other aunts and uncles had lived .

Suzy was my mother’s brother’s oldest daughter. She was like a big sister to me and my sister. She had spent a lot of time with us growing up and when she got married, she actually got married out of my parents house in Society Hill and our parish, Old Saint Joseph’s.

I loved doing holidays with Suzy and her kids. She would also do things like have a Christmas caroling party in December and we would all go around her neighborhood in Newtown and we collectively had the worst voices, but we had so much fun. I used to go to the New Hope area flea markets with Suzy as I got older.

Sadly, Suzy is no longer with us, she died two years to the day after my father passed away.

Then eventually we were all doing other Thanksgivings. Sometimes in Philadelphia, or the Philadelphia area, and then after my sister and her family moved to New York, also up there.

I also have other memories of random Thanksgivings where I couldn’t get time off from work and had to work Black Friday. So I remember one year my parents went to Nee York to my sister’s and I went to Merion Cricket Club with my friend and her family because after everyone in that family stopped wanting to cook Thanksgiving, they started (like a lot of people) eating a club Thanksgiving dinner. Only the Thanksgiving meals at Merion never held a candle to the Old Greenhouse restaurant in Radnor. And you definitely didn’t have your own turkey.

I remember some Thanksgiving meals I didn’t like particularly which were in a prior life and a prior relationship where I would have to go to my ex’s sister’s in the Allentown area. And one reason why it was unpleasant is that is when my ex would have me as a captive audience in the car and would yell at me the entire way up. It was enough to give you holiday PTSD, and when you would get to his sister’s they would spend the entire Thanksgiving talking meanly about whoever wasn’t there, or about whomever was in the next room of her dark depressing town house.

And the ex’s sister had speckled brownish kind of Pfaltzgraff crockery plates that I thought were truly ugly, and they served the turkey to the table in giant tinfoil pans. I mean, it’s Thanksgiving. I get it people like to cook turkeys in disposable tinfoil pans, but you don’t bring those to the table. it’s a holiday. Bring out the dishes and platters. Maybe it’s just personal preference to me, but I always thought it was a waste. The best time I ever had there was the year his sister’s beagle got part of the turkey.

And it’s funny when we would go to his brother‘s house for a holiday, I would still get yelled at on the car ride up, but his sister-in-law and her mom really made an effort and said a beautiful table, and the house was just lovely and warm.

Those felt like the purgatory years. Thankfully, they came to an end. I don’t miss those years. They were neither super terrible or good. They were just a loop I was stuck in for a period of time.

Thanksgiving Day dinner is a meal I actually like cooking. It makes you crazy and it can be stressful, but I think it’s fun. I especially like it since I moved to Chester County because you can always get a fresh turkey easily.

I have enjoyed over the years, creating my own traditions. I like making cranberry sauce I like making chutney right before Thanksgiving when I have leftover green tomatoes and some apples and I love to bake. And one of the things I love best of all is ironing a vintage linen tablecloth, and setting a pretty table. We can’t take it with us so we might as well use our dishes etc. I really don’t like when people who have nice dishes and glasses and who don’t have the excuse of having small children, bring out the paper plates and plastic glasses. I think it’s kind of tacky.

Like any other holiday, it won’t necessarily be perfect. We don’t live a Hallmark Movie existence, after all.

We’ve had a year and now it’s time for the holidays. There’s always time for reflection and introspection as well. We should be grateful for the people we still have in our lives, and the ones who no longer are.

I go into the holidays missing a very important friend who died unexpectedly this summer. She would’ve been texting up a storm by now to find out what we were doing for Thanksgiving and what she was going to do, thousands of miles away. It makes me feel a little disconnected and right now kind of sad that the only conversations I will have with her about holidays going forward are just speaking into the air and wishing she was still here. I think going forward, I will probably always feel a little bittersweet, but I won’t have that sadness.

2024 has been a year of change for most of us, and I think it’s safe to say the future is uncertain in some regards. However, life goes on and a lot of what makes our lives our everyday lives doesn’t change. And we have to remember that.

I know there are some people who won’t be spending holidays this year with friends or family in some cases because of the election. There will always be more that unites us than divides us and we shouldn’t let political extremism on either side take over any further than it already has. And I’m not saying that because I’m good with the outcome of the election.

We don’t live in a Norman Rockwell illustration and we’re not the Waltons and John Boy won’t be necessarily home for Christmas, either. But the business of living has to be gotten on with. Life is never going to be completely static, nor should it be.

Some people tomorrow aren’t big fans of Thanksgiving for whatever reason, and I know some people who will be volunteering somewhere. It’s their way to give back. 

So whatever your jam is, I hope all of you out there have a happy Thanksgiving.