Happy Holidays to Everyone!

This time of year everybody gets busy with many things, especially preparing for the upcoming holidays, so I'm going to take a break from blogging.

At this time, I wish Everyone a Happy Healthy Safe Fun Holiday Season, and a Healthy Safe Prosperous 2009!

Thanks for reading, and hope you'll all return when I do, sometime in 2009.

I'll close with some Christmas-themed paintings by my favorite contemporary artist, Thomas Kinkade. I've included his comments under each painting.

Home for the Evening - The title for this tiny painting was originally Cookies Baking. As I worked on the piece, I could almost smell the sweet aroma of homemade cookies coming from inside the snow covered cottage. By the way, the number "5282" that appears on the mailbox in front of the cottage is a tribute to one of my favorite dates, May 2, 1982 — the day my wife, Nanette, and I were married. — Thomas Kinkade

Silent Night - I was so taken with the simple message of the classic Christmas carol, Silent Night, with its images of sleeping villages and the coming of the Christ child, that I decided to give the annual Christmas release the same title and evoke a bit of the song's mood. I hope this image will remind each of us of the message of hope and peace that is the true meaning of Christmas as illustrated in the Savior's birth. — Thomas Kinkade

Home for the Holidays - is an example of memory and imagination blending together to create an idyllic vision. Who hasn't daydreamed about taking a frosty sleigh ride to visit friends for a bit of Christmas Eve cheer? Presents will be exchanged, prayers offered, and perhaps a mug of steaming cider will send you on your way. By the way, my three year old daughter, Merritt, is a wonderful model for paintings like this, and in tribute to her efforts, her name adorns the mailbox to the right of the sleigh. — Thomas Kinkade

And here is my favorite - I have a signed framed print hanging above the sofa in my living room.

New York, Snow On Seventh Avenue, 1932 - For the most part, I paint places I can see and experience first hand, though occasionally I enjoy the challenge of creating a romantic vision of another era. I have tried to capture the bustling activity of New York in the twenties and early thirties in New York, Snow on Seventh Avenue. — Thomas Kinkade

And just for some nostalgic fun, here's Alvin, Simon, and Theodore singing "The Chipmunk Song".