Brightening the Season

 

The Christmas season means different things to different people, some of which is cultural. When I was a girl,  for some years my parents had a place to cut trees from some planted years earlier. Not only us but many others drove out and paid. What I remember with our own trees is they always had good and bad sides where you had to place them carefully. I miss that in the trees today.

Those were the years when it was about Santa Claus coming Christmas Eve; then Christmas Day was gathering at one uncle's home for a feast and a few gifts but mostly bringing some kind of gift that went around the room with each taking a pick. Some gifts were useful and some funny (think rubber chicken or chamber pot). A few of those disappeared or reappeared the next year. I still have the chamber pot *s*.

 

When we got married, we began our own traditions for a lot of years, often a dinner at our house and again family and friends gathering round. We became involved in a church where it offered many activities with the season. When the kids grew up, they went to their new families' homes; and we were beginning a new tradition for ourselves as our parents died of old age, and our lives changed in other ways. 

those dried zinnias are a memory of summer this year

For quite a few years, we stopped having a Christmas tree as they always gave us sinus problems . Nobody was coming to see them anyway; so why put out the money? I did have a sizeable collection of Christmas villages, which took work to set up but were satisfying for the small community feel (they're in Oregon and not sure if I will bring them here where we have less room.

 

Once we were in Tucson for Christmas, we bought one of the artificial trees (love it), no allergies, and purchased ornaments of different sorts with one thing in common, inexpensive. We also had an assortment of garland type greens with tiny fairy lights to give the house a nature feeling as well as warmth. It's very different, and I won't say it's not sometimes lonely, but I have the knowledge that I once did it all. Now is time for change. Life is that way in my experience.

 

I know that Christmas is hard for some people , especially those who don't have a religious purpose behind it. Most know Jesus was not born December 25th, that sheep weren't in the fields at that time, but it doesn't matter as it's about more than a date but rather a feeling. For those who have sad memories of earlier Christmases, I think they need to find new ways. What do you do when family and friends are beloved but a long way away? I don't have suggestions. I am still working on that for myself. Not to mention, the difficulty when life deals hard blows and holidays are an especial reminder of them. We can't go back though-- only forward.

 

So, Merry Christmas to you or Happy Holidays whatever works for you. May you find joy in the season whether in old or new ways. 

Something New

 by Rain Trueax

 

Well, a weird thing happened right before Thanksgiving. We had one of those prepared dinners, didn't check carefully enough and one of its ingredients was red bell pepper. Nightshade intolerance has it on its list. The next day, I was sick. Still not feeling well as I write this. So not many words but wanted to show something we did for our Arizona home.

We stopped cutting Christmas trees some years back when nobody was coming to our home to see the decorations. It made no economic sense. But we had resisted the artificial ones. Then one year, we bought some artificial garlands, liked them. Last year, down here, we put them around with fairy lights. Fun