Christmas 2024

Charles’ Ears

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RDP Friday: Functional

Source – @3am.horrors on Instagram

I struggle with each year to enjoy the Christmas season.

I used to have a good time and I really threw myself into the entire experience but life is life and when a couple of toxic people burn you life to the ground, it’s hard to jump up and say, ” ho, ho, ho and Merry Christmas y’all!”

I wish I could say I was a stronger person and could rise about the ruins they created, but I haven’t. It’s a struggle. But hey, what’s one more struggle when you’re already fighting the tide?

So.

When I put up my tree, I decorate it with grim determination,  but I put it up.

When I listen to Christmas music the first thought that pops into my head is, ” I really used to l like this song. ” I tell that little thought that it had it’s moment in the Sun and I turn the music up louder.

When someone wishes me a Merry Christmas I say to myself, ” From your lips to Charles’ Dickens ears ” – no snark, I really think and MEAN that.

I’m not sure if this process of mine means I’ve come up with a solid and functional plan to take back a part of my life that used to bring me a lot of joy, or if I should just pack it in.

I’m really not sure but I guess I’ll just keep moving forward and see where I end up.

Guess Who Is Coming To Town?

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Inspired by the Holidailies Prompt:  What you actually celebrate during “the holidays, if anything?”

You better watch out, you better not cry
Better not pout, I’m tellin’ you why

AI Artwork: Pumpkin Empress

Santa Claus is BFF with Krampus- that’s why

Merry Belated Krampus Night!

I hope you made it through the night okay.

amm

 

Guess Who Is Coming To Town?

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Maybe it’s because because I was reading ghost stories involving cannibals,  but when the song  “Silent Night ” came on the radio the lyrics seemed a little darker then usual:
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
I flashed on Macbeth’s witches and I creeped myself out- in a good way though.

Krampus and Saint Nicholas visit a Viennese home in 1896

October Is With Me

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My favorite month of the year is any month that ends in ” Ber “

September

I like September because it is full of my promise- September is my Spring time.

September  has cool mornings and warm-ish evenings. It turns some leaves gold and red and if you have a garden your pumpkins are full and orange and ripe. On some weekends you can still sit outside and read a book or barbecue. September is a tease and it’s sort of sassy.

What are the months like me going to bring? It asks. A little pleasure, a lot of pain?

Tell me I will insist.

Not on your billy September says every single year.

October

What can I say about October?

October is my Muse, it inspires me and  when I explore cemeteries or I take my dog and my Jeep off road and I think we might be lost and it’s getting dark I don’t feel like me and Hamish are really alone because October is with us.

After all, October is with me in May, why would it not be with me on those lost roads?

Andrew Wyeth

November

Sometimes November shows up with a little snow, sometimes it shows up with a lot of rain. Sometimes the days are warm and Sunny.

November is unpredictable, its like it’s testing me, asking me- are you ready for December,  Anita?

I will always answer yes.

Are you sure? It asks again.

I don’t know, I finally confess. I don’t really know.

John Atkinson Grimshaw –

December

The dark, the snow, the cold, the ghosts- I have worked all year to make it to December. I’ve earned every glorious second December has to offer.

1911-1914 “Australasian Antarctic Expedition,”
   Australian photographer James Hurley