Did you have a good Christmas? What did you think of it, was it a happy time, a family time, a nostalgic time, a time of traditions? Is it a celebration of the great high holidays of old? Does it lighten a dark time of winter? Did you once again celebrate the birth of Jesus? Does it seem as though you just took down the tree and are now putting it back up? Are you sick of Santa Claus?
The week before Christmas we were in San Diego attending a concert participated in by two friends we met long ago when we lived in San Diego. Baby Darling got a taste of culture, but about three songs was his limit. They didn’t sing the Halleluiah chorus, though, but then it wasn’t Handel's Messiah.
Later, however, as Husband Dear and I walked the streets of Old Town San Diego, there wafting from the speakers of a Mexican restaurant was the Hallelujah Chorus. All around us the colors of Mexico poured forth from the store windows and the market on the street was festooned with imports, hand crafted and festive. In the window in front of me a lady was patting out tortillas and placing them on an enormous hot grill. I stood there until I heard that high C at the end of the song, and felt the joy of the singers, and the exuberance of the music, and felt complete.
Christmas Eve. 7 a.m. Daughter Darling met her goal of 1,000 Lego listings on eBay. “By Christmas,” she said, and worked all night to do it. Months had gone into this effort. She did it! Congratulations.
I’ve moved to Oregon twice, Oklahoma twice, Hawaii once, California twice. I’m back in California and feeling much better, thank you very much.
I’m thinking of Mary Schimch’s poem, “Sunscreen.”
“Live in New York City once,” she writes, “but leave before it makes you hard, Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.”
We’ll see what Southern California does to a person…
First blog of 2012—let’s make this year the best ever!
