... and in with the new (year)

That's it.  Christmas is over and it is the last day of 2011.  Tomorrow the tree comes down, the decorations are put away and we return to our normal household rhythm. 

If only you could hear my heavy sigh.  I'm not quite ready to move on yet.  I haven't had my fill of the tree and its lights and ornaments.  I haven't had my fill of the dark red of the poinsettias mixed in with the bright green of the other plants that crowd my dining room and living room.  I haven't had my fill of Christmas music, even though the new CDs we each received for Christmas have now found their places in the CD changer.  And I haven't had relaxing days lounging around the house, nibbling chocolates and nuts and reading the new books I received for Christmas.  I'm not ready to move on.  I want more Christmas!

But Christmas is done and tomorrow is the first day of the new year.  I generally don't get terribly nostalgic about the year that's just passed or even all that hopeful for the year ahead.  January 1 is just another day on the calendar.   Tonight we willl have a quiet evening at home; Jim and I will probably head for bed well before before midnight and our son will make his way over to a friend's house for a party.  He's quite pleased that he will be able to get in on our traditional family new years eve and still get to party with his friends.  It's nice when you can have it all.  And then tomorrow we will enjoy our traditional breakfast and I will have to get ready to go to work on Monday.

While new years no longer holds a great deal of importance for me, there is something - a feeling, a buzz, a sense of anticipation - that has been teasing me for the last few days.  I can't quite grasp what it is, but I feel like I've been getting a glimpse of something great that could be just around the corner.  Could be around the corner.  But I don't know what I have to do - if anything - to get there and find what it is.  I have the sense that something has to change for me to find whatever it is, but what has to change and how it has to change are mysteries to me. 

I find it interesting that I'm getting this feeling just at the end of the year.  It makes me think, for the first time in a long time, that perhaps there is something special about the passing of the old year and the entry into the new.  Maybe there's something to the ideas about new beginnings and a clean slate.  Maybe a new year is more than just a date on a calendar.

Or maybe it's just hormones.

Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to the new year with more enthusiasm than usual.   Who knows what's just around the corner?

Best wishes to you all for the new year.

A White Christmas?

As much as I have bought in to the picture-perfect Christmas, the one part of the picture I can do without is the snow.  Snow means cold and I’m not a cold weather kind of gal.  I love a green Christmas.

Not green as in tropical; green as in leaves-off-the-trees, greenish grass, bare sidewalks and cool enough that you want a good fall jacket and a pair of mitts but you don’t need winter boots or a hat.  It doesn’t necessarily make for a pretty picture (although I do love that barren, somewhat bleak look), but it does make for a pleasant time to be outside and for safer roads for all the travelling that happens around the holiday.

From all accounts, there is almost no chance for a white Christmas in the Golden Horseshoe this Christmas.  The current forecast shows we may have a few flurries on Christmas, and that will make many people happy – what could be more perfect than light snow on Christmas?  I accept that this is the ideal for many and there will be at least two – possibly three – people in my house on Christmas who will think it makes the day perfect.  I have no problem with a little snow falling, as long as it doesn’t stick around.   Luckily for me, it’s also supposed to be mild, so the snow should melt as soon as it hits the ground.  That’s what makes me happy.

It looks like we can all have the Christmas we want.

For your listening pleasure

In the spirit of the season (and I am very much in the spirit of the season this weekend - the tree went up, the house finally got decorated after a few delays and Christmas music has been on pretty much non-stop), I would like to share two YouTube videos with you.

The first video is Matt Andersen singing O Holy Night.  We saw Matt on a different night of the same tour and were totally blown away by his voice and his rendition of O Holy Night.  It's a little different - a little bluesy and very stirring.

The second video is one that was sent to me by my brother, who received it from his son. It's Sean Quigley singing Little Drummer Boy.  I started watching it and wondered what the fuss was about. By the end, though, I really, really liked it - it's simple and it's sweet.  Not sickly sweet; just ..... sweet. 


I hope you enjoy.

Tis the season!

The first Sunday of Advent has come and gone, and for us that means the Christmas CDs are close to the stereo, the Christmas mugs have been put into use for our weekend morning coffee and it has dawned on us that we have a lot to do in the next few weeks. 

I just finished my "to do" list and it is frightening long.  Topping the list is "baking" and that's the thing I dread most each year.  I love to cook; I do not love to bake.  Everything has to be just so ... quantities are measured properly and I don't bake often enough to know what substitutions I can make or what I can just throw in for fun.   But it's Christmas and I follow the example set for me by my mother - I bake.  And because I started baking the first year we were married and set that as part of the Christmas tradition for my son, I'm now on the hook.

And then the "to do" list continues with shopping to be finished, what needs to be cleaned and polished, who's room is needed when, what appointments have to be accommodated and even what other lists have to be made closer to Christmas.  It's going to be a busy three weeks.

Yet it's going to be a wonderful three weeks.  In amongst all the chores that have to be done are some things I'm really looking forward to.  The kid will be home for a brief visit this coming week so we can put up the tree. Jim and I are going to a Christmas concert in a couple of weeks. We are going to a neighbourhood wine and cheese party tomorrow.  The day before my sister and son arrive for Christmas I have the day off and an appointment for a pedicure and facial.  And I have yet to shop for Jim, which usually entails heading for some of the smaller towns around us, with their neat little stores, to see what I can find for his stocking. 

Christmas is less than a month away and while I'm not prepared for the event itself, I'm more than prepared for the season.  I have totally bought into the North American ideal of Christmas - the music, the decorations, the lights, the tree, the gifts, the smells, the feelings.  I'm no Martha Stewart, but I do my best to make my surroundings as appealingly Christmassy as I can (without being tacky, of course) for my family and friends and for myself.  I love it all.

This intense focus on Christmas does, unfortunately, have a downside.  I love the build up to Christmas, but I have found myself disappointed on Christmas morning.  As of Christmas, it's all over.  The anticipation is gone and somehow everything after that is anticlimactic.  It's stupid, of course - I know that.  That one day is the reason for the entire season.

So that is my challenge - to appreciate not only the Christmas season (which is, really, the cultural holiday that Christmas has become) but the day itself.  There is so much to enjoy if I could get over the feeling that it's all over just as the day is beginning.