Enjoy the 21st century holidays. Do you live in the mountains or woods? Whether you are skiing, ice skating, or cozying up in your warm home, you have the advantage of heating, electricity, and a variety of foods from every part of the world, only available in 1910 to the richest mercantile families. Still, in that day, someone in the home was delegated to search and chop down a tree if the family celebrated the Christian Christmas holiday. How did a poor family get a tree to

Down in the valley, the valley so low Hang your head over, hear the wind blow Hear the wind blow, dear, hear the wind blow; Hang your head over, hear the wind blow. “Down in the Valley” a song with English roots, was a ballad in ¾ time sung both as a courting song, a lament, and sometimes a lullaby. It gained fame during the development of the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. around 1870. There are many verses and many variations on this song, one of the most famous sung

In my writing experience, real people morph into the characters in a story. Sometimes I simply use a saying that's long been in my head, first heard from a friend or relative and never forgotten. The reader doesn't know, but once I write it down, the saying is absorbed and a real person infiltrates part of the fictional character's personality. A teacher friend once reminded me of the line from Macbeth “what's done cannot be undone,” and her stoicism was delivered to the char