2007

IT WAS

It was...

...started by attending a wedding and reception on Friday, December 22. The bride, the groom, and the moments were beautiful. Both had been divorced, single parents for about 20 years before finally finding each other. Happily entangled in love, they are now Mr. and Mrs.

...last minute wrapping of gifts as a few items I had had personalized were delivered.

...a Christmas Eve service that was full of warmth and harmony, with a message embraced by those in attendance. The reason for the season.

...watching and listening to my husband and daughter and two others sing O Holy Night with only piano accompaniment during the candlelite portion of the service. Feeling the tingles course through me and my eyes becoming misty.

...returning home and exchanging the gifts we had bought for each other. An annual tradition we turned to when we felt that those gifts were lost amidst the ones Santa brought.

...going to sleep and trying to contain the excitement the morning would be offering.

...awakening before the kids did and grinning at each other, as well as enjoying the quiet that was sure to be the last for most of the rest of the day.

...giggling seeing two sleepy-headed young adults come down the stairs and be summoned to the living room to open their gifts from Santa.

...feeling a tremendous sense of pride noting their appreciation, surprise, and gratitiude for each and every gift Santa had left for them. Glancing at my husband and knowing he was feeling exactly the way I felt.

...a short drive to my mother's house and being greeted with "Merry Christmases" and hugs and kisses from my nieces, nephews, sisters, brothers-in-law, and mother.

...decadent how we all literally flooded Mom's house with presents.

...deeply moving when Mom gave each person a completely unexpected and selfless gift, aside from her other carefully chosen presents. It brought tears to more than a few of us.

...hours and hours of laughter, silliness, conversation, and the most scrumptious meal.

...love.

...Christmas of 2006.

And it was perfect.

"For we all seem to give our lives away
Searching for things that we think we must own
Until on this evening
When the year is leaving
We all try to find our way home." ~from Find Our Way Home by Trans-Siberian Orchestra

FAREWELL TO OUR COMPANION

"My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet." ~Edith Wharton

And that loving heart has now ceased beating. You were the perfect dog to help teach us more about patience, compassion, unconditional love, and joy. Our house will feel a little less like a home without you.

Rest in blessed peace, sweet poochie o' ours.

HOME

*****

BLUE

My Christmas is a blue one. No, not blue as in depressed. Blue as in the color. It happened largely by accident, and what a lovely accident it has been.

I am always very particular about the gift wrap I use each year. Probably far too particular, and I spend a ridiculous amount of time finding the one that makes me ooh and ahh when I see it. After searching and searching for that special kind, I came across it. It is in beautiful shades of blue with white snowflakes scattered all over it. Yay! I snatched up mega rolls of it.

The Christmas cards I mailed depict a blue snow scene taken from a picture I had painted in watercolors. (Winkflash.com does a smashing good job of turning a picture of your choice into Christmas cards~as well as other cards~, and you can write your own greeting inside.) After I had painted the picture, I thought it would be a good one to use on cards. See, more blue!

I designed and printed my return address labels, and I was able to miniaturize the image I used for my cards to put on those labels. Even the postage stamps I used had blue on them...snowflakes!


The other significant blue item is something I have done for my son. He is colorblind. Greens and reds appear as shades of gray to him. Green is particularly difficult for him to distinguish. He has never cared for white lights on a tree, and I can understand why. How pretty is it to look at a gray tree with white on it? In the past, I have used multicolored lights on the kids' tree and white ones on the formal tree. His favorite color and one he appreciates the most is blue. And because of that, I decided it was high time that I made the tree ultra special for him. I bought hundreds of blue lights for it. No other colors, solely blue. (::grin:: Sounds like a K-Mart blue light special, doesn't it?) It fits in so well with my unintentional blue theme.

I am grateful the "bad kind" of blue has not crept into my mood this holiday season. I have had moments when I have done battle with the seasonal blues, but I have triumphed over them. Ah, I do so hope that is an ongoing trend.

Peace and contentment is what I wish for. Maybe these blues will help fulfill that wish. ::smile::

"Blue oblivion, largely lit, smiled and smiled at me." ~William R. Benet

SANTA'S HO...HO HO~Self-Portrait Challenge, December, Week 2

Soooo, this month's theme for the December Self-Portrait Challenge is RED. A great color, to be sure. And one that is impossibly easy to incorporate into ideas for our self-portraits.

The image I have selected was taken of me this past Christmas Eve. Santa got more than a bit waylaid {pun intended} here at my house. Sorry if your presents arrived a little late. My fault. ::grins wickedly:: And you know what? It is, to me, the perfect example to show that you need not be young or beautiful to have a jolly good time. What is that line from one of my favorite Christmas movies, It's A Wonderful Life? "Youth is wasted on the young." ::chuckle:: Oh so true at times!

HIS CHRISTMAS SPRITES

I giggled and smiled a good amount while painting the just-completed picture above. It is simplistic, but it brought back so many fond memories while I worked on it. During the hustle and bustle of this season, I HAVE to have a painting in progress at all times to find the doses of tranquility I need.

Backing up a minute, I received a gift bag at my birthday dinner. The contents of the bag contained things that I love love love. But before I even peeked inside, I was struck by the picture on the front and back of the bag. It depicted four faeries fluttering beside a Christmas tree. I said aloud, "I am going to paint this picture." And I meant it.

You see, I automatically associated the four faeries (which I have called sprites) with me and my three sisters. We are as close as can be. We are best friends. We have our own circles of friends we go out with and entertain, but we also include each other in whatever parties we throw. I suppose to some it is unusual to see siblings who genuinely enjoy and appreciate one another as much as we do. To us, it is simply normal. And it is the way I wish it was for all siblings.

And then my mind quickly took me to thoughts of my father. Yes, I know I talk about him endlessly, but how can I not? To me, he is the epitome of what and how a father should be. His passing affected me deeply, and I cannot push him out of my thoughts. And why would I want to anyway?

So, there we were gathered to celebrate my birthday. My sisters, their husbands, my husband, and my mother. The only person missing was Daddy. Yet, I knew he was really there. Probably shaking his head and rolling his eyes while I gave one of my brothers-in-law a very tame and fully clothed lapdance...yet grinning that crooked grin of his seeing I have not changed one bit. I do know he is proud of all of us. Proud that we have remained so close and include our much-loved Mom in our gatherings.

All of that combined made me think of him when I saw the gift bag picture. Daddy was Santa for many years. He pretended he hated the holiday. He uttered, "Bah humbug!" more than once each season. Uh huh. He disliked it so much that he shopped and shopped hunting for the perfect gifts for each of us girls. He freely spent his hard-earned money on us. He was so excited on Christmas Eve that he could not sleep. Yes, even when we were grown and married, he was pacing the house (according to Mom) waiting for all of us and our children to arrive there on Christmas morning at 11:00. And his smile erupted when the first of us arrived and never left his face until we had all returned to our homes. Bah humbug, indeed.

Anywhooooo, this painting was oodles of fun to paint. I was determined to make it a three-dimensional picture. I used watercolors first. To try something different, I painted on rice paper that had threads of gold through it. An interesting surface on which to paint. Then when all was painted, I glued tiny clear glass beads on the wings of the sprites and colored glass ones on the garland wrapping itself around the tree. Gold glass bugle beads made up the star at the top with little gold balls at the tip of each of the points. To finish it, I glued on crumpled colored tissue paper to make up the skirts of each of the sprites.

My son took one look at it, and he identified via color each one of my sisters. My eldest sister is the yellow one. My elder sister is the blue one. My little sister is the pink one. And moi is the red one. Perfect! I told my mother she is the star shining at the top of the tree. ::smile::

The name of this painting? His Christmas Sprites. Yes, I bet he is grinning once again recalling all of our Christmases...and laughing out a Bah humbug!

"Wherever is love and loyalty, great purposes and lofty souls, even though in a hovel or a mine, there is fairyland." ~Charles Kingsley

EXTRAVAGANZA

Finally. FINALLY. I purchased the tickets in mid-September. I waited none too patiently for the show. Counting down the months, weeks, days. And it finally arrived. And it was absolutely the finest, most spectacular concert/show I have ever seen...bar none. Broadway shows have not wowed me like this concert did. The Rolling Stones concert pales in comparison. Jesus Christ Superstar runs a pretty close second, yet I am still going to have to say that Trans-Siberian Orchestra performs a show that is second to none.

It was men performing wearing tuxes with tails on stage. Women vocalists in black, slinky dresses. Nonstop fog covering the stage floor. A laser light show. A drum solo that was its own Fourth of July fireworks. Voices that were pure and hit every note. Keyboards that sang. Guitars that were electrifyingly played. A violin that was sheer magic. Flames of many colors that shot upward and then dimmed, only to flare skyward once again. A fountain of flames. It was loud. It was soft. It was shattering. It had substance. The songs had meaning. The storyteller's deep voice set the scene for each upcoming song during the show's first half. It was mesmerizing. Sensory stimulation was overwhelming and heavenly.

It was an extraordinary extravaganza. Never will I forget this evening. Never. And I cannot stop smiling.

KICKING UP MY HEELS~Self-Portrait Challenge, December, Week 1

I LOVE my red shoes. And when I wear these, I don't want to go home. ::grin::


December's Self-Portrait Challenge theme is : "So Red - go forth and show us what you have - have a little fun - its the holiday season after all."