The snow is falling; the phone is ringing; the cabins are ready!! After singing Christmas Carols at the local assisted living home and at the homes of our "shut-ins" it does FEEL like Christmas. Holiday seasons are a lot like delivering a baby. You prepare, you plan, you feel the adrenaline start to stir you into the work involved, but until you hear that first cry you don't really believe the reality of the event.
Christmas is a lot like that, the candlelight service, the dinner, the gifts, maybe a game or a puzzle, and then it is over...or is it. Christmas in other countries is celebrated over the course of twelve days and it is ALL ABOUT Jesus, not gifts, not Santa, and certainly it is "not YOUR Birthday!" Families gather at a different home each night and enjoy time together, trade stories, create traditions, enjoy each others company OR NOT!!
Do I try to do too much, expect too much, hurry too much. Every year I TRY to get a handle of the preparations to make sure that our celebrations are managable but memorable, but every year I start to get grouchy - more like Mr. Scrooge than I would like! Maybe, just maybe, I tend to compare our "laid-back" once a year event to those of other families where EVERY ONE shows up, the "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." Norman Rockwell like celebrations. Isn't that one of the ten commandments - Thou shalt not COVET? As I used to tell my sister when she lived far from family, surely there are others who have no place to go, no "home" that they can get to, or no way to get there! I just need to focus on the needs of others, and those who have no one to love them, no one to care for them, no one who wants them around on a Holiday.
GOOD PLAN Martha, now get with it and quit with the Mr. Scrooge thoughts!! To quote the jolly old elf - Merry Christmas to all and to all a GOOD NIGHT!
Friday, December 21, 2012
Thursday, December 13, 2012
IT IS SNOWING!!!!
Finally, the rain is past and the snow season is HERE! Bring the skiis, the snow boards, the sleds and the kids!! Let the winter begin! After a dry winter last year, we are READY for some weather, some winter business, some FUN!
It was a gorgeous and long-lasting Fall, even two heavy rain storms with winds did not get all of the lovely leaves to detach from the oak trees, but we are ready for some winter fun. That is one reason that we LIVE here in the Central Sierras - four seasons. I can remember during our "early married" years in Southern California we had to take a long drive over Angeles Crest Highway in order to see the change in the seasons. The drive from Sonora to Strawberry is MUCH SHORTER and lovelier since there is no SMOG - unlike LA in the 60s!!!
Be sure and stop at the "NEW" Europa on Washington St. as you drive through Sonora (unless you stay on the bypass) Try not to laugh when you see the monstrous changes along the highway in East Sonora where CalTrans and their contracted highway construction crews are building a monument to CA's financial problems - TWO 60 foot HIGH overpasses for the two lane extension of the bypass. It will be quite the sightseeing spot when finished - except it will have to have tall fences to prevent vandals from dropping "stuff" on the cars below - so no chance to see anything!!
Common sense is so lacking that we need to find a new name - like uncommon sense?! It is interesting to watch "the boys" playing with "their toys" moving dirt and rocks, blasting and moving some more rocks. At least some folks are working - with the high unemployment maybe they should have done it with pick axes and shovels, it would have put MORE people to work!! But no one asked me; I guess I had better just smile at all the sign holders, the Highway Patrolman with the flashing lights reminding us all to go 34 MPH rather than 50, and the "boys on their toys!"
Keep thinking SNOW, SNOW, SNOW - we need the water, the reservoirs are empty.
See you all soon!!
It was a gorgeous and long-lasting Fall, even two heavy rain storms with winds did not get all of the lovely leaves to detach from the oak trees, but we are ready for some winter fun. That is one reason that we LIVE here in the Central Sierras - four seasons. I can remember during our "early married" years in Southern California we had to take a long drive over Angeles Crest Highway in order to see the change in the seasons. The drive from Sonora to Strawberry is MUCH SHORTER and lovelier since there is no SMOG - unlike LA in the 60s!!!
Be sure and stop at the "NEW" Europa on Washington St. as you drive through Sonora (unless you stay on the bypass) Try not to laugh when you see the monstrous changes along the highway in East Sonora where CalTrans and their contracted highway construction crews are building a monument to CA's financial problems - TWO 60 foot HIGH overpasses for the two lane extension of the bypass. It will be quite the sightseeing spot when finished - except it will have to have tall fences to prevent vandals from dropping "stuff" on the cars below - so no chance to see anything!!
Common sense is so lacking that we need to find a new name - like uncommon sense?! It is interesting to watch "the boys" playing with "their toys" moving dirt and rocks, blasting and moving some more rocks. At least some folks are working - with the high unemployment maybe they should have done it with pick axes and shovels, it would have put MORE people to work!! But no one asked me; I guess I had better just smile at all the sign holders, the Highway Patrolman with the flashing lights reminding us all to go 34 MPH rather than 50, and the "boys on their toys!"
Keep thinking SNOW, SNOW, SNOW - we need the water, the reservoirs are empty.
See you all soon!!
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