🎄❤️ 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}
The stockings are hung, the presents are wrapped, cookies have been set out and we are waiting…
{Macy’s Wrapping Department at Christmas time, 1948 | Nina Leen for LIFE magazine | Pinned HERE}
Hello, November! We’re ready for the many autumn strolls you will bring us with leaves crunching underfoot and hot cups of coffee in our hands. We’re ready for our house to smell of apples, cinnamon and cloves as we begin our annual process of cooking and canning apple butter to use for the months ahead on oatmeal, toast, cakes and warmed over vanilla ice cream.
We’re ready for candlelit evenings as darkness closes in, lingering at the dinner table while a record plays. We’re ready for gingerbread, hot apple cider and crispy sausages eaten with the smell of woodsmoke in the air. We’re ready for the Thanksgiving feast you will herald in at the end of the month and the turkey, stuffing and gravy sandwiches that are sure to follow.
We’re ready to move more fully into autumn and the stillness that you bring as we watch one season slowly begin to slip into the next. Welcome November, we’re ready for all that you hold for us.
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.
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.
Hello, August. We’re ready for the days to slowly stretch out in front of us, as we move more fully into our school summer break. We’re ready for days spent reading on the beach, listening to the waves roll the pebbles along the strand as it comes into shore.
We’re ready for ice cream for dinner during this mini heatwave and to eat our weight in tomato sandwiches with salty potato chips on the side. The heirloom tomatoes are really starting to come into the greengrocers and they taste divine. We’re ready to split PB&Js for lunch while watching an old re-run of “Bewitched”, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” or a great “The Brady Bunch” episode.
We’re ready to have movie dates with our projector and our vintage 1960s screen. To munch on popcorn while watching a good summertime classic and being perfectly content.
We’re ready to continue to enjoy our time together, relishing the quiet moments and the kitchen dances and the happiness that comes from sitting next to one of your favourite people.
Welcome, August. Please, bring us all good things.
{Image:1951 | Santa Barbara, California | “Lana Turner lunching by pool at the Coral Casino.” | Photo by Earl Theisen for Look magazine. | Found via Shorpy | Pinned HERE}
🧨 Happy Fourth of July!! 🧨
{Carole Landis (1919 – 1948) posing by a US flag | circa 1944 | Photo by Screen Archives/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}
Hello, July! We’re ready for you to usher in the last month of the school year and bring us one step closer to being able to beat to our own rhythm for a little while with no set schedules.
We’re ready for our annual Fourth of July celebrations with hamburgers and my Nana’s macaroni salad and homemade hot fudge sundaes for dessert while we watch “JAWS” in the dark.
We’re ready for our Christmas in July celebrations and the festivities that surround that. A Christmas menu with a summer twist, Christmas movies, Christmas music and we are still deciding on the Christmas dessert menu for this year!
We’re already eating our weight in your summer fruit bounty, but we haven’t yet had the perfect tomato sandwich, so that is still to come. We’re ready to bake pies out of all the fruit we can’t manage to eat in time with heaps of vanilla ice cream on top.
We’re ready for our days to stretch out ahead of us where we simply read books and stack the record player and listen to music. We’re ready to continue dancing in the kitchen long after the sun has set and relish in our late night movie dates, while the curtains dance in the breeze from the open windows behind us.
Welcome, July! We’re ready for all that you bring!
{Keep Your Cool, Slim Aarons, 1978 | “Carmen Alvarez enjoying a game of backgammon with Frank ‘Brandy’ Brandstetter in a swimming pool at Acapulco.” | Pinned HERE}
Hello, June. We’re ready for warmer days and sunny strolls through the park. We’re ready for the adventures we have planned this month and the chance to squeeze in a few more.
We’re ready for our first BLT of the season as the heirloom tomatoes start to arrive at the greengrocers. Sandwiches piled high and a side of salty potato chips to go with it. We’re ready to blast Carly Simon while we work together in the kitchen with the windows open and the ocean breeze blowing in.
We’re ready for late weekend nights watching old movies on our vintage projection screen. We’re ready for lazy weekends that involve long walks and milkshakes. We’re ready for slices of homemade poundcake piled high with fresh picked strawberries and scoop of vanilla ice cream.
We’re ready for you to bring us into the final stretch of the school year. We’re ready for quiet nights with star filled skies, letting evening settle over the house and taking the time to drink everything in.
We’re ready for all that you bring us this month. Welcome, June!
{1960s Summer Fashion | Pinned HERE}
Hello, April. You’ve arrived in a blustery whirl, on the heel’s of the Easter Bunny and we’re excited that you’re here.
We’re ready to kick off our Easter School Break with you and the many adventures we have planned. We’re ready to stay up late, watching old movies on our vintage projection screen and munching on goodies out of our Easter basket.
We’re ready for the light that will continue to grow and fill our days since we “sprung” forward over the weekend. We’re ready for a few more blue skies overhead and crisp, clear days over this spring break. We’re ready for lazy Saturday afternoons spent reading books and working on the crossword puzzle.
We’re ready for spring to continue “springing” and the chance for breakfast on the beach, where we sit, watch the waves roll in and out in their rhythm, drink hot coffee from our thermos and look up just in time to see a seal or two slowly swim by.
We’re ready for all that you bring April, may you be a month filled with JOY.
{Paulette Goddard | Photoplay Magazine | November 1942 | Pinned HERE}