“For the spirit of Christmas fulfills the greatest hunger of mankind.”
A flicker is dining at my suet feeder. Compared to the birds I usually see, it is enormous as his body is the same length as the wire feeder. His back is to me so I can see the beautiful pattern of his feathers. I also see that a few of the smaller feeders need seeds so I’ll go out later and fill them. The gold finches and the chickadees especially love those smaller feeders. I haven’t seen many of the spawns of Satan of late. Perhaps they feel the vibes.
At 45° the day is winter warm. Gracie was out for a long while earlier this morning, a sure sign she finds the day agreeable. It’s now her morning nap time.
The den is a mess filled as it is with bags of gifts to be wrapped, tissue paper, assorted wrapping paper rolls and boxes with ribbons and tags. Only a few gifts are left upstairs to be brought down, but all the up and down the stairs yesterday took its toll so I left the larger, heavier boxes until today. I wrapped a few gifts last night, but today I’ll finish the bulk of them. I enjoy wrapping presents and making the ribbon just so, but for my sisters, I can’t add ribbon to the gifts as their cats are notorious ribbon eaters. Mine usually aren’t but this year Fern has given a few gifts a taste.
The houses are beautiful all lit up for Christmas. Many use colored lights on the fences and bushes but just as many use white ones. The candles in the windows are mostly white though I did see some red ones the other night. When I was a kid, orange was the color of choice for window lights. No houses had white lights anywhere. The outside lights were all colors and the strands had those huge bulbs you don’t see anymore. I have a couple of sets from long ago, but I don’t use them. I guess I keep them more for sentiment than anything else. They were beautiful and they were bright.
At dinner last week my sister noted that people really are nicer at Christmas. They tend to smile more for no apparent reasons. They are less impatient. They will even stop to admire a tree or a decoration. I agree with her and have a theory as to the reason. I believe all of us have pieces of our childhoods kept alive especially for this time of year when we welcome wonder and magic and let Christmas into our hearts.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: Christmas, Gift wrapping, lights, Suet, Tissue paper
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December 12, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Nova is teasing Teodor at the moment and I can see that he is getting more and more annoyede. It won’t be long until he bites and scratches her now 🙂 🙂
No wrapping over here but I do like to wrap ´presents though.
Almost only white lights when I was young and I think there’s still more whites than colored here. I wonder why it is that way, tradition perhaps? I did put up my lights yesterday but there’s still no lights on though, I need longer electrical cords so I’ll try to buy them on Wednesday. The hideous green one is placed on the garage and it doesn’t look good there either 🙂 🙂 🙂
Christmas eve was the best day when I had the garden centre. Everyone was happy and never in a hurry. It didn’t come many that day though since it is our big day. I always closed in time so I could see Donald Duck and his friends 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
December 12, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Christer,
My two cats do that on occasion. They sniff noses then whack each other.
Wrapped presents look great around the tree. I love the ones wrapped in colorful cloth as well as paper. Maybe the lights started to chase away the deep darkness of winter.
I always loved Christmas Eve. I’d watch A Christmas Carol and have a few sugar cookies and milk before going to bed. Now, I have a bit of egg nog with a bit of Kahlua then bed. I still love Christmas Eve.
December 12, 2011 at 1:49 pm
“my sister noted that people really are nicer at Christmas. ” You and your sister must never have worked in retail at Christmas…. 😉
My experience is that nice people are nicer, neutral people edge closer to nice, and a@#holes…well, the less said the better.
YOU are always nice to read and I wish you and yours the very best!
December 12, 2011 at 8:52 pm
Greg,
Nope, I never worked retail at Christmas and neither did she. When I was in college, I worked at the post office for the Christmas vacation, but I was in the back with the mail sorting the cards.
If we were to run into each other, I’d be the nice one in the store!
December 12, 2011 at 1:49 pm
That quote Kat fits the season,to bad it doesn’t all year long.
December 12, 2011 at 8:53 pm
morpfy,
I totally agree.
I always love it at the end of A Christmas Carol when Scrooge promises to honor Christmas in his heart and try to keep it all year.
December 12, 2011 at 3:56 pm
I remember, as teens, we would group together parents and caravan in cars through wealthy neighborhoods to oooh and aaah at all the fancy lights and candles and Santas adorning the chimnies. Even their mailboxes had anything from candy canes to deer antlers. There were even a few Griswold homes, gaudy and overdone, with Santa jumping out of a box, crude stuff. We got the pleasures of seeing the best in town and the imaginations of a Wal-Mart all in subdivisions where high priced homes, back then, were in the $90,000 range. To give you a better idea on price, my Dad’s split level with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths cost him newly built $39,000. And we loved that house on a corner lot with fireplace and large utility room so we kids could come in the back door and take our wet clothes off.
December 12, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Z&Me,
One neighborhood had a house lighting contest, and we always drove there. It was amazing.
I don’t think my town had too many wealthy areas. Most of it was middle class or blue collar so the lights were rarely overdone. One house was spectacular, but he was an electrician.
The house my father bought in 1968 had 1 and 1/2 baths and 4 bedrooms. It was 12,500. It was the first house we ever had with a fireplace.
December 12, 2011 at 9:21 pm
Ukrainian Christmas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1HmcvXFgaY
Cheers
December 12, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Minicapt,
I’d do this if I were wealthy and computer literate enough to program the lights. I’m not sure how my neighbors would feel, but I’d love it.