Seven Days of Joy: Day 6
Dec. 24th, 2008 06:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinkwriterIt's Christmas Eve!
(Well, here in Illinois.)
*waves and sends holiday cheer to friends already in the Christmas Day time zones*
I think it will be a bit of a challenge to steal away sometime tomorrow and post when my family is here, but I'll do my best. We're coming up on the end of this daily posting (I'm not used to this!). In the meantime, here are my happy thoughts thus far:
Day 1. Day 2. Day 3. Day 4. Day 5.
And on the eve of this year's holiday:
DAY 6
* Christmas Eve supper with my grandmother and aunts. We got creative: scrambled eggs and blueberry pancakes. And they were goooooood.
* The itch of anticipation. My family's coming tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them. (Say it with me: I will not get into an argument with my mother, I will not get into an argument with my mother...) Seriously, I am excitedly looking forward to spending time with everyone and especially can't wait to see my nephew and nieces, watching their faces light up with excitement for the holiday and the gifts and games and sledding on the hill across from Grandma's house. They make everything brighter.
* Time to myself as my aunts and grandma left for an hour or two this evening. I just sat in the living room for a little while, gazing at the beautiful multi-colored lights on the Christmas tree, savoring the silence. Contentment.
* Christmas coloring. Okay, let me explain this one.
There's a tradition we have on my dad's side of the family. We color. With crayons. :D
Many years ago on a delightful whim, my aunts -- my dad's twin sisters -- bought a gigantic, Christmas-themed coloring book. We're talking a couple hundred pages worth of pictures to color: images of Santa and his reindeer; Mrs. Claus baking cookies; kids playing outside in the snow; kids with toys; kids ice skating or sledding or opening gifts; trees decorated with ribbons and ornaments and great big stars; even pages depicting the 12 Days of Christmas (a partridge in a pear tree, three French hens, five golden rings, eight maids a-milkin', etc.).
Every year, whenever we're at my grandmother's house, at different times throughout the holiday weekend we each sit down with that big book and take turns coloring a page from it. Everyone, even my grandmother, joins in on the fun, and you can tell when my sister and brother each got married because their spouses started coloring pictures in the book in the years shortly after those weddings occurred.
It's fun to leaf through the book because you can see the variety of personalities through each person's coloring style. Some like to use light shades, others use bright primary colors or rich, deep jewel tones. Some like to color with long lines, others with circular strokes. Some color the images quickly and loosely while others fill in almost every square inch precisely and painstakingly. Everyone chooses different color palettes. After a while, you can almost tell whose picture is whose, based on the way it was colored. And for record's sake, when we're done coloring, we sign or initial the page so everyone knows who colored it and in what year. Just like art. Well, crayon art. *GRIN*
This afternoon before lunch, my aunt teasingly reminded me to take my turn, so I completed my annual picture -- in fact, I went ahead and did two pictures, for I am prolific, haha -- then I joined her in the kitchen and announced, "My work is complete. Now I need a sandwich, for the artiste is hungry." Heee.
At any rate, it's a fun, childlike, marvelously creative way to mark the passage of time in our family. And now that my sister has two kids, and my brother has one, perhaps we can get them to play! Expand the portfolio! ;)
(Well, here in Illinois.)
*waves and sends holiday cheer to friends already in the Christmas Day time zones*
I think it will be a bit of a challenge to steal away sometime tomorrow and post when my family is here, but I'll do my best. We're coming up on the end of this daily posting (I'm not used to this!). In the meantime, here are my happy thoughts thus far:
Day 1. Day 2. Day 3. Day 4. Day 5.
And on the eve of this year's holiday:
DAY 6
* Christmas Eve supper with my grandmother and aunts. We got creative: scrambled eggs and blueberry pancakes. And they were goooooood.
* The itch of anticipation. My family's coming tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them. (Say it with me: I will not get into an argument with my mother, I will not get into an argument with my mother...) Seriously, I am excitedly looking forward to spending time with everyone and especially can't wait to see my nephew and nieces, watching their faces light up with excitement for the holiday and the gifts and games and sledding on the hill across from Grandma's house. They make everything brighter.
* Time to myself as my aunts and grandma left for an hour or two this evening. I just sat in the living room for a little while, gazing at the beautiful multi-colored lights on the Christmas tree, savoring the silence. Contentment.
* Christmas coloring. Okay, let me explain this one.
There's a tradition we have on my dad's side of the family. We color. With crayons. :D
Many years ago on a delightful whim, my aunts -- my dad's twin sisters -- bought a gigantic, Christmas-themed coloring book. We're talking a couple hundred pages worth of pictures to color: images of Santa and his reindeer; Mrs. Claus baking cookies; kids playing outside in the snow; kids with toys; kids ice skating or sledding or opening gifts; trees decorated with ribbons and ornaments and great big stars; even pages depicting the 12 Days of Christmas (a partridge in a pear tree, three French hens, five golden rings, eight maids a-milkin', etc.).
Every year, whenever we're at my grandmother's house, at different times throughout the holiday weekend we each sit down with that big book and take turns coloring a page from it. Everyone, even my grandmother, joins in on the fun, and you can tell when my sister and brother each got married because their spouses started coloring pictures in the book in the years shortly after those weddings occurred.
It's fun to leaf through the book because you can see the variety of personalities through each person's coloring style. Some like to use light shades, others use bright primary colors or rich, deep jewel tones. Some like to color with long lines, others with circular strokes. Some color the images quickly and loosely while others fill in almost every square inch precisely and painstakingly. Everyone chooses different color palettes. After a while, you can almost tell whose picture is whose, based on the way it was colored. And for record's sake, when we're done coloring, we sign or initial the page so everyone knows who colored it and in what year. Just like art. Well, crayon art. *GRIN*
This afternoon before lunch, my aunt teasingly reminded me to take my turn, so I completed my annual picture -- in fact, I went ahead and did two pictures, for I am prolific, haha -- then I joined her in the kitchen and announced, "My work is complete. Now I need a sandwich, for the artiste is hungry." Heee.
At any rate, it's a fun, childlike, marvelously creative way to mark the passage of time in our family. And now that my sister has two kids, and my brother has one, perhaps we can get them to play! Expand the portfolio! ;)
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-25 12:43 am (UTC)Love to you and your family!
no subject
Date: 2008-12-25 12:56 am (UTC)Love right back to you and yours!
xo
no subject
Date: 2008-12-25 06:09 am (UTC)When we were little and would stay overnight with my grandmother, she would let us sit in bed and color when we woke up in the morning. Even though coloring was nothing special otherwise, somehow it became a special treat at Grandma's.
Have a great time with your family, and my fingers are crossed for you regarding you-know-who. :-)
no subject
Date: 2008-12-25 06:06 pm (UTC):D
It's just such a childlike thing to do, you know? Coloring with crayons. Yet it's really fun sometimes (as an adult). And I like choosing specific colors and trying to decide what will make the most interesting pairings. You can tell everyone in the family does that because when you open up the book, the inside cover has all these little hash marks in many different colors, like everyone was testing out the color of the crayon on a little palette before deciding whether or not to use it in their 'artwork.' Heee.
Have a wonderful day with your family. Will you be listening to a recording of Patrick Stewart's A Christmas Carol? I came across the George C. Scott version on TV yesterday, but I still thought of you and that tape you gave me of Stewart's one-man reenactment of the tale. Really fun. Do you all have something special planned for the day?
(P.S. Thanks for the crossed fingers. It's going to be a challege, because I have a few things up against me already: I have a terrible cough (I hesitate to call it a cold because it's not in my head or nose, but I guess you could call it a chest cold or cough cold?) so I'm not feeling at my best, plus because of the coughing I haven't slept well in days, which diminishes my patient temperament in small increments. I just have to remember to be patient and breathe and not let her get to me.)
Anyway, positivity! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! *GRIN*
*hugs hugs*
no subject
Date: 2008-12-25 02:13 pm (UTC)Have a lovely day, Hon.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-25 05:51 pm (UTC)Happy Day to you too, Kat. *hugs and love*