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Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

Heading Toward Another Christmas

Posted in Holidays, tagged , on January 4, 2014| 2 Comments »

The sun is beginning to set.  Through the wooden blinds of my window I see golden-orange clouds against the blue sky.  Soon I’ll see nothing through the blinds but the reflection of the Christmas tree on the window.  The tree will stand for one more night, for tomorrow it will be unadorned, its twinkling lights and shiny ornaments put away until next year.

The Christmas season isn’t officially over until Monday, but there are no more events for the season this year.  We had our last bouts of entertaining and being entertained.  There are leftovers in the fridge that will serve us several evenings of dinner and cookies, oh the cookies, will make the evenings sweet into the first month of this new year.  The cold, dark, quite winter is setting in.

It was a good Christmas, as they all usually are.  Everyone in my little world is healthy, although I miss Diggy and his bow-bedecked head.  Sometimes I still wonder what I will give him for Christmas.  There were reminiscences of Christmases past and hearty celebration of the present season.  It’s hard to wait a whole year to the Christmas yet to come, but it’s there, shining in the distance, and for that I’m grateful.  I think a life should be measured by how many Christmases it has experienced.

So off we go into a new year with all of its promises and secrets.  Here we go again, on a year-long veture to the next Christmas.

Husby’s beautiful five-blossom amaryllis

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Wordless Wednesday

Posted in Holidays, tagged on January 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »

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Enjoy, Relax And Be Merry

Posted in Holidays, tagged on December 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It’s almost time to pack up the presents and head over to my mom and dad’s house for a very merry and festive Christmas Day.  And what a perfect Christmas Day it is.  It snowed quite a bit last night so my world is white and fluffy, and even now there are little, weightless snowflakes falling.

We’ll gather for the annual family photo and eat a lunch of pick-up nibbles.  Then on to the present opening that can last hours as we open our gifts one at a time.  I like that tradition because everyone can see what everyone else got.  It’s relaxed rather than a chaotic and almost greedy tearing of colorful wrappings in a span of a few short minutes.  Good things should be savored, and gifts from others are very good things.

The Christmas dinner will be delicious, although never the traditional turkey or ham.  My mom got that right too ~ a make-ahead meal makes so much more sense.  It’s usually Italian and always very savory.

This year I did the Christmas season as close to my dream Christmas season as I ever have.  I wasn’t rushed, gifts given are modest but thoughtful, entertaining went relatively smoothly (although I have a huge burn on my arm from taking a pan out of the oven after having a glass of champagne ~ not paying attention!), and the snowy weather is literally icing on the figurative cake.

A merry day to everyone!

Snow Girl and Stormy, enjoying the season.

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Reflections

Posted in Holidays, tagged on December 24, 2013| 4 Comments »

It’s past 1:00 in the morning.  Christmas Eve morning.  In less than eight hours I’ll be drinking mimosas and eating caramel rolls at Charlotte’s annual holiday event she calls the Champagne Jam.  I should be sound asleep but instead I’m basking in the light of the Christmas tree eating a leftover dinner roll with peanut butter.

My hands are dry for all the paper I’ve been handling tonight.  Wrapping paper.  All of the Christmas presents are packaged up and tied with pretty bows.  I made a complete mess of the kitchen where I prepared the gifts, but by now the scraps have been thrown away and the long tub of my collection of papers and the box of ribbons are back in storage until next year.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be loaded with festivities, food and family.  Tonight I relish the silence.  Reflections, lights on the shiny tree ornaments and thoughts in my mind, remind me of how much I have to be grateful for and how treasured this time of year is to me.

Merry Christmas to all.  And to all a good night.

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Silent Night

Posted in Artists and Shops, Holidays, Nostalgia, tagged , on December 21, 2013| 5 Comments »

It is a silent night for me tonight. The day was spent by attending my great Aunt Margie’s funeral. She was buried on the same date as her brother, my grandpa, who died a few years ago. Seems people in that family like to spend Christmas together. According to someone in the family Aunt Margie said she was ready to go onto the next realm. I hope she’s happy, dancing with her husband and spending the season with the many members of her family who entered that realm before her.

A Distant Memory by The Crooked Camera

When I returned home from the funeral I spend a half hour gathering my thoughts and went on to make preparations for the annual Christmas Cheer party I have for my family. I did some cooking and baking and preparation for the most festive entertainment event I have every year. I’m preparing new recipes and also some tried and true ones, the libations are stocked, and the old victrola is ready to play some of the old 78s that were listened to by generations before me. Christmas is a time of nostalgia, a time to remember Christmases past and to romanticize Christmases before our time.

The house still smells of the buns I baked this evening and I wish they were the buns my grandma used to make. Mine were made from store-bought frozen dough, thawed and baked. Delicious, but not the same as those made from scratch by Grandma Mabel. Some day I’ll make them as well as she did; I have the old recipe complete with instructions out of her head rather than precise measurements and sure-fire techniques. Oh, to have the time to perfect her wonderful buns.

I find myself remembering Christmases of my past on this silent night. Christmas Eve on Jackson Street with the great aunts and uncles on my dad’s side. Christmas mornings at Tug Lake with a roaring fire and presents galore. Grandpa Mike looking out his picture window, telling his grandchildren Santa’s sleigh had been sighted by the weather men at the local TV news station. Grandma Harriet with her glorious Christmas Day meal. Yes, Christmas is all about nostalgia for me. And every year I build upon the nostalgia of future years.

Via Google Images

Great Aunt Margie had a lot of Christmases under her belt. Ninety-five of them. Sharp as a tack until the day she died I wonder what she would think about at Christmas time. Did she reminisce about Christmases she spent as a child on her parents’ farm? Did she miss the years gone by, or did she embrace the holidays as they came?

On this silent night I think about the generations past and the generations to come. I also think about right now. That in a few hours my family will gather at my house for food, drink, and merriment. As we celebrate the season and ourselves we’ll also be creating memories. These are the memories I want when I’m ninety-six years old like my Great Aunt Margie.

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