Weblog 252
December 12, 2010~ 12:00 am
Saturday evening was filled with the blue velvet MAGIC of Christmas. Soft night sky, not too cold, pretty lights flickering inside and outside of homes....
and the very MAGICAL appearance of the yellow-garbed 'HONEY ELF'...
Kay!
Kay had a role in the Bethel Community Center's Children's Christmas Show. She's posing here just after putting on the costume her mom made just this week. (I believe I referred to her role as 'honey fairy' last week in this blog, but I was mistaken. Look at her....an elf for sure! Indubitably elfin.) You can't see her striped tights very well on this picture, but she was cute as all get out, an no pre-show nerves whatsoever.
And HERE, even BIGGER, dimple showing, and looking as pleased as a five year old can possibly be.
I caught a glimpse of her offstage, before the show, getting last minute instructions.
(The storyline is that a baker was terribly unsuccessful at selling her cakes because she was using VEGETABLES as the main ingredient, so the elves would tiptoe into her shop after she was asleep.. the honey elves, the sugar elves ...and whip up lots of sweet confections that sold like mad the next day.) All this with musical numbers as well, including an elf version of the Can-Can. LOL!!!
We waited patiently for the production to begin. Bill sat on his granddad's lap, undoubtedly discussing some aspect of modern warfare. Tonight he told us the story of sniper Carlos Hathcock, who shot a Vietnamese general at 700 yards.
"His father's name was Carlos too. Carlos the second. He was Carlos the third. I don't know who Carlos the first was," Bill said, shrugging his shoulders. LOL!!
I told him I very much enjoyed the book he loaned me a few weeks back, "Behind Enemy Lines" -stories of bravery in each war since the War for Independence, as men and women perform heroic feats involving espionage. I thought I'd page quickly through it, but it caught me. Was actually extremely well-written and when I glanced at the back cover, I saw it was a scholastic press edition meant for sixth graders! Bill is seven. LOL!!!!
The show began, the curtain went up, and without an ounce of jitters, THERE WAS KAY! -saying her lines and performing her little heart out!
She was the youngest as far as I could see....Kay was the tiniest elf!
And doing some serious method-acting up there. Just LOOK at the concentration! There's nothing more thrilling than to watch a children's performance...it's all innocence and sincerity. Those little buggers are excited to be up there being seen! Next came the religious sequence- a nativity scene. What would a youngster's Christmas show be without Mary and Joseph, shepherds and kings and angels. (Kay was a shepherd, and had one line in this part.)
You can just about make her out here.... she's wearing yet again, a yellow shepherd headpiece, her yellow Honey Elf shirt showing through, right next to the kiddo with the umber-colored scarf on his head. (You just can't keep the sunshine outta that girl!)
Going to see Kay's show on Saturday evening and being there for the lovely meal her mom and dad cooked beforehand, made for a lovely night. With the warmest hands and the softest voice, it brought Christmas home to me. It got right down and kissed me on the cheek...it's about love, isn't it? All of it.
Oh! And from halfway across the country, from Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, I just today received this emailed photo of the REST of the clan.....here's Matt's brood
(here in SPIRIT, certainly.) Wow! That family has grown. Two more children since Matt came back from Iraq... little Shiloh (the only-est girl) and baby brother Asher... and what a fine-looking group they make, grinning and wishing the best of this holiday season to everyone. I am honestly surrounded by love in all its twinkling, all its bells ringing.... with music everywhere, pushing out of its beating heart.
December 12, 2010~ 7:45 pm
My mind has been swirling the last two days with two themes. First, how I love all the physical aspects of sitting in a theater inside the magic box and waiting to be entertained-- and secondly, how age takes its toll on all things, both living and inanimate.
The disappearance theme was most apparent tonight when I went to have dinner with my mother at the Assisted Living home. Our usual table was minus one beloved lady: one of the 'Catherines' who had fallen this week and broken her hip, and I missed her terribly at dinner. (She always has a jar of pickles tucked down in her wheelchair and most nights, she'd order a "half of a ham sandwich, please. Lean.") Picky eater, and a bright lady who laughed easily and often. I looked around the room, imagining the several faces absent since last year at this time and it made me sad. New faces appear, but the old ones are always sorely missed.
From there, I found several online sites that chronicle the 'Great Old Ladies'-- the fine movie palaces of yesteryear, places that offered a romantic getaway for the world-weary through a few hours of celluloid escapism. How well I remember our own little neighborhood theater, not grand by any means, but still ...those velvet curtains, the smell of popcorn, the hush when the curtains opened and the flickering pictures appeared, all of it had such great impact on my young and hungry imagination.
Click on that nostalgic picture above to look at black and white photos of the crumbling old picture palaces. Places that gave a home to Gary Cooper and Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. They're magic........ crumbling magic.
To see some color photos of the truly gilded film palaces, have a look at these lush glimpses at The Last Remaining Seats. They are glorious.
If looking a these old beauties have whetted an appetite for more, stop over at Water Winter Wonderland and see not ONLY theaters- (though there are plenty of those) but drive-ins, motels, bowling alleys and amusement parks both still there or already disappeared-- in the state of Michigan. It's a RICH website to visit! Happy looking backward. (I hope you have as many wonderful memories of sitting in the dark with a completely different world opening up on the screen-- the imagination blooming and soaring.) I love these kinds of places!
December 16, 2010~ 8:45 am
The day is growing closer.......I'm GETTING INTO THE SPIRIT......
THERE I AM... RINGING BELLS. (This vintage, probably 1930's-style little gal is as cute as can be except for her red, mottled cheeks. I call her CHRISTMAS ROSACEA. LOL!!) That could be me too, what with all the sub-zero wind chill we've had the past few days. Today was in the 20's and wouldn't ya know it, I was coughing more- probably because my lungs were just beginning to thaw out.
I finished my 'doodad' shopping this evening, and that's always a treat for me- going to the dollar value store and picking up LOTS of happy stuff to make goodie bags for my sister's grandchildren. (And a bunch for the gals at work.) All my packages arrived from my online shopping last week- malls are ANATHEMA to me -so there's wrapping and cards still to address and send, but I'm pretty much on track.
I'm most decidedly un-Scrooge-like this year. I want to hug everyone I catch whistling Christmas carols. Today at work, one of our delivery truck drivers was unloading sacks of plaster, chirping away a whistled rendition of 'Joy To The World'- so I joined in. We just looked at eachother and grinned. I thought, "That's the way it should be......on the INSIDE, spilling out without even thinking about it."
Hope you're in a festive mood as well. Hope the stresses of the season can be cast off to allow yourself to feel childlike again, and to a child.......there's nuthin' like Christmas!
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
Saturday evening was filled with the blue velvet MAGIC of Christmas. Soft night sky, not too cold, pretty lights flickering inside and outside of homes....
and the very MAGICAL appearance of the yellow-garbed 'HONEY ELF'...
Kay had a role in the Bethel Community Center's Children's Christmas Show. She's posing here just after putting on the costume her mom made just this week. (I believe I referred to her role as 'honey fairy' last week in this blog, but I was mistaken. Look at her....an elf for sure! Indubitably elfin.) You can't see her striped tights very well on this picture, but she was cute as all get out, an no pre-show nerves whatsoever.
And HERE, even BIGGER, dimple showing, and looking as pleased as a five year old can possibly be.
I caught a glimpse of her offstage, before the show, getting last minute instructions.
(The storyline is that a baker was terribly unsuccessful at selling her cakes because she was using VEGETABLES as the main ingredient, so the elves would tiptoe into her shop after she was asleep.. the honey elves, the sugar elves ...and whip up lots of sweet confections that sold like mad the next day.) All this with musical numbers as well, including an elf version of the Can-Can. LOL!!!
We waited patiently for the production to begin. Bill sat on his granddad's lap, undoubtedly discussing some aspect of modern warfare. Tonight he told us the story of sniper Carlos Hathcock, who shot a Vietnamese general at 700 yards.
"His father's name was Carlos too. Carlos the second. He was Carlos the third. I don't know who Carlos the first was," Bill said, shrugging his shoulders. LOL!!
I told him I very much enjoyed the book he loaned me a few weeks back, "Behind Enemy Lines" -stories of bravery in each war since the War for Independence, as men and women perform heroic feats involving espionage. I thought I'd page quickly through it, but it caught me. Was actually extremely well-written and when I glanced at the back cover, I saw it was a scholastic press edition meant for sixth graders! Bill is seven. LOL!!!!
The show began, the curtain went up, and without an ounce of jitters, THERE WAS KAY! -saying her lines and performing her little heart out!
She was the youngest as far as I could see....Kay was the tiniest elf!
And doing some serious method-acting up there. Just LOOK at the concentration! There's nothing more thrilling than to watch a children's performance...it's all innocence and sincerity. Those little buggers are excited to be up there being seen! Next came the religious sequence- a nativity scene. What would a youngster's Christmas show be without Mary and Joseph, shepherds and kings and angels. (Kay was a shepherd, and had one line in this part.)
You can just about make her out here.... she's wearing yet again, a yellow shepherd headpiece, her yellow Honey Elf shirt showing through, right next to the kiddo with the umber-colored scarf on his head. (You just can't keep the sunshine outta that girl!)
Going to see Kay's show on Saturday evening and being there for the lovely meal her mom and dad cooked beforehand, made for a lovely night. With the warmest hands and the softest voice, it brought Christmas home to me. It got right down and kissed me on the cheek...it's about love, isn't it? All of it.
Oh! And from halfway across the country, from Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, I just today received this emailed photo of the REST of the clan.....here's Matt's brood
(here in SPIRIT, certainly.) Wow! That family has grown. Two more children since Matt came back from Iraq... little Shiloh (the only-est girl) and baby brother Asher... and what a fine-looking group they make, grinning and wishing the best of this holiday season to everyone. I am honestly surrounded by love in all its twinkling, all its bells ringing.... with music everywhere, pushing out of its beating heart.
December 12, 2010~ 7:45 pm
My mind has been swirling the last two days with two themes. First, how I love all the physical aspects of sitting in a theater inside the magic box and waiting to be entertained-- and secondly, how age takes its toll on all things, both living and inanimate.
The disappearance theme was most apparent tonight when I went to have dinner with my mother at the Assisted Living home. Our usual table was minus one beloved lady: one of the 'Catherines' who had fallen this week and broken her hip, and I missed her terribly at dinner. (She always has a jar of pickles tucked down in her wheelchair and most nights, she'd order a "half of a ham sandwich, please. Lean.") Picky eater, and a bright lady who laughed easily and often. I looked around the room, imagining the several faces absent since last year at this time and it made me sad. New faces appear, but the old ones are always sorely missed.
From there, I found several online sites that chronicle the 'Great Old Ladies'-- the fine movie palaces of yesteryear, places that offered a romantic getaway for the world-weary through a few hours of celluloid escapism. How well I remember our own little neighborhood theater, not grand by any means, but still ...those velvet curtains, the smell of popcorn, the hush when the curtains opened and the flickering pictures appeared, all of it had such great impact on my young and hungry imagination.
Click on that nostalgic picture above to look at black and white photos of the crumbling old picture palaces. Places that gave a home to Gary Cooper and Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. They're magic........ crumbling magic.
To see some color photos of the truly gilded film palaces, have a look at these lush glimpses at The Last Remaining Seats. They are glorious.
If looking a these old beauties have whetted an appetite for more, stop over at Water Winter Wonderland and see not ONLY theaters- (though there are plenty of those) but drive-ins, motels, bowling alleys and amusement parks both still there or already disappeared-- in the state of Michigan. It's a RICH website to visit! Happy looking backward. (I hope you have as many wonderful memories of sitting in the dark with a completely different world opening up on the screen-- the imagination blooming and soaring.) I love these kinds of places!
December 16, 2010~ 8:45 am
The day is growing closer.......I'm GETTING INTO THE SPIRIT......
THERE I AM... RINGING BELLS. (This vintage, probably 1930's-style little gal is as cute as can be except for her red, mottled cheeks. I call her CHRISTMAS ROSACEA. LOL!!) That could be me too, what with all the sub-zero wind chill we've had the past few days. Today was in the 20's and wouldn't ya know it, I was coughing more- probably because my lungs were just beginning to thaw out.
I finished my 'doodad' shopping this evening, and that's always a treat for me- going to the dollar value store and picking up LOTS of happy stuff to make goodie bags for my sister's grandchildren. (And a bunch for the gals at work.) All my packages arrived from my online shopping last week- malls are ANATHEMA to me -so there's wrapping and cards still to address and send, but I'm pretty much on track.
I'm most decidedly un-Scrooge-like this year. I want to hug everyone I catch whistling Christmas carols. Today at work, one of our delivery truck drivers was unloading sacks of plaster, chirping away a whistled rendition of 'Joy To The World'- so I joined in. We just looked at eachother and grinned. I thought, "That's the way it should be......on the INSIDE, spilling out without even thinking about it."
Hope you're in a festive mood as well. Hope the stresses of the season can be cast off to allow yourself to feel childlike again, and to a child.......there's nuthin' like Christmas!
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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