My wish for you...

Merry

Everything

Happy

Always

This is a time of year filled with holidays.  Every human culture, throughout space and time, has found a way of celebrating the change of seasons, a change of heart, a turn in history.  In the US, as in much of the world, we are a pluralistic culture.  We have so many things to celebrate.

Hanukkah, Chalica, Kwanza, Yule, Solstice, Christmas, Mawlid Un Nabi, Yalda, New Years, these are just a few.

We diversely celebrate.  

We celebrate in our diversity.

Out of the many - One.

And yet, it's a hard time of year too.   It's these holidays that remind us of those who are missing.  Loved ones who have died, family who are estranged, friends who are far away, we feel our loss.  For those whose family of origin aren't safe or supportive, it is an especially hard time.  Our hearts ache for something that is gone, something perhaps we never even had.

In the end, we are all seeking the same thing; community, comfort in the darkness, the warmth of love, moments of peace, a touch of grace.  

This time of year....
regardless of your faith

Be Kind, 

Be Patient, 

Show Compassion

 I wish you all, all the best.
Always.

Gift of the Magi

Last weekend we went to see the opera "Gift of the Magi" ( by composer David Conte)

I loved the orchestration. It was lush and it almost had lyrics of its own. The vocal parts didn't move me, I like a melody.  I guess I'm rather pedestrian that way.  What really knocked my socks off, though, was the plot.

WTF, you ask.   The plot?  Like, didn't you already know the story?  It's O'Henry for Pete's sake.  It's a classic.

Yes.  I knew the plot.  My mother told us the story when we were kids, and I've read it as an adult.  My mother always emphasized how the point of the story was that they had a love so great that they would sell their most precious items to give each other a Christmas gift.  She was all about the sacrifice for love.

I'm not completely sure if it was her retelling, or just how I understood it as a child, but I hated the story.  I mean, really hated it.  Della and James are spendthrifts with a communication problem.  If they had just talked about it they could have avoided the whole mess.  Also, I was fine with Della selling her hair.  It was a renewable resource.  Any woman who thinks her hair, or any other physical feature, is her most prized possession is going to be in a world of hurt someday anyway.  Selling a family heirloom was a shame.  Spending the proceeds on frivolous things like combs and a chain was just stupid.  I've been poor.  I've been hungry.  Believe me there are better things to spend your money on.

However, in this show I walked away understanding that the point of the story wasn't that they sold their most prized possessions for love.  It wasn't about the sacrifice.

The point of the story was that they forgave each other for being idiots.

That, my friends, is the secret to true love.

Holiday movies and traditions

This is the start of the holiday season for us. It gets crazy and busy until January when it will all suddenly seem to stop and I'll come up for air and celebrate with a Pajama Day spent knitting and vegging out.

This morning we celebrated Dia de los Muertos at church. Tonight was pumpkin carving night at church. Tomorrow is Halloween. Tue is election day and starts the official Thanksgiving season. FLL season ends for us mid November (unless we go to state, which, thank goodness, is unlikely. How bad is it that I'm grateful for that?) Then it's only a weekend until Thanksgiving week, and Christmas is a month after that... Good Grief! I need time to slow down.

A good friend has a family tradition I'd like to adopt. She takes the month of December off as far as homeschooling goes and does baking and crafts all month. She has a pile of Christmas movies the family goes through, and piles of Christmas and winter books to read. Oooh! Doesn't that sound nice?

So now I'm starting a list. Tonight we came up with a few movies, but I'd love your suggestions for movies, videos, books, or anything else that pops into your mind when thinking of Holiday Traditions.

Our half started list:

The Nightmare Before Christmas ( a twofer!)
The Hogfather
Christmas Story
Miracle on 34th Street
It's a Wonderful Like
Holiday Inn
White Christmas
Home Alone (? haven't seen this in a long time - is it appropriate for my youngers?)

What video version of "A Christmas Carol" is best? For audio, last year we enjoyed a recording with Patrick Stewart reading/acting.

and books... I don't even know where to start (after Luke 2 1-20, which my grandfather read to us every Christmas Eve.) Well there is "Snowflake Bently". ...


What are your favorites and why?

Mom's behaving badly

OMG! I am having one of those days. Please tell me you have those days too? I am bad tempered, out of sorts, irritable, well, you get the idea. I can't tolerate one more person today. I can't even stand myself. I need a time out!

I think I'm taking it out on the poor kids. I see the older two looking at me sideways as if I might explode any moment. Smart kids. Well, it doesn't help that the 3yo doesn't stop anymore to see if you heard him the first time but now just chants his sentence over and over and over again, so that you couldn't respond even if you wanted to. And then the 6yo gets in on the act by making his amazingly high pitched loud special sound effects to accompany his little brother's monologue. The 9 yo now usually has the sense to duck and cover when his brothers get like this and I'm in a mood. 'Course now and then he helps take it up a notch. It must be that I'm just too sensitive today, they're not really this bad all the time. Right? What if they are and I just don't notice anymore? Am I raising howler monkeys?

I'm sure it's mostly because I'm tired. I woke up at 4 am for no discernible reason and tossed and turned until the little one cried for me after 6am. It seemed dreadfully important that I hadn't finished my Christmas shopping, and didn't know what to get for certain hard-to-give-to people. I made brilliant and creative lists of stuff to buy and make while I lay there. Most of which I forgot the moment I left the bed, and the rest isn't as great as it seemed when my head was on a pillow.

Which brings me to the secondary reason I'm probably so grumpy. I hate this time of year! I am such a Scrooge! You know, Scrooge before the spirits taught him a lesson. What was the lesson? Oh ya, give your money away and buy things for people. That lesson. Geez. See what I mean? I don't even like Dickens today! If I had my druthers I'd spend the last 2 weeks of fall in bed with a pile of books, a box of chocolate, and a cat. I'd get up for necessities like the toilet, checking email, and putting more books on hold at the library.

These days of having children necessitates getting up, being useful, and acting cheerful, even when I don't feel like it. Which does help me feel actually cheerful, once I wake up. There's nothing like the unconditional love of a 3 yo, his little arms and sticky hands around my neck, to mellow me out. And there's nothing like mania of 3 kinetic boys to wind me right back up again!