Merry Christmas to All!

This is not a new post. But this time of year, I always think of my grandmother, Carrie Byrd Russel, reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol to my brother, sister, and me.

Today I'm sharing this short post from Christmases past
(December 15, 2009 to be exact) while I look at my little decorated, fake tree, and the palm tree reflecting the bright sunshine outside the window. 

It is so not beginning to look a lot like Christmas. 

A Christmas Carol

When my brother, sister and I were quite young, our grandmother started a Christmas tradition. Thinking about it now, I'm astounded at the number of years we continued this, not to mention how quietly we sat and listened. But each December, she read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol aloud to us.

When I discovered that you can actually see the manuscript online, each page in Dickens' own handwriting or the typed version, I clicked right over. All 66 pages are right here for your viewing.

I've seen the actual manuscript at the Morgan Library in New York. To be more precise, I've seen one page. The Library puts just one page each year on public display. Of course, seeing the online version isn't quite the same as seeing the real thing, but still well worth the view if you love the story as I do.

All those ghosts, all those frightening people, appropriate for young children? But a grandmother reading a story with a happy ending? A perfect Christmas tradition!

"It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour." - A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

(my tree, with Blue Suede Shoes ornament)