Tag: Christmas

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trees and lights and holidays

Halloween has always been the holiday I go all out for, but once upon a time, I used to go wild for Christmas too. Back when my mother and I were sharing a home, we strung up hundreds and hundreds of lights on the house, bushes, even the lawn. We did a big tree and a Christmas village that took up an entire table.

Since moving out to live alone, I haven’t had room for a tree or much desire to decorate inside, and for a long time, I lived in places where decorating outside didn’t matter as no one would see it. This year, I fell in love with a tree with fiber-optic lights and decided to co-opt the corner of my living room to put up a tree.

I don’t have anything on it yet, but I have ornaments coming. I need to find a tree topper that won’t topple my wee little tree and maybe some garland.

I also got some lights for outside, I just need to find the oomph to get them up.

I will also need to go help Mom get her tree up sometime in the next week or so. For today though? I’m nursing my back that I seem to have injured by sleeping last night.

Photo by Thalia Ruiz on Unsplash

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BOOKS! I have books!

As I work my way back into the writing groove, everything feels rusty and foreign. I’ve written a poem a day so far this month, some of them suck, some are okay. I’m attempting to be more present on social media…well, Threads anyway. I’ve tried to maintain a posting schedule here (Wednesdays and Saturdays).

This weekend I hope to work on one of the novels I’ve got started

The world seems so dark right now, that I need to find the light where I can and my characters are the light I choose.

However, I also need to get some cleaning done. And shopping. Somehow Thanksgiving is next week! Oh! And that means that Christmas is around the corner. Do you have readers on your list this year?

I have hardback and paperback copies of most of my novels on hand. I am happy to personalize and sign and mail them out to you!

Hardbacks $20 ($35 for 2, $50 for 3) +shipping
Paperbacks $10 ($15 for 2, $25 for 3) +shipping

If you are interested, reach out to me via email. Let me know which book(s) you want, how you want them personalized, and make sure to include a mailing address. I’ll get back to you on the shipping cost. I can take Paypal, Venmo, cashapp and Zelle for payment.

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season’s greetings and all that jazz

This holiday season has not felt particularly joyous. It’s taken me most of the month to muster up any amount of holiday spirit. My Yule consisted of lighting a single candle and staring at it for most of an hour. My Christmas Eve was essentially my annual watching of Die Hard and then crawling into bed.

I didn’t sleep well, in part because I did something to aggravate my back injury and in part because I could NOT shut my brain off.

While Christmas is not a religious holiday for me, it is a day to be spent with family, and sure enough, I’ll be headed over to my brother’s place later today for presents and food. I promised my stepmother I’d call when I got over there so everyone can say Merry Christmas. She’ll be spending the day with friends.

I can remember a time when I went all out for Christmas, particularly when the girls were small. I decorated the whole house and I bought extravagant gifts. I cooked and baked and took great pleasure in gifting people treats from my kitchen.

Maybe I’ll find my way back there someday, but for today, I just want to be with the ones I love, cuddle some puppies and enjoy being alive.

Whatever you celebrate, I hope today is filled with love and happiness, Readers. Be kind to yourself and those around you.

Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash

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sleigh bells and rudolph

I am one of those people who generally dislike Christmas music. There are a number of reasons. The first big one is that there are so few new Christmas songs, so we get inundated with the same ten or so songs in multiple variations. Do we really need every single recording artist to record Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?

Then there’s the fact that everywhere you go, you get slammed with that music non-stop. Gone are the contemporary songs that stores usually play. I probably would like Christmas music better if it was one song out of five, rather than wall to wall Drummer Boy and Frosty the Snowman.

Of course, the fact that so much of the traditional Christmas music is based in a religion I left decades ago. Nothing against those songs per se, just not my thing, you know?

There’s also my disdain for false cheer, forced happy endings and the like. It’s one of the reasons I don’t watch Christmas movies too. Or romance. My music tastes are varied and wide, but my comfort music is generally dark and loud. There’s a reason I clean house to stuff from artists like Halestorm, Dorothy, Flogging Molly, etc.

Today is the day that my disdain starts to dissipate though. Starting on Christmas Eve, I am much more amenable to the stuff. I may even turn on some alternative stuff today while I’m packing or cleaning. We’ll see.

And tomorrow I have no problems with it, at least in small doses. As long as it is background noise, and not taking over the whole affair. But I feel that way about most music, if I’m spending time with others. Alone, I crank it up though. In other words, it’s almost time to be Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.

Whatever you celebrate, whatever you believe, whoever you love, I am sending you all my love this holiday season, Readers. Give yourself a hug from me.

Photo by Norman Tsui on Unsplash

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yuletide blessings

I am, admittedly, not the most devout and practicing Pagan, aside from Samhain, which has always been my favorite holy day. But today marks the Winter Solstice, the start of the twelve days of Yule.

I’ve always loved a good fire, and in ancient tradition, the Yule fire burned for twelve days. This can be looked at as a sort of sympathetic magic, meant to encourage the sun to move forward and lengthen the days because, on the Winter Solstice, the Celts (and others) believed that the sun stood still.

From the Summer Solstice, the days grow shorter until we reach the Winter Solstice. This is the dark time of the year, but from this day forward, the days grow longer and the nights shorter until we complete the cycle at the Summer Solstice.

The Yule log isn’t the only sympathetic magic we engage in at this time of year. Those lights we hang on our trees, porches, eaves…that all started the same way. Drive out the dark, entice the sun to return. And that feast? Back in our pre-Christian, pre-electricity days, we had to squirrel away food from the harvest to get us through the winter, but by Yule, we know the spring is coming, and with it, the earth will once again bear fruit. So we eat heartily as a way of trusting that we will plant again and harvest again.

I don’t want this to turn into a diatribe about stolen traditions…or even stripping those traditions of their original meaning/purpose. I want to celebrate, because gods know this year could use a little celebration.

I don’t have a fireplace, but if I did, there would be a fire burning in it. Instead, I will light candles and wish for spring.

Whether you celebrate Yule, Christmas, Hannukah, or some other holiday this time of year, I hope it brings you joy, the comfort of home, the love of family, and blessings for the coming days, Readers.

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Christmas in the time of covid…

Christmas is just a week away. It doesn’t feel like Christmas though. I don’t know if it’s the exhaustion of the last two years, or the continued and continuing pandemic, or just my own general malaise, but this holiday season seems so…flat.

I’m not a huge Christmas fan anyway, at least not like I was back when I was younger. I had been planning to decorate, but then decided I need to move, so I’m packing instead of unpacking. There was a time though when I decorated EVERYTHING. I spent a lot of time and money covering our house in lights, putting up our tree with the carefully curated stash of homemade and personalized ornaments, even set up a ceramic Christmas village, in which every house was hand painted.

Since I moved out of my mother’s house, I haven’t much bothered with decorating. I haven’t had the space for a tree or the village. Every few years I’ll put out porch decorations and lights.

I’m not a big fan of most Christmas movies either, for any number of reasons. I’ll usually try to watch Die Hard on Christmas Eve though. Yes, I consider it a Christmas movie. And no, Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween watch, not a Christmas one.

And Christmas music makes my teeth hurt.

But I’m not trying to be a Debbie-Downer. I mostly keep these things to myself. In fact, what I’m searching for right now is the things that do make me happy at this time of year. I love the cooler weather. I love wearing flannel shirts and hoodies. I love the general feeling in the air this time of year, the casual greetings of people you pass, that kind of thing.

I do enjoy the cooking/baking for the holidays, again, with nowhere near the ferocity of it in my 20s and 30s…but I do still enjoy prepping for a big meal, making cookies to share with friends, and all that.

And gift-giving. I love giving gifts. It’s a big part of my personality. Chances are good that if you have known me for more than a little while, you have experienced my love of giving gifts, especially the unexpected kinds. That much still holds true.

But all my gifts are bought and wrapped. Sometime today I will move them to the trunk of the car so that they’re out of the way as I continue to pack stuff.

May your holiday season be filled with kindness, Readers. Some good food, good friends and good health.

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merry christmas to all…

Today is the first day of over a week off of the day job. This means I get to write every day until the words stop flowing. This pleases me.

Tomorrow will be time spent with my immediate family, who are the only people I have spent any time with at all during this pandemic. There won’t be any hugs and a lot less touching than any Christmas before this one, but there will be good food and good company, possibly fun games and maybe some wine.

I haven’t celebrated a religious Christmas in many years, but the secular one has always been meaningful to me as an opportunity to show family how much I love them through food and gifts. I tend to cook from scratch for the special days, depending on what we’re doing for a main course.

My holy day has come and gone, and was mostly observed with candles, an offering of wine and some solemn contemplation of the year that has raked us over the coals. I, for one, am looking forward to the end of this year, this decade.

I hope Santa brings you something you desire. I hope that you give others the love that lives inside you. I hope you get some sleep, something yummy to eat and the feeling of knowing you are loved.

Merry Christmas, Readers!

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all I want for Christmas

I live a pretty charmed life. I have everything I need. I have most things I want. Like everyone, I struggle a little from time to time, but it always works itself out. Even in this year of darkness.

I won’t lie, things are pretty dark in this country right now. We have an administration refusing to believe reality and a virus just decimating our population. We have yet to see the full fallout of Thanksgiving gatherings, and Christmas is just around the corner. There will no doubt be yet another surge two weeks after that, because people will gather and we’re all tired of not having people we can touch and hug and be with.

Despite all that, I can’t complain about much.

I always have trouble answering the question, “What do you want for Christmas?”

Sure, there are material things I want: I need a new office chair, I’d like an air fryer…here lately more pajama/sweat pants are a good option.

Those are just things though. What I really want for Christmas are not things that anyone can buy online. I want you and your loved ones to be safe and healthy. I want a peaceful transition in the White House. I want the corona virus vaccine to be as effective as they are telling us it is and for it to be available to all. I want people to stop being assholes and care enough about others to wear masks, and stay home. I want the new year to bring with it good things.

Oh, yeah, and a book contract would be nice too.

Cover Photo by Arseny Togulev on Unsplash

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yule logs and pumpkins and the fear of 13

It’s Friday the 13th, which honestly is a day I love, and not only because I was born on one.  I’ll be honest, most superstitions strike me as odd, but they tell us a lot about who we are, or who we came from.  The roots of such superstitions can be illuminating, and they illustrate the times and lives of our ancestors.

I’ll be honest here, I often take a perverse sort of pleasure in purposely defying superstition.  I dress in black on Friday the 13ths, today replete with skulls.  I adore black cats, the only fear I have of ladders is of falling off of them.

This juxtaposition of Friday the 13th against the landslide down to Christmas is amusing, not the least because it invokes the whole Nightmare Before Christmas scenario.  I’m that person who has Halloween decorations up (for some value of decoration, I don’t do much) year round.  Right now the area in front of my TV is filled with pumpkins and witches and candles and some pine boughs…

I don’t do a lot of decorating, mostly because I hate taking it down and putting it away!  One year I had Christmas lights up until nearly July.  I save that urge for my mother’s house, where I will be going tomorrow to help her get the tree up and all that fun stuff.

I may go so far as to decorate a Yule log and burn it in my fire pit one night, we’ll see how I’m feeling about it, and if the rain lets up long enough to make it happen.  Yule is pretty low key for me generally, as a Pagan, but I do want to recognize the rebirth of the sun and the return of the daylight as we pass the solstice and the days grow longer once more.

Christmas is a secular celebration for me, a time to spend with those that love me and to give gifts that remind them of my love for them.

But for today, I’ll just wrap my arms around the day and celebrate the overcoming of fear.  I should probably also re-heat my breakfast, which has gone cold and drink some more coffee, because coffee is life!

Happy Friday, Readers!  May the 13th shower you with good things!

 

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nano, holidays and other manic things

So, November was an interesting month.  I chose to focus on The Blood Witch for NaNoWrMo, dedicated my morning makeup routine time to writing, and spent at least four hours every Saturday and Sunday writing.

On November 29th, I hit 50K and breathed a sigh of relief.  I’m really fond of a lot of what I wrote in November, and yeah, some of it sucks and will end up heavily edited or cut, but that’s not what matters.  With a deadline, even self imposed, I set myself to powering through even the plot spots that were stymying me and making me back off the story.

It isn’t all fixed, and I still have a lot of ground to cover, but I know how the story works from here to the end, and I even know how we transition to the next book and a vague idea of what happens in it.

If you can’t tell, I am not a big outline and plotter kind of person.  I kind of pants it mostly.  I find that if I sit down and plan it all out, my brain decides we’ve already told that story, time to move on.

I got to spend a good day with family on Thanksgiving, even if the oven at their place decided to decorate my hand TWICE.  Ouchie!  And, with that the run up to the holiday season is upon us.

Tomorrow is my brother’s birthday.  On Sunday I’ll be heading up to help my mother decorate for Christmas (and recruiting help from the younger generation).  My presents are all bought and I’m just awaiting delivery for some of them.  I have some baking and such to do, and I’m crocheting in the evenings, handing out scarves and hats to the homeless as I walk to/from work.

And yes, still writing.  My goal is to finish this zero draft before the end of the year and find a critique partner/beta reader who can help me with plot holes and inconsistencies and such.  December is such a crazy month!

I hope that you find some time in it to do something you love and spread a little kindness.  Happy Tuesday, Readers!

 

Photo by Mark Rabe on Unsplash