From Perfunctory to Celebratory

When it comes to holiday decorating Suann and I are rather perfunctory. Simple. Minimalist. Very different from when I was a kid and Bunny would wrap greenery and garland around everything - from bannisters to chandeliers, cover the mantel and built-ins with cut greens, pull out the Christmas Spode and light up each window with a single electric candle. Bows were abundant as were our beliefs - the crèche stood front and center on the mantle, the Advent wreath in the middle of the dining room table, the Advent calendar on the counter and for a few years we created a Jesse tree on one of the doors in the kitchen. 

There’s been a bit of a shift this year @297. Our mantel, which has always housed the crèche my parents gave us many years ago (all seven kids received the same one, found in a shop in New Orleans) is a little bit more dressed up. It started last weekend when I was in Evergreen Crafts in Guilford, Connecticut. The first thing I saw were these little wooden cardinal ornaments. Too small for the tree Suann and I would put up but perfect for the next thing I saw - a simple, mantle sized wooden tree. My mother loved cardinals. When a cardinal showed up at the bird feeder first thing in the morning it was always a good omen. When I got home I set up the crèche, placed the tree and shifted some other things around. Stepping back it dawned on me the mantel could become our way of celebrating those we have lost. We already had some pieces: cardinals for Bunny, a small globe Wally gifted us a few years ago; an angel the PTA gave me when Debbie passed away. For Suann’s family we have added a US Mail truck (some of her favorite memories are riding in a truck as her dad transported mail from Albany to Montreal), a toolbox for her grandfather who built his own house and a sign to Lakeview, the tavern her grandmother owned on Saratoga Lake and where Suann spent her summers. And greens. And driftwood garland. They bring it all together.

These days I’m not sure what I believe when it comes to religion but I do have unshakable faith in the power of place, the power of stories, the power of sacred objects and the power of love. 

LIFE IS RANDOM LOVE IS NOTTM