Welcome 2015

Well, I have to admit, I never realized I would be away from blogging for so long. But lookie there! It’s the end of January 2015 already, and all the spectacular holidays have been survived, and the bleakness that’s called winter is here.

Wait Until Thanksgiving!

For the past month, I’ve continued to be bombarded with this wild fancy to start playing my Christmas music and playlists; and quite frankly, it scares me. I’d never really gave it much thought in past years; and the urge rarely came up until the start of the Advent Season. As a child, Mom would always take a couple days off to do her Christmas preparations – full-scale cleaning, decorating, cookie mixing and baking (at least 12 different kinds every year!) – all of which was done with a stack of Christmas LPs on the record player blaring through the house.

Enchantment In Our Near Future

This is going to be another one of those really really short posts, because my mind is otherwise pre-occupied. (I know, I know! How’s this different from any other time?!?) Well, this time Hubby and I are getting ready to leave for the Isle of Enchantment for a long weekend of nothing but relaxation.

My War Against Christmas

I’ve launched a full-on assault against Christmas this year. It’s war, and I’m hoping others will also take up the standard. Well, in all honesty, it’s more of a partial assault this year, but brewing to the full-scale assault for next year and in the years to come. The war I’m talking about is the fight against the incredible commercialism that has become “Christmas.” Not the Christian Holy Day, but the Hallmark- and Toys-R-Us-created holiday.

Wait Training

I had one of those mornings the other morning. You know, one of those mornings where everything seems to be pointing in one, very specific direction with everything that’s going wrong, you can’t help but finally see the message in one, huge EUREKA! moment. On this one particular morning, the message was about learning how to wait, and how to slow down. We all need wait training – even more so than weight training.

The Thanksgivukkah Minurkey

As each year passes by, we lose yet a little more of the holidays. There was a time in my life when each holiday was a separate entity. One holiday didn’t begin until the previous one was finished. And the only danger of two holidays getting too close together and being slightly “mixed” was Christmas and New Years (and even then, they were still quite separate holidays with their own separate TV specials).

But this year we’re seeing a totally different creature.

All Saints and All Souls

On the first and second days of November every year, the Church celebrates what appears to be two opposing “feasts” – namely, All Saints on the first, immediately followed by All Souls on the second. Yet despite their apparent opposition of solemnity (especially within the traditional celebrations where all the stops are pulled out for the first, with all the extra white candles, all the fancy vestments, the colors of white and gold and silver abounding, compared to the very somber darker unbleached candles, the vestments of black or violet, the more somber and sobering music, etc., for the second), they are actually quite similar in nature – two sides of the same coin, one might say.

Busy Times

I was shocked, indeed, when I looked at the calendar and realised how long it’s been since I last posted anything! It’s amazing how time gets away from us, especially when we get so drawn up into our own little worlds. Between work, preparation for the holidays, and everything else, I’ve been busier than a one-armed paper-hanger. But it’s not all bad; there are some good things that have come out of it – like overtime to pay off extra bills, and a newfound faith in the strength of numbers and unity for a cause (more on that, specifically, on another day).