I’m a bit frustrated with the Blogger-iPad interface at the moment. I’m in Vancouver, so I’m dependent on the tablet, but I’d uploaded photos for a post and begun writing it, hoping to finish and publish it here. No such luck. So I’ll have to save those thoughts for later and chat with you sans photo . . .
No Five Things Friday today, but I will be doing Two Important Things that figure highly in my Getting Festive in Small Ways Throughout the Season program, a program intended to combat a tendency to exhaust ourselves in a push for one perfect day. The first Important Thing is having lunch with one of my sisters at a very elegant, very special restaurant, just the two of us. She will be taking a long lunch hour from a busy workplace clearing the decks of lawyers and clients, also taking time during a tough family time, all to celebrate the season with me after a year of loss and love and estate-settling. I, raising a glass across the table, will be taking time to reward myself for getting through a very challenging week of dental woes and high-intensity marking. I’m not quite done yet, but I decided quite consciously a few weeks ago that it would be important to stop and Make a Christmas moment.
And if that weren’t wonderful enough, a nephew accepted my invitation — one of those ongoing standing ones that The Season pushed me into making more concrete— and I’m meeting him at our local favourite Greek place for dinner tonight. I do love being an Aunt. This guy is one of the sweetest 19-year olds you could hope to meet, a big hockey player, fantastic big brother (and pretty decent “little brother” as well) and an aspiring future screenwriter/current writing student. I have been blessed with a marvellous bunch of nephews and nieces, and getting to spend individual time with them. . . Talk About Festive!
But with both those Important Things being meals at restaurants, can you guess what my Third Important Things of the day might be? Why yes, I am going for a run soon. How did you know?
So I have no photos for you today, but perhaps you will draw up your own images of special meals enjoyed with one or two special people in an atmosphere that imbues the occasion with all the Warmth of the season. If you’d care to describe one you particularly remember from Christmas seasons Past or tell me about any you have planned for this season, I’d love to read your comments below.
For now, Gotta Run!
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Today, I am sharing a gift certificate lunch that I bought at our Dream Auction. The proceeds of the auction go to feed the many hungry people in our community. This year, I am choosing to support the less fortunate and to focus on how fortunate I am. Monsieur is going to play at the Extended Care Unit where my dad died last January.
It seems that by joining with others in music or a meal, our personal challenges seem fleeting and insignificant.
It's true, isn't it? That kind of sharing really helps sort out what's important. You and Monsieur are very generous, especially considering the losses you've experienced this year
All happiness to you, F. I'm decorating for Christmas at home, one piece of greenery at a time. Today was garland day:).
Now this is what I'm talking about ….
I am off for a fast-paced 5km walk. Two weeks before Christmas and I already have a Festive Bulge around my midriff and I am not liking that sensation at all. I am inherently stocky and muscular, not whippet slim, but I feel wrong being mushy and wobbly. The positive that I take from this is that, like you, I am making a concerted effort to be more sociable and inviting fellow school mums round for tea and cake after offspring drop-off in the morning. My social life (for a hermit with serious mental health issues in my past) is now gently blooming, which is a small and cherished Christmas Miracle in itself…but …the tummy wobble…off to pound the pavement right now.
Lettys
'Tis the season, isn't it?! But I like your perspective, recognizing that the extra nibbles came from a positive activity, sharing hospitality, building friendships. And the walking is good as well. Balance,right? It's all in the balancing.
Those both sound like wonderful celebrations! We're doing almost zip, zilch, nada this year, other than planning a very casual-with-the-extended-family New Year's Eve. But we were invited to a birthday party tonight for a friend we haven't seen in MONTHS and are very excited not only to see her again, but also to attend the first social event since we can remember that's not a family or work function.
Many of us seem to have moved into busy years with little of the entertaining that seemed to devour the month of December back a decade or so. I hope you have a fun-filled evening catching up with old friends.
I love how the season encourages us to forge new connections and rekindle old ones. Being an aunt is a very special bond with its own kind of love (as is being a sister).
Like Sue, above, December has been pretty quiet for me the last few years, but I'm trying to change that in small, manageable ways, building in a few small occasions. And that's definitely with encouragement of the season….