Tuesday, December 13, 2005


And tonight, still clear as a mid-Winter pane of ice, with a huge, bright full moon to light the evening...clear means cold!

It was a really interesting sunrise this AM...there was an overcast sky that hung low, but it appeared to begin to abate as soon as the sun started it's run...within an hour or two, beautiful,cloudless blue sky, that Winter blue that seems to be deeper in the Winter, was the background to the day...

Not as cold this AM as in the previous few days...but it is supposed to turn colder and rain tomorrow and Thursday...see the sunup behind the clock?

Sunday, December 11, 2005


Better shot...this is the start of the Season for me. Right after Thanksgiving. I remember when I worked at Belk (the Department store in Cartersville at which I worked part-time for 5 years), one year I got into a verbal disagreement with the store manager about starting the Christmas set up the week after Labor Day. After he less than politely let me know that my name was not Belk, and last time he looked Mason was not the signature on his paycheck, I accepted the fact that Christmas, in the retail world, would never hold the excitement, warmth, and thoughtfulness I felt should be anticipated and worked up to after Thanksgiving. The Friday after Thanksgiving each year found me at the store at 5AM as I truly enjoyed the shoppers waiting at the door at that hour to start their Christmas shopping duty...and felt as they did that the Friday after Thanksgiving is really the start of the Christmas Season...the challenge of getting up and out on that day, the excitement I felt coming from all those folks running through the store, buying 2 or 3 or more things at a time to get those "early bird" prices (and yes they are sometimes REALLY cheap), and the symbiotic relationship that existed between shoppper and me...their joy at the ritual, my joy watching and vicariously living the first, early hours of my Christmas Season. I knew that over the course of the next several days I too would be looking for that "just perfect" gift, getting all the stuff together to send to my Mom and Dad, feeling excited about Hoss coming over and opening his gifts and seeing the smiles and hearing the giggles as he opened up each one...and now, even though I don't work there anymore and would rather take a beating than go out shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving, I still experience the fun when I do venture out to buy presents for those for whom I feel indebted to for the joy, the happiness and the solidity of comfort they infuse into my daily life, and make home what it is. There is a tapestgry hanging in our bedroom that says, "To be at home is to find yourself with those who put your heart at ease." Christmas is the time of year I find home is much more than just a structure...it is a place my heart sings along with my voice to Christmas Carols, where the smile on a child's face as presents are opened is as warming as the blaze in the fireplace, and where I am safe, content and joyous and glad in the days God has given me..

Got the Christmas settings on the table too...double salt and pepper shaker...I prefer the Santa and Mrs. Claus...

Little better shot...

I just love these dancing bears...they are carved from wood. The bears on the left are exchanging gifts, and the mooses (is that right for plural??????????????) on the right spell out Joy...

Got a few decorations up for Christmas...and no wise cracks on the size of the "stockings hung by the fire with care...". BD told me to say that they are big only because the camera makes them look big...they are NOT big so they can be overfilled or to allow me to put bigger gifts in hers...

Course, the weather could close in from due North. So these two sentinels volunteered to stand watch on the North point of the house...they want to make sure Santa can see the North side of the garage and judge his landing to the West of it just 10 feet...don't want any incidents...after all, Hoss, Ellen and Isaiah will be here and I, as a dilligent Grandpa, need to make sure all precautions are taken to assure the safe arrival and present unload on Christmas Eve night...yah, that's the ticket. A safe arrival and present unload for Hoss, Ellen and Isaiah. Yah, that's the ticket...

Of course, I want to make sure he can make out the driveway, so I hung lighted garland around the retaining wall rail, and dangled candy canes for just the correct contrast to assist in picking out a perfect landing site in case the weather gets bad. Doing it all for the safety of Saing Nick, and of course Hoss, Ellen and Isaiah..yah, that's the ticket, the Grandkids. Gotta make sure Santa can land that sleigh safely...

I know, I know...tacky is as tacky does. But I couldn't pass up the snowman and reindeer as just a couple tokens of Christmas spirit...nor could I pass up a few lights on the porch and deck. I mean, if Santa is going to find the place on Christmas Eve night, he might have the misfortune of encountering less than Visual Flight Rules (VMC) conditions...and I don't want him to miss the house. After all, Hoss, Ellen and Isaiah will be here...yah, that's the ticket. I am doing this for the kids this Christmas...

Sunday, December 04, 2005


The Friday after Thanksgiving, we awoke to Gertie and her pal, Rudolph, standing as sentries by the fireplace hearth. She must have invited Rudy to duty over night...she must have as well changed from her Thanksgiving garb to one recognizable as the uniform of the day for Christmas. All looked well and inviting as she also started a roaring fire in the fireplace to welcome us to the official first day of the Christmas Season. But we were somewhat saddened as Gertie related the story of Farmboy having become somewhat unhappy and displeased that his standing as the representative of "Fall" had come to an end, and Gertie said he even blamed her, sweet and innocent that she is, as facilitating his tenure's demise in her own interest of capaturing "center stage" again at the fireplace. She said he finally gave a big "humph" and left the premises (didn't find any open doors that AM, though). Anyway, Gertie says that she and Rudy assured Farm Boy they would take up the slack in his absence, and hoped he found satisfaction and a warm feeling wherever it was he found himself.

In any event, the fire was welcome, Gertie and Rudy were apparently happy, and all is well with the world. Funny thing, though, Farm Boy's Dad, the Gentleman sitting on the hay stacks by the front door in some of the pictures taken last month, was also gone. Gertie was kind of vague on his whereabouts, mumbling something about the situation becoming somewhat more heated than he liked. But I gave little more thought to his and Farm Boy's wanderings...I had noticed while talking to Gertie that a light trail of straw, obviously left behind by Farm Boy, needed to be cleaned up from in front of the fire on the hearth...lots there, too, though I can't understand how Farm Boy could have lost that much overnight...but it looks like he or Gertie or Rudy also tried to help with the clean-up as it appears they tried to sweep up some of the straw right up to the blaze itself...sweet Gertie, she is like that...helping Farm Boy leave in a "blaze" of rememberance. I really wish they had gotten along a little better, but it warms my, and I am sure Farm Boy's, heart that Gertie would have been so kind to have helped him when he needed to leave...