An Award to Share!

Janeen of Chachaneen who IS the Spirit of Christmas presented this lovely award to me and 4 other bloggers. It comes with 2 rules, the first is to name five things I love about Christmas and the second is to present this award to five other bloggers.


These are five of many things I love about Christmas:


1) I love to open the boxes of Christmas ornaments. The tree is filled to overflowing with beautiful ornaments that I have been given or The Mister and I have purchased over the 39 years we have been sharing Christmas.


2) The smells of Christmas, present and past. The scent of the tree, cookies baking, Christmas dinner, and from long ago, the smell of incense at Christmas Mass, plum pudding and homemade cranberry sauce.


3) Internet shopping. I'm sure anyone who does not love shopping also appreciates this convenient way to order gifts.


4) Time with family and friends. We seem to move farther and farther away from each other, and the times we are all together are so few. My niece Alyce and her new husband Shawn had everyone over for Christmas this year. The Florida contingent of my family gathered there and enjoyed the day along with Shawn's family - eighteen of us! My sissy's Janet and Mary, and brother Jerry along with our families enjoyed an abundance of delicious treats and conversation and those all important hugs and kisses and laughter.


5) Sharing Christmas with others. Instead of purchasing gifts for each other we make donations to a worthy cause in the name of family members. We present gift cards with information about the donation to each other. This year our donation went to a church in a very poor area of Costa Rica which in turn gave Christmas gifts of clothing and toys to the children of the town.


Sharing this award with 5 people was a challenge, because the Christmas Spirit reigns in Bloggyland. What I decided to do is choose among the many new visitors who participated in the Christmas in Bloggyland Tour:



Imere http://thegreengrassgrowsallaround.blogspot.com/

Tara and Kidz http://kidzorg.blogspot.com/

Snarky Much http://snarky-much.blogspot.com/

Tova Darling http://tovadarling.blogspot.com/

Martha http://comicallyflawed.blogspot.com/

Trish of Nana's Living The Dream recently presented me with the special "Proximidade" award. This award is a fine one because it focuses not on the glory and fanfare of blogging, but in the PROXIMITY to one another through this on-line world (kind of a Six Degrees of Separation sort of thing).
"Blogs who receive this award are 'exceedingly charming' say its authors.This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."
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I would like to pass this award to eight (of many) brand NEW bloggy friends because they are proof that the proximity to a new found friend is just a click away:
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LarryG http://ytfe.blogspot.com/


YaYa http://yayastuff.blogspot.com/


Jane http://jumpininthejungle.blogspot.com/


Patty http://autumnsmeadow.blogspot.com/


Mary Lou http://buttercreamcottage.blogspot.com/


Elizabeth http://elizabeth-aboutnewyork.blogspot.com/


Human Being http://dearteachercrow.blogspot.com/


Angi http://angie-beem.blogspot.com




Congratulations, and enjoy!

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On a very sad note

I found out via Genevieve's blog that Suzanne, of Liquid Illusion, committed suicide on Christmas Eve. I have been following Suzanne's blog for a while now. She was a wonderful and very talented person who was apparently plagued by bi-polar dysfunction along with personal problems that led her to believe that this was a way out. We can neither judge nor know what God has to say. I pray she finds the peace she was seeking. I especially pray for her family who is left in the wake of this tragedy.