We always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. That was our tradition. When young us kids just couldn't wait until Christmas morning to open our gifts. Greedy little tykes we were. However, in the growing up process I learned that the best Christmases were the ones were memories and pictures were shared with friends and family, where there was in inspirational story here and there, and where stories of giving were the focus of the holiday season.
First the inspirational story:
Oliver Stone: This Oscar-winning filmmaker began his first novel while at Yale, a project that eventually caused him to fail out of school. This would turn out to be a poor decision as the the text was rejected by publishers and was not published until 1998, at which time it was not well-received. After dropping out of school, Stone moved to Vietnam to teach English, later enlisting in the army and fighting in the war, a battle that earning two Purple Hearts and helped him find the inspiration for his later work that often center around war.
I consider all of you here as family. Nothing better than sharing pictures of family. One of DanaRae's memorable moments of 2010 was her family reunion. The first picture is of her "Clan."
Next up is DanaRae's Mom sitting, with siblings Rhonda, Deb, and Lake and DR herself on the far right.
Following is a picture that I am completely shocked that Dona didn't share with us as one of her most memorable moments of 2010. How could The Shankster teaching us all how to get rid of data on the hard drive of a printer not be memorable? The shame, Dona, the shame.
Last are two stories of giving. A woman gives on her birthday instead of receives:
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/12/barbara_cookes_birthday_was_al.html
The final story is one of a man that decided to see how he could impact others even though he was unemployed:
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/22/laid-off-american-reed-sandridge-gives-away-10-a-day-for-a-year/?icid=main%7Chp-laptop%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk2%7C191577
Merry Christmas everyone. Thanks for the gift that you have given me all year, the most valuable gift of all, your time!
8 comments:
Thanks for the DR pix, Bill. I know I saw the group shot before, but the smaller one was nice as the people were identified and I can now put faces on Deb and Mom. {s}
Both the linked stories were very nice and admirable. I especially like the guy who gave away $10 a day, though it's surprising he started it while unemployed. That would be a very fun thing to do.
Thanks so much for all the pics Bill, I too am glad to see them of DR and her mom and sis. It is nice to put faces on all these people we all speak of so often.
I love the $10 a day guy. Starting that unemployed is virtually unheard of, I love the story.
Yes I am hanging my head. Sorry about not remembering such a memorable moment as the Shankster taking a hammer to our hard drive on the printer. I really wasn't sure what kind of memorable moments you preferred on here, as most of mine are crazy....But I do have another moment that involved him and a hammer that is now etched into my mind forever and only happened last week....if you are interested. :)
Merry Christmas to all here.
Great inspirational stories, Bill, both of them. I love to read these.
Dona, I'd love to hear the latest hammer story.
As to the pix -- the group pix was the wrong one, as it doesn't show the entire family, spreading out into the upstairs hall. It also doesn't have the three "matriarchs" at the very front - Aunt Fran is 93, Mom is 92 and Aunt Peg is 85. My mind was obviously mush, when I was trying to sort through the Picassa files, but at least you got an idea.
Wishing everyone the merriest of Christmases. They cancelled our snow, but that's okay. I'm now off to play cooking elf in prep for tomorrow, since I don't like to cook all morning and prefer to just throw the turkey into the oven and have the rest of it all done and ready to warm.
Hi DR, The pic of the family spreading out into the stairs sounds cool! I love family pix such as that. And I hear ya on the having everything so as to just warm most of it when the time comes!! I usually forget something though. lol
If you really want the recent hammer story, you are welcome to visit the blog. I am sure you still have the link. As usual I am lengthy in explanations (says the Shankster) so didn't feel I should post it here.
Your snow was cancelled? Hmm wonder if ours is also? How will poor Santa cope without snow for his sleigh? :) Merry Christmas!
Dona, I can't find the link. Can you e-mail it to me, please? I've no idea where I've stored it (so I'd be sure to have it!)
As to snow... according to Alan Jackson, that's no problem in the South - Santa uses a pick up truck
Hi Pat
I also loved DR's picture so I can put a face to names.
Isn't it funny is I thought everyone would like the other story and not the ten dollar story the best and yet the ten dollar story seemed to be the favorite.
Bill
Hi Dona
I think that was more of a bad hammer day than a bad hair day and that was exactly the kind of memory I was looking for! Crazy always works with me.
Hope you have a great day today, we had a great Eve last night.
Bill
Hi DR
Today is going to be all inspirational stories!
I will put a link to Dona's hammer story in today's entry. If you ever want to go some's blog that posts here go to the comment section on any comment they posted and click on their name. That will bring up their profile. At the bottom of the profile will say "my blogs" clock on the link there. Since Dona posted on this post you can try it here.
Glad to hear they cancelled the snow. And I wish you were the cooking elf here! I did the dinner last night.
Bill
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