Hee, I think we just cross posted messages :) Great minds think alike

Merry Christmas to everyone!

It is sunny, but cold here in Northern California, no rain or storms in sight.
The food is bought & ready to cook, the champagne is chilling....so we are ready here!

Pat

Fog, not too cold (but a bit unfortunate for those who were trying to jet away for Christmas...)

I feel a bit of Dickens coming on.

"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

At this wonderful time of the year, I join with the rest of you to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, or Season's Greetings - or anything else that you like.

Love and peace to you all.

Martin

My last pie is baked, food and clothing packed up, car loaded, and we will be leaving in a couple of hours for my brother's house in the country to spend the night and have family Christmas for about 40 people. His house is across the road from the little house where we grew up, a little bittersweet, but all four of us siblings and our chicks and grandchicks will be together, joined by some cousins and some of their chicks and one last uncle by marriage (90) and one aunt by marriage (80-ish).

Merry Christmas and God Bless Us, Everyone!

Merry Christmas to all! Weather is a bit sleety here, but not too bad. We are blessed with our 2 daughters, dear son in law and granddaughter and 4 dogs this holiday. It is chaotic but wonderful. Keep safe all.
Peace and love to all-Pam53

Christmas Day is drawing to a close here - an absolutely beautiful day, about 26°C (80°F) with a light breeze. Shared presents this morning with our sons (and managed a couple of surprises) then off to my sister's for lunch with her, her DH and our mum and dad. We had a get together with my in laws on Sunday, so no rushing around today.

Merry Christmas to all my friends here at RP, and all best wishes for a healthy and happy year ahead.

Kath

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone at RP. May your day be merry and bright, filled with family and friends and good books!

Blessings to one and all,
Sheri

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's going to be a bright 50-degree day here in West Texas so I will be alternately reading my book presents and going outside to test my new zoom lens for my camera.

Hope you all have a lovely day with wishes for many more.
liz

Happy Holidays to all! It is a cool 49 F here in Tucson, Arizona so the husband and I (along with 5 cats) are keeping inside. May you all receive many books! =)

Season's Greetings to all RPers!
Yesterday I spent Christmas Day with my family and was so happy to see my great-grandson thriving well and really smiling for his photos with all his doting female "rellies"!
We are having a heat wave around the 100 degs. so I am resting today in air-conditioned comfort and reading the new Kerry Greenwood "A Question of Death" short stories featuring Phryne Fisher with recipes etc. Just right for a lazy day.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all! We are happily jumbled together with DD, DS and the crew. The temps are in the 20's and a light snow is falling. Kids built a snow tunnel - came in tired, chilled, happy and ready to sit quietly and read for a while. So that gave Grandma permission to do the same! Hope all of you had some time to read and relax amid the celebrations.

Peace and joy!

griff, I didn't know you were in Tucson! Its one of my fav places in the state (lived there ten years while in college). Was just there last weekend visiting friends and yeah it got cold! (well, to us - it was below freezing when I went for my very brisk morning walk) We are in Chandler. I assume you've been to Bookmans a few hundred times? Have you been up here to Changing Hands?

We had a lovely time at my brothers. He always outdoes himself with his dinner. Great to see sibs, sib inlaws, neices, nephews, grand nieces. Afterwards went out for a walk to see the last of the lights in our neighborhood (oh, and to watch the full moon, just gorgeous!)

Right now I've got a cat on my computer table and one under my feet. The other two are under the tree - boy, are they going to be miffed when we take it down.

Happy holidays to you all!

Here in California it is still late Christmas Day, and so not too late to send out holiday greetings to all of my RP friends. We had cool, clear weather, much though not all of the family gathered, and far too much to eat! I never got around to making the mince pie, and we didn't miss it. I hope everyone had as good a day as we did here.

Rosefolly

Post-Christmas greetings from Tidewater, Virginia. It was cold and clear on Christmas Eve and Xmas Day here, ideal for walking, as the winds from the rivers had died down. Almost every house has candles in the windows and red and green wreaths on every door. Some houses are imitating the Colonial Williamsburg type decorations of fresh fruit and magnolia leaves above the doors.

Martin, I posted some days ago on the Quotes thread here at RP exactly the same quote you did from C. Dickens. I guess the thread was overlooked in the Holiday Rush.

Cindy, when I had my inimitable cat, it used to love to climb up my Xmas tree and try to perch there. You can imagine the impending disasters....;-)

Oh, each one of our cats tried that when they were kittens. David kept a squirt bottle handy just for those occassions. The worst that happens now is one of them knocking down an ornament hanging low on the tree. But now they just like to sleep amongst the packages under the lights.

Yeah, cats are very sensitive to odors. I think mine actually craved the scent of the Fraser fir Xmas tree. Of course, it used to play with the shiny, dangling ornaments, too....

With our cats (now moved on to happier hunting grounds), we had to hang out ornaments higher up and out of paws' reach. They used to love to bat the ornaments around until they "accidentally" fell down and crashed into a million pieces on the hardwood floor.

You gotta love 'em.

I must have the original scaredy cats. They are 3 and 4 years old. This year, as usual, they were very alarmed when we put up the tree (artificial). Once the commotion was over, they each took a turn taking a nap under it. It takes them about a week to start batting at ornaments. The bottom of the tree starts to look ragged after another week or so, but then it's time to take it down!

>cats are very sensitive to odors

Hee, this made me smile - we've had the same artificial tree for years! (tho I a sure it has acquired some smell, even tho its unlikely to be a tree one :)

Merry Christmas to all from Boston! It is only the third day of Christmas so lots of time to enjoy it all still. Lots of snow on the ground here and looking like a Christmas card.

It never snows here. For the first ten or twelve years I didn't miss it. Now I'm agitating to move 500 or so miles north of here to get more seasonal change (and more rain for my garden). Alas, my husband is looking at me with horror. He loves the year round access to bicycle riding.

In any case, we are ramping up to the New Year now. This is a low-key holiday for us. We'll have a traditional pork dinner here at home, and split a bottle of wine. It's most unlikely we'll actually stay up for midnight.

Any resolutions, folks? Once again I'm planning to get rid of that last ten pounds. I've lost it several times but it keeps sneaking back. The trouble is, if I let it stay, it invites all its friends to come join us.

Rosefolly