Christmas Means Parades

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, Heart of Hollyhill 8 Comments

December 3, 1966 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill. Wow! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I did a report. I guess it’s true that when you get in high school, you get really, really busy. Too busy, Aunt Love says. But I still do all the chores she has for me at home. That’s not as many …

Christmas Wrapped in Love

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal Leave a Comment

Do you remember when it took what felt like two months for the week of Christmas to pass? The hours on Christmas Eve surely had 120 minutes each. The anticipation of Christmas was something so real you could taste it as easily as you could taste that piece of chocolate fudge you sneaked from your mother’s stash of Christmas candy. …

And Sometimes on Christmas We Cry

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 10 Comments

There are things we don’t want to happen, but have to accept; things we don’t want to know, but have to learn, and people we can’t live without, but have to let go. (Jennifer Jareau, a fictional character from the show Criminal Minds) At Christmas time we want everything to be happy. We say Merry Christmas and we mean it. …

The Spirit of Generosity

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 7 Comments

The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of love and of generosity and of goodness. It illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than in things. (Thomas S. Monson) On Wednesday’s post here, I shared a beautiful story of how Barbara and her co-workers made …

A Christmas Weekend

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal Leave a Comment

    Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world – stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death – and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem two thousand years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love?  Then you can keep Christmas.     …Augusta E. Rundel There’s nothing quite …

A Special E-Book Deal for Christmas

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 2 Comments

Merry Christmas, everybody!! This is one of the cute Christmas cards I got this year and so I’m sharing it with all of you. Christmas – that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, …

My Hollyhill Christmas

Ann H GabhartHeart of Hollyhill Leave a Comment

December 22, 1965    Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky at Christmastime or almost Christmas, anyway. I am so excited. Are you? I love Christmas.    What do I love about Christmas in Hollyhill? I like the red and green lights the county workers string up on the street light posts. I like the pine tree in front of …