It was a merry little Christmas!

And stockings were hung by the chimney with care ... 

We had a very merry little Christmas here on HeartSong Farm this past week!  The key words for my little family of creatures and two grown sons is Moderation and Tradition.

On Christmas Eve, for instance, I watch "Steel Magnolias" and put out a tray for the creatures in my yard to enjoy (unless it is raining, and then it goes out on the next available clear night).  I make some snacks like hummus, deviled eggs, and spinach dip for Ben and myself.  There may be something hot to drink like mulled wine or cocoa if it is truly cold outside.  I hang our two stockings and dust off the carved Santas that were made for me by my Daddy over the years.

I have not put up a tree since my divorce.  I sold the family tree in a garage sale when I first moved to East Texas.  A few years ago, I bought one on sale at Lowe's, complete with lights already strung upon it.  It is still in the box, never opened, and some years I think of putting it up, but, so far, the closest I have come to that was when I have propped up the box in a corner of the den!

Last year's tray for the critters.

Christmas morning finds me waking not too early, but certainly earlier than Mr. Ben!  While the coffee is brewing, I see a gift or two from Ben on the counter top or on the coffee table, and my stocking hanging stuffed on the mantel!  I sit down in the quiet and drink my first cup, with as many cats in my lap as will fit, listening to the holiday music playing on my DirecTV station.  Peace on Earth is my prayer, and I think how Life is Good for me.

In a bit, I will go outside and see what is left of the treat tray for the critters who passed by in the night.  Some Christmases there is little left, some it is hardly touched.  But, I know that my offering was appreciated and enjoyed by those who came across it, and I smile.

Eldest son, Matt, calls mid-morning from wherever it is that he is living.  The last two years, it has been Sacramento, CA.  It has been a number of years since he has been able to spend Christmas Day with us in person, but a phone call is a wonderful substitute, and now we have SKYPE (if we can remember to use it!).

Ben wakes late morning because our Christmas Day Tradition will begin around noon-thirty.  He grabs a cup of coffee and heads out to his outside "man cave" to wake up.  He is not awake, really, until he has finished that first cup, outside, and by himself.  My Daddy was just like that!

Santas that my Daddy carved and painted for me through the years.  Each is based on an historic

depiction of the jolly old fellow, and they hang out on my mantel all year long.

When he comes back inside, we exchange our gifts and delight in our stockings.  Hugs are exchanged, as well as smiles.  Then it is time to get dressed for our favorite part of Christmas Day, our special Tradition .... a movie and IHOP!  

This year, the movie was "The Hobbit" first, and then early supper at our local IHOP branch.  God bless those folks at the International House of Pancakes who stay open and serve all of those who love to gather at a local restaurant with family and friends on Christmas Day.  Ben and I appreciate you very much as a huge part of our Christmas Tradition.

This Christmas I was blessed with some awesome gifts:  a nice bonus from my boss, gift cards from my boys and a surprise one from a dear friend, a basket full of new dishtowels, lots and lots of chocolate, and an awesome new kitchen knife.

Thanks for my new knife, Judy!  I really love it!

But, for me it is not the gifts, it is about the enduring love of my family and friends that reminds me that life is indeed good.  It should be a time to stop and reflect on this goodness in our lives, and to slow down and enjoy what we have been given by so many, past and present!  Crowded malls and stressful shopping do not apply!

Here at HeartSong Farm, we hope that you have had a happy and wonderful holiday season, and that the new year is most kind to you all.

Life is very good here on HeartSong Farm!

Holiday Traditions

Well, Christmas 2013 has come and gone, and thankfully all the commercials on my TV have subsided for at least the next 6 months.  We had a nice, quiet Christmas Day here on HeartSong Farm with a phone call from my oldest son, Matt, who moved to California this year, brunch at our local IHOP, and a matinee of “The Hobbit” in a neighboring town.  I spent Christmas Eve watching “Dr. Zhivago” on my DVD.  I wanted to see snow and romance and costumes!  Usually I watch “Steel Magnolias” at Christmas time, but this year I wanted something different, and I had picked well.  I bundled up in two fluffy afghans I had gotten as gifts on previous Christmases, with two of my kitty cats and some hot chocolate by the side, and enjoyed seeing the snow, hearing the sleigh bells and beautiful music, and admiring the period costumes and fine acting.

Before going to bed, I ventured out into the cold night for what has become an annual Tradition for me since I moved to this farm.  I took with me a tray full of treats for any wildlife that might pass by, and placed it under a live oak tree near one of the brier patches in my front yard.  I had loaded it down with carrots, raisins, marshmallows, soy nuts, whole grain bread chunks with peanut butter, suet, and hay.  I also added a handful of llama fiber in case a warmer nest was needed for the winter.  The night sky was clear and crisp overhead.  I breathed in the cold air and stood there gazing at the spectacular cosmos above me for a few minutes before heading back into the warmth of my log home and bed.  

2013 Nativity Tray

I began this Christmas Tradition after having read Sarah Ban Breathnach’s wonderful book, Simple Abundance, A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, throughout my first full year back to Texas in 1999.  Newly divorced, I was very much needing to do away with past Traditions and birth some new ones.  This quickly became a favorite with me, as did going to the movies on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  This year, Ben and I decided to add going to IHOP (the only place open in our town) for brunch as part of our holiday celebration.  Letting someone else do the planning, cooking and cleaning up seemed like a wonderful thing to me and part of me wondered why I hadn't thought of this before!  Ben enjoyed biscuits and gravy with pork sausage links and scrambled eggs, while I opted for a loaded fajita omelet and 3 buttermilk pancakes with lots of butter and some warm maple syrup, along with glasses of ice-cold orange juice and delicious strong hot coffee just like I like it.  Needless to say, we will be doing this again from now on!

I no longer put up a tree for the holidays.  That is another of my new Traditions.  Oh, I still have most of the ornaments in boxes in the storage closet, along with beautiful stockings, a manger set, wreaths and bows, but decorating a tree and hanging stockings seemed pointless and a bit sad with just me here at first.  After all, my wedding anniversary was December 23rd and he had moved out the day after Christmas in 1997.  When Ben moved back in with me in 2001, being a fairly typical male of the species, he said it made no difference to him one way or the other.  For sure, there are plenty of decorated trees, houses and offices for us to enjoy around town without all the hassle associated with hauling ours out and then packing it all back up later, especially when those chores would have fallen most certainly to me to accomplish.  I can tell you that there is a certain amount of peace associated with this new Tradition.  So please don’t think me a “bah humbug!”  I am not a Scrooge by any means.  I just really need simplicity in my life along with serenity, joy and creativity.

With fondness I remember the Traditions my family had at Christmas time when I was growing up.  Things were so much simpler back then in the 50's and 60's, and that is certainly not a bad thing!  Some years we traveled 13 hours by car to my mother's parents house in Mississippi, some years we stayed at home.  

If at Mom and Pop's house, there was never a tree in the house until Christmas morning when we would awake to find one complete with decorations and lights and presents in the living room!  Magical!  I learned when I was grown that my grandfather would wait to buy a tree after he closed his downtown drugstore on Christmas Eve. He would pick from the leftover, marked down trees at the tree lot on the highway and prop it up on the far side of the house, unseen, when he got home.  Then once the house was all quiet, he and my grandmother would decorate it, place the gifts underneath, and fill the stockings we children had hung up on the mantle before going to bed.  In our stockings there would always be three of his favorites:  Wrigley's chewing gum, a roll of Lifesavers, and spicy ribbon candy.

If we were to spend Christmas at home in Houston, Daddy and I would visit the tree lot outside the A & P and pick out a tiny tree that would fit on top of the lamp table in the living room.  I remember that one year our tree cost a whole 75 cents!  Once home it would be decorated with a string of lights that was almost too heavy for it, cranberry and popcorn garlands, mostly homemade ornaments, and aluminum icicles that tended to end up in clumps if my little brother got hold of them before I did!  On Christmas morning we always had to wait until Daddy had gotten the furnace turned on and the house declared "warm enough", the coffee made, and my mother ensconced on the sofa wrapped in a blanket. Then the rush was on.....always to the stockings first, where we would find an orange, some nuts, some candy, and some times a small toy or book.  One year, I found a can of cat food in my stocking and was truly baffled until a tiny black kitten peaked out from under the quilt on my oldest brother's bed on the other side of the living room.  One of the best Christmases ever!!!

For some reason, one of my fondest memories of Christmas Traditions past was ironing the used wrapping paper to save for the next year.  I absolutely loved doing this, and each year it was just as much fun for me to open the box of those old wrapping papers and bows and try to remember what gift had previously been wrapped in which. When I had a family of my own, though, it was hard to keep up this treasured Tradition as my two little boys seemed to delight in ripping and tearing the paper off their gifts and tossing the bows on those Christmas mornings! Well, after all, it had been a simpler time in my childhood. 

Traditions are a wonderful thing, if you ask me.  Don't you agree?

So what are your favorite Holiday Traditions?