Abbey Normal
Senior Member
Kathianne, I am sorry about your father. I hope that by now he is feeling better, and you as well. I will pray for him.
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Abbey Normal said:It's on Rte. 1 in Kennet Square. Please do go- you will love it so much; I promise! Btw, they have a cute little restaurant on the grounds too. Good soups especially.
http://www.longwoodgardens.org/
From PHILADELPHIA, PA, and vicinity (about 45 minutes from Center City)
Take I-95 South to Route 322 West (Exit 3A) to Route 1 South.
OR Take Route 1 South (City Line Avenue in Philadelphia, which becomes Old Baltimore Pike).
OR Take I-76 West (Schuykill Expressway) to I-476 South to Route 1 South.
OR (from the suburbs) Take the PA Turnpike West to Exit 20 (Mid-County Exit--formerly Exit 25A--illogically between Turnpike Exit 333 Norristown & Exit 339 Ft. Washington), then take I-476 South to Route 1 South.
OR (from the suburbs) Take PA Turnpike West to Exit 326 (Valley Forge--formerly Exit 24), then take Route 202 South to Route 1 South.
OR If coming east towards Philadelphia on the PA Turnpike from Pittsburgh, take Exit 312 (Downingtown--formerly Exit 23) to Route 100 South to Route 202 South to Route 1 South.
Shattered said:If Bonnie's lacking Christmas spirit, she needs a good solid dose of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, on high volume.
Bonnie said:Funny you should say that, my parents had the CD playing in their car when they took me out to dinner the other night. That is one amazing CD. I'm sure they have a few out. And yes they played it loud!!
Shattered said:They do have a few out.. But, the best, by far, is Christmas Eve and Other Stories...
Kathianne said:Ok, going to look for this at Best Buy on my way to OakBrook. I need some spirit! Thanks you guys! This thread has helped!
Dishes done, check. Cabinets cleaned, check. Appliances cleaned, check. Carpets cleaned, check. Ok, so bathrooms, kitchen floor, blinds, windows, buy food, few presents, wrap. Can I make my cookies?
Kathianne said:Ok, going to look for this at Best Buy on my way to OakBrook. I need some spirit! Thanks you guys! This thread has helped!
Dishes done, check. Cabinets cleaned, check. Appliances cleaned, check. Carpets cleaned, check. Ok, so bathrooms, kitchen floor, blinds, windows, buy food, few presents, wrap. Can I make my cookies?
Shattered said:Blinds??
Reorganize priorities, check.
Bonnie said:Thank you, I am going to go. I was planning a trip into Manhattan to see the Macy display windows but with the strike too much traffic, this is a nice alternative.
Bonnie said:Is anyone really in that Christmas spirit yet? Im still not, I suppose because I have been so busy and anxious trying to get everything done that I just havent' been able to stop, take a breather and enjoy the holidays.
Anyone else feel like that??
Roller shades... roller shades are lovely things.Shattered said:Blinds??
Reorganize priorities, check.
Abbey Normal said:Thanks, K. How nice of you to think of us.
I wish there were such a thing!
KarlMarx said:In 1968, my family did not have a Christmas.
Around the beginning of December of that year, my mother received a phone call from Italy. My grandmother (my mother's mother, who lived in Italy) told my mother that my grandfather was dying of leukemia and that he might have, at most, only a few months to live. She asked that my aunt and uncle and her should come as soon as they could to see their father one last time.
Christmas holiday celebrations back in those days, were definitely the realm of women, and my two aunts, my mother and grandmother (the one who lived with us, my father's mother) coordinated the whole thing. Well, that didn't happen that year, since my mother was gone, one aunt was gone, my other aunt was married to my uncle... well you get the picture.
Now, for some reason, in my family, adults didn't explain what was going on to the kids very well, if at all... so my cousins and I had to piece this all together on our own. We knew grandpa was sick, but didn't realize just how seriously.
My mother and aunts left for Italy sometime before Christmas and didn't come back until after New Year's. Out of respect for my grandfather, my father didn't put up a Christmas tree that year, no Christmas decorations, in fact, I couldn't play any music of any sort on the stereo, so Christmas music was out. And to top it off, we didn't have a very white Christmas, but a cold, damp and gloomy one which just made things worse. To top it all off, my father isn't one to explain himself, so I wasn't really sure why there wasn't a tree or anything. It seemed like a big to do over the fact that my grandfather was sick (no one told us that he was dying, we just knew he wasn't feeling well... death was something that the old Italians didn't talk to their kids about). So during the whole episode, my father seemed to be the coldest, meanest SOB on the face of the planet. I now know that he was actually doing all this out of respect for my grandfather, and to protect me (at least in his mind) from the trauma of knowing that my grandfather was going to die.
Well, it turned out that, shortly after my mother, aunt and uncle returned from Italy that my grandfather went into a complete remission. Apparently, the treatments that the doctors gave him in Rome actually saved his life. He lived until 1986, when he finally succumbed to the illness.
So the lesson is that Christmas is really a great holiday. I sometimes think about those days and just how awful that Christmas was, but those memories are now tempered with the understanding that it was so out of my parents' sense of duty and respect for family and concern for me.
P.S. and to those of you who don't believe in Christ and have a problem with Christmas... lighten up, put your hatred to one side, let yourself laugh and be a kid again, and have a Merry Christmas.