Merry Christmas everyone. I hope it was peaceful and fun .. The four of us spent nearly the entire day together just hanging out which was wonderful. There is plenty of love in this house and it fills me up. Once again the expectation of how hard a holiday like this can be are much different than the reality. This is our third Christmas since Sam’s passing.. and like everyday.. today had it’s joy and it’s sadness.. Several folks have asked me whether it’s ‘getting easier’.. I can’t say easier… It’s different.. but every day is different from the next. I spent some time looking back over what I wrote over the past two chistmases.. Christmas 2006 was just a month after Sam died.. things were so raw and jumbled then.. Christmas 2007 seems much like today.
Today was slow and dreamy. The kids woke us at 7:30.. which is relatively late for a Christmas morning.. then we moved downstairs to check out what was under the tree…
Our first act was to light the lantern and candle for Sam.. one of our new traditions.. We all held hands and invited Sam into our day. It was sweet and so sad…
Then like every day.. we have to move through those moemnts and get on living.. And we had lots of livign to do today.. 2 kids and 3 dogs were eager to open presents.
We had stockigns stuffed with stuff for people
.. and for animals… Including our bird Gabby that died in 2006.. we always get birdseed or suet for wild birds in that one.
Sam still has a stocking. this one was filled with 5 metal Samstones.
Then came time for Diane and I just to sit back and watch.. The boys took their time enjoying opening their gifts.
At the end we had a happy mess. One thing I noticed is that we’d all made things for each other.. Diane had made Gabe a verty cool scarf thing out of his old ski pants.. I made both boys electronic headbands like the one I where. Gabe made max a really cool movie that he’d writiten the music for as well. Gabe made me a set of his music mixes. Max made an experience for all of us.. but more on that later.
We then wandered back to the kitchen.. Diane made us a wonderful traditional breakfast of crepes and fruit.. with the untraditional bit of left over ceasr salad thrown in for fun..
At that point the boys went up to Bolton for a bit.. while DIane and I took the dogs for a walk with Tim and his dogs.. It had rained quite a bit last night so we didn’t need snowshoes.. thoguh we stil had 6-8 inches of snow that made for tough goign in places…
Around 4ish we all gathered back at home.. It was tiem for Max’s suprise. First he cut up all sorts of foods, lemmons. limes, gretfruits. carrots, cranberries. olives, onions. ble cheese and beer.. Then he set out 4 glasses of water.. He had us each swish oem water around in our mouths.. then…/.
he gave each of us a small berry abotu the size and shape of a cranberry.. they’d arrived by FedEx yesterday packed in dry ice… but I had no idea of what they were.. He had us pop the berries in our mouths and chew them lightly for about a minute.. at the end of that, we spit out the bitter seed in the middle..
Then he invited us to tast the food.. I picked up a lemon and bit into it gingerly.. I was amazed. It was as sweet as maple syrup.. then I ate a lime and a greapfruit.. all the same story.. these normally bitter frutis were as sweet as hone.. with no trace of sourness… at all !..It was unbelivable !. The olives and cheese tasted like.. welll… olive and cheese.. but everythign that was supposed to be sour tasted incredibly sweet. It turns out that these were miracle berries from West Africa. Evidently its called ‘taste tripping’ in the big city.. luckily we have our cosmopliton kid to bring us a taste of medern cultre !
We had a quiet and wonderfull dinner around eight.. We lit the canlde for Sam and hepd hads.. then lit the candles for the 5th night of Hanukah as part of our polyethnic day.. then we dug into veggie shepards pie that Diane had made Yum…
Our last official act was to help Gabe get set up to wax his board with his new waxing iron.. His board is now smooth as silk…
.. and I’m stugglign to stay awake. I’m goign to go to bed early. It’s been a wonderful and fulfillign day. Thansk to everyone who was thinkign of us this season. We are surrounded by love and truly appreciate it..
I woke up feeling pretty sick this morning… bad sore throat and chills.. so I decided to lay low.. I think the only time I left the house was to take Gabe to school and pick him up. I spent most of the day working in the lab on some xmas presents.. but didn’t get very far.. I’m facing some pretty thorny tehnical challenges.. and not making much progress. I feel like an idiot.. but… at least it’s fun to putter in the lab. Theres nothing like stairing at an osciliscope all day to cheer you up
Gabe’s off for the rest of this week and next.. and in honor of that, he has his buddies over for the night. the 4 muskateers we call them.. Gabe, Jack, Austin and Will. It’s wonderful having Max hoem now too.. Diane made a great meal…
And we lit the candles for the third night of hanukah.
GHabe took some time oout of playign to work with Diane on a home made presant project
then the guys went out and finsihed their awesome igloo sno fort.. There’s room for 5 in there !
It’ sonly 10:30 and I’m beat.. Max’s dog Reptar just jumped in bed beside us.. We’ve got three dogs in here.. must make it a three dog night !
OK.. gotta sleep. Homepfully I’ll shake this bug by tomorrow.. Night folks ! Nite Sam -me
Folks, Very quiet today . Spent some of the day making present for the kids. .. spent a bit of it snowshoing with Diane.. and a bit of shopping. In classic beginning of vacation form, I’ve got some sort of respitory bug. nothign bad.. but it always seems to happen when I try to relax
One other thing I’ve done today is try to figure out a new micro-blogging tool .. It’s called Twitter. I’ve been meaning to try it for some time. Diane and I heard a mention of it on the radio on our drive this weekend.. so I figured.. now is the time. The basic idea of twitter is sort of like blogging… except you do it throughout the day. Like when you’re driving you use your phone to send a short (<160 character) SMS post.. or a 'tweet' in twitter-speak... that says " i'm driving" .. when you're about to take a shower.. you say "I'm about to take a shower".. etc. Each time you do that, it posts your 'tweet' on a website.. The weird/cool thing is that then folks can subscribe to your twitter feed.. so... every time you say.."I'm brushing my teeth".. anyone who follows your posts knows about it..
How strange is that ?
Here’s what it looks like:
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I just figured out why it my be interesting in a voyeuristic way.. There are buttons on the Twitter site which allow you to follow people’s twitter that you know.. but there’s also one that allows you to follow what everyone is saying.. all at once.. It’s all nonsense.. but I think I’m hooked !
Here’s what it looked like a few secs ago…
mikiesoft @NameCheap Have a Holly Jolly Christmas less than 5 seconds ago from web in reply to NameCheap michaelmcgee Don’t worry. The Bears will find a way to comeback. The Packers will start screwing up now. Ughhh. less than 5 seconds ago from web Toyo_Hasa @glassknives 逸見さんは尊敬するアナウンサーのお一人なので訃報を聞いた時はショックで言葉に出なかった事をよく覚えています。… less than 5 seconds ago from Tween in reply to glassknives hellofath @tomlovesyou I prefer digital compact. I love IXUS cameras but none of the current model attract my attention. less than 5 seconds ago from web in reply to tomlovesyou kmeisner Milestone: J’s 1st time throwing a book across the room! b/c he was so into the story he got upset when something happened to a character. less than 5 seconds ago from web GnZo devuelta despues de celebrar la graduación de mi hermano 😀 y comer pizza :B! less than 5 seconds ago from web JennyRey @frandango Crockpots are killer! Get one of those huge “fix it and forget it” cookbooks and you’ll be set for life! Trust me. less than 5 seconds ago from Twinkle in reply to frandango mark1kor 어떻게 활용해 볼 수 있을까 less than 5 seconds ago from twhirl roguepanda Drinking 3 buck chuck with the fam less than 5 seconds ago from txt wootibetay merwanduh, what be your number, i gunna call you! less than 5 seconds ago from web KatieMM @ingridmusic Was pleasantly surprised to hear you guys playing live on the radio this morning. less than 5 seconds ago from web in reply to ingridmusic joshmcconnell @chrisfromcanada good to know! I have to head out in a few minutes. Ha less than 5 seconds ago from twitterrific in reply to chrisfromcanada wallie73 $DXO not ready yet, I will start nibbling on some later this week, but I think oil can go to the low 30’s a barrel. Extremely cheap however! less than 5 seconds ago from StockTwits alisso Santa Clara County told to clean up its air – San Jose Mercury News: United Press InternationalSanta Clara Count.. http://is.gd/d3RL less than 5 seconds ago from twitterfeed melina_star why don’t boyfriends ever return a freaking phone call and then they wonder why you think something totally different is happening less than 5 seconds ago from web techbargainscom SAMSUNG SE-S084B 8X DVD+R Slim USB External DVD Burner $49.99 Free Shipping at Newegg : Newegg Coupons http://…com/ayp2qw less than 5 seconds ago from twitterfeed ShyahShaday @dee12345 lmao less than 5 seconds ago from TwitterBerry in reply to dee12345 mamiya_subaru @tyorori すいませんうそつきました半日寝てることが多いです シジミエキスは年々飲みやすくなっていって今では結構おいしいです… less than 5 seconds ago from P3:PeraPeraPrv in reply to tyorori Penguins Buffalo 3 vs. Pittsburgh 4* (NHL): http://…com/9kk7og less than 5 seconds ago from web ljmerrell Me (to Brian): Did the chicken get more crispy? Asher: I would like to get more crispy…by watching a program! less than 5 seconds ago from web
Just took a break to decorate the xmas tree. Gabe wanted an elecrtroluminescent (EL) wire tree.. so.. here’s what we did:
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OK… I gotta go to bed.. too sleepy and sick to stay up. though I have tons to do. Happy 2nd night of hanukah folks.. nite Sam
We got on the road this morning at 7 to avoid the worst of the snow.. The drive back was slow, but uneventful.. actually it was kinda fun. We had three dogs in the car.. and the constant arraigning, fiddling. calming feeding, walking of them kept the drive interesting.. as did the audio book we were listening to .. (Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.. very good !)
We got home around 2ish… to find oVermont full of beutiful kneedeep snow.. It was pretty cold out.. but it wasn’t much warmer inside ! Our room was 48 degrees.
It was tough coming back into a cold and dark house.. sometimes I swear that coming home is the hardest thing for me to do. At the moment I came in..it was easy feel thayt it was the darkest day of the year.. But withing the hour we had lights and candles lit, the fire roaring and the heat on.. and things began to feel better for me..
We got settled for a bit then headed out in the snow to get our Christmas tree. we’d put it off until Max was back..and now, he’s here. We skidded our way up Wes White Hill to Puritans.. They pointed us up back to where the bigger trees were going… We quickly homed in on a pretty 8 foot guy that stood out from the rest… I like this picture.. it has several of those mystery spheres in it.. I love the one over the tree. Sam.. is that you ?
Cutting the tree down was a comedy of erros. our saw broke half way and Diane had to go fetch another ..
… but in the end it came down with a gentle woosh… and we pulled our prize back the long way to the car…
We got it home and Gabe unwrapped the thing.. It’s a beutiful treee..It’s smell makes me happier..
..
Our house was full of kids when we got back. Skanky Green and their enterage were practicing in the barn. Gabe sat them down and taught them the finer points of playing dreidel… the 4 sided top used on Hanukkah… The stakes were high.. they were playing for real candy !
Diane was busy in the Kitchen making a huge platter of latke, the special potato pankakes of hanukah…
So I got busy pullign ou thte condiments. most people stop at apple sauce and sour cream for their latke.. We have chile and mango pickle, thai chili sauce. sambal, thre kinds of mustard, barbeque sauce katchup, island pepper sauce, enchilada sauce, cranberry chutney, vidalia onion sauce, and humous. Yummm..
We rounded up the 11 of us and lit the first hanukah candle
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the Chanukah lights.”
And we lit the candle for Sam….
Then we dug in !.. Yum !
The last thing tonight was something I chose to do for solstice observance. A group of folks lead by Melissa Etheridge, Salman Ahmad and Deepak Chopra have asked everyone to ring a bell today for peace… It was to have been at noon.. but since we were driiving then. we didd it when we could.. It’s a beutifil throught.. Yyu can read about it here
And you can hear my bell ringing here.
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I’ll end tonight with a Wiccan prayer for the earth on this longest night…
Cold and dark, this time of year,
the earth lies dormant, awaiting the return
of the sun, and with it, life.
Far beneath the frozen surface,
a heartbeat waits,
until the moment is right,
to spring.
