On the Eleventh Day of a Feminine Christmas

This image says "New Year's Day" to me.  Perhaps it's her pastel coat and floral muff.  Perhaps she has done what I do which is to put away my fall colors and hues and bring my icy pastels to the front of the closet.  It's fun to have one's wardrobe mirror the frost and pale skies outside.

Do you watch the news?  I've eliminated most of it from my daily round.  Last night I did hear there was a terror threat in Rochester, NY, where a best friend lives.  One cannot entirely escape the events happening in the world today.  I am trusting that when I need to know something I will be told somehow.  But I still must go to work and function and so for me, I have stopped watching news programs.  Ditto, reality TV and anything about celebrities.  I prefer to spend my spare time reading and watching uplifting things that keep my spirits buoyant so that I can bring my small light to the world.  Who knows -  my "light" may actually be making a difference to someone and if it gets extinguished by news overload, how will I help?

I like to think this blog may be a beacon to some readers out there.  I really do ponder the things I write about and then my thoughts somehow meander right here to this page.  I admit to being stumped about what to write sometimes and I fear some readers may think I am naive because I do not bring world events to the blog.  Believe me, I take the events of our world very seriously and as a sensitive person, I could go overboard with empathy and it could consume me if I let it.

I believe our lovely lady in rose is about to embark on a journey to a New Year's house party at a friend's - just as I am about to do today.  And once there, I will be convivial and glad.  Glad because it is a holiday today - the very first of a brand new year.  And I don't think I am being pretentious to think that I may make someone else feel nice or ease their pain or make them laugh.  Edith Wharton once wrote, "It was an inner glow of happiness (that made the difference)...and it shone through like a light under ice"...

I shall leave you with that.

On the Twelfth Day of a Feminine Christmas

 

I have a love/hate relationship with New Year's Eve.  In New England the weather is almost always seasonably frigid and it just seems cozier to stay tucked indoors.  But tradition calls for a convivial and festive party like our "cover girl" is enjoying.  In her hands is a statuette of Father Time carrying a scythe which implies the death of the old year.

 

It's actually this passage of time which keeps me betwixt and between staying in or going out on the year's last night.  Whether New Year's is a clich� or a holiday steeped in the mystical,  I think everyone should have the chance to "do" New Year's Eve, at least a few times, with a big glamorous and raucous party.  There's nothing more fun than bewitching finery and a boisterous crowd to send your cares a-packing until after midnight's countdown.  But the draw to stay close to the hearth has been far more compelling these last few years.  I often have many new gifted books to read, plenty of left-overs, and not to mention - the weather outside is so frightful. 

 

Mom says "New Year's Eve is for amateurs."  But I think she is talking about those who party too much or those who party infrequently and thus, overdo it on this one night.  I think Mom is at an age and stage where she can do whatever she pleases and these days, she's happy to watch the revelers on her television set rather than have a drink with them.

 

For me this year, I think I will follow Jane Austen's logic, a women who also knew a thing or two about joyous partying:  "Ah!  For real comfort, there is nothing like staying at home".  Ah! indeed. 

 

~  

 

This concludes my Twelve Days of a Feminine Christmas and although it was not on the true calendar, I hope you enjoyed it.