Throwback Thursday: Boxing Day

Throwback Thursday: Boxing Day

Courtesy Clean PNG

In honor of Boxing Day I'm re-running last year's post. Never heard of Boxing Day, you say? The origins of the holiday and its name are vague, but several websites I looked at indicate that it began in England sometime in the Middle Ages. In the countries (most of which are or were part of the UK) where it’s celebrated, it’s a “bank holiday” when banks, government offices, and the postal service are closed.

Some historians believe the holiday developed because servants were required to work on Christmas Day, but given the following day off and presented with gifts [boxes]. Others think it started because the alms boxes in churches were opened and the contents distributed to the poor. Regardless of how the day started, over the years it has developed into a time of charity, a time when service and tradespeople are typically given tips and bonuses for their work during the past year. The holiday has expanded to include giving to non-profit and needy organizations.

An episode of the TV show M*A*S*H explores Boxing Day. The 4077 staff treat a British regiment

that talks about the tradition of enlisted personnel and officers trading places on Boxing Day. During my research, I found only two references to this custom. The first was in a blog by a man who tells a story about his son’s army regiment participating in the tradition, and the other is an episode of The Nanny during which Mr. Sheffield refers to the custom and suggests that he and Niles switch roles.

The lack of evidence makes me wonder just how “traditional” this tradition is. What do you know about Boxing Day? Do you have traditions of your own?

_____________________

A Lesson in Love, part of the limited edition Strength of His Heart charity anthology

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after most of the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Then her friend Margery talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, raven-haired leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4iaKzBc

Traveling Tuesday: Boxing Day

Traveling Tuesday: Boxing Day

Courtesy
Old Farmer's Almanac

Happy Boxing Day! Never heard of it, you say? The origins of the holiday and its name are vague, but several websites I looked at indicate that it began in England sometime in the Middle Ages. In the countries (most of which are or were part of the UK) where it’s celebrated, it’s a “bank holiday” when banks, government offices, and the postal service are closed.

Some historians believe the holiday developed because servants were required to work on Christmas Day, but given the following day off and presented with gifts [boxes]. Others think it started because the alms boxes in churches were opened and the contents distributed to the poor. Regardless of how the day started, over the years it has developed into a time of charity, a time when service and tradespeople are typically given tips and bonuses for their work during the past year. The holiday has expanded to include giving to non-profit and needy organizations.

An episode of the TV show M*A*S*H explores Boxing Day. The 4077 staff treat a British regiment

that talks about the tradition of enlisted personnel and officers trading places on Boxing Day. During my research, I found only two references to this custom. The first was in a blog by a man who tells a story about his son’s army regiment participating in the tradition, and the other is an episode of The Nanny during which Mr. Sheffield refers to the custom and suggests that he and Niles switch roles.

The lack of evidence makes me wonder just how “traditional” this tradition is. What do you know about Boxing Day? Do you have traditions of your own?

_______________

War's Unexpected Gift (A Merry Heart anthology)

Love and war don’t mix. Or do they?

Eager to do even more for the war effort, nurse Gwen Milford puts in for a transfer from a convalescent hospital outside of London to an evac hospital headed across Europe. Leap-frogging from one location to the next, nothing goes as expected from stolen supplies to overwhelming numbers of casualties. Then, there’s the handsome doctor who seems to be assigned to her every shift. As another Christmas approaches without the war’s end, can she find room in her heart for love?

Purchase Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CL5MC75Y

Fiction Friday: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving

Fiction Friday: 

An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving

Pixabay/pictureday

Holidays can create myriad emotions depending on one’s experiences. For me, Thanksgiving brings many cherished memories. Despite living several hours away from family, my mother and father packed us four kids into the car and made the trek to Maryland every year to see my maternal grandparents. Countless aunts, uncles, and cousins would join us, and food was plentiful. As an adult, I look back and wonder how many days it took my grandmother and great-aunt to prepare everything for that many people. Fortunately, after the meal, they were able to put up their feet while we kids took care of clean up (without the help of a dishwashing machine – horror!).

Because of my love of the holiday, I also enjoy Thanksgiving stories (books or films), so I was pleased

to recently discover Louisa May Alcott’s short story, “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving,” published 140 years ago in 1882 as part of Aunt Jo’s Scrap Bag. An added bonus is that the story is set in the “New Hampshire hills.”

The plot line is simple and tells the story of Farmer and Mrs. Bassett and their eight children who are“poor in money, but rich in land and love.” It is the day before Thanksgiving, and Mrs. Bassett and her girls are busy inside the house while her husband and the boys are “chorin’ away outside.” A man arrives from Keene with the announcement that Mrs. Bassett’s mother is “failin’ fast, and she’d better come today.” With a few instructions and a wave to the kids, Mr. and Mrs. Basset jump into the wagon to see about Gran’ma.

Lots of description immerses the reader into the sights, sounds, and smells of the foibles and successes of the children in handling the tasks of keeping the homestead going and preparing for Thanksgiving despite having never made a turkey with stuffing or cooking plum pudding. In the midst of everything, a bear arrives, which means he was late getting into his cave to hibernate, but perhaps Miss Alcott didn’t have the research materials available to authors today! The parents return having discovered that Mr. Chadwick being “deaf as an adder,” got the message wrong, and Gran’ma was “sittin’ up chirk as you please,” and not ill as previously surmised. The family enjoys their Thanksgiving dinner, although some of the dishes weren’t quite up to snuff.

A charming story that can be read in a few minutes, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, is the perfect escape for challenging and difficult times. You can read it complements of The Gutenberg Project here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27567/27567-h/27567-h.htm

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Francine's Foibles

She's given up hope. He never had any. Will they find it together?

World War II is finally over, and America is extra grateful as the country approaches this year’s Thanksgiving. But for Francine life hasn’t changed. Despite working at Fort Meade processing the paperwork for the thousands of men who have returned home, she’s still lonely and very single. Is she destined for spinsterhood?

Grateful that his parents anglicized the family surname after emigrating to the United States after the Great War, first-generation German-American Ray Fisher has done all he can to hide his heritage. He managed to make it through this second “war to end all wars,” but what American woman would want to marry into a German family. Must he leave the country to find wedded bliss?

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/40PzQEk