Merry Christmas to All...

My first Christmas cake in Ireland, 1985

Today is the day!  My daughter with her little family fly in from Zurich to LAX, and we will be there to meet them.  Oh boy will we be there!!

This will be my last post until after the New Year in 2013.  Not being a Superwoman, I will be spending much of my time holding my grandson and enjoying Christmas with our grown children.

This is also our 40^th Anniversary right before Christmas.  We have a lot going on.

May you each have a marvelous Christmas.  Hold on tightly to those whom you cherish.  Never lose an opportunity to convey how much you love those around you.  

Peace on Earth...

Eyes Wide Open

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My small rural town in the 1950s was a close community where it was understood that each life impacted the entire town.  If there was an illness or injury, no one needed to ask for help.  Assistance flowed into that family’s home.

There was an understood, unspoken responsibility each person maintained for the people of the town.  If one had an alcohol addiction or was mentally unstable, everyone knew about it.  Everyone cared about what happened.  And, each family actively supervised their problem.  What this one person did affected every other person.

Many many years after I had grown and left this town, things changed.  A generation died off; my generation relocated where there were jobs.  The dynamics shifted and new unknown people moved into the emptied houses.  This was a different town.

There was a boy who was odd—that’s what my mother called him. When he was in school, no programs or aid had existed for this boy who was essentially barely able to button his shirt, let alone talk or read.  When he was about ten, his parents kept him home and attended to his needs.

One day, this mentally disturbed and developmentally delayed boy (now grown to a man) went to the grade school.  Thirty years had passed since he had been there, but this man still possessed great anger about those years in the back of a classroom where he was teased and belittled.  Angry about the teacher who had been ‘unkind’, he took a double-barreled shotgun with him.

There was a confrontation, but everyone knew him and was able to prevent what could have been horrific.  The teacher retired shortly after.

If this happened in my small hometown in the 1980s, why is it any surprise that crazy events happen now…most people live in one town and work in another…neighbors come and go…most towns have been merged with other towns into one big city glop…

Be watchful and speak up.  See someone behaving strangely?  Call the police.  Don’t ignore the obvious signs of danger.  Pay attention.  Keep yourself and others safe.  The responsibility is ours.

Wednesday Words: Dec. 14, 2012

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Snow fell with a vengeance.  Indoors Clement thought about the loaded supplies, ready to last for two calendar weeks.  Clement made the decision and opened the door.  “I’m going out to get the milk and doughnuts, honey!” Pregnancy demands, husband obeys.

Top of the tree swayed, as if undecided, out of balance.   The AxMan below nervously stepped away.  Success is when an AxMan survives.

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Samuel and Santa Continue..

We have all been there...HehHeh

Holding Samuel’s hands in a firm gloved grip, Santa leaned in, “I see that Ginger and you have formed an alliance.  That won’t end well for her, so back off.”  Santa let loose with another HO! HO! HO!  “That birthday party, well, what can I say?  It was a brilliant, but you deserve a boatload of coal on that one…”

Santa proceeded to reveal his knowledge about The Father’s electric shaver and Mother’s fancy boots.  About the garage black operation with the oil can and the neighbor’s convertible.  All of the things no one could prove.  He had seen so much, everything.

Get it over, Old Man.  I have a list of things I want for Christmas:  First, Nana needs to move out of the house, and…

But Santa cut him off.  “HO! HO!...”  He was cut off with a deeply felt groan after Samuel aimed a good hard shoe at Santa’s family jewels.

 

A very special gift for you, and it should be delivered very soon...

Santa’s eyes never lost its twinkle.  “Well, Samuel.  I have a very special gift for you, and it should be delivered very soon.  So, down ye go, lad.  Go about your business.  The tree by the exit will do nicely.”

Samuel smiled with delight.  As he wiggled down off Santa’s lap, Samuel cut loose with a long held fart.  They both smiled.  All was understood.

As Nana and The Mother stopped to get the photo, their backs were turned.  Samuel found the tree by the exit.  With a great sigh, Samuel unzipped and let the stream of yellow pee flow deep into the tree’s roots.  He zipped up, turning in time to see Santa give him a thumbs-up.  Maybe the Fat Guy is not so bad…I wonder if that is what he does to our Christmas tree…

He knows when you've been sleeping, he knows when you're awake...This always creeped me out.

Note:  so many new readers wondered about Samuel's backstory.  I have created a new blog which starts today and will run the old Samuel stories.  I will continue to post the new ones here and add them there.  Here is the address: http://sekanewriter.blogspot.com

Wednesday Words: 12-12-12

Mayan ruins Source

We are doomed, or so the Mayans predicted.  Or did they?  Maybe some stone chiseler decided to take a break and forgot to get back to finishing the Stone of Doom.  I don't know.

So here are words to ponder:

calendar      decision      supplies     loaded     ready    door

I really have no plan for these words myself.  My husband was watching "The Twelve Days to Destruction" over the weekend, while I was locked on my Hallmark Christmas shows.  So I guess we will have to wait until 12-21-12 and see what happens. 

Samuel and Santa Meet Again

This was Samuel last year, with Santa...

No longer in the stroller, three year-old Samuel strutted along the Mall as a man on a mission.  Yeah, right.  A dog on a mission.  The stroller was replaced with a child harness complete with a retractable leash.  Freedom, but with a strong yank when Samuel tested the limits.

Who was on the other end?  The Mother with Nana by her side, of course.

Samuel slowed his strut as he caught the eye of another dismal boy on a leash.  I feel your pain, Kid.  They nodded and continued on.

There was so much Samuel could have done here with free rein.  Oh, the ornaments at eye level, smash!  The strings of gold garland, wheeee!  The masses of poinsettias, mounded higher and higher, down ye go, you colored hussies!  But, no.  A child on a leash can go only so far under the eye of Nana and The Mother, her pupil.

Santa’s Throne appeared before Samuel, showing Santa was the same old Santa from last year.  He knew too much last year.  What in the name that all is holy hell can he know now?

This appeared as Samuel approached

Climbing onto the Big Man’s velvet lap, Samuel gave out a great sigh.  So, what is it to be this time, Old Man?

“HO! HO! HO!” Santa bellowed with a great smile.  “Well, Samuel.  Now that we got that out of the way, let us have a little talk, shall we?”  His eyes, how they twinkled.  His eyes discerned too much, and Samuel cringed inside.

Waiting for Christmas

Waiting for Christmas is and has always been the most intense, insane experience of anticipation of all the year.  

Standing in front of the tree and being mesmerized by the lights is the disco ball of the season.  Shaking the presents and guessing their contents will always be part of the game.  The small train around the base wears itself out by the Big Day, only too happy to be packed away for next year’s new batteries and another chance to whistle.

That was last year, when I turned 60 years old.  My granddaughters have informed me that I have to move away from the tree.  It is their time to do the dancing.

That leaves me with the other delights: baking obscenely rich pastries, putting together the Christmas pudding (a little late, I know), and moving furniture around to accommodate an almost crawling grandson Benjamin(:() 

Benjamin exploring cooked carrot, ignoring the broccoli

Waiting for Christmas has become more than all the above for the adult me.  Sometime between the first songs playing in Target Stores to the filling of the stockings on Christmas Eve, a miraculous event bursts inside me. 

Source:RoxanaElizeche/Pecebre6

It started as a spark of joy, and then fills me all up.  Christmas is here!  Christ came into the world as a human, to experience the human pain and suffering.  Christ was crucified, resurrected, and ascended into heaven.   Christ dwells within me daily, reminding me that I am part of His family. 

I am waiting for Christmas, slightly removed from the tree’s perimeter to allow two little girls in pajamas to enter into the thrall of the tree. 

The spark is there and starting to burst into the “Hallelujah Chorus”! 

Do you get that spark?  Are the memories of Christmas both looking back and being in the present?  Are you still dancing?  Do you have to push the kids and grandkids out of the way?