"...muddle through somehow"...

“December, in my memory,

is white as Lapland,

though there were no reindeers.

But there were cats.”

~ Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales

 

We had hoped that December would be better than November. It started off with a cemetery tour at Hollywood Cemetery with the River City Cemetarians and then led into the annual Krampus walk. It was a day full of friends, raucous fun, and happiness. I had been planning my outfit for quite some time; and, I had planned my latest extravagant Krampus necklace since January when I purchased a Krampus brooch from the Czech Republic. Along with a Weiss Christmas tree pin and a gorgeous garnet brooch, I was all set my favorite jewelry necromancer, Kay Adams to work some magic. She did.

I added a little mask on my underage friend so creepers can move along elsewhere while I protect the young ;D

That day the temperature was a bit too warm for my original outfit. I’m glad that I have a closet versatile enough that I could create a back-up outfit for the Krampus walk.

We had a great deal of fun and then headed to dinner. Hours later when we arrived home, we were ready to snuggle in when our little four-paw family member meowed that something was wrong. Within hours, everything went terribly wrong and our household has gone quiet as we’ve lost a loved one. All I want to write about is how much I have hated 2016 and how all the magic is gone, and no one wants to read that. I started to write holiday cards because I really, really like my cards this year (I usually do but this year they make me laugh). I wrote the first card and it came across as so dreary that I had to stop and set them aside. We’re just going to mourn for a while… and then a while after that. 

We both have given each other flowers. I gave my fella a Christmas cactus not yet in bloom; he gave me roses with a candy cane stick. 

We did not feel like it but we put up our Christmas trees and decorated the house (including our Krampus ornaments below).

One day we will feel normal again. "Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow."

Apologies on the moppiness.  I promise that my next post (about a candy historian's lecture) will be much more lively.

... a devil in the trees, Oh My!...

“The devil's most devilish when respectable.”

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The truth is I do not believe in the devil. I suppose as a Catholic I believe in demons but I haven't had to face any that weren't created by man. With so many complaining about the recent blizzard, I have to be grateful that we were safe, healthy, and pretty much happy. When we were shoveling, one of my neighbors mentioned that he was bored. Huh! I can think of a zillion things to do on snow days. Today I did some course prep and answered work emails. I shoveled and I also walked to get the mail which was a bit challenging. 

While I still have Christmas on my mind, I'm already planning for next year's season but I'll get to that in a moment.

Today is the Jewish holiday Tu BiShvat, also called "The New Year of the Trees.” While it is considered a minor Jewish holiday and I’m not at all Jewish, I have a profound respect for holidays and I love trees!   But this post is not about the holiday. It just so happens that today I have trees on my mind albeit in a materialistic way. 

But before I leave my discussion of the holiday, I want to note that in the Middle Ages, the New Year of the Trees was celebrated with a feast of fruits. By the 16th century, Tu BiShvat seder was established in which the fruits and trees of the Land of Israel were given symbolic meaning. The idea behind this was that that eating specific fruits and drinking “four cups” of wine (whoa, easy now! I hope they mean 4 oz.!) in a particular order while reciting a particular prayer would bring humans and nature closer to spiritual perfection. That’s kind of beautiful if you think about it. 

When I walked out to pick up my mail, the brooch that I ordered from the Czech Republic arrived. The brooch is described on the Etsy page as a cute brooch of a devil made in Gablonz around the 1970s according to original patterns from 1930s. The glass stones are hand-soldered with the legs and tongue completely movable. He’s completely adorable!

This little devil is going to be used in an amazing Kay Adams design for next year’s Krampus! (I know! I have a tendency to plan ahead.) Pictured above I have the new brooch sitting alongside the Weiss Christmas tree pendant that I purchased last year. It's another old piece that is new to me. 

My inspiration piece was Kay Adams’,

my favorite jewelry necromancer in Richmond, tree necklace. Swoon!

Now that I've written this post I realize that some may take it as completely sacrilegious.  I absolutely mean no disrespect by the juxtaposition of the holiday and my brooch. I simply love the idea of having a holiday where we connect with nature (outside of Arbor Day which is more about planting and caring for trees) AND this little devil reminds me of all the fun of Krampus events. I imagine my future necklace will have him frolicking in the woods (of a necklace, that is). So Yay to holidays focusing on our spiritual connection with nature; and, Yay to fun baubles. And, Boo to all the power and credit that some give to the ultimate scapegoat.

gothidays & books...scary ghost stories and tales of the glories

*MY* Ideal Bookshelf commissioned by Jane Mount

On the fifth day of Gothidays (check out the logo! Participate!), I’m writing about holiday stories—ghost stories and Christmas stories. 

As an English Literature professor, I love a good book. "Good" is actually pretty relative. When I first heard about the Ideal Bookshelf, I immediately commissioned one for my fella. This was the perfect type of tangible gift that I could give him. It turns out that it was one of his first Christmas gifts before we switched over to giving the gift of time. We both loved his Ideal Bookshelf so much that I decided that I had to have one too. When I selected my books for my *Ideal Bookshelf*, I chose the books that touched my heart. There are tons of books that I love; these eight have personal meaning. A few of these even saved my life.

Nearly every holiday, I attempt to make some type of reading connection because nothing sets the tone like a good book. 

Last year I mentioned the lyrics of Andy Williams’ classic “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” that acknowledges the tradition. “There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.” Many of you have read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. If you haven’t, I highly recommend it. In fact, I think you might even want to plan a gathering to listen to Neil Gaiman read A Christmas Carol just as Dickens read it. My fella and I did that last year during Christmas and it was a great deal of fun.

For years, I have read a Christmas book during the season. From David Baldacci’s The Christmas Train to Christopher Moore’s The Stupidest Angel to Richard Paul Evans’ Lost December to The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries ed. Penzler, I love a good Christmas story. This year for my horror book club, I read Michael Dougherty’s  Krampus: Shadow of Saint Nicholas (2015).  Dougherty is the writer/director of Trick r’ Treat the Krampus movie, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  

Krampus: Shadow of Saint Nicholas

Krampus: Shadow of Saint Nicholas is the prequel graphic novel which tells four separate but sort of related Krampus tales. There are four chapters that revolve around a “bad Santa”, a sister’s death, a homeless family seeking shelter in a rich person’s home, and the fourth chapter that is an attempt to connect the three stories. Honestly, I would have been fine if the stories had been left completely separate but as with     Trick r’ Treat this seems to be Dougherty’s style.

Because the graphic novel was a quick read, I also picked up Brom’s Krampus: The Yule Lord. I just started this last week but I'm pretty sure that I will finish the entire book before this post is scheduled to be published. [Follow up: yep, I finished it on 12/09/2015). I have really enjoyed it and unless the ending is completely off the point I highly recommend it. 

If you’re not the reading type or perhaps you’ve caught on the bandwagon with the coloring book craze. Thank goodness my personal reader aka my fella pulls out articles for me to read. The Atlantic’s November 2015 article “The Zen of Adult Coloring Books” explains how this has become so popular. Albeit, I believe the author’s argument veers away from mindfulness i.e. if you aren’t paying attention to the television show, why not do something else? And, if you have a coloring book in front of you, shouldn’t you be paying attention to it? Anyway. The book that started the craze, "Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book," has sold over 2 million copies. Even my mother is coloring. I wouldn’t even mention this trend if it weren’t for these two books. The first is Richard E. Todd’s Cemetery Coloring Book: A cemetery inspired coloring book for taphophiles (September 2015).  The second, which is only available for pre-order for May 2016, is Abigail Larson’s Alice's Wonderfilled Adventures: A Curious Coloring Book for Adults.