Will you make New Year's Resolutions?

      The name "January" comes from the Roman god Janus identified with doors, gates, and all beginnings.  Artistically he is represented as having two faces, one looking forward, one looking backwards.  That is what we do in January, think back on the old year and look forward to the new.  
       The New Year has been a cause for celebration since about 2000 B.C. when the Babylonians held festivals at the spring and autumn equinoxes.  Later the Romans continued the festivities and offered promises of good behavior to Janus.  When the Roman calendar, which is the model for our own, was developed, the first month was renamed Janus to establish January 1 as the day of new beginnings.  New Year's resolutions began during this time in Rome.  Mostly, they were vows to do good and be kind to others.  
      Skip forward to the Puritans, who avoided all revelry in celebrating the New Year, and instead made resolutions to strive for good behavior in the year to come.  Then in 1907, Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of the New York Times, had a five foot iron globe containing 216 electric lamps built.  This globe was dropped from a 70 foot flagpole in Times Square.  Through the years, the ball drop came to symbolize new beginnings and many cities across the USA built similar structures to fall on New Year's Eve.  Today, the ball in Times Square is made of Waterford crystal with 30,000 watts of light.  
      With such a show being made of New Years,  individuals made their own new beginnings in the form of resolutions to change their behaviors.  A year's end seems like a good time to be off with the old and on with something new.  According to the USA. gov website, some of the most popular resolutions year after year are

• Drink less alcohol
• Get a better education
• Get a better job
• Get in shape
• Lose Weight
• Quit smoking

      I don't hear much about people making resolutions these days.   The tradition seems to have gone out of fashion, and those of us who do still make them, don't keep them. 

     "A University of Washington study in 1997 found 47 percent of the 100 million adult Americans who make resolutions give up on their goals after two months.  This has grown to 80 percent in the past decade, according to recent research completed at the University of Minnesota." (quote and some info site)

      So what's the point, you ask. Perhaps asking more of ourselves, striving to improve, even if we are not always successful, creates self-awareness and indicates a desire to be a better person.  This can't be bad.  So, I for one will keep on making them and, yes, breaking them. 
This year, I have only one, the same one I make every year:  exercise, get fit.  

Happy 2012, dear friends. Follow your dreams!  

My Christmas card to you

       

To put you in a holiday mood,  I'm posting a few Florida Christmas photos I've collected through the years.  There's no natural snow, icicles or sleighs and sleds, but there's a lot of creativity.  Happy Christmas!  Enjoy! 

The pat of flamingos (what a group is called) below appeared in a yard near my house over several Christmases.  Note that Santa guiding the sleigh has a beard.

No firs, no spruce, but decorated palm trees, often in

the most creative ways, proclaim it's Christmas.

Someone placed this more traditional tree on the

beach and decorated it.  

This is a sort of greeting card for the season with Florida photos improvising Floridians decorating creatively without snow, sleet, snowmen or other traditional Christmas props.  But, suppose you were on board a Navy ship heading home after a long deployment.  What kind of card could you make?  See what the sailors aboard the HMS Ocean did as they sailed home.  

Maybe it's just me--a Christmas thought

A Christmas tradition, photo with Santa.

       
     For me, there's a little sadness associated with Christmas.  For some people, I suspect there is a lot of sadness.  In the middle of the decorating, the Christmas television shows, the shopping, and all the other activities, melancholy can creep in.
       For those whose incomes and lifestyles have changed, Christmas can be a source of parental guilt for not meeting their children's expectations and needs.  The giving and receiving parts of the holiday are emphasized in stores, on television and even at school.  Children who realize Santa won't bring them gifts feel deprived, maybe even angry.  It is worse if they still expect  gifts and there are none. The fantasy of Santa is gone.  Knowing there are children who experience this is a sadness for me.  I so appreciate the organizations and individuals who gather toys and treats for children during the holiday.  The Salvation Army Angel Trees make me feel happy.  At least some children will have Christmas.  I usually buy for an angel on the tree or donate to the Salvation Army.  Their motivation seems pure--giving not profit.
     Christmas  is such a store of memories for many of us older adults.  We remember  grandparents and parents who are long gone.  Nostalgic memories  may make us smile, but there is an edge of sadness to them.  In my dad's family, Christmas was always a really big deal. Those Depression Era children did not have a big Christmas, but everybody got something and an orange in a stocking was a special treat.  One special story is about my grandfather placing shoe prints in the ashes of the fireplace before my dad and his siblings got up on Christmas morning.  The prints belonged to Santa, of course. 
     When I was very young, my dad's family with all the children and grandchildren met in my grandparent's living room.  It was always cold and a fire in the fireplace wasn't just for aesthetics.  My aunt passed the presents around and there was a chaos of noise and paper cluttter as we unwrapped and showed our gift.  This all sounds so simple and ordinary, but those Christmases have been a lasting memory for me even now that the home place is empty and falling in, the parents and grandparents are gone, and the grandchildren are grown up and scattered around the country.  Still, I'm very glad I have those memories even if thinking them brings conflicting emotions.  
     Now, I'll go listen to "Sleigh Ride," which always makes me happy, and think of my own grandchildren and what I can do to give them happy memories this Christmas.  

                                  Stores at the mall display a wide variety of things to want.

Some of my family and grandchildren Christmas 2010

                                         
       

Deck the decks for the annual Beaches Christmas Boat Parade

     

   We Floridians don't have the Christmas card look of the holiday, so we must make do without snow, fir trees, frozen ponds and all the other traditional accoutrement.

What we do have is water, lots of water, boats, and mild temperatures.   Never underestimate the creativity of Florida and the desire to celebrate.  Someone came up with the idea of decorating boats and floating them in a parade down the river.  Just as in a street parade prizes are given for the best decorations and Santa and sometimes his reindeer are one of the main events.

      The City of Jacksonville has a fabulous boat parade during the weekend after Thanksgiving. It ends with fireworks and lights steaming like a waterfall off the Main Street Bridge.  Not to be outdone, the beaches have a boat parade as well.  It travels up the Intracoastal Waterway after dark and onlookers from the waterfront restaurants and houses along the route come out to see and cheer.
      The Beaches Christmas Boat Parade was the first Saturday in December.  We viewed it from the dock at Lulu's Grille, a popular restaurant so close to the water it is practically in it.  Cars filled Lulu's parking lot and lined A1A on both sides for a long way.  We had dinner there on the outside patio and so had a ringside seat.  It took the parade a long time to reach us, but no one seemed to mind.  The wine and beer were flowing, the night was beautiful with many stars and a bright moon right overhead.  It was a perfect night for a parade.  
     These parades are not silent.  The crowd cheers, people on the boats sing, play music and blow very loud boat horns.  It is all quite festive.  Here are photos of some of the boats and the ending photo is a short video that includes some of that sound.  (Sorry, it has some fingers in it too.)
    It's not religious, it's not snowy or icy, but to us it is Christmasy and fun:

Decorated to look like a sleigh, this was the first boat in the lineup.

There were several sailboats and this blue and white was one of the prettiest.

Santa's reindeer are represented on this colorful boat.  Santa is there somewhere.

What's a boat parade without a duckie.

Another sailboat is decorated like a candy cane.

Lulu's deck is right on the water.

Lulu's provided music on the patio with a firepit on a separate part of the patio.

       

Mountain Holiday--A Photo Album

    Love of mountains and woodlands is a major trait of my family.  The Florida bunch particularly gets rhapsodic over mountains, streams and woods.  Over Thanksgiving week, my husband, daughter, son-in-law, two grandsons, plus various pets, and I stayed in a lovely mountain cabin near Boone, NC.  We had some great family time and mountain time.  Here are a few photos:

This is our cabin.  It is out in the middle of
nothing, but a few other cabins are nearby.

We were about 1/4 mile from the New River.

The recreation room in our cabin had a pool table, 
which was a favorite.

We enjoy a Thanksgiving feast.

We went to a tree farm where my daughter and family 

selected a tree, had it cut, and loaded on the car. 

They are not part of the Florida bunch but live in NC.

The tree farm also had farm animals, burros and 

angora goats.

Angora goats at the barn

Angora goat face.  Have you ever seen anything 

so cute!

After the Christmas tree farm, we went to downtown

Blowing Rock for the annual Hometown Christmas parade.

I love small town parades.  They are unique.  

Here is a goofy truck complete with goofy teeth.

What parade doesn't love an old car.

Santa, of course, was the final act.

Winter woods.  The autumn leaves are long gone, 

but there is beauty in the shapes and colors

of dormant tree limbs and brown weeds.

.

A holiday for thanks

       Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.~Robert Lintner

     Of the major holidays we celebrate, Thanksgiving is the most essentially American. Every  kindergartner knows the story of the Pilgrims and the Indians who helped them celebrate the harvest with a feast.  A feast is still the center of our celebration, and unlike most of our holidays, we've kept this one relatively uncommercial.  I'm considering that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not really part of Thanksgiving.
     A main purpose of the pilgrim's feast was to offer thanks for the harvest and for their very existence in a harsh climate.  On our Thanksgiving Day, between preparing the feast and cleaning mountains of dishes, thanks is sometimes an afterthought.  
     In truth, one day for thanks is not enough.  We need to remember every day those people, places and things that give us pleasure and happiness.  We need to say thank you to those who have helped us and those who are kind.  If we do this, also having a holiday to celebrate and give thanks seems like a great day.  It is made truly special by the presence of our families and friends.   
                                           Forever on Thanksgiving Day
                                           The heart will find the pathway home.
                                                         ~Wilbur D. Nesbit

Got no check books, got no banks.  Still I'd like to express my thanks - I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night.  ~Irving Berlin

St. Pat's Parade St. Augustine Style

  Our thoughts are with our Japanese friends.  Donate whatever you can to help.


 March 13, 2011


      Yesterday, we drove to St. Augustine for the first annual St. Augustine, St. Patrick's Day Parade. This started six days of a Celtic Music and Arts Festival in St. Augustine.  Irish music, dancing and food will take over the town. St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish and has a distinct Spanish flavor in architecture, food and tourist attractions.  How do you go Irish with this background?  The parade had a strong Spanish flare or maybe it was Spanish with an Irish flare.  Whichever, it was a most unique Irish parade.  I took some photos to give you an idea of what it was like.  

It was a beautiful day for a parade.  This photo shows Matanzas Bay

and some of the people waiting for the parade to pass.

One of the first groups provided bagpipe music. Seems Irish

enough, right?  They could be Scottish.

Here comes a Spanish Conquistador and his lady.  Maybe

they should have worn green.

Here we have St. Augustine's royal family decked out Spanish style.

No St. Augustine parade is complete without a Spanish galleon. Look it's wearing green.

These lovely girls dance an Irish jig.

You can't have an Irish parade without the rainbow and a pot of gold.

Irish prisoners or just a tourist attraction vehicle?

All the small town parades I've been to include firetrucks and 

ambulances.  Look closely this rescue truck has a Spanish man

                                 with a neck ruff.   

Overall, it was a great parade, but then I've never met a parade I didn't like.  It was fun and just

so St. Augustine.  We in Jacksonville Beach are only 25 miles away and it is a  second home where we take all our visitors and go for a change of scenery.  One of my favorite places there is the French pastry shop on Charlotte Street.  It has been in business for 44 years with the same owner, a family from 

Brugges, Belgium.  The pastry and the sandwiches are heavenly and perfect after a parade. 

Inside the pastry shop with its case of lovely French pastries.