Dear Reader:

I have just begun to start decorating my magic moon gate garden for Christmas…starting with the magic moon gate, itself.

If you wanted a full moon for Christmas this year, like in all the paintings of Santa Claus and his sleigh flying past the big white orb…you need to run outside right now and catch the last of it…since the 5/6th was actually the full moon for this month.

When I looked at a calendar showing the moon phases this month…I was delighted. It is a South Carolina moon this year which must mean something special for the children living in our Palmetto state.

On Christmas Eve…the new moon will be just a sliver…but on Christmas Day…in the evening…a full South Carolina crescent shaped moon will appear.

Here is a link showing the outlines of the moon around Christmas this year.

Moon Phases Calendar / Moon Schedule

As I was researching the moon phases from NASA…someone from there/couldn’t find a name…(quite creative!)…wrote a poem about how the moon saved Santa one Christmas Eve in 2004…because that was the last time Earth experienced a full moon on Christmas….the smallest full moon in a long time.

Apparently Rudolph, with his bright shiny nose….caught a cold and wouldn’t be there to help guide Santa…so that smart old elf realized he could use the light from the full moon to guide his sleigh as he circled the world. The poem ends with:

So… to those of you who don’t believe

in Santa, here’s the proof:

Look out the window Christmas Eve

at the moonlight on your roof.

…………………………….

 There is something so magical about a full moon…the last few nights I have gone out on the deck and the solar lights in the garden seem to twinkle more merrily with the full moon’s rays falling down upon them. It appears to me that stars have fallen from heaven ….right in my own back yard garden!

You might remember from some of the earlier tales about Archibald Rutledge and Hampton Plantation ( I wrote about) that he witnessed every month (when the “new moon” appeared)… his workers  falling down on their knees in reverence for a new phase of life…blessing the “new moon” and their presence to see it.

They didn’t take life for granted and knew how fortunate they were to be seeing another new moon appear…life is fragile but oh so beautiful!

And that is how I feel about Christmases now…I pinch myself that I am still here and able to watch the next generation grow like my garden…there will never be a gift to equal life…the joy I am experiencing right now…this very moment!

So until tomorrow…Let us, too, fall down on our knees this Christmas Eve when the “new moon” appears because we are alive and loved by God, family, and friends. The sickle moon ….the magic moon of time from God. The Christmas present of all Christmas presents.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Photographs of family, especially grandchildren, are the best gifts to  a grandmother any time…but especially at Christmas…. I got plenty of those yesterday when Mandy, Jake, and I got to hang out after physical therapy.

First Mandy gave me Eva Cate’s school photo for this year and her Christmas ornament…a “self-portrait” drawing.

Later Mandy and John met Eva Cate at her school to help her finish decorating the Turner Gingerbread House. You did good Turners…great teamwork! (Now ‘fess up…how much did you eat?)