Tag: Christmas

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the day after

When the chaos and uproar of opening presents is done, and the floor looks like a tornado came through and dropped colorful debris over everything, there’s a kind of quiet that settles in.  Everyone is caught up in playing with new toys and trying on new clothes, setting up new tech and even the animals have worn themselves out.

And my family is all grown adults (for some valued of adult anyway)!

Still, I think that’s some of my favorite time on Christmas day.  Before we’ve gotten up to start the clean up, while we’re still sharing our presents with family…it’s a kind of happiness that only comes there, in the family time, where we can be geeks and dorks and excited about things that make us happy.

Of course, then comes the clean up and the shift to getting Christmas dinner on the table.  Sure, we keep playing as the day goes on, maybe even break out the board games, which leads to a whole different kind of family time.  You haven’t lived until you’ve played Cards Against Humanity with your 70 year old mother and internet-raised nieces!

But, like all other good things, the time comes when the day must end and family scatters…though at this point, I’m the only one not living under that roof, and then comes the long drive home.  And the day after…

It’s a bit of a let down, I guess, for the day after.  All the waiting and anticipating and chaos is done and somehow, you’re expected to re-enter the working world as if none of it happened at all.

 

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shining lights and quiet nights

We’re less than a week out from Christmas, which hardly seems possible.  I think I maybe finally found the knack of not going overboard on spending for my family this year.  I’m a gifter.  I like to give gifts.

For a lot of people, this time of year can be difficult.  The days are short. The nights are long.  We try to compensate with lights.  We put them on our trees, we put them on our house.  For me, it’s candles.  I love to fill my living room with candles during the holiday season.

It’s a form of what we call “sympathetic magic,” the act of calling something to you by imitation.  What we’re longing for is the sun, so we light our lives up with artificial light to tempt it to return.

The only thing I like better than candles lit against the cold dark of winter, is the cold dark of winter itself.  The winter solstice is Friday, the day of the longest night.  Every day after that the days will grow slowly longer and the wheel will turn, spring will come.  There will be candles in the early evening, but before I go to bed, I will put them all out and spend some time alone in that quiet that only comes in the dark.

It’s a good time to do a self-inventory, to judge your progress against goals, to adjust your attitude toward yourself and others.  Preparation, for you to return with the sun and ready yourself for the growth to come.

At least, that’s my solstice tradition.  Followed on Christmas with family time, food and gift giving.  I hope that however you celebrate, and whatever you celebrate, that this season of good will finds you happy, healthy and hopeful, Readers.

I am more grateful for all of you than you will ever know.

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in the morning fog

Winter in San Francisco generally means temperatures in the mid 40s to mid 50s and fog.  Sometimes really thick fog.  That does seem to be the case this year.  Even though I live a good 45 minute BART ride outside of the city, my little city can get pretty socked in too.

Fog means dangerous driving conditions, particularly when you don’t know the roads you’re driving on.  For me, I find fog mysterious and beautiful, especially when it hangs low over the mountains or the bridges.  I never do seem to get out into it with my camera however.  One of these days I’m going to get up to the Marin Headlands when the fog rolls in.

Just imagine what the world of horror movies would be like without fog!  It sets a mood, for sure.

where-shadows-fall

If you have been waiting for the paperback to get your copy of Where Shadows Fall, your wait is over.  As of this morning, the paperback is available.  Click HERE to get it.

We’re headed into the busiest time of year, with holiday parties and get togethers, shopping and cooking and chaos of all kinds.  My life is no exception.  I’ll be trying a new-to-me cookie recipe this coming weekend for a company pot luck, and I have my first holiday party tomorrow evening.

Then it’s all a landslide into Christmas for me.

What about you, Readers?  Do you have a special holiday tradition, no matter what holiday you celebrate?

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so you want to start a revolution…

Through Shade and Shadow is just that, the start of a rebellion, though no one involved knew that at the time.  And, right now, Through Shade and Shadow is available for free for your kindle.

This first book in the Shades and Shadows trilogy introduces Alaric Lambrecht and Mason Jerah, and the world in which they live.  It’s a world that is starting to come apart at the seams.

If you haven’t read it yet, now is your chance to get it before Where Shadows Fall drops.  Let me lure you into an America not so different from our own, one where tribes of paranormal people have blended into the fabric, hiding their talents to prevent their own destruction.

Shades, a name given to them because of their particular weakness to the sun, are primarily healers, though they can kill just as well as heal.  They are feared for their gifts, particularly after one is found to be a serial killer. Of the tribes, Shades are the most feared and have the hardest time hiding due to their issue with sunlight.

Shadows are psychics and mind-readers, among other things.  Their gifts come from their minds and their name comes from the ability to control another person, shadowing them. Of the tribes, Shadows hide the easiest among the human population, their gifts easy to disguise.

Shifters are shapeshifters, people with the ability to shift into something else.  Of the tribes, Shifters have been hunted the most voraciously over the years, resulting in a low number of them still in existence.

Sages are those who use magic and each Sage is attuned to a specific form of magic based on their elemental affinity.  Of the tribes, Sages have had the easiest time adapting to the modern world, hiding among the new age and Pagan populations.

America is falling apart, shredding itself in it’s fear of those it once thought were myth, and Alaric and Mason are directly in the path of the destruction.  War is coming.

Shades and Shadows

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Looking for a signed book for a Christmas present for the reader in your life? I have a limited number of books available, including Forever and Through Shade and Shadow with the old cover.  Hit me up in email at natalie@nataliejcase.com  or in DM on Facebook.

 

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yuletide musings

It is still pretty early here in California.  I’m in the office of my day job, a job I thoroughly enjoy.  The sun is casting golden beams of light in through the blinds and it’s hard to imagine that it is actually December. The mornings have been cold, but by noon most days it’s back to t-shirt weather.

The holiday season is always a bit crazy, and being a Pagan in a psuedo-Judeo/Christian society can be strange.  Here in America, everyone seems to just default to Christmas.  If you live here you MUST celebrate Christmas, and if you don’t, you tip their world over.

It isn’t even the really devout Christians that get the most weirded out all the time.  I mean, sure, they’re the ones who started this idea that there is some sort of war on Christmas, but I’ve gotten the most flack when I talk about how Christmas to me is a secular, family holiday, much like Thanksgiving, only with presents.

I don’t really decorate for Yule or Christmas.  I live alone and it seems silly to me to spend a weekend putting stuff up, then take a weekend pulling it down and storing it when I’m the only one to see it.

That isn’t to say that all the years of my life as a Christian, and all of those Christmas traditions have gone away.  One of my favorite memories of those times was Christmas Eve candlelight service.  All those candles, lit one by one, passing the flame…the sanctuary lit up like daylight, only the light was softer and warmer than the sun ever seemed to be in winter.  We lit candles at home on Christmas Eve long after we stopped attending that church.

Today I light candles a little earlier.  On Yule I like to light my entire living room with candlelight.  It is said that candles at Yule are what we call sympathetic magic…we are reminding the sun that we need it to return, and welcoming him as he is born anew.

There is a feeling of hope that permeates these winter holidays, whether you celebrate the birth of the sun or the birth of your God, whether you ignore all that and give gifts of love to your family…there is hope.

That is something that can be hard to see.  It’s there, if you look.  Just light a candle.  Even one candle can dispel the darkness for a time.