Christmas 2014

Christmas 2014

Teddy and the Puffalumps arrive, and Christmas can begin

Snow on Christmas Morning

A chilly Finch

Deer wish me a Happy Christmas

What beauty - both the snowy country and the Doe!

 christmas tanka

snow falls
a silent landscape broken
by squabbling finches
indoors the sounds of carols
and the tearing of paper

I wish all of you a happy and healthy  New Year in 2015. It is probably too much to ask for peace in the world but I do anyway.

I put up decorations early this year and was enjoying them, but somehow it wasn't quite Christmas. I have some Christmas toys called Puffalumps, that were given as a free gift by a store back in the 80's, and Christmas does not officially arrive on the hill, until they emerge and join my Christmas Teddy Bear on the sofa. Teddy plays Christmas Carols when you squeeze his paw, and what is even more fun, will burst into song spontaneously when there is static electricity around him! I do remember one night in July when there was a lightning strike close to the house and he started playing "Silent Night" - that night was anything but silent!  Still, I didn't quite have that certain "Christmas"  feeling yet. Then on the 23rd I was playing carols on the radio and baking cookies, and suddenly it arrived.  The smells and sounds and sights all combined and my senses knew it was Christmas.

 Christmas morning here was beautiful. In the many years that I have lived here , I think this is the first time I awoke to snow falling gently all around. We received about four inches of quiet beauty and to quote the poem "not a creature was stirring".  Then the finches moved in to the bird feeder and had contests with the chickadees for sunflower seeds and their squabbles filled the air.

At my computer reading the morning mail I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and it was two visiting Does.... one was smaller than the other and I suspect it was her offspring for this year. What a sight.  I whistled and talked to them and they just stood and listened. Then eventually they moved over the hill to take their trail to the river and drink. 

I decided to stay home this year and shared Christmas dinner with my friends Owen and Diana.We had a wonderful meal and then watched the deer from the porch window as evening descended. Now as we head into the New Year I have no idea where I will be next December, but one thing is for sure, if this is my last Christmas here, it was a very special gift.