Merry Christmas Eve!

A Blessed and Merry Christmas Eve to all of you who celebrate it!

Random updates…just to finish that story, the power went back on at my dad’s house on Thursday morning, the 18th, as we determined by calling his home number. When his answering machine started to pick up, we knew the power was on. Dad’s neighbor also called here to let him know, and to reassure dad that he’d seen dad’s cat around (the little scamp). I must have made dad very comfortable, because he stayed to do more work on his computer before he packed everything up and went home!

Of course, dad couldn’t get out of here without one more joke by the faeries. When he was all ready to leave, he couldn’t find his car keys anywhere. We searched and searched, and finally he had to use his spare key (fortunately he had one!). Why do I know this was a faery joke? Because two days later, at A Christmas Carol, dad reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the keys. He’d searched his pockets multiple times on Thursday without any luck–now, there they were. I’m glad they weren’t lost in the snow, at least, which was the ruling hypothesis when we gave up searching. I distinctly recall thinking to myself at one point, “dear faeries, please return dad’s keys,” but I wasn’t really serious! *wry grin*

Dad’s power was out for seven days. I just got an e-mail from friends in Ashby (between here and my dad’s) whose power was restored after twelve days! I believe there are hundreds of scattered households in this area that still have no electrical power since the storm on the 11th. Governor Patrick is calling for an investigation.

My Solstice observance on Saturday night went fine. I scattered last year’s Yule log ashes around the house at about 10:00 p.m. Normally I’d do it after sunset attunement, but I didn’t get home in time for that. I had ivy and holly, but no mistletoe this year. I cut some greens from my various bushes and trees and decorated the mantel, altar, and one of the stereo speakers (there aren’t many places in my house to decorate! For one thing, four cats and a bunny really limit your options). Those are the only decorations I have this year. I thought about putting up lights but never got around to it.

I rummaged through the wood boxes and found a rather interesting choice for the Yule log. Included with the firewood I got were several logs that didn’t quite come apart in the splitter. I found one of those and was struck by the symbolism: here was something that had been subjected to enormous pressure but wouldn’t yield. It cracked but it was still holding together. It was so strong, it resisted being split. I liked that, so I decorated that log and consecrated it for the Yule log.

I started the fire at midnight, stayed up all night, and did my ritual to conclude at the precise local time of Solstice, 6:52 a.m. Dawn was at 7:13 a.m., so technically I was awake until dawn, but I didn’t go outside or anything–it was overcast, so you couldn’t see the sunrise, anyway. It was full light outside, though. So, altogether my Solstice observance went quite well, even if it did feel like I barely got to squeeze it in. I’ve been feeling that way for every Sabbat this year! Even my Tarot reading went better than they have been–for the first time in ages, I didn’t get a weak or depressing Outcome card. In fact, the reading began and ended with Aces. I hope that’s a good sign!

I went to Marshalls on Monday and found a really nice outfit to wear to the Nutcracker performance this Saturday–all black velvet. I wasn’t looking for all black, but with Marshalls you have to take what they’ve got, it’s one of those discount places. I’ve caught up on a lot of minor errands–for example, whilst driving down to Worcester in the snow I was reminded that I needed to replace the back window wiper blade on my car and had forgotten about it. I did that on Monday. I just got all of my holiday cards mailed. I even managed to get an appointment for a haircut, which I wasn’t sure I could finagle right before the holiday, with the usual rush even more intense because everyone was backed up from the power outages.

Now I have a couple of quiet days because my dad doesn’t want to do anything for Christmas. He’s just wanted to avoid the whole thing and not even think about it since my mom passed away. Last year I even tried to kid him into going out on Christmas Eve: “let’s go out for Chinese food with all the Jewish people.” 🙂 Nope…even humor didn’t work, he just wants to hibernate and go to bed early. My sister is flying in on Friday for four days and we’re all going to open presents and do things together while she’s here.

I’m not lonely, though. I always hated Christmas as a child, and the religious aspect of it means absolutely nothing to me. Solstice is my big holiday, and I’m already watching the days get longer as my sunset attunement is a minute later every day. Being alone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day just means I can relax and catch up on stuff I need to get done–like my niece’s bathrobe I still need to finish sewing, and writing the reviews for those books I read during the power outage. I can’t eat any of the goodies we used to have at the holidays, so I’m just as happy not to have them around. I’m trying to keep my weight from bouncing back up before the Nutcracker, anyway. I might have some more hot spiced apple cider and rum, though! 🙂