on a warmish sunny winter day in the park
down by the water’s edge
looking at the snowman’s face
seeing his arms askew
wondering if he has
read the sign and is considering
taking a quick dip in the river
hoping he might be rethinking it.
—
‘old snowmen never die, they just melt.’
-author unknown
—
dexter-huron metropark, dexter, michigan, usa, december 2025
an unexpected choice popped up
when I typed in
‘holiday gift treats that can be shipped’
right in the middle
of the mix of suggestions
was a box of
hostess cupcakes
the family pack
on sale
you have 30 days to return them
not exactly the special gift
I was seeking
but someone might really love them
something for everyone
those elves are open minded…
—
‘the best way to celebrate the holidays
is with great food and even better company.’
-author unknown
How to send your name to space on NASA’s next moon mission
———–
NASA loves a public-participation moment,
but this one is pretty cool, especially if you’re a space nerd.
The agency is giving anyone on Earth
a chance to send their name to the Moon on Artemis II,
the first crewed lunar mission in more than fifty years.
It’s free, fast, and takes about as much effort as signing up for yet another streaming trial you’ll forget to cancel. Will anything “special” happen? No. But it is a fun way to be a part of history.
Artemis II is scheduled to launch no later than April 2026 with four astronauts on board: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Their ten-day journey will push about 4,600 miles beyond the Moon, loop them back toward Earth, and give NASA a real-time test of its deep-space systems before future missions that aim even farther out.
If you want your name along for the ride, NASA says it only takes three steps.
1. VISIT THE REGISTRATION PAGE
NASA’s Send Your Name with Artemis portal is where the whole thing starts. Click, open, done.
2. ENTER YOUR NAME AND A PIN
You submit your first and last name, then choose a 4- to 7-digit PIN. NASA warns that it cannot recover a lost PIN later, which might be the most on-brand government sentence ever written.
3. DOWNLOAD YOUR DIGITAL BOARDING PASS
Once you hit submit, NASA generates a personalized boarding pass that looks fancier than anything handed out at an actual airport. Save it, screenshot it, cherish it.
Every submitted name will be stored on an SD card mounted inside the Orion spacecraft. As Orion heads into deep space, the crew will spend the first two days testing systems near Earth before firing the service module engine to break out of orbit. The translunar injection burn will send them on a four-day figure-eight path around the far side of the Moon. Along the way, scientists will collect data on radiation, human performance, and communication tech that will support future missions to Mars.
After the lunar swing, the spacecraft will return for a high-speed reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, where NASA and the Department of Defense will recover the crew and capsule.
Sending your name obviously doesn’t make you part of the mission crew, but it does give you a tiny foothold in a milestone flight humans have been trying to reach again for half a century. As far as free souvenirs from space go, it beats a fridge magnet. And, hey. It’s wholesome fun. We need more of that.
—
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff.
We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
– Carl Sagan
—
Source credit: Vice Magazine, Ashley Fike
Deborah J. Brasket’s moving novel When Things Go Missing, may cause you to reflect on your life in ways that you didn’t expect, as you follow her characters in this very human tale of a family.
Throughout the book, each family member will be challenged to take stock of their own lives in response to an unexpected change in their family dynamic when their always reliable mother chooses to disappear. While they all love each other, they do have very real issues, and there are times when it’s best to let people resolve things on their own, yet only the people involved can make that decision.
As a parent, a sibling, a child, a friend, perhaps we’ve all had those moments when we’ve felt the push/pull of wanting to take a break from it all, but how many of us would do it, and what would happen to those we would have to leave behind, even though we love them dearly, while also loving ourselves? Are we helping, are we hurting, by staying or leaving? What happens next?
This book tells this family’s story with compassion, love, humor, and caring, and shows you how people can find a way to find a way, with love and a strong will. I highly recommend it.
—
‘some things are best mended by a break.’
– edith wharton
—
In ‘real life’ Deborah is a very interesting person –
She spent six years sailing around the world with her husband and children before returning to California where she earned her MA in English. She taught literature courses to college students, organized a union for adjunct instructors, and fought for affordable housing as the leader of a nonprofit in Santa Barbara County.
Now she lives with her husband among the rolling hills and vineyards of California’s central coast where she writes the kinds of novels she loves to read. “When Things Go Missing” is her debut novel.
She writes about art, literature, and the creative process on her author website/blog at “Deborah J. Brasket, Author – Writing from the Edge of the Wild,” where she also shares her poetry and short stories.
“When Things Go Missing” is available for sale in the following places:
Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon AUS, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, along with all major retailers
Deborah’s blog can be found here: deborahjbasket.com
the tiny expo art show
at our downtown library
had a wide range of artists
with beautiful work
one of the most unusual
was some of jaci riley’s work
tiny earrings
cast from her cat, Beatrix’s lost tooth.
—
“the world is a museum of passion projects.”
-john collison
for a little variety, learn these words for your next holiday gathering,
some borrowed from foreign languages and others from long ago.
—-
Someone doing their Christmas shopping on December 24 is the epitome of a Yuleshard – a person who waits until the last minute to finish preparations for the holidays. This Scottish word dates to at least the mid-18th century. “Yule” is a synonym for the Christmas season, and “shard” is a corruption of the word jade and has been used since the 16th century as an insult in Middle English, referring to a worn-out horse.
Italians have the perfect word for how many feel after a holiday meal. Abbiocco refers to the drowsiness that occurs after a large meal, making it distinct from simple sleepiness before bedtime. It also involves a state of pure relaxation while delaying responsibilities, something that tends to occur on holidays. The word originated in central Italy from two verbs, abbioccare and abbioccarsi, meaning “to exhaust” and “to doze off,” respectively.
It’s easy to overindulge during holiday meals, and those who do might need to take advantage of a yule-hole. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a yule-hole is “the hole in the waist-belt to which the buckle is adjusted, to allow for repletion after the feasting at Christmas.”
A bummock is an alcoholic beverage brewed to enjoy at a “merry meeting” — aka a holiday party. This Scottish drink has been around since at least the early 19th century, but an 18th century definition of “bummock” (sometimes spelled “boumack”) is “an entertainment anciently given at Christmas by tenants to their landlords.”
Schnapsidee is a German word that translates literally as “booze idea,” something many people have during the holidays. It’s a ridiculous, ill-advised idea that sounds like it was made up during a drunken state — sledding off the roof at a holiday party, for example. (Don’t do that!) Germans tend to use the word to describe any outlandish idea, though, whether alcohol was involved or not.
—
‘action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.’
-mark twain
—
source credits: word smarts, rachel gresh, vintage postcards, pinterest, bbc, wasau news
A boy mistakenly dressed as Elvis instead of an elf at his school’s Christmas concert after a family mix up over his costume. Oscar Wilkins, nine, had been given the role of ‘Elvis the Elf’ in the production at his primary school last week.
His bemused family said he failed to mention the ‘elf element’ and told them he had been cast as Elvis. They then sought a costume for the Graceland star, only realizing the error when he stepped out on stage. Instead of being upset, Oscar embraced his starring role and found the whole thing hilarious. His sister Jade Smith, said the audience couldn’t help falling in love with the absurdity of it all.
She said Oscar, from Aberdare in Wales, simply told his family he needed an Elvis costume for the play. ‘He came home from school and all the children had a bit of paper what they were in the concert,’ she said.
‘His letter said a sparkly Elvis costume. It did not say Elvis the Elf so we all just stupidly thought it was Elvis Presley.’Previously in another year, he had been an alien so it was not always related to Christmas and nativity, which is why we didn’t really question it.
‘We asked him if he was sure he meant Elvis and he said yes with a sparkly costume. He did not mention anything about an elf.’ Jade said the family looked online for a kid’s Elvis outfit and found one that fitted Oscar perfectly.’The only thing he was not happy with was it was not sparkly enough.”
‘We sent him to school in the wrong costume and they all saw the funny side… but did not say it was wrong.’
The two performances at Penrhiwpeier Primary School last week were in front of his parents Stephen and Sarah Wilkins. Jade said they only realized their error during the first performance of the show.
She added: ‘We had no idea what they were planning. We only found out the mistake when we were watching the show and they all walked out. ‘Out of 12 kids, they were all dressed as elves except for Oscar.
‘It was so funny. A week before they had all met up in costume for a dress rehearsal but didn’t tell us anything was wrong.
‘It was no drama though. Oscar embraced it all and loved that people were all laughing at him. He really enjoyed all the attention.
‘He just played the role of a standard elf, although he was dressed a little funny.’We thought Elvis might come into it somewhere in the storyline but there was no relation to him at all.
‘There was no encore of any of Elvis hits – I thought they might have done some sort of Christmas Elvis song – but it turned out he was just a very extravagantly dressed elf.’
Jade said Oscar’s reaction meant everyone was able to see the funny side. ‘It was very funny and we are all laughing a lot about it now. In the moment when he first walked on stage it was a bit mortifying. Within seconds we realised what had happened.’You never want your child to feel awkward but Oscar totally embraced it and that helped us all see the funny side of it.
‘He’s still got the outfit and has now been introduced to Elvis’ music. He loves older music anyway so we can see him becoming a bit of a fan.’
—
‘you only pass through this life once, you don’t come back for an encore.’
-elvis presley
—
Source credits: Katherine Lawton, Daily Mail, Jade Smith, SWNS
when it’s late in the season
the elves have to go to santa
he doesn’t have time to be flying back and forth
looks like I just missed their weekly board meeting.
—
‘never schedule a board meeting on Wednesday because it kills two weekends.’
-kurt vonnegut
who wants to play ‘wine box jenga?’
—
that was the question on the listing.
once again
I love my local ‘next door’ website
for its creative and fun content
you never know what you’ll find .
even these
which you didn’t know
you had to have
until you saw them there.
—
‘enthusiasm is the great hill-climber’
-elbert hubbard
*Elbert Hubbard ( 1856- 1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Hubbard is known best as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community, an influential exponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He and his wife, Alice Moore Hubbard, died aboard the RMS Lusitania when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland in 1915.
I didn't have my glasses on.... 