Shakespeare at the Opera House

This weekend the local Shakespeare Group brought the Tempest to the Opera House.  It is my favorite Shakespearean piece.  I love the sea monster and the sheep, and overly innocent Miranda, spirits and nymphs and he who can control the weather.  That is my favorite part.  How he can call up the storms or soothe the troubled seas.  I love that!  They did a performance last night and then the matinee today.  It was a small crowd and I only made it through intermission, but I enjoyed the production.  I enjoyed getting up and putting on going out clothes and sitting quietly by myself in the dark watching one of my favorite pieces.  There were people just seats away from me that are my friends through the Opera House that I got to talk to during intermission.  Special people that I am so fond of.  


This morning while I watched Charlie Osgood on Sunday morning I wrapped little tin toys in white tissue with either a red or green ribbon.  These will sit tucked in between the juice glasses filled with flowers, maybe roses, maybe mums or carnations, whatever flowers look the bestat Christmas for the Christmas table .  Also mixed in with the toys and the flowers are single bite candies wrapped to look like little packages.  Each place will have an activity book with a box of crayons under their plate and a English Christmas Cracker placed on top of the plate.  A table over loaded with surprises and small presents.  To make the meal as much of a celebration as the rest of the day.  Sometimes I weave ribbons in and out of the glasses of flowers.  Last year everyone got a Godiva Chocolate Santa, this year are the tin toys.  There are almost a dozen of us and for as little a $5 per person I can purchase a bundle or two of flowers, cut local greenery, pick out a toy, a few chocolates, ribbons and a Cracker for each person.  I mean you can not complain over that, and after dinner as we all sit around the table and talk and laugh and color in our activity books or play with our toys and spend another hour or so together.  That is what Christmas is for me.  Some years I buy little brass bells for everyone and after the blessing and before we eat, we ring the bells giving as many angels wings as possible.  Sometimes if you listen carefully not only can you hear the bells, but you can hear the whisper of new wings and singing.  Singing like the heavenly hosts, joyful, happy songs filled with hope.  This year instead of bells, we will hear the whir of keys being turned and the rrrrrrrrr of the motor as the toy skids or hops or spins across the table.  Joy


I used to make the Christmas crackers but it is hard to get the snaps needed to make the crackers.  Well, that and there was the fire.    OK, more of a smoldering instead of an actual fire.  A tiny spark had flown up as Rob and Jong Ae snapped their crackers one year.  It happened in slow motion as we watched the spark fly through to air and then hit Jong Ae's pants and they just burst into flame and then quickly a smolder.  Rob, pushed his napkin on it and smothered it out immediately and no one was harmed, but one pair of pants did have a small yet noticeable hole.  I have purchased them ever since.  liability.  
Happy holidays!


I haven't done as well getting presents bought as I have done on ordering the table toppers, but I am checking lists, revising and rereading lists so that after Thanksgiving I can get my shopping done.  I love the holidays, My birthday, Samhein, All Saints Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years.  I mean bam, bam, bam.  We have a sound effect prop that is wood hinged with handles so that you can slam the boards together and back repeatedly making this Tommy gun sound.  And that is how the holidays fell for me.  But this year, some how I feel like I have a better sense of the timing, well for now.  Next week is chemo, post chemo shots, and follow up visit with the surgeon.  Three days with appointments.  But how will I react to the chemo?  I am not sure, so I am leaving Wednesday and Thursday as open days.  I have things I would like to accomplish, but if I need to spend a day sitting in front of the TV knitting a scarf, that is OK.





This year, I will scale back on so many casseroles, and have a fewer number of people gathered, but I am already looking forward to it.  I am looking forward to the opportunity to cook for people I care about.  People who are giving so much these days to take care of me.  I wouldn't mind a few more, maybe, for dinner, but having a small traditional dinner with a few loved ones to share it with, sounds so special.  


I am looking forward to these holidays and on into the next year.  I am looking forward to the cold and the frosts that I will whine about as I sit in my red chair looking out at the impossibly blue sky, but the temperatures that I would not want to be in.  And Valentine's day and Easter and spring with bulbs pushing through the ground, bringing flowers of every color as the spill out into yard. Waves of colors moving through the gardens first in one place then a week later a new spot in the garden bursts out.  Then the heat and slow hard growth of our gardens, harvesting the three sisters, and eggplants, peppers, tomatoes and basil and looking forward to cleaning out the garden to plant the fall garden.  There is always something to look forward to.  


For me this cycle seems to start in the fall.  Maybe that is because of the years of schedules centered around school.  September, football, the first of the mums opening, crisp weather and changing leaves.  And the cycle is starting to speed up a bit here to tackle Thanksgiving and use the momentum of tradition and family, script and unconditional love, pilgrims and turkeys, diversity.  After all the first holiday signalling the importance of European intrusion into the Americas was shared by the local people.  I mean I understand they didn't sit around and watch football.  But they did share and work together.  A great beginning, a wonderful new start of one of our favorite traditions that has become so accepted in our lives today.  One more thing to be thankful for.  


Mostly I am thankful for getting to celebrate this holiday.
Especially after the last 6 months.
Because I have new hope to take me into the new year
Because I fell good.
And I am so very thankful for so very very much
And that gives me a peace that I never thought I would achieve
Even for a short time
Thankful
joyful
peace
love
magic
hope
Words of the season
I am feeling them today
I wrapped presents
I thought about the heat and smells and the buzz of the kitchen on Thanksgiving day.
I am feeling good.