this was one of the first pictures taken several years ago, when i bought my fabulous digital SLR camera. taken at the annual christmas tree festival, in the small town where i lived at the time. beautifully decorated trees are donated, and sold by silent auction, to raise funds for the palliative care facility at the local hospital. a worthy cause, and a very pleasant event. my students and i would set up in a corner, and play christmas music for the event. a pleasant gig. i confess to a little nostalgia. the months before christmas were a blur this year, with none of it having to do with christmas, and not a single christmas gig all season. my family drew names this year, so i did my christmas shopping in an hour, after i closed the ReStore @ noon on christmas eve, and before i went home to make tourtierre for the traditional family christmas eve feast. tourtierre is a french-canadian meat pie, best known in quebec. we have no connection to all of that - i tried a recipe one christmas eve on a whim, and we all loved it, so it became a family tradition. i think the name drawing may become a regular thing too.... it was pleasant to have just one gift to come up with. i hate shopping
merriest of christmases to friends in blogland. may your christmas be one of peace and fulfillment, surrounded by those you love. and may we all find new gifts and ways to give them, that we may leave the world a better place for having been here.
16 comments:
We've reached the point around here that anything we do around Christmas we call traditional. We have some blueberries I forgot to serve last Sunday so today we'll have traditional blueberry pancakes for our traditional Christmas lunch and later on we'll have traditional fried chicken with couscous and vegetables for our traditional Christmas dinner. Hey, it works for us :-)
The Angel photo is very beautiful and I can understand your nostalgia for that small town and your chamber orchestra. I hope things settle down where you are so that can happen again next Christmas. In the meantime I send you much love and wishes for a very Happy Christmas.
it's sad to me you hadn't any "gigs" to play this christmas. am i to conclude breaking out in spontaneous song is no longer the fashion?
wishing you a wonderful christmas, gf. the little angel in your photo, perhaps she is in your heart, playing a song for you, her silken bow pulling a beautiful power stroke across your heart strings.
su - i guess traditions are made as we go along.... part of the thread in something woven larger than ourselves. your dinner sounds scrumptious. enjoy! i've spent the morning leaving good wishes with blog friends, and will spend the afternoon doing same on a local level. i'm wrapping the love round my neck before i go out in the cold to savor the day. wishing you the same.
sera - yes, i missed the gigs.... i'm not quite whole without my music. there has been some spontaneous song... but it saddens me deeply that many people don't even know the songs any more, and won't sing along... so, you may be right... perhaps singing is no longer the fashion - unless it's karaoke, half-cut, in a bar. thanks for the warm wishes. have sent my electronic greetings, and am about to go out in the real world to spread joy and song where i can. the little angel rides along in my heart. you're a poet, sera.
i wanted to pop over and thank you for your sweet comment you left me a few days ago....it meant much to me as your words are so true...
i hope you are having the loveliest of holidays and that your new year brings you everything you might want or need and a few little extras besides, of the good sort, of course ;)
xo
many belssings!
well, i meant blessings, but bell sings may be a nice thing too!!
It has been a nice Christmas. Thanks for thinking of us. Happy New Year.
Yeah, nostalgia, busyness, memories, hopes...and food and drink. And then there is the sign we saw in front of a church in a small town in Australia:
JESUS: NOT AVAILABLE IN STORES!
Best to you too. Let the tradition be love where we make it.
Merry Christmas to you all!!!
Had a nice spontaneous occurrence yesterday. My daughter run into the studio screaming: "Dad, I need a violin right now!" I said, the big ones need either a new bridge or new strings, but here - I have a threequater, it works just fine. A little bit upset for me not being able to provide instantly the perfect tool, she ran into the kitchen with it.
After a while I was curious what this was all about and went over there as well. Lo and behold, her boyfriend had brought home his side flute and they were playing Christmas carols, thereafter some Bach Minuets. I then did run back to the studio and grabbed a guitar and joined them. We played a bit over an hour, it was truly fun!
Thanks for your kind greetings on my blog.
Be well.
I don't know how I missed your post (on boglines) and just happened to look you up. Belated Merry Christmas and the bestest of New Years!
No Christmas gigs? My but I'd liked to have attended one ... and I'd love to hear you play in one. When we lived in Abbotsford, there were many more things to attend than here. When there, we liked to go to Calvin Dyck concerts ... he was really good ... played the violin and organized great concerts.
I tried making tourtierre one year and it turned out not bad ... I need to try again, with a different recipe perhaps.
being a musician isn't easy.
do you know vic chesnutt? i didn't either; i discovered him only recently. a very talented musician, he was in an accident at age 18 and left paralyzed. i heard he tried to commit suicide 4 times, but i don't know if that is true. christmas eve, he overdosed on muscle relaxants. he died on christmas day. he was 45 years old.
i don't know why i am telling you this. i am listening to his song called debriefing.
http://www.archive.org/details/vic2007-12-01.aud.flac16
linda - yes, christmas was terrific, thanks, with a lovely bottle of pinot.
claire - blessings and bell sings rec'd with a thankful smile. backatcha!
salty - any pix of a winter's paddle forthcoming?
gary - yes, all the best traditions have love as an ingredient. let's spread it around.
zee - i'm envious of your spontaneous christmas music. it doesn't get much better than that. i have a good friend here in the city, a guitar player, originally from germany, who i've been working a few things up with. a small pool of sanity in the whitewater rapids that are my life right now. joy!
cicero - christmas isn't christmas w/o music. i've been filling the gap by playing a lot of CD"s. i don't really use a recipe for the tourtierre.... just 1 part ground beef, 2 parts ground pork, browned with lots of onions, celery and grated carrot, and mixed with an equal part of mashed potatoes, seasoned to taste with salt, pepper, cloves, cinnamon and allspice. all baked in a pastry crust.
sera - no, i hadn't heard of vic chessnut before. i looked him up. his death is a terrible loss. christmas will never be the same for his family.
I remember a few of your earlier posts about that time when you were engaged in directing a well know musical – assuming my recollection is correct! It was a wonderful idea then -to engage your students in a gig which supported such a worthy cause as the palliative care facility at the local hospital.
Once again we joined you in that same sprit to perform for the Southern Cross aged care facility near where we live our annual Christmas concert – this year with the added attraction of bell ringers.
Like you we have reverted to one gift per person – to take the hassle out of chritmas shopping.
Best wishes to you for the festive season
lindsay - festivities just don't seem as festive without music, do they? i've been playing my cd's a lot, but it's not the same as BEING the music. i'm sure your gigs were well appreciated, by both performers and participants at the events.
many blessings in 2010. i'm looking forward to having more time to enjoying your posts, and those of others, in the new year.
i was asked what my new years resolutions are. but i don't have any. i know, one should pick *something* and work on being a better person, or richer, taller, more evolved in some way.
wishing you a wonderful 2010, gf. horns and whistles, music love and life.
I wish you all the very best for 2010 - a pretty good number when you think of it. May you enjoy music, laughter, good food, good friends and every blessing. In other words, Happy New Year, Gfid :-)
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