Het Cadeau (The Gift)

This morning I found a brown package on my doorstep, containing the Dutch copy of my picture book! Anno Domini sold the rights to publishers in the Netherlands, and so I expect it will be out there this winter.

Now all I have to do is take a quick course in Dutch... Betsy, maybe I should call you up?

A Christmas Poem

Notice the little clay hedgehog in the circle of animals around Jesus' manger. I picked him up at a German flohmarkt (flea market). He reminds me of a stanza from the Anglican hymn -- "All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all."

Excerpt from THE HOUSE OF CHRISTMAS

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

--G.K. Chesterton



--Painting is in the Speyer Dom

Christmas Eve Murphy

Murphy and his household wish you all a very merry Christmas Eve. May your holidays be full of joy and candy canes. And furry beasties in Santa Claus hats.


*picture taken by Anna

The Mannheim Weihnachtsmarkt

Jeff and I wandered around the booths, looking for gifts and trying the food. This Christmas market wasn't as crowded as the Heidelberg one.


Lots of pretty lights at night! Santa Claus is sampling the Glühwein -- hot red wine with a mix of cinnamon and other spices. Perfect for the cold.

It's That Time Of Year

Things are starting to look festive around here! These photos were taken a few weeks ago in Colmar. The Christmas markets in Germany will be up and running soon, and I'll try and post more pictures then.

Happy Birth Day

For any birth makes an inconvenient demand;
Like all holy things
It is frequently a nuisance, and its needs never end;
Strange freedom it brings: we should welcome release
From its long merciless rehearsal of peace.
So Christ comes
At the iron senseless time, comes
To force the glory into frozen veins:
His warmth wakes
Green life glazed in the pool, wakes
All calm and crystal trance with living pains.

from the poem "Christmas and Common Birth" -- by Anne Ridler