I will come back to you folks soon. This past year has taken us all down to absolute bedrock and we've been very frightened and pushed beyond all limits and you have no idea (but will; again, I'll be back!). We've climbed from that dark sea to some kind of shallows on the edges of Hell instead of in it, and so I'm waving at you, and telling you I'll be back. I' be back before the Winter Holidays, to post the card at least.
We're not "doing" Christmas this year - we're not Christian and we're overworked and underfunded - but what we ARE doing is preserving some very important traditions, just shoving them around a bit. I'd love to do a tree but the hassle/cost/reward ratio this year is WAY off the charts in the wrong direction...
Going to put up some lights and maybe actually make a Wreath of Khan even though only we will get it and maybe get a couple boughs in and hang the more sentimental baubles on them.
We ARE doing presents; giving and family and togetherness and watching each other's eyes light up when they see what we got or made for them is what it's all about: it's about love as a force in the face of the Great Dark. There has always been a holiday around now, as long as humans have made gestures into the void in search of lifelines.
And that's why we're doing it on the solstice this year. That's not a religious holiday, although it is steeped in it from every culture that's ever been; it's an observable cosmic fact. The days start getting longer again - but for one tiny non-moment... it is the Big Dark. And then the light really does come back, on this rock.
And this year, this bedraggled benighted hellscape of a year, is ending with such grace: first on the solstice Ruby will open gifts from a couple of dear close ones that will blow her mind, and we get to watch, and we have some spiffy stuff headed Ruby's way from us too, and then a benefactor is bringing Ruby's beloved to us in the New Year, as the light returns, which is literally saving Ruby's life and in large part hers. And once here, we can feast: another amazing human has ordered us a goose and some boar, fitting meats for taking on the coming period of action.
Oh, right, and I'm doing a watercolor card for y'all this year; it'll be along soon.
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