Category Archives: Holiday

“And the mist of snow, as he had foreseen, was still on it – a ghost of snow falling in the bright sunlight, softly and steadily floating and turning and pausing, soundlessly meeting the snow that covered, as with a transparent mirage, the bare bright cobbles. He loved it – he stood still and loved it. Its beauty was paralyzing – beyond all words, all experience, all dream. No fairy-story he had ever read could be compared with it – none had ever given him this extraordinary combination of ethereal loveliness with a something else, unnameable, which was just faintly and deliciously terrifying.” ~ Conrad Aiken, “Silent Snow, Secret Snow”

This year’s holiday card takes its theme from my hair: white. Blow and go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. That’s right, I’ve gone all blustery and Whitney on you, but for theatrical purposes only. (I made an alibi video of how the card was created in case Andy decided to press any sort of charges on the drug cartel in his basement. Let’s just say Arm & Hammer was the sole supplier for all the supposed fun.)

This sets the stage for next year’s tour, so if you don’t like what you see here, come back at some point in 2016 because it’s only going to get rockier. Sometimes you have to go dark to see the light. Happy Holidays!!!

“Just why it should have happened, or why it should have happened just when it did, he could not, of course, possibly have said; nor perhaps could it even have occurred to him to ask. The thing was above all a secret, something to be preciously concealed from Mother and Father; and to that very fact it owed an enormous part of its deliciousness. It was like a peculiarly beautiful trinket to be carried unmentioned in one’s trouser-pocket – a rare stamp, an old coin, a few tiny gold links found trodden out of shape on the path in the park, a pebble of carnelian, a sea shell distinguishable from all others by an unusual spot or stripe-and, as if it were anyone of these, he carried around with him everywhere a warm and persistent and increasingly beautiful sense of possession. Nor was it only a sense of possession – it was also a sense of protection. It was as if, in some delightful way, his secret gave him a fortress, a wall behind which he could retreat into heavenly seclusion.” ~ Conrad Aiken, “Silent Snow, Secret Snow”

This evening will mark the Holiday Card 2014 Reveal on this very site, so come back later for all the wider wonder. In the meantime, a brief look back at some notable cards that came before. The very first card I ever sent out was done way back in 1995, and it had a theme I returned to time and time again: S&M. It doesn’t stand for Santa and Magic, but I love a light S&M scene for the holidays. Who doesn’t?

Of course, variety is the spice of life, so every few years I liked to change it up, as seen in the featured photo here, from 2004’s chilly holiday shot, wherein I sprayed my hair in ice queen style. That sort of simplicity has gone by the wayside in recent years, but it will return one day because it’s, well, simple. For 2005 and 2007, seen below, there were more cheeky holiday hellos, the first of which was the accessory-rich mirrored jock-shot that not everyone loved, while the latter Santa-gone-bad was a favorite (though not one of mine – it’s not easy to smoke and drink beside a dumpster on a freezing night while your husband laughs at you).

Speaking of husbands, the only card that’s ever featured Andy was from 2010 – the year of our wedding – in which we posed around the pool in our wedding garb. This is a sentimental favorite for obvious reasons, and the first time I ever shared billing with another person.

That’s right, the boy has grown up and learned to share, as proven in 2011’s family-friendly fare, where I pulled a wagon with my niece and nephew.

Lest anyone think I was going in a family direction, 2012 marked a return to the tasteless and racy, as things got bloody and violent. I happened to love this little Santa’s massacre night, front and back.

Last year I sent out the easiest-ever holiday card: a picture of me and my brother from our childhood. It was a little sweeter than a bloody organ.

Which sets the stage for a return to something more… edgy. And snowy. And blowy… Get ready for the white stuff. Tonight’s the night.

Lest we forget, December does not end with Christmas Day. In fact, its reach extends until the very last day of the year. That tends to get lost in the importance we place on that one special day. Yet as you can see, the days following the big one can be just as beautiful, and just as important. In a single day, a whole life can change.

Sometimes the moments following Christmas ring more festively, especially if there’s been a snowfall.

It starts quietly, in the amber light on the cherry bark, the same light caught in the Northern oats.

The dusk of Boston nestles before the New Year.

It’s the time of the year when snow is still new, and still somewhat welcome.

Sparkle and shine.

Before it begins again…

Memories of Decembers past continue to occupy today’s posts, continuing with this choice bit of family jeweldom. They weren’t the only red objects on holiday display, however, as evidenced by these bulbous bobs of spicy earth-bound sustenance.

The jewels beneath the ground weren’t limited to those in the red, but those in the gold as well.

I’ve got the second part down pat. The first too, actually.

Bang my wall, Harvey.

The woman needs no defense, but here one is anyway.

I love pink pants.

We were all kids, once…

And some of us were luckier than others.

Coda.

Newly into the month, let’s look back a year or two ago and recall where we were way back when… starting with this Christmas rose memory. This, for me at least, the best part of the season – when all is hope and possibility, all is yet to come. The rush is not quite there, the worry not yet a true presence. Wait for it, just wait.

Three photos that tell three thousand stories.

It seems unlikely that we will get to make a third Holiday stroll this year, but the first was such a joy that I’ll be damned if I don’t try. I mean, come on!

Like a virgin… strolling for the very first time.

This is still funny. A mother-fucking quiche.

December brings out the ego and insecurity in some of us….

And the family fun in others.

Amid the fog…

A cock.

The ultimate office holiday bash.

A little bit of the devil keeps the angels at bay.

Some years I can’t be bothered with Christmas decorations. Like last year, for example, when we were in the midst of a kitchen renovation. The house was falling apart around us, and the last thing I wanted was holly and tinsel to provide the intricate bed for dust and debris. Other years I’ve gone all out, decorating every room in every conceivable theme. This time, I’m somewhere in-between, erring on the side of less-is-more. Only the living room has gotten a holiday treatment, as the kitchen is still too pristine to muck up with fake evergreen paraphernalia and musty bows.

I think it’s enough. Even better, it’s done. That’s all that matters right now. Welcome to the holidays.

And so it begins, whether we like it or not: the Christmas Season. Today marks Black Friday, the one day a year you won’t find me anywhere near a store. This year I’ll be working, and it’s usually my most favorite day of the year to be in the office. Quiet, productive, and generally enjoyable for an introverted extrovert like myself.

As for getting into the holiday spirit, I find it best to revisit old ‘Mad Men’ Christmas episodes, such as the one featured below. It’s one of the best scenes of the series, featuring two powerful people sitting at a bar around the holidays, commiserating and coming to a new place in their working friendship. If you don’t know the show, it won’t mean much, but anyone who’s been watching it should thrill at this clip. Joan and Don. The dialogue crackles, the sparks subtly fly, and the fireworks explode on every atmospheric level. The song to this is perfect too. I’ll feature it more prominently in a later post. For now, enjoy the platonic pulchritude of a world that’s all wrong, and all right.

They are two people who seemingly have it all ~ admired and respected, feared and adored ~ yet I don’t think two lonelier people exist on the show. When they meet in the middle, just for this moment, it melts my heart.

It has become my family’s custom to open our gifts on Christmas Eve, which I think takes some of the joy and wonder out of the holiday for the kids, but I’m not the one raising them so we’ll leave it at that. We started this when my brother and I were at college, and no longer so excited about waking at the crack of dawn to open presents. In the space between dinner and going out for the evening, we’d sit and open gifts in the hushed living room. Lit with candles and a Christmas tree and a mantle-mounted garland of evergreens, the space took on the holiday magic that only Christmas Eve could create.

It was a break in whatever family drama was unfolding at the moment, a time when differences were put aside, just for the night, and smiles and laughter returned to the house like they did when we were kids. The excitement of unopened gifts still elicits a thrill, and the joy in watching my family open theirs is even better.

In the spare, sparse state of our home, without tree or ornaments or garland or lights, I look back on pictures like this and ache just a little for the comforts of Christmas. There’s a magic when the lights of a Christmas tree are all that illuminate the living room, there is warmth in the stockings I made for us over a dozen years ago. Golden angels usually hold glowing candles here, and holiday greenery traditionally accents the wooden surfaces of the room. A wreath laid in the center of a table holds shiny gold ornaments, spilling the sparkling collection over its side in a happy seasonal wave of light-reflecting wonder.

Yet that is not what Christmas is about. Christmas doesn’t require the bombast and the sparkle, the decorations and the twinkling lights. Christmas has always been simpler, and deeper, for me – and for most of us. Even in the kitchenless wonderland of our house, where the hearth seems to have gone missing for the moment, the spirit of Christmas seeps through, lending its own warmth, and conjuring its own magic.

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” –  Dr. Seuss

It’s not as dramatic as the title of this post would suggest, but for the first time ever Andy and I have not decorated one single thing for Christmas. We’ve done scant and minimal decoration schemes in the past – usually every other year we tone it down just to make life easier – but this marks the first when there is not one single holiday anything on display. Of course it’s due mostly to the kitchen renovation, but I’m enjoying the easy upkeep aspect of the decision, and actually finding that I appreciate the holiday displays everywhere else that much more. Still, there is something to be said for Christmas lights that illuminate these dark nights, for sparkling ornaments that spin slowly in the boughs of fragrant evergreen trees, for the warm glow of candles that flicker with each passing visitor.