Bee~ Journal of then...

[Farmfresh]

Winter is my favorite time to star gaze, as you can see them so much better. It gets a little nippy, but I just take a down comforter out and snuggle down. ...
I'm glad you got to see the stars, Farm. Can you not see them well from where you live? Light pollution? I would really hate that.


So...anyone decorating for Christmas yet? I can't wait to get it up and done, as I love the way the house looks during the holidays!

Yes we have so much light pollution were we live the sky glows orange! On a very clear night you can just barely see the major constellations. Also it never gets dark... never ever. I love looking at the sky in winter. Hubby and I sometimes take a blanket and drive out into the boonies near us. We lay on the car hood and look at the beautiful sky. Hubby says the winter is the BEST time to view stars in our hemisphere because there are more stars to see then.

As for Christmas decorations... several years back I decided I would like a nativity for the front yard. I looked and looked and could not find a nativity to buy ANYWHERE! I finally got one from a friend who was tired of it and replacing it with reindeer.

I have a garden arbor in my front yard that arches over my front side walk. In summer it is covered with a clematis, but this time of the year it makes a great little stable for baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I have a Star of Bethlehem shining on my house and green lights on the house and on the little "stable". I think it is important to have my little nativity out there, so many people forget why we have Christmas at all.

When my kids were little we always told them that Christmas was about Jesus birthday. We told them that Santa was a big fun game some people like to play and cautioned them not to spoil things for other people because some of those people think Santa is real. We "played" Santa too. Santa filled the stockings every year and the kids would put out carrots for the reindeer. Sometimes the reindeer would even leave Cocoa Puffs behind on the mantle! Every year we would make a birthday cake for Jesus and sing Happy Birthday to him. The kids, now adults, tell me they will do the same for their children because they got all of the fun and none of the disappointment of finding out that Santa was a lie.

FarmerDenise - I am sorry about you being "surrounded by so called christians (they are mostly christian at christmas, they don't go to church or anything)". I know a few of those myself. It is very frustrating to other people and especially to those of use that try our best to follow the teachings of Christ all the time. I actually boycott going to church on Easter and Christmas just because of those kind of people. They dress all up once or twice a year and go to church and then think that will take care of all of the selfishness and evil they spew all the rest of the year. They are christians in name only. Even the Bible says when Jesus meets them and they call on His name He will say "I never knew you". I hope this Christmas surrounds you with people that are more full of kindness and love.

 

[Beekissed]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

I CAN'T STAND IT!!

You're decorating for CHRISTMAS??? And we've not had Thanksgiving yet?!

THANKSGIVING IS NOT A SPEED BUMP TO CHRISTMAS!!



Seriously, though, I hate that Thanksgiving seems to be overlooked more and more each year. People go all out for Halloween...and then it's straight to Christmas!

I really miss all the family get togethers we had for Thanksgiving when I was a kid. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.

I know, I know....but I work, you see. If I don't get the decorations up now, when everyone is taking time off for holidays and I am filling in for them and such, I won't get time to put up all these decorations.

My decorations take lots of time as I have to go out in the woods, steal tons and tons of pine, wire them into garlands, wreaths and swags, staple them to porch railings, fence posts, light posts and doors. Then I have to artfully entertwine twinkling little lights to enhance the whole effect after dark. Then I have to steal a baby cedar from the woods, drill a hole in a stump, mount the Charlie Brown tree into the stump so that I can have a tree on the porch~my house is too small for a tree. If I don't mount it on a stump, the wind would blow it away. Then I have to decorate that. Then I have to try to create the same effect inside, clean my house super good for guests, shop for the few presents I can afford, wrap them, shop for food and cook that, complete all the painting in the house before Christmas and build a new cupboard in the kitchen, shelves in the building and in my bedroom, build a bed foundation for my bed and butcher Two Bites..........

.....and I can't start to do all that after Thanksgiving~not enough time!

Farm, I have always done the same with my kids. We always placed presents around the nativity scene I bought when my oldest was a baby(we are still using this). On Christmas eve, we light candles around the nativity and read the Christmas story from the Bible. This was a tradition I started just for my little family and we have continued this all this time. We didn't have a tree until the boys were much older and they didn't really like it as much as the nativity scene, so the following years we didn't always do a tree.

But we always do the nativity.

My boys were taught that Santa was just a story, but they could never seem to keep their mouths shut at school and always ruined some little kid's holiday.....

 

[big brown horse]

Christmas tree on the porch? What a great idea! I don't have a good spot for a tree inside my itty bitty house either. Now I'm not feeling so Bah Humbug!

 

[Beekissed]

Make sure you wire your ornaments on...the wind will make mincemeat of it if you don't!

 

[me&thegals]

My boys were taught that Santa was just a story, but they could never seem to keep their mouths shut at school and always ruined some little kid's holiday.....

My kids, too. My daughter's first year in school, I got a call from her kindergarten teacher to tell me she had about 4 kids in tears over her explaining to them that Santa was not real. She knew she wasn't supposed to say anything but got so sick of hearing all about Santa as if it were true and finally just HAD to set them straight!

Bee--Your decorating sounds beautiful! All natural and lovely!

 

[Up-the-Creek]

Where in the world was this woman raised, you might ask? Right here in WV, Greenbrier County. A rural, farming community.

Oh Bee,..you poor dear. I do feel for ya. You have just witnessed part of our witless population from my part of the country. You would imagine someone from Greenbrier Co.,WV would have better knowledge of the goings on in farming life,..but no. I am not sure if its in the water supply or it is some type of toxic air pollution,...but down here in our little piece of the world we call it,.."living above our raising." Some that has been born here and raised here have somehow managed to block out what they really are and how they were raised to become one of THEM. (THEM referring to yankees,uplanders,hippies,..etc.,.)It is so very sad to see,..our beautiful farms and land are being turned into subdivisions and even worse,..Walmarts,Lowes,...etc.,...I live 5 miles west of the Greenbrier Co. line into Summers Co.,...The phenomenon has not yet spread passed the county line,..thank goodness!

Sorry Bee,..just having fun! I feel your pain though!

 

[Beekissed]

My boys were taught that Santa was just a story, but they could never seem to keep their mouths shut at school and always ruined some little kid's holiday.....

My kids, too. My daughter's first year in school, I got a call from her kindergarten teacher to tell me she had about 4 kids in tears over her explaining to them that Santa was not real. She knew she wasn't supposed to say anything but got so sick of hearing all about Santa as if it were true and finally just HAD to set them straight!

Bee--Your decorating sounds beautiful! All natural and lovely!

Thank you! I try so hard!

What else can a little kid say when another kid asks them, "What is Santa going to bring YOU this year?" Being kids of a single mother who had to explain quite frequently that money "is scarce this year" and presents will be clothing and such....well, this takes all the magic right out of it!

I got a call from school also..... I asked her what kind of punishment should I give a child who is only telling the truth? She asked me to not tell the truth quite so adamantly!

UTC, no offense to you Greenbrier folk....that country is simply stunningly beautiful! Can't account for townies, though, can we?

 

[Up-the-Creek]

Bee,..no offense taken! just having a bit of fun. Thank you for complimenting our beautiful part of the world. I can't attest for the people as much as the scenery!

 

[me&thegals]

I could kick myself. I ended up apologizing to her teacher (a truly wonderful man), then hung up and said, "Huh? Why did I do that? She was just telling the truth!"

 

[Beekissed]

Yep! An honest child is a force to be reckoned with. Try explaining to a child why he shouldn't tell other children the truth and you get, "But why would their mommies lie to them and trick them?" Big blue eyes looking soulfully into mine with a hurt, sorrowful look in them.......

Nope. Let the teach explain why mommies lie to their kids, not me!