What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

One of my favorite holiday songs from one of my favorite singers.


As much as I think it would be fun to just once ring in the new year dancing cheek-to-cheek at a fancy party, I really can't imagine a New Year's Eve without watching Dick Clark's New Year Rocking Eve and watching the ball drop in Times Square.

Another tradition of ours is to eat 12 grapes at midnight. Each grape represents a month during the new year. You make a wish while eating each grape as the clock strikes midnight to give you good luck throughout the year.

What are you doing New Year's Eve?

Wishing You

I hope you are surrounded by those you love this Christmas.

And the Stockings Are Hung...

The story, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, is my very favorite Christmas story. So much so that Christmas stockings have always been important to me. When I was a child Santa filled our stockings with fruits and nuts and it was a tradition that we open the stockings before our gifts.

I have carried this tradition of opening the stockings first with my family. Over the years, Santa has added candy and very small, wrapped gifts to our stockings in addition to the fruit and nuts.

Every year I make cookies for Santa, but this year I decided I would also make some homemade candy. I decided to make some Chewy Nut Toffee from Martha Stewart Living magazine December 2001 issue.

You need a 9 x 13-inch jelly roll pan, a candy thermometer, and a heavy-bottom pot to make the toffee in. You have to be patient while making this because there is a lot of stirring involved, but it is a fun candy to make. The difficult part was keeping everyone's hands off it during the 24 hours that it needs to set AND then cutting it. I thought it would be a softer caramel, but it is a thick, hard toffee and so it was not easy to cut and almost impossible to break like you do with toffee made in the large jelly roll pans.

Luckily, one of Santa's elves came to the rescue and finished cutting the toffee for me and I did the wrapping.

I am hoping Santa will like them and share a little bit with us this Christmas. 

The Magic of Christmas

This Christmas holiday has made me recall Christmases past probably more than any other year. I have been reflecting on Christmases spent as a child living in England and then South Carolina. I recall those Christmases as magical even to this day.


I read in this morning's newspaper in the Parade magazine insert a story by my favorite southern writer, Pat Conroy. He writes about a time when he taught Gullah students in a lowcountry island in South Carolina. His story demonstrates to me the power of literature and how it can capture the imagination of a child. This is why literature has always been such a large part of my life. Follow the link to read When Christmas Spirit Calls.

Winter Issue of Lonny

The second issue of Lonny magazine is out. It is a fabulous new online design magazine. Check it out: Lonny.

Christmas Bird Count

The National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count begins December 14th and ends January 5th. Your local count will occur on one day between those dates. The Christmas Bird Count helps identify birds in most need of conservation action and reveals success stories. The count helped document the comeback of the previously endangered Bald Eagle and Brown Pelican. Follow this link to find out more information on how you can participate.