Blog archive
March 2025
About Senior Solutions
03/28/2025
Building a Bridge With Journey House, A Home Base for Former Foster Youth
03/28/2025
Come for the Knitting, Stay for the Conversation... and the Cookies
03/28/2025
Creating Safe and Smart Spaces with Home Technology
03/28/2025
Finding Joy in My Role on The Pasadena Village Board
03/28/2025
I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!
03/28/2025
Managing Anxiety
03/28/2025
Message from Our President: Keeping Pasadena Village Strong Together
03/28/2025
My Favorite Easter Gift
03/28/2025
The Hidden History of Black Women in WWII
03/28/2025
Urinary Tract Infection – Watch Out!
03/28/2025
Volunteer Coordinator and Blade-Runner
03/28/2025
Continuing Commitment to Combating Racism
03/26/2025
Status - March 20, 2025
03/20/2025
Goodbye and Keep Cold by Robert Frost
03/13/2025
What The Living Do by Marie Howe
03/13/2025
Racism is Not Genetic
03/11/2025
Bill Gould, The First
03/07/2025
THIS IS A CHAPTER, NOT MY WHOLE STORY
03/07/2025
Dramatic Flair: Villagers Share their Digital Art
03/03/2025
Empowering Senior LGBTQ+ Caregivers
03/03/2025
A Life Never Anticipated
03/02/2025
Eaton Fire Changes Life
03/02/2025
February 2025
Commemorating Black History Month 2025
02/28/2025
Transportation at the Pasadena Village
02/28/2025
A Look at Proposition 19
02/27/2025
Behind the Scenes: Understanding the Pasadena Village Board and Its Role
02/27/2025
Beyond and Within the Village: The Power of One
02/27/2025
Celebrating Black Voices
02/27/2025
Creatively Supporting Our Village Community
02/27/2025
Decluttering: More Than The Name Implies
02/27/2025
Hidden Gems of Forest Lawn Museum
02/27/2025
LA River Walk
02/27/2025
Message from the President
02/27/2025
Phoenix Rising
02/27/2025
1619 Conversations with West African Art
02/25/2025
The Party Line
02/24/2025
Bluebird by Charles Bukowski
02/17/2025
Dreams by Langston Hughes
02/17/2025
Haiku - Four by Fritzie
02/17/2025
Haikus - Nine by Virginia
02/17/2025
Wind and Fire
02/17/2025
Partnerships Amplify Relief Efforts
02/07/2025
Another Community Giving Back
02/05/2025
Diary of Disaster Response
02/05/2025
Eaton Fire: A Community United in Loss and Recovery
02/05/2025
Healing Powers of Creative Energy
02/05/2025
Living the Mission
02/05/2025
Message from the President: Honoring Black History Month
02/05/2025
Surviving and Thriving: Elder Health Considerations After the Fires
02/05/2025
Treasure Hunting in The Ashes
02/05/2025
Villager's Stories
02/05/2025
A Beginning of Healing
02/03/2025
Hectic Evacuation From Eaton Canyon Fire
02/02/2025
Hurricanes and Fires are Different Monsters
02/02/2025
January 2025
At Dawn by Ed Mervine
01/31/2025
Thank you for Relief Efforts
01/31/2025
Needs as of January 25, 2025
01/24/2025
Eaton Fire Information
01/23/2025
Escape to San Diego
01/19/2025
Finding Courage Amid Tragedy
01/19/2025
Responses of Pasadena Village February 22, 2025
01/18/2025
A Tale of Three Fires
01/14/2025
Reflections on Christmas Past
By John TuitePosted: 12/01/2021
Welcome Men of the Village! It is December and all over town nobody could wait to dress their houses, trees, and bushes with many colored lights. Others dragged out those blow-up figures of Santa, reindeer, snowmen, and all the many Santa’s helpers! We even have fake snow on the lawns to delight the Californians who never had a rusty shovel in the garage. And every few blocks, a house that celebrates what it is all about, the little babe in the barn, Mary and Joseph trying to keep the farm animals from licking the little one so fresh from heaven!
So, Christmas is another year in the making, and we have all cherished memories from childhood of what it meant, the preparations, the food, the gifts, the tree, the anticipation, perhaps the disappointment, perhaps also the worship, the crib, the little playlet where we were the cow, the goat, the sheep, or just an ole dog, standing around worshiping the little baby in our song.
In our house we always went to 5:30 a.m. Mass, and then home to open our presents, which were pretty much clothes or new shoes, and then one special present, like a baseball glove, or a tennis racket, or for my brother (boy, was I jealous!) a new bicycle! And then we decorated the tree…I was of the opinion that icicles should be thrown from 3-5 feet…otherwise it could take an hour putting them on one at a time. I lost that argument every year…that’s the way it was for the baby of the family!
Midday was Christmas meal, turkey, homemade stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and then the piece-de-resistance, Mom’s Irish puddin’, which had hung in the kitchen for a week or two to “age”! That was as close as I got to Brandy as a kid! What a feast!
So, let’s tell our story of the Christmas Carol. Remind us of things we haven’t thought of for sixty, seventy years. Tell us what it was like at Christmas at your house…or perhaps at Hannukah!
John Tuite