MLK Day 2020 - Enjoying Winter

Monday, January 20, 2020

Last day of a 4 day weekend. 

It's been nice to have a little time to reflect on this past Christmas but also on the beauty that can be found in the moment.

Today turned out to be a beautiful, sunny winter day. 

Rather cold out but the crisp snow, sunshine, and brilliant blue sky made up for it. 

Athena did well with the cold. Since I was off of work we got a few nice walks in for her.

Neighbors seem to be getting ready for the next big holiday with some ice sculptures. I wonder how they made them. Kinda cool if you ask me. 

It's nice to see the house bathed in sunlight. The above photo was taken at 1:30 p.m. I don't usually get to see it at this time of day due to work and weekend days often seem to be more cloudy than not lately. 

Dale and I had a very simple dinner tonight however I lit a bunch of candles to mark the end of a wonderfully restful 4-day weekend. 

MLK Weekend 2020 - Music, Wassail, Old Twelfth Night, Virgin Mary, and Deviled Eggs

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Woke up and listened to some music appropriate for a winter morning. 

Interesting discovering about Old Twelfth Night a couple days ago. After reading about it I decided to see what kind of wassail related songs I have.

I searched my Apple Music library and of course came up with Somerset Gloucestershire Wassail by The Kingston Trio which I've known and loved for years.

There's also Here We Come A-Wassailing performed by Bonnie Rideout  on the A Scottish Christmas album. It's a medley with another song called Bottom of the Punch Bowl which is not a song I'm familiar. 

Dale and I worked out with weights this morning at the gym. I weighed in and I'm 6 pounds lighter than I was on January 1st. This dry January is paying off. I had a Virgin Mary instead of a Bloody Mary for brunch at the Red Stag. 

Warren and Gary came over for dinner tonight. Warren brought some deviled eggs and Dale made Texas chili. We also watched a John Melaney comedy special. Very funny stuff. 

MLK Weekend 2020 - Oatmeal, Walking Athena, & The Crown

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Lost my recipe for porridge. Oatmeal with LOTS of brown sugar will have to do. 

Beautiful morning for walking Athena. Temps in the 20s however they plummeted to single digits by late morning.

Quiet evening in. We watched episode 5 of season 3 of The Crown. I was upset to learn of the cast changes after season 2 but have now fallen in love with the portrayals by the new actors. 

MLK Weekend 2020 - Old Twelfth Night

Friday, January 17, 2019

Dale came home around noon and the snow started in at 1:30 p.m. 

Did some reading today in Nigel Slater's book, The Christmas Chronicles. He writes, "Those sad souls who fail to appreciate the cold months might feel better when they remember that the winter solstice was once the time of much making merry. The festivities lasted from harvest until Candlemas. Drunkenness, debauchery and feasting were the rules of the day. A far better idea than sitting around moaning about the cold and rain." (p.433)

There's no debauchery going on around here and certainly no drinking due to our dry January. However, according to Slater, today, the 17th, was Old Twelfth Night.

According to Wikipedia, "In some places, particularly southwest England, Old Twelfth Night is still celebrated on 17 January. This continues the  custom of the Apple Wassail on the date that corresponded with 6 January on the Julian calendar at the time of the change in calendars enacted by the Calendar Act of 1750."

MLK Weekend 2020 - In the Bleak Midwinter

Friday, January 17, 2020

Woke up to a gray winter morning. A snow storm is to roll in later today. Right now, although gloomy,  it looks very peaceful outside. 

Dale is working today. I am off. Athena seems none too anxious for her morning walk. 

Christmastide 2019/2020 - Summary

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Interesting year. Not a bad one but challenging none-the-less. Dale and I reminisced this Christmas break about helping his parents move across state lines last Christmas break. We arrived home from that experience just a year ago yesterday. That was followed two months later with helping my Mom move from her condo to senior living. Big changes for our parents and a reminder to us that time is moving forward with little regard for our ability to process the complexity of feelings that go with those changes. 

Our church, Gethsemane, recently closed and that has driven the two of us to a lot of reflection. It's been a spiritual home and a meaningful place for both of us and it's been painful to see it go. However, we wonder if at times we gave too much and used the distraction of its troubles to keep us from tending to other important matters in our lives. 

During this break I had the desire to withdraw into myself. Usually during Christmas I want to spend time with others. I still made plans with folks, and in the long run I'm glad I did, but I was ultimately not wanting to spend time with others yet not wanting to be alone. I've been feeling more sadness than usual and I think on one level I knew I needed to process it. 

Dale and I were out for lunch on one of the last days of vacation and we both revisited memories that neither of us had shared with each other before. We think they were pretty defining moments in our lives where the two of us realized that we felt different from others and that we had to withdraw into ourselves and not share with others who we were. We felt that we learned to withhold things we believed risky to share and also started to not share inconsequential things as well. We learned to not get close to others and to withdraw. 

Christmas has always been meaningful to me but in my mania regarding it there's always been an element of using it as something of a distraction from life issues. After feeling like getting to the root of some of my pain the need for that mostly went away. Thus, as much as I enjoyed the season this year it was easier to let it go. 

Throughout much of this Christmas break I've held a few people in my thoughts. Of course, one is my dad. The cemetery where he's buried is just up the road from me. I think of him often but especially when Athena and I walk past his mausoleum. Another is Brian, an old friendship that didn't end the way I wanted it too and was never really resolved to my liking. Finally, Sharon, my dear friend from high school. I didn't find out about her death until many years after it happened when I ran into a classmate I hadn't seen in years who knew her. While taking down ornaments from the tree today I held them in my thoughts for a while. It felt like the three of them were actually with me. We might say I was visited by three spirits from the past. 

I decided to do a dry January this year and Dale decided to support me by doing one as well. A couple of close friends, Mike and Steve, have sung the praises of doing a detox month lately so I thought I'd try it out. We've both concluded that the ritual of drinking is what we miss more than the drinking itself. Mike and Charisse were over recently and once Mike and I were over the hump of not shaking up martinis we were fine not drinking. Related to this, the anticipation of cocktail hour is half the fun of cocktail hour itself. Not drinking has caused me to pay attention to some issues from my past, a few of them painful. This is a good thing. And my sleep since January 1st has been, well, incredible. 

Letting go of past anger allowed me to more easily forgive myself for hurting others and holding on to it for so long. In forgiving myself I found it easier to forgive others I feel have hurt me. Quite an epiphany for Epiphany. 

I've been feeling some sadness and melancholy with how fleeting life seems sometimes. But rebirth is the promise of Christmas and with that promise I'll move forward.

The Twelfth Day of Christmas - Christmas Cornucopia

Sunday, January 5, 2020

The tree, decorations, and tchotchkes are down. Dale and I sat down to listen to Christmas Cornucopia by Annie Lennox. 

I know it's one of Dale's favorites.

Mine too. 

The Twelfth Day of Christmas - Dad's Manger

Sunday, January 5, 2020

I took the big manger scene down yesterday - the Lennox Renaissance one that Mom used to set up on the buffet at the house on Stevens. For the life of me I can't find the wise men figures that go with that set. Where could they hav gone to?! Anyway, for today I set up the manger Dad made out of sticks for me when I was a little boy. This set includes the wise men. Now where could the other ones have gone to?

Twelfth Day of Christmas - Christmas Coming Down

Sunday, January 5, 2020

It took 4 hours. Including the tree. Listened to lots of Christmas music. 

The Twelfth Day of Christmas - Walking Athena

Sunday, January 5, 2020

The sun peeked out again today. Glorious. 

The Twelfth Day of Christmas - The Dayton's Project

Sunday, January 5, 2020

After Dale and I worked out this morning I had him drive me by the Dayton's Project which is occupying the old Dayton's Department Store space. 

This year they've done up some of the windows with Christmas displays to harken back to the old glory days of the store. 

The 8th Street corner windows featured Santa Bear. 

Very fun. 

And very nostalgic.

I hope they do it again next year too. 

The Eleventh Day of Christmas - Miracle on 34th Street

Saturday, January 24, 2020

Dale and I watched Miracle on 34th Street tonight. Neither one of us has seen it in a number of years. We used to watch it on Thanksgiving morning while the turkey was baking. 

My high school friend, Sharon, and I went to see this at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts way back when we were in high school. I remember how charmed and enchanted we were with it. Sadly, Sharon died about 10 years ago. I still think of her fondly and often. 

We had salmon for dinner and for dessert we decided to finish up some of the cookies Mom made for us. I can't remember what they're called. It's been a number of years since she's made them however they were a yearly thing when we were kids. It's a pillow like cookie similar in concept to ravioli and they're stuffed with dates. They're delicious and when I first bit into one after all these years it brought me right back to Christmas at the house on Stevens with the sounds of the Kingston Trio and the Harry Simeone Chorale in my ears.