Our Christmas greeting this year

 

Another holiday season is here. Another year almost faded away into a memory. As we go through day by day, we hope for sunshiny days, but in reality, we go through this life in a fog, not seeing the future. We think the path is straight but sometimes we come to a fork in the road and a decision has to be made. Or there are times when a mountain raises out of the fog in front of us. We must face things that seem insurmountable. Step by step, we make it through. We sometimes enjoy beautiful flowers along the way and scenic views of life we never knew we would experience. 

Life is a journey, our route not straight, full of crossroads and detours. We carry two suitcases along the way decorated on the outside with the stickers of our life's milestones. One with memories to save and when we rest, we open the case and reflect on the happy God-given memories which give us strength to get through the hard climbs. The other suitcase contains our thoughts, our hopes, our dreams and our treasures of life. It also contains our anger and regrets and lessons we have learned weighing us down. Each day we need to take the anger and regrets and leave them in our past to make room for the good things. We keep the lessons learned to remind us. And hopefully we can share our treasures that God has blessed us with, with others. 

Our lives this year has had struggles. I will not focus on them. We have loved ones near us and enjoy the little things and the big, like a kitchen remodel and a getaway. "It's a Wonderful Life" is my favorite movie and I guess it could be this year's theme as we went to Seneca Falls, the town that is said to be the possible inspiration for Bedford Falls. We saw the museum and at home, we were able to attend a showing of the movie on a big theater screen. In the movie, as George Bailey traveled through his foggy life, he kept being faced with detours and mountains. He had wanted a suitcase covered with stickers of exotic places he had been, but instead he had stickers of love, appreciation and hard work. Although his last mountain seemed insurmountable, with the help of friends and a guardian angel, he realized the value of life.

Our suitcase this year is covered with stickers of loved ones and places close to home. It is a wonderful life.

Our wishes for you in this holiday season are suitcases that are not weighed down with sadness or anger or guilt, but heavy with memories and the love they represent. May your new year be one of many more happy memories made and the right choices in what to leave behind. Vayos con Dios. May God bless your journey and may many stickers cover your suitcase in the new year. 

Matthew 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Debbie & George

49th Wedding Anniversary Trip Part 2

Next stop: Bedford Falls, oops, I mean Seneca Falls, NY. "It's A Wonderful Life" is my hand downs, forever and ever favorite movie. No matter how many times I watch it, I laugh, I cry and I just feel good. I wait for my favorite lines that I never tire of hearing, not just the classic ending lines. I am also a big Jimmy Stewart fan.

Frank Capra was known to have spent time in Seneca Falls, and many believe that this town was the inspiration for the movie. The movie was filmed on an 89-acre movie ranch where the entire town was created (75 buildings, 20 full grown oak trees were planted, a main street made and it was filmed there except for a few extra locations, like the school gymnasium which actually had and still has, a pool below the gym floor.

Capra never said that Seneca Falls was Bedford Falls, as he wanted many people to identify with it in their own hometowns, however, even Zuzu, Karolyn Grimes, believes that this was the inspiration, and she returns for the annual celebration every year. Other fellow actors who have attended are Carol Coombs (Janie Bailey), Jimmy Hawkins (Timmy Bailey), Janine Roose (young Violet Bick), Michael Chapin (young George's friend) and twins, Donald and Ronald Collins (little Pete Bailey). We have been so tempted to attend the It's a Wonderful Life festival which is held every year in December, but we know the weather is unpredictable, and we were concerned about the crowds. So, this year we decided to go "off season" and planned our vacation around this special stop.

The bridge, as George said, could be our own bridge in Pleasant Valley, they are similar. Unfortunately, that is the only commonality with Barkhamsted and Seneca Falls. Here's another view of the bridge taken from a gazebo. 

This is the outside of the "It's a Wonderful Life Museum". 

Inside you are invited to make a donation in the basket, just as George Bailey's friends did to save him.

You can make a wish on a cigar lighter, like George did. "Hot dog!"

The museum has a wealth of information about the different actors and photographs. Now, I'll be quiet and share some more photos of the exhibits, again, like the previous post, saving the only authentic artifact from the movie to the end. 

Here is a New York Emmy Award that was presented to the museum.

And here is the only authentic souvenir from the movie. The earrings worn by Violet Bick, actress Gloria Grahame. They say there were actually her own earrings.

And once again, in the gift shop next door, a photo op. This would (and may still) be my Christmas card picture, if I can only figure out how to crop out the right-side background. I wish the kind soul taking the picture, had centered it differently. But here's the proof, we were in Bedford Falls. 

A visit to Seneca Falls would not be complete without visiting the remembrances of the historic women's right movements. We ended our day seeing these Ripples of Change statues of these amazing women who came together to fight for their rights and future rights of all women.

Unfortunately, there is a bigger statue park but it was under renovations, so we could not see it. We did come across this little park.

We continued the next day learning about the women's movement, with a side trip first, which I will continue on part 3.