MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Merry Everything, to embrace all! and why not a Merry New Year, too!

I realize that the actual “day”  is over but it’s  a season, right?, so I shall endeavor to catch up with everyone but first and foremost know that I wish a very Happy Christmas and Rockin’ New Year  to each and every one of you who has ever read or glanced at anything here in the past year.

Yes, it’s been a busy season but that does not preclude my thinking of you and even dropping in now and then to catch up with your blog and though I may not have left a comment, I’m always glad to find you there. 

 I count blog friends as real friends, and I will admit that falling off the blog wagon, while it wins back one at LEAST one more hour a day, it cuts one off from a positive, informative, sharing, universal world that I am happy to be part of.

I haven’t thought through any real content for this entry, other than to share some Christmas from here in St. Louis. Nothing fancy like Q’s slide show last year (it was awesome – something for every day of advent) and no game, survey, meme or prize…it’s just a hi-hello and a hug and a hey…this is where we are, feet up in front of the fire, doing nothing but talking, reading, commenting on the grey snowy sky, playing music,  in for the winter like a bunch of bear, at least the holiday part of it, playing with toys, snacking, feasting and feting with family and friends.

HM made candles, we volunteered on several charity drives, worked, played, decorated, planned, shopped, wrote cards and made it to many parties (there were a lot this year which I take as a sign of the earnest American optimism despite the omnipresent economic-and-multi-etceteras nosedives. We are steadfast in our determination to make merry, as they say.)

So, for any who might be interested in Christmas chez nous in STL, here are some snaps and now and then, as I could think of them, some telling cutlines.

Ah, that good old Santa – he set the breakfast table for Christmas morning.

Nory and Snarl work on their annual gingerbread house.

There was some heightened discussion on the texture of the “snow” (white icing) but all worked out well.

With some rearrangement, the library became the cozy spot and the fireplace beat out the TV for viewing.  There are four huge containers of Xmas “stuff” on the lower level that to date have not been unpacked for further decorating. Thus the mantle morphed this year from a nostalgic neverland to a certain amount of “nuttiness” as in nutcrackers!

Santa rocks the foyer, and keeps watch over the chair that stacks up with scarves and gloves.

And there, in a corner of the dining room, the “skinny” tree…Nory added red lighs to its white light spendor. There is a Christopher Radko book on Christmas decorating in the living room, but we don’t seem to learn from it and likely much to his raised eyebrow, we improvise as we open a box of decorations, and go! And Mom brought over, post-picture gorgeous red Christmas balls scrolled with gold glitter, several angels whose lanterns light up and a special glass ornament for each of us – Big Ben for me (we visited London together), a cardinal for HM who unstintingly feeds them, a polar bear for Snarl who protects them and a penguin for Nory who adores the little fellows.

These little angels have been around since I was in elementary school. They have arrived here on our shelf also via Mom. Note the stack of Xmas stories behind them, including Sedaris’ Holidays on Ice (you can only see the drink glass) and Dickens’ Christmas Carol (red slanted bining). 

And my sincere wish to all of you – JOY, PEACE and HAPPINESS, inspired not only by this beautiful Christmas season, but a mantra for every moment to come.

It’s a wreath thing….

More wreaths? you ask.
I can’t help it, I say. I took pictures of ‘em and so gosh darn it, gonna share ‘em.
It’s Christmas and I haven’t toured my own house yet with the camera, much less anyone else’s although we’ve been to several parties, but hey, you don’t just whip out your camera at a party, though maybe with the new etiquette, it’s ok? Well, I haven’t.

So wreaths it is!

Have a look at more of those wreaths from the Missouri Botanical Garden where they, each year, present a Hall of Wreaths. A few more, for your aesthetic happy holiday eye!

this one: JINGLE BELLS!

hmmm…this one:  CARDINAL CHRISTMAS!!! (hey, this is St. Louis, ‘member?)

….BERRY CHRISTMAS!

LOOP DE LOOP  (no, that’s not the real name; I forgot what it was…but this one is FUN!)

AIRY FEATHER BERRY

Oh, maybe this is the FEATHER BERRY AIRY…

and a shoutout for another JINGLE BELLS!!!

Wreath me…

We had to make our own wreaths, we just had to. It became a “thing,” a family tradition to hie ourselves to the Garden and take the wreath-making class. And so it was last weekend.

The class seemed smaller but we recognized a few other wreath-returnees. HM loves the class. For the third year in a row, he’s the only guy in there other than one of the “teachers” and he’s OK with that. The women give him plenty of space and any assistance if he looks so  much as flummoxed for even a second. In truth he goes for the family experience. I smile and continue to wrestle with my own clutch of branches. Nory works at her own table. She starts out knowing what she wants hers to look like.  I never have a plan. It’s me and the green. HM merrily goes about the business of making a free-wheelin’ wreath after the instructions, which he tolerates.

We all receive the identical tools and supplies.

And the Douglas fir boughs are all different in their bends, curls and patterns.

Everyone gets a wire form/structure, boughs, a huge red bow, boughs of holly and holly berries, sageberries and pine cones. And every single wreath comes out looking different.

The instructors had Xmas music playing, it smelled glorious in there. It drew others who were walking past the workshop room to approach and see what we were all doing.  We were a funny little group, elf-ish in our work.

We went a little Christmas-y in aspect; I wore the reindeer sweater I snagged from HM years ago. Nory and I wore Xmas garland in our hair, just for fun. Oh, and our slouchy boots! (yup, tres elf-ish!)

HM double-bowed his wreath.  Nory has the fun and funny pictures of us with our finished wreaths.
Oh you should smell the wonder of them. Because the outdoors is decorated already, we’ve hung them throughout the house.
More pictures to come! Stay tuned!

Wreath fashion …

It’s wreaths on parade at the Missouri Botanical Garden.  Artisans and florists come up with all kinds of “wreath” interpretations and honestly, they’ll put you in a holiday swoon. This one was done by the St Louis Herbal Society.
Neat spin.

This one was THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL which is a fairy tale that doesn’t come up much though you can’t help but think if Disney got their hands on it, they might change the ending. Which really would be OK.  It’s a beautiful wreath.

Loved this one. It was named something about “Mistletoe.” Great idea. That’s the great thing about art; it redefines  and stands the ordinary on its head.

More to come…

Santa, from up north…!

 

This is the gift  pictured in the  prior blog entry, days ago!
Jeanie at Marmelade Gypsy is a paper artisan.
 ”Happy Christmas!”

What Makes a Holiday?

…The art of gifting and giving…that makes a holiday….
…and recognizing gifts that are given all the time, like the flock of birds at the 6 am feeder, the two-line email from your son, the sigh of the congregation after Joy to the World has been sung and the notes still ring through the cathedral, the mailman walking a small package to the front door, a friend who shows up on your doorstep and pitches in to help decorate for a party, the music in your car on the way to work, the sincere and sharing words across the miles and universe that bind the bloggers together in so many wonderful ways.

And this gift? It’s from a blog friend who just happens to be, among many other bajillion things, an artist!
Chapeaux, Jeanie!

(bet you wanna know what’s inside! next post…)

Snow last night…

Light on grey nearly-snowy days…

Happy December!

Hello and Happy Holidays!
Pictures and words to follow – just saying “hey!”
Did not finish Nano (wisdom creeped in when freelance ops arose and I made some choices) and we’re holiday-ing the house now but where’s the camera? Somewhere beneath the Christmas boxes, I suspect.

Happy December 2, already!

Gone writin’…

Doin’ the writing thing.
Nano-ing  and full bore on other stuff, too.
Not to mention a day  or two off to go larking about..
Back later!
You didn’t think I’d miss blogging once nano wraps up and Christmas harks!

hugs, Oh

Real Life: Fall, falling…

Sure, autumn has its “warts,” like leaves to be raked, confusion over appropriate garb, frosty mornings requiring a scarf and afternoon sun that forces removal of said scarf,  the shift in bird population (cardinals are still here, but these are now the northern cardinals from Michigan and Minnesota, not the cardinals that criss-crossed the pool all summer),  a mix of comfort food and the letting-fo of summer salads and certain fruits, the pushme-pullyou of buying decorations (for Halloween, Thanksgiving and/or Christmas?) and the desire to stay home and read a book on the couch or do the fall cleaning before winter sets in and the fireplace becomes the aesthetic choice over the TV or romps by the pool, now totally and officially closed.

Gotta love it.

It also bring a change in blogging as holidays near, deadlines arise and nanawrimo whispers “yes, participate, write, pick up your pen at midnight on the Oct 31-Nov 1 and do it, do it, do it!” in the background.

This is no time really for shorter days and yet, the blessing of it all, of the seasons and reasons!