Happy birthday, Emily ~ Sept. 29, 1933

Happy birthday, Emily!

In Chapter Four of Happy Birthday, Molly!, Molly learns what Emily would do for her birthday tea party if she was in England.

In England they have real tea, and Emily suggests that she and Molly could put a lot of milk and honey in the tea. The English have thin tea sandwiches (with the crusts cut off!) and are either meat paste (ground up meat like ham or liver) or watercress, or even bread and margarine as butter was rationed. Emily also says she'd have a lemon tart for a special tea party.

Bluestocking? No. Blackstocking? Yes!

Inquiring minds have been asking about the status of my library in the sky.

So far I have mini copies of:

• Meet Kaya
• Meet Felicity
• Felicity's Surprise
• Very Funny, Elizabeth
• Meet Caroline
• Meet Josefina
• Josefina's Surprise
• Meet Kirsten
• Kirsten's Surprise
• Meet Marie-Grace
• Meet Cécile
• Meet Addy
• Addy's Surprise
• Meet Samantha
• Samantha's Surprise
• Nellie's Promise
• Meet Rebecca
• Meet Kit
• Really Truly Ruthie
• Meet Molly
• Molly's Surprise
• Brave Emily
• Meet Julie

I also have nice little copies of:

• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• A Christmas Carol
• Horton Hears a Who
• It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
• Mother Goose in Hieroglyphics
• The Night Before Christmas
• Olivia Saves the Circus
• Peter Parley’s Book of Fables
• The Quest of the Missing Map
• Robin Hood
• The Tales of Peter Rabbit
• The Wizard of Oz
• Woodworth's Cabinet Library

Please let me know if you have any mini suggestions - or donations!

Happy birthday, Molly!

Happy birthday, Molly!

Molly is excited to learn that an English girl is coming to stay at the McIntires'--just in time for Molly's birthday on April 22!

But Emily turns out to be different from the glamorous girl Molly pictured. Emily is shy and standoffish. Then Molly discovers she and Emily have some important things in common.

The girls become fast friends and decide to celebrate Molly's birthday with an English tea party. But they can't agree on how to do it, and it takes a special birthday surprise to help them patch up their hurt feelings.

Oops! I did it again

I discovered this morning that I forgot my friend Rebecca Rubin's birthday yesterday.

Oops.

It's a good thing I can time travel. She'll never know I forgot it!

!יום הולדת שמח

Rebecca's family would likely celebrate her birthday with a mixture of Russian, Jewish and American traditions.

In Russia, birthday parties would be celebrated on or after one's birthday, not before. And never give someone birthday wishes before their birthday!

If you're Russian, you may receive a birthday pie with a birthday greeting cut into the crust instead of a cake!

Jewish boys become bar mitzvah on their 13th birthday. Jewish girls become bat mitzvah on their 12th birthday (or sometimes on their 13th birthday in Reform and Conservative Judaism). This marks the transition where they become obligated in commandments of which they were previously exempted and are counted as part of the community.

And finally, a listing of all my friends' birthdays (including mine!) so I don't forget again!

• Kaya ~ Summer, 1755
• Felicity ~ April 21, 1765
• Elizabeth ~ November 5, 1765
• Josefina ~ March 19, 1815
• Marie Grace ~ March 3, 1843
• Cécile ~ May 28, 1843
• Kirsten ~ June 8, 1845
• Addie ~ April 9, 1855
• Addy ~ April 9, 1855
• Samantha ~ May 26, 1895
• Nellie ~ October 15, 1895
• Rebecca ~ April 4, 1905
• Kit ~ May 19, 1923
• Ruthie ~ August 22, 1923
• Molly ~ April 22, 1934
• Emily ~ September 29, 1933
• Julie ~ May 1, 1966
• Ivy ~ February 28, 1966

Merry Christmas!

My little friends and I were having a pleasant chat and it occurred to me to ask them how they would wish you a Merry Christmas in their native languages.

Felicity might say "Happy Christmas!" since that would be proper in England and probably the Colonies. (Molly's friend Emily would, too.)

Josefina would say in Spanish, "¡Feliz Navidad!" 

Kirsten would say in Swedish, "God Jul!" 

Ma chère amie Cécile might say in French, "Joyeux Noël!" 

Rebecca would wish her Christian friends in Russian, "С Рождеством Христовым!"

Kanani says in Hawai'ian, "Mele Kalikimaka!"

And Merry Christmas from all the rest of us! 

How do you say "Merry Christmas!"?