At teatime during Advent I love to sit and read from this treasure of a book that I found at the library book sale ~ It is called The Home Book of Christmas {don't you love that title!} and is from 1941. Today I read 'A Letter to Her Family' by Louisa May Alcott, who spent Christmas Day, 1875 visiting hospitals to deliver gifts,
here's an excerpt:
..."I got home at five, and then remembered that I'd had no lunch; so I took an apple till six, when I discovered that all had dined at one so the helpers could go early this evening. Thus my Christmas day was without dinner or presents, for the first time since I can remember. Yet it has been a very memorable day, and I feel as if I'd had a splendid feast seeing the poor babies wallow in turkey soup, and that every gift I put into their hands had come back to me in the dumb delight of their unchild-like faces trying to smile."
My inspiration for the day.