12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Christmas wreaths are a Colonial Tradition. 

On Christmas Day, my niece and I were talking about the 12 Days of Christmas as we http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scattergories  
were playing Scattagories, a very cool board game that we both love to play.     Some how she said French Horns when the correct answer was French Hens.  And then the rest of us actually started singing the Olde English carol published as a chant in 1780. 

We don't really celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, which is really about honoring the Birth of Jesus with a gift a day. Some remove all items related to Christmas on Dec. 26.  Others keep up their trees until March and the end of winter. 

The American colonists brought over the 12 Days celebration and fashioned a wreath filled with nuts, foods, colorful ribbon woven throughout the garland.  And then on Epiphany the "King's Cake" would be eaten.  

Some people still celebrate the 12 Days. Santa Claus and New Year's Eve parties have mainly terminated the Feast. But, the point is that we celebrate the Christmas Season, the birth of the Son, the Light of the Earth. 

Let's keep that light shining in our hearts when we connect with each other in one way or another.  A smile, kind word or handshake sometimes is all it takes. 

Now, who really wants those 12 Lords a Leaping?

2014 and 2015 UPCOMING TOURS!

DECEMBER

 

December 2, 2014

Christmas with the Amish

We have a few seats available!

  

Experience an "old-fashioned" Christmas - Amish Style by invitation only by a private family.  Enjoy mouthwatering home cooked Amish meal in a private, Amish home with oil lights, demonstrations and see horse and buggies on the road, enroute to their various destinations. Be prepared to purchase bread, jams and much more.  Activities will include: Amish cheese-making demo, Beeswax candle-making demo, Amish Christmas traditions explained, Amish preacher giving a traditional sermon, Amish Christmas brunch as they would serve and celebrate with family and friends, Quilts displayed in home, Visit an Amish Schoolhouse, An Amish department store with variety of traditional and up-to-date merchandise, Buggy/sleigh rides (at additional cost).  $85/person  

Kellogg House Holiday   

December 5  

Guided tour of the beautifully decorated W. K. Kellogg Manor House ending with hot spiced tea and cookies. The holidays are a special time of the year at the Manor House. Each room of the Manor House is creatively decorated by area businesses, designers, and staff with one-of-a-kind gifts for purchase. A tour of the house not only provides the history of the house and W.K. Kellogg, but also many ideas for your own holiday decorating. Hot spiced tea and cookies conclude each tour. There will be 32 artist stations selling one-of-a-kind gifts for your holiday shopping pleasure!  Meal included. $85/person 

FireKeepers Casino      

December 9, 2014 

$30.00/person Package includes $20 slot play and $5 towards food. $30 p.person. Register by 12/2 or call me.

Greenfield Village Holiday Nights           
December 12 

Step into a Christmas card from the past.  It's America's premier holiday celebration, complete with candlelit paths, live entertainment, costumed presenters, horse-drawn wagon and Model T Rides, delightful holiday shops, Santa and live reindeer, ice skating, caroling, spectacular fireworks and more.  NOTE: This tour involves a lot of walking. Must have payment by November 19 in order to purchase advance tickets.  $99/person  

  

Holiday Lights in Southeastern MI
December 18

We'll start with a filling meal along the way in order for the sky to darken. Then we'll take in the Christmas Lights in metro Detroit - we'll see blue lit trees, nativities, amazing displays on buildings, a holiday lobby and plenty of other places designed to delight. Naturally, we'll make a couple of shopping stops in very unusual stores. This tour changes every year. $58person

 2015 Welcome to the New Year!

 JANUARY

  

FireKeepers Casino    

January 6

Includes $20 slot play and $5 towards food. $30/person

  

Glass & Glitz the Libbey Way

January 23

Everything about this tour is shattering! A studio tour will show how glass is fused and pieces made by local artists in this unique space. Our docent let tour of the Libbey Museum will also include a glass blowing demonstration. An important aspect is the WPA glass installation under FDR's famous program The New Deal. And of course, we will have a stop at the Libbey Glass Factory Outlet which is located in Toledo's Farmer's Market area. Now, here's a treat: an ordinary "Josephine" is going to give us some tips for ways to slay the slots at the Hollywood Casino for our stop there. Lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse where there is a special glass window.  There will be some "off-the-beaten-track" GLASS stops during this power packed day. And for kicks, a stop of an hour or so at Hollywood Casino. $70 /person

February 

Paczkis, Pierogies & Polkas 

February 12

Catholic churches, polish bakery, egg painting, Polish gifts, the Market. Interesting neighborhood bar. Food everywhere! Additional docents. 

$65 /person 

March

Marvelous Mad Money Madness

March 20

Calling all Discount Diva's looking for deals and steals! Discover little known boutiques, resale & retail shops with glam galore. We'll begin at the cusp of Detroit to Howell and stops in between. There will be lots of finger foods, full bellies, cool finds and yummy jellies. $10 gift card for best steal of a deal." Lunch included. $65/person  

APRIL

Vera Bradley Annual Sale

April 8

Please sign up as soon as possible. 25 people have registered to date. This trip fills up fast.  

Bus and time slot are engraved in stone for this marvelous sale. 11AM. As my tour goers know, the way to attend this fabulous sale is on the bus so we can waltz right into our special room with our special cashiers.  You will have private shopping time and not have to stand in lines or fight the crowd for something you want.  Yes, we get first dibs and nothing beats that!  So grab a friend and register to attend the annual Vera Bradley Outlet Sale in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Attendees of this exclusive event can expect incredible savings of 40% - 80% off regular prices.  Heck, I shop the Dollar Table, which makes for some swell gifts.  Products range from handbags, purses and wallets as well as accessories like pajama pants, eyeglass cases, laptop bags, stationary, luggage and more.  Sales displays will showcase a variety of retired colors, styles and collections.  Due to capacity requirements of the venue, per-registration is required.  Our exclusive shopping time is at 11 a.m. $85/person 

MAY

Tulip Time Festival

May 6

Welcome to the Tulip Time Festival!  Our docent-led motorcoach tour will take us past extraordinary colorful gardens, to the Dutch Market Platz, shopping and a wonderful lunch.  You'll have a chance to tour the Market for Dutch wares and sample Dutch foods.  Enjoy the parade of street sweepers and performers, unusual floats and bands with bleacher seating. $75/person

CANDLEMAS: READY, SET, LIGHT YOUR CANDLES

Be prepared for the blessing of the candles on Feb. 2

One of the most underrated and beautiful feast days in the Christian tradition, is Candlemas Day, which is winter's half-way point between the December solstice and the March Equinox. 

Though this tradition started in the 4th Century, I have a sneaking suspicion that it was stolen from the Greeks by the Romans who supposedly gave it to the Huns.  Traditions are many.  For example, the Germans picked it up and concluded that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, an animal, hedgehog, would cast a shadow, thus predicting six more weeks of bad weather, which they called the "Second Winter." In the United States, it evolved into Ground Hog's Day. Then Super Bowl Sunday almost as a throw back to the ancient Greek men running around with long pieces of animal skin. No matter. 

Get your candles out and ready to be blessed. Candles are supposed to be made of beeswax, however, in my research, one can use any candles that will be lit during the year in the home. My basket is full and I still need a few more as I burn candles by choice, or when the power goes off for one reason or another.  All I can say is how grateful I am that the Eqyptians came up with the invention of wax for candles. Yet, the Romans were credited with inserting wicks in the middle. 

The Priest at my church said to bring candles for blessing on Feb. 1 & 2.   The Feast Days double up for this extraordinary mark in liturgical time: The Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In paintings, we see Mary with a lamb and a pigeon (turtle dove) symbolizing the sacrifice of the lamb and a pigion for redemption of the human condition. Of course, the day is also celebrated as the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.  

The Polish celebrate Candlemas Day as the Last Day of Polish Christmas! Their churches are still fully decorated with Christmas flowers, wreaths and the nativity. The mass on February 2nd is celebrated with Christmas Carols in English and Polish.  The beautiful Polish Christmas Koledy will be performed. Attendees will get blessed candles for their homes. 

Afterwards, the meal consists of crepes that one is supposed to eat while holding coins to signify the incoming wealth of the New Year. The pancakes symbolize the sun and bright times ahead. 

Since Candlemas is a time of new beginnings, this is a good day to ritually celebrate all things new. Plan a ceremony to name a new baby, officially welcome a new person into a family or plight your troth to your beloved. Make a commitment to a goal (like a New Years resolution): this would be an especially powerful thing to do in a group.

If you plan your own ceremony, use these two powerful symbols: fire and water. For instance, wash your hands and bathe your face in salt water, which is especially good for purification. Light a candle as you make your pledge. Incorporate the third symbol of the holiday — seeds — by planting a seed or bulb in a pot to symbolize your commitment, or by blessing a bowl or packet of seeds that you will plant later.

Candlemas is an ideal time for reawakening our capacity to shine who we truly are in the separated darkness of this world. “Wake up sleeper. Rise from the dead. Let the Christ enlighten you.” teaches the Gnostic Paul, summing up the core message of Christianity, which implies releasing our dormant identities based on separation and resurrecting our united luminous nature. Blessing candles on this day can be an empowering ceremony to exemplify this process and to remind it throughout the year, whenever those candles are used.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: PLEA FOR HELP FROM CALLER

Boy & dog:Underground Railroad Monument

A lady with a vibrant voice called: 

"I am interested in the Underground Railroad February 20th trip. Can I give you my name to hold a spot for me. My social security check comes in about 2 weeks. So accept my reservation.  I need to be on this trip."

Me: "We don't have a lot of folks signed up for it at this point. I am not sure it will run." 

Lady: "Please, please, please run this trip. Can't you even with a few people? If I don't go out of the house on some kind of excursion with a group, my son will put me in an assisted living home. Please make this trip happen. Please. I don't want to leave my house. I can still take care of myself." 

We think we are done with slavery or with bondage, but clearly we are not. Somewhere along the line we give up our power to others and we don't even know how that happens.  

Clearly, I could hear the desperation in the woman's voice. She was scared of the consequences of dealing with the child she had reared all his life. If she doesn't go on this trip, will he really put her in a place for which she is not yet ready? Am I the determining factor?  And now his decisions hang over her head like so many "American" slave holders in the 1700s. 

There is a distinct parallel between her plea and Quilts, Quakers and Questors, a name I gave to one of my three Underground Railroad tours. 

Oh, how I would love to inject this woman with the fightin' spirit of Sojourner Truth who was in the era of the 'Underground Railroad' but not of it.  We will visit Sojourner's home and grave. This very strong, larger than life woman who walked from north to the deep south and back over 30 times with her charges to bring them to the North where they could be free from whips, overwork, disease, filth and in some cases, torture. 

Born into slavery, Isabella Baumfree escaped and changed her name to Sojourner Truth.  The word sojourn means to stay somewhere temporarily, which is what slaves did as they were sold off several times in their lives. And truth was what she sought. 

No one messed with Sojourner Truth, who was such an eloquent speaker and captivated her audience with her Dutch accent. Slaves were often bilingual. 

So the lady who called will get her wish.  Whether there are 5 or 55, I will feature this tour. I will do what I can to help this caller remain free.  I will do what is right, not what is easy.