Wednesday, December 1, 2010

A Sweet Gift for You to Enjoy!


I am always so blessed listening to these old radio programs...


I hope you enjoy them as I much as I do...They have a way of putting things into perspective and how the world has changed don't they? I love the feel of these and in our family we really, really appreciate these and try to instill the sweet old time flavor in our home.

Just because the rest of the world is spinning on a turnstile of busyness we don't have to do we?

I'm trying so hard to reflect on Jesus as I commune with Him in a special way this advent season. He reminds me often:

Amelia I am the same Father who was who was with you when you were a little girl...


As I reminisce to my grandparent's home, and especially my little home as an only child with my sweet parents back then....
blog 002 ...so many sweet memories, maybe some not so perfect but still... prayerfully creating our own sweetness in our homes this Christmas.

I bring to you to also enjoy this most precious Bing Crosby Christmas program.
I hope you and your entire family will enjoy this! Grab yourself some, coffee, tea, hot cocoa, something downright delectable and enjoy! This is wonderful for children of all ages to adults, sweet old fashioned but timeless music selections, also a precious, precious story of a sweet donkey as well...I love the sweet spirit of this Christmas story of one very special donkey...

(You may mute the site music at the bottom of the page)




Have you all read any nice books so far this season? I'm reading (read) several:

* The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck

* A Simple Christmas, Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit by Mike Huckabee


These so far have been such a blessing, I sent the audio version of A Simple Christmas to my 80 year old dad, my dad has macular degeneration and sometimes it's hard for him to read. He loved that book and listened to it all in one day! I hope to be able to send him the audio of The Christmas Sweater as well. I read several chapters of The Christmas Sweater to our girls while they were cooking and my dd17 read the entire book the next day! It is a fascinating book with multiple life lessons!



Another dandy that is very practical but really helps put things in perspective as the rat race revolves around us this season is:

* Hundred Dollar Holiday, The Case for a More Joyful Christmas by Bill McKibben


I saw Hundred Dollar Holiday on LifeAsMom. The author of the book has a sweet way of putting things in perspective in a nice way if you know what I mean...I highly recommend this book!

Some sites snubbing any gift at all for Christmas almost make me bristle...They almost seem to be into a cynical reverse snobbery but I have found this book to be very nice.

I love Christmas and love the wonder of it but would like things to go back to a bit of a more simple time, perhaps that WWII era? At least when people had more of a normal perspective and value of material possessions.

Have you ever heard the old WWII radio ads about saving ration coupons for Kraft cheese spreads for entertaining in your home and how the nation was saving milk for our soldiers so they could have ice cream? I actually have an original magazine ad I believe from Carnation milk company about that, it's on the back of a Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon movie ad...It is fascinating.

One thing we always love doing as a family is reading...
*
Reminisce magazine, you can read and be inspired by some wonderful Christmas stories of how things were for little children in more simple times in our country. Those children knew the wonderment of Christmas because fruit, candy and the like were something not taken for granted. Let alone toys.

One story in an old Reminisce I read was of a little girl young in the early 60s and even then, a more modern time this little girl's daddy, a farmer would make sure and buy she and her siblings some fruit so they would be like the other children. If he had a good crop the children would share one nice new toy for Christmas, they would flip a coin to see if it would be a boy's toy or a girls toy between she and her brothers. And if her daddy's crops were not good, they would go to the electric company's Christmas party and pick a used gift from the employee's donations. The story was so touching to my heart.

I have tried to keep things within a simple budget this year and so far so good. : ) I really prayed and asked God to help me and guide me. The Lord gently guided me to Walmart online and that was a great help! If you do go to Wallymart make sure and browse from lowest prices to high, otherwise you might blow a gasket. ; )

I so enjoy the wonderment of Christmas and am amazed at how the Lord helped me! Books are nice gifts too...decorating books, Bible study books, historical reproduction books, new or used as long as the person will enjoy them and they are in respectful condition. Last year I bought my dd25 a neat beautifully worn, old hardcopy of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Please feel free to go back to my blogs from last December, I have similar thoughts, encouragements there too. : ) Just grab some coffee! lol I don't know about you, but I need encouragements this time of year and others blogs help me so many times.

Hope you are enjoying this sweet season as we meditate upon our sweet Savior, Jesus.

Hope to get some new recipes or something of the sort pretty soon on thats-italian.blogspot. Maybe even some homemade gift ideas...Who knows? ; ) Right now I have a neat jar gift recipe posted and just some good ol' practical gift ideas from a George Bailey wife.

Edit 12.03.10: I now have some great vlogs our 25 year old daughter did a couple of years ago on making some wonderful homemade natural fragrance gifts along with a wowee Molasses cookie recipe at my thats-italian.blogspot.
I want to thank each one of you for the sweet comments from the last post, you all know who you are who took the time to encourage me. Thank you.

Let's pray for one another this Holy Season. Let me know what you are doing this Christmas to keep things sweet at your house if you get a chance... Hugs and notes of encouragement are always welcome here. I appreciate it greatly and perhaps could use it on certain days. ~Amelia

12.03.10 I'm starting to leave some great old 30s & 40s movie suggestions here in the comment section for Christmas viewing or anytime.