happy, happy, happy holidays!

okay...

as most people have monday off and most people check this blog out from work, for some, this will be the last blog you see before christmas and, while i will still post something on monday--and prob'ly a little post or two over the weekend so check it out--let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy, joyous, and peaceful holiday. it's in the air this time of year and i hope that you will find it in your community, in your friends and family, and in your hearts. i love this time of year and i love the magic that it brings; the caring and the compassion and the love. would that we could keep it all year 'round.
God bless us everyone.

i got these photos months ago and wanted to save them as a kind of gift for christmas.

i think they're just great.













and, not to ignore our kooky paranormal perhapanaut side this holiday season (for some reason i have been transfixed with the biography channel's new paranormal state and ghostly hauntings all this week while wrapping presents and making my christmas card. good creepy stuff. check it out...), here's a little holiday yarn from your true tales to keep you glancing in that dark corner under the christmas tree...

Face-to-Face with an Elf
by K.T.

My story begins with my toddler's sighting. In October of 2003, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, I was out playing on our patio with my 2½-year-old son when he stopped suddenly and asked me: who was the little man sitting on our stone wall? I looked where he was pointing and saw nothing... but the area looked different somehow (shimmery?). I asked him where this man was and he again pointed to that spot and said, "There! Oh, he left now." He seemed so sincere and matter of fact (and the area then looked "normal") that I got a little spooked.

Later, in January 2004, we were again outside playing, this time with my husband, when the most beautiful snow began to fall. It was just coming on to dusk and I said I wanted to take a quick walk in the woods and my husband would watch our son while I went. Anyway, I started through the woods and was somewhat perplexed by how different everything looked. Hard to describe, again shimmery is first word that comes to mind, but I attributed it to all the snow.

As I rounded a bend in the path, I came face-to-face, about three or four feet away, with a little elf-looking man peering right at me from behind a tree. The path takes a nice uphill, so even though he was only about 3½ to 4 feet tall (I later measured tree) we were eye level. I could see his face, neck and one hand (holding onto the tree). It was almost a stereotypical elf: long, pointy ears, long funny-shaped nose, very long fingers and pointy cap. However, it was wearing red clothes and hat, and its skin appeared to be a very light lavender color. I let out a startled "Ooh!" and it jerked back and disappeared; not behind the tree, but literally just disappeared into thin air. At that point I took off and ran the whole way back to my house, I was just so unnerved (and full of adrenaline!). That is the last we ever saw of any "little men," but something I will never forget.


so merry christmas!
happy hannukah!
happy kwanza!
happy festivus!
i'll be back on monday--and maybe before...
but i'll definitely
smell ya later!
todd