Tag: happiness (page 5 of 75)

Happy New Year’s Eve

Here we stand on the cusp of a New Year. So much has happened in these past 365 days and also so little. But it’s bittersweet to say goodbye to one year. However, we stand ready and waiting for what this next year has in store. 

May this coming year hold beauty for us all. Wishing you love and light as we kiss this past year goodbye and open our arms in greeting to the new one about to dawn.

{Hollywood New Year’s Party | “That’s the Tarzan of that day, Lex Barker, with his wife, actress Arlene Dahl” | 1952 | Pinned HERE}

The In-Between Days

And now we walk in the hallowed ground of the ”in-between” days. The space between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The merrymaking of Christmas has gone by in a flash and now we move with a a slower pace. Visiting with family and friends, watching Christmas movies by the glow of twinkle lights, cobbling together sandwiches from leftovers, while playing board games and going on long strolls with hot chocolates in hand. 

The days are quieter, less hustle and bustle, but oh, so vital to our souls. There is a rhythm and a pace to this space that is all its own.

These days are special, they are our last days of the year as our slow meandering brings us to the bridge we will cross over into a New Year in just a few days. They are a time to be still, to reflect on what has been and to hope for what could be in the future. It is a sacred time, as we wait for what is to come and relish in what has been. 

These days hold a magic all of their own, they hold so little and yet, they hold so very much. We must endeavour to drink them in with full hearts as we mindfully move forward before the flame of this year is snuffed out.

{Retro Christmas tree decorations including popcorn strings | 1979 | “Popcorn is probably the most traditionally American decoration because it’s the only indigenous one”, says Mrs. Henry Lochte, production chairman of the annual Christmas tree exhibit at the Cheekwood Fine Arts Center in Nashville, Tennessee | Found HERE | Pinned HERE}

Merry Christmas

🎄❤️ Merry Christmas! ❤️🎄

May this day fill your heart, home and table with love, light and peace.

{Full-length promotional portrait of American actor Mitzi Gaynor posing as she decorates a Christmas tree with silver tinsel and ornaments. | 1955 | Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}

HELLO, December

Hello, December. We’re ready for frosty mornings and quiet evenings where we sit by the glow of the Christmas tree and listen to Patrick Stewart reading from “A Christmas Carol”, with hot chocolates in our hands.

We’re ready for the hustle and bustle this season brings and the moments of stillness as well, which are so very important for body and soul. We’re ready for our first chance to wish someone a “Merry Christmas!”, two of my most favourite words. The thrill that gives me to offer those heartfelt wishes, as there is only a finite amount of time in which to do it in.

We’re ready for weekend rambles and visiting a few Christmas markets. We’re ready to delight in frosted sugar cookies and gingerbread men with currant eyes and buttons. We’re ready for the excitement of peeling back the windows each day of our German Advent calendar to see what awaits us behind our little paper door.

We’re ready to relish in this season as well as this time for reflection of what the year has been and where the New Year may go. We welcome you with open arms, December and await all the delights and blessings that you will bring.

{The Nightcap | Will Bullas | Found HERE | Pinned HERE}

Happy Thanksgiving

🦃🥧 Gobble! Gobble! 🥧🦃

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope this year finds your table bountiful and the seats around it filled with those that you cherish.

Love, light and peace. x

{Ann Blyth offering ‘Thanksgiving Greetings To All’ | Universal portrait |1951 | Everett Collection | Pinned HERE}

Happy Halloween

🎃🖤 Happy Halloween! 🖤🎃

May your day be filled with more treats than tricks! And may cute ghosts, goblins and witches trick-or-treat at your door!

{Angela Greene in a Halloween publicity pin-up | 1940s | Pinned HERE}

Hello, October

Hello, October. We’re ready for the days to become cooler with clear azure skies and crispy jewelled toned leaves underfoot. We’re ready for apples in everything; pies, jams, salads and sitting alongside an afternoon cheese and cracker plate. 

We’re ready for Saturday strolls in the park, seeing where our feet take us. Perching by the lake to watch the world unfold in front of us. We’re ready for Halloween at the end of the month and the tricks, treats, broomsticks, moonbeams and goblins that it will bring. 

We’re ready for our menu to move into a more autumnal range. Squashes are slowing arriving at the greengrocers. So soon butternut squash soup served alongside hunks of crusty bread will be gracing our table. We’re ready for my Mom’s pork with sauerkraut and apples alongside heaps of freshly whipped potatoes. We’re ready for hot apple cider for dessert with homemade gingerbread cookies.

We’re ready to move more into this season of Autumn while making ensuring that we continue to keep a steady pace; that we continue to drink in all that you have to offer. Welcome, October. Bring us magic. 

{Ideals Magazine, Halloween, 1965 | Pinned HERE}

Hello, September

Hello, September. We’re ready for you to slowly guide Autumn in as she greets us with a crown of wheat and jewel coloured leaves. We’re ready to continue our pace of Summer, we’re not quite ready for tomorrow to bring us our first official back-to-school day. 

We’re still ready to relish in the late Summer bounty of heirloom tomatoes, fresh corn and yellow squash. We’re ready for slightly cooler days mixed with sunshine. We’re ready for the magic that the air holds as we make the transition into Autumn. Apples are already hanging heavy on boughs. 

We’re sad to wave goodbye to this Summer. It’s been full, it’s been fun, it’s been what we needed, but we feel we’re just truly hitting our stride and we’ll be sorry to head back into the hustle and bustle of a new school year. But all chapters must come to a close, so new chapters may begin. 

Welcome, September. We hope you hold all good things. 

Late Summer

It’s late August. The summer is coming to a close and yet I feel we’re just getting started. We’re hungry for more time together, more late nights, the endless rounds of UNO, staying up late to watch old movies. 

The rambling morning strolls. The unexpected afternoon run for an ice cream cone. The days bleeding into the next, the point where you’re so in the groove of being, you have to think what day of the week it is. 

Splitting PB&J sandwiches for lunch before we play another round of a card game or put a puzzle piece in. The simple act of being and letting stillness wash over us, calming and soothing. Like the feel of cool wash cloth gently wiped over your face when you’ve been sick. 

The hot days, the slightly cooler days. The tug-of-war that is slowly beginning with the seasons, will Summer or Autumn pull harder on their side first? The berries really coming in to their own and the luck of snatching a few off the bushes before the birds devour them all.