Everyone is ready for Christmas Eve including our tiny tree. Merry Christmas all.

Everyone is ready for Christmas Eve including our tiny tree. Merry Christmas all., a photo by abaesel on Flickr.

Our Christmas celebrations have gotten simpler as the years have gone by. Jason grew up and away. We moved. Mom passed. Some years I still put up the Christmas trees laden with ornaments from Christmas past. But more and more we keep it simple.

Two years ago we met Jason in Montreal and shared a simple tiny tree, wintry snow, and a home cooked meal.

This year we are in Seattle where Jason now lives. It is just the three of us. We rented a small house for the week not far from Jason. It has snowed and rained. It has been sunny and windy. Today is mild with the sun playing peekaboo behind gray clouds fringed with white wispy tendrils.

Over the past few days I've gathered a tiny tree from Trader Joe's to go with the snowmen, elf and penguin I brought from home. Jason bought me the husky ornament from REI and I found the cute kitty at Pottery Barn. The rum bottle is from my friend Kim, the shortbread from Daryl, and the Corgi is from yesterday's tea at the Queen Mary tearoom. Symbols of past and present holidays, good friends, and family.

Today we'll roast e a rack of lamb, sweet potatoes and zuccini, and bake an apple crisp. We'll open a bottle of good wine and toast to our good fortune to be together on Christmas. All under the watchful eyes of a few dogs,a cat, and a penguin.

Merry Christmas all.

The Address Book

  This year when I was doing my Christmas cards, Jerry was stuffing the envelopes and I was addressing them.  For years, we have said we should put the addresses in a computer program that will spit out the addresses on labels to save time..  But I’ve never done it.  This year I realized why.

Taking the time to write those names and addresses gives me the time  to remind myself of all the wonderful friends and family that we are blessed with. 

     There is family: old, new, and blended. There are people on the list I’ve known since I was four, Jerry has known since high school and ones who have made us feel welcome and part of a community here in St Pete when we moved here 4 years ago. There are business associates who became friends and neighbors who have stayed neighbors of the heart if not in fact. 

     I’ve decided to stop trying to make the list smaller and instead will revel in the memories that each name brings and shed a few tears for those who no longer have an earthly address.

     So no more grumbling about writer’s cramp and the taste of the envelope glue, instead just remembering and rejoicing. 

Jason on the "front porch" of the gnome house of our Issaquah home 1992. Our first snow.

Jason on the "front porch" of the gnome house of our Issaquah home 1992. Our first snow., a photo by abaesel on Flickr.

Memories on a Tree

Memories on a Tree

by Annette Baesel      

A

gold

silver glass

 globe worn thin,

 the oldest, reflects

 the merry years of trees.

 A tiny polka-dotted red ball

replaced the one that fell, broke to

splinters. White lacy snowflakes, first

 ornaments for a bare apartment when a

scrawny Charlie Brown tree was perfect.

A crystal angel nests in the heart of the pine

 blessing lives braided into a single long plait.

 A small green pickle, hidden deep, brings luck

 and laughter.  A round red bell says I Love Grandma,

dangles in its place on a low branch. Etched bronzed

hounds race through the tree scaring the winged black cat

named Mabel. Yellow kayak and oar, sea otter, snowshoes

 speckled blown glass salmon, tokens from a time in rainy cedar

 forests.  Painted glass peonies, amaryllis, iris, reminder of spring

 in four seasons country. Delft Dutch shoe, cable car, sea shell,

cactus in a cowboy hat, Canadian Mountie moose, Peruvian llamas,

 tell tales of journeys far. A simple heart of multicolored beads made

by tiny hands a reminder of early years and mother love.

Regiments of scarlet coated nutcrackers

Santa-hatted Scooby-Doo

oversee the cast of soldiers,

 gnomes,  ballerinas, ponies,

echoes of Christmas past.

Throwback Thursday: High School Graduation

graduation, a photo by abaesel on Flickr.

Mom and I standing in front of our home on Call Street in Pico Rivera before my graduation from El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera. I was so incredibly excited...so was she. It was 1973, but seems like just yesterday.