Earth tilting! House warming! Jesus' birth celebrated!

What were we thinking when we gave away most of our Christmas decorations last spring?  That's a question that came to mind when I opened our "Christmas decorations" box last weekend and found...not much.  Yes, we had brought the 30 year old string of colored lights for the tree, a few unique tree ornaments given to us by friends...the red cloth that covers the tree stand...but the frenzy of culling our possessions in preparation for the move must have whipped us into thinking that we didn't need the white dove that sits on the top of our Christmas tree.  Or the string of lights that we put across the front of the house.  Or the tinsel swag that we wrap around the tree.    Did we think that Christmas hadn't been invented yet in our future new home in the far northwest corner of the US?

Besides buying some new Christmas decorations, we have, indeed, needed to create new traditions for this Christmas season.  We invited two people who are also newcomers to Bellingham over for dinner at our house.  We invited two of our new neighbors in for Christmas cookies and cider.  Both get togethers were a way to fill in the HUGE gap we created by leaving our best friends behind in Kentucky.  And to fill in those pre-Christmas days where, when Lynne's mother was alive, we would have been cleaning house, wrapping presents and preparing for family, we went down to Seattle as a mutual Christmas present.  We stayed overnight at the Queen Ann Inn, ate out twice, went to the Wing Luke Asian Museum, took in the Body exhibit, saw a Langston Hughes play called “Black Nativity”, rode on the monorail, went to Pike Place market and walked around downtown amidst the Christmas shoppers and lights.  The top picture is of Macy's in downtown Seattle with a big star on the front.  The picture of the Dungeness crabs for sale shows you what we could have, but did not send you this year for Christmas.  This next picture is of Lynne buying one Taylor Gold pear for $2.75 at the Pike Place Market.

Ironically, we've been singing more Christmas carols than I have for years at our Unitarian church, which even had a children's pageant which put a positive spin on the "no room at the inn" chapter of the nativity story.  This version portrayed Joseph and Mary ending up in the stable after the thoughtful innkeeper offered it as a desirable alternative to the noisy inn. Most of our neighbors have Christmas lights of some form on their houses.  Our across the street neighbors are Jehovah Witnesses who do not participate in Christmas because of its close ties to the pagan holiday of Saturnalia, the raucaus Roman midwinter celebration.  I like being reminded to re-think the Christmas tradition, which does feel like a mixture of pagan and Christian elements.  This year the Solstice, just 4 days before Christmas, took on special meaning, as it marks the day when the earth starts tilting and traveling back toward the sun, and our days up here start to get longer.  And to round out all these thoughts, Langston Hughes reminded me today (through the play "Black Nativity") of the glory of God as seen in music and dance.  I am thankful for all the layers of this season.

So far, no weepy moments...

I am thankful for our warm and cozy home. Lynne and I are thankful for each other and for our pal Winnie.  We are thankful to have work and sufficient income, we are thankful for our families, our friends (old and new), for the quiet, beauty and safety of our new home, for looking out the window and seeing three deer across the street.  I am thankful that through this blog, I can send love and best wishes to many friends and members of my family, and I am always thankful for your emails, calls and letters.  Even when I don't hear from you, I am thankful for your kind thoughts.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!  Love,  Sky

Long nights, the moon

It's not that we are any closer to the moon but these extra hours of dark lend themselves to finding night activities, indoors and out.  I took this picture last night when I was practicing taking pictures of Christmas lights, which I was trying to figure out to be ready to take pictures of the Lighted Boat parade gracing Bellingham Bay Friday and Saturday nights.  The picture of our neighbor's Christmas lights didn't turn out so well but while I was standing out there in the dark with the camera on a tripod, set for taking pictures at night, I looked up.  This is what I saw.

Funny thing is, the sky immediately cleared up after I took this picture.  I went to bed, and when the alarm went off at 5:30 in the morning, I woke up wondering if someone had left the lights on outside.  I went into the living room, where we have a big picture window overlooking Bellingham, and the moon was casting headlights into our house.  It was low on the horizon and illuminated the whole room.

Part 3 was the sunrise, beautiful pink sky wrapping snowy white Mt. Baker, a view that I saw just as I pulled into the parking lot of Vista Middle School (appropriately named) where I am subbing.

So there, you know that I have a long term (3 weeks) sub for a computer teacher at a middle school in Ferndale, WA.  Lynne is working long days for the home health agency, driving around the countryside seeing snow geese in the fields.  I heard birds calling as they flew over our house and the man I was talking to pointed out that they were trumpeter swans.

Yesterday I went to the library and came home with an armful of books for us to read on these long evenings.  I'm disoriented by the early sunset  so I start cooking dinner early, we eat early, I wash the dishes, and then I look at the clock and its only 6 pm.  The sun set at 4:15 pm today and rose at 7:43 a.m.  Besides reading books, we are working on our house.  Lynne is painting the living room a moss green called camouflage, the dining room is acorn yellow, the trim is ivory lace (second color for the trim).  She's also cutting and installing  new wider baseboards in an effort to de-ranch the house..  We've put in new light fixtures and taken down the mirror over the fireplace. We are replaced the plain hollow closet door with a Shaker style wood door, and plan to do more as we get to it and get the money.

Here's a picture of Mt. Rainier as we drove past it on I-5 on our way south. We miss all our friends and family, but had a respite from being strangers in a strange land over Thanksgiving.  Our Kentucky friend, now a Eugene, Oregon resident, Barbara, invited us to share  Thanksgiving with her son and her partner, and our Kentucky friend, now BC resident, Cynthia, joined us there for a day too.   The trip was just what the doctor ordered...I revelled in being with these friends whom I first knew in 1977 in Lexington. (All the marbles rolled to the west.)  Winnie enjoyed having a big family again, if only for a weekend.  We shared Thanksgiving and then carrot cake on Friday night to celebrate my birthday early. Barbara and I danced our heads off in a NIA dance-exercise-music-expression class Saturday morning which was totally fun for a once dancer turned grownup (me).

Now for my other find:  I heard Sarah Jones on NPR and I love her Moth story.  Then I found this TED talk that she did, and I totally recommend it to enrich your winter evening: http://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_jones_as_a_one_woman_global_village.html

Love,

Sky, Lynne and Winnie