I just couldn’t let Santa die a final piñata death, so I removed him from his shattered shell and did a bit of reclamation work and now here he is, gracing the door of my garage. If you didn’t see Santa’s former role, the story is here: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2024/12/22/breaking-pinatas-for-cellpic-sunday-dec-22-2024/
Chicken salad sandwiches, enchiladas and fruit punch for kiddies on its way. Doggies will go next door before the first arrivals at 4.
This party is just for kids from San Juan Cosala and their folks. Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly..More photos later.
For Fibbing Friday, the challenges to lie about are:
1. Who invented Elf on the Shelf? That house-organizer lady you hired to come help you sort out your Xmas decorations.
2. Have you been naughty or nice? Yes.
3. Who or what is The Beast from the East? Can’t remember his name but I’m fairly sure Trump has appointed him to some crucial position.
4. Who was Santa’s Little Helper? Mrs. Santa, before she put on all that weight from taste-testing her Xmas cookies.
5. What is a Yule log? A to-do list. First, yule do this, then this and this and this.
6. What is marzipan? What happens when you gouge a stuck cherry pie out of the pan you baked it in.
7. What is Egg Nog? The condition of your head after drinking too much holiday cheer.
8. Why is there a fairy on the top of the Christmas Tree (be polite!) You are misinformed. That winged creature is an angel, not a fairy. I am “fairyly” sure of that fact.
9. What are baubles? Tongue-tied babblings.
10. What is a tree skirt? When you cut a wide swath around the Christmas tree, fearing you’ll collide with an ornament.
Click on photos to enlarge.
It took me two days to take all the ornaments off my tree to replace the light strings that had burned out and to replace the ornaments again! Hopefully the lights will last for another 5 years or so before I have to untrim the tree again. In January, we will cover it in plastic and restore it to its 11 month retirement in the laundry room. R.I.P. Xmas!!
for Cellpic Sunday
Yesterday was the Boxing Day party of my neighbors and I think the photos tell it all. Every year they add another tree. I think they are up to 8 now. Their Jewish tree is hung upside down! Another tree is covered by cardinals. I don’t think I got a photo of it this year. At any rate, welcome to the party. Click on photos to enlarge.
See many more photos of the different trees plus explanations by Sergio HERE.
Scrooge Holds Forth on Christmas
It can be a bit frenetic, this yearly Yuletide season,
creating a fiasco beyond any rhyme or reason.
It carries us along on a tide of fir and holly,
demanding we be spirit-filled and reverent and jolly
until we’re nearly saturated with the Yultide spirit,
kind of sick of Christmas before we’re even near it.
All this peace and loving can be a royal pain—
pine needles barely cleared away before they’re here again.
We’re blanketed in blessings, gift-wrapped and over-gay
in an over-decorated binge-filled treacle holiday.
Oh for just one Christmas without reindeer-decked pajamas,
on a sun-filled beach somewhere—perhaps in the Bahamas!!!!
Prompts today are Yuletide, blanket, nearly, fiasco, carry and royal.
Please click on photos to read captions and enlarge pictures.
With the exception of the last photo, these were all photos taken on New Year’s Eve at my house. What started out to be a silent night turned rather loud once the fireworks started and every dog in town started to bark, but at least did serve to illustrate the brightness in the song.
The last photo of Santiago tucked into bed with the stuffed dog I got him in the States
was taken by his dad a few days ago. He is Yolanda’s grandson. I’ve been staying away because
of the corona virus, but I have held him twice–both times right after I had a covid test so I knew
it was safe.
Happy New Year everyone!!!
Click on photos to enlarge.
The Great Reveal
When it comes to Christmas gifts, I hope you get a passel
and you find unwrapping them to be a task most facile.
Every bound up package, may it be in bow or tassel,
a rip-roaring pleasure instead of any hassle.
And though we are adults now, let them be mementos of
all those bygone childhood years that all of us just love
to retain with pleasure in our memories—
how we would prod and finger gifts and ogle, guess and squeeze.
Then, finally, on Christmas morn, we’d wake up like a shot,
barreling downstairs at dawn to see what we had got.
Before the church bells drew us out, we had to do our duty
and reveal just what Santa had left us for our booty.
Thus however much we’ve tried maturity to hone,
at Christmas time we find how very little we have grown.
As we untie ribbons, rip off paper, pry off lids,
we discover in our hearts that all of us are kids!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All!!!!
Xmas 2021—A Year in Review
How quickly now the new year waxes—
parties, valentines, then taxes
coming up in twenty-two,
when finally we’ll get to view
two-thousand-twenty-one as past—
a year that left us all aghast.
It’s doubtful we’d want to repeat
the year science failed to defeat
that curse it only vilipended
but, alas, it never ended.
It was another year most taxing—
too much discord, too little paxing.
I must lay out the brutal truth.
All-in-all, a year uncouth!!!!
Prompts today are finally, doubtful, pax, vilipend and layout.
“Baptism on the line, also called equatorial baptism, is an alternative initiation ritual sometimes performed as a ship crosses the Equator, involving water baptism of passengers or crew who have never crossed the Equator before. The ceremony is sometimes explained as being an initiation into the court of King Neptune.” Wikipedia
Baptism at Sea
We were happy at Christmas. Pale Andy didn’t dance, but moon makes even mouse-hair gold, and it was golden hair that swung to breeze. Out on the deck, baptized by salt spray, we watched dolphins spread out in a line, racing our boat to the equator and winning, flipping tails and turning in one fell swoop, synchronized in their returning to where we’d all just been.
But we went farther south, turned west, then up again on Africa’s farther coast.
We cross a fine line,
speeding into tomorrow,
courted by the sea.
This is Fran’s prompt for dVerse Poets: This week, Let’s give thanks! Write a haibun about one person, place, or thing for which you give thanks. It could be your favorite playlist or album, a holiday getaway, childhood home, or someone truly special to you. Whomever, or whatever, you decide to give thanks for, let your haibun manifest that to us!
For those new to haibun, the form consists of one to a few paragraphs of prose—usually written in the present tense—that evoke an experience and are often non-fictional/autobiographical. They may be preceded or followed by one or more haiku—nature-based, using a seasonal image—that complement without directly repeating what the prose stated. The haiku is a Japanese poetic form that consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 