Happy New Year

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate

Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah whatever you celebrate 

May your troubles be few and may you enjoy great company

The Christmas Angel~The Christmas Star -Part 2

“I take it back, that’s not my real wish” Christina said as she stepped out of the house wiping the blood from her nose looking up at the Christmas star.

     Christina closed her eyes whispered the words and when she opened and there was Craig walking towards her. Craig hugged her like he’d never let her go and then surprisingly, he kissed her.

“I should have done that a long time ago,”Craig insisted.

      That was the moment that I knew Christina saw that her real wish had come true for Craig got down on one knee in the snow and asked, “Christina I miss you. I love you. You’re my best friend and I never want to let you go. Will you marry me?”

“But you live here,” Christina protested feebly.

“I got a job at Trent, Holloway and Montgomery in L.A. I start the day after New Year’s. It’s my uncle Gordon Trent’s firm so lots of room for advancement,” Craig laughed.

“I got a job too. I’m going to star in a sitcom called Chrissy’s world. I’m playing Chrissy.”

“Wow Congratulations Chrissy. But about my question. Will you merry, marry me?”

“Yes,” Christina answered.

“Good because were getting married tomorrow if that’s okay.”

“How can we get married that fast?” Christina asked.

“I hired a wedding planner. Her name is Mary and she’s a miracle worker. It’s all planned even your dress. Your mother picked it out, so no bad luck, I haven’t seen it.”

“I love you Craig Trent.”

“I always knew you did but I knew you also needed time to figure it out.”

“Thanks for giving me the time.”

“Let’s go tell your parents,” Craig said.

“I think they already know,” Christina stated pointing to them peering out the window.

       Christina and Craig were married the next day with me catering and carrying out the plans of their wedding. Now they celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary on this Christmas day. Aarush gave me permission to visit them for the day as Mary’s granddaughter just to see the two I brought together under the Christmas star. They are still happy and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren bask in that love. 

I''ll always remember this first couple I brought together under the Christmas star. but who knows maybe someday I'll be your Christmas angel when you wish upon the Christmas . Until then Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah,Happy holidays whatever you celebrate let your days be merry and bright.
©Sheilagh Lee December 14 ,2016

Three Word Wednesday-The Christmas Angel 2- The Christmas Star

Three Word Wednesday-The Christmas Angel 2- The Christmas Star

Unacceptable, adjective: intolerable, insufferable, unsatisfactory, inadmissible, inappropriate, unsuitable, undesirable, unreasonable, insupportable; offensive, obnoxious, disagreeable, disgraceful, deplorable, beyond the pale, bad; a bit much, too much, not on.

Vain, adjective: conceited, narcissistic, self-loving, in love with oneself, self-admiring, self-regarding, self-obsessed, egocentric, egotistic, egotistical; proud, arrogant, boastful, cocky, cocksure, immodest, swaggering; informal big-headed; literary vainglorious, futile, useless, pointless, to no purpose, hopeless, in vain; ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, impotent, unavailing, to no avail, fruitless, profitless, unrewarding, unproductive, unsuccessful, failed, abortive, for nothing; thwarted, frustrated, foiled.

Wakeful, adjective: awake, restless, restive, tossing and turning, alert, watchful, vigilant, on the lookout, on one's guard, attentive, heedful, wary.

I first wrote part of this last Thursday for ThursThreads 

and won an HM for that part but I’ve added to it much more since then and this is the condensed version of the added story for blog purposes.

The Christmas Angel 2 - The Christmas Star

         Christmas is a magical time of year when hearts are lighter, and people seem to care more about others. How I wish this could last throughout the year. Humans would share with others, be kinder and the world would always be an enchanted place. Christmas also brings sadness and an awareness of their place in the universe. These sad sacks whose hearts are battered and bruised, these have a right to be sad. They’ve loved lost, loved ones who were missed from their hearts and dinner tables. Some have gone through trauma, and or illness, they are not vain just simply poor and downtrodden by life. It's unacceptable that some people avoid them. Nerves can be exposed and these people need most of all a human touch of kindness. These people are assigned a Christmas angel. Why am I commenting on this? Because it is now my job to help these people as their Christmas angel as my cousin Mary-Ellen once did for others in The Christmas Angel.

       It is a great honour that has been bestowed on me and I don’t want to fail so I had to be wakeful, watch my subjects and decide how to begin.  I started first with Craig Trent. Craig grieving and lost without his parents has let the one thing he loved, Christina, go out of his life.   So I’ve been whispering in his ear to remind him what he's truly missing. Then I went to Christina and whispered in hers; but the two of them are stubborn’ I’m afraid this will require more so I had to receive permission from Aarush to materialize as a wedding planner.

      How can I accomplish this you ask? Craig ‘accidentally’ bumped into me in the coffee shop several days in a row and since I drop wedding planning stuff every day, his brain starts thinking about what he truly wants. We in heaven know that he wants to wed Christina and spend his life with her for that is what he's always wished and prayed upon the Christmas star.

      Parabart an angel who I met in my reeducation classes has offered to help me by needling Christina about coming home and reminding her of all the times Craig was there for her. I think that might work and I agree. After all there isn’t much time until Christmas my deadline.

     I convince Craig plan a surprise wedding but; the fact is he hasn’t even proposed yet. He hasn't even told Christina how he felt about her. Maybe my plans have gotten ahead of themselves. I am rushing everything I think and rush gets failure.

Parabart informed me that he’s tried his best; but Christina isn’t even coming home for Christmas. Everything is ruined. I’ve blown my first assignment.

       Aarush counselled me about proud going before a fall and then he stepped in 

and worked his magic helping Christina get a sitcom. Christina seemed happier and she  decided to come home. I had to step back and let fate work trusting that these two would find their way now Aarush said.Apparently that  advice didn't count for Aarush,  he  stayed nearby them while I was allowed to watch through the viewer until I was needed.

     Christina seemed happy about actually coming home for Christmas. I heard her thoughts. “Maybe, just maybe she’d have a white Christmas instead of palm trees swaying in the breeze and the sun beating down on her when she went outside on Christmas day Ten long years since she’d been home everything had changed and yet it looked like nothing had changed. The house next door where her best friend Craig lived still looked the same dressed up like the Griswolds for Christmas despite the death of Craig’s parents. I could see the lights made her happy reminding her of the past and I congratulated my self for needling Craig about the  revival of the Christmas lights.

      I heard Christina's thoughts as she exited her car. "Craig had wanted to travel and work in Los Angeles but instead he gone to the University here in town and looked after his ailing parents until six months ago. Poor Craig he’d only been to see Christina at once week a year when her parents had looked after his and then they’d died within two weeks of each other. Mom and dad had called her and Christina flew home but a week wasn’t enough time to comfort your best friend. The last six months instead of the daily calls he now called once a week if Christina was lucky. Had he found someone finally? Christina didn’t know how she felt about that. She wished she could talk with him she missed him surely she see him over Christmas. She told mom and dad to invite him.”

         Christina looked through the window of her parent’s home and she saw Craig. Christina smiled, but then she felt unsure. Christina wanted to share her good news that she landed an acting job with all of them; but her mom and dad were always asking "Did you meet someone? When will you settle down? You should have married Vincent and then pursued your career". Such old fashion archaic ideas belonged in the past; but still after ten years she wondered about Vincent, the football jock who she’d given up for her career. That what if! 

        She starred up at the Christmas star and said, “Star bright, Christmas star light I wish I may I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight. Then she wished to see what her life would have been married to Vincent. 

         I saw Aarush grant this wish and I gasped why was he wrecking everything?

         I watched as Christina entered the house and saw Vincent.

“I’ve been waiting for you. Were you spending all my money? Money doesn’t grow on trees you know and community theatre brings in diddly squat you should quit stay home and look after our kids. .”

“What?” Christina said.

“Are you feeling all right, wife? Because you’re supposed to cook me dinner when we get home and those little brats running around are getting on my nerves.”

“I’m not your wife,” Christina stumbled.

       Two children a boy and a girl ran around the Christmas tree screaming and yelling almost knocking over the tree. Christina wanted to give them a timeout but she didn’t want to offend their parents.

“That ring on your finger says I own you babe and those little rugrats screaming and hitting one another are mine. At least that’s what you tell me.”

“No one owns me.”

       Vincent then bopped her in the nose and broke it.

This is where I'm breaking the story if you'd like to continue reading over the holidays while I'm gone or even immediately go to http://sheilaghlee.blogspot.ca/2016/12/the-christmas-star-part-2.html

©Sheilagh Lee December 14 ,2016

 

Please read and give generously to children in need at Christmas~Sean the Leprechaun~ A Christmas Story

Re-post from December last year; see my mother's story below and see what a little kindness can do for children and how it makes their Christmas and please if you can donate toys for Christmas for children.

I was going across some of my beloved mother's papers yesterday, (the first time since she died) and I found a surprising thing she too had written about the Christmas that stuck in my mind when I was young. I think it's my Christmas present from her and now you can read it.My story is included in my new paperback and e-book Visions of Sugarplums. http://amzn.to/1ROfgLL

In the story she wrote of my imaginative nature;  she also included details I forgot.  It  did happen as she wrote them (in true fact I love her story)so I am going to give you another Christmas treat and post my mother's story for you. The only change to her writing? The Three Word Wednesday words included. The twist? It begins with a leprechaun. Yes, you read that right. Read on and enjoy. 

 Sean the Leprechaun~ A Christmas Story

             Sean was leprechaun. Actually to be completely honest he was just a stuffed doll. He’d been in the family for years and the children had never been allowed to play with him. He was hung in the window by a safety pin through his hat. Because of the children’s love of fairy tales over the years many tales had been made about him consequently the children began to believe he was a real leprechaun. In appearance he was quite ugly; about twelve inches tall; had long spindly legs, a sharp pointed nose and a disfigured face that had aged and discoloured to an ugly mahogany.

         For some unknown reason every time something bad was going to happen we would find him turned inward. I always blamed it on air currents but the children insisted he was warning us and that the pin hurt. Sean had tried to warn us when we travelled out to British Columbia that something was wrong by turning around in the car window and then we’d blown a tire. After that he also turned around when the car almost went over a cliff. My oldest son joked that the leprechaun was vengeful and the younger kids believed him.

         My husband insisted that the leprechaun wasn’t warning us Sean wasn’t vengeful or a savage, but a doll. That the tire had just blown and he’d made a mistake in geography getting too close to a cliff; but my young daughter, Sheilagh as she said her prayers that night said ...”and please tell Sean will get him a new suit if the car doesn’t break anymore.”

          She then said to me. “We can, can’t we Mommy?” I reassured her we could; then realized he was faded. I promptly forgot about it.

               Over the next few months we settled in and Sean was installed in the front window with a beautiful view of the mountains but he insisted on facing in. nothing went right the job my husband was offered caused allergic reactions and asthmatic attacks and then the old injury that had caused us to relocate reared again and my husband was hospitalized.

               During a family conference I explained how there wouldn’t be expensive presents and my oldest daughter blurted out to the younger ones there was no Santa and I had to admit that was true. My youngest daughter insisted with the surety of youth a child there was a Santa. That in fact she believed Daddy was sick because I hadn’t made Sean the suit I promised him and then of course she started crying about not getting a Chatty Cathy. She finished all of this with tears flowing down her face.

           The next day I took Sean down from the window and searching throw my scrap cloth and wool box. I found enough to make a new suit.

When the children came home from school they noticed right away that Sean was missing. Wanting to surprise them I told them Santa’s elves had the flu and Sean had gone to help him in return for a new Christmas suit. This made them happy and reaffirmed their belief in Santa. Even though they somehow understood even Santa didn’t have a lot of money either. They not only accept this idea but demanded bedtime stories of Sean and Santa.

         That Saturday I turned on a Santa television program for them and imagine my surprise when I heard Santa say,” All my elves are down with the flu and my friend Sean has come to help me.”

The camera panned to a doll that was the spitting imagine of Sean.

Muttering “I don’t believe it I went upstairs to look for Sean in my scrap basket. I took everything out piece by piece but I couldn’t find Sean. Following a sleepless night after sending the children to school I wondered where I could have lost him. I searched again and found Sean under a sock that needed darning. How I missed him the first second and gazillion time I don’t know.

         The next day my husband was released from the hospital came home and getting a licence shot a deer for Christmas dinner even though it hurt him to kill such a magnificent animal. We were happier. there was food for Christmas dinner.

Christmas morning Sean was back where he belonged in the window facing out, in his brand new suit. The doorbell rang at five a.m. and I found gaily wrapped presents outside the front door with the children’s names on them.  There had been a light snowfall overnight but the only tracks were hoof prints and two straight lines like those of a sleigh.

         We all stammered “What? Where? Why? How?”, as we looked  at each other in wonderment at the lack of human footprints and the two long lines where something big had rested.

The parcels were opened and to sounds of delight as it revealed a Chatty Cathy doll cuddled tightly, a pair of figure skates, a Bowie knife and a make-up mirror, a large toy crane and a model airplane.

         I found out later that the toys were supplied by an elderly lady who befriended the neighbourhood children and who had given all the children a Christmas party’ but neither she, nor anyone else could explain the lack of human footprints. Sheilagh was sure that she was Mrs. Santa Claus and had brought Sean back with her and the presents.

        Was Sean really a magical leprechaun? I am no longer sure. some things maybe coincidence but others have no explanation . The only thing I’m sure of its that it was the best Christmas ever.

THE END
By Shirley.W.

I hope you enjoyed my mother's story.  My daughter now has Sean and has promised him another new suit not bad since his last one was so long ago.

Merry Christmas!! Happy Holidays and please if you can help children in need at Christmas and throughout the year.

Whatever you celebrate enjoy. One last blog post this Wednesday December 14th then I’ll be back here to my blog on January 2.

Christmas Joy

Honorable Mention Week 242

Christmas Joy

          I sat in a box ,year after year gathering dust in the back of a cold dark shelf, high up in a closet. Then I’d been taken out of my box, dusted off and put  near the lights to give my glass exterior its best colour; but it had been many years since I adorned the sapling by the window.

      How could I bring them their Christmas wishes if they forgot about me year after year? Had something happened to that family? The man kissed his wife under the tree from the time she was twenty and his new bride; to when her hair was thatched with white and their home and filled with more and more descendants every year. Some years ago it had stopped and I lay abandoned on a shelf.

    I heard the door open and my heart filled with joy. A woman I’d never seen before reached for my box dusted me off and took me out of the box marveling at the light that shone through me.

“It’s a done deal; the house is ours,” the man said as he entered.

“Look what I found!” the woman said, “Our first Christmas ornament, an angel. It will bring us luck.”

“I’ve had nothing but luck since I found you but if it makes you happy; let’s put it at the top of our tree.”

   Happy again, I shone brightly at the top of the tree, bringing joy to all, for that was my name.

 ©Sheilagh Lee December 1 ,2016

If you like this story please check out my Christmas books available on Kindle at Amazon

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1.  

HappyThanksgiving To All My America followers and friends

Kith and Kin Remembered #RemembranceDay #lestweforget

Lest We Forget  

Kith and Kin Remembered 

       My dad was a born storyteller. Some of his stories I took with a grain of salt, except those that were also confirmed by my grandmother. My grandmother confirmed this story, so I feel safe confiding in you. My dad was always fascinated by war and the strategies of war. This began at early age when my dad met relatives at the Timothy Eaton estate in Owen Sound when a young child. 

     What relatives did my dad meet you ask? The two flying aces of World War 1, Billy Bishop and Henry John Burden who he met at the family party. You see Billy Bishop is related to me sort of; let me explain, he was married to my dad’s cousin (you figure out how many removed) Margaret Eaton Burden. Therefore so is her brother, Henry John Burden. Their grandfather was Timothy Eaton,( yes, those well known Eaton's in Canada, related to Timothy Eaton the department head king) . My great-great-great grandfather was Timothy’s brother. Have I confused you yet? 

       When young, my dad went to picnics and summer retreats at the Eaton’s estate in Owen Sound, This particular summer he met the two flying aces. Billy Bishop's home was in England at the time, but he had come home to Canada and met with relatives at this party. 
       Now to a young boy so interested in military history, just being introduced to them made him think he was in seventh heaven, but when they found the boy so knowledgeable about military history they were happy to talk to him of their service as flying aces. My dad thought the two men intelligent articulate and was thrilled that he was related to the pair( if only one distantly and one by marriage).  They were kind to the young boy and his older brother who craved male attention since their parent’s divorce. Dad and his older brother Gordon spent that day just enjoying the stories and soaking in all the information they imparted. This time they spent with him had an impact on my Dad, he wanted to join the air force when he got older or at least some part of the military.  It made his interest in military history come alive even more so and you’d often find the boy with his nose in his book, when he wasn’t hunting and fishing. It may have also made his older brother, Gordon join the war effort as a soldier as soon as the Second World War began. Uncle Gordon became a leader and worked behind the lines in special forces efforts in the Second World War. It didn't hurt that my Uncle Gordon had a genetic ability that assisted him. He had an eidetic memory meaning that he saw something and he could remember it all in vivid images.I'm sure that was difficult for him after the war and part of the reason he never spoke of what he did during the war. As I told you reader once before Uncle Gordon was believed killed at one point and his family grieved for him for months only to have a miracle happen finding out he was severally injured but alive. While my father tried to sneak off to war at thirteen years old but my grandmother retrieved him in Halifax before he boarded a troop ship that later was torpedoed. (see http://sheilaghlee.blogspot.ca/2011/11/three-word-wednesday-second-world-war.html)

     So on this Remembrance Day one hundred years after the start of World War 1, I remember the men who give their lives for their countries,and also the flying aces, Billy Bishop and Henry John Burden and my Uncle Gordon who served in Special Forces, and who were lucky enough to survive the war. Thank you all for you service.

My Uncle Gordon and some friends

      

     And thank you to my father who told me about all the military battles and made me see the sacrifices that these men had made for our country. He made me see that period of time through his eyes, those living through those turbulent times and how hard it truly it was.

NB: Billy Bishop officially credited with 72 victories thus making him Canada’s First World War flying ace the top Canadian ace of the war.  Billy Bishop was a touted as a Canadian hero and used as a morale booster to the Canadian people. Ordered to return to England and organize our flyers by June nineteenth, nineteen seventeen he couldn’t resist one last chance to take out more enemy planes flying behind enemy lines he took down five planes in fifteen minutes.   On August 5th, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and was given the post of "Officer Commanding-designate of the Canadian Air Force Section of the General Staff, Headquarters Overseas Military Forces of Canada." During the Second World War, Billy Bishop became instrumental in instructing and setting up pilot training for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Billy Bishop received the Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order with Bar, Military Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross, 1914–1915 Star, and British War Medal 1914–1920. Margaret’s brother and Billy’s brother-in-law also a flying ace had 16 victories and received a Distinguished Service Order award and a Distinguished Flying Cross award. (source wikipedia)

To read more of Billy Bishop got to http://www.billybishop.net

    

                                    

 We remember and we honour our beloved soldiers. Thank you

Remembering them

Soldiers in full dress

Some frail,

With canes, walker and wheelchairs

Still they come in tribute 

For fallen comrades

New and old

The heavens cry 

With rain and wind

Still they stand tall

People old and young

Marvel at their inner strength

The symbol a red flower

Proudly worn on their breasts 

To remember so we can never forget

The sacrifices given

Though some think long ago

To these brave men and women

It’s yesterday again

Pain in their eyes

They remember and thank

Fallen comrades

Again and again
How can we do less?

Remembering them

Two stories of Halloween-Happy Halloween

Hallowe’en House

It was Hallowe’en night and the weather reminded of that night forty years ago when Bobby Winters had invited me to a secret Hallowe’en dance. Sixteen and beyond excited that my crush had asked me. I had dressed carefully as a wraith, a silk white floor length dress covered by a white torn sheet and a silk white scarf covering my head. I remembered how Bobby had looked in his pirate suit. 

I stepped across the threshold of the old house and in my mind I shivered. It was older and more decrepit then I remembered. I heard the front floorboards creak, waiting as I had every Hallowe’en night for Bobby to come and join me. Tonight Bobby answered my invitation. 

Bobby came closer wielding a flashlight, I heard him gasp. I pulled my silk scarf closer to my head.

 “You said you deserve to be paid and then you and your friends lured me, raped me and killed me,” I uttered as I reached in and grabbed Bobby’s still beating heart.

Bobby’s body was found by some children a few days later. The town talked about pulling the old house down but nothing has been done… yet. There have been mysteriously deaths in the old house, a rash of heart attacks the coroner claims. People are afraid of the house, but they need not be; there’s only one person left that need fear the Hallowe’en house, all the rest of my murderers are dead.  

Happy Hallowe’en!!

©Sheilagh Lee October 21, 2016

Co-existence

    We were all gathered in the great hall ready for the meeting. Night had fallen hours ago and shadows now filled the corners of the room. The house  we loved and lived in was to be shown at the end of the week. It would be sold and we'd have to leave. We were united something must be done but days had passed since we heard and nothing had been done yet.

      The real estate agent came in with the first prospect and we hid in the shadows. It would do to be seen. Jack skillfully made the curtains blow as if in a breeze then the floorboards.

    “It worked Nita,” Jack said to me.

     The person made excuses and left. More people came in and we all did our part frightening them. Then one day the sign changed to SOLD.

    A month went by and then Paul and his two children, Susie and Erin moved in and we thought we’d have to move; but it turned out the children liked us. Apparently a ghostly maid, Annie a butler, Harrison and a couple of ghostly gentry,  Jack and me, Juanita, that was until he met her. 

    We saw Karen from a distance as we hid in the shadows. Karen was lithe and walked like a ballet dancer should. She seemed genuinely nice and we rejoiced that Paul and his children would have a wife and mother. Paul seemed to think she'd be terrified of us and refused to let us meet her. We didn't want to hurt his feelings so we pretended to let it go; but when he said he would marry her and she’d yet to meet us we demanded to be seen.  Paul said we had to go where ever ghosts went and we pretended that we would; but the truth is we had found family something we had never found alive. Susie and Erin had become the grandchildren Jack and I never had and Paul like our own son. We discussed it with our servants, Annie and Harrison and they too felt they couldn't leave them to their own devices. They needed us. After all who would clean the house? Make the meals? Stroke the fires and draw the baths? Help the children with their manners and homework? Who would Paul trust to watch the children when he worked and they didn't go to school? Karen traveled with the ballet company. She couldn't always be here.

     We hid until Karen moved in and then we reappeared. Karen almost fainted she was so frightened but showing the pluck that made Paul love her she straightened her back and asked,"Who are you?"

     We answered all her questions along with Susie and Erin who had entered the room at the correct time as we had practiced. Karen decided it might be nice to have ghostly family in the mansion as Erin and Susie told her all we did. Paul got over his anger at us pouncing on Karen and now  we all coexist happily in our big manor house in the country.  

©Sheilagh Lee October 27, 2016

Happy Hallow'een!!!

Like these stories? Checkout my Hallowe'en book 
Day of the Dead ~ Have you ever heard a sound in the night? Saw something out of the corner of your peripheral vision?  Listen to family folklore or read a fairy tale? Enjoyed a ghost story? Like stories of banshees or death himself?Then these 40 stories are for you.

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