xmas

i love this quote...  it got me through xmas this year.  so often Garrison Keillor is not at all what people think he is...  he is totally not from Mayberry. but we do all go through it together even if we are going through it by ignoring it or rejecting it.

"A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together."

Garrison Keillor

teeny xmas book

liz made some teeny tiny books to sell at the xmas craft fair in december.
they were so well made, with such good quality paper, i had to have one.
even tho she had added a ribbon to hang it on the xmas tree,
which is not something i do.
but they were so wonderful, i got one anyway.

after xmas i realized i could write in it if i wanted!
what if i wrote in one every year, what happened on xmas?
what if i'd started this years ago?  

as the chinese saying goes "the best time to plant an apple tree is 10 years ago. 
the second best time is now" 
or something like that.

so i wrote in this one and plan to buy a few more...
let's see, if i live to be 120 i'll need...omg.

well it turned out the darn thing had like 40 some pages! (each page had 2 sides)
here's the first 4 pages (i only wrote on one side)

"now two-thousand twelve is ending"
"tis december twenty five"
"and despite the mayan warning"
"we have managed to survive"

and on and on and on it goes!!

i can haz book?

meanwhile back in raglan shire

mudpie is ready for xmas in her cozy houseboat.  there are nice cottages available, but this is perfect for me!  almost perfect -- if only my shire had a road or a canal right to raglan shire!  

waiting for xmas can get boring, so the tinies have constructed a race track!  mudpie is hooked on racing and has made the scoreboard for 2 days in a row -- (but now everybody's getting better so no longer on it)

 and one other thing -- mudpie's gone into the placebo business in first life.  lots of studies show them to be effective, and in a recent study they worked as well as drugs even when the patient was told they were just placebos!  
i'll try to get a picture of this great new product before they are all snapped up.

boxing day cold with snowy ground and fluffy clouded blue sky

despite all the hard work i did in the last few days, making the house ready for christmas and a party, here on the morning after christmas i am up early and feel happy energy.
the house is still clean and in order, other than the mountains of dishes to be put away, the wrappings and paper hats strewn about, the tablecloths all rumpled by the kitties during the night.
we have so much food in the house! alas most of it is of the dessert kind, that everyone loves to make to give to someone else!  i think because nobody officially stated they were bringing dessert, everyone thought they'd better fill in the gap and bring several.
my libby's pumpkin pie in an excellent organic frozen crust was a big hit! perhaps libby's just defines pumpkin pie for us now. 
after the hours of talking and eating, drinking and laughing, berating politicians and corporations, wearing silly hats and reading stupid jokes from the crackers, everyone left in the dark night. and i felt so content, i sat by the fire for an hour reading my new book and drinking a little more wine. and i slept so well!

christmas is sticky

don't you think christmas is the most weird amazing thing ever?
you can't ignore it
i know, i've tried many times to do that
even changed my religion - but it's a national madness
you're gonna feel something one way or another
after all those years of good or bad 25ths
all those movies and shows of how it should be
all those times it was and it wasn't
best is to dive in headfirst and completely give in
don't fight it, shop, decorate, bake, sing,
invite in everyone you meet, cook a turkey or two.

it's sticky - grabs you up and drags you along anyway
not very pleasant, i can tell you
but you can lay low and endure
go to bed early and next day it's gone
like some one day flu thing
at the very least have some little plan
watch star wars movies all day
eat frozen turkey dinners, don't answer the phone
go to the movies, go to a church
volunteer somewhere - the old the mad the hungry
stay in bed with hot chocolate and your pets and read mysteries.


=============== ==================================

amid the snows of winter

the first guests arrived around 2:15. John's turkey was beautiful browned to perfection! and the wild rice dressing, no meat products, no dairy products, no bread, no nuts, in respect for our guests' various beliefs and physiology, to have something everyone could eat, was delicious.
each guest brought something, too.
the first guests brought - mead made from honey from their bees, and grape pie made from juice from their grapes - tastes of summer past in the midst of freezing temperatures and snow! we started right in on the mead!
then everyone was there, with all kinds of nourishing food and delicious treats and bottles of wine, and we ate and talked for the next...really!...7 hours!
i can only assume that meant we were all having a good time. not even once was i tempted to say my father's famous line "Lets go to bed so these people can go home."
why these 3 couples we invited, who didn't know each other, hit it off so well, i'm not sure.
among the 8 of us were 5 atheists (3 of them buddhists), 2 jews, and 1 undeclared, 2 poets, 1 artist, a pharmacist, a shoe-store owner, a writer, a carpenter, a muse (ie do-nothing layabout - me), 3 leos, 2 aquarians, a cancer, a sagittarius, a gemini.
must be a recipe for success!
mix all together with unlimited quantities of turkey, veggies, desserts, wine and black tea. set in front of a woodburning heat stove with glass front, add a few candles and lowering dark outside with sprinkles of snow...

Wootmas in Raglan!

it's wootmas in raglan again!
time to sing wootmas carols,
like waff-EL, waff-EL,
and we wish you a merry wootmas.
here's mudpie and a friend caroling

mud decided she'd better get a snowsuit - it was COLD!


then after a disorganized rehearsal we went caroling some biggie sims.

(Click to enlarge picture)

we sang wootmas carols (being critters, we sing about food) like ~*Waff-EL, Waff-EL,Waff-EL, Waff-EL...Born is the Breakfast Treat that is WAFF-EL!~*~

(definitely click this one to enlarge!)

and ~*~Here we come a waffling please feed us breakfast food, here we come a hungering so help our starving mood~*~
~*~Knives and forks come to me and a warm butter patty, and please serve us some syrup and chopped up pecans too~*~

xmas wreath

did something fly by my head? god i hope it isn't a bat.
from the corner of my eye i saw it, maybe a large moth.
two house finches eventually do get my attention

they're all agitated hopping and chirping in the white spruce behind me.

i look around for cats
nope
i go back to unwinding the wire holding the xmas wreath to the front door.
finally! a week of warmth has melted the ton of snow that slid from the roof and kept the front steps buried all winter.
i can get to the front door and the evergreen wreath.
but here, what's this?
bits of straw and a strip of paper, not much, but now i understand.
mr and mrs finch have chosen this wreath for their first nest of the year.
i got it just in time! looks like work had barely begun.
what a close call!  we could not have used our front door for months
and worse, would have to leave the wreath.

you see it's fine to leave your xmas lights up year round,
and even to light them every night!
but the wreath? now that's just laziness and tacky besides.

xmas is over?

christmas decorations
when do you take them down?
i used to wonder why vermonters left the evergreen wreath on the door until spring.
until i moved to a house.
i can't get to the front door until spring! and when i do, i'll scrape off the frozen smoosh of the jack-o-lantern, too.
as for those colorful outside lights...well, by then, might as well leave them up for the few months until they're needed again!
my mother has a childhood memory of the year all the kids were sick and her father had tb and the xmas garden stayed up until easter.
we were always late to put up a tree and long in taking it down.
12 days of christmas? epiphany? how about when the recycling center has their day for chipping up the trees? the modern official end to christmas.
not having a tree, my official end is when the batteries die in the candles in the windows.
and that is today.

bring back my stuff dammit!

omg! i'd started to shut the car door, and there between the seat and the edge of the door were...my favorite blue drugstore glasses i'd lost a few weeks ago.
this was just before xmas. i'd looked everywhere for them!
what was that...someone giggling?
over xmas week we had elves, or maybe mischievous spirits (mom? dad?) in our house. things we searched high and low for would weirdly be found right where we looked!
a ring of my mom's that  i'd lost (i thought) at the movies last xmas turned up in my drawer! and the glasses turned up! the missing piece to the jigsaw puzzle was found days later ...on the floor right by the puzzle! zinnia's sock, eaten by the dryer, turned up days later inside 5's pajamas (which he had been wearing nights).
sometimes when my dad dropped a nut or screw in his workshop, it would totally vanish. 
he told me he'd search the floor with a flashlight, then sweep the floor, and finally he would say out loud "ok that's it. i'm not looking any more." and turn to switch off the light and start to leave.
that did it. they brought it back. whatever they were. have they moved in with me? or were they just visiting for xmas? i swear i heard giggling.

what did you do for christmas?

A second life story:

last year after christmas i was walking around in some of the winter builds...they are gorgeous, cities, forests, mountains, all snowly with ice skating places and warm fires and sparkly ice. I thot it would be fun to have x country skis, so I went to a ski resort -- Austria -- to find some, and had this conversation:

Stranger: are you here for the discussion?

me: who me? I am just looking around. what is the discussion?

S: On what did you do for christmas and new years.

me: (thinking this is the lamest discussion topic i have EVER heard of in Second Life, and feeling a little sorry for her) Well, i have to leave soon, but how was your christmas?
(i sit down on the bench with her)

S: Oh it was fun!  We had carolling and everything. Where are you from?

Me: vermont

(this led to a discussion of where that was, how much snow we had, the temperature, etc.)

Me: where are you?

S: India

we explored christmas customs in India and in the US for a bit. I said when i went carolling people were watching TV and dint even know we were there. She said "We make them come to the door, and we give presents to the children and tell them stories of Jesus."

(I sensed from pauses in her typing that she might be translating)

S: And everyone makes a big crib for their house.

after some confusion i realize this means what we call a creche or manger scene. I told her we did not put them in parks or schools because not everyone was christian.

me: and actually I am buddhist.

S: I am Hindu, but i love jesus.

me: i love jesus too!

turkey dreams

5:45 am xmas morning.
the alarm flashes; plays a jaunty tune.
3/4 asleep i hold it over his face so the tune and the light pour down on him.
his eyes open.
"put the turkey in the oven"  i mumble.
"already did" he replies.
i wake up a little more, suspicious even in my sleep.
"you did?"
"i woke up thinking about it, so i just got up and did it."
"you sure you dint dream it?"
"i'm sure"
"did you turn on the oven?"
"yes"
"should i go down and check"
"no"
worried, suspicious, he probably dreamt it, 10 people no turkey...but too late i am asleep.
later i wake up smelling turkey...he really did it!
all is well.

sing noel!

what was that?
bang!
out of the dark pre-solstice evening a snowball hits the front porch storm door.
...carollers!
oh i forgot --'tis the night for town carrollers.
we shivered for them in the open storm door making breath clouds.
hope they sing a short one!


out on the main road, all were crammed in warm and - comfortable?- in a big wooden cart pulled by 2 ginormous shaggy horned oxen beasties.
the ox-driver and a few others walking beside with lanterns, adults and kids.
we got a spirited rendition of Rudolph, and funny asides shouted out by the kids.


did they think how sweet, these 'old folks' (me and hubby LOL) maybe remembering caroling in the "old days"
well, yes, we do!
we carolled these streets for few years, with a group of all adults, while baby-sitters watched our flocks by night.
we walked and sang real Christmas carols, about Jesus and angels, and stuff like that...and we knew the words!
our singing improved with each block... we had a few bottles of jack daniels buried in the snow at strategic corners.
'in goes my hand into that wool-white bell-tongued ball of holidays' and out comes Jack Daniels!

cat meets xmas tree

got this email from 5 the other day...

 Cricket's new bass player, KC, recently acquired an 8-month-old cat. The cat, a girl-type, has been friendly and sociable and well-behaved and he (KC) is very happy with her.
KC also loves Christmas. He used to play bass in a band that only played Christmas songs. So, naturally, KC brought home a Christmas tree early this week.
Well...
The cat went under the bed, dug a hole up into the box spring and went in there and didn't come out to eat or to pee or anything for days. I told KC about some of the remedies we know to help calm down our freaked out little beings, and I offered to come over and talk to her for him.
He was very grateful for the advice, and after careful consideration of the various products available to deal with cats, cat pee, and so on, he went home and got rid of his Christmas tree. The cat came out from under the bed, began eating and being sociable and peeing in her box again. Problem solved.
Except that KC loves Christmas and he wants a tree! I told him to get a Norfolk pine and raise it and the cat together.

Gift Giving - the New Health Craze?

The final word on gifts may be this New York Times article on giving. We know gifts may be a mixed or a mis-communication to the receiver, but for the GIVER -- it turns out it's GOOD FOR YOU!

GIVE EARLY AND OFTEN.

~_^

the perfect gift?

once upon a time, before EVERYTHING was made in China, back when Amazon meant a one-breasted woman warrior, i gave a friend a gift of a wind-up painted metal duck with a propeller on his head, riding on a tricycle. just for the absurdity of the thing!
it came in a funky chinese box. this may have been common on the west coast, but around here it was totally insane.
we loved our duck-on-a-bikes and we actually played with them sometimes! such an object was not to be had in the city she lived in. so each time i visited i'd bring her one and it became her ritual gift.
new house? duck-on-bike.
birthday? duck-on-bike.
retirement party? duck-on-bike.
xmas yankee swap? duck-on-bike.
once she called me in desperation. "LUCY i need a duck for this weekend!" luckily someone i knew was traveling to that city, and left a brown paper wrapped package at their hotel desk FOR VICKI.  an emergency duck-on-bike! by now everyone she knows has one. but if she meets some new people i may get the call again. 

the store that sold them no longer sells them, but i've seen them in the store across the street.

more more on gifts!

a friend and i have exchanged many gifts over the years.
a few years ago she said "how about if we give each other back gifts we didn't really like?"
she said "the person who got it for the other, REALLY liked it, thought it was special, and would probably appreciate it!"
hmmmm

this seemed quite sensible at the time.
i was fascinated by my reaction when she returned one of my gifts!
i thought "this? she didn't like THIS? this is so wonderful!" and i felt a little hurt.
then i thought "i REALLY like this! i'm glad she gave it back to me instead of giving it to the thrift shop."
and i treasure it still.

continuing thoughts on gifts

gifts are personal, and/or gifts are ritual.
there used to be rules for when to give, what to give, how much to spend, based on the kind and degree of relationship.
i think that's gone, for most of us modern folks.

now gifts are personal. what does this say about me, what does this say about you.

the two get mixed up.
i know how to make soap.
so i make you some special soap to give you on a ritual occasion.
i am giving you my time and my talent.
you take it as a personal gift, not a ritual gift.
you think maybe i think you don't wash enough.
you think i didn't care enough to buy you something.
i think you will think i am cool because i can make soap.

one teensy aspect of the huge subject of gifts

fruitcake is off the gift list this year in my family!
my mom always sent a fruitcake, a really good one from some place in texas, to each of us kids. last year we sadly sent them to each other. this year we decided not to.
VOLUMES are written about gifts and gift giving! how can i even get a handle on the subject in a simple blog entry.
he gets her a roomba for xmas.
his thoughts...
he is clever and generous.
she will be happy not to have to vacuum.
it will be fun to set up and to watch it, see how the cat reacts!
he has solved a problem!
her thoughts...
he is stingy and overly practical.
he thinks of her as a housekeeper.
he just wants to play with this toy himself.
he isn't very romantic.
what the gift means to the giver can be completely different from the meaning understood by the receiver!  the gift is a coded message and each side has a different decoder ring.
and of course...
everyone has way too much stuff anyway!