* 10 Tips for Happy Family Camping - part 2

This article has been relocated to Loving Nature's Garden.

The Christmas Season

Whether you celebrate Christmas as a secular or religious festival, or focus on some other holiday at this time of year, there is much to be said for the joy of sharing a winter festival with family and friends. Today is the Winter Solstice, which was always a very welcome day to me when I lived in Scotland.

If you've never been to Scotland, or looked at it on the globe, it's actually pretty far north. The winter dark can be depressing. Just the intellectual understanding that days lengthen after the solstice can be a boost to getting through the cold, dreary days of winter. For a Scottish solstice sunrise take a look at LindaB's Occasional Scotland.

Yesterday I was awarded a Christmas Spirit Award by Kailana at The Written World. I'd like to thank Kailana and participate by listing 5 things I love about the Christmas season.

1. Christmas carols - the tradition associated with them brings me joy. Music moves me.
   
2. Decorations - the brightness of them has always brought cheer to the cold, darker days of winter for me.
3. Family and the pleasure of sharing. My favorite part of that is the joy on children's faces as they experience the season.
4. Food - I am thankful for the plenty I have in my life. There is nothing more loving to me than preparing a meal to share with others.
5. Receiving cards and letters from those I can't visit with because of geographical distance. It is lovely to catch up with what has been happening in their lives.

My hope for you this Christmas season is that you have loving people to share the joy with. Of course I can't leave the topic without passing you a few learning links.

• An explanation of the solstice with details of how ancient architecture marked it. A purely astronomical explanation.
• I am in awe of Wendy who celebrates the solstice by staying in the dark for a day. I think that is beautiful - so in tune with nature. If you've thought of celebrating the winter solstice and need more ideas, you can find more ideas on celebrating the solstice.
• A winter solstice poem by a blogging author who loves the Middle Ages.
• Medieval Christmas portrayed by another blogging author.
  
• The history of Christmas carols.
  

Holiday mp3 in association with Amazon.com, home of the Kindle.
Sign up for Kindle alerts at the WiiAlerts site. This site has been used by people I know and I recommend it because it works!

Homeschooling Thankfulness

I am very thankful for all the wonderful things in my life: my health; my family; friends both near and far; the opportunity to homeschool my children; my adopted country and the country of my birth; this wonderful Earth we live on; good food and clean water; heat and light; books and learning; a comfortable bed to snuggle in at night; safe soil to grow food in; trees to shade me from the summer sun... you get the picture.

Whatever I may feel is lacking in my life, or myself, today I push that aside and realize all the wonderful things I have to be thankful for. Thank you for reading.

Favorite Blogs

I've decided to celebrate my first three months of blogging (my first post was August 13th, 2008) by saying thank you to the special bloggers who's words I enjoy reading every day. Many of my bloggy friends are regular visitors to my little blog, but others are likely much too busy with their large readership to come over here. Nonetheless, I enjoy you and I want you to know that. This list of blogs is by no means a complete list of blogs I read regularly; I already have over 80 rss feeds in my Google Reader. Just because you don't see your name here doesn't mean I don't read you and appreciate you!

• Janet at Adventures in the 32-Aker Wood is very supportive of other bloggers. She is a regular visitor not only to my blog, but to a long list of blogs. I enjoy her mix of humorous stories and thoughtful commentary at her blog and I'm always thankful to receive a comment from her.
• LindaB over at Occasional Scotland reminds me of the beauty and humor of my first home country with her not-so-occasional photographs. Thanks LindaB for making my day a little brighter with some not-so-gloomy views of Scotland!
• I have to say that Peak Oil Hausfrau is not a laugh a minute. Her job is to remind me that we need to care for the Earth for the sake of ourselves and future generations. Life could change; we all need to think some about being prepared. I am more prepared from reading her posts and from keeping up with her adventures in solar cooking and her regular thoughtful postings.
• I've long admired, well OK for 3 months, both Michelle at Scribbit and Julie at Homeschooling Ideas. Each of them was very gracious and supportive toward me with my early blogging questions and I enjoy keeping up with what they have to say.
• Tonia at Study in Brown conveys her graciousness and love through her blog. She has recently committed to following her heart to meet the homeschooling needs of her family. Tonia, you have my admiration.
• Holly at Unschool Days seems to have a wonderful pace of life, following her daughter as she explores the world. I enjoy sharing your adventures and your journey Holly.
• Little Window Shoppe does a wonderful job of showcasing small businesses. I love the graphic they made up to present my book business. Emily the Editor is gracious to work with and asks nothing in return while offering much. I'm not much of a shopper, but I must say that two of today's posts have really caught my attention. Fingers crossed that I win the free limited edition blog template!
• Last, but by no means least, Crunchy Chicken puts the mental in environmental. Crunchy has a good sense of humor, sets interesting challenges, and gets great discussions going. I may not be up to freezing my buns off, but I am inspired!
• Oops, I can't believe I forgot to mention my friend at Home Spun Juggling. JugglingPaynes, I voted for you in the Best Homeschool Blog Awards, though I'm not going to tell you in which category. Actually I've not finished voting yet, so I'd better get my skates on! I enjoy your art and your humor :-)
  

If I've chosen you as a favorite please feel free to take a copy of the above graphic and display it on your blog with a link back to this post or to my blog. However, this is totally optional.

Read my book reviews. In association with Amazon.com - home of the Kindle.

Going to a Fish Fry

Mmmm... what could be nicer than freshly fried fish and what could be more special than friends who spend their precious leisure time fishing then save up the fish they catch to share with friends and family? I've lived here for over 10 years now, but last year (2007) was the first time I tasted deep-fried freshwater fish. All this time I'd been very sad over the loss of fish ala fish and chips from a Scottish fish and chip shop. What a wonderful thing to discover the delights of being invited to a Fish Fry. Mmmm... I only have the pleasure once a year, twice a year if I'm lucky -- it's worth waiting for.