New Year

I hope that all your New Year wishes come true.

May there be Peace On Earth!

HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas

When my children were young and Christmas time was coming I made sure they were a part of the celebration right up to Christmas Day. I didn’t want them to think it was only about the presents, I wanted us to come together as a family. We watched Christmas shows together, the Grinch was my favorite, even when I was a child.

We went to church and we participated as a family in making an advent wreath, my three children and their grandmother. My children and I made ours, but we always admired grandma’s she was very artistic and creative her wreath was always beautiful.

As the holiday grew closer I got the cookie cutters out, but not to make cookies. We used them to trace onto felt and we cut out the design, then we would decorate them with sequence, beads and of course sparkles. We would glue two same sides together leaving a small opening and stuff it with poly-fill inside then we would finish gluing the two same sides together and hang them on the Christmas tree. The kids and their friends loved doing this and I loved doing it with them.

I have one or two left from our past Christmases; but the children liked them so much that they very often ended up in their rooms. I also have the decorations that they made at school these are treasures that they created and I could never bring myself to throw away. Some of the other things I’ve done with the children, is to take old Christmas cards, mine and the ones I collected from relatives and friends. I taught the children how to make Christmas post cards with the cards, so that they can give them out at school.

To make the post cards you just remove the front of the card and you write on the opposite side your Merry Christmas, turn it over to the front where the picture is you might want to add some sparkles to the make the card even more special, when you add your creative touch.

All these things were family projects that we did as a family and of course any one that wanted to join us. The children were busy all the way up till Christmas, then on Christmas Eve we would bake a birthday cake for Jesus. As the children and I added the ingredients we would take about Jesus and the meaning of Christmas. One year my youngest son, when the cake was all done shouted out “Happy Birthday Jesus”, he was about two and half years old.

It is those memories that I shared with my family that will keep with me always and I hope that when they have children that they will find their own traditions and enjoy them through the years, I got so much pleasure from mine. And who knows maybe I will have grand children one day so that I can get those cookie cutters and perhaps make a memory for them.

One Week Till Christmas

One more week till Christmas, I don’t even have any of my shopping done. Somewhere along the line I ended up losing time. I got sick and as I was recuperating, my daughter ended up in the hospital with a gall bladder attack.

She had her gall bladder removed and I ended up with my cold back. Now I am doing much better and I hope to get out sometime in the middle of the week. Never the less I am still feeling the Christmas spirit and I love the holiday.

Well I Wish you all A Merry Christmas! I hope that you get everything you wish for or at least what you need. Please take the time to give to those who are less fortunate then us. And may all your days be bright

L A Hardt

"Never let someone walk the path alone. Reach out your hand."


The Gift of Christmas

Was the night before Christmas and there’s nothing to eat,
No turkey or ham not even a treat,

The children are snuggled all in one bed,
Dreaming of a dinner they never got fed.

And mom in the kitchen, crying and sad,
Counting out change, this year’s really bad.

And who’s at the door what could be the matter,
It’s a wonderful neighbor with a huge turkey platter.

She brought the potatoes, sweet corn and pie,
There were so many things it made the mom cry.

And who was that who stood close behind her,
It was another neighbor, carrying toys and the cider.

And standing right next to the door she did see,
These very kind people brought a large Christmas tree.

They kissed and they hugged, and they hugged and they kissed,
Her kids will have Christmas she thought they would miss

And out of the window she saw one shinning star,
She knew the blessings of Christmas, was not very far.

She thanked them all kindly, and asked them to join,
Her and the children on a bright Christmas morn.

The gift was a blessing of kindness, you see,
Of food, and of toys, and of one Christmas tree.

It made all the difference to a family with needs,
The spirit of Christmas can be found in good deeds.

By
L. A. Hardt


Read more stories by this writer, by clicking on the link below

A Short Visit to South Carolina

Friday morning after Thanksgiving we drove down to South Carolina, not far from North Myrtle Beach. We also ventured down to Charleston and visited the museum. It was a nice trip that I hope to do again perhaps after Christmas.

The trip down was really nice the leaves were still on the trees with a kaleidoscope of colors that were just magnificent. I’m sure you have seen them for yourself, the reds were so intense!

I like going to the Carolina’s I do prefer North Myrtle Beach, only because it has less people and its beaches are beautiful. I love walking the shore at Cherry Grove, I will say that it is really being built up in the last year, I just hope it holds onto its charm.

My son lives in Longs, before that he lived in Little River, North Carolina. Little River is on the border line of North and South Carolina, along with Sunset Beach and Calabash, more of my favorite places. There is no shortage of places to eat or play, miniature golf seems very popular, in fact if you can think of a theme they have a miniature golf for it. They are really nice I see people just taking pictures standing in front of them.

Golf is also very popular, and I have to say I have seen some really nice golf courses. Any way I am going to get back down as soon as I can. I am waiting for my son to get rid of his house guest actually it lives outside and I just happen to bump into it, of course I have a picture.

I am sure you can see how big this spider was, at least an inch and a half. I am going to look it up to see what kind it is.

I removed the spider, replaced it with the ocean, for my friend Anne.





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HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Here It Is Thanksgiving!

Well here it is Thanksgiving; it is so unbelievably warm in New York. I hope everyone enjoys this day and use it to create more special memories. I am going on vacation tomorrow.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

The colors of our this post will be changing with the seasons

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Thanksgiving Count Down

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Here it is already November 12; I am slowly making progress, let’s see I cleaned out my closet. Now what to do with all those shoes? I would like to get everything done so that I can put up the tree early this year and take back my Christmas. Every year I wait longer and longer to put the tree up and I hate it, I feel like I am not part of the holidays.

Well I have to admit I am one of those people that very often wrap all night on Christmas Eve; I am not going to do that this year. No, I plan to have a different year then I’ve had for the last few holidays. Now, if only I can recall where I put those decorations, hmmm.

I recall Christmas as a kid; some of my favorite things were when my mother took glass wax and added a color packet to it. Then she would dip a cut up sponge into it and use a stencil to place a decoration or a scene on the window. I remember the wreaths and she would dot red berries on it. There were the small tin foil wreaths also that had a candle in the middle and she would also hang that on the window and plug in.

Ah Christmas, I played with the metal dollhouse and plastic furniture that we found under the tree on Christmas morning and oh those cut outs, and you really had to cut them out! My sister and I would play for hours, or was that fight for hours, maybe it was both. My mother would take us up on Manhattan Avenue to see the stores decorated and the church with the manger. I remember it snowing and it all seemed so magical.

Talking about snow, during the winter when it did snow the trucks would come and pile it all at the end of the street making a mountain of snow. Now mind you I was pretty small back in those days but that pile of snow was the greatest! I followed my brother, both of us dragging sleighs to the end of the street to that mountain of snow. Now my brother being responsible for my well being told me I wasn’t allowed to go all the way to the top.

I dragged my sleigh up the side of the piled snow and would go down for the ride of my life. This snow really was piled pretty high, I remember thinking that the people that lived on the second story had this snow up to there window height. At the end of my street was a pier so I guess they could have thrown it there which I am sure that is what they do now, but back then it was a snow adventure.

My brother and I along with his friends would also build large snow forts and then have snowball fights. I don’t remember being cold when I was playing outside just having fun. Remember the only things we had on our feet were those red goulashes that had that little snap that would close the top over. All we wore under those boats were our shoes and when you took the boots off you had to dump all the snow out of them that would always end up inside the boot.

My sisters were too young and only played in the snow when my mom would take them out in it. But I was lucky I tagged after my big brother, it was the best.

Our family was always close, that’s why I look forward to the holidays being with them and sharing the memories. This year I think I’ll bring that box of shoes maybe they could use them hmmm. Now where did I say I put those decorations?

"CHECK OUT MY STORIES" Just click on helium

Cleaning And Finding Memories

"Cleaning the bathroom, could prove to be deadly! Perhaps I'll skip that room."

I guess you all are wondering how I am doing on that house cleaning. Well let me just say this, it can be more frightening then a scary movie. I have found things that I don’t know why I had them to begin with or where they came from. (I am not getting rid of the lava lamp.) No I did not find the Go Go boots, I think I got rid of during the last big clean up. Nehru shirts, elephant bells, and no I didn’t find those things either but I had great memories.

The sixties weren’t that bad, not when you were young and living in it, looking back on it is another story. I probably know more know about the sixties then when I was actually living in it. I don’t have any regrets, I was pretty young and I can only remember the fun I had.

The not so fun things I recall was the news that would announce the number of soldiers that were lost in Vietnam, I was always scared by that. There wasn’t a person that didn’t personally know someone that was lost. If you passed a military cemetery they were always open graves waiting for the soldiers that were lost. I wrote a lot of poetry back then, but that came a bit later in the sixties.

Teenagers and kids walked everywhere, I walked to the shopping center to meet friend at the pizza place, a coke and a slice under a dollar. The shopping center was all the way on the other side of town. The walk was fun you usually shared the walk with a friend and you laughed and talked there and back. I moved out of that town to the next town over and I still walked to that shopping center.

If you were lucky and you had a friend that drove, the car was usually an older model, and we would reach into our pockets and get a dollars worth of change and put gas in the car. That would take you far; I recall the gas price was about .29 cents per gallon. Of course no one made as much money as we do now the cost of living was very different.

Oh those were the years, but the house is calling, (very loudly, I might add). The next time I’ll take you back even further, so if you want to reminisce with me please find your way back. Or if you’re just curious about the sixties take a peek.


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November

Okay now that Halloween is over, we have Thanksgiving to look forward to. I like this time of the year, I live where the weather gets cold, and you sort of tuck yourself in for the winter. You try to get holiday shopping done before the temperature drops. Usually all our good intentions still has us running around in cold rain or snow.

I am trying to get rid of the left over Halloween candy before I am so tempted to eat it. Then I can run out and replace it with a sampling of holiday cookies and pies, hmmm or should I say mmmm. I can’t win, especially if you’re on a diet.

I am thinking about my fall clean up since I really didn’t do the spring clean up. I think I better tackle it. I hate going through stuff and lord knows I have a lot of stuff. If I could find good use for things I would gladly get rid of them, but I have a hard time parting with things that are in good condition. Oh well the time has come to start making donations.

I really shouldn’t be here working blog, but to be honest I would do anything to avoid what needs to be done. Oh well, I will keep you up dated on how the clean out is going. Oh by the way does anybody need anything I might have…?


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Ghostly goblins witches brew
Tonight we’ll have a scare or two
Candy Corn and chocolate sweets
Costumed children in the streets
Pumpkin eyes that glow at night
With hollow insides firelight
Monsters up and down the block
Run inside and doors do lock
They hunt for candy far and wide
If you have none, you better hide
Ghostly goblins can be mean
So have a Happy Halloween



TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT, GIVE ME SOMETHING GOOD TO EAT!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I have been very busy writing for a contest. I wrote nine stories in a matter if three days, needless to say my mind is “humming” to a close. I do not know if I have it in me to write any more. I love the challenge of a contest, but to get as many stories as you can in one week is very difficult.

I chose to stop if I felt the integrity of my writing was going to be compromised. I didn’t write just to win I accepted the challenge to see how far I could stretch my mind. These titles were not picked by me so I had to write according to the titles.

My stories can be found on Helium. (Just click onto the Helium sign on the bottom of this page) The categories I wrote in were: Death Wish, Solitude, Memory Loss, Despair, Shame, Serenity, Rumors, Lies, and Birth.

I read a lot of articles that others wrote and I must say that I really thought some of them were really good. So while you’re in there take a peek at what some of the others wrote to.

Halloween Goblins

“Halloween Night”



Halloween a night that’s fun, till the ghostly goblins come.

Then I hide under my bed, I don’t want to see the walking dead!

I close my eyes and start to say, make the goblins go away.

I peek a little here and there; I see a very scary stare.

My hair stands on its very ends, these monsters are my very friends.

With bags of treats they stand about, till the candy I give out.

Then on their way off down the street, to scare and get more trick or treat

L. A. Hardt
10/19/2007



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A Bit of a Scare

Halloween a night of fright,
Trick or treat something’s not right.

Ghosts are running down the street,
I fear the goblins I might meet.

I look to the left and then the right,
I see a very scary sight.

Right before these eyes of mine,
Someone’s mooning his behind.

L.A. Hardt 10/15/07

I WON! FIRST PLACE AT HELIUM HOBBIES & GAMES CATORGORY



How strange is this? I had taken this picture the summer of last year. It was a trap that catches yellow jackets. You use a sweet treat in the bottom of the jar that attracts them, they can get in and they are not supposed to be able to get out it.

Looks like they liked the treat so much they set up home in the jar. So much for not getting out!

I was going through pictures and found this one thought I’d share it. (I do not recommend this trap for use.) Although this isn’t “Halloweenish” it is pretty scary.




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This Months Mood Halloween

When I was a kid I loved Halloween. I couldn’t wait to get dressed up and get out the door just to go trick or treating. My sisters and I would hurry go out go through the neighborhood and yes, we did reach into our bags and eat some of the goodies that people dropped in. We even got apples, oranges, and bags of popcorn, all without incident and razor blades.

If my sisters and I finished our collecting of sweet morsels early we would go home and change our costumes and go out again. Of course we carried an old sock filled with flower that we would hit each other with and anyone else that came at us yielding the loaded sock. We also had large pieces of chalk that we would also chalk each other with too.

I never recalled getting hit with eggs, or being afraid. We all walked in groups and laughed and clowned around with each other. The worst that we probably did was ring doorbells and run.

A HAUNTING IN BROOKLYN IN THE 50'S (COPY AND PASTE LINK)
http://www.helium.com/tm/630323/haunting-brooklyn-50sshe-child

Officially Fall

Well it is now officially Fall, although the weather is still very nice all the leaves are on the trees and the summer patio furniture is still out in the yard. The schools are open and the mornings are filled with the sound of school buses picking up children. I want to hang onto the summer as long as I can. There is a certain kind of feeling that summer has, I don’t want to let it go.

In the stores all the Halloween things are out, I can’t believe it’s almost here. Over the weekend a friend sent a picture of an early Halloween sighting.

CHICKY CORN VAMPIRE

I would definitely pass the word around to watch out for teeth marks in the chicky corn!

Hmm... might make for a good story "Chicky Corn Vampires".

Below is part of my story "Tunnel Vision," you can read about it by clicking on the Heluim "Go".

Sounding nervous DJ blurted out. "This sure is freaky! Does anyone believe in Aliens?" He really wasn't kidding when he said it; he wanted to see how his partners would react to his question.

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The One That Got Away

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"Possum Catcher" as Puppy

Just the other day I was on the phone with my friend (yeah the one who I am waiting for, to finish her book), we were discussing dogs. She is looking for one, I on the other hand have mine, and he has brought me much joy and needless to say some real surprises in our lives.

My dog is a Jack Russell terrier named Freddie. No, I didn’t name him, my daughter did (funny my daughter seems to be around for names). Anyway he was her dog and somewhere along the line, now he’s my dog. He wasn’t being good at her house; in fact he was just a puppy and was bossing her older dog around. Hmm, I wonder if he learned that from…well never mind, the fact is he was dominating the older dog. Not to mention he wasn’t on his best behavior, getting into things, and his poor bathroom habits (the floor, ugh).

Freddie was about six months old when he came to live with us” his adoptive parents”. He was always very good here; perhaps some things are just meant to be. He came into my life at such a perfect time and we truly enjoy him, except for those occasional times that he brings us his surprises. (Some have set my heart pounding!)

We have a doggie door which allows Freddie the freedom to go in and out. He also loves to climb on the back of the couch and look out the window into the yard; he owns...his turf…ruler of chattels. If a bird should land on his ground, he immediately goes out chasing them away. He does the same if he sees an animal on TV, he runs over barking and trying to chase it off the TV. Sometimes when an animal on the TV leaves he jumps on the couch looking out the window to see if it has gone into his yard.

He has brought us snakes (garden snakes) but to me they could have been rattlers or pythons, I screamed just the same. We chase him around, get him to drop it and then let the creature go into the woods behind the yard. Recently, he came into the house and ran past me very quickly, I immediately knew something wasn't good. I called him to come to me, he does… struts’ in like “What? I didn’t do anything!” He almost gets away with it, when I spot the two legs hanging out of his mouth! Drop it I yell, drop it! He opens his mouth and the frog falls to the floor, I grab it and again let it loose in the wild. This frog was lucky, most are not.

Then there was the night I was watching TV my husband upstairs, (shaving or something). Freddie is in the yard barking and right when I was going to see what he was up to, he stopped, I relaxed back onto the couch enjoying the show. A few moments later I hear the doggie door, I look over and here comes Freddie. Panic immediately grips me! In his mouth almost the same size as him was a possum…DEAD! He drops it on the floor in the hall between the kitchen and the den, looks over at me very proud of himself, he then takes off upstairs to get my husband to show him what he caught.

Now I am alone with the dead possum, I know I have only moments to get it up and out of here before the dog comes back to get it. Getting off the couch, my mind is thinking how I am going to pick it up, maybe with a towel. I would have to hurry Freddie would be down…suddenly as I approached… the possum stands up! I start screaming so loud that I was sure my neighbors were going to be at the door thinking I was being murdered. I am screaming for my husband, and I do mean screaming!

The possum goes into the kitchen, my heart pounding in shear panic, I am peeking around the corner in the hall (far enough away) still screaming, but keeping enough wits about me to try and see where it was going, it passes the doggie door and scoots into the dining room.

The dinning room was dark and of course led back into the center hall that could take you anywhere in my house. I stopped screaming by now, I hear my husband talking to the dog. I cautiously back track to the den, into the back of the center hall, I slowly go down the hall looking at every opening that the possum could come out of. I get to the stairs and yell up to my husband, to get down I need him. The thought occurs to me, what if the possum went up stairs, now I am totally freaked out again because I really have no idea where it is.

Freddie comes down with my husband and starts to go where he had left his find. I snatch him up, didn’t want the possum to get him (what was I thinking.) I am holding the dog he is wiggling around in my arms trying to get down, I am yelling at my husband because he never heard me screaming, telling him I could have been killed, and he would never even know it was happening. It was the gleam in his eye that made me stop yelling at him… back to the possum I told myself.

With Freddie wiggling and whining to get down we look around but can’t find the possum. I am starting to panic again; my husband says maybe it went outside when I was in the hall. I wasn’t buying that! We are both standing in the den when he turns to me and says,” Put the dog down.” I didn’t want to do that not with the possum in the house. My husband then tells me if we wanted to find the possum the dog would show us. I reluctantly put him down, he immediately went to where he first dropped it, sniffed around and then ran into the dining room and started to bark under the china cabinet.

My husband picked up the dog handed him back to me, bent down and sure enough there was the possum. My husband called my son, and together they got a large fishing net and where able to corner it and take it out of the house. Talk about the one that got away.
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End of Summer Draws Near

As the end of summer draws near (September 23rd), and the air chills, life seems to wind down. I am never ready to wind down, summer ends too quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I like the fall and love the spring, on the other hand I am fond of a freshly falling snow (without the wind), it has a very peaceful fresh sort of feeling. But I do get tired of the freezing temperatures or driving on icy streets trying to get somewhere.

I also promise myself that this year will be different, (I seem to do that year after year) but I somehow fall short of making a real difference. I am promising myself that I will be more dedicated to getting my book finished, or at least working on it. I am also going to be very persistent in pestering my friend to work on her book. If she can get that finished I will at least finally know the ending, and it will leave her more time to nag me.

This time of year I feel like having Toffee Bars. I have a recipe from my mother in-law, I could almost taste them. I’ll give you the recipe so you can enjoy them as much as I do; it is almost like an old fashion toffee candy

Preheat oven 350
1 cup butter or margarine 1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla 2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 6-ounce package (1 cup) semi sweet chocolate pieces
1 cup chopped California walnuts

Thoroughly cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add flour, mix it well. Stir in chocolate and walnuts. Press the mixture into ungreased
151/2 X101/2 X1-inch jelly roll pan.

Bake in moderate oven (350) about 25 minutes or until browned. While still warm, cut in bars or squares. Cool before removing from pan.
Makes about 5 dozen

Well that’s it for now. Don’t forget to check out that blog on Bizz Flip.

http://www.bizzflip.com/

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