Happy Holiday Wishes!

Happy Holidays everyone.  However you celebrate I hope your day is filled with good cheer, family and friends, much good food, laughter and a book or two under the tree.  Thank you for the comments, reading suggestions and kind words that have been shared over the course of the year.  For me they are daily presents for which I am much appreciative. 

This weekend I visited Omaha's Lauritzen Gardens, which is very festively decorated and captures perfectly the colors of the season, so thought it would be nice to pass on a few images here.

There is a beautiful little village set up in the atrium that looks vaguely reminiscent of many of Omaha's well-known landmarks.     

And there are examples of just about every type of poinsettia that you can imagine (I had no idea there were so many different varieties).

My favorite is this little cable car (there were trains, too) running along the tracks.

It was too cold and snowy to walk in the gardens, but I'll definitely be returning in the spring.

I'm looking forward to another bookish year.  Thanks for visiting and have a Very Merry Christmas!

Comments

[Heather]

Merry Christmas! Lauritzen Gardens looks like fun/a good way to get in the holiday spirit.

[Susan E]

Merry Christmas! What lovely decorations and plants. Thank you for sharing your reading adventures and thoughts. You are an inspiration!

[Rohan]

Merry Christmas to you too, Danielle! Thanks for all the interesting posts and thoughts all year. Lovely photos: very festive indeed!

[Stefanie]

Merry Christmas Danielle! Love the photos. Have a wonderful day of celebrating. I hope there were plenty of books and/or gift cards for books in your stocking today!

[Caroline]

Merry Christmas, Danielle.
Lovely photos. That little cable car is so cute and the colors of the decorations are so nice.

[LindaY]

Merry Christmas, Dani! I got more books for Christmas, how about you?

[Darlene]

Such cheery snaps, Danielle, thanks for sharing! Enjoy this special day doing whatever your heart desires, Merry Christmas!

[Megan]

Those are some beautiful shots of the gardens. Hope you found a book or few under your tree. Merry Christmas!

[Claire (The Captive Reader)]

What beautiful photos, Danielle. Merry Christmas!

[michelle]

Blessed Christmas, Danielle! Thanks for giving us a peek at those lovely shots of Lauritzen Gardens. Have a wonderful time there with your loved ones (& books!) :)

[Danielle]

Hope you had a really lovely Christmas, too, Heather! Lauritzen Gardens was beautiful--so elegantly decorated. I will have to visit there again sometime soon!

[Danielle]

Merry Christmas to you, too, Susan. Thank you for dropping by and chatting--always nice to be able to talk books with other book lovers! :)

[Danielle]

Hope you had a great day Rohan. And here's to another year of books--and especially Slaves discussions! I will have to return to the gardens and see what it's like in the spring!

[Danielle]

Thanks Stefanie. I hope you had a really nice quiet day full of good books! I didn't find any book-shaped presents under my tree, but there were a few gift cards that I will certainly make good use of!

[Danielle]

Happy Holidays to you, too, Caroline! Isn't the cable car cute--it reminds me of San Francisco! :) The Lauritzen Gardens was beautiful--it's been open for a number of years now and I don't know why I had not visited sooner. I was tempted to buy a membership, as I will certainly be going back to walk the gardens and see their other displays.

[Danielle]

Not a single one! Which books did you get? I'm envious! I did, however, get a few gift cards so will try and draw them out as long as I can. I'll have to check my wishlist to see which soon to be published books I want to splurge on!

[Danielle]

Definitely the gardens put me in the holiday mood! I had a really lovely day and hope yours was the same! Merry Christmas to you as well!

[Danielle]

Thanks--it's a beautiful place--and I think it is impossible to take a bad photo there! Alas no books (I think my family is afraid of buying something I already own), but I do now have a few gift cards to look forward to using. Hope you have had a Merry Christmas, too, Megan!

[Danielle]

Thanks Claire. Happy Holidays to you as well!

[Danielle]

Merry Christmas to you, too, Michelle. I hope you had a really lovely holiday as well. Must return to those gardens in spring--after so much cold snow and ice lots of green sounds really good right now.

[Kristen M.]

Merry Christmas, Danielle!

[catharina]

Merry Christmas to you Danielle, and thank you for a year of wonderful blogposts. I like the photographs very much. Some bookshaped presents over here too..:)

[Penny]

I hope you have a very merry Christmas, Danielle and love the photos you have posted - looks like a place I would love to visit. I'm a bit behind on both postings and readings this season - so it goes, but do wish you a very happy and healthy New Year!

[Danielle]

Hope you had a really lovely holiday, Kristen!

[Danielle]

Happy Holidays Catharina! So glad you have been able to drop by so often here and am looking forward to more bookishness in the new year! So glad you got some books--you'll have to let me know what turned up under your tree! :)

[Danielle]

I had a really nice holiday, thanks! I hope yours was lovely, too! The Lauritzen Gardens were wonderful and I look forward to going back when everything is in bloom! I'm always behind so I can sympathize. Best wishes to you as well in 2013!!

[catharina]

This did turn up under my tree:)
Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Bookclub. For my nature readingplan: ed Linda Cracknell, A Wilder Vein (essays) and ed Mary-Jane Rust - Nick Totton: Vital Signs, Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis,(essays), and a very good used English copy of Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves. Very happy with them and can't wait to start reading, but I will be strong and finish what I have on the go first. And of course my three library requests all came in together yesterday.
(two Dutch authors and The Garden of Evening Mists, Tan Twan Eng).
Looking forward to your favourite books of 2012 and a new year of inspiration.

[litlove]

A belated but very Merry Christmas to you! I love the little model village - it is just too cute. I am really bad at going out to see gardens (and we have some good ones here in Cambridge), and it's a lovely thing to do.

[Danielle]

Belated holiday wishes back! :) I am not very good at going to local attractions either. The Lauritzen Gardens have been open now for several years and I have never gotten around to going--I didn't even realize they are just a hop skip and jump away from my parent's house--literally can walk there in ten minutes. So my visit was long overdue--and very nice indeed. Now we'll see how long it takes me to go back--I am hoping to see the gardens in the spring when everything is green!

[Melwyk]

What beautiful gardens! Such a lovely seasonal display. I used to go to the Botanical Gardens often when I lived in Montreal and they always had these kind of floral extravaganzas. I miss that! Hope your holiday was fabulous too :)

[Kathy]

A very belated wish for a happy holiday season, Danielle! Hope your Christmas holiday was wonderful, and that the new year brings much happiness, bookish and otherwise.

[Danielle]

I had a really lovely holiday and hope yours was filled with all good things, too, Melwyk. I'm looking forward to seeing those gardens when they are in bloom!

[Danielle]

Thanks Kathy, and I hope yours was happy and relaxing (once all the preparations were taken care of!). Here's to a good reading year in 2013!