Martinmas 2021 - Cigar & Remembering Athena

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Uneventful Martinmas. We lost Athena recently and the house feels empty without her. Had a cigar on the back stoop this afternoon. The yard also feels empty without her as she'd often sit out back with me while I indulged in a stogie. I checked this blog's Martinmas post from a year ago and in it I mentioned how nice it was having Athena around. I miss her so much. The holiday season won't be the same without her. 

Farewell, my love. 

Christmastide 2020/2021 - Summary

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

This has been the hardest year of my life. That's not hyperbole. One year ago I had no clue what we were all in for in 2020. On Sunday March 15 I heard the governor of our state announce that schools would be going to distance learning. My job was turned upside down and inside out. The murder of George Floyd on March 25 at the hand of Minneapolis police officers occurred 5 blocks from our house. The stress from the protests, riots, burnings, curfews spilled into the rest of the summer along with heightened racial tensions. The 2020 election ramped up into high gear this summer after the nation political conventions and both side of the political divide were fearful of what would happen to the country if the opposing side won. There were heightened tensions during the election in November and a lot of tension followed with the outcome not apparent as soon as it usually is. 

It was a strange approach to the holiday season this year to say the least.  It was entered into with a sense of fatigue that was a so much stronger than any other year I’ve lived through. The fatigue this year as we approach the end of the year is different than every other year in that we’ve got the fatigue and exhaustion of 3/4 of a year to approaching a year of pandemic. It’s been emotionally and physically exhausting. A large part of this year’s end of the year fatigue is the emotional toll that being isolated from others has brought.

I’ve always enjoyed the holiday season at the end of the year with Christmas being the pinnacle of it. This year was difficult but what pops into my head is the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Christmas still arrives despite disappointment and high expectations not being met. The hope and promise that Christmas brings need not be diminished. 

Joy exists despite the pain. Joy arrives despite the pain. The work of Christmas will continue.

Candlemas 2021

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

I worked from the school building yesterday and today for the first time this school year. Dale picked me up from work at 4:00. We had a relaxing afternoon and a quiet and lovely evening. 

Leftover tater tot hot dish for dinner and leftover gingerbread cake for dessert. 

Such a wonderful way to end the Christmas season with Dale and Athena.

Candlemas Eve

Monday, February 1, 2021

Today is Imbolc and also St. Brigid's Day. This morning my friend Zara wrote on Facebook: "It's the first day of Spring in the Celtic calendar: St. Brigid's Day, Imbolc! Brigid was a bishop of the  church and abbess of one of the largest monasteries   (men and women) in Europe."

Tomorrow is Candlemas. Some Christians follow the tradition of having Christmas decorations taken down by on on Epiphany, January 6th. Others take theirs down by or on Candlemas, February 2nd. Still, others believe that if you take most of yours down by Epiphany but still have some out, they should remain up until Candlemas and then taken down to avoid any bad luck. I left a few Christmas items out after Epiphany just for the fun of it and plan to have them down tomorrow. Not so much to avoid bad luck as that it's simply time. 

Ceremony Upon Candlemas Eve

Down with the Rosemary, and so

Down with the Baies and, mistletoe;

Down with the Holly, Ivie, all,

Wherewith ye drest the Christmas Hall:

That so the superstitious find

No one least Branch there left behind:

For look, how many leaves there be

Neglected there, maids, trust to me,

So many Goblins you shall see.

                       -Robert Herrick

Odds & Ends: Sunday Dinner

Sunday, January 31, 2021

I'll be returning to work on site tomorrow after having worked remotely since this past March. I'm feeling a little anxiety about it. Also finishing up a slightly modified dry January I went four weeks without a drink. Decided to finish up the Irish cream that's been sitting in the fridge since Christmas. Not much left. Just enough for half a glass. 

Listened to The Nutcracker a couple of times today. The recording I have was conducted by Andre Previn.

For cocktail hour I had a martini. It went down okay but it negatively affected my sleep. Maybe I'll do a dry February too. 

For dinner Dale and I made Tater Tot Hotdish. It turned out wonderfully. There's a rib-sticking quality to this that's especially appealing during winter time. 

For dessert we had a gingerbread cake. Unlike the one I made from scratch for Old Twelfth Night, this one was from a boxed mix. Regardless, it was delicious and especially so with whipped cream. 

Odds & Ends: Stamps

"A Christmas card without a Christmas stamp is like a birthday cake without a candle." - Nigel Slater

Guilty! The Christmas cards I send are more often than not without Christmas stamps. However, this wasn't the case this year. I ordered two sets of Christmas themed stamps in late November online direct from the United States Postal Service. 

The more secular set featured images from mid-20th century era Coca-Cola Santa Claus ads and were released in 2018. 

According to the USPS website, "The Postal Service issues four new stamps and a souvenir sheet showcasing classic images of Santa Claus painted by famed commercial artist Haddon Sundblom. Each stamp portrays a close-up of Santa's face. The four images featured in the booklet are details from larger paintings created by Sundblom and originally published in ads for The Coca-Cola Company from the 1940s through the early 1960s. Sundblom is the man credited with refining the modern image of Santa Claus."  

From the website Linn's Stamp News: "The tradition Christmas stamp for 2020 features a detail of the 18th century painting Our Lady of Guapulo by an unknown Peruvian artist. The painting is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the museum is identified in small type along the stamps bottom."

From the USPS website: "Enrobed in a pyramidal gown speckled with jewels and holding a scepter woven with roses and leaves, a crowned Virgin Mary looks down at a similarly adorned Christ Child in her left arm." This stamp was released in 2020. 

The first Christmas stamp issued in the United States came in 1962 after many years of requests from postal customers for just such a thing. The stamp proved to be quite popular. According to the U.S. Postal Service 1 billion of these stamps were printed and distributed by the end of 1962. 

Mom always had Christmas stamps for our family's Christmas cards. I remember her sitting at the dining room table with quite a station set up to get the cards ready. They had to be addressed and the circular letter she wrote had to be inserted in the envelope along with the card. People used to send out so many more Christmas cards than they do now. Pictured above is one stamp I remember from childhood. 

Odds & Ends: A Very German Christmas

I have a number of books in this series. The German edition is the only one I've read cover to cover and I rather enjoyed it. According to the teaser on the back of the book: "The fifth volume in the very popular Very Christmas series, this collection brings together traditional and contemporary holiday stories from  Austria, Switzerland and Germany. . . . Eine frohliche Weihnachten - A Merry Christmas - made all the more festive with therse literary treats redolent of candle-lit trees, St. Nikolaus, gingerbread, the Christkindl, roast goose and red cabbage, Gugelhopf and stollen cakes, accompanied by plenty of schnapps. 

My favorite story in the collection was On Christmas Eve by Helene Stokl. It involves an emotionally frozen woman traveling to a place significant to her past possibly seeking closure and maybe even redemption. It resonated with me due to the significant number of times I've felt stuck in my own emotions this past year. This was the type of story I want to revisit at some point.