Skip to main content

A Long Way Of Saying Merry Christmas!

Miso, our much-loved lovebird, photographed by Alexander Chow-Stuart.
This is just one of the most fabulous nights of the year....The Night Before Christmas. I still love everything about it...the lights on the tree, maybe the occasional lovebird named Miso on the tree (photographing him sitting there is now an anual tradition), the baking smells from the kitchen, the sense that somewhere outside in the mysterious darkness, even in California (and certainly around Wall Street domiciles or in DC), there's still a Victorian street where Ebenezer Scrooge is about to clutch his door handle and see the ghostly face of his late business partner, Jacob Marley...

...But also the stockings hung by the fire, the sense of magic in the air, the images of snowy rooftops and white-clad gardens, even if the weather hasn't cooperated...the original Charlie Brown Christmas Special playing in the DVD player (with that fabulous Vince Guaraldi score)...and those endless songs on the Christmas channels: White Christmas, Santa Baby, Jingle Bells, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Little Saint Nick...and the true greats: John Lennon and Yoko Ono's So This Is Christmas (War Is Over), Greg Lake's I Believe In Father Christmas, Straight No Chaser's The Carol Of The Bells, the classic traditional Carols themselves...

I know that some people hate Christmas, or distrust it, think it's overcommercialized, a time of phony emotion and excessive eating, spending and consumption - but I still see Christmas as I did when I was five or six years old. It matters to me hugely, even though I'm a Buddhist and the religious aspects have faded from my thinking (the Nativity is still a really charming tale but I think more of the pagan evergreen tree in winter: the symbol of rebirth).

I want our children to enjoy Christmas and we spend the whole of December anticipating it, opening an old wooden Advent Calendar door each day to see what Elgouin and Cargouin, our two little Christmas Elves may have left during the night (usually a chocolate coin each for Hudson and Paradise) and thinking and talking about how Christmas Day might be.

Obviously there's an element for Paradise and Hudson of it being about the gifts, but it's far more about letter-writing, back and forth, to the Elves, to Santa, to various other characters - and the building excitement as December passes (not to mention the single-day month that Hudson created between November and December - Devember - which is the true start of our family's holiday season).

I can't imagine my love of Christmas ever diminishing, and I hope that Hudson and Paradise - and Charong, who didn't really grow up with a Christmas tradition in her childhood Chinese-American household - maintain their enthusiasm, too.

Christmas to me is a little like Groundhog Day is to Bill Murray's character: an event that, in theory, you could grow to hate, and yet one that, through endless repetition and the expunging of any negative possibilities, acquires the authenticity and power of true love.

These are a lot of words - and I'm still a little hazy with the medication for my broken rib - but I think all I really wanted to say is that Christmas *is* love: it's beautiful, it's magical, it's perfect and I hope you all share in that love and joy and perfection.

We have made a lot of new friends this year in Tuolumne County, which has been remarkably welcoming to our whole family - so to our new friends and our old friends alike, here's wishing you a Very Merry Christmas and a truly Wonderful New Year.

Enjoy tonight and tomorrow...and may Santa leave sooty footprints by your sparkling, multi-colored tree. That squawking you hear is Miso complaining that someone knitted him the wrong-colored scarf!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Please note that for reasons I have not been able to solve yet, I have enormous difficulty posting replies to comments - so I apologize if I don't reply!

Popular posts from this blog

The High Tower Apartments and The Long Goodbye

Photograph by Dwayne Moser. This beautiful apartment complex in Los Angeles is called the Hightower or High Tower Complex (the High Tower name refers to the central elevator, I believe), and was designed in 1935-1936 by architect  Carl Kay - and made famous in 1973 by my favorite film, Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (see Why I Love Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye ). Although Altman used the building as Philip Marlowe's apartment in his somewhat post-modern Long Goodbye (the film plays with references to Old Hollywood and opens and closes with the song, Hooray For Hollywood ), the building has another direct connection to Raymond Chandler. It was apparently the inspiration for Chandler in his book, The High Window (the first Chandler novel I ever read), in which Chandler describes the residence of Philip Marlowe as being on the cliffs above High Tower Drive in a building with a fancy elevator tower. (Thanks to the Society of Architectural Historians Southern...
4 comments
Read more

Thank You Sonora ER, Dr Trujillo and Dr Johnson.

Microphone stand designed by Hudson. Our eight year old son, Hudson, has been having severe abdominal pain over the past week to ten days, and this week we took him to see Dr Jennifer Neufeld-Trujillo , one of our regular pediatricians at the Forest Road Pediatric Clinic in Sonora, and also to ER at Sonora Regional Medical Center. We just want to say a big thank you to everyone - including all the very friendly and helpful staff at ER - for their care of and concern for Hudson, who is gradually starting to feel better. We would also like to make a special mention of Dr Lisa Johnson , who was on call tonight for Forest Road Pediatrics, and who had a long telephone conversation with me, in which she answered many questions with a depth of knowledge and experience that was both highly reassuring and informative, and who left us feeling confident that we are on the right path for the weekend - always a difficult time when your child is not feeling well. Hopefully, Hudson will cont...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hyperbole And A Half - Why I'll Never Be An Adult

All images copyright 2010-2012 Allie and Hyperbole And A Half. These images are from one of my absolute favorite online comic strips/blogs/sites, Hyperbole And A Half by Allie . This particular post is called: This Is Why I'll Never Be An Adult - and these are just a few selected panes from a very funny and telling sequence: To check out the entire strip, go to this particular link for Hyperbole And A Half.   You might also want to check out the Hyperbole And A Half Store , which has many goodies such as this wonderful Bird T-shirt . Other designs can be applied to whole variety of products, such as T-shirts, mugs and iPhone cases (please note that not all designs are available for every product). I love the Bird T-shirt  because it makes me think of our much adored lovebird, Miso, who I'm certain spends a great deal of his life squawking these words in a language we can't comprehend because we're too stupid: Please visit Hyperbole And A ...
Post a Comment
Read more