Have the Happiest of Holidays!

I wish the happiest of holidays to my readers the world over.  May the New Year be filled with peace and good will to all.  May this orb become free of war, and strife, and inhumanity toward our fellow humans.

May our children and grandchildren live on a planet whose inhabitants respect our environment, the dignity of animals, and the sanctity of the human spirit. 

This I wish with all my heart for each of us, as there is no other way forward.  Perhaps we can  lift our hearts together and hope for the goodness that is present in all of us to prevail.

The very best to you from my home to yours.

My Christmas Greeting

Somehow it is the festive time of year once more, and I want to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.  I also want to thank you for all the support you have shown me and this blog.

In this season of love and good will, it is, I believe, important to pause a moment and reflect on our blessings and the important people in our lives.  I am so very grateful for my husband, and sons and their families, and faithful friends, and good health.  And the list could go on.

It is my hope that everyone who reads these words may do the same in his or her own way.  Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate the holiday.  The sentiment applies to those of you who do not.

I wish the very best wishes to you all during this time of renewal, rebirth, and rejoicing.  A Happy Holiday to you all!

A New Year's Eve, Unplanned

Happy New Year's Day to you all!  Today is a quiet one for me, packing up the beach condo and leaving for Tampa later this evening.  No lingering memories of a lovely New Year's Eve party, no gathering up champagne bottles to be recycled, no pesky stains on a favorite tablecloth waiting to be tackled--once again.  My New Year's Eve was of a different nature this year.  And it was just fine. 

Leah and Paige
(And Lucy)

My family and I spent the last of the holidays with our son and his family in Los Angeles.  Every moment of it was wonderful.  Our two granddaughters, Leah and Paige, were and are so much fun and uplifting in every way.  We reveled in being together, entertained in their beautiful new  (old) house and felt valued to have such a family.

Uncle Brian, Paige, Leah

  At the end of our time, I had a sniffle or two, but it was the holidays, after all.  Our daughter-in-law, Ali, an emergency room doctor, called in a prescription--to be sure.  And was she right!  No details, but I feel terribly sorry for the people sharing the plane with me...

As to holiday plans, they evaporated like the holidays themselves.  My husband and Louie, our Shih-Tsu and Bichon mix puppy and I sat on the sofa and watched an old film  (not quite sure Louie understood the nuances).  We opened a bottle of Prosecco, a gift from a friend, and shared it.

Louie

All this to say my New Year's Eve was a good one, even though unanticipated.  A sinus infection is just that, nothing serious or life threatening.  One recovers and moves on, and so I am blessed.  With good health, a loving family and fine and constant friends.

I wish the same happy situation for all of you.  Here's to the best of 2013!    

Holiday Wishes

Dear Reader, 

I want to wish you the Happiest of Holidays.  Thank you so very much for following my blog.  

My New Year's Resolution is to continue bringing the most informative, timely and best posts I can deliver to you!

Have a Holiday filled with Joy and Happiness.

All best wishes,

 Nancy Stewart

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here it is.  Holiday time again!   Many of you know that I lived in London for ten years.  It was a marvelous experience, and I love everything about the country, the freedom, the culture, the generosity of the Brits. 

It was, though, an odd feeling of an entire country not celebrating Thanksgiving.  After all, their beginnings were not steeped in felling trees for log cabins, constructing rustic and rudimentary villages and depending on the original inhabitants to teach them about corn and farming. Actually, at that time, the British government was the very reason why such an endeavor was occurring in this new world, but that's a story for the history books.  

Our Thanksgiving dinner in London then was held in the evening, after everyone came home from work.  The American community gathered in friends' homes for the traditional dinner.  In the early days of our time there, Harrods was the only place where canned pumpkin or fresh cranberries  (or any cranberries at all) could be procured.  Today they're both a staple in the supermarkets all year.

Always around our holiday table were some dear British friends and Canadian ones, too, who celebrate Thanksgiving on a different day in November.  The requisite jokes, "If you'd paid that tax on tea..." and so on were bandied about, all adding to the fun.  It is lovely remembering those days, those friends, those times. 

So, you ask, "How will you spend your Thanksgiving in Florida this year?"  The answer is simple--and surprising.  We will be with two of our three sons, one son's girlfriend and two dear friends from London, also living half of the year very close by in Florida and with whom we spent every Thanksgiving in Blighty!

And so the circle goes on and on, much to all our delight.  What a life!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all in the United States and around the world.