Dear Reader:

This has been the most restful week (after stomach viruses and Halloween last week.) I have slept more hours the past four days than I usually do in a full week. It is as if I just can’t get enough sleep.

The overcast skies and dark, rainy days have definitely contributed to my excess slumber (not counting daylight savings time)….which have taken the form of afternoon naps and -ten-hour snoozing nights. Boy, do I feel refreshed!

So yesterday my creative juices started flowing again and I felt energized enough to start the transition from Halloween to Thanksgiving. Thank goodness this transition isn’t as dramatic as Thanksgiving to Christmas….I just put up the “Boo’s” witches, spiders, jack o’lanterns and I was good to go.

Except for one jack o’lantern….in a post-Halloween sale on amazon.com there was a wall painting where the jack o’lantern lights up (battery operated) in the painting…it was 75% off…so I ordered it and it arrived Tuesday.

Since then I have fallen in love with it…because the lights flicker giving me the sensation of burning embers in a fireplace….the same comfort without all the work and ashes….besides it is way too warm for a fire right now.  So this little jack o’lantern has earned a spot on the hearth through Thanksgiving! It makes my happy room warm and cozy!

*Oops…I haven’t gotten rid of all my “Boo’s” yet….Cindy Ashley stopped in yesterday afternoon to bring me something and an idea on how to use it.

Cindy suggested that if guests ask….“Now are you called Becky or Boo…simply hold up the napkins and respond “Boo Y’all!“

My creative mode started with a pick-up lunch from the tea room. Gin-g and I were talking about getting together soon for lunch and we mentioned Time Well Spent. It would be at least a week before we could do it and suddenly I was craving Eve’s chicken salad.

When I got home and opened the styrofoam box the presentation inside the box was amazing. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to place everything just perfectly in alignment. Besides my mound of chicken salad…thinly cut apple slices garnished the salad, with a vibrant-colored diversity of fruit…along with the restaurant’s famous scones and marmalade. (Heaven chefs…I am pre-ordering this for my first meal when the time comes…okay?)

It was too pretty to stay in a styrofoam box…so I moved it to a plate worthy of its elements.

After eating all this…I looked like the energizer bunny running around…I was just about to put up a little cloth bag with a pumpkin sewn on it when I realized I had a few flowers (left over from an earlier arrangement that I needed to throw out) that were still good.

What if I put the blooms in a tall, thin vase and then dropped it inside the bag while adding my pretty fall leaf from last week’s discovery?

While checking on the grandchildren’s stockings to make sure they were all accounted for…I realized I needed to order one more stocking this year…for Master Lachlan. While scrounging around the drawer I saw a bag and opened it. It was filled with “golden apples.” 

I went to my computer and googled the symbolism of golden apples on Christmas trees. Stories of golden apples originate as far back as Greek mythology, Egyptian traditions, and later Gaelic traditions. They also played important roles in medieval fairy tales.

Long before there was a Christmas, Egyptians brought green palm branches into their homes on the shortest day of the year in December as a symbol of life’s triumph over death.

Romans adorned their homes with evergreens during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honor of Saturnus, their god of agriculture.

Druid priests decorated oak trees with golden apples for their winter solstice festivities. (I stuck with decorating one fallen tree branch and added a candle)

From one obscure fairy tale…comes this little message about golden apples on trees of all kinds:

“Cover the branches with golden apples…and dream the whole night through;  the golden apples are magic and will make your dreams come true.”

In the Victorian Christmas period…the idea of this saying gave parents some leverage for getting their children to bed Christmas Eve…and with Old St. Nick arriving…their dreams did come true….For wealthier families… the tradition even went farther… down to golden apples in the children’s stockings.

Christmas at Windsor Castle….Queen Victoria and family.

So until tomorrow….Father…Let us always remember to present ourselves to others the way we would to You if we saw you walking down the street… by counting our blessings and then sharing them.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh