I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!

I wouldn’t pay the cable company their outrageous prices to be able to watch a few shows. There just wasn’t that much I wanted to see. Prefer my phone. But am having cataract surgery next month, reading may be hard, so thought tv would help pass time.

Smart move, Spookie! The year I was diagnosed with mbc, I went thru chemo, a lumpectomy and was heading into the fall looking at 33 rounds of radiation which I knew was going to kick my butt, so I bought a big screen tv (not a smart tv at the time) and allowed myself to lay around all winter watching it and recuperating.

We dropped extended cable, just going with basic cable, when we got a Fire Stick a few years ago. I subscribe to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime and pay less for them than the extended cable. My new iPad came with 3 free months of Apple+ tv, and when it ran out, I kept the service for $4.99 a month. I totally LOVE.and highly recommend the show “Ted Lasso” to anyone reading this!

Illinois, I loved your quote today. On the CBS Sunday Morning show they had a clip about the global appeal of the John Denver song "Country Roads, Take Me Home" which takes about the same theme of yearning for that sense of belonging (check it out online if you missed it). And on the same line of thought, here is an piece from a local paper written by a journalist in her 80s. (Very rural, mid-western, 'Christian' slant, but the nostalgic memories of days on by is universal.)

MARILYN HAGERTY

Excuse me, please. But it's Christmas Eve, and I must go home.

If only for five minutes and only in my thoughts, I have to go back on Christmas Eve. I haven't been there in person for 60 or 70 years. Still, I have never been away.

Every Christmas, there is a string of events that take me home. It starts with children speaking pieces at church.

Then it's the carols, the Christmas tree, the tinsel, the packages.

And in my mind, I snatch a few minutes to travel down Highway 14 once more.

Around the curves and down that last big hill above the Missouri River.

I go in the back door.

I walk through the kitchen.

The linoleum floor is cracked along the edges, but it's freshly scrubbed and Glocoated for this night. As I put my things on the dining room table, I see the glow of lights from the tree in the front room.

I take my place there — close to the tree.

I see my brothers and sisters as children again. And in the big leather rocking chair, I see my dad. It's the moment I've been waiting for so long.

It always seemed on Christmas Eve everyone ate too slow. It took too long to do the dishes. It was forever until they finished milking the cow and came back to the house.

Then the boys always had to make one last shopping trip uptown.

Eventually, we open our presents. Daddy sits there holding some new handkerchiefs and neckties in his big, rough hands. He has a new shaving brush — made in Japan. With his Danish accent, he says, "We have too much.

It is too much."

As I tear white tissue paper from a Shirley Temple doll and greedily scan the bottom of the tree for more presents, I think, "It is not too much for me."

Sisters Helen and Shirley fondle new sweaters and sniff their bubble bath. My brother Harley sits on the floor where the draft comes in under the front door. Walter sits beside him.

Most of the year, I consider Walter my personal enemy. I give him a pinch every time I have a chance. He slugs me back.

On Christmas Eve with his hair combed and slicked down with oil, Walter looks almost like an angel. On Christmas Eve, nothing is too expensive for Walter's sisters. He is generous with money he has earned delivering the Capital Journal.

We put on our coats and buckle up our overshoes before we start out for church.

As we walk down the back road and up the hill this night seems different from all others.

Maybe it's because we girls get to leave off our long underwear on Christmas Eve.

Maybe it's because we think we see the same star that guided the Wise Men.

It's cold and clear in Pierre, South Dakota, on Christmas Eve. Because we are early, we go up and stand over the big heat register in the floor at the front of the English Lutheran Church. Warm air blows up under our skirts. Later, the boys lucky enough to be chosen as shepherds have blankets draped around them.

They come in the back door of the little church and go out the door up beside the pulpit.

It is time to come back to reality.

This is the here and now. The children at my house are long gone.

I go to see them on Christmas Eve.

There is supper to fix.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

It's only a few minutes that I must tarry. I must go home each Christmas Eve.

You will love the segment, Divine!

My mom started baking Christmas goodies right after Thanksgiving. She'd keep them in a closet in the basement hallway. We'd go down snitch a few, rearranging the cookies/candies so that the box would still look full (eventually we had to move to a new box). I can tell you who was at our house, what we did, and the complete menu for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the next day when my mom's made homemade turkey soup and we broke open the enormous box of Swiss Colony cheeses/sausage/tortes which was the annual gift from some good family friends. My mother was very smart; we got a small gift every day in the week before Christmas ;coloring books, Play Dough etc. things to keep us busy so that we didn't drive her nuts!

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
- Thornton Wilder

When I was still making the thanksgiving dinner, I had celery and onion cooking for dressing. DD walks in, says it smells like thanksgiving.

Love the pic Ruth.

Don Jr. gave a speech December 19. All true Christians should find it chilling.

Junior’s ineptitude cannot simply be ignored and ridiculed. As the article states: “There's a case to be made that he's worth ignoring, except for this: Don Jr. has been his father's chief emissary to MAGA world; he's one of the most popular figures in the Republican Party; and he's influential with Republicans in positions of power. He's also attuned to what appeals to the base of the GOP. So, from time to time, it is worth paying attention to what he has to say.“

Here's a part of his speech I find chilling:

“….the scriptures are essentially a manual for suckers. The teachings of Jesus have "gotten us nothing." It's worse than that, really; the ethic of Jesus has gotten in the way of successfully prosecuting the culture wars against the left. If the ethic of Jesus encourages sensibilities that might cause people in politics to act a little less brutally, a bit more civilly, with a touch more grace? Then it needs to go.“

Full article about the speech from The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/gospel-donald-trump-jr/621122/?fbclid=IwAR316GFl3gdS3U5Nqgpca5bI82FoU9fTCAlGoffSlBO_k4Wi2_t3akkKQDc

Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: "A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others." -Eleanor Roosevelt

Divine, I too appreciate how you look at things and so many of your theories that feel spot on. In the last few yrs. before Trump I began to feel a sense about the Reps. that they were way off where there party I thought should be. Now I find them frightening in their ability to ignore all reason and chilling as to what they think they NEED to do to get Dems. out of the way as long as possible if not forever. I worry about what this will mean for us since often we appear to not be where we should. I worry about our being able to get those voting rights bills passed.

OTOH, with some of the possible prosecutions that could take place, ( they would have to be sooner rather than later ) it could be a big help to us. It does matter that Trump has killed off sooo many of his own and seems to have some actual reality on that, and that he doesn't seem to understand that he is not helping by his endorsements -- if we get those voting rights done. As to those things I will just say with Manchin and Sinema -- I have no words. Stealing some movie lines -- they are boils on the butt of humanity.

One can only hope with all that is in them.

**Ruth**

( Sandy - good )

The little orange missus ( for some reason ) looks stupidly weird in this picture.

Although I am not much for Tic Toc -- this one tickled me. I also think many times some of the younger people may explore more sources of media perhaps getting a more through rundown of information on whatever subject. Imagine -- her subject. If that be the case -- good for her.