Christmas Coloring Page

Cat in the tree

Comments by ZingerBug.com  
 I had to laugh when I saw this graphic. It reminded me of my cat we used to have who is no longer here. I was sitting at the dining room table eating and you can see the tree from the dining room. When I turned to look at the tree, I noticed Casey's tail swaying back and forth from the bottom of a tree branch. He was just sitting inside my tree looking out at me. I wasn't real happy with this and chased him out of the tree.  We laughed about it afterward, but hoped he wouldn't continue getting into the tree. I guess he thought he had a little of the outdoors in the house. One year my dog also thought he had a little of the outdoors inside since he used the tree as his own personal bathroom. Animals! 

Decorating the Tree

Comments by ZingerBug.com   It's almost that time of the year when we dig out the tree and make it beautiful with all of the ornaments that we have collected over the years. Some people put up many trees...God Bless them...I put up a large one and a pencil tree on my sunporch. I do love to decorate the tree, but I have found that as I get older, it gets to be a little more work. When my children were small, we would look for a real Christmas tree, ahhh, the fresh smell of pine, nothing like it at Christmas time. Sometimes there would even be small pinecones on the tree and the warmth from the lights on the tree would make the pine cones crackle.  It was fun...and cold...looking for the perfect tree, but something you will always remember. 
 We did the real trees for a long time and then decided to get an artificial tree. I've had at least four artificial trees. They started out large and then became smaller throughout the years...it must have something to do with the getting older thing! I used to string the lights on and now they are prelit and I must say I like the prelit trees. The lights are strung on nicely so that you can barely see the wire.
My tradition is to have some wine while decorating the tree and listening to Christmas music. It usually takes me all day to finish the tree. Something I find very upsetting is when you get the tree up and plug it in.....guess what....half of the lights work and the other half don't. Nice. This happened after we had bought a tree at Pool City, had it up one Christmas and the following Christmas half of the lights were out. Tested the lights, couldn't find the problem, went to Pool City, took the receipt to show we had it only one year, and they gave us a bunch of replacement lights...with a plug only on one end. Nothing else they could do...nothing else...we paid $300.00 for this tree and that's the best you can do???? Well, I tried to put these lights on a prelit tree and it just wasn't getting it if you know what I mean, so I got really upset after arguing about it with my husband, took the tree apart, stuffed it back into the box, kicking it into the box, sort of like Chevy Chase did in Christmas Vacation, when he got upset because his lights weren't working and he started kicking Santa and the reindeer all over the front lawn...I can relate to that. Anyway, we took it to the nearest dumpster and bought another one. It seems like every year I have some sort of light problems to deal with....yikes....but after it's all done, the tree and the outside decorations, look beautiful. I will always decorate a tree for Christmas even when I'm much older, even if it's just a pencil tree or a tabletop tree. I'll never forget that Christmas magic.

Scrooge

There are many versions of A Christmas Carol/Scrooge and this is yet another from Walt Disney shown in 3-D...my favorite way to see a movie. It's to be released in November 2009 and I think I shall have to go and see it. Update....I did make it to the movie theater to see this with my son, hubby, and grandchildren, and thought it was an excellent version of Scrooge! I loved the 3-D effect also! I finally did purchase the DVD and added it to my other Scrooge collections.

 Other versions, and I'm sure there are many more, include:


1. 1938 version with Reginald Owen "A Christmas Carol".

2. 1951 version with Alistair Sim "A Christmas Carol", my favorite.

3. 1970 version with Albert Finney, a British musical, "Scrooge".

4. 1979 version with Henry Winkler, "An American Christmas Carol," a little different from the others, but I still enjoyed it.

5. 1984 TV. version with George C. Scott "A Christmas Carol".

6. 1999 version with Patrick Stewart from (Star Trek: The Next Generation), "A Christmas Carol".

There were even a few cartoon versions:

7. 1962 "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" w/Jim Backus which I loved to watch when I was young.

8. 1992 "The Muppet Christmas Carol" w/Michael Caine as Scrooge.

Holiday Cookie Recipes

   Here are some cookie recipes for those of you who love to bake for the holidays.

"SOUNDS OF CHRISTMAS by Del 'Abe' Jones

 

There's music of the holidays

Playing on the radio -
There's Christmas decorations
Almost everywhere you go.

The Salvation Army bells
Ring out for the poor -
The 'Ho,ho.' of Santa Claus
In the department stores.

Carolers sing Christmas songs -
Going, house to house -
Tales about, where no one stirs
Not even, a mouse.

Hoofbeats in fresh fallen snow
Pulling, an open sleigh -
Children asking Mom and Dad
'Is Santa on his way?'

Cracklin' from the fireplace -
Roasting chestnuts 'neath the coals -
The soft murmur of prayers
Said, for the lost souls.

Friends and family gather
To toast, Christmas cheer -
There's sounds of angels singing
(If, you really want to hear.

The sounds of Christmas, fill the air
As we celebrate His birth -
Wishing joy, to all mankind
And peace to all on earth."

Charlie Brown Christmas

Linus tells the true meaning of Christmas.