Favorite Potpourri

Potpourri - a collection of different things: a miscellaneous collection : a medley

https://brotherjohnpoetminstrelmuse.webs.com/potpourri

https://corebeliefsmatter.educatorpages.com/pages/spend-time-doing-happy-things

https://www.allmyfaves.com/brotherjohn

My Christmas Greetings for This and Every Year

I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Christmas is a time when we remember everyone we ever loved. With all that has and is happening in our 2020 world, including a lot of personal illness,  I have thought to myself, "What if this was my last Christmas? What would I want to tell everyone I love?" I remembered a few things that have touched my heart and incorporated them into this novel offering of my Christmas letter this year. I believe this is the ultimate gift of the Christmas letter... my personal and sincere message of love to each of you who have touched my life for good and loved me with your kindness and acceptance... the kind of thing you never think to say face to face.  Christmas is the perfect time to put these thoughts into words before it's too late, and the message of love is left unsaid. What follows are some of the treasures which give me great joy to share at Christmas time! 

My reading of The Christmas Story from Luke 2:1-20 KJV

                              One Voice Children's Choir sings Mary Did You Know:                                                       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1H1-scfD1s
http://www.riversongs.com/e-cards/hark-the-herald-angels-sing.html

https://biggeekdad.com/2013/12/christmas-song-lip-sync/

A beautiful holiday video set to the song “We Wish You A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” by Enya. It is truly a blessing to be able to spend Christmas with family and friends and to be able to start a new year of life. I hope everyone viewing this wonderful video and listening to this beautiful song truly does have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
https://biggeekdad.com/2014/12/wish-merry-christmas/

A wonderful look at some special moments Bob spent with the troops during his many Christmas performances. Bob Hope was without a doubt one of the greatest entertainers of all time. What a classic entertainer he was and I’m sure that anyone that ever saw him perform live will never forget the show. Thank You to all the Veterans that ever spent a Christmas away from their family and to Bob Hope for spending his Christmas with the troops.
https://biggeekdad.com/2011/02/bob-hope-christmas/

“A Charlie Brown Christmas,” one of the country’s most beloved holiday traditions, almost ended on public television in 2020.
https://www.ajc.com/news/a-charlie-brown-christmas-tv-special-turns-55/QCJ5X45H7RDGTGQZWDYKCJE2M4/

Martin Bell's short story "Barrington Bunny" found in his book The Way of the Wolf . This is the story of Barrington Bunny...and a message to all at Christmas!    Follow along with the words as you listen to me read the story, See them online at:    https://www.angelfire.com/music/lefantome/bunny.html

Audio of me reading Barrington Bunny   

Enjoy two more of my favorite Christmas stories.

A Child's Christmas in Wales: https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-child-s-christmas-in-wales/

The Littlest Angel: https://zenoch.org/mormon-stuff/favorite-stories/christmas-stories/the-littlest-angel/

Enjoy Dylan Thomas reading A Child's Christmas in Wales
https://youtu.be/8HoxycLmMOk

Watch Video version based on
A Child's Christmas in Wales
https://youtu.be/9BTSQYdBuZY

If you enjoy reading Christmas Stories I found a website that gives 12 others that I really enjoy.

The first link will explain celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, the second the 12 stories

https://zenoch.org/mormon-stuff/favorite-stories/christmas-stories/the-twelve-days-of-christmas/

https://zenoch.org/mormon-stuff/favorite-stories/christmas-stories/christmas-stories-for-the-12-days-of-christmas/

• Day 1 – Dec. 13          A Brother Like That
• Day 2 – Dec. 14         The Man Who Missed Christmas
• Day 3 – Dec. 15         Waiting …..  Waiting For Christmas
• Day 4 – Dec. 16         Christmas Day In The Morning
• Day 5 – Dec. 17         Emma’s Christmas Wish
• Day 6 – Dec. 18         A String Of Blue Beads
• Day 7 – Dec. 19         The Dime
• Day 8 – Dec. 20        Rudolph – That Amazing Reindeer
• Day 9 – Dec. 21        Ancient America Views The First Christmas
• Day 10 – Dec. 22      Silent Night, Holy Night
• Day 11 – Dec. 23      Big Wheel Truckstop
• Day 12 – Dec. 24      A Visit From St Nicholas & Luke 2
• Christmas Day          The Other Wise Man
• https://zenoch.org/mormon-stuff/favorite-stories/christmas-stories/

I hope you enjoy Holiday Gifts, a holiday parody I wrote to the Shaker Tune Simple Gifts. I performed it with accompaniment from The Corydon Dulcimer Society in Corydon, Indiana.  It was included on their 2011 Christmas CD called "Put Your Shoes on the Porch". 

Also, included in this my 2020 Christmas Greetings is me singing "Put Your Shoes on the Porch" which was written by my friend Sam Stone and sung in his memory. Sam was a great friend to all of us, from whom we learned so much. For me it was like playing and singing beside a Master!

"Letter to a Friend" by Fra Giovanni  
http://www.inspirationpeak.com/cgi-bin/stories.cgi?record=40
  (Includes My Prayers for You!)
I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got,

but there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see - and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there, the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty - beneath its covering -

that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.

Courage, then, to claim it, that is all. But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.

And so, at this time I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.

This letter was written by Fra Giovanni Giocondo to his friend, Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi on Christmas Eve, 1513. Born in Venice, Giocondo would become a priest, a scholar, an architect, and a teacher. He was indeed a true 'renaissance man.'  In 1496 Giocondo was invited to France by the King and made royal architect. If you've ever been to Paris and walked across the beautiful bridges Pont Notre-Dame or the Petit Pont -- both were designed by Giocondo.

“Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.”

~Oren Arnold

“Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.” – Helen Steiner Rice

On my visits to "Indiana", I often stayed with and had meals with my long time friends Jim and Pam Nolot. One day Pam noticed that I needed to eat a huge amount of food and that I would often food process it into what she called a "green slime" as I ate it from a 2 quart measuring bowl. Well, that caused me to arrange my food differently, particularly for breakfast, and do so  in unique and very appealing ways that might better meet with Pam's approval. She was my hostess, after all, so from June 2, 2019 to the present, every morning, I have  created a unique plate arrangement which I call Breakfst Artistry.  You can see it at this weblink:

http://tinyurl.com/BreakfastArtistry 

(You can choose to watch this google picture file as a slideshow by clicking the 3 vertical dots and choosing sideshow)
Each plate is designed from permitted foods on my Compulsive Eater's Anonymous HOW food plan:
   1 serving of Protein chosen from one or a combination of two halves of the following: 2 eggs, or 4 oz                      cottage cheese,  8 oz plain yogurt,  4 oz of curd cheese, 2 oz of cheddar or 4oz meat                                and 8 oz of Mixed Fruits (fresh, canned in its own juice or frozen) 

Optionally I can have 3 Tablespoons of either Oat Bran or a Mixture of Oat and Wheat bran.

If I want a pancake made from the bran, I make it following this simple recipe: 1 or 2 eggs, 3 Tbsp Oat bran or Oat+Wheat bran, and  1 level tsp baking powder, 

-OR-

I can make the pancake with 2 eggs, 1 over ripe banana mashed, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp salt/optional.  You can make more cakes by adding the 3Tbs bran and make it all rise with 1/3 tsp baking powder. Putting a lid on the pan will also help it to rise.