I love Christmas. I don’t do a lot of celebrating at Christmas time. My childhood was spent in the Philippines (my dad was the USA Veteran’s Administration head Adjudication Officer in Manila after the Korean “conflict”). We didn’t move to the USA until I was 11 years old. So our relatives were far away, back in the USA. As a result, we didn’t have relatives around us at Christmas or any holidays or birthdays. My Mom did her best to make times like that special, and she did very well. But still, celebrations were fairly quiet in our house. They were more a time for quiet, thoughtful, inner reflection as opposed to energetic group gatherings of family and friends. So today, I actually prefer quiet holidays. I still haven’t trained all of my family and friends about that preference, but I’m working on it. 🙂
Maybe because of those childhood experiences in the Philippines, as an adult I’ve been happy to learn about other people’s religious and cultural celebrations. Whatever you believe is A-ok with me.
Muslims have their customs and beliefs. Hindus do too. Confucianism, Tao-ism, Buddhism, Dharmic philosophy, Christianity, Quakers, Judaism, Sufism, as well as native people’s beliefs and practices in North America, Australia, Hawaii, Africa, the Philippines, etc. The one thing we all seem to share is that we should love and care for each other and the earth (check out Ubuntu philosophy and belief). AND … every one of these groups seems to have some sort of celebration of the return of light to the earth … the forthcoming spring light (or autumn light in the southern hemisphere) that will bring warmth and growth and food to us once again after a cold, dark winter. The India celebration of Diwali is wonderful!
So I love Christmas, for so many reasons. One of those reasons is because of such colorful Christmas lights that are so prevalent in my culture, in my world. All of those bright and colorful lights bring such joy for me. Let me share with you a bit of that joyful color that I have in my life this year. I love Christmas! 🙂
Below … standing outside my home, looking at my living room window. The Christmas lights are reflected off the big white truck on the right.
The big red star is from the Philippines, made by a filipino. I remember seeing thousands of similar stars in peoples’ homes … in the windows and porches of rich people’s huge mansions, and hanging in bamboo window frames of nipa hut homes of people who lived out near the rice paddies … and everywhere in between, those stars were everywhere! They were made of all different sorts of material, all different colors, most of them with long tassels off the bottoms of them, many of them with a small opening in the middle of the back so a candle could be placed inside there and be lighted at night.
Below, inside my living room. The woven bells on the right are from the Philippines.
The tree is a “plastic” tree. I used it on both of my boats for almost 30 years. It fit nicely up on top of the “dash board” of each of those boats. Today it fits nicely on top of my wood stove. And no, the wood stove is not burning wood while these things are on top of it.
On top of the mantle behind the wood stove, I have various decorations … there’s a small “big white truck”, a RAM no less, just like my really truly big white truck. 🙂 And a Christmas version of Towhee the Trailer.
The ice skating boots below are very small. Just the size of a paper clip. 🙂 They were made by my friend KathieT.
I love Poinsettias. The red leaves are so pretty. The plant is native to Mexico, but grows quite well in that warm-weather belt that circles the globe. Poinsettias grew in the Philippines like weeds. The men who tended our yard there could hardly keep the Poinsettia plants in check. Here in northern parts of North America, we treasure these plants as special.
The table mat in the photo above is a Mah Jongg mat. I played Mah Jongg in the Philippines as a child. My mom played in an adult women’s group. That’s where I learned to play. I was good enough that whenever one of the adult women was absent, they had me sit in … and sometimes I won!
The two photos below are of my kitchen window … the photos were taken from outside. That’s Rudolf, heading for the rooftop and the chimney, bringing lots of presents for good girls and boys. My kitchen window faces the back yard … at least six other homes in this community have living rooms or kitchens or dining rooms that also face the same large yard area that’s behind all of our homes. I thought it might be nice for my neighbors to see some Christmas lights out their back windows. In the past few days, after Rudolf appeared in my kitchen window, two other neighbors put up a few Christmas lights in their back windows, too.
And then a friend of mine and I went to the Tacoma Zoo to walk through the annual holiday Zoo Lights … what fun! We spent more than an hour there and didn’t see all of it by any means.
That’s Mount Rainier above, hopefully she won’t blow her top!
A little bunny rabbit, hidden in the bushes.
A scary gorilla on the left, but a wonderful girl-illa in the middle.
Notice her necklace. 🙂
Moose! Or as we both kept saying “moooooooooose!”
Last but not least, here’s a little video my friend took using her cell phone. I loved the tiny jumping deer in the background, the hippo on the right, and (at first) just some wee tiny elephants on the left but if you wait for it, those elephants get big!
I wish each one of you could share photos and videos right here on this blog with your celebrations of Christmas or from other celebrations you enjoy this time of year.
Joy and friendship to all. May kindness always be in your heart. Blessings to everyone!! 🙂