A Very Merry

It is 7:02 AM on Christmas Eve and I am sitting alone in the kitchen. The Christmas Tree is lit, the kitchen holiday lights are on. Yesterday's very heavy, very wet snow is practically melted away although from the color of the sky this will be rectified. If you have ever lived where it snows you know the color I mean – that grey white color which blends perfectly into any existing snow giving the impression that we are just a giant snow globe covered up in a heavy blanket of white.

The weatherpeople have promised a white Christmas here on the Coast of Illinois.

I am holding them at their word.

I want a snow covered Christmas.

I know people are traveling and weather can be dangerous. My parents are getting older and are just waiting to take a nice slide on a patch of ice. I don't even have the required fixings for French Toast. But I don't care.

Its Christmas and I want a blanket of snow.

Why this sudden selfishness?

Well. This is the first year my little family won't be all together on Christmas. Our girl is off to spend the holiday with her special person. And that's okay. We love him like family. His parents are delightful and I know his mom will take good care of 'our' girl. Plus we got him for Thanksgiving...

I keep telling myself its okay that she is away. I remember very well that first Christmas I spent with Rob's family. It was different, and slightly weird but wonderful all the same because he was the person I wanted to be with.

And that's how it should be.

We raise our children to become self sufficient adults and want nothing more than for them to be happy.

And really, that's the best Christmas present I could ever hope for.

I would like to leave you all with a paraphrased quote from musician Peter Mayer, spoken during his Stars and Promises concert earlier this week:

Home is where you go to find peace, love, joy, hope.

May each of you be that place...

Happy Holidays

from

the Coast of Illinois

HO Ho Ho....I need some help

COMING SOON...

TALES OF THE CARIBBEAN

JAMAICA EDITION

Well, eventually.

Okay. By Monday. I promise.

UNTIL THEN, A LITTLE HOLIDAY CHEER

COAST OF ILLINOIS STYLE

sorry for the shouting. i was hoping it would be a little more festive

imagine Harvey Flamingo singing 'I really can't stay' while Moe Cabeaza replies 'Baby it's cold outside'.

Here's to a Safe and Happy

Holiday season.

We may have differing beliefs

But Peace and Goodwill

Should be Universal! 

From my Coast to yours...

Well.

Here it is. Two weeks until Christmas, give or take a couple days.

Nope. That isn't right. I just looked at the calendar. It is 12 days until Christmas, give or take a few hours.

Yet I sit here at 10:11 on Sunday morning drinking coffee and watching Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, while remaining in my pajamas. I need to run past my folk's house for an emergency homemade candy pick-up before stopping at the grocery for cookie baking supplies and then one last stop to pick up goodies for the work party gift basket. I need to finish the final gift shopping list for tomorrow.

And I haven't sent out a single Holiday card.

I am feeling surprisingly stress free.

Because in the immortal words of Dr. Seuss:

It came without ribbons! It came without bags!

It came without packages, boxes or bags!*

however, it would be hard pressed to arrive without Otter Claus

Here's wishing that your Holiday Season is happy and healthy and silly and special and

a little bit more!*

While Harvey Flamingo sports a tasteful evergreen spray, Moe Cabeza, of Easter Island fame, feels there can never be too many Santas.

From the Coast of Illinois to What Ever Coast you call HOME

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

*From How the Grinch Stole Christmas! By Dr. Seuss.

(I am hoping to return in the new year with the long anticipated travelogue of my sailing school adventure and general silliness. Because while the holidays have been quite pleasant, my writing life has been a little chaotic. Please check out the Sailing page for a photographic peak from Tortola, BVI.) 

Because its not the Holidays until Somebody Cries (which in this case may just be me...)

There is a commercial running right now with a group of children, all in PJ's with headlamps on their heads, crowded on a couch waiting for Santa. One of the kids – a little girl with chubby cheeks and curly hair – squeezes her arms close to her chest like she might just explode. In my head I can hear the tiny escape of breath – a high pitched EEEEEEEeeeeee – as she waits.

I can hear that sound because that little girl is me. At some point during every holiday season since I can remember I have struck that pose. It is as if the Holiday Spirit has possessed me and the only way to exorcise it is that high pitched EEEEEeeeeeeee!

The catalyst might be anything:

The long ride to Grandma's after church for the first round of gifts and food (the ride was a whopping fifteen minutes), the year Santa brought the Olympic Barbie with real-live-action foot joints allowing her to skate and do cartwheels all while wearing wiglets from her accessory pack; later it was delight in our first tree as a married couple and then the excitement of seeing our son actually hover off the ground the year Santa brought him a fireman coat and a workbench.

This year the trigger was different. Thanks to some sadly busy work shifts, horrific news stories and incompetent Mayan day-planners I have been obsessing about 'the end of the world'. In the literal sense it is a mute point. Planet blows up, game over. But in the more personal interpretation...suffice it to say, I have lost a little sleep of late. I fretted over our kids travel plans, counting the hours until I got the text: "I'm home :)" Four cars in the driveway and my world was safe for another day.

And with that tiny bit of crazy put to bed, my excitement was free to begin ramping up: holiday shopping-complete, groceries - put away, my husband - stewing about the rambunctiously wrapped, unidentifiable gift with his name on it, poorly hidden in the family room – set the timer. The anticipation of Christmas Eve dinner with my folks and the thrill of hearing from my brother and his family who live half a world away - winding the springs. And finally, last night as our grown children ate and laughed and joked with their also grown cousins in one of our favorite hangouts that excitement ticked its last tick...

And I was once again that little girl on the couch in my Pjs, squeezing myself so tightly I might explode. (and thankfully, it was so noisy in no one could hear the EEEEEEEeeeeee!!)

Here's to YOU and your own exploding moment, from me on the Coast of Illinois. Have a safe and precious Holiday, whatever Holiday you celebrate and may Your World be safe for every single day.

Me and Santa on the Floor Zamboni - because this is how awesome my World is!