Its Christmas Time

Chirstmas is the season of Love, Joy and Happiness.  This is also the time when we decorate our house, put up stars, lights  and a Christmas tree to bring in festive mood and cheer.

I love putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it, and as a ritual we have been doing it regularly at home. Usually put up during the Advent season, the first sunday of  December, I manage to get the men at home join me in this endeavour. Advent season Focuses on expectation and it serves as an anticipation of Christ's birth in the season leading up to Christmas.

When Dennu was small, he was all enthusiastic about these stuff and now he is kind of aloof.  I still managed to get him into this tradition.  To a comment on FB where my niece asked my son, if he helped in the decorations at home, he has replied stating, If you can consider watching someone do it, I have done lots of help.

So, I thought I will share the pictures of my Christmas tree that we have put up this year.  I had lost our 10 year old tree to the floods last year, so this is a new one, though most of the ornaments on the tree are the ones that i have collected over a period of time.  some are even 20 years old. Wow right?

First stage of assembling christmas tree.

The Ornaments and the silk skirt for the tree.  Most of them are from my collection over several years, packed and stashed away carefully.

Almost done with the help of the two men in the house

There we go with the lights on..

The Advent wreath on the front door

Decorations on the altar

A close up shot of the tree and decorations

Christmas tree at a different angle

Yes, Christmas Joy is spreading and to me this is absolutely amazing.  

May the Peace, Joy and Love of this season be with you all.  Merry Christmas Folks. 

Coffee Conversations

My blog friend Rekha who blogs at Soul Searching days  had done a blog marathon recently and she had done a post which is titled “ If I were having coffee with you…”

It looked like a nice idea to steal and here I go with her permission. :-) 

• After all the mental turmoil and misunderstanding, my friend and I had a nice long chat.  We, okay I, started off very defensively, but we graciously accepted our mistakes and that in itself brought in a lot of sanity.  Most importantly we were willing to listen to each other. When something as precious as Trust breaks, it is difficult to put it all back together all over again  but I guess we both after a long after thought and a month of pain and agony,  took a first step in healing.  World looks much better now.
• The advent season has started – this is the season to have fun and be Jolly.   Holidays are coming up and I will get to see family.
• Due to the demise of our Chief Minister Dr.JJ, famously portrayed as Iron lady, our Marathon has been postponed. I was so eagerly waiting for it, this is a real dampener, but on the other side, we get more time to practice and improve our time.
• That brings me to a change in perspective that I am noticing right now about our late Chief Minister.  The world( including me)  that painted her as someone who was Greedy, arrogant and narcissistic now writes a Hagiography in her memory.  Reverence for the Dead ?
• There is something that I wanted to write, but somehow could not bring myself to put down in so much words.  J has moved to Cochin, on an assignment from his organisation for the next two years, the brunt of which I bear on my lone weak shoulders.  While it is challenging to live apart after all these years, it is a difficult way to realize the value the other person added in your life, which we probably had got used to, over a period of time.  Distance makes the heart go fonder. Yeah.
• Usually the first Sunday of Advent is when we put up our Christmas tree, but since the head of the house, has to come in and join the ritual, I have postponed it to this weekend and hooray this week, when J comes over,  the tree will be up, wreaths will adorn the door and the stars will announce the season.  The hubby is not very interested in the ritual, but family traditions need to be sustained right?
• While everyone is worried about the drought and the lack of rains, the pitter patter of the little rains that we have received so far does bring in a painful memory of the past and it does remind me of the last year's deluge when we had around 10 feet of water “INSIDE” our home.
•  A friend of yore, and someone who had started off with me as a Fresher in the early 90’s, now settled in Trump land, is in town.  We have been in touch with each other all this while and we will all get to see him this weekend at home.  Isn’t that nice?
• The “No shave November” is over.  So, I asked my Sonny boy, Would you please care to shave and look civilized? And his reply was this, Ma, this is “Don’t Care December".

SSo folks, whats news at your end?  Enjoying the festive / holiday season?

Emotional Chaos

When the sky is gloomy, dark with thunderclouds

Simple conversations with you were my solace

You were my sky full of stars

And a heart full of hope

Like a bird clipped of its wings

Land devastated after a Tsunami

Dense bushes after a forest fire

You have left me with a tattered soul

Memories surprise me with their lightning bolts
Hiding in the shadows and pouncing unexpected

They knock me out and stop the world around me

And shatters the rhythm of my ordinary life’s magic

Lyrics have a completely different meaning now

Shards of glass pierce and shred me

I cannot fathom which I am missing the most

the best friend in you or my solace of a rainy day?

How could we harm our friendship?

Head bowed in shame, I know not what to do

Unable to look at my eyes in the mirror

I loathe myself.

Breaking inside every moment

burying myself in guilt, Insanity grips me tight

In the confines of my loneliness, I scream in silence

While images of a happy decade fade into oblivion.

Vincy Joseph