Just Pick One Job

This is a confusing telephone shot of
what it is really like to attend a zoom class
at the university.  Only the middle white part
is relevant to the class.  The rest of the shot is insterts.
Subject material? Clear.  Online delivery?  Difficult.

I am listening in on Rebecca's Business Associations Law class which meets Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.

If I wake before 4:30 am on one of those days, I need a quick nap before her 3:30 pm class begins. Bonnie Wyora asked me if I had any suggestions as to what she should do for those 3 hours ( not needing a nap herself).

I thought of 10 things I wanted her to do, and then said, “Of all of the things you want to do, just pick one, and when you are finished with it, spend the rest of the afternoon doing something pleasurable. 

The tree Bonnie cut is the one on the 
lower right hand side of the picture.

Do nothing for me.”

I couldn’t have done that second task I asked her to do: find something pleasurable and do it. 

Hard for me – that task of finding something pleasurable and immersing myself in it, at least when the work ethic is so deep in me, that pleasure is seen as wasting time, maybe close to sinning. Just moving to pleasure can fill me with the feeling of ongoing anxiety – shame that I am choosing that instead of the task of getting everything off of my job list.

So it wasn’t a kindness to put Bonnie to the same task – to find something pleasurable to do -- after checking off at one chore, of course, which she insisted she would do.

I only had time to brush my teeth and then I decided to bring my phone up from downstairs.

That is when I came upon her with our Christmas tree, already cut and dragged into the middle of the front room.

I burst out with laughter.

My first real tree, after deciding never to buy another real one back in 1970.


I don’t know if it was an environmental impulse then, or an impulse to be thrifty and reuse a fake tree over and over, or an action from a hope to never have to clean up pine needles all over the floor.

I don’t know why I really did something or anything 55 years ago. 

I am sure that now I don’t have to be stuck in a loop that is 55 years old.

“How did you do that in three minutes?” I asked.

“You had pointed out that you wanted that tree cut down. I walked home with Dave Wood this morning and he gave me his saw. we had measured the height of the place and where you wanted the tree. I had figured out that I had to lean into the tree as I cut it, so that it wouldn’t get jammed in the tree unable to move if I sent at it from a horizontal position. What more was there to do that to cut through 4 inches of its bole and drag it into the house.”

Bringing in the Christmas tree – a five minutes job.

Arta

Nativity Scenes, Remembered

Santa's Toy Shop
... the first decoration I pulled out this year ...

I have three creches that I love.

The first is a five-figured 4 inch high glass set. What I love the most about that set was the price, though I can’t remember it now, just that it was ridiculously low. I bought every set that was on the shelf, and then offered them to all of my kids and my sisters and even gave some as wedding presents.

I love this set because I used it to teach Alice the story that begins, “And there were in the same country ….” Alice would often come to my house and take them out of the China cabinet and play with them, moving them back and forth on the mirror that they sit on. I would even know if Alice had come over when I wasn’t home, because when my eyes would pass over the figures in the china cabinet, they had been rearranged. I always place the set just exactly right (for me), and those are not the places in the scene that Alice likes them. 

I feel badly that the figures are clear glass. When I was Alice’s age and re-arranging my mother’s nativity set, the wise men had glitter on their hats and cloaks, and by the time a few seasons had gone by, I think Joseph had been dropped so many times that he had no nose.

 The second favourite  I creche I love was purchased because of the first – me out looking for colour. But that year I couldn’t find Nativity sets anywhere. Again, I was tossed back to my childhood and could remember that in Woolworths, there were small figures that a person could buy, probably $1 each – people richer than us could have a lot of sheep in the flock. We just had one.

At any rate, I went out looking everywhere with Wyona, and she finally told me to try 10,000 Villages for creches which is where I picked up the Peruvian scene. The camel is a llama. That bothers me a little, but it doesn’t matter to Alice when she plays with it. I keep this set in the same place, in the China cabinet beside the glass set. Alice plays with it as well. The llama has already had to have its head glue-gunned on more than once.

... Santa's desk in front of the fireplace ...

And oh yes, that scene now makes Mary a single mother, Joseph having been dropped and the figure now irreparable, gone to rest since even the glue gun couldn't fix him.

St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal is the origin of my third set – in its gift shop. 

Catherine asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her a nativity set of nesting dolls (9 in all) but that I didn’t buy it – I couldn’t imagine the weight of it in my luggage, for one thing, having to fly back to Calgary. 

I was both pleased and surprised when I opened a Christmas package and she had bought it for me. 

... an elephant and a horse on one of Santa's top shelves ...

Not everyone gets exactly what they want for Christmas.


I did manage to bring the weight of it home and I don’t put this creche away after Christmas, I left it out on a chiffoniere, as well, and I have a well-spring of happiness in me when I see Alice taking the pieces apart, lining them up, putting the heads back on the bodies, and nesting the whole figures back into each other.

The three sets of nesting dolls aren’t interchangeable: that is, the tops of one set don’t fit on pieces from the other two sets. 

I have checked. All of the molds were different. Alice can get everything back together. I can’t, so secretly I wrote, A, B, and C on the bottom to help me get it right. 

That was a better solution than beating myself up over the fact I can’t disassemble and reassemble a Christmas decoration that a 7 year old can manage with aplomb.

I also love Santa's Toy shop -- no assembly required.

Arta

Eighty Memories of Eighty Years: 69 All About My Decorations

I have always loved Christmas and every year I have saved the decorations from the year before and I only throw out the one that can’t be fixed with glue.

After 59 years of adding something on every year, I have to label the boxes to know what is in them.

Joseph as a Single Parent Family
The donkey's head was broken this year. 
You can see where it was repaired with glue.
Mary was not so lucky. 
She was smashed to smithereens in an accidental drop.

Still, I try to pull them out each Christmas.

Since decorating for Christmas is fun, I began to decorate for all seasons: Valentines day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, July 1st, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and I finish off with my decorations for Remembrance Day.

I have to back up.  Decoating for Chrismas is not fun.  Every year I decide not to do it again; the three day mess around the house as I get everything out and up is discouraging.

But next year I take the decorations out again because I love them.  I can remember where I bought each nativity: the store, the city, the cost, the children who come to them and move around the figures I have already so carefully placed in them.  I love thinking back about all of that.

I rationalize that I decorate for Christmas to create small acts of beauty for others.

Deep down, I know I do it for myself.

Arta

10 Years of Blogging

Christmas 2020 - Gingerbread house at the Jarvis Home

I was curious as to how long I have been blogging.

The first ones occurred in December, 2009.

Now I have circled around the globe 10 times while typing for I have reached 2020.

One of the first times that I got some pictures into the blog was in December when Catherine and her family were making ginger bread houses.

A perfect job!

Now we have come full circle for her – ten years of gingerbread houses.

The technique has been mastered and now all of the joy is in being creative – a gingerbread house that they haven’t done before.

I didn’t ever make that a tradition, though I do remember defaulting to using graham crackers for the walls and just adding the royal icing and any kind of candy, usually something left over from Halloween that no one would eat.

Hello from Thomas, Hebe, Eric and Rebecca

I do remember the downside of making gingerbread houses: icing everywhere.

On the sides of the table, on the legs of the table, on the seats of chairs, on the floor, and in towels and wash clothes.

There are some traditions where the downside is never named, because it is only there for the clean-up crew, which is usually the same person who likes to keep the tradition going.

She is also the person behind the cameral here.

Arta

2 to 6 Days out of 365

"I like to do crafts at her house."

Is it really worth it, to put up Christmas decorations?

"I am colourig while my gtrandmother packs away decorations."

At a modest estimate, it takes me at least one day to take them down and one day to put them up.

Some of my sisters say they set aside 3 days on both sides of Christmas – just to get the boxes out of the garage and the musical toys with batteries again, and the nativities put together and the tree decorated, and that is after the lights have gone on.

And I am not talking about any decorating done on the outside of the house.

"If you ask, I will sing you a song that I make up."

Now some families bring everyone into the living room and have all participate.

Now this wouldn’t happen at Christmas, but I noticed that I was having the kids putting up decorations for Chinese New Year already and there was a lot of shoving going on.  

Maybe that wouldn't happen during family decorating time at Christmas.

Mimetic desire.

You can’t go wrong knowing that the desire to have or do what others are doing is innate.

Arta

O Tannenbaum

... Duncan with the last tree on the lot ...

I have to go to the internet to find out that the song, O Tannenbaum,
is actually referring to the ability of the fir tree's branches to stay  green.

I think of the song, mostly as a Christmas carol.

However, getting the Christmas tree is an important part of Christmas.

Duncan and Rebecca got the last tree on the lot.

There was nothing left in the warehouse when they were through.

... Duncan going with minimalist decorations ...

I think on of the loveliest trees I have ever seen was decorated with a white owl.

That was all that was on the tree.

It was quite lovely.

I think Duncan and Rebecca also had minimalist decorations.

Photo: Joan Turnbull

... the fairies put this tree on the wall...

Richard and Miranda had a different tree this year.

The lights on the wall formed the tree.

That was a perfect space saving tree.

There was still plenty of room left on the floor for the best part of Christmas: playing with the new toys.

Arta

The Spirit of Christmas - Montreal Stake

I want to fit in when I go to a concert. Not dressed up the most, nor dressed so down that I am also out of place.

I wore black.  Even if organe is the new place, or pink, or tangerine, still, black is black.

I only changed my jewellery once when getting dressed.  Seed pearls seemed like a quiet statement of respect but off they came in favor of my Martha Sturdy hammered silver, since there aren't a lot of place I can wear it.

... my earring is only half the length
of the smashing set I saw ... 

Now that was all fine until the chorister of the Mandarin branch sat beside me as she was waiting for the second of her numbers to begin.

She had on the earrings I wanted to wear.

Not quiet as wide, but the length doubled mine.

Beautiful lace mesh with a stunning lion's head in relief.

And a fabulous Chinese print that was a scene going from the top to the bottom of her dress.

Yes.  I just found my new black in her attire.

Arta

Decorating for Christmas

Nutcrackers and hazel nuts are in the white bowl.
Filberts are in the yellow cup -- all 7 of them.
Broken shells litter the floor.
Miranda should want to kill me.

... too tiny to see, but Betty is up front,  swinging her 
nutcracker tree decoration ...

Knowing that I will be in Calgary for Christmas this year, I decided to bring in from the garage, every possible possible Christmas decoration that I still have.

That is to say, I tried to give them all away, and have been successful with some.

But those that are left? They were all coming inside this year, I thought, at least for a sort and repair.

There were literally boxes of nutcrackers:  tall, medium, small, mini-sized, traditional, modern, some from Germany, some from China -- I seemed to have them all.  And I began to tuck them in every corner of my house.

Pedagogical question:
Is it better to learn by doing?
Or better to be warned that fingers are about to be pinched?

The children and I have studied the nutcrackers, played with them, carried them around, decorated a small tree with them, then taken the decorations off, and then put them back on,  but most of all, Michael has wanted to use them to crack nuts.  Because me telling him that my nutcrackers are ornamental wasn't enough, I went to Safeway to buy some nutcrackers and some nuts.

So we are back to the old fashioned Christmas, the one that involves hand-cracking nuts and pulling the meat out with little picks, if the cracking goes wrong.

Or we use them on the play-dough if we need to make designs.  Our original nutcrackers are versatile.

This will be the Christmas that involves bruising little fingers when they get in the way of the nutcrackers being tightened.

Oh the fun of it!

Arta

The Ward Christmas Party

A small black tree on my island.
decorated with harlequin clowns.
The black tree is just recycling my
Halloween tree.  I did try to hide
the bats on it with purple globes.

I went to the Bow Valley Ward Christmas party on Saturday night and Brook Melchin sat by me.  He and his wife had come in separate cars, and perhaps they had gone to different parties, for he couldn’t find her once he got there.  He did have a daughter there, but she was busy with her friends – which is what Richard told me would happen at our ward party.  He pretty much nailed the flavour of it:  turkey dinner on cardboard plates, some people in pearls and others in jean, children running from one side of the gym to the other, dodging around tables in their eagerness to play games with each other, and the occasional toddler who is dressed to the hilt, but can hardly walk and who tilts and lilts from side to side. Perhaps a new born baby girl will be there, one who already has an elasticized ribbon and flower around her head.  I added the last three on my own, but Richard got me started with the first three.

At any rate, in our conversation Brook explained to me that his mother is needing a lot of help.  She has home care in the morning and then someone comes in to prepare her lunch and to keep her company until about 3 pm.  Then someone in the family goes in to help her at night.  Then he told me that she felt a special bond with my mother for the following reason.  On the first Sunday that they had moved to town and were attending Sunday School, their baby was sick to his stomach and threw-up pretty much all over both Gerald and Evelyn.  They went out to clean everything up and Wyora followed them out.  She said, I know you are new.  Please bring your family and come over for dinner when the meeting is done.  And they did.  Brook told me the year – 1958.

I thought every home did this on Sunday.  Not even a glimmer of disbelief about this practise came into my mind until I was well into my 30’s.

Brook assure me that I was probably wrong.  Being wrong is fine.  But Richard wasn’t wrong about the practise of the ward party.  It felt pretty much like every other Ward Xmas Party I have enjoyed.

Laser Light Set Up

I was shopping at Costco and came across a box of laser lights named PRIME: Remote Controlled Laser Projector.   Only three sets were left.  I saw a man holding one of the boxes.  He turned it over and over, put it in his cart, and then took it out again. He retrieved it off the shelf and was studying the instructions carefully.  Back and forth it went.

Me:  What is keeping you from buying that?

Him: I am afraid someone will steal it from my lawn.

Man standing next to us and overhearing our conversation: I saw those boxes on sale at Canadian Tire.  They are $149 there and here they are $60.  If  you buy it here and it is stolen,  you will only loose half as much money.

Me to myself:  Good enough reason to buy it.

And I put a couple of boxes of them in my cart.

Miranda set up one of them in our backyard on an automatic timer.  The lights come on just as dusk sets in and go off at 8 pm when the kids have gone to bed.  Our set flashes on the east side of the wall of my house and into my bedroom window which is a lot of fun for a couple of hours.  With that timing the kids can see the light show as they sit at the table and eat their supper.

No one has stollen our lights yet.

Below is a picture of essay of Hebe and Catherine, setting the second box of lights up in their backyard.  Catherine says it is hard for the camera to truly catch the lights on their back wall, but I am sure you can get the idea of how fun it really is.  It appears that Hebe has caught one of the red lights right in her mouth.

Arta

The New Kid on the Block

Add caption

The 2015 Christmas Train passes by Moiya Wood's house.
While you can see this from her home,
Moiya and Dave like to meet the train in Salmon Arm

Her Christmas tree stands in the window of Bonnie's new house.

Not to beat the season, but it only makes sense when moving in, to put things where they belong.

No use carting the Xmas tree off to the basement this week and then bringing it back up next week.

Hers is the first sign of Christmas that has made it right to the personal level.

I have been seeing artificial Christmas trees as I hunt through the goods for sale at the Thrift Shop.

There isn't anything much sadder than a few whisps of tinsel blowing in the wind, hanging from a bent limb of an old Christmas tree.  So I haven't purchased one yet.

Arta

Gingerbread Houses

... as is, in the box, ready to go ...

Mary and Leo usually go to Montreal for Christmas.

This year their holiday there was for the coming of the New Year.

Over the years a tradition has developed around gingerbread houses.

The women make the gingerbread, carefully cut the pieces, glue them together with royal icing and then the fun for the kids begins.

... the candy sorted and contaionerized ...

This year Mary happened on a gingerbread house sale, the day after Christmas.

Boxes that were regularly $12 were now on sale for $1 a box.

... royal icing, the glue that never fails ...

There were fifteen boxes in the store.

Mary had a hard time justifying only buying 7 of them, but that is the number of cousins who would be interested in making them.

The kits came with the houses pre constructed, glued, with royal icing and with candy in the box.

Hard not to think this might have been Mary’s best Christmas treat ever.

... all in a row ...

A lot of labour saved in that after Christmas sale.

Arta

The old artificial Scotch pine

Decades ago – maybe even three of them – I bought an artificial Scotch pine for Christmas. The cost was high. I was counting that in the long run there would be money saved. That tree has been recycled now, but I was flooded with memories of it, as I took the decorations off of the beautiful fresh hemlock that was decorated in this house.

The decorations don't make this a designer tree. It carries home-made ornaments like the one made out of popsicle sticks, a little photo in the middle of Duncan, dated Daycare 2002. There are other kinds of decorations that must have come from Verlaine – “Baby’s First Christmas”, a soft blue egg encrusted with pearls.

Who does not have some felt decorations through which one puts a candy cane and then the felt looks like the head of a reindeer?

Maybe I don't have those anymore, but I am sure ones like this used to hang on my tree.

Rebecca also has some decorations that are to be plugged in and then they will either rotate or light up.  The string into which they are to be plugged is long gone.

Trees are easier to get down, than to put up. I could walk around the tree taking the lights off.   I circled it many tines.  I was enjoying the feeling of the soft branches against my arms and the lovely smell that comes with being so close to the tree. I wanted to keep the tree up longer, since we had a late start.  Or maybe I wanted to keep it up so that the holidays could be extended for we have had restful ones.   On the island there are rules about how quickly those trees have to be taken to the land fill. This is the weekend, whether I want Christmas to continue or not.

Arta

The Creche on our Mantel

... I just want a little closer look ...

Hebe pulled up a chair to take a better look at the crèches.


"I'll be weally weally careful."


The glass is fragile.


Catherine

Santa is coming to town ...

Santa -- hands down ... now count the Santa's behind us

Hebe couldn't wait any longer.


She has been begging me to get out Santa Claus.


And so we did.


Let the holiday fun begin.


Catherine

Santa -- hands up!

Christmas on the Wall

... a lovely Christmas gift ...

Catherine made a lovely gift for me some years back. A lovely picture for Christmas, done in black and gold and carrying the following words: Wonderful, Counsel, Emmanuel, Mighty God, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. She gave it to me framed and ready to hang.

I always thought I would put it on a stand and set it at the end of along buffet. But I could never get the stand and the picture together in the same place when I wanted to use them.

So I brought the picture back from British Columbia and had Kelvin hang it on the wall where we watch TV. No need to take it down after Christmas for now it has a permanent home.  I love those words from Isaiah, the ones that I hear sung at this season should I be see lucky enough to see (or hear a recording of) Handel's Messiah. 

Arta

A Heritage Nativity Set

... hand-painted by Wyora ...

One day when Moiya was visiting Aunt Lenore, Lenore took her aside and told her that she had something she wanted to give her.

In Relief Society, many years ago, the women had plaster of Paris molds of the Nativity and painted the figures.

Wyora did one for Lenore and one for herself.

... the Wiseman's crown has been chipped away ...

I remember ours well.

When I was young ours sat on the mantel piece and was reflected into the mirror behind it.

I am not sure that we always had a stable for the figures to sit in, but one eventually came when there was money for it.

... the earless top of the donkey's head now showing wear and tear ...

I arranged and re-arranged those Nativity figures with great frequency, not just when I dusted, but whenever I saw someone else had been changing them around – that is when, I am sure, I moved them back to the arrangement that I preferred.

There was the Nativity on one side of the mantel piece and on the other side, a church – a winter scene, painted white and the rooftop glistened with snow.

... the donkey, now faceless on its more worn side ...

This had also been made in Relief Society out of cardboard. Corrugated cardboard was its roof. I knew this church did not have the shape of the one I entered every week. This one had a tall steep and tissue paper for stained glass windows. If I wasn’t giving it a sideways twist to give it just the right placement on the mantel, then I was on the other side re-arranging the Nativity figures.

... played with so much that the blessed child has lost its hands and feet ...

This must have happened at Lenore’s house as well, for you can see by the look of the figures, that they are as well worn as the ones were at our house: lovingly, tenderly chipped by small hands that loved the nativity set.

Arta

Christmas Memories

David Camps asked his mom and dad to talk about Christmas Memories, so their family sat down and went around their small circle, both Bonnie and Joaquim sharing memories from the past.  When it came time for David's turn he confessed he had no Christmas memories.  His mom asked him if he could remember where he was last year at Christmas, and as soon as he remembered that he was in Catalonia, he too could bring some Christmas memories.

He will have more than enough memories for this year, if he decides to do the same "Christmas Memories" talk with his parents.  He came to Bonnie with a surprise -- to him.  He had read in a book that you can take the pine cones from the forest, paint them, sprinkle glitter on them, and use them to dress a holiday tree. 

"Did you know you can do that mom?", he asked 

In the same craft book, there is also a discussion of how to cut oranges, put a string through them, dry them and hang them on a tree for decorations.  Bonnie phoned to ask if I had ever done that.  The oranges that she quartered and strung look more like rotting compost than a beautiful craft as they hang alongside the glittering, painted pine cones.

Ah, sweet Christmas memories.

Arta

La Pesebre

¨La Pessebre a una casa¨

In an email, Wyona asked, ¨Could you please bring me back a El Caganer (the Pooper) along with La Psebre, the nativity set. Thank you in advance.

Wyona, I was in the perfect place at the perfect time to buy these for you, but I was there a couple of days before I saw your request. Now I have gone back to the plaza in front of the cathedral and the stalls that lined the plaza are gone as are the pooper and all of the nativity figures. Still I have not quit looking for you.

1. I found the perfect set for me in the window of a bakery shop. Joaquim entered the shop with me, or should I say, I with him, because he wanted some back up so that the woman would know it was me and not him who was out doing this shopping. The baker said that the beautiful bone set I was eyeing in her window had been purchased years ago and that I should look in the square at Barcelona.

2. I was looking at Roza´s set today, and this time picking up the figures, turning them over, seeing what they were made of, and wondering why I keep getting the message that these figures are purchased over a life-time. They are so expensive that I can see why people add them one at a time. I turned over a 3 x 4 inch block of cork painted to look like the white rows of buildings that rise on the hills of Spain. I saw the price; 11 euros just for that little block, so I imagine that a starter set might easily come close to 100 euro, and for that you might not get any of the other figures like the Roman soldiers, the woman washing clothes, the dancer with her tambourine held high, and the farmer with his ox cart. What I want are the cute arches and stairs and sets of houses up on mountains. Roza tells me that the price on the one she bought is about right and don´t pay more.

3. The other important part of the set is the landscape. Large pieces of bark are part of the scene, three of them stacked to look like a manager (though the bakery shop had used crostini to form a stable). The large chunks of bark also act as hills and mountains. I have collected similar pieces myself at the lake, so we have that already. Green moss acts as ground cover which is also readily available. Flat oval shaped stones that are about one to 2 inches long service as borders, and finally the ground s fines and. All of those items we can set aside during summer at the Shuswap. It is just the little figures that we need. However, it is the Spanish landscape simulated as part of the Pesebre that makes this so cute. This was even the case of the one I saw in the church in Barcelona, for they had tall reeds in the background, the same ones that I see along the side of the roads. I ask people for the name of that plant and they see it so often they just call it plant. When I got close, I thought it might be bamboo, for it has the look of bamboo on the stem.

4. Oh yes, besides that little pooper, there is another necessary figure to be purchased. Apparently little devils came up out of the ground and tried to disuade the shepherds from going to see the creche, so many of the scenes have one or more of those devils lurking behind some bush or tree. And in fact, there is a play going on Jan 2nd about this very event, but we shall be out of town and miss the retelling of that terrifying part of the story. Conerning the pooper, I saw him in his traditional peasant costume with a red hat. As well, you could make a hobby of collecting poopers for every well known political or musical figure is also in the same shape, but I am passing on those since it would be somewhat ahistorical to add them to the Nativity Scene.

I will continue to keep my eyes open but when I asked about a sale, the local people said no – no sales. The figures appear before Christmas and then are packed up and go of finto the night, not to appear again until the next Christmas.

Arta

Decorating the Kitchen

Having the Christmas spirit at the end of an evening of decorating. That was yesterday's goal for me.

• Out and in to the garage, trying to figure out which of the decorations to use this year. First bringing in the set with one theme, then the set with another theme.


• Settling on having the nutcrackers hanging from the garland that circles the ceiling -- the place where I hang the ornaments.


• Changing my mind to using silver as a theme -- just white and silver, instead. Sorting through the ornaments to find only white and silver. After 50 years of buying "Xmas", I have much to choose from in the way of ornaments.


• Finding batteries to put in the 12 inch acrylic flocked trees -- whoops, the trees now change color from white and silver to the red, greens and blues and slowly change into each other. Oh well, this is fun, anyway and I will keep them inside.


• When Mak walks in the door he says to me, "No Christian iconography here?" I take him to the clear glass nativity scene that is sitting on a raised mirror and he smiles, "Oh ... nice." I offer to bring in the creche set where the each of the figures is 15 inches high, and he laughs for he can see that already there is "no room in the kitchen".


• I remember buying that nativity set -- not just one, but enough of them that I could give them away for I loved the look of the clear glass and light shining on it. Kelve only took his under duress, to make me happy. Leo returned the set -- looks to eerie to me, he said. I still have one set extra, if anyone is interested.


• Mak sits down to eat and I turn off the kitchen light, plugging in the lighted wreath on the wall, and setting one of the acrylic trees in front of him. There is only one small tree changing colours in front of him, for I don't have batteries for the other 2 yet. Another spectacular show of pyrotechnics while we eat supper together is coming next week ... if I can remember to pick up more AA batteries ... and I must also bring in the other set of 3 trees. This is fun.


• David comes home late at night and I ask him if he can use his height to put the fir garland up. Kelvin has already gone through it, inch by inch, helping the limbs to spring out from the branches after being packed away for 11 months. I have some baked blackened chicken on the counter, a recipe I just got from Charise. I hope that the delicious smell on the chicken of the garlic, dill and balsamic vinegar will bring out Christian goodwill in David and the he will put the garland up. He will say yes, later. All he wants to know is method. "Tell me again how to put that up," he says, for he can remembering slipping that garland up on the wall for me last year.

The job is done. I am not humming Christmas tunes yet. I haven't found the seasonal CD's yet. That is coming.

Arta