Reflecting on the Season

[fivecats]

Open
December 2005 Durham, NC
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See, here's the thing about Christmas.

I grew up watching way too much television, a fact that has warped a great deal of my thinking for far too many years. One of those ways has to do with my expectations of Christmas. The big tree, the lights, the clean house, the cookies and cakes everywhere, a nice fire in the fireplace and, of course, standing by the window looking at all of the snow piling up against the panes and covering the grass and driveways outside.

That's one of the signals that Christmas is really on it's way.

Instead, Real Life is nothing like that. We have about 10 days before Christmas and none of those idealized trappings exist for me yet. Worse, I have to be the one to help create some of them. What happened to those frisky little pixies ("Yeeeeeaaaaassss!!!") that play their magical flutes in Scottish castle hotels, cleaned the Huxtable family's house all through "The Cosby Show" years and, undoubtedly, cleaned, cooked and created through all of the TV Christmas Specials that I watched as a kid.

Geez, do I have to do everything around here?

(Bonn would, undoubtedly, take this opportunity to smack me upside the head and correct me by saying, "No, I have to do everything around here.")

(And she has a point)

For two more images and a bit more rambling,




James Craven III
December 2005 Durham, NC
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Part of the problem is that I end up tired as, well, tired, by the time I get home. The idea of baking pies and making cookies just doesn't occur to me when I get home. A sense of mild "I have to learn Filemaker" panic sets in at some point and I'll try to read some of the Filemaker documentation I have, but lemme tell ya, Filemaker documentation has got to be one of the best sedatives I've found outside Ambien which, as I said back during the dark days of '04, grants one The Sleep of the Dead.

Still, we have company coming for Christmas and we have to make ready for them. That means a cleaned house, a cleaned studio for them to sleep in, cookies and pies, a tree up and decorated, etc., etc.

We'll get there. One step at a time.





Almost Everything
December 2005 Durham, NC
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These images were taken Saturday during a break from the show we did with our friends in Durham. There's a lot of road construction going on in the area and I was forced to walk around an area that I normally would cut through. The windows caught my eye, or, rather, the reflections in the windows caught my eye.

I don't know if I'm happy with any of them, but there they are.

Hope your Christmas/Holiday plans are going well and that you're taking care.



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Comments

[ladyamybug.livejournal.com]

good god--im in just about the same predicament....7 additional people and 2 extra dogs, will be at my house for a week....um...in just about a week. our tree isnt up, nor are our outside lights (we take ours down every year-hehe), we have no wrapping done--altho most of the shopping is done, packages to mail, lots of cleaning to do, and no idea what-so-ever what i might whip up and call xmas dinner for all those mouths!!!!
and being at work 8 hrs a day is really starting to cut into my preparation time....im becoming resentful. ok, not really, but i am a little stressed!

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I still have far too much to do and not nearly enough time. Looks like the weekend is going to be a very, very busy one for us.

And we just have people coming. The five cats don't tolerate other animals at all. :-)

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ANTI-CHRISTMAS = NO STRESS

[vavaverity.livejournal.com]

Hope your Christmas/Holiday plans are going well and that you're taking care.

Sometimes, being single is fun.

No holiday cards.

No decorations.

No presents to buy for anyone but myself.

Sleep late ALL weekend.

No annoying relatives to contend with.

You know, I'm kinda diggin' it... (probably a little more than I should)

Re: ANTI-CHRISTMAS = NO STRESS

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Our daughter feels the same way, I'm sure.

Just add in the "going home where the tree and all the decorations are already set up" and she's there. (Except for the presents. She buys lots of presents for people)

It would be a perfect weekend to get your portrait done by Bruce. :-)

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Re: ANTI-CHRISTMAS = NO STRESS

[vavaverity.livejournal.com]

I may actually see Bruce this weekend for some pizza. :)

I used to be like that - I used to buy TONS of presents. I likely will still buy a little something or two for my mom. I do still go visit her on X-mas eve, but it's nothing like the days of growing up when the whole family would get together. Once the grandparents died, that was the end of that.

Ahhh the holidays...

Enjoy the insanity for as long as you can!! :)

Re: ANTI-CHRISTMAS = NO STRESS

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it's time to start your own Christmas traditions. :-)

Enjoy yourself as well, especially with pizza this weekend!

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[basefinder.livejournal.com]

We have no company coming for the holidays, even though we invited some family. (We dodged a bullet there!)

Last year's outgoing holiday cards are sitting in their unopened boxes on a shelf in the laundry room.

And we gave up on decorations years ago, when the number of cats in the household started to climb.

:-)

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

We've threatened to invite ourselves to Seren's for Christmas, but we never seem to do so. We always take on Christmas ourselves.

At the same time, I don't miss the travelling or the packing/unpacking. Staying put, despite all of the cleanup work, is definitely worth it.

The cats climbed the tree their first year or two. After that they've contented themselves with whacking down a few of the lower hanging ornaments each year.

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[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

we don't make much fuss over christmas here in our home... just keep it very simple. new years is a big one for us though.
the photos look sort of surreal... like stills from a movie..
like christmas hype feels....
:-)

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Seren has always gone to visit friends for New Years because we never do anything on New Years. This year Bonn is set to prove her wrong and has determined that we're going to do something.

I have no idea what, though.

I'm still very undecided about these images. I like parts of them and don't like others. There is a surreal quality to them, but they still lack the look I was going for.

Ah well.

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[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

James Craven III is fantastic - the writing on the window seems to emboss the reflection.

I'm looking at a stack of unsent and unwritten Christmas cards; I've got to zoom home at lunchtime so I can put the tree up before the kids arrive tonight; I've not wrapped a present or bought many of them, yet!

D'oh!

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Bonn and I ran errands last night until I was ready to drop. Then she wrote out a whole bunch of Christmas cards and now has them all ready to send off.

I went to sleep.

*sigh*

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[anjellaroessler.livejournal.com]

I want pixies too.

We don't even have a tree yet, we threw out our old one last year and I just haven't got around to buying a new one and now Kmart has sold out of the ones I wanted...WAAAHH! I feel so disorganised. I'm finding it very hard to be motivated this year.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I've found it difficult to be motivated for years now. Maybe I'm just getting older. Maybe I'm just more tired than I was.

This weekend should do a lot towards motivation, though.

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[velvetslide.livejournal.com]

I like those photos, they look a bit like old style movie sets!

Only present I have bought for anyone so far, has had to be returned. It's like spring cleaning frenzy here, {plus mess all around) plumbing still not fixed, and clearing out junk etc for the termite pest guy on tues. Not a card sent, but hey are glaring at me on the table there..food shopping though is done {whoo!} as is are the lawns. Decorations and tree go up after the pest guy is done. We're not going anywhere for xmas, but NYE we plan on going out "somewhere?" also.

Hope you and Bonn & cats have a wonderful time. Be safe if travelling. hugs

[victory-rose.livejournal.com]

That's the beauty of not doing Christmas at all - haven't bothered in about 20 years - no fuss, no muss.

Having said that, ever since I unfroze emotionally a few years ago (long and boring story), I find that this winter stuff is affecting me increasingly negatively. I'm guessing that making a fuss over Christmas might take the edge off the drudgery of winter - the problem is that I just can't be bothered (way too lazy, and what's the point when you live alone with 6 cats?).

To add to insult, this will be the lousiest Christmas - days-off-work-wise - in a long time. That's always been what I look forward to at Christmas/New Year's - one lousy Monday, that's all we get this year.

Bah, humbug! ;-)

(I like the pictures, of course - I love reflections).

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Our kids love Christmas, as do we. Our five cats (plus one) view it as an excuse to get crab, or be very grouchy if they don't.

Really, any excuse will do for them. Crab is a wonderful thing in their eyes. Better than salmon, better than shrimp.

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