A Charlie Brown Christmas Celebrates 50 Years!

    It may be hard to believe but the perennial favorite Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas is celebrating 50 years! The lovable characters who have touched our hearts through many a special and movie, are, for me, most loved at this Christmas time of year. The US Post Office has done their part by issuing commemorative stamps. Network ABC is doing their part on Monday November 30th airing an hour long commemorative special before broadcasting A Charlie Brown Christmas for the first time this year. These are must see tune ins!

   I have watched this special program every year that I can remember! It was an event for sure. With no VHS or recordable devices, you planned and watched together as a family. I am not sure when we purchased our first color TV, but it made no matter. The lovable characters, with kid feelings and adult-like foibles were firmly cemented into our hearts. If you look up timeless classic in the dictionary it would read A Charlie Brown Christmas. The Vince Guaraldi Trio provided the award winning soundtrack and is one of the top selling holiday albums of all time. It is still to this day one of the few specials that integrates the religious true meaning of Christmas into the story. For that alone, it is a favorite among viewers.

   So now the characters! I am sure we have identified as one or two of the Peanuts over a lifetime of Christmases. Charlie Brown, feeling he has lost the spirit of Christmas because of the heavy dosing of  commercialization (and yes, 1965 original air date; thank goodness Lucy didn't have a crystal ball!), goes to Lucy for help. For a nickel, Lucy gives Charlie Brown the best piece of Christmas advice any of us could receive: get involved, give of yourself and the spirit will find its way back to you through new and old friendships, family (pets), and even through what is now lovingly referred to as A Charlie Brown Christmas Tree! As Charlie Brown tries to direct the school Christmas pageant whilst the kids begin a tireless dissonance of dancing and merrymaking, Inspired by an idea, Charlie Brown & Linus set out to find a tree that can save the pageant. What he gets upon his return with a less-than-'perfect'-tree is ridiculed. Charlie Brown gives up and cries out does anybody know the true meaning of Christmas? In response, Linus reads the Nativity passage from the Gospel Of St. Luke. 

    What does pull the season together for all of them in the end is the rallying support for Charlie Brown & his not so bad little tree. What remains is the joy, love and hope they all feel in the Spirit of Christmas! Merry Christmas (and Happy 50th) Charlie Brown!

Be... Thankful

    For my birthday recently, I received a necklace from a dear friend. It has two round pieces of metal. The copper smaller circle simply says ~  be. The larger silver circle is engraved with the words...

compassionate ~ kind ~ at peace ~ thankful

happy ~ brave ~ strong ~ free ~ true

So I have decided each day to choose to 'be' one of those things & truly be mindful of it. It has been a lovely way to go about my day. What I have found that it is possible to have a cumulative affect if you begin with being thankful. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving I pass my wish on to you. May you always remember to be thankful ~ every day. We are truly blessed & choosing to practice your gratitudes throughout the year is an amazing way to realize this. Write down or reflect on three things you are thankful for each day (trying not to repeat). This year, especially at Thanksgiving & thereafter, by reflecting on our blessings, we are also honoring what it means to live in this country, a country that even the Pilgrims knew to be like nowhere else ~ a blessing.

Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours!

Birds of a Feather; Birds in all Kinds of Weather

   As we cling to the last bits of Autumn & it's glorious colors, and begin our annual anxiety fest about the cold, snowy months ahead, let us not forget the birds that are there to keep us company in those bleaker months. Let us not take our feathered friends who are sticking it out with us month after month for granted!

   And I see the blue jay as if for the first time, it is a beautiful bird. I mean it's BLUE. How many times in nature do we see blue? The sky we are forever taking for granted (we shouldn't of course!) If the leaves on your oak suddenly were blue in October you would have thousands of botanists camped in your yard! So even though the blue jay can be an aggressive, squawky bird (alas not a songbird), it is spectacular against the mutely colored yard or the snowy landscape. So too with the cardinals, chickadees (cute as buttons!), titmice, juncos, finches, Carolina wrens, bluebirds, sparrows, nuthatches, woodpeckers & all those non-migrating birds that brighten our days. Let us be thankful that all birds don't head for the hills when colder weather approaches! (Some even migrate to the colder climates ~ the juncos). Thank them for sticking it out with us and adding much needed pops of color and amusement to our landscapes!

Here are tips for feeding of our feathered friends at this time of year:

   The most important tip is to be consistent with your feeding. Where most birds diets consist of insects and berries, the further into winter we get, the tougher the supply. Seed & suet become important staples to them. On my (affectionately known as) 'food court', I like to always have a suet feeder as my first primary feeder. The suet provides the mega calories the birds need this time of year. My second primary feeder has black-oiled sunflower seeds, safflower seeds and some nuts mixed in. I love the peanut, suet nuggets they sell at Wal-Mart as a special treat. It is also fun to make a few pinecones covered in peanut butter & birdseed to hang (see below with black-capped chickadee). 

The cardinals love a feeder with a platform rather than a perch to feed from. Whatever feeders you choose, the ideal situation is to baffle your feeders to keep the squirrels away (if you choose!)  Most of all have fun with it and enjoy all the antics! You can also be ready then to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count held Feb 12-15, 2016. See below for more info.

https://www.audubon.org/content/about-great-backyard-bird-count