Images of Christmas

Merry Christmas!

"No, Not At This Place"

She went from one place to another, but they kept saying "No, we don't' have it here."

I pondered today Mary and Joseph's journey for a place to stay as I went from one place to another looking for ....cabbage leaves!.

Apparently, they are a hot item this time of year, and very few stores carry them at all. I must have visited more than half a dozen places and called a few others, but just kept hearing "Sorry, we don't have it here any more."

I, too, had to make use of the other alternatives that were available...

If You Live in Central Texas...

... you might spend the first day of winter outside in short sleeves.

And you might spend hours pulling out weeds that grew like crazy (even 20"!) in the last few months on your otherwise dormant lawn.

You might even run out of buckets before running out of weeds.

Sheesh!

Don't these specimens know they are not supposed to go nuts until at least March!

I just hope that Texas farmers have as much success with their crops as I had with unwanted plants.

Gaudete Sunday

Since my family didn't celebrate Christmas while I was growing up, I don't have any inherited holiday traditions. So, I try to establish some as I go along. Which is not always easy when you live in a single-person household.

During the Advent season, I try to focus on the internal preparation, but at the same time outwardly building up the anticipation of Christmas season (with a focus on season, not a day). As the title of this book I recently heard of "Happiness is an Internal Affair" suggests, I try to remind myself that the joy of this season does not come from all the outward signs.

The first Sunday of Advent (Hope) I put up an advent wreath.
That is all the decorating I want to do for that first week. I say a blessing and light the first candle during dinner, if I set it up early enough. Most years, the start of Advent catches me off guard, with how quickly it has arrived, that I take the wreath out of the box just at the end of the day. I don't even get a chance to take all other boxes down from the attic. It happens during the next week
I am usually very hopeful that this year I am really going to work hard on spiritual preparation. I think of new ways to spruce up the faith life this season.

The second weekend of Advent (Faith) I try to put up the lights on the house.
Somehow, the weather always seems to be really cold, rainy or windy when I do this. I often realize that a week has gone by without much internal preparation. The lights represent my renewed faith to allow the Lord to slow me down and let Him into places of my life that need His coming the most.

The third Sunday of Advent (Joy) I have reserved in the last several years for putting up and decorating a Christmas tree.
I get all excited about this one. Just like that pink candle we lit on this Sunday is slightly different, I make this day just a bit closer to Christmas and less about waiting. For those few hours while spreading up those tree branches, putting up small tree lights, and working on a pattern with ornaments, I allow myself to listen to just Christmas music. (I try to avoid Christmas music on the radio, flip the stations to find something else, until Christmas season, but by then most of them stop playing it.) I put a small nativity set under the tree, and hide the baby Jesus until His birth on Christmas. This year, I may have started another tradition. I invited my brother and his girlfriend over for dinner, and I made a feast out of it. I made my favorite whole grilled trout, "Restovani" potatoes, carrots, asparagus with lemon butter, spinach and strawberry salad, and my signature "birthday" cake. We had great wine, exchanged gifts and placed them under the tree, and ended the night with a cute movie.

Yeah, I think I like this new tradition. Spending this Sunday with the family adds even more happiness to this joyful Sunday.

Need vs. Want

Yesterday I was playing little St. Nick's helper.

At my company, every year before Christmas we have a giving tree campaign. Next to a 2-story tall and well decorated Christmas tree is a table with couple of small trees adorned with tags of families in need of help. They apply through several charities in Austin, like Shoes for Kids, Salvation Army, and many others.

I came in on Saturday to look through the tags without rushing. Each Salvation Army tag had child's age, gender, shoe and clothes sizes at the top, and then space for Wants followed by the Needs section. Most wants listed some toys and games, the wishes that probably came from the child. The needs would usually list clothes, shoes, or some school supplies; something that the parent recognizes as the need, but cannot provide.

I was surprised at how many tags listed things like video games, Xbox, roller blades, mp3 players and such on the Needs list. Those people have clearly confused what the needs are. They either don't need help providing for the child, except for the toys, or they are so overpowered by the thought of disappointing their children by not getting them the toys they wanted, that they are neglecting any real needs that might be there. That also started me thinking in my life what is really a need vs. my want. I, too, sometimes burden myself by missing something that I want, and think I need.

The tag that spoke to me the most was of a little 8 year old boy, who likes transformers, cars, and wrestling. Those reminded me of my brother when he was that age, and how much he loved playing with little cars. The boy needed shoes and clothing, too. So, I went shopping for those items, and felt quite out of place in the kids isles. I observed the other kids there as they were picking toys from the shelves, while their parents weren't watching, to figure out which toys kids like better. The shoe size on the tag said 14, and since this store didn't carry that size, I had to ask for help figuring out what size equivalent to get. The pants also gave me trouble, as different models were even 5 inches longer in the same size.

I ended up getting two of each: two toys, including a set of little cars, one outfit for play with transformers on the shirt and dark tennis shoes, and one nicer outfit, for school maybe, with brown shoes. I put them all in a red mash bag, provided with the tags, and my heart was full of joy for that little boy who will be getting few more surprises from this little St. Nick's helper. :)

Snow day in Austin

It's not quite like the snow in Canada, but it's a rare event for us in Texas, and we enjoy it while we can.

Skiing on Mt. Baker

What a beautiful day this was!

We woke up to beautiful blue skies, not a cloud in the sky. We were supposed to get an early start, drive hour and a half to the mountain, and start skiing at 9.30, but that didn't happen. We were about three hours behind, but that was all right. I am on vacation!

We had a nice breakfast with the family, waffles with extra yellow eggs from their chickens, and pork sausage fed by all natural food, and organic milk. And the Bosnian coffee! This family lives in a small town where they grow their own vegetables on a large yard, your neighbour is some distance away, with mountains in the background.

We arrived on the mountain just in time for the half day fares for ski lift tickets and rentals. Those two together were less than half the cost of just the tickets on Whistler. And the conditions: clear blue skies! What a difference it made! The view of the mountains was gorges. There were some low skies in the valley and the peaks were visible high up. The mountain reminds me of the place where I used to ski in my childhood, Jahorina, with not so wide trails and side way roads. There were more people on the slopes than on Whistler, but still it wasn't busy at all. The only negative was that the ski lifts don't have the ramp that goes down to rest your skis on, so on the longer lifts my legs get tired from hanging. We covered almost all the lifts and slopes from left to right. I was able to catch the very last run at 4 PM, so I used the tickets to the maximum. I am so glad we had one day of skiing with such nice weather.




At home we had some homemade spinakopita and then arranged to meet with the Bosnian couple that was there the night before, Gordana and Nenad. First we stopped by their house to see her art studio, she is a painter and a sculptor. Next we went for a stroll by the pier and another old Bellingham downtown area. Too bad it was dark and I wasn't able to fully appreciate the area. We ended at Boundry Bay Brewery for a pint of Bellingham Blonde.

Somehow, we never managed to go to sleep before midnight, at this night was no different. My flight was around noon the next day, but we still had to leave the house little after 8 (it ended up being closer to 9) to make it down through Seattle in time. We said our goodbyes in hopes it won't take another 15 years to see each other again.

The flight was long but with no delays and the luggage made it as well. My brother picked me up from the airport and we went to celebrate his girlfriend's birthday with her family. A great ending to a great week.

Thanksgiving Day

Today was a beautiful day in Vancouver. A lot to be thankful for: I am on vacation, in Canada, my leg feels better, the clouds are thinning out, and I finally had my Bosnian coffee in the morning!

After saying goodbye to my friend's mom, since I won't see her tonight, we started our day with breakfast at a Balkan restaurant, Bosnian 'pita', spinakopita. We stopped in couple of stores where I was looking for a few souvenir shirts and then headed downtown. We first walked through a mall and then onto the busy city center. I must say it again, I like places where there are people on the streets. And I noticed there were no extra overweight people. Walking takes care of that. I picked up coffee at another local coffee place, Blenz, and felt like a real tourist with all the picture taking. Hey, it's my vacation. I am aloud to have fun. :)



One interesting thing I noticed is that there are many places associated with the British, there was London Drugs, London School, London Place, and a sightseeing tours bus with huge Britain flag on it. Apparently, they here pledge to the queen and pay her taxes. Who knew!?

The weather was nicer and nicer, so it was just begging to be outside. we next went over to Kinston park and walked all around the east side which has great views of the downtown. There were many locals there jogging and playing with their dogs. I saw a holly bush grown into a tree, some Canadian ducks, and many crows.



We left the park as the son was coming down. We drove through the china town, another parts of down and then all the way to the other side of Burnaby to a small mountain with beautiful views of the city, now all lit up at night. By the time we got home, it was already passed five, and we just took a quick bite, packed all our stuff and headed toward the border.

My friend's sister lives north of Belinggham, just some 30 miles away, but there is a border in between. The weight was close to an hour, because all the people were going over for the black Friday sales. They require people to turn off their engines while waiting in the line in front of a special traffic light, which made our car quite cold to be in. We should our documents and were back in the US close to 9 PM.

My friend's family had some friends over for Thanksgiving and it turned out that the Bosnian lady that was there, was my ski instructor when I was a kid and gone skiing with group from my mom's company. This lady, Gordana, also worked there, and now lives in Belingham with her husband Nenad. We gorged on some good eats, as is common for this holiday. There was some politics discussion at the table, again what is common for the holidays, but I just tune out to that. The house was warm, fire in the stove, food and wine and friends, memories of the old days shared and new ones made. Oh yeah, I have lots to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!