Why Decorate?

Decorate or don't Decorate its a personal choice. 

For some it is a burden. The commercials flood the radio waves, the TVs, and every store shouts CHRISTMAS at every turn. For some it feels like Christmas has missed its intended purpose. Christmas is not a Currier and Ives Scene, it can sometimes be messy, it can sometimes be wonderful.

An elderly friend in the south, told me she gave up on decorating years ago.

Her life had changed significantly. Let's just say there were tragedies in her life.

Similarly, my mother decided a few years back that she wouldn't decorate anymore. She questioned the point of it and often mentioned her dislike for Christmas.

When I was young, my mother would decorate extravagantly. Outdoor lights, a real tree, delicate glass ornaments, and those large, colorful bulbs were all part of the tradition. We joyfully threw tinsel over the tree. After we stopped believing in Santa Claus, she would pile gifts under the tree as she accumulated them.... which brought us immense excitement.

As we grew older, she opted for a tabletop tree to avoid the mess of fallen needles and the need for watering. It was neater and more convenient.

Children grow up and sometimes move away. Life unfolds in unexpected ways.

Christmas occurs during the darkest time of the year, often intensifying feelings of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). The darkness, the family memories, whether joyful or painful, are very real.

Isolation is a reality for many, as are sad and enduring memories.

My mother-in-law, however, never ceased her Christmas decorating. Post-Thanksgiving, I would help her retrieve decorations from storage. She would supervise from her chair as I replaced fall decorations with Christmas ones, set up the pre-lit tree, decorated her balcony, and arranged fairy lights, a wooden goose, and her miniature village.

Her apartment would transform into a festive haven, complete with a 'feather' tree and vintage ornaments. You couldn't even reach for toilet paper without seeing a Yuletide decoration.

When my husband and I first met, he expressed his dislike for Christmas. He didn't want me to decorate. He'd spent a Christmas in Vietnam and it was not a happy time for him at all.

That didn't stop me. I first started out with his tiny 6" tree. 

Eventually, it wasn't about Christmas so much as I wanted to light up the dark cold nights with colors and a sense of warmth. It was also a chance to deep clean the house and move stuff around. 

The Christmas season became a reason to have fun to...

Display toys and let the toys play.
Decorate the dog.
Take photos.
Be surprised, take joy in imagination...

I do it for me as generally I am the only audience for my decorating. It is like creating art that keeps transforming.

At least I have a reason now to 'play'. 

If I can make December playful with the cold days and dark nights, I'm happy. After all. No one who knows me thinks it is weird when I turn the living room into a place of play.
The toys take over as they should.

It even makes Grumpy Gus smile when he walks into the room and sees Teddy Bears doing naughty things one day and the next they are sitting quietly looking sheepish.

Decorating or making the decision not to is just fine. We can be moved to do it or not.

It is such a personal preference.

For many, Christmas can be a source of stress. I often spend Christmas Eve thinking about all the times I'd call my Father late on Christmas Eve. He'd ask me to describe our Christmas Tree. I'd tell him about it and sip a glass of wine. We'd laugh, we'd chat and I'd sit in the dark and tell him tall tales and he would do likewise.

For that, I am grateful for Christmas and the memories it brings to me each year.

This year I have 3 ugly chairs to consider for the Christmas Tree Chair. Which one will it be??

Okay back to the fun things...

 What a bummer to read my melancholy thoughts. But that stuff happens in the dreary overcast days of December. The days rush to be darker and more bleak, depressing, dismal, dull, drab, unexciting, insipid, and well...frankly uninteresting.

That is why we have candles and pretty lights this time of the year. This is why some of us may decorate and add life to our homes. 

I personally like winter. But I get why not everyone enjoys it. I can see both sides of the coin.

So back to some fun I go....

Who doesn't think dinosaurs should join the ornaments? I think this one adds a bit of curiosity to all the little horses that reside in the tree. This is a nod to my oldest son who loves dinosaurs.

I haven't asked the unicorns and other horses how they felt about sharing a living area with a dinosaur!

This is a fairly old ornament that I found years ago. It had a tag on it that I took off. I like horses and who doesn't love a Pegasus? I always wanted to have one to ride as a little girl.

Not all dragons under the tree are ferocious. This one seems quite happy. Perhaps it is because it got the gold beads!

This Angel horse was given to me 30 years ago by one of my 4H students. We joked and named this Cheyanne after my mare I owned at the time. Cheyanne was not an angel, but she sure was something else. This stuffed ornament did have her coloring, but not her attitude.

This is the first ornament I ever purchased for myself. It is a cheap plastic rocking horse. I have treasured it for 30 years. I've always liked how the light shines through it.

Once upon a time I had a pony mare called Lily. She had a flaxen mane and tail and was half Halflinger and Arab. She was a tough little 13.5 hand horse with attitude and a great brain. She rode, she drove on a cart and she was purely fearless. We used her to sort cattle and team pen.

She looked exactly like this ornament..

A friend of ours from South Dakota needed a good replacement mount for their 80 yr old mom who'd lost her aged riding and driving mount. We sold her. She served many years for this lady who would ride Lily across the countryside to go to town. Apparently it was shorter than driving there!
When I hang up this ornament, I wonder what adventures Lily and the elder lady had together.

The Grumpy Dragon apparently has made a new friend! She presents him with a gift under the Christmas Chair. [Personally, I think she looks a bit frightful but I suppose they are a match in attitude.]

And...

If anyone was wondering how the Brother's Odd were doing....

I saw Yeti and Big Foot walking down by the creek yesterday. I don't know what they were up to....

But their brother Chewie was watching from a distance.

I just wish they'd help each other out. What on Earth is Chewie waiting for???

If you need your spirits lifted on these wintery bleh days, I will leave you with this photo of Charlie.

Here he is getting ready for colder weather.....

It's Friday. Hug someone.

Happy December 1st

Don't mind me if I am all over the place today---> well yesterday.... a day late and a dollar short!!!!

That is how my brain sometimes works.

This is a table with a drawer that was given to us. I think originally it would have had a washbasin on it as the sides have places to hang little towels on. It finally made sense when I pulled out this pitcher and basin and decorated it.

Next up. My weeds!
Velvet Weeds, Grasses, birch branches that have fallen, and Milkweed Pods. The ornament is one of a kind and was made for me years ago. The weeds are temporarily in a copper coal scuttle I purchased at my MIL's estate sale. The Jay Potato chip can...does anyone recall these? I do!

It holds Charlie's dog food. My brother used his antique can just like this for his cat food. Great minds and all that!

This morning I realize that I hadn't been hiking in my favorite place since....November 13th. For me, that is an eternity.

I cancelled my morning gym plans and headed out the door at 8:30. The Wilds were calling. My feet needed to go go go....

I needed to Wander and Explore.

So...
I did.

...with my little Trail Blazer in the lead...

we headed out to parts unknown and places

were no human trails exist....

It was still in the 20 degree range when we hit the trails. Frost was on most of the plants. 

The Kickapoo River had ice forming on it.

As Charlie and I stood watching the river, we saw a Kingfisher diving into the water. It was too far away for me to 'shoot' with my cellphone so we just watched. My old camera was in my backpack and the battery for it was in my pants pocket [staying warm and charged].

Charlie and I got to the bluffs and walked out on the edge [carefully--it was safe!]. We heard the squeaks of an Eagle above us and Charlie dove to get under my feet. I've always made him come to me when we hear Hawks or Eagle calls.

The eagle was in a pine above and to the slight left ... but out of sight in the above photo. We could just barely see him standing in the top of one of the dead branches. What a majestic creature.

I pulled Charlie into my lap and sat with my back against a pine. We watched for a long time. Charlie shook and leaned against me hard. Eventually the Eagle flapped and took off. The sound of its wings was really cool to hear. I've never been that close to an Eagle before.

To young folks seeing an Eagle is no big deal. To me, it is a huge deal. In the 1970's the Eagle had only about 400 breeding pairs in the United States??? Yeah. It IS a huge BIG deal for me to see one while casually hiking.

We moved on and did some more exploring and wandering. 

We scrambled down the bluff and walked along the base. These pines are so incredible. Look at their wild root systems! The roots grow UP and along the bluff wall.

Isn't Mother Nature something cool?

Charlie was nervous when I stopped to exam some rock formations. 

I didn't get any good shots of the multitude of Lichen on these rocks, but I was fascinated with the intricate formations that nearly looked as if they had been carved by the Ansasazi. Well, IF they were super miniature!

I'd mentioned to someone that I was going to go search to see if I could find some 'ice' formations on the rocks. They said I'd never find them. 

Huh. 

👇

We headed back out on the paved trail to see if one of the ponds had ice on it yet.

The little pond did. The ice even had Ice Stars on it.

A light north west wind picked up and I headed back towards the car. 

We stopped at Campsite E and decided to sit out of the wind for a bit and munch on some pretzels.

Selfie:

December was starting off just fine in our book.

December and Surprise!

Welcome December!

It sure came in with a colorful and amazing sunrise.

Thursday morning I ran errands. I had Christmas Cards to pick up in case I got the notion to sit down and make out cards. I'm not very good at that. On a whim, I went by the toy isle and picked up a Jurassic World Lego Toy. It had a big truck in it and two dinosaurs. I was interested in mainly the truck.

When I got home, I unpackaged the Legos and set it down on the table.

Rich looked at it and said, "What's this?"

I said "Oh, hmmm, I needed a truck for the village and there is a red one in there somewhere. I need you to make it." 

I walked off to put some things away.

We had a Video Connect appointment with his Mental Health doctor and I had to have hm put things to the side.

Our conversation was much different than the one he had a month ago. It normally sounds exactly like this

How are you?
The same nothing changes.

...and it started out that way until....

I told him to tell her about the Lego building we had been doing. He rolled his eyes and shook his head and then the doctor was able to convince him to tell her about it.

He started to laugh and talked about how 'my wife can't build Legos without any directions and she messes up all the time so I have to supervise her!'

He said it was nothing but stupid. I interjected the obvious. I told the doctor that we engage for at least two hours at a time when working on the Lego 3D puzzles and he often can figure things out for himself. He was engaging socially, using his mind to problem solve, working with small motor skills, ... and NOT sitting and staring out the window.

Then Rich went on to tell her a bit about building and directions and how he was figuring things out. He explained that he used to run a welding shop where he had to think things up on the fly in order to create or fix things so Legos was sort of the same.

With Aphasia, it took a bit for him to explain it, but I could see her face light up while they were talking. He was animated and laughing as he explained the concept of Legos.

Who knew? Right? This doctor had never seen him laugh or engage like he did in this video meeting. She even quipped that she should prescribe Legos...and casually wondered aloud how to do that.

I'd sent a photo to his daughter of her father working on the red truck. She asked if Lego had tractors as she would like to get him something different for Christmas.

I sent her a link to a set that isn't very pricey but had a nice tractor and trailer build by Lego Technic which means the tractor will have articulated parts.

Hey, the guy loves tractors and cars. Maybe he can build some models. Of course we'd do it together because those really tiny parts are hard for him with his tremors.

Win. Win.

Then around supper time I received an email from the Kickapoo Valley Reserve:

Congratulations,  I’m happy to inform you that your photo “Campsite AA Gibbous Moon” has been voted for a Voter’s Choice Award.  If you are able, please come to the Holiday Happening on December 3 for the public announcement at 5:30 p.m. Please keep the secret until then!  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  I hope to see you on Saturday. 

The photo above is the one the email refers to. SHHH, don't tell anyone!

More important though was the afternoon project.

And the result:

I wonder how the Christmas Village will welcome dinosaurs?

What a wonderful way to the start of December.

 

Its all about Goals

In 1986 I ran a half marathon.  I was 29 years old and in what I thought was peak physical shape of my entire life...

What I learned in that run.  Half marathons to me were not attractive.  I liked the shorter distances where I could run faster.  The sport has advanced greatly since then of course.

I traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin to watch my son run in the Kenosha Racine Challenge Series Frosty 5 this weekend.
This race series was being put on by the Kenosha Running Club to assist Trent Morrow aka Marathon Man achieve his goal for 2013 to make history by setting a goal to run 160+ marathons in a year.

I met Trent briefly in October after he'd run the Chicago Marathon.  He was with my son when I and my mom were picked up at the Milwaukee Airport.
Trent is a charismatic character, full of charm. 

Thursday night arrived and I went to watch the beginning of December 5th's night race.  The day before had been mild, and the temps were dropping fast.  It was cold, but little did we know just how cold it could get.

Friday morning my son's alarm woke us up at some ungodly hour.  It was time to get moving.  Another marathon event was starting at 6am.

Frigid was the word.  I think it may have been about 15 degrees, but the wind chill temps were below zero.  Way below, ... 
I hooked up with a lady who was taking water and other supplies to the halfway mark in Racine.

We passed my son running with a friend of his near Carthage College.  I'd planned on taking photos of him during the race.
We got a text message saying that my son's knee injury took him out of the race.

Bummer.
Well I had my camera and a lot of time on my hands so I decided to start taking photographs of the other runners who were running.

These people are all fantastic athletes, braving the cold temperatures and bone chilling winds to run.
It was so cold that some of the runners had their drinks freeze on their belts.

The Chancery in Racine was kind enough to let the runners come in and warm up and use their facilities.

The Best Western Harborside in Kenosha was the place for the staging for the start and end of the event.

 
I met up with my son and his wife and we watched as Trent and Andy made the half way point and warmed up briefly before turning around and heading south back to Kenosha.

I wondered briefly about the sanity of it all and then recalled how much I had loved distance running and later distance bicycling, and more recently ... distance riding [equine].
It is all about setting goals to achieve.
Goals are great motivators.

I guess that is what it is all about.  Goals and attaining goals.

Best wishes to Trent Morrow, aka the Marathon Man.

Watching him helped me realize how much I did miss distance running and how eager I was to set my next goal.

Maybe not in running but an achievable goal none the less.