A budding artist shares her version of this month’s coloring page. She says she had a lot of fun coloring all the details.

Brisk wintery greetings one and all!

The beginning of the week saw temperatures in the single digits here. But by late Tuesday the thermometer had crept up into the high 40s. And that’s when the precipitation in the form of rain and pea sized hail balls came down in a deluge. It continued along with thunder storms for most of the day and finally wore itself out late in the evening. The skies cleared and the temperature dropped back to “normal” for the season and area yesterday. The sun was beautiful after so much dreariness, but there was no snow. Oh well. Maybe next year.

We spent the afternoon at my mother-in-law’s house in the usual feeding frenzy and gift exchange. I spent the majority of my time in the kitchen preparing various and assorted side dishes. The high point in excitement for the before feast events was the stove catching fire. No worries. I don’t tend to panic. The first burst of flames went out when the pot was removed from the burner. However when we attempted to use the burner again, the flames came right back. I dumped a half a box of baking soda on the element, smothered the fire and opened all the windows to let the smoke out. That’s when the smoke detector decided to go off. My husband came running to control the emergency, which, of course, was already dealt with. We had him battle the smoke detector into submission so he could fulfill his manly obligations. The food was delicious, by the way.

This month’s coloring page features the 3 Fates, also known as the Moerae. They determine the course of each person’s life. The youngest Goddess, Clotho spins the thread and the other two weave the life story and finally cut the thread at the life’s ending. I thought this group of Goddesses was perfect for this time of year when we retreat from the world for the winter months. They are usually portrayed as old crones, but in my imagination they have never been elderly.

You can join the mailing list now to download this and other free coloring pages by going to http://magicalchildbooks.com/newsletter.html and signing up.

If you have been meaning to purchase a copy of Rabbit’s Song with the autographs of myself, SJ Tucker and Trudy Herring, there are only 5 copies left. I don’t know when or if the three of us will be all together in the same place again to sign more. Avoid disappointment and grab yours now. The special pre-release offer of an original story about Rabbit and his friends as told by SJ and Trudy in MP3 download is still available to all purchasers of Rabbit’s Song. The MP3 will remain on the web site until February 14th, the official release date of Rabbit’s Song to the general public. Visit Magical Child Books’ web site http://magicalchildbooks.com to order your special copy now.

Of course, all the other wonderful Pagan children’s books that Magical Child Books offers are still available there, too.

I am working on an adult non-fiction book with Ashleen O’Gaea (Raising Witches) which is almost complete. We will be searching for a publisher soon. In the mean time, we need your help. The book contains several of my holiday recipes. I am a seat of the pants type chef and cook by using a pinch of this and a dash of that. I have done my best to recreate my family favorites into measured recipes to include in the book. How can you help? I need a few adventurous souls to be recipe testers. If you want to take part, email me back for the details. I will add your name to the book as a contributor int he acknowledgments.

And last but not least, my publisher has informed me that they are seeking new manuscripts for Spring 2010 and beyond. If you have a story about Pagan children celebrating any of the assorted Earth Religion based holidays or activities, check out the submissions page on the web site. Who knows? I might be selected to illustrate your story! http://magicalchildbooks.com/submissions.html

A very happy 2009 to all of you.

Blessings,
Lyon

P.S. Remember, send your budding artists’ renditions of this month’s coloring page to me as a jpg (less than 1 MB, please) and I will post it on my blog!

Here’s hoping all your wishes and dreams come true in the coming year. Have a wonderful holiday season.

I know I’m a party pooper, but I seriously hate this time of year. I do my best to get into the mood of the season, but for the most part I feel alienated and lonely.

Possibly I have a bit of SAD going on, and the weather has been typically winter dreary most of the week. The sun was out briefly this morning and I opened the front door to let it stream in and allow the cats to peer at the outside world through the safety of the storm door glass.

I packed up a flurry of last minute orders from Magickware.com and headed out of the house to run my morning errands in good spirits. Fill up the gas tank on the car, swing by K-mart and pick up some meds, finish off by shipping out the packages over at the post office. The wind was fierce and whipped around me while I was filling up the tank. The price of gas has dropped dramatically so I was able to do it for less than a king’s ransom. I drove over to K-Mart and decided I’d better get some non-denominational, un religious cards to send out to friends and family who don’t celebrate Christmas. I wanted something cute and happy. I like cute and happy.

After berating myself for yet another year when I didn’t complete a painting for holiday cards, I poured over the shelves of boxed cards. They had cute. They had happy. Only ALL the cute and/or happy cards had santas or verses inside wishing the recipient a Merry Christmas. I ended up with a basic winter woodland painting type thing with what is in all likelihood a couple of deer. All very bland. But not blatantly Christmassy. I have since lost motivation to address and write short notes in them today. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be in a more holidayish mood.

My husband and I had made tentative plans to welcome back the sun this year by walking on the river banks, but seems that the weather will be dangerously cold on Sunday night. We would be better off staying home instead of tempting possible frost bite down on the edge of the river. So I asked the family what they’d rather do instead. “I dunno” was the unanimous response.

I will make my infamous almond crescent cakes on Sunday. My step-sons would never forgive me if I failed to provide them. One year I was having a difficult time finding almond flour and one of my sons said he would grind the almonds himself if he had to, so we would not go without the confection.

The pile of presents is all wrapped and awaiting delivery to their recipients. Last night, instead of working on my December coloring page, I helped my daughter complete her holiday gifts for her school mates. I spent the evening crocheting a long skinny red scarf.

Maybe I’ll finish my holiday painting tomorrow and send it instead of the lame winter scene I settled for at the store.

Oh, and my X called me by accident when trying to call his girl friend. I think my amusement at his expense didn’t go over very well. But, hey, I wasn’t the one calling the wrong number and asking for someone who isn’t me. Bwahaha. My husband thought it was as humorous as I did.

Winter officially begins on Sunday and I find myself longing for the stirrings of spring already. Maybe it will snow. I like the snow. I miss a real snowfall. A dreary winter day is all so much prettier under a blanket of white fluff. Building a snowman would be fun…

Well, maybe not love exactly, but I am pretty darn pleased.

Last month I splurged and bought myself a laptop. One of those teeny tiny ones. It has a 9″ screen and weighs less than 2 pounds. It fit’s quite comfortably in my cargo bag along with a sketch pad and a box of pencils and erasures.

It’s a PC, not a MAC which is weird for me. I have been using a MAC since the late 80s, almost as long as the personal computer has been around. But I had to purchase a particular piece of software and wouldn’t you know it, they only make it to run on a Windows machine. So I took the plunge. I bought the software in June and the PC in November so it wasn’t a very hasty plunge, but for me that is moving at lightening speed.

Last night I took my tiny little lap top and a WIP that needed editing and went upstairs and stretched out in my bed! To work on edits! In complete comfort in my PJs. Yup, I’m in love.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention. The PC came with some bundled games — one of which is pinball. I’ve loved pinball ever since I was a little kid. Some of my fondest memories are of the time I spent on the New Jersey shore. When I was a young kid my grandfather worked on the Lakewood boardwalk. He had a candy shop there. And not just any candy shop mind you, but one that people came from around the country to just to buy up his handmade chocolates. Anyway, once a week, I would get to take a little red wagon filled with soda syrups around the boardwalk making deliveries to all the shops with soda fountains. I’d get a nickle for each delivery. When the wagon was empty and my pocket full of jingling change, I was allowed to venture into the arcade and play any of the games there I wanted until the nickles ran out. My favorite two were skeet ball and pinball. I would hit the pinball machines first. I got really good at them by summer’s end and managed to keep my ball in play for a long time making my nickles last. After half the nickles were gone, I’d head over to the skeet ball area. If I was really careful and scored high enough, I’d end up with a huge handful of tickets. If I had enough tickets, I could pick a prize from the coveted top shelf toys. Funny thing that. I don’t remember a single toy I picked but I do remember the joy of being able to say I had enough tickets for them!

Anyway, pinball on a lap top isn’t quite the same as the old arcade, but it sure beats a stick in the eye any day!