Our World Tuesday: Doing the Christmas Thing

On Sunday, my nephews, who live in Newtown, Connecticut, came over to celebrate the Christmas holiday.  Our celebration of Christmas happens when it can because the boys' parents are divorced and Adella and I make the most of our time off to enjoy the beach in North Carolina.  December 14 this year was our December 25.



December 14 is also the anniversary of Adam Lanza's massacre of 20 very young children and six hard-working adults at Sandy Hook School in Newtown.  Two years ago, somebody somewhere online asked the world to cut paper snowflakes to decorate Newtown businesses after the atrocity--an even that might not have happened if Adam Lanza's parents and Newtown Public Schools had dared to notice that Adam Lanza was very, very sick and had bothered to provide the care he needed.  His parents could certainly have afforded to take care of the mental health of their son. But no.  Anyway.


The world cut those snowflakes. My daughter and I and my nephews were a part of that project. Then, last year, my daughter and I cut snowflakes to decorate our home.  In so doing, we honored the murdered babies and teachers of Newtown.  This year, we put scissors to paper again. We honored life.  Then we mailed them to family and friends in the free Christmas cards that about six charities sent to me this fall.  That was fun.



The paper we cut was last year's wrapping paper.  Funny enough, though, we couldn't remember last year's gifts, but we knew who gave us the paper. This is up there with the kids having more fun with the box than the gift.  It is also about how much we love the people who gave us our gifts.

We decorated the tree, too.  This always amounts to time travel, remembering the times when we received or made or reassembled our ornaments.  Among my favorites are the ones my friend Craig made for me in high school.  Like this Santa:

Today (Wednesday), Adella had wind ensemble practice in New Haven, so I went back into town with her and had a walk while she made music.  New Haven is a beautiful city.  It was a mild and breezy evening, so it was really nice.  Here's the New Haven tree:

I remember the years of building up to December 25 and the aggravation and frustration of trying to make everybody happy being everywhere at once.  That never worked out, and it wasn't particularly fun.  Now that I'm older and less interested in making everybody happy and doing all the junk you're supposed to do at Christmas, December has become a month of Christmas and a lot of fun.

Wishing you the best of winters.

Our World Tuesday

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5 Comments

  1. I cannot see your last three images, Sandie!

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  2. Thank you for making joy, despite the deepest darkness in your own turf, S


    <3

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  3. Lovely seasonal shots - hope you'll come share at http://www.image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2014/12/cats-eye-variations.html

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  4. I love your tree. I love almost as much as my MIL's pink tree complete with pink flamingo. I also love that you and daughter are going to have Christmas on the beach, and yes a bit jealous.

    I am still trying to figure out everybody's response to Newtown. So many people seem to think that if the teachers were armed then everything would have been great.

    I am not anti-gun but I am pro-common sense.

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  5. Joy being with your family and sorrowful memories mixed. Like life I guess unfortunately.


    It makes so much sense to do Christmas like you do. We celebrated family time early of course as we're in sunny climes now and away. To us the exact date is not as important as the feelings.

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Thanks for being here.