Gifts of the season...
December 11th, 2006 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shiredancerLife... so full of its little ups and downs, eh? And sometimes it just hands you a gift.
So here's the thing: we're not doing Christmas at our house this year. The flood of a few weeks back has left us with most of the downstairs flooring pulled up and furniture still scrunched aside. It's cold downstairs with the bare cement pad, and we're mostly hibernating in the ever-more-cluttered upstairs bedrooms. So, no decorations, no tree this year. No place to put them, and it's all too much of a mess to deal with. And it sort of breaks my heart a little, you know?
Because Christmas is my holiday. It just fills me with joy, sometimes a wild joy and sometimes a very quiet joy -- every year is different. There are years where the gifts are special, or special shows or music, or more family time. Always different, but centered around home and comfortable decorations and good food and fires in the fireplace. Predictable, mostly. Favorite videos like It's A Wonderful Life and The Muppet Christmas Carol and several others, and wonderful CDs playing, and secret forays to the stores. I love the Goode Cheere and The Nutcracker and carollers and candlelight and houses strung with lights and just all of it. And to *not* participate fully, well, it goes against me, is all.
But on the other hand, it's the first time *ever* we've planned a trip away from home right at Christmastime, so it's kind of serendipitous. My decorations and lights this year will have to be the lights and decorations of New York, the store windows and skyscraper skyline and all the lights on Broadway. It's going to be *really different* this time, that's for sure.
And about those gifts? Life has been kind that way. I've found myself out and about more than usual, probably avoiding the clutter at home, which frankly depresses me. So I've had the annual La Arcada Christmas Walk with Kidlet's carolling group and twinkling lights and festivities in one of the most charming locations in Santa Barbara, and I strolled down State Street in the annual Christmas parade with the same carolling group (me, I don't *do* parades really, but as a show of support I did anyway, sort of hiding behind Peter and keeping my eyes on the word sheet and not meeting anybody's eyes on the street), and out grocery shopping there was a man in front of the store playing the prettiest violin music -- something folky and maybe Scandinavian or Central European and charming. That was a gift, to just hear those strains in the midst of hurrying about.
And there were more gifts this weekend. We had Peter's office party, with it's food and drinks and dancing dancing dancing on the dance floor. We had my office party the next night here in our condo association clubhouse, with good food but few people because of the rain. But best of all, Kidlet's group carolled at the art museum, up on the second floor balconies overlooking the atrium full of statuary and sounding like angels in the vaulted acoustics. And after that lovely, lovely music, I got to see the special exhibit, landscapes of... how's this for beauty?... the Monterey Peninsula of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Gorgeous, gorgeous paintings of Cypress Point and Point Lobos and Carmel Valley -- oh my, the sunsets! The lighting! And you'll never find such dramatic landscapes anywhere. My friends in Northern California will know whereof I speak. One room was full of paintings in the more classical style, and another had the more impressionistic ones. It was all too beautiful for words; I can't adequately express it. I had the biggest smile on. But then I had to fly on to the next event.
So no home Christmas, but lots of outside Christmas. It's strange, it's just a little bit freaking me out, but really -- it's working. The feelings are pretty good.
Now to get ready for New York *gulp*.
So here's the thing: we're not doing Christmas at our house this year. The flood of a few weeks back has left us with most of the downstairs flooring pulled up and furniture still scrunched aside. It's cold downstairs with the bare cement pad, and we're mostly hibernating in the ever-more-cluttered upstairs bedrooms. So, no decorations, no tree this year. No place to put them, and it's all too much of a mess to deal with. And it sort of breaks my heart a little, you know?
Because Christmas is my holiday. It just fills me with joy, sometimes a wild joy and sometimes a very quiet joy -- every year is different. There are years where the gifts are special, or special shows or music, or more family time. Always different, but centered around home and comfortable decorations and good food and fires in the fireplace. Predictable, mostly. Favorite videos like It's A Wonderful Life and The Muppet Christmas Carol and several others, and wonderful CDs playing, and secret forays to the stores. I love the Goode Cheere and The Nutcracker and carollers and candlelight and houses strung with lights and just all of it. And to *not* participate fully, well, it goes against me, is all.
But on the other hand, it's the first time *ever* we've planned a trip away from home right at Christmastime, so it's kind of serendipitous. My decorations and lights this year will have to be the lights and decorations of New York, the store windows and skyscraper skyline and all the lights on Broadway. It's going to be *really different* this time, that's for sure.
And about those gifts? Life has been kind that way. I've found myself out and about more than usual, probably avoiding the clutter at home, which frankly depresses me. So I've had the annual La Arcada Christmas Walk with Kidlet's carolling group and twinkling lights and festivities in one of the most charming locations in Santa Barbara, and I strolled down State Street in the annual Christmas parade with the same carolling group (me, I don't *do* parades really, but as a show of support I did anyway, sort of hiding behind Peter and keeping my eyes on the word sheet and not meeting anybody's eyes on the street), and out grocery shopping there was a man in front of the store playing the prettiest violin music -- something folky and maybe Scandinavian or Central European and charming. That was a gift, to just hear those strains in the midst of hurrying about.
And there were more gifts this weekend. We had Peter's office party, with it's food and drinks and dancing dancing dancing on the dance floor. We had my office party the next night here in our condo association clubhouse, with good food but few people because of the rain. But best of all, Kidlet's group carolled at the art museum, up on the second floor balconies overlooking the atrium full of statuary and sounding like angels in the vaulted acoustics. And after that lovely, lovely music, I got to see the special exhibit, landscapes of... how's this for beauty?... the Monterey Peninsula of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Gorgeous, gorgeous paintings of Cypress Point and Point Lobos and Carmel Valley -- oh my, the sunsets! The lighting! And you'll never find such dramatic landscapes anywhere. My friends in Northern California will know whereof I speak. One room was full of paintings in the more classical style, and another had the more impressionistic ones. It was all too beautiful for words; I can't adequately express it. I had the biggest smile on. But then I had to fly on to the next event.
So no home Christmas, but lots of outside Christmas. It's strange, it's just a little bit freaking me out, but really -- it's working. The feelings are pretty good.
Now to get ready for New York *gulp*.
