Featured Bloggers for Festive or Celebrating
Since I don’t know all of your first names, I changed the format of Featured Bloggers somewhat to reflect your tagline or title. Your friendships mean so much. Thank you all for joining in. If I missed your post, please send me a comment. Not all Pingbacks come through.
- BEACH WALK REFLECTIONS
- KEEP IT ALIVE – LIFEAFTER50FORWOMEN
- LADY LEE MANILA
- LADYSIGHS
- PRIORHOUSE BLOG
- SECOND WIND LEISURE (SUNDAY STILLS)
- KL CALEY STORIES PROMPTS DISCOVERIES LAST WEEK’S STORY
IT’S EASY TO PLAY ALONG WITH #WQWWC
This weekly writing challenge runs from Wednesday through Tuesday. The only rule is to use a quote. If you want to participate, create a pingback to link your post. Not sure how to do that? See how to create pingbacks here. Be sure to link to the most recent post, not my page. I don’t see links to my page.
Other Challenges That Inspired #WQWWC #54
- Sunday Stills: Light the Night
- Cell Pic Sunday – All pictures were taken with cell phones – not all were mine.
- Lens Artist #179: Serene Joy brings serenity in our souls or inmost parts.
#WQWWC #53 – Topic: Joy
Definition: a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. rejoice Synonyms: jubilation, triumph · exultation · rejoicing · happiness · gladness · glee · exhilaration · ebullience · exuberance · elation · euphoria · bliss · ecstasy – to name a few
Rhyming words: boy, toy, ploy, soy, croix, alloy, bok choi, cowboy, decoy, drummer boy and many, many more in the Rhyme Zone for the rhyming poets out there.
What brings you and your household joy this year?
Quotes
“Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values.”
Thomas S. Monson
It’s fun to watch my husband shop for his son. It doesn’t matter that he’s getting older, and we aren’t even going to see him. He gets so much joy from finding what he feels is something his son needs or wants.
“He just needs something for a stocking stuffer.”
Sometimes it’s an antique toy truck for his back yard and sometime just socks and underwear, but he buys it with such love.
“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.”
Karl Barth
Do you ever wonder how to say thank you? Sometimes it’s hard when you feel overwhelmed, like when you don’t have a present in return, or you feel it’s too much. Say thanks with joy! Of course, words help too.
The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
Christopher McCandless
As a teacher, I know that learning brings joy. I used to get giddy teaching my kindergarteners to read. They learned phonetically from their books, then sometimes I would write sight words on the board and ask them to try to sound them out.
I remember when I wrote the word sometimes. They knew long vowel words. One of my kids sounded it out with long vowels. Then his face lit up when he recognized what the word was and shouted out the correct word. I was almost as thrilled as he was.
That joy continues as we age. This year we learned to play pickle ball. I wasn’t very successful at it, but my husband has won a couple of round robins, so he’s super excited about it. The wonderful outcome for me was that we’ve made lots of new friends.
Last night we attended a party at one of our pickle ball friend’s house. All ten of us laughed as we unscrambled Christmas song titles, tried to toss rings on a pair of antlers, and pinned the carrot on the snowman’s face.
“Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale.”
Elsa Schiaparelli
It’s amazing how much fun it is to eat. We hosted one-third of a progressive dinner on Sunday night. Twelve neighbors and friends joined in to celebrate as we had parts of a meal in each other’s homes in our condo complex. We got acquainted with several new neighbors – new to us, and the people from whom we bought our condo were back from CA to join us for the last stop – eggnog and cookies. We spent three lovely hours going from house to house tasting bits of delights.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures during the festivities, but Vince and I had a lot of fun decorating our home and cooking for the occasion. Notice the fireplace.
Now it’s your turn.
Tell us what makes you smile, what chases away your tears, or what brings you happiness. Thanks so much for stopping by and having fun with quotes. Have a wonderful holiday season and enjoy the rest of your week!
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
63 responses to “#WQWWC #54: Joy”
It looks like your entire face is a mask you are holding on by the handle you have in your hand! Ha. That is some impressive decoration on your shelf above your fireplace. Do you have two fireplaces????
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No, the lit fireplace is our television. It was great during the party, crackling and looking warm and welcoming without being hot! 🙂 I did look a bit funny – kind of drunk, but I was trying to avoid being hit in the eye by a flying ring. LOL
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Ha..Can’t believe I was duped by that. It really looks authentic, though.
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It even sounds authentic. We all loved it.
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What flying ring, pray tell? Did someone reject a marriage proposal violently? UFO invasion? Game of ring-toss?
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Toss the ring on the reindeer head. I was the reindeer head for that toss.
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You are SUCH a good sport!!!
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We all had to take turns being good sports. It was great fun. Our friend Jill was a teacher so you know how teachers are. Once a teacher always a teacher. We also played pin the nose on the snowman. My nose ended up on another wall. Vince was the only one who actually got his nose on the snowman. LOL
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Ah yes.. now I see the rink flying toward you. Can’t believe I missed it before.
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It was great fun, and Vince won a prize.
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Hi Marsha, here’s my post.
http://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2021/12/27/what-is-joy/
Thanks
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It looks like your holidays got off to a great start! Progressive dinners with friends are a lot of fun. Enjoy the rest of the holidays and I’m wishing you and your loved ones all the best in 2022. 😀
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Merry Christmas to you both.
https://ceenphotography.com/2021/12/24/wqwwc-54-joy/
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Thanks, Cee. I love the Joy! I have a joy picture, and I didn’t even think of it. RATS!
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[…] Here is my entry for Marsha’s WQWWC (Writer’s Quotes Wednesday) #48. […]
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I love this Marsha, great quotes….that ring game looks so fun. I also love that sleigh above your fireplace. The story of your hubby’s joy in buying gifts is so sweet. I’ve been MIA the last few weeks. I just haven’t had a chance to sit and write. Boo hoo. I’ll back at it next week, and looking forward to the New Year. Have an amazing Christmas.
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I missed you. It’s a busy time. See you when you get back. Merry Christmas, Kirstin.
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Wonderfully joyful post, Marsha!
I am particularly taken by the rather novel “nativity” scene – I love that Dad is holding Baby so lovingly.
And that quote: Craziness doesn’t run … it gallops! Priceless!
Christmas blessings to you & yours!
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Thanks, Ju-Lyn. Merry Christmas to you, too!
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Enjoyed your post this week Marsha – the TV fire looks SO real! What a clever arrangement. And your festivities sound so fun – I’m surprised you did such a gathering with the rise in COVID of late! We had a gathering about 3 weeks ago and one of the guests – a very good and trusted friend, brought along a case of the flu which I and several others caught 😩. It really brought home the contagiousness of these nasty bugs even among those you know and trust. Be careful out there!! We used to do progressive dinners once each year but stopped when Covid started. Hopefully to start again if things ever quiet down. Happy holidays and here’s to a happy, HEALTHY 2022!
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We debated about it but decided to go through with it. One lady cancelled because she was sick but not COVID. I did her part. We were very lucky especially considering we are all older. One couple was probably in their 50s. The other party was mostly 60s. I think there were three of us in our 70s. But it is a consideration. We will have Cindy, Vince’s sister, here for Christmas. Thanks so much for all you do for us. Your comments and posts mean a lot.
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[…] WQWWC […]
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such a joyous post, Marsha 🙂
https://ladyleemanilablog.wordpress.com/2021/12/23/joy-quotes/
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So enjoyable, Lady Lee. 🙂
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[…] For: https://alwayswrite.blog/2021/12/22/wqwwc-54-joy/ […]
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Oh, my!! Such a joyous blog. So glad to have the double fireplace scheme cleared up. You’ll have to tell us how to get that fireplace look. Love the black and white theme. Such a great look, all in all–can’t wait to see it. Used to have progressive dinner parties in the Back Bay of Boston in my 30s. About 8 of us lived within walking distance of one another. It hasn’t been possible since, and I miss it. Reading: I have the passion for teaching reading, too. If I’d stayed in the profession, I would have pursued that angle. See you soon.
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You do have the passion for reading. I love that about you. I can’t wait to see you. 🙂
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That sounds like a fun party!
Thanks for the shout-out.
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Always welcome! 🙂
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Hi – nice to see you and Vince and love the one with you and the reindeer antlers – ha – and it fit the joy theme
also, the closing song video was cool – I have heard the song on the radio but Neve saw the video – they did a great job with the video theme
cheers to joy and wishing you a Merry Christmas
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I had never heard the song, but I thought it was great for what I wanted to portray. 🙂 thanks for the kind words. 🙂
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🙏😊
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You and Vince are adorable….. I’ve got the perfect photo for this. I’ll post it Friday. Perfect for Christmas Eve. 😀
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Thanks, Cee. We had tons of fun. 🙂 I pinned my carrot on the next wall over. Vince won the carrot contest. He got the nose pinned on the snowman’s mouth. He was the only one who got the carrot on the snowman at all. 🙂
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Wonderful! (We’re gonna need a bigger antler!) Happy Holidays.
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I think I needed bigger antlers. They weren’t nearly long enough for me to even get close. 🙂
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Beautiful blog Marsha here is my joy song for this week
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Hi willow. I’m on my way for a listen.
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I do hope you enjoy it, love and joy to you for Christmas ⛄⛄🎄💜
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This is beautiful, Willow. It’s so powerful, too. 🙂
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Yes it is it touches and lifts me every time 💜
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I can see why, Willow. Have a wonderful and joyous Christmas and New Year.
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Thank you Marsha and may you and all your family be safe and happy too 💜💜💜
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Thank you Willow.
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💜💜💜
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Your home looks beautiful with the decor and lights, Marsha! It brought me joy to look at your home decorated for the holidays, and it is already so elegant inside. Your progressive dinner sounds so much fun and the reindeer ring toss is a crack up! Vince looks handsome in his red Santa hat 🙂 I also totally agree with you about the joy found in learning. When I subbed for a kinder class a few weeks ago, those kids could read a surprising amount of words and joyfully demonstrated their ability by shouting them all out at me, LOL! Thank you for linking each week to Sunday Stills with your own WQWWC challenges and also for hosting yours! I should pick your brain about your future prompts for WQW…I need inspiration for mine.
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We can talk through some of them when we chat. 🙂 I’ll tell Vince how handsome you think he looked. Almost everyone had on a Santa hat except me. We have definitely discovered our second childhood. 🙂 BTW, we did lots of shouting when I taught Kindergarten. It was good that we had the building to ourselves pretty much. It was a private school in a church basement. They were a joy to teach. 🙂
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Fun festive post and quotes Marsha!
Lovely additions by all of the talented contributors!!💕❤️
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[…] Always Write […]
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A fun post Marsha 🙂
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Love this Marsha . So fun having a great get together with family and friends..
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Thank you so much, Anita.
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Love your fireplace, Marsha, and that perfectly positioned sleigh. Can you tell me what pickle ball is, please- some kind of quiz? Wishing you a joyful week ahead. I know it will be!
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The fireplace that is blazing is on tv! The real one is next to it. Pickleball is a game you play outside on a court like tennis. You hit the ball with a paddle like ping pong. The ball looks like a whiffle ball. It is a lot of fun but since I twisted my knee and tore my meniscus, I can’t play anymore. 🙂
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Oh, dear! I do feel silly! The mind is elsewhere tonight, but that’s a poor excuse.
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LOL, most people there had a good laugh, too. It was even crackling! We thought having a real fire might get too warm with so many people in a small area, so it was a fun solution.
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A friend had a similar arrangement, now I come to think of it. 🤔💕 Having a bit of angst this evening over people testing positive on flights and then everything goes pear – shaped. Sleepless night coming up. 🙄🍸💕
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I love it – everything goes pear-shaped. I’ve heard that phrase only connected with my body type! LOL I’m sorry for the sleepless night.
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our neighborhood has had a progressive dinner every year around the holidays; it’s one of the hghlights of the year…
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How fun! This was our first one. I hadn’t been to one for probably 40 years!
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it’s a great way to get to know your neighbors…
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Yes, it was fun. There were two that we had never met. They were amazing.
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👍
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