Christmas wrap

This is what Christmas looks like in my neck of the woods.  The greatest and most amazing thing about this here tree is that those balls stay there in their full glory, in an unbroken state throughout the whole holiday.  They are attached securely enough that the wind won't blow them off but, not so securely that if some punk thug wanted to steal one, they couldn't.  But they don't.  Year after year after year.  And that really is cause for celebration in my book!

This was my front porch Christmas display this year.  All my decor is stored away while we remodel the cottage so I improvised.  This was so simple.  So beachy.  I didn't miss my old decorations at all.

On Christmas Eve I snapped this photo on the way home from mass.  Breathtaking.  Hopeful.  Peaceful.

This Advent the lights shone brightly.  Every moment was busy and hectic and I am thoroughly exhausted.  I'm looking forward this week, to relaxing and playing back all the moments, all the memories in my mind.  And not having any expectations, a million things to do, things to accomplish before...  So, a recap -

Lets start with this.  Bria Rose.  This is my favorite part of Christmas.

The babies.  

We were blessed with a brand new one in our family this year.  Isn't she precious?

The kids all together and not trying to kill loving each other.

The small but precious moments.

Captured unawares.

I KNOW HIM!!!

And I know Him too.  But now the cake is all gone and the Nativity is put away.  There are Valentine cards on the shelves at Hallmark for goodness sake.  

That about wraps it up for our Christmas holidays.   I hope whomever you are and wherever you are, whatever holiday you observed, there were precious moments involved that you can play in your mind from now until you celebrate again.  I'll just be hanging around recovering, waiting to bring in the New Year.  I think I'll start thinking up a New Year's resolution.  How about you?

Peace, Christmas, Fertility Doves Anyone?

His Holiness Pope John Paul II blessed humanity for many years.  It is well documented that he had a fondness for white doves.

The white dove is sometimes called the sacred dove.  It is one of the most important birds in the bible.  It was the poor man's sacrifice, the denizen's of the heavens, as divine revelations.

The dove was the bearer of heavenly messages of guidance.  It stood for godliness, immortality, power and victory.  The ancient Greeks believed the dove to be the symbol of a fertility goddess.  Aphrodite rose from the sea as she was born from an egg, brooded by a dove and finally pushed ashore by a fish.

I myself have alway had a fondness for white doves.  When my eldest daughter Tara got married we bought two doves that our youngest named Tara and Jason after the new bride and groom.  They sat on the porch and greeted each guest as a symbol of married love.  I kept those lovey doves for a long time, enjoying their soft coo's outside my window.  Soon there were several tiny, pale blue eggs which they took turns lovingly sitting on and caring for.

They never hatched so I went to the pet store and asked, "what's up with that?"  It seems that it is almost impossible to tell if a dove is a male or a female but, when a female lays eggs, if the eggs never hatch the problem is that you have two females and no manly- man to fertilize the eggs.

It was truly sad.  Those beautiful ladies (now renamed, Tara 1 and Tara 2), sat day after day in hopeful expectation that their babies would hatch.

Able to stand it no more, I hightailed it back to the pet store and purchased another white dove, hoping that it would be a male and that between the two females back at the house he would fancy one and they would fall in love and fertilize the eggs and we would have baby doves.  And yes, if you were wondering, I did use all this as an opportunity to teach my kids all about the facts of life, moral and political correctness and peace.  Soon we had baby doves and then more baby doves and we pretty much populated the city with white doves.  You're welcome.

 By the way,  click here and see how It worked for Tara and Jason!

Then I went through a chicken phase but, I'll leave that for another post.

I started decorating my Christmas tree with beautiful white doves.  They were so life like.  They looked exactly like our live doves and I festooned the tree with them.  They sat alight the branches and I sighed in content repeating the Hebrew word Yonah, which of course means, dove.

I told my children, doves are the most important bird in the bible you know.  They represent a saved soul.

Apparently, as I discovered last year, my eldest son, Cooper, did not hold the same sentiment regarding the dove ornaments that I did.  He had never said a word about it as through the years I read passages from the Old Testament; A Song Of David in Psalms.  Yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. But when I got the boxes of Christmas ornaments down during Advent, all the while rhapsodizing the virtues of the dove, he looked at me one day and said,

"Those things freak me out."

"Those birds are creepy."

What, said I?  These doves are ancient symbols of peace.  They symbolize victory over death!  They stand for purification for Mary after the birth of Jesus!

"They're totally creepy."  "Could you please just not put them on the tree this year?" 

But, doves are mentioned 20 times in the Old Testament alone.  They are the most revered bird in the entire Bible, I said with a sniffle. Could I maybe just put one at the very top?

So, here are my doves. Perishing resting in the bottom of a red tupperware container. It is a disturbing sight for me.  I am pretty sure there is a message, or perhaps an omen somewhere in there. I can't stand the thought that they are not out spreading the love. So if anyone would like to enlighten their tree with a message of peace or immortality, or if you're just trying to conceive a child and you want a symbol of fertility on your Christmas tree, give me a call.  I'm here for you.  I have an entire container of these sacred doves in my garage.

Love you more than all the feathers on all the doves in the world,

Peace on Earth and Blessings to all,

Tia