Sing We Now of Christmas

"Walking down 5th Avenue, the lights so bright, faces glowing.
Windows dressed up with toy trains, a colorful display.
Snowflakes falling, New York's calling.
Land, sea, or air, I joust can't wait to be there for Christmas in New York, New York."

                    --"Christmas in New York"

Reflections on Christmas Past and Present

For some reason, Christmas has always brought a bit of melancholy for me.  I don't get seriously depressed, as some people do, but I don't full out enjoy it as many people seem to.  I've always preferred Thanksgiving.  In the past, that holiday brought my family together, with a great meal and good interaction among  my parents, my brothers and their families, and me.  We pretty much served the same meal as we did at Christmas, but the whole celebration seemed more relaxed. None of the materialism that makes Christmas so unpleasant to me.  Even as a kid, I found Christmas to be somewhat anticlimactic.  As I grew older and began to teach, I couldn't fully enjoy the days leading up to Christmas because of the pressures of end of semester grading, exams, etc.  When  I often didn't get out of school until December 22 and then had to do Christmas shopping, Christmas seemed to be more of a hassle than a pleasure.  My Christmas spirit usually came late, if at all.  Temperatures in the 70s or 80s usually didn't help me get in the mood either.  I'm sure all my  friends from the South can relate to the many times when we had the AC on earlier in the day so we could have a fire on Christmas Eve.  Fortunately that's not the case in Western North Carolina.

I do, however, ultimately get into the Christmas spirit, albeit sometimes at the last minute.  I am reminded of one Christmas many, many years ago when my friend Ann and I went to see the movie Scrooge on Christmas night.  I came out of the theater very much in the mood for Christmas and wishing that I could relive the day, more "into" it all.  Perhaps I'd learned a lesson from old Ebenezer himself.  Last night's excursion to downtown Waynesville helped move me along this year.  After a visit to one of the local breweries (two of their craft beers might have helped my mood), we walked the streets of downtown, enjoying carolers, one of the local high school bands, a reenactment of Bethlehem, horse drawn wagons full of little kids, and various other festive participants.  Waynesville is a charming little town, and last night its Norman Rockwellian aspect really came through.  I was glad to be living in such a laid back little community, and I couldn't help but compare it to what must be going on in Baton Rouge and other larger cities with people fighting traffic and crowds at the mall.  As we drove into our own refuge on Dolata Lane, we were cheered by the sight of our little evergreen tree with its Christmas lights glowing in our yard.  Since neither of us is going to be home for Christmas this year, we've kept our decorations to a minimum, but that little tree makes us smile.

Looking back over what I've written, I have to face the fact that one of the reasons Christmas is not as meaningful to me at this stage of my life is because I miss my parents.  My friend Brenda talks about how hard it is to be an "orphan" even at our age.  I miss my dad sitting quietly in an easy chair while eating his parched peanuts, taking joy in watching his grandkids.  I miss being in the kitchen with my mom, chopping ingredients for cornbread dressing and nibbling on her wonderful peanut brittle.  I miss all the Christmases with my brothers and their families when we were able to gather together, knowing even that that it would not always be so.  I know circumstances change and people change and priorities change as  the older generations pass and new ones are born and grow into their own lives, but it doesn't keep me from missing the old days..."Memories light the corners of my mind/Misty water-colored memories of the way we were."  I miss you, Bill and Gladys.

On a brighter note, this year I have no papers to grade or exams to give or averages to compute.  I am currently substitute teaching, but I can now say NO THANKS (and have done so) to working on that frantic Friday which is the last day before Christmas.  As much as I usually enjoy herding cats (my euphemism for teaching middle school kids-- to whom I refer to myself as the Grinch's Grandma), I have decided not to engage in that craziness this coming Friday.  That's definitely a benefit of retirement.  And I am very much looking forward to our upcoming trip to New York City and New Haven to celebrate with Carol's daughter and son-in-law.  Two and a half days of seeing the sights--store front windows, Radio City Music Hall, Times Square, the 9-11 Memorial--followed by a Christmas Eve service at Brick Presbyterian Church on Park Avenue (where her son-in-law is the organist!).  That's going to be a pretty special Christmas, if you ask me!

Then, on Christmas Day, we'll take the train to New Haven for a few days.  Yale Library, please be open!!  I'll feel like a real big city girl, visiting the Big Apple then Yale!!  It will probably be more excitement than this little old mountain lady can stand.

What Will Christmas Future Bring?

No one knows, of course, what future Christmases will bring.  Will we entertain family for a Ridgehaven Christmas someday instead of always traveling to another destination?  Will we have little ones sledding down our hill?  Will we form our own new traditions?  Today, right now, I pray for continued good health, for continued blessings too many to count, and for the opportunity to let the many people I love--family, friends old and new, former students-- KNOW I love them and always will.  LOVE--that's what Christmas is all about, isn't it?  If you take away all the trappings and hassles and distractions, we are celebrating the love that is the greatest gift of all.  Now that's what I call a gift!!

Merry Christmas from Ridgehaven!!

"Moons and Junes and ferris wheels, The dizzy, dancing way you feel As every fairy tale comes real."

Eleven months is a long time...

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've written anything in this blog.  I don't know why...maybe because I got behind and got overwhelmed.  Maybe because too many of my days seem like the one before and the one before that.  But then again, I think of some of the awesome, atypical days I've had since August of last year, and I realize there's NO WAY I can think this year has been mundane.

When in Vermont, ya gotta love cows!!

September...My long awaited and greatly anticipated trip to the Northeast to see fall foliage. Vermont and New Hampshire, with a brief glimpse of Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and a few other states thrown in along the way.

It looks just like the catalog!!

Vermont was bucolic and pleasant, with rolling hills, dairy farms (lots of dairy farms), and beautiful lakes WITH LOONS!! Yes, I finally got to see and hear my loons!!  We had good cheese, drove pretty much 3/4 of the state from bottom to top, and enjoyed ourselves greatly.  We were a wee bit early for perfect foliage, but then we headed to New Hampshire and the White Mountains. The foliage there was at peak and again we drove and drove and drove, seeing as much as we could in the few days we were there.  I also got to visit one of Robert Frost's homes and a loon center in New Hampshire.  Talk about excited!! (I can't seem to upload some of my very, very favorite pix, so this will have to do for now.)
  

The rocky outcroppings of the White Mountains were very different from the peaks of Vermont, and being the mountain woman that I am, I think I preferred New Hampshire.  Both states were quite lovely though.  Our little trailer, Dora the Explorer, did quite well for us and served our needs nicely.  This was the longest trip we've taken in Dora, and since we were outside most of the time, her confined spaces didn't bother us.  In fact, she served, as she always does, as a nice little haven for us when we returned "home" each night.

I could post a million pictures of this trip, but you get the idea.

I never saw so many white steeples.

Sunset on the Atlantic

Mt. Washington in the backgroun

Hi guys!!!

 Dora the Explorer

October brought fall, my favorite season, but the colors were muted this year, perhaps because of all the rain we had over the summer.  An especially nice part of October was a visit from Jean, Carol's sister.  I was sorry to see that the colors were not "up to par" for her, but we enjoyed the visit nevertheless.  While she was here, we visited Mt. Mitchell (where there was more color).  

Winter brought very frigid temperatures to Western North Carolina (as it did to many states), but we enjoyed it nevertheless.

 A pre-Christmas visit to the Biltmore with my friends Dave and Brenda Morrison put me in the Christmas spirit, 

and a visit to Denver to spend Christmas with Carol's family made for a busy holiday.  My winter days were broken up by substitute teaching, with a longer stint as a history teacher for a woman taking maternity leave.  This experience reinforced my decision that my full time teaching days were over, done for, in the PAST!  It wasn't a horrible experience, but I realized about half way through the nine week stint that I was NOT happy with the time it took to read ahead, teach, run off papers, and grade. When I recognized that there was a good reason why I retired, I vowed this would be my last long term subbing assignment.  Now I'm happy to sub on a day by day basis, taking nothing with me but my leisure book and bringing home nothing but that same book!!  

While I was teaching full time, Carol was dealing with contractors and workmen on a daily basis. The result was a beautiful new kitchen!!  We still have a kitchen  in the country, but we sure don't have a country kitchen anymore.  It's quite lovely and we're really proud of it. That kitchen,  plus a new backyard space and patio (with new plants and a chiminea) and ALL the work that goes into those projects accounts for much of our time this spring.  All of these projects have definitely improved the property as a whole, however, as have the many other projects we've completed in the past two years.  

Proud Aunt Donna with Katie

Way to go, Laurie!!

      
      May brought graduation visits with my niece Laurie, who graduated from law school in Nashville, then my niece Katie, who graduated from SCAD as an animator.  I'm very proud of both of these women and love them dearly. Way to go, ladies!!

June was...well, what can you say about the trip of a lifetime?  Carol, her sister Jean and I took a land/sea trip to Alaska on a Holland America cruise.  Traveling together for the first time, we found we enjoyed each others' company and liked the same sort of activities, for the most part. We started in Fairbanks, did a brief tour of Denali, eventually made our way down to Seward and started our cruise part of the trip.  We had booked a room with a veranda (I definitely suggest that) which allowed us to see lots from our room AND to alleviate the feeling of confinement in a relatively small cabin.  We all like the outdoors, and we had booked excursions based on that.  We experienced river cruises, fjords, glaciers, wildlife galore (sea birds, sea otters, whales, bald eagles, seals, bears etc.), more glaciers, and a float plane trip to see fjords from the air.  I cannot begin to tell you all that we took in on this trip.  I suppose my overall impression of Alaska is that it is much more beautiful than I expected and much, much more vast.  Great expanses of wilderness that are almost incomprehensible make me happy that it is part of the United States.  Seward's Folly indeed!!  Alaska is still WILD in many areas and I hope it is forever maintained in just that pristine state.  We also greatly enjoyed Vancouver, Victoria and Vancouver Island.  A highlight of that visit was Buchart Gardens, which is every bit as spectacular as people say it is.  It was simply stunning.  To top off our visit to Vancouver, I went to my first concert with The Fray! Thanks, Ben, for being such a good host!  

Here are a few of the many photos from our trip.  I just picked some that make me smile.

Canoeing on the way to a glacier.

Walking on Davidson glacier.

The view from one of the hotels.

Pretty cool, huh?

Sunset from our veranda.

Jean and I in the float plane.

Mt. St. Helen's on the flight to Portland.

Just a nice memory from Buchart Gardens.

You get kind of silly at high altitudes.

Ah yes...Alaska summers!!

It gets kinda windy on a fjord...FYI.

View from the float plane above Misty Fjords National Monument.

So...now it's July.  Where has this year gone?  I have been here at Ridgehaven over two years. Two wonderful years.  Two years that have brought me more happiness than I ever dreamed possible.  I can't say I've "accomplished" much.  No Great American Novel.  No volume of poetry. Not even much reading that would be considered "worthwhile."  But I'm living on a wonderful property that is nicer than I ever dreamed  I could  own, I have hours and hours to while away my time doing whatever I choose.  I am healthy with few exceptions (even my knee is doing well now, thank goodness).  I do feel old age creeping into my joints and my back muscles, but so far it hasn't kept me from moving nine million, four hundred sixty-five thousand, two hundred and twelve (more or less) wheel barrows full of rocks (don't ask), or mowing the property, or hiking a little bit.  

Back at home for a while, I have these things to look forward to...a new clutch of blue birds hatching and returning with their youngsters, watching rainbows from the front porch, sitting on the new patio with a fire in my chiminea, and most importantly, Laura's wedding here at Ridgehaven in early August.  With relatively few chores left to complete before that joyous time, I have only a few concerns...will the grass I accidentally killed off grow back in time...what book will I read next...when will the new season of Sons of Anarchy begin... and when will my next nap start?  I think I know the answer to that last question.