Ah nostalgia. Sometimes it's itchy like that wool kilt or dress with the lace on the neck I'd have to wear to church. Other times it's warm and fuzzy like your favorite stuffed animal. Let's stick with warm fuzzy for Christmas sake.
Everyone has their own Christmas traditions and I'm going to share some of my family's as well as some memories (I can't find photos... not that I'm looking hard right now for them) Here we go-
My mom's birthday is December 1st and she usually starts decorating that day. She has accumulated so many Christmas decorations that we could have our own Christmas Loft.
When we lived in Vergennes, we had red candles in our windows. It looked really cool- most if not nearly everyone has white (we do now- too many windows to do), but the red really stood out and I liked it. I'm not sure why my dad chose red- I've seen blue and sometimes green. I'll have to ask him sometime. At one point when I was in junior high or high school, he put lights around the windows and the front of the house and the windowboxes. It was a lot of work and only lasted a couple of years. We're not the type to go all out on Christmas lights. This year I put lights in our apple tree which looked really nice, but now for some reason they won't come on. Dang lights...
My brother and I had a tradition. One of us would get to put the angel on the top of the tree (after all the ornaments were on- it was the last to go on top) while the other would get to put Baby Jesus in the manger or what my mom taught us to call the crèche.
We didn't open our presents until Christmas morning. We opened our stockings the "Santa" would put on the foot of our beds. My dad (I mean Santa) always put a tangerine and life savers in our stocking along with other goodies.
As a child, I remember putting cookies and milk and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer (especially Rudolph who I swore I saw every Christmas, but it was only the Panton Road stop light.)
I loved watching the Christmas shows on tv and still do. My favorite is Charlie Brown and my second favorite is Rudolph. Third comes the Grinch and that's it. I like watching the old Miracle on 34th Street with Natalie Wood and occasionally It's a Wonderful Life. I am also a big fan of The Man Who Came to Dinner. Look it up- it's great.
Last night while coming home from church my parents and I were talking about Christmas and I told them when I was a kid I thought that someone made car lights red (brake lights) and white (headlights) in Christmas colors like the candy cane. Ah, what a thought.
At church last night we read the birth story of Jesus from the book of Luke and sang carols. I remember going Christmas caroling and loved it. I don't see or hear of people doing it, but we mostly sang at Nursing homes which are places I don't tend to go to. I guess I should start so I can go caroling again!
My favorite Christmas songs are:
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
I Wonder as I Wander
Ave Maria
What Child is This? (Greensleeves)
Gabriel's Message sung by Sting
White Christmas (by Bing Crosby- no one does it like Bing!)
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Christmastime is Here
Blue Christmas (Elvis)
Some memorable Christmas gifts I've gotten over the years:
a play kitchen set
a Fisher Price doll house the I played with forever
Barbie and the Rockers with matching long haired Ken (I know ew, but it was pretty nice at the time and it all comes back into fashion)
Barbie's friend Miko that looked like me (she's my favorite)
Cabbage Patch doll that I'm sure my parents looked long and hard for and paid too much for as well. Thank you!
Toy train
Danforth Pewter Ornaments- I have a collection
a multicolored sapphire bracelet (it's my birthstone)
and many others
It's getting late and I'm tired. But before I go, I just wanted to say that however you celebrate and whatever your traditions are, don't forget why we celebrate!
Merry Christmas!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Strangers on a train
On Friday Dec. 2, I took a train to Rochester, NY to surprise a friend for her 40th birthday. It had been many years since I had taken the train to Rochester- since 1997 or 1998 when I was in school out there. I drove my car to Whitehall where I was picking up the train. I was early and the train was 40 minutes late. Hurry up and wait. Not one of my fortés (hence the name of the blog- just a reminder). It was still light out so I took out my knitting- a hat that I had already started over twice and I was on my third try (and it looks great now that it's actually finished.) I sat by myself and listened to an older woman talk/yell into her cell phone about visiting Vermont and the holidays and traveling here and there. She even had an ipad that she played some kind of word game on- I was impressed.
In Fort Edward and in Saratoga Springs, the train station was very quaint and a whole lot nicer than my "train station" in Whitehall (just a glass structure to stand in in case of rain). Come to find out later that in Saratoga, there was a "Polar Express" train that evening with all kinds of little kids dressed in their pajamas loading up on a train for a few hours to hear the story. Back to my story... In Saratoga, I noticed 2 women who came aboard and sat in front of me. I could tell one was foreign and the other was from NYC (thick accent). The NYC woman was an educator who had just been at a conference in Saratoga and was talking the other woman's ear off. The woman who was traveling got off at the next stop- Schenectady- with me and another man and possibly 1 or 2 other people.
While waiting for the train to stop, I asked the young woman where she was traveling from and she told me Australia. She asked me if I was going to be waiting at the station for the next train too and I told her yes. Christine had a worried look on her face, but was reassured when she realized she wouldn't be alone at the station waiting for her next train. The man also was waiting for the same train and we all sat in the waiting area and talked. Klaus, had me guess what nationality he was (which was hard because he had an English accent that was different). He's German, but schooled in England (see!) and is a pediatric neurologist, living and working in Montréal, working in England while taking the American Medical boards to work in Syracuse. (no, I don't understand it all either) Christine was a vet but is now a chiropractor and acupuncturist for large animals- mainly horses, dogs, and cats.
We had a 2+ hr layover in Schenectady so we talked for about an hour about education, what we did, jobs, and then we decided to go to the pub conveniently located right next door to get something to eat (and drink) before our train west. We all had a beer and a cheese burger. We talked more about our families and our future endeavors and decided to have one more beer before the train came at 7:30. At 7:15, we were chugging our beers, paying the tab (which I didn't have enough cash but gave what I could and promised to pay Klaus back when we met again- whenever that will be). We ran back to the station (literally- not good with beer sloshing around your insides), grabbed our bags and ran up the stairs to the track and tried not to throw up. We laughed and of course decided to sit together. Klaus was on his way to Syracuse to finish up his boards, I was headed to Rochester, and Christine was taking the train to Chicago and then catching another train to Denver. She had decided to splurge and get a sleeper car for this night, so she invited us to her sleeper car for wine (whew! not much room for that). We further discussed the meaning of life and all that- just lots of fun talking to Christine and Klaus. We exchanged addresses and emails before Klaus departed. Christine and I kept talking for the hour or so after Syracuse. We talked about relationships- good and bad- before I had to go. It was such a great night.
What I noticed was that we are all in transition in our lives and God put us together just for a brief moment- it was awesome. We aren't alone in our struggles and questioning- I found 2 other people who are just as confused. Maybe they seem more together and have a job (well, I do too now) but they are still in search for something. They too, are pursuing.
In Fort Edward and in Saratoga Springs, the train station was very quaint and a whole lot nicer than my "train station" in Whitehall (just a glass structure to stand in in case of rain). Come to find out later that in Saratoga, there was a "Polar Express" train that evening with all kinds of little kids dressed in their pajamas loading up on a train for a few hours to hear the story. Back to my story... In Saratoga, I noticed 2 women who came aboard and sat in front of me. I could tell one was foreign and the other was from NYC (thick accent). The NYC woman was an educator who had just been at a conference in Saratoga and was talking the other woman's ear off. The woman who was traveling got off at the next stop- Schenectady- with me and another man and possibly 1 or 2 other people.
While waiting for the train to stop, I asked the young woman where she was traveling from and she told me Australia. She asked me if I was going to be waiting at the station for the next train too and I told her yes. Christine had a worried look on her face, but was reassured when she realized she wouldn't be alone at the station waiting for her next train. The man also was waiting for the same train and we all sat in the waiting area and talked. Klaus, had me guess what nationality he was (which was hard because he had an English accent that was different). He's German, but schooled in England (see!) and is a pediatric neurologist, living and working in Montréal, working in England while taking the American Medical boards to work in Syracuse. (no, I don't understand it all either) Christine was a vet but is now a chiropractor and acupuncturist for large animals- mainly horses, dogs, and cats.
We had a 2+ hr layover in Schenectady so we talked for about an hour about education, what we did, jobs, and then we decided to go to the pub conveniently located right next door to get something to eat (and drink) before our train west. We all had a beer and a cheese burger. We talked more about our families and our future endeavors and decided to have one more beer before the train came at 7:30. At 7:15, we were chugging our beers, paying the tab (which I didn't have enough cash but gave what I could and promised to pay Klaus back when we met again- whenever that will be). We ran back to the station (literally- not good with beer sloshing around your insides), grabbed our bags and ran up the stairs to the track and tried not to throw up. We laughed and of course decided to sit together. Klaus was on his way to Syracuse to finish up his boards, I was headed to Rochester, and Christine was taking the train to Chicago and then catching another train to Denver. She had decided to splurge and get a sleeper car for this night, so she invited us to her sleeper car for wine (whew! not much room for that). We further discussed the meaning of life and all that- just lots of fun talking to Christine and Klaus. We exchanged addresses and emails before Klaus departed. Christine and I kept talking for the hour or so after Syracuse. We talked about relationships- good and bad- before I had to go. It was such a great night.
What I noticed was that we are all in transition in our lives and God put us together just for a brief moment- it was awesome. We aren't alone in our struggles and questioning- I found 2 other people who are just as confused. Maybe they seem more together and have a job (well, I do too now) but they are still in search for something. They too, are pursuing.
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