Holiday Seasons
After I deliver The (possibly dejected and certainly disappointed) Child to school I am going to get a formal start on the season by going to my favorite nursery (Fremont Gardens, owned and operated by my dearest and most long-running of friends) to buy paper white narcissus. I usually get these started right after Thanksgiving but with the travel and The Dog's illness and the weather....
Anyway, I will come home, fill a shallow bowl with pebbles and water and arrange the bulbs
just so, thus "forcing" them to bloom by Christmas. Which they will because paper whites are the most forgiving and co-operative bulb to force. And I love them. Within days they will start sending up long green stems and leaves, providing the only holiday decoration for a while. When the flowers finally bloom (which truly will be just before or on Christmas) their peppery-sweet scent willl swirl up and mingle with the other aromas of the season...the piney tree and the bowl of orange and clove pomanders...and it will smell like Christmas.
All that said, the season we are about to celebrate is Advent. You're not going to see any Christmas decorations or hear any Christmas songs around here. Not yet Not until Christmas Eve. Oh, sure, we'll get our tree this weekend. But it will sit out in the back garden, in a big tub of water, until we put it up on December 24th. The outdoor lights may be hung before then, but they won't be turned on. And I will be spending some time with shopping and card writing and festal menu planning because, of course, everything needs to be ready by the time the 12 days start. But it isn't Christmas here yet.
I know that just about everyone who celebrates Christmas gets started the day after Thanksgiving. And that's fine. But we keep to the church calendar....4 weeks of fasting (Advent) before the 12 days of Christmas. Advent isn't a fast on the order of Lent...although it used to be...but it is a quiet time, a preparatory time, a time of waiting and prayer. So we will have an Advent wreath and at dinner time will use a very dog-eared little prayer book to guide our family reflections.
I love Advent. I love that the first Sunday of Advent is also the start of the new church year. It is coming at just the right time because I feel the need of a new season, a fresh but quiet season. I could use a little renewal, a few weeks of "O Come, O Come Immanuel" before the big, majestic "Adeste Fideles" of the 12 day party that is Christmas.
Anyway, I will come home, fill a shallow bowl with pebbles and water and arrange the bulbs
just so, thus "forcing" them to bloom by Christmas. Which they will because paper whites are the most forgiving and co-operative bulb to force. And I love them. Within days they will start sending up long green stems and leaves, providing the only holiday decoration for a while. When the flowers finally bloom (which truly will be just before or on Christmas) their peppery-sweet scent willl swirl up and mingle with the other aromas of the season...the piney tree and the bowl of orange and clove pomanders...and it will smell like Christmas.
All that said, the season we are about to celebrate is Advent. You're not going to see any Christmas decorations or hear any Christmas songs around here. Not yet Not until Christmas Eve. Oh, sure, we'll get our tree this weekend. But it will sit out in the back garden, in a big tub of water, until we put it up on December 24th. The outdoor lights may be hung before then, but they won't be turned on. And I will be spending some time with shopping and card writing and festal menu planning because, of course, everything needs to be ready by the time the 12 days start. But it isn't Christmas here yet.
I know that just about everyone who celebrates Christmas gets started the day after Thanksgiving. And that's fine. But we keep to the church calendar....4 weeks of fasting (Advent) before the 12 days of Christmas. Advent isn't a fast on the order of Lent...although it used to be...but it is a quiet time, a preparatory time, a time of waiting and prayer. So we will have an Advent wreath and at dinner time will use a very dog-eared little prayer book to guide our family reflections.
I love Advent. I love that the first Sunday of Advent is also the start of the new church year. It is coming at just the right time because I feel the need of a new season, a fresh but quiet season. I could use a little renewal, a few weeks of "O Come, O Come Immanuel" before the big, majestic "Adeste Fideles" of the 12 day party that is Christmas.
Labels: The Dog
cobbled together by Moi at 7:32 AM
25 Comments:
My house has been decorated since the day BEFORE Thanksgiving so I feel really tacky right now.
My house will not be decorated at all, so Evangeline and I have balanced each other out.
Ah, pour quoi, mon ami? I'm not one to shove my beliefs down anyone's throat...you decorate what you want, when you want. It's just fine by moi!
It's all about the balance, jp. Which is actually what I'm in need of at the moment.
I don't decorate much, mostly because I visit the extended Midwestern family for Christmas, and I hate to return home to a bunch of decorations that need to be taken down (and generally aren't, until February -- really tacky).
But I like your plan, Lorraine -- it prevents Christmas overload by keeping things quiet, focusing on preparation, not going for the "big bang" fresh out of the gate. It's like ... tantric Xmas.
(D'oh!)
JP has lots of sex and I have none. Yet another balancing act for the holidays.
Phew, all the stores have been decorated and blasting Christmas music since before Halloween here... Me, I was in the mood to give a witches cackle and scootch off on me old broom, leaving behind a flurry of bobby pins - and massive consumer-driven America was telling me it was time for Santie Claus.
The quiet time sounds good thought Lorraine and family ritual is something I never had other than in theory...
"JP has lots of sex and I have none. Yet another balancing act for the holidays."
Upon what do you base this? he is always at work and hangs out with Shiela drinking when home. Not conducive to an active sex life.
"Tantric Xmas". That's funny, R7E. Not only does this little plan mitigate the pre-Christmas crazies, it banishes "post-Christmas let-down". Christmas morning is just the beginning and by the time we've run through our liturgy of fun and mayhem in the 12 days, we're just fine with the season ending.
Evangeline, what Eric said. Strictly speaking, inviting Joey Lawrence into his home to "keep an eye on him" is not sex.
Amy, I do everything I can to avoid stores or shopping areas until about 2 weeks before Christmas, when I'm in the mood to be in the mood.
And family rituals are a very good thing. Sometimes I almost forget how blessed we are to have them.
It took us like 3 minutes to decorate. Fiber optic trees, most of my outdoor lights were easily set and in about a week I`ll get a bunch of those things that I refer to as `the red Christmas flowers.
If I admit that I'm the one having all the holiday nooky I'll be considered a whore. You know, that whole fag-hag double standard thang. Lying simply makes the entire process much easier.
It took us like 3 minutes to decorate. Fiber optic trees, most of my outdoor lights were easily set and in about a week I`ll get a bunch of those things that I refer to as `the red Christmas flowers.
Grish, you're showing off again.
Eva, I would never call you a whore. Even if you deserved it. And then only behind your back. I'm nice that way.
I`ll have to work on that:) Those trees are awsome though they just unfold, plug in and go. I got them off of ebay last year...
Grish, for the last couple of years we've discussed getting one of those things but then around October The Spouse says they have them in at the warehouse and I start second guessing and say, "OK, maybe next year". I like the idea on a lot of levels, not the least being not wasting trees and the ease of it all. But then I think, what's Christmas without pine needles all over the floor and The Dog drinking from the tree stand?
LMAO!
Once again the Lady Lorraine blows Martha out of the water on the domestic doyenne front.
And gimme the "recipe" for the orange peel-clovey mix stuff to put in a bowl.
Jlow, Yeah, I've got Martha shaking in her Manolos.
And the pomanders are just oranges studded with whole cloves. If you can get your hands on orris root, which is some fragrant hippy herb powder stuff, roll the pomanders in the orris root after you've studded them, shake off the excess and it somehow helps make them last longer. But it's not required.
Note to self... all this talk of Holiday Nooky...
1. Perhaps I should hang a holiday stocking this year
2. I think I'll get to work on my Christmas list... I've just thought of a few things I'd like to have this year.
3. Maybe I should renew my frequent flyer card at the free clinic... (wait, did I type that or think it... hhhmm... do I actually see the letters on the screen?... pft
Lorraine!!! guess who got her snow day?!?!
i'll take some pictures later and show you some REAL snowfall
i'm all frazzled right now:
- drove to work (no major problems, but took me a little over an hour)
- got to work and found out it was cancelled (phone tree apparently broke down)
- driving back home find out there may be a "delay" opening at work. ummm. no.
- call boss in hysterics and almost told her she could stick it where the sun doesnt shine. she explained that i will just have to go in to work tomorrow. whatever.
- still driving back home get stuck THREE times. first time, someone "bumps" me back into motion. second time, some street hoodlum gave me instructions but couldn't push because everything was "slippery". third time, i have to fanagle some door-mats-under-the-wheels-thing.
- get home! now get to relax!
anyway. sorry for the long commentary, but i needed to vent it all out to someone.
thanks for some of the pretty snow from seattle. enjoy your holiday season!
- stacy
I wish I had your restraint.
You're right on about what Advent should be/is.
What a nightmare...I mean, adventure...Stacy. Have some cocoa and make snow angels. That's a good snow day plan.
And feel free to vent here anytime.
Amy, I swear, if you start singing "Santa Baby" I'm going to have to throw something at your head.
Renee, I don't know that it's restraint so much as a coping mechanism. Easing into it on the church schedule instead of rushing in because Madison Ave. tells me to just makes it easier for me to keep the spirit of the season. You know, all that peace on earth/goodwill to all thing.
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