"Summer's over, kid"

https://schulzmuseum.org/

Linus Quotes

From the site "Linus Quotes", a series of Peanuts cartoons where Linus' original words are replaced by profound and pithy quote from great minds... this one is a quote from Oscar Wilde.

https://linusquotes.tumblr.com/

"It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" by Eric Robinson and Dan May

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Charles Schulz' classic animated holiday special "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," artists Eric Robinson and Dan May created some limited edition art pieces on sale through Dark Hall Mansion. I especially like the last image by Dan May: no quips, no jokes, no punch line, no self-deprecating humor from Charlie...just the three of them. Together. Existing. Just being. It's quite lovely and moving.

http://www.darkhallmansion.com/

Holiday Cookies 2015

My first clear memory of winter is connected to our house on West Main Street, in a picturesque village on the Oatka Creek in upstate New York. My mother hung wreaths of red, crinkled cellophane with a single tiny red bulb in the front windows. We had a fireplace and my mother and father helped me make a long chain of loops cut from colored construction paper to hang from the mantel. Mom made her Christmas butter cookies and I associate their warm, safe smell and luscious, enveloping taste exclusively with Christmas. We mixed white frosting with food coloring to get red and green and I got to frost a few cookies, and then sprinkle on the multi-colored decorations. I ate several before bed each night with a glass of milk and it was heaven. And of course, Santa had to have some on Christmas Eve so my mom and I would leave a little plate for him--and a carrot for the reindeer.

Regular readers know I lost my mom several years ago and I try to keep the holiday cookie tradition alive...I have her recipe box and this is from her recipe card, in her own handwriting:

Mom’s Christmas Butter Cookies
Sift together three cups of flour, one teaspoon of baking powder and half of a teaspoon of salt. Then cream together one cup of butter and three quarters of a cup of sugar; stir in one unbeaten egg, two tablespoons of milk and two tablespoons of fine vanilla extract and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a third at a time. Chill the dough for one hour. Roll the dough onto a floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Roll to one-eighth of an inch thickness. Use cookie cutters and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake them five to eight minutes at 350*, watching carefully. Frost and decorate. Enjoy.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

This beloved holiday classic airs tonight at 8PM on ABC (if anyone still watches television...I am sure most people own this on disc or will on-demand it). I grew up watching this every holiday and it means a great deal to me. It is the soundtrack for all my early childhood winters...

Cartoon Halloween, 2014

The Birth Of Peanuts

Sixty three years ago today, Charles M. Schulz debuted the first four panels of his iconic comic strip, "Peanuts." And here they are... the 1950 introduction to a world that still enchants, thirteen years after the death of its creator.

Happy Birthday, gang!

http://www.peanuts.com/

It Was A Short Summer...

http://www.peanuts.com/