Silent Night

 

I bought this kit three years ago, intending not to use it. I thought the starry light and dark blues would be the perfect foil for that year’s yellow state fair challenge fabric, but they were out of print. The only way I could buy them was in this panel kit. I never even bought the pattern. I just took what I wanted to make the challenge quilt (which pleased me but not the judges) and shelved the rest. For three years! Boredom is a wonderful thing. I’ve been bored enough this year to turn my efforts to projects that might otherwise never have happened. I pulled out the plundered kit and wondered if there was enough of the two blues left to make SOMETHING. I wondered if I was clever enough to make it without a pattern. The finished top isn’t EXACTLY like the original, but I like it. And there’s even enough leftover for another small quilt! Happy New Year!

Empire House

 

“Tonight, I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry. A blazing star hung over a stable and wise men came with gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate with stars on Christmas trees, the sound of bells, and with gifts. Especially with gifts. You give me a book; I give you a tie. Aunt Martha’s always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. We’ve even forgotten to hang it up: the stocking for the child born in a manger. It’s his birthday we're celebrating. Don't let’s ever forget that. Let’s ask ourselves what He would wish for most. Then, let each put in his share: loving kindness, warm hearts, a stretched-out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.” – The Bishop’s Wife

Twenty-four Flying Geese

 

Maurice Hilleman almost became a Montana chicken farmer, because he had no money to attend college. His older brother and other family members, recognizing a talent worth nurturing, provided some of his tuition; the rest came from scolarships. He graduated first in his class at Montana State University and later received a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Chicago. In a career spanning four decades, Dr. Hilleman created 40 vaccines, including eight of the fourteen routinely given to Americans: the shots for measles, mumps, hepatitis A and B, chickenpox, meningitis, pneumococcus and HIB. Hilleman was by all accounts a difficult man to work with. He swore like a sailor and ran his lab like a military unit. But he was also unfailingly humble. Not one of his 40 vaccines was named for him. You’ve probably never heard his name before. But chances are you and I are both alive today because of his tireless work.

Picture Window

 

“During this unprecedented year, when virtually every person in the world has suffered the effects of a global pandemic, there is nothing more important we can do this Christmas than to rivet our focus on the Savior and on the gift of what His life really means to each of us. Our loving Heavenly Father so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Son of God then promised us that whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. What unspeakable, incomparable gifts from the Father and the Son! I thank God for the gift of His Beloved Son. And I thank our Lord Jesus Christ for His incomparable sacrifice and mission. At His first coming, Jesus came almost in secret. But at His Second Coming, the Lord’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” – President Russell M. Nelson

Nine Pinwheels

 

We met on a Sunday in May; it was either the 14th or the 21st. I’d just come home from college for the summer, and my mom introduced us at church. In the space of about two weeks, we went roller skating, to a rock concert, and a birthday picnic in the park. Then he left for summer semester at BYU, and I thought I’d seen the last of John. But he called a couple of times from the road, and sent letters – sometimes three or four a week. We were engaged on October 7 and married 82 days later. Monday will be our 42nd wedding anniversary, but we're celebrating a few days later. We've rented a theater for a social-distanced, mask-wearing family screening of Wonder Woman 1984. Because we’re really hoping to be able to celebrate our 43rd anniversary together next year. 

Echoes

 

"Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves." ― Eric Sevareid

"Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered." – Phyllis Diller

“One can never have enough socks. Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.” – Albus Dumbledore

"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmastime." – Laura Ingalls Wilder

"Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white'." – Bing Crosby

"My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?" – Bob Hope

Christmas Memories

 

When Robert Kirby was a boy, he began to question the existence of Santa Claus. Asking his parents brought less than satisfying results, so he decided to launch his own investigation: “Christmas Eve 1963 I put a sheet of cardboard on the darkened stairs leading into the house. Since we had no chimney, I reasoned Santa would have to step on the cardboard when he came into the house. He would leave evidence in the form of boot prints. Our parents crammed us in bed at 9 p.m. and turned out the lights. I was just dozing off when the silence of the house was shattered. Someone had stepped on the cardboard in the darkness, surfing it to the bottom of the stairs and into a pile of shovels and lawn chairs. Proof! Santa was not only real, but he also was clumsy and cursed like a sailor. I told all my friends. Nobody believed me.”