Happy Winter Solstice!

I didn't get to my last minute shopping yesterday. The rain and the runny nose conspired against me. And a good thing too. I needed to find two lumps of coal for two very naughty men, because of whom I spent at least an hour on the phone consoling my crying 72 year old mother. Lumps of coal and a nasty note from Santa is what they are getting this year!

And while at the mall, I was reminded of this passage from my languishing-in-can't-get-an-agent-hell novel:

I did okay as long as I was working, but being home, alone, in that dingy little apartment so close to Christmas was depressing. I went to the mall sometimes, pretending to be shopping for presents. I’d sit and watch the crowds moving from store to store. Almost everyone looked grim, harried and unhappy. Didn’t they have people who loved them at home? Weren’t they buying real presents for real people? Why did they look so unhappy about it?

For real.

And I trimmed back on my traditional Winter Solstice celebration. My tradition was a reenactment of the old Germanic/Norse myths of people putting gifts of food on the trees of the forest for the animal spirits so the spirits would protect the living animals through the winter. Usually for me, this involves lots of fruit and nuts and berries and real tying of things to trees. This year, the woodland creatures and spirits got several berry suet cakes (the raccoons steal them) and a bag of the really good, expensive bird feed.

Remember, beginning tomorrow, the light will begin defeating the darkness.


Thor sez: And you think you aren't getting a lump of coal for this?