“Now let us welcome the New Year,
Full of things that have never been”.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
One year ends, tomorrow another will begin. A new year of adventure. A year to take up new challenges. Your opportunity to live a life less ordinary.
Happy 2012 to all who have come into my life reading this blog.
Remember who you are.
Remember who you are.
“Speak French when you can’t think of the English for a thing.
Turn out your toes as you walk.
And remember who you are”
(Chapter two, The Garden of Live Flowers. Through the Looking - Glass Lewis Carroll)
I turn my toes out. I am re-reading Alice In Wonderland. A rabbit is my constant companion. I talk to flowers.
I love tea parties. I remember who I am.
“Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind.
Hear the music of voices, the song of the bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow.
Touch each object as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail.
Smell the perfume of the flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again.
Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you”.
- Helen Keller
It’s very early Christmas Eve morning. I have just added the last Christmas tree adornment. It is my tradition. The newest decoration goes on the tree first. Then Christmas Eve day the oldest decoration. His name is Hansel. He is over seventy years old. Made of celluloid. My sister Heather has Gretel.
One Christmas Day they will be together again.
I love the ancient, glowing look of my nativity set. Another cherished Christmas tradition. It arrived over forty years ago for the first Christmas of our son, Callum.
I sip my morning coffee and wrap the last of the gifts. Preparations for dinner tomorrow have begun. The kitchen has a delicious aroma of roasted sweet potatoes, for sweet potato mousse. I’ve baked more rosemary walnut crisps, and sweet buns for breakfast tomorrow. The dining room table is layered with several linen tablecloths. The largest sweeps the floor like an elegant gown. Enormous crisp Irish linen napkins, gold chargers, and two massive candelabra celebrate the day. Tomorrow I’ll add fragrant, fresh cedar boughs and white poinsettias. My slow Christmas has worked out wonderfully.
Tiny Tim in Dickens’ Christmas Carol has the last word.
“God bless us everyone.”
This is the perfect salad to compliment your Christmas dinner. The buttery avocados and the sweet Mandarins combine beautifully with the exotic Asian dressing.
Almonds and avocados, mandarins and crisp romaine lettuce combine beautifully with my favorite Asian Dressing. The exotic flavors of this salad will compliment your Christmas turkey. The recipe is on MRS. BUTTERFINGERS.
Make your own gift tags and slow Christmas down. You’ve wrapped your presents beautifully. Now add gift tags you make yourself.
Most gift tags barely have room to write To and From. Make your own tags and you can write poetry, leave clues to contents, or just have creative fun.
All you need is a scissors, white glue, a bit of glitter, and old Christmas cards. Old magazines have a wealth of illustrations. Just cut and glue away. Check out the hobby section of your Dollar Store. You’ll find stamps, stickers, dozens of things you can fix to your tags. You will be limited only by your imagination.
Check out Staples. A box of large tags is around $6 for 100 . You can use them for place cards at your Christmas table. To adorn birthday presents. To label contents of baskets and drawers. The sky is the limit.
It is better to have a slow Christmas.
To savour the moments.
To take time to enjoy your day.
To see life with “the beautiful eye”.
The lot that sells Christmas trees is on the main street in our Village of Ladner. Around the third week in November I begin watching for signs the trees are arriving. First the fence goes up, then the poles for the trees. At last the trees arrive. For me Christmas has begun.
The ritual for selecting the trees is always the same. The Good Husband goes in one direction. I go in the other. Each searching for the perfect tree. It’s a gentle day. I walk through a forest of evergreens. A carpet of cedar chips mingles with the fragrance of the pine needles. The secret to finding the perfect tree is to look for one with the broadest base. It should have the thickest branches. The Good Husband holds up a tree. Too sparse. I spy a fat looking tree with a broad base. It is the one. But then every year the tree we pick regardless of what it looks like, is the perfect tree.
Putting up the tree is a two-day event. The first day is the complex procedure. The Good Husband sets up the tree, and then arranges the lights. Sister Heather has sent me a pair of sparkling red birds. The newest decoration is the first decoration to adorn the tree.
I bring out boxes of memories, and hang them on the tree.
Fifty-five years ago my Mother gave me this tiny copper kettle. It is time worn and part of the spout is missing. I hang it front and center.
I pour a glass of sherry. The tree is taking on a sparkling attitude. I love the whimsey of this monkey.
Birds perch on the branches singing Christmas Carols.
The last decorations are “the angels”. They are my favorite. So much so one year I couldn’t put them away. The Christmas angels spent a lovely year in various rooms in our home.
I adjust a glittering ball or two. Step back and admire The Tree. Sparkling, twinkling, happy Tree.
I’ll wrap more presents This tree is calling for them.
The ritual of the Christmas Tree ends.
We admire.
Sit by the fire.
Watch A Christmas Carol. The best one with Alister Sim.
The Good Husband and I enjoy our “slow Christmas:”.
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,
“Praising God and saying
“Glory to God in the highest,
and peace on earth, good will to men.
Homemade cards are so beautiful and so personal those who receive them sometimes keep them around all year. Cards tucked into mirrors, used as book-marks, fastened to the refrigerator.
I continue to practice “slow Christmas”. Each day doing a little decorating. Today gracing the fireplace with fresh cedar from the garden.
Wrapping gifts to mail to my sisters.
I fuss over the wrappings.
Lingering over my collection of beautiful ribbons.
Searching for just the right color.
My sewing room/atelier floor glitters with fairy dust.
I have silver glitter in my hair.
Gold dust on my face.
A discarded song book gives me the words.
I play at paper dolls or rather paper angels.
Glue them to the cards and embellish them with ribbons.
“Tis the season to be jolly”
I’m having fun with this old photograph.
Stern, unsmiling she needs to have a little fun.
There.
The cards are done.
I mail them at the post office in the village, and receive a handful of red and white striped peppermint candies.
This is how Christmas should be. No malls, no strident music, no jostling for parking space. It’s been a”slow Christmas”.
These soft, flourless cookies have a bittersweet chocolate filling, for a taste combination that appeals to the kid in all of us. They are easy to make and they keep well. Find the full recipe on Mrs Butterfingers
Bel’ Occhio’s Blog
