“Life is composed of meetings and partings…” This week Bob Cratchit, in the form of Kermit the Frog, reminded me of the powerful cycle of life and death. An easy reminder in mid-December, right? Nightfall crashes down by 4:00 p.m. and darkness like a despotic tyrant rules the whole hidden realm beyond my frosty pane until the late dawn breaks over the mountaintops beyond my fields. Luckily, we humans find recourse for this blackout. Households everywhere attack back by abandoning their sense of decorum and going bonkers, displaying blowup snow-globes and lit wire-nodding reindeer, even nativity clusters complete with plaster sheep and wise-men, all strewn across once well-manicured lawns. And not stopping there you even see rainbow lights cascading recklessly over rooftops. Undoubtedly, you can name at least one neighbor who challenges life and limb by dragging a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer up his ladder to dizzy heights. Antics aside, these holiday extravaganzas to the well-placed elegant strands of lit garlands around doorways are all a welcome relief from the cheerless black of December nights.
Seasonal Accessories
Tis the season to accessorize, right? Already houses up and down every street are unknotting their white or colored strands of lights and wrapping their bushes and trees and sheds and houses with illumination, so much so that even the most mundane commute is a venture into winter wonderland.
Heirlooms
As a child, nothing held mystery like my mother’s dresser drawers. They housed finery only a grown woman possessed. In the top drawer, the one she opened when dressing to go somewhere very fancy my one ‘real’ piece of jewelry, a golden bangle, lay safely in its square white box. My paternal grandmother passed the heirloom on to me, as the first Miss Donovan, while I was still a young child and while she was still very much alive, although long a widow.
Nine Cent Girl 