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Some ten years ago I wrote a Christmas-time post on such a theme - it's time for another look, slightly updated.
Looking back over the years - and I have lots to look back over - Christmas stands as a kind of milepost. It's a focal point when a pattern of change can be identified. In some ways, the pattern could be equated to the cycle of the zodiac, as of course, can our whole life's cycle.
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My grandmother (right) was a wonderful cook. With the few facilities she had in those days, I can hardly imagine how she managed to put such delicious meals on her table. She often said that she and I had a "special bond" - it didn't extend to inheriting her culinary prowess though! Water came from a pump in the yard, direct from an underground spring. The only oven she had was at one side of the big black fireplace, powered by coal and wood fires, at the other side, a tank for heating water.
No refrigerator, food was kept out in a building called "the wash-house" where a boiler for boiling water and equipment for washing clothes was also kept. Earliest memories come from a time before the grandparents had electric light, when I went off to bed with a candle, and rooms were lit by oil lamps.
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As the cycle moved around to Taurus and Gemini, Christmases evolved into bigger family gatherings, accompanied at times by school friends, both sets of grandparents, occasional aunts and uncles. Sometimes there was carol singing with a group of friends around the town on Christmas Eve, attending midnight service, or a Christmas morning service, then back to Dad's excellent cooking - he was the head cook of our family, after grandma retired from her post. Traditional, sociable, predictable - Christmases then were all those things.
Cancerian Christmases were fewer in number - they involved my retiring into a shell, for a variety of reasons. Working in hotels for a brief period in my life, I'd find that after all the hard work and long hours put in during the run up to Christmas, we staff were often to be found exhausted and alone in lowly staff accommodation, too tired to get together. I remember one particular Christmas evening walking out alone around the city where I worked, gazing longingly into the windows of houses where families celebrated together.
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Virgo/Libra/Scopio Christmases cover a long period of very mixed flavours. My parents were growing older, they lived at a distance for much of the period, but my partner and I always spent most of Christmas time with them, as much as my job would allow. Tensions arose sometimes, as they are wont to do among most family groups.
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Sagittarius Christmases found me here in the USA - 5000 miles from Christmases of yore, with a new husband and family. Christmases here are bright and happy. A family get together on Christmas Eve, then, weather permitting the husband and I have sometimes taken a drive to Mount Scott with a pack of cheese sandwiches, some fruit and soft drinks, to eat our version of Christmas Dinner surveying the Oklahoma countryside from 2000ft up, followed by a leisurely drive home through the wildlife refuge, hoping to greet some buffalo or long horned cattle, or even a colony of prairie dogs.
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Aquarius Christmas? Maybe the Christmases when I was astrology blogging come into this category, with Pisces Christmases, perhaps still to come.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL!!
I hope all your Christmases are as happy as my happiest ones. Know that any less happy ones will give way to joy again.
6 comments:
Oh how lovely T. I got quite teary reading this, the transitions, the good, the bad, the wonderful.
I love how you and Himself do this private thing every Christmas.
Our one is quite full this year with the addition of Grandgirl's partner and the restoration of a beloved niece and her family.
The fluctuations of the company is quite interesting, isn't it?
Happy times to you and yours.
XO
WWW
Wisewebwoman ~ Thank you WWW - and the same good wishes to you and yours. I hope your health issue wains sufficiently not to worry you too much during festivities.
I feel sure, too that we both shall send positive thoughts and wishes to our longtime blog friend RJ Adams and Mrs RJ. xx
Cheers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5IXlfJSEi4
Anonymous ~ Cheers back atcha! Thanks for the link - I always enjoy a bit of Stan Freberg.
:)
Many thanks for your kind thoughts, and those of WWW, Twilight. You've had your share of grief. Enjoy your new life (well, not SO new now!) and hopefully many more joyous Christmas's to come.
A Very Happy Christmas to you and Anyjazz, and all best wishes for the New Year.
RJ Adams ~ Thank you, RJ. A few more Christmases would be nice, but at our age we can count on nothing - but we can hope!
My sincere wish for you and Mrs RJ is that there will be future Christmases for you both, when you'll look back on today with some sadness, but with gratitude for so much more time together, which sadly had to be earned through suffering.
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