Christmas With The Chosen: The Messengers

This is beautiful especially on Christmas Eve as we are trying to keep our focus on the Lord in a pure and sweet simplicity.  

This is just one of the beautiful songs from 'Christmas With The Chosen:   The Messengers" 

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It's been quite a week, two veterinarian visits for two different dogs, a sleepless night with a little dog in pain, an infected eye in another causing great concern.  However the privilege of watching our precious grandson as we await his little brother!   A new baby boy born!  A precious, sweet little baby boy born just yesterday!  We rejoice!

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If you like the above song, and it ministers to your heart as it did ours, I think you will enjoy the entire program entitled 'Christmas With The Chosen:  The Messengers'.

 

It's being shown on tbn, in our part of the country. It will show again at 1 pm tomorrow, Christmas day, keep on the lookout for it, it may show several times, it will be worth it to look for.  You won't be disappointed.  

 

 

Here are a few excerpts in closing this Holy Eve from the book, My Favorite Christmas Story by  Roy Rogers:

I can't put it in fancy language, but I can say that He brought light and peace and something new and clean and fine into my life, and that's all the theology I need....

 

 Christmas is seeing time.  If you  can't see Him then, you may never see  Him.

 

 The really wise always come.... 

 

 

Have a sweet Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in all of it's beautiful simplicity.

God bless and be with you.  I feel the need to write that the Lord is there with you, He knows what it is like to be brokenhearted and to feel alone, He's felt every pain we have felt. Be encouraged and feel His love for you.

~Amelia

'Tenth Avenue Angel' (1948) More Wonderful Exerpts From Roy Rogers and Thoughts

This is one of the sweetest movies ever, talk about true Christmas.  There is a precious, precious Christmas miracle at the end.  

 

A Few Clips.  At around 3:00 you will see the sweet spirit of Christmas,  (spoiler alert). 

 

 ...if you've got a heart, it breaks. ~Roy Rogers, My Favorite Christmas Story

 Movie in entirety:

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What's there not to love about Phyllis Thaxter, Margaret O'Brien and George Murphy? 

 

In our home when it's our birthdays we usually pick a favorite movie, this movie is one I've picked more than once!

These old movies, many from the 40s are so much more substantive and wholesome, done in a time in our country when the majority of people had a healthy fear of God.

I try hard to keep our home a sweet place, a refuge and insulation from the world as it is now.   Why not?   I'm sure most of you do too and that may be why you read here.  We can keep our homes in the spirit of that 1940s home, with that healthy fear and love of God.

Love in Action

Christmas, my child, is love in action....  When you love someone, you give to them, as God gives to us.  The greatest gift He ever gave was the person of His son sent to us in human form so that we might know what God the Father is really like!  Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.   

~Dale Evans Rogers

 

 When we go out we try to talk to people.   My daddy was like that, many times I may pick up on an accent, so....I ask....So.  Where ya from?  Most people are glad to talk about that.  You may notice a young lady's makeup, how pretty she put it on, her pretty hair, you may notice a man's kindness and you can say that, you can tell that girl how pretty that makeup or her hair is or to thank them for their kindness and how you appreciate that.

Here's an idea for this Holy Season...Put some Christmas cards, really pretty ones in your purse or pocket and hand those out to sweethearts, those people who need a little extra thank you.  You can even whip a pen out and write a little personalized message or thank you in one before handing it the person.

Tracts.  Tracts are a good way to share the gospel. 

Sometimes we can be a tract. 

Every day is church.   We are the Church, whenever we are out and about we carry sweet Christian tracts, we can hand those to checkers or waiters and say a sweet God bless you with a big toothy smile!   Just the other day we were having trouble getting a gift card loaded and it took a while to get it straight, at first the checker was defensive she was so used to people getting on her case but Jem just kept smiling at her and being kind, he even told her  I'm not trying to get on your case.   When we left with our finally loaded card, (it took a long time to get it straight) that checker said....Ya'll are the most nice, most humble people I've ever met.  Ya'll can come to my counter any time ya'll come here!   Wow.  Talk about a Gift!   We both smiled hugely at her and said GOD BLESS YOU!  She made our day.  ...And we may have just made hers too!

Now don't get me wrong that story's not meant to be a back door compliment to us but just wanted to share and I bet you have stories too!  You can share them here!

 

Enjoying the quiet of Christmas...Still gleaning from 'My Favorite Christmas Story' by Roy Rogers.

 

An Excerpt:

That's Christmas, to me:  standing at the manger. . . .

It was a stable, yes, a mean place for a baby to be born, a mean place even for animals.  It wasn't nearly as fine a stable as Trigger has.  it wasn't the light, shining place the artists have painted; it was a dark, damp hole in the ground.  Here He was born.  You don't like it?  You think the Son of God should have been born in a palace, or at least in a place where there wasn't any dirt or darkness?  But that wouldn't have been right, because God was sending His Son into a world that was a filthy stable, a world dark with pain and hatred and dirty with sin.  It was right for Him to be born here, for He had come to make men clean and to bring a light into the world that would drive away the darkness in men's minds. I'm no theologian, and I haven't had an education in theology, and I know this explanation of why He came may not please all the theologians, but that's the way it looks to me.  I can't put it in fancy language, but I can say that He brought light and peace and something new and clean and fine into my life, and that's all the theology I need....

~Roy Rogers 'My Favorite Christmas Story'

 

 

One Morning this Week

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Coffee

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Prayers

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I love seeing cattle...Once a huge white curly-looking bull was startled and started trotting from me, he had a sweet face, he really did.  It was the neatest thing...I just quietly said in the best Snow White type of voice I have... Please don't run from me, I won't hurt you, and ya know?  He stopped and turned around.  We had a nice chat, he turned around and just listened so sweetly to my pleasantries.  God's Creatures.  Seriously, that did happen and I'll never forget it. 

 

Yesterday, Jem, (known as Bobo to grandbabies) with one of our little grandsons.  Our daughter, Zuzu is making plans to deliver a little  baby probably this week and was at an appointment.

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Evening

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I went with a smaller 4 ft. table top tree starting last year.  A satisfying decision.  This year I did put ornaments and my signature vintage icicles on it, I just felt like it this year.   Last year, I kept it very simple, only lights.  Grace's special friend bought her the snowman canvas art behind the Christmas tree from Hobby Lobby.

 

Old-fashioned icicles.  My ornaments are from Dollar Tree, I purchased  entire dozens for a dollar each dozen.  I have a huge amount of original vintage 40s and earlier ornaments in our attic, I just haven't been able to go get them so this is fine for me this year.  I try to keep things somewhat simple, if something requires me a ladder then I'm not doing it!  lol

  

This Morning

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A big popcorn tin for our pick-up friends!  (I love popcorn)

 

 

This morning Jem will get our little gift to our trash pick-up friends.  I put some tracts on top with a bit of tape.  Jem gingerly sets it on top of one of the trash cans as nicely as possible.  

Our daughter, Zuzu who is visibly about ready to deliver ran some cookie tins out to her pick up men the other day...Who would not be touched by that?  A petite young woman very great with child running cookie tins out to you! 

 

 

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The  breath and the warm bodies of the animals warmed Him, in the little room.  If they could have talked, what would they have said to Him?  What would the lambs have said to the Lamb of God who would be sacrificed on a cross?

The animals--then the shepherds from the hills.  The shepherds were the first men to come.  The people in the courtyard may have looked in at Him, and smiled, and gone away never knowing what they had seen, but the shepherds came, and they cane because they knew, and they came to worship.  Out on their hillsides, watching their sheep, they had heard a great strange music.  If you will go out this Christmas Eve and stand still and just look up at the stars, and listen, you can hear it, too--the music that comes from behind the stars, from another world.  You can hear it, if you'll listen.

Excerpt from Roy Rogers from his most wonderful book, 'My Favorite Christmas Story'

 

 

As Roy wrote....You can hear it, if you'll listen.

Hope you all are having a wonderful week sharing and being Jesus to others.

~Amelia 

So Darling, This Will Put a Skip in Your Step!

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I think this is so darn cute, ya'll enjoy, really pretty Christmas department store music and even speaker announcements.  Ha, ha, ha...Some of it reminds me of ice skating music.  Do you remember Kmart?

Oh I so remember strolling through with my mom and dad when I was little, so fun.  Just so fun.

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So far we've had the pleasure to watch the following movies, these have elements of Christmas in them:  

 

The other night Dolly Parton's 'Coat of Many Colors' (2015) movie was on regular antenna tv, what a treat!  We have it on dvd but it's always nice to have it on my channel master tape list!  That is such a cute, heartwarming and precious movie.  I love it too because the little actress who plays Dolly when she was little reminds me so very much of our youngest daughter Grace when she was little.

We've watched 'Holiday Affair' (1949) as well with Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh.  That one is one of Grace's favorites.

Also watched 'It Happened on 5th Avenue' (1947)  Darling movie... with Victor Moore.

Last couple of nights we watched  'Shop Around the Corner' (1940) with Jimmy Stewart, this movie is one of my husband's favorites. 

 

In the evenings, we have a nice time just chilling and watching an old movie, it's relaxing and a comfort to me, as a child I have good memories of doing that with my mom and dad or even at my grandma and grandpa's house. 

 

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So excited to get my Roy Rogers book in entitled:  My Favorite Christmas Story.   Published in 1960.  I have some excerpts in the below entry...Oh how correct he is on things.

 

Now don't get me wrong, I love the fanciful sweet atmosphere we have at Christmas but the commercialism etc. can really get me down in the dumps if you know what I mean.

 

Roy Rogers writes in his book 'My Favorite Christmas Story', Chapter One, entitled:  "I'm fed up with Christmas":

I think we have all gone a little loco about Christmas--like those crazy cowboys who shoot up the town on payday, in the movies.  We've almost shot Christmas to pieces, and that's wrong, in my book.

 

I so hear his heart oh do I ever. 

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Have a sweet afternoon, evening and weekend folks. 

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Try to give that checker and waitress or waiter a smile, many times we just don't know what people may be facing.  Choose to be kind. 

'My Favorite Christmas Story' (1960) What a Wonderful Christmas Book! by Roy Rogers. Don't be a Heelot!

Our daughter, Joycie went to the resale shop the other day and shared with me over text this magnificent treasure of a book with a few excerpts!  Oh me oh my, this is so precious to my heart.  

 

My Favorite Christmas Story  -  by Roy Rogers, published in 1960

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Joycie shares she's reading this in the mornings with her coffee as part of Advent readings and I can sure understand why. 

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Just a few excerpts and the inscription is just. Precious.

I found myself a used copy and am eagerly awaiting it's arrival!

 

Here's a short clip of the famous scene from Frank Capra's 'Meet John Doe'.  I had written a post on this most wonderful movie recently.

 

Don't  be a Heelot!  

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 It's crazy isn't it?    What has become of everything?

 

Is Christmas about you, me or what?  

Remember in school when we were little children or beyond, Christmas crafts would be made many years from the  beautiful art on front of Christmas cards. There would be beautiful nativity scenes, deer, puppies and kittens, all kinds of beautiful and adorable pictures that reflected this beautiful and meaningful season. Once in a while a treasured photo would be tucked in one and that would usually go into a photo album or special place where photos were kept.  

 

Now-a-days everything is getting facebooked or facebook-styled to death if you ask me.   Even cards are all about me, all about me, all about me.    Not even a honest hand signed signature let alone a written wish or prayer for a blessed new year to the recipient, no question of how people are even doin' these days.  Now don't get me wrong, I love seeing and am thankful for precious families and I know people are at least thinking of the recipient to use a stamp to send one....Right?  

Right???  Hmmm...Sometimes I have to ask....What is Christmas all about?  Me, you or what?

I tell ya what, we seem to be living in a very ungrateful and ungracious culture and I see an unthankful attitude in all ages of people.  I've never seen anything like it.  You try to be kind to people and many times not even a reply or a thank you.  It's shameful.    

My husband always says..There's not much worse than ungratefulness.

All we can do is live the Life, keep the wonder of it all in that Holy Night.  I love all the sweet cheerful Christmas decorations and even get a kick out of cute wrapping paper but also enjoy the still Holy Night, meditating on that.   Even as a little child I remember feeling the Holy Spirit so strongly in our living room as I gazed upon our manger scene in the dark amidst the sparkling lights of the Christmas tree in our little 30s living room.   

 

 

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Let me know how you are all doing, if this blog is beneficial or encouraging to you, and please know many of you are in my prayers.   

 

I appreciate and am thankful for sweet readers who read here! 

Enjoy those cherished little habits of the home, not perfectionism by any means, perfectionism ruins everything and wears our families down...but just sweet little habits.  : )  Love, love, love.  

Signing off from My Forest Cathedral.   Will be checking in later with Christmas things to enjoy.   ~Amelia

 

The most vivid memories of Christmases past are usually not of gifts given or received, but of the spirit of love, the special warmth of Christmas worship, the cherished little habits of the home, the results of others acting in the spirit of Christ. 

~Lois Rand

God grant you the light in Christmas, which is faith; the warmth of Christmas, which is love...the all of Christmas, which is Christ.

~Wilda English

80th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Rambles and a Brief Movie Mention

 

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This is a special day, a sobering day.   One of our daughters volunteered at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii five years ago helping with our most beautiful Greatest Generation, those glorious heroes still living, those who did not perish.

 

One living hero was Uncle Bob we affectionately called him after our daughter would get to know him...He would call us and she would call him and we'd sing Happy Birthday to him and he'd sing Tony Bennett songs to us, he was a fantastic singer.

He was at the White House several years ago and President Trump remarked what great posture this fella had, just like a twenty year old!  I agree, that same fella showed my daughter how to do a dance there at Pearl Harbor...so cute.

 

Yeah...Our daughter would be talking to him and he would be at Taco Bell as he was eating dinner with an elderly friend...it would go...Where are we eating at?   Taco Bell says his friend loudly,  Where?  ... Taco Bell!!!    ...Oh dear me! ...sooooo funny..  Love those guys.

He was a hoot and we've sadly, most sadly lost touch, my daughter has left messages and we haven't heard back...He could be on the other side of Heaven, it breaks our hearts.  It's one of those things where you're almost afraid to know.

 

His story was that on the morning of Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked he was down in the ship getting ready for the morning, he hadn't even put on his shirt yet.  He jumped up on deck and grabbed the gigantic gun and just started shooting up at the Japanese planes....A kamikaze had swooped down so low he saw the kamikaze's face that was still clear as day to him 75 years later.  The kamikaze had glasses on he remembered...

 

 

Rambles...

Back then in our family my dad was eleven years old and had just lost his mother who I'm named after.  My dad as that little boy then attended Gulfport Military Academy in Biloxi Mississippi, and he remembered carrying dummy guns because their guns had been given to the war effort after Pearl Harbor.  My dad said the plane formations at night looked like Christmas trees in the sky!  My uncle, my dad's older brother Uncle Wesley had just married, a Rice graduate, back then majoring in drama.  It's funny, both my dad and his brother were masculine handsome rascals, definitely what we would call head turners but never into sports much, mostly drama, history, and good books coupled with common sense.  My uncle was very tall, and my dad was the shorter guy.  Both attended the same military academy and then off to college.  It's so interesting I think.  My uncle and his wife had a  baby girl and they lived in the home I was eventually raised in.  His wife parted ways after some horrible riffs after my uncle passed away in his twenties, a horrible death I'll write about another time.  I've always wanted to locate the baby girl who is my first cousin.  For years I tried to find her.   Finally one day the Lord quickened me to go to try to find something looking up a few names; I had, his wife's first name in particular.  Yes!  I found it in a society page from Youngstown University school paper where my uncle eventually attended, where he and his Dallas-born wife had met .  They were married in an old, old Episcopal church in nearby downtown, I would love to go there to that church to visit but no, it looks woke like the rest of'em.  But I had finally found my cousin!  Looking for part of her name and clues on facebook.  There she was after years of looking!  She's probably eighteen years older then I and we look very much alike but she is tall like her dad and I'm short like my dad.  Both our dads were blondish and blue eyed and both our moms were brunettes with brown eyes.  It's amazing.  She is an artist too, she has achieved quite a bit in the world's eyes, designing all kinds of things, from wall art in a ritzy New York hotel to a Disney land ballroom floor.  She loves animals like I do and is a character I guess like my dad was...She lives right here in the city in the ritzy part where she is her own person, raising butterflies inside her home and gardening. Just fiercely independent as I am in certain ways. For me?  I'm soft spoken  but very honest, and can also be a character if you get to know me, and I lough loudly from my soul.  

As my cousin, there was a problem I ran into...I never got to talk or correspond with her.  I refuse to get into the vortex of face book, just not my style for various reasons.  But my young adult daughters were very active on it back then and they wrote my cousin, she responded nicely and transparently to family history and she was given my email.  I copied and pasted a heartfelt letter twice to her through my daughter's fb account.  No go.  It was the strangest thing.   She would never write me back and she finally de-friended my daughters.  We don't get it, we're even politically on the same page so that was not the problem.   So.  Life goes on but I never had the pleasure of meeting her or even corresponding in writing to her.  Isn't that sad?  She has no family to speak of, also an only child.  So I have no idea under the sun why she would not communicate with me, she was raised not far from here by her grandparents  on their ranch with  beautiful horses and my cousin was trained as a skilled horsewoman. She was raised  right under my nose in some respects.  So.  Life goes on and that is one mystery unsolved why she won't communicate with me. I still pray I will run into her one day when Jem and I are making our rounds in downtown and eating at a restaurant. I could spot her in an instant.  God must know my heart can take that kind of thing, as an old friend told me once when I was in my thirties...Amelia, you've had more disappointments then most people have had in a lifetime.  I guess God knew I could take it...He's made my heart tender and I'm well aware of what life can dish out but He's given me wisdom and discernment on life from many experiences.  The School of Christ.  ...There I go...being transparent, but.  That's a Gift.   Not everyone can do that or have the courage to do that I have found.  

A Christmas Tribute to the 80th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor

Here are some photos of one of the Christmas decorations here honoring Pearl Harbor.  I was stoked to find original 40s piano sheet music from the movie that depicts Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle Raid, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.  You can see my entry from last month on Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.  Love that movie...love, love, love it.

 Phyllis Thaxter and Van Johnson..Van Johnson's character says:  How did I get a girl so cute?   Phyllis Thaxter's character, his wife says...I had to be cute to get a guy like you.

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I love the ads on the back of the sheet music too... Oh my heart.  

 

 

 

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The green lit up little house is a Christmas greenhouse our daughter Joycie bought me for me last year at Christmas time...It's fascinating.  I'll have to show the inside one day.  The angel was given to me by our daughter, Grace.

 

Here are two links from the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor when one of our daughters volunteered there.

    HERE   and   HERE

 

Another movie suggestion is The Fighting Sullivans (1944)

A true story, the Pacific War Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas has an entire display that is absolutely wonderful showing the mother reading her letter to the president, an actress reading the part.   That museum is absolutely ace in my book, you must go there if you are in that area of the country.

 

Both my dad and my precious step dad, a soft hearted Italian artist from the Bronx were vets.  Oh how I miss both of them!  

 

Just some rambles and a tribute to our heroes.   Appreciate them....Oh appreciate them.

   Signing off from My Forest Cathedral

Oh My Heart! Frank Capra's 'Meet John Doe' (1941) ...Our Little Town Peeps are Angels Right Here

 Meet John Doe  (1941)

 

Yesterday I found myself wandering through our little town Walmart...Oh.  My.  Heart.   I love it there.  Memories of yesteryear are there.  My little girls were very small, my friend was their piano teacher who has gone to be with the Lord.  My friend was a dear friend who had landed from the city in smalltown years before, she had looked like Greer Garson in her younger day in the 40s, she loved the Lord and I loved her.  

I would wonder the aisles back then...It's a tiny little Walmart and there have been recent times I'll hear a very sweet but astounded suburban woman with an artificial Christmas tree in tow in whispered voice wide-eyed...This Walmart is so tiny!  I smile back knowingly.

Yes, that is what is so wonderful about it.  It's pretty close to wandering the aisles of an old five and dime store, it has that most wonderful smell to it...It has the old heater and air conditioning system coming on and blowing that most wonderful airy sound vibe into the air if you hear it... You must hear it though.  You must *hear* it.  You must see the sights there.  You must feel it.  

Among the goodies there are the people.  The people who work there have worked there for years.  In fact they have worked there  before my youngest was  born.   I know them decently well, they'll ask one of my daughters where I've been if they haven't seen me in a while...Oh Mom? she's fine.  Her and my dad have been going to USO town and stopping by that Walmart.  (I'm sure that's almost like a mortal sin to these folks and they are probably praying for their wayward sister).  *big toothy smile*  I've made skirts and a tote before and drawn a fashion illustration I framed simply with a God loves you written on the back for one of the checker's grand-daughter as she didn't have a mother and needed some feminine influence. 

Well yesterday I was back in a most glorious way.  Conversations with a worker, on my maxi skirt I was wearing I had sewn, made with 'A Day at the Museum" fabric.   I gave her some tips on sewing.  Just listening to a workman and his wife in the Christmas department...I later hear him say...They have a lot of Christmas s*it.   Oh my, but it tickled me, he was just  being honest in his own funny little way. ...I also am pretty sure I saw two neighborhood forest ladies at the store  but not sure, we all smiled but none of us were sure.  It's kind of funny where I live...We know each other  but we don't.   Usually we see each other from a distance, either they are taking a walk or we see each other through a car window driving down these roads, we all live in the forest on property and like our quiet, we have all kinds of folk, quite a few police, a geologist...a U.S. Army General...all kinds of people and stay at home moms.  Yep, I admit it really should be better than that as far as knowing each other but.  I digress.  It's a great area to live and a privilege and Gift from God.   In the burbs I knew the faces but the faces would usually take a quick turn because most of those folk were too busy to talk or even smile at all. 

On to positivity here...The small town people are the salt of the earth many times.  They are my angels and it seems as if many times God sends these most wonderful people my way on the most needed days ever!  These people are the best fellowship ever, the best sermon ever.   I'm still building memories right here in small town.  I'm back to the forest, been back for over ten years and it feels good.  Pity those who haven't tasted that nectar of the simple life and the most wonderful John Does. You can even live here in the forest or any other sweet place but still not appreciate the beauty of smalltown and John Doe. It's got to be in our hearts.  If we can just lay down labels and talk with each other we can see.  *See*.  The beauty in one another.  There are far too many judgy armchair psychiatrists out there and far too many insecure people who behave as bipolar nutcakes, far too many ungrateful and plain rude people to not *see* beauty in the folk that may be right under our very noses!   I guarantee you there are people trying to analyze what I just wrote at this very second!  *smiling away!*  (It really is funny on people)  Oh dear me.....  

I hope you enjoy the movie above.  Meet John Doe (1941)   Directed by Frank Capra, the same Frank Capra from the same village in Sicily at the same time my Grandpa lived there.  My Italian family name is mentioned in one of the Capra biographies.  Yes indeedie. 

The first time I saw this movie was the night I came home from the birth center in '93 with our little baby girl, our youngest..  

 

 

Oh please enjoy the movie, and you will see wonderful life lessons on the materialism and how it can sneak in, and even a beautiful reminder of what Christ did for us over 2000 years ago as Barbara Stanwyck's character relays... Oh you must all see this movie!    Wonderful actors, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck and what is there not to love about Walter Brennan?  

 

Enjoy friends.  Enjoy.  When you're out, notice everything.  Everything.  The sounds, the smells...The look on a child's face and even just enjoying the face of a child....Everything.   Let that child remember your face that is kindly smiling to them.  They'll remember it. ....I can almost guarantee.

Life is a Gift.  Live the Life.  Remember what Christmas is all about...Jesus is that Life born in that stable on that holy night. 

Love, Amelia

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Liesl, one day this past week, I think this is such a pretty photo of Liesl just enjoying life.  She is truly a big colossal wonderful angel in our lives.  Many times I affectionately call her My Angel Girl as she lay her head on my lap in the evenings...