Christmas Greetings

More Joy

O Night Divine has a good posting on More Joy, Less Stuff and how her mother achieved it. I found this post via Like Merchant Ships.

Behind That Belgian Lace

"The afternoon was devoted to sewing. Mademoiselle, like most Belgian ladies, was specially skillful with her needle. She by no means thought it a waste of time to devote unnumbered hours to fine embroidery, sight-destroying lace-work, marvellous netting and knitting, and above all, to most elaborate stocking-mending. She would give a day to the mending of two holes in a stocking at any time, and think her 'mission' nobly fulfilled when she had accomplished it. It was another of Caroline's troubles to be condemned to learn this foreign style of darning, which was done stitch by stitch so as exactly to imitate the fabric of the sock itself; a wearifu' process, but considered by Hortense Gerard, and by her ancestresses before her for long generations back, as one of the first 'duties of woman.' She herself had had a needle, cotton, and a fearfully torn stocking put into her hand while she yet wore a child's coif on her little black head: her 'hauts faits' in the darning line had been exhibited to company ere she was six years old, and when she first discovered that Caroline was profoundly ignorant of this most essential of attainments, she could have wept with pity over her miserably neglected youth."

Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, 1849

Teatime

"Yorkshire people, in those days, took their tea round the table; sitting well into it, with their knees duly introduced under the mahogany. It was essential to have a multitude of plates of bread and butter, varied in sorts and plentiful in quantity: it was thought proper, too, that on the centre-plate should stand a glass dish of marmalade; among the viands was expected to be found a small assortment of cheesecakes and tarts; if there was a plate of thin slices of pink ham garnished with green parsley, so much the better."
Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, 1849

'Tis the Season

There is no question that December is one of the busiest times of the year for many women, and hopefully for most. Aside from all the things we do all the time for our families (even if they are small), such as cooking, cleaning, laundry and ironing, running errands, financial management, trying to practice frugality, shuttling children, and talking to everyone and making sure they are happy and on the right path, in the month of December, women are primarily responsible for:
* Participating in Black Friday
* Making hundreds of cookies and other delectables for neighbors and friends
* Decorating the home and engaging in other kinds of seasonal craftiness
* Buying presents for children, grandchildren, extended family members, friends, co- workers, and teachers
* Wrapping all the presents for children, grandchildren, extended family members, friends, co-workers, and teachers
* Shipping gifts to out-of-town gift recipients
* Sending out Christmas cards
* Hosting a party or two
* Going to a party or two
* Cooking a fabulous Christmas dinner or part thereof
(Women who work outside the home get no reprieve.)

I thoroughly enjoy all these activities. However, in the midst of this, if we are celebrating Christmas as a Christian, rather than celebrating it a "seasonal holiday," then we are called upon to deepen our spiritual life and to prepare ourselves and our families for the coming of our Lord--a call I was reminded of today by Elena at Tea at Trianon--and is this not the most important task of all? This is a real challenge. This is not the season of late winter, as in Lent, when our social life may be attenuated by weather and focusing on our interior life seems natural. In this season, everything is drawing us out toward others and toward whirling-dervish spirals of hyperactivity. Now in the last few days before Advent, we need to prepare to prepare.

"Holding Grandmother's Quilt" in Philadelphia

Here are photos of two murals at 3922 Aspen Street in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is the mural capital of the USA. An organization called Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia, launched a campaign to create murals throughout the city as part of an anti-graffiti campaign. These two murals were created across from each other on Aspen Steet and a small park was created in the vacant lots next to them. These murals are a wonderful celebration of a great art. I will be creating a Philadelphia mural screensaver, so if you would like one, let me know.

The Kind of Mouse We Need

Please see Allsorts for a picture of the kind of mouse we all need in our homes. Jenny Harris makes adorable little critters. It is the third picture in the post.