Dear Cousins, I have put up my holiday greetings page, and have included links to last years' as well if you were not around then, and would like to peruse the pages, which include Bret Hart's "How Christmas Came to Simpson's Bar" which includes some sidenotes on a brief visit to California by some of my gold seeking ancestors. They saw the light and went back to Nebraska. As Oregon's noted historian Terrence O'Donnell puts it, "Those searching for Eden are very different from those seeking gold." http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads/Christmas/harte.html The main page last year featured illustrator Thomas Nast's "Christmas Dream:" This Harper's Bazaar political cartoonist created the first images for Santa Claus in Clement Moore's "A visit from St. Nicholas." Amazing to observe that work, and these beautiful dreaming children and realize both came from the same pen that pinned down corruption in the form of Boss Tweed and his gang. http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads/Christmas/dream.html And then, in thinking of my Dad, I included Robert Service's "The Trapper's Christmas:" http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads/Christmas/trapper.html This year's page is simpler. I hope to add some information about George Washington at Valley Forge, and about those first wintry years of the Revolutionary War, but for the moment: http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads/Christmas/2001.html Remember, if any of the html addresses are too long, just copy and paste them into the address of your browser. Best Christmas Love to all of you, my Dear E-Friends and Cousins, Carolyn Carolyn McDaniel cmacdee@centurytel.net ========================================= --- Visit American Crossroads --- http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads