From unseasonably warm PA-(not that I'm complaining, but the Christmas Blizzard and resultant "can't drive anywhere, oh well, a day at home with new books" IS remembered very fondly here)

May
Blessings grace you,
Friends embrace you,
Troubles miss you,
Wishes kiss you.

Merry Christmas from the same place as cece. It's too warm; hyacinths, daffodils, and crocii are all popping up and the lilac is starting to sprout leaves.

We also fondly remember the great blizzard about three years ago when we were without electicity from about noon until 9:30 pm. Everyone due at our house cancelled. Luckily, the 23-pound turkey was finished just before the outage. We had a glorious fantastic Christmas playing games and reading before the woodstove. Candles were lit, the whole town was peaceful. It was a perfect Christmas.

May all of your wishes come true,
PAM

From a fairly pleasant day in London, and from a cat in a Christmas Tree....

{{gwi:2117449}}

(Still not sure how we're going to get the stupid animal out!)

A very Merry Christmas to you all.

And a BIG Holiday Greeting from a sort of gloomy Georgia, USA. The weather man, who is correct from time to time, says that we are going to have 100% chance of rain with thunder showers tomorrow, starting in the morning. This makes me more dertermined than ever to just stay in and ignore the world.

Let's all hope that the New Year will bring all of us a better world.

Take Care of Yourselves!!! Don't eat to much, and, if you are going to drive, stay sober. LOL

Best wishes to you all for a very happy Christmas filled with love, laughter, food, safe passage if you're traveling, and of course, books.

Martin, your cat in the tree made me laugh. Maybe we should change the lyrics to The Twelve Days of Christmas to include a cat in a Christmas tree.

Warmest holiday wishes from a very warm Tidewater, Virginia. Flowers are blooming, here, too. 100 per cent chance of rain on Christmas Day, we are told.

Peace on earth,

Mary

Merry Christmas from snow-less Connecticut. It's in the 40's, so the snow we might have had yesterday was just dreary rain. However, the sun was shining this morning, so it's not all bad. Stockings are hung, kids are counting the hours, and I only have one more batch of cookies to bake and we're ready for Santa.

I wish everyone at RP a wonderful holiday and a happy, healthy New Year full of good books and great discussions.

And good luck, Martin, getting the cat out of the tree -- that picture is absolutely marvelous, you ought to use it for your Christmas card next year *G*

Many Holiday Blessings on You and Your Households!
Many Happy Hours of Reading, Warmth and Joy Always!

From Dallas -- where it is a gray day -- slightly chilly (for here!) at 50 degrees! Holiday Music is playing -- and the log in the fire is crackling away!

Cats are watching (and muttering vile things) at the birds at the feeders outside while the smallest wee cat soul is sneaking up on her unsuspecting fellow cats (all indoor cats!) -- and playing at being Toad (reference to Wind in The Willows)

General Hissing and swiping paws is about to occur .....

Already consumed large glass of sparkling wine and orange juice and now I'm off the the dining room to start packaging up the gifts -- and separate the cats to their various corners .....

Cheers!!!

Jan

And a very Merry Christmas from central New York, where it's the first green Christmas I've seen in several years. The sun came out about an hour ago and the wind drove away the rain and clouds. We're off to a Christmas eve family get-together in a little while. Very unlike my first Christmas here (02), where we had a blizzard and 2 feet of snow Christmas day. (Only we were snowed in at my father in law's house and I had no books to read)

Merry Christmas and best wishes to all of you from the Comox Valley!! This was yesterday -- overnight a storm arrived and the wind gusts have turned that peaceful harbour into a rollercoaster ride for the sailboats and fishing trawlers in the harbour. The lights are flickering so I thought I'd post this before the power goes out.
{{gwi:2117450}}

Merry Christmas to Everyone from Sunny Northern California.

(Janalyn-that is gorgeous view!).

We will be a small gathering this year, just one daughter that lives locally, the rest of the family is all up in the Seattle area where they have been having terrible weather and power outages.

Take care everyone and I hope you enjoy the season and have a wonderful 2007.

Pat

Merry Christmas (it is 6:55am on the 25th here) from Adelaide, South Australia. Our forecast is for an unseasonally cool 20°C today, but it will be nice for cooking the Christmas lunch.

I wish all my fellow RPers a happy and healthy New Year.

(and Martin, I just love that photo - your tree looks gorgeous).

From warm and sunny West Virginia ( I haven't had a fire in two days--and I heat with wood), I'll add my wishes for a Merry Christmas and a New Year that brings (at least some) Peace on Earth.
Merri

A very happy and a very merry to all, from 'wintery' Phoenix. We finally hit 60 degrees today, its been a lovely day (the last week we have been shivering - yes we are wimps- in freezing mornings and cold afternoons); spent the morning with my MIL and afternoon outside enjoying myself, staying far away from the hustel and bustle. Wishing you all peace, joy, laughter and a year of many wonderful reads!

Janalyn, thanks for sharing that beautiful scenery. Hope you were not in those damaging storms we heard about on the news.

Martin, do let us know the outcome of the cat in the tree!;-)

The cat came out of his own accord a couple of hours later - once he realized we were not longer paying him any attention!

Merry Christmas to all!!

Martin, glad your cat came out of the tree but she sure looked cute and your tree beautiful.

gbg

It was in the 50's here in the Hudson Valley most of the day, with gray clouds and occasional sun. I think I saw buds on the crab apple when I was looking out an upstairs window.
It's almost 8 p.m. We just finished Christmas Eve dinner and visit at our house with our youngest son and his wife. A quiet bit of festivity. It's hard to manage to get all four off spring and spouses together - so sometimes we do bits and pieces.
I have a few gifts to wrap for tomorrow, and then we'll sit, read, listen to music until time to leave for midnight mass. It's our first Christmas Eve alone together, ever, so it is a bit odd. The same with Christmas morning in the a.m.
We lived with my in-laws when we first married, and then there were the children.

I got to musing on our unusual Christmas...temperature and aloneness...and was derailed from wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

It's late Christmas eve here in California. The rain we had been expecting for tomorrow will come in on Tuesday, so we'll have a cloudy but dry Christmas with temperatures up to 60 degrees F.

This evening we had gift exchange with a daughter who will be elsewhere tomorrow. I am the happy recipient of my first Christmas book of 2006, a biography of Hollywood costume designer Edith Head. As an amateur costumer and sewing enthusiast, I expect to enjoy it very much.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!

Rosefolly

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas Eve and may it continue all through to the New Year.

And just to make sure you know how lucky you are in Grey and Foggy England.......Our little section of the world is under a tornado watch until 3:00pm. Nope, not our usual December weather.

It's now 7:15p on Christmas Day and I spent the day taking photographs around town playing with my camera while my DH worked all day. (He's a police officer and it wasn't his day off this year.)

Had a quiet day, but pleasant. Read "Christmas on Ice" by David Sedaris and the old perennial Christmas tradition (for me) -- "A Child's Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas. I just love that poem.

Happy Christmas to all! Peace to the world.

Best Wishes from me, the 'groaning bored'! It is Boxing Day and here I am in 30 PLUS heat, catching up with your messages and enjoying the pix. Martin, years ago, our new kitten thought that the live Christmas tree was a decoration in a handy sandbox, with dire consequences!
Must sign off now as it is time to pick up the dog from her holiday at the kennels. She is better off there than risking being trodden on by the 'cast of thousands' at the various family celebrations that I attend! Love and happiness to you all.

Best Wishes to all for a lovely holiday season. Younger daughter said this a.m. that she spent her first "official old people Xmas" today. Elder daughter and her hubby and our new granddaughter are in San Diego while the three of us and my parents and hubby's mom spent quite a sedate holiday here in snowless western NY. There are actually weeds growing in my garden. Janalyn-what a beautiful view! Thanks for the chuckle Martin. Our Xmas was rather doggy with three pups here. I think they added a bit of fun to the day opening their gifts and fighting over them like tiny tots.

Two dogs here, our own Freya and my friend's Hildy. Freya had the best Christmas ever, a friend to play with all day long. As for the human part of the family, everyone agreed that the gifts exchanged were thoughtful and welcome. I suspect the gifts are better, but part of it is that the family has grown up. I report this as light at the end of the tunnel for those with squabbling young children.

Janalyn, you live there? In the midst of all that beauty? You lucky, lucky person. That is simply extraordinary.

Martin, I loved the cat-in-the-tree picture. SheriZ6 is right. If you don't use that for next year's cards, it will be a rare opportunity missed.

The dishes are done (mostly), the guests departed, and I'm going to settle down with tea made in my new teapot and read for an hour to see the day out as it ought to be seen.

Best wishes to all my RP friends!

Rosefolly

Martin, Your Christmas Tree Cat is now the star of my hospital unit's desktops. I shared it at work with another nurse on Christmas Eve and he immediately installed it as the desktop in our nurses' station. I did the same at home. Thanks for such a great photo.
Had a wonderful Christmas here in Rhode Island. Son came up from Florida and asked for a baked codfish dinner as he says the fish in Florida are just not the same.

gbg

Boxing Day-still grey and rainy, but more in keeping with the mood than it was yesterday-have only one gift to return for my father, due to sizes, not preference-hope I can find the same thing in the right size! He really liked it...
Hope all arrived home safely!

It's grey and dreary in Kentucky, too. We drove home from my bachelor brother's house in hard rain last night. It's still gloomy and much cooler today.

We had almost all the family (24 of us and two puppies) overnight at his house, which is just across the road from our parents' farm. He is the only one of us living in our home county as of this year, so he got us because we simply have to go home. We set up a sort of dormitory of beds in his game room, and the kids slept on air mattresses in the living room floor. We had a big breakfast, gifts and stockings all around, and then most of our dad's family joined us for Christmas dinner.

Janalyn, your picture is wonderful. Martin's is, too, but I can't help but wonder if he sent it to us just to show off his books.

I got three books as gifts: 1,000 Places to See before You Die, Just Hand over the Chocolate and No One Will Get Hurt, and I'm Too Young to Be Seventy. I seem to have gained back most of the pounds I lost in November before going to the doctor for a cholesterol check and then having a bad stomach virus, but a little weight gain doesn't prevent me from continuing to eat leftover candy and cake. Guess what my NY resolution will be?

I hope all of you had a great Christmas and wish you a very Happy New Year.

Happy Holidays, Everyone! Martin, love the kitten in the tree. Janalyn, fabulous view!

Up until today we've had bright and unusually warm weather in east Tennessee. The season started out with my sibs and I hosting my mom's side of the family, 'bout a hundred people. Then we carried on the tradition of Christmas Eve at Grannie's house, even though Grannie's been gone 25 years and now it's the eve of Christmas eve. And then, ...well, let's just say I don't want to see turkey again until Spring.

A Comedy of Errors best describes my Christmas. I did most of my shopping on line and had it shipped to my mom's house. Have I mentioned that my mom's short term memory is shot? I spent a day and a half on the phone and the Internet with the vendor and the post office over a package that hadn't arrived 4 days after tracking had it delivered. Mom was checking the mailbox everyday, asking everyone if they had seen it. It was in her basement. Then there was the day we drove by a toy store after lunch, and I left her in the car while I ran in quickly to pick up a game. Returning to the car, or where I thought I'd left the car, I found no mother. She had driven off. The upside of all this is that she picked out and tried on almost all her gifts and still was surpised when she opened everything.