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I bought a tiny live Christmas tree this afternoon, in the pouring rain. My living room feels right-er, now.
I like the Christmas season -- the Winter Solstice, Chanukah, not really Kwanzaa (which my father asserts was invented by an FBI agent provocateur or something like that), whatever. I'd like Diwali, too, if I could move it to December. And Eid. Anyway, though, I'm perfectly happy to piggyback my desire to celebrate the heart of winter on an xtian holiday that was, itself, grafted onto a Pagan holy day. I don't care about the nomenclature either. I like the seasonal foods, the sounds -- Christmas music, religious or pop, traditional or faddish, folk or forties -- buying people presents, and the decorations. I LOVE gaudy (which is why my belated introduction to Bollywood made me an instant devotee) and Christmas lights, sparkling ornaments, brightly wrapped presents... all of those things just make me happy.
In doing that "first line of each month" year end meme, I realized I hadn't written in December at all. Ha. Well, I'll try to make up for that once Winter Break begins, on December 22nd.
My niece, Ruby, informed me in scandalized tones last Saturday when I was babysitting her and her sister Rosie, that I COULDN'T buy Xmas cards for people! That handmade is better than bought. Um. Well. Yeah. That's how I grew up, too, and that idea was very firmly rooted in my mind and heart. It's only in the past... two years? that I've even been ABLE to buy mass-produced Xmas cards without suffering vast, heaping helpings of self-imposed guilt at the laziness and lack of care about others that implies in my family's worldview. But having finally freed myself from that, now I don't need to inflict that guilt on myself: Ruby can (and will!) inflict it on me. So I made her a card. I think I'll probably just do color photocopies of it to send to people this year, which I need to do tomorrow if I intend people to get these cards. (By the way, Ruby was scandalized at THAT, too -- she told me that I had to make an individual card for everyone, with drawings of each of the people I was making it for. She's a girl after my own youthful moral principles, that's for sure.)
I wanted to scan an old card from two years ago, too. This is the card that I made mostly for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wouldprefernot2, or at least he was the inspiration. Here it is.
When I look at Christmas cards I've made since I was eight years old, the one almost inevitable element is a Christmas tree. Here's my favorite Xmas photo of the year, so far.
I like the Christmas season -- the Winter Solstice, Chanukah, not really Kwanzaa (which my father asserts was invented by an FBI agent provocateur or something like that), whatever. I'd like Diwali, too, if I could move it to December. And Eid. Anyway, though, I'm perfectly happy to piggyback my desire to celebrate the heart of winter on an xtian holiday that was, itself, grafted onto a Pagan holy day. I don't care about the nomenclature either. I like the seasonal foods, the sounds -- Christmas music, religious or pop, traditional or faddish, folk or forties -- buying people presents, and the decorations. I LOVE gaudy (which is why my belated introduction to Bollywood made me an instant devotee) and Christmas lights, sparkling ornaments, brightly wrapped presents... all of those things just make me happy.
In doing that "first line of each month" year end meme, I realized I hadn't written in December at all. Ha. Well, I'll try to make up for that once Winter Break begins, on December 22nd.
My niece, Ruby, informed me in scandalized tones last Saturday when I was babysitting her and her sister Rosie, that I COULDN'T buy Xmas cards for people! That handmade is better than bought. Um. Well. Yeah. That's how I grew up, too, and that idea was very firmly rooted in my mind and heart. It's only in the past... two years? that I've even been ABLE to buy mass-produced Xmas cards without suffering vast, heaping helpings of self-imposed guilt at the laziness and lack of care about others that implies in my family's worldview. But having finally freed myself from that, now I don't need to inflict that guilt on myself: Ruby can (and will!) inflict it on me. So I made her a card. I think I'll probably just do color photocopies of it to send to people this year, which I need to do tomorrow if I intend people to get these cards. (By the way, Ruby was scandalized at THAT, too -- she told me that I had to make an individual card for everyone, with drawings of each of the people I was making it for. She's a girl after my own youthful moral principles, that's for sure.)
I wanted to scan an old card from two years ago, too. This is the card that I made mostly for
wouldprefernot2, or at least he was the inspiration. Here it is. When I look at Christmas cards I've made since I was eight years old, the one almost inevitable element is a Christmas tree. Here's my favorite Xmas photo of the year, so far.
