This is Christmas 2014

We usually get a bit of decent December weather sometime in the middle of the month.  This is nature's way of signaling me that I need to stoke up my ambition an hang those old C-9 exterior Christmas lights on the eaves, yes, the ones I inherited from my parents.  The very ones that were hung on my house in gaudy 70's.  These lights are 40 years old!  I lay out the strings on the grass and plug them in before hanging them up.  This year, another string fails to carry the current to light up.  I salvage the blue and green bulbs and throw that old wire string away.  As I am half way across the first window peak with my decorating efforts, Jane from two doors down, stops at the curb and pokes fun of my high-wire act and effort.  She suggests that I could get a modern set of lights and just easily throw them on my bushes.  Easy Peasy.  I tell her, even the Cratchet family made an effort to celebrate Christmas.  But as she pulls away, I have to ask myself; who am I trying to impress? 

Suneson's Christmas Home - The way it is supposed to look
Back when all of the light strings functioned

Perhaps on some small part there is the tug of obligation to the civic religion to have one's house decorated for Christmas (I've heard even some Jewish families feel this obligation); at least I can honestly embrace roots of Christmas.  Who wants to have a 'Bah Humbug' house? - as our neighbors back in the 60's self proclaimed their house.  But I think that this year, mostly with both kids coming back home late in the Christmas Season, I mostly wanted the place to look kind of like old times.  So, the peaceful blue and green bulbs softly shine through the dark nights of Advent - and will purposely do so through the 12th Day of Christmas, January 6.

Grant had arrive the week before Christmas with Kaileen from Mizzou.  She spent 2 nights and a day with us before Grant drove her on to her home north of Houston, Grant returning the following day.  Inga had a week with us, arrivng at the stroke of midnight on the 20th at Love Field in Dallas.

Sister and Brother made plans to go have BBQ in Fort Worth.  Other than that, it was generally hang around the house, do some shopping, check social media.

Below are a few photos of the Suneson's 2014 Christmas:

Strider lays before the kitchen door watching his pack
Inga, long gone from the pack, tries not to drop her laptop
while stepping over the old dog

Inga helps with dinner

All of the stockings were hung with care...

Sue with a spot of tea comes to join her daughter
before the mid-winter blaze

Grant pulls a few Santa goodies from his stocking
Christmas Day

Stider is discombobulated to find a cat residing under the Christmas Tree

Grant checks out the label of a Portland specialty bres
A gift from his Portlandian Sister

Inga is amused by what is revealed
once the wrapping paper is removed
Christmas Morning

Sue collects another Laura Ingalls-Wilder book
while modeling her gift infinity scarf

Inga & Sue roll up this year's Christmas Dinner Dessert
A Buche de Noel (trans from French as 'Yule Log') -
a light cinnamon cream filled ginger sponge cake roll 

Inga and Grant
Home for Christmas, 2014

Fade Out of A Christmas Tradition

Every thing in its season.
There was a time in the Suneson Family that when the days shorten to almost their lowest ebb, and the air chilled and the leaves upon the neighborhood trees browned and began to fall before the cold breezes dropping upon us from the north, that we could look to the coming of the Christmastide.  This Season of Christmastide, heralded by quickly fading afternoon light brought with it the illumination of the 1970's era strings of blue and green Christmas lights strung from our eaves outside our home.  While inside the parents would bring up the subject of planning when to take our annual trip to Kadee Farms as a family to select and cut our Christmas tree.  Usually a weekend was chosen, not too soon so as to not have the cut tree dry out on us way before Santa arrived, and hopefully not too late to still have a good selection from which to choose the perfect (or best under the circumstances) specimen.

For me, the hunt was the best part of the ritual in finding an evergreen to bring home.  Each family member would fan out through the rows of Virginia Pine and shout out to the others if they found a worthy candidate to consider.  The clan gathered and discussed; height, color, neatness, did it have a good top and have a straight trunk (no fork).  Was this the one?  A vote was called, and we either unsheathed our bow saw, or we kept going to find and cut a better one. 

Once all had taken a turn in pushing the saw blade through the sappy trunk, the pine was felled and taken back to Kadee Farmhouse.  While our Christmas tree was shaken to remove much of the dead needles before being bound by a nylon net and mounted and tied to the roof of the SUV, we gathered around the crock pot of heated spiced apple cider and sipped.  This was how it was for nearly two decades.  The 60 mile return to Garland, mostly through rural Texas, usually had us stopping for a barbecue dinner at some smoke shack in one of the towns between there and here.

This year, Christmas 2014 the family gathered for Christmas, but not until Inga flew in from Portland, Oregon late in December, held in place by work obligations and adult-world kind of things.  Grant too, arrived well nigh unto Christmas after finals at the University of Missouri, too late to make a trip to the old Kadee Christmas Tree Farm practical.  So, in order to have a tree up for when the "kids" did arrive home, Sue and I got a late start as urban Christmas tree shopping goes, and drove the half-mile to Lowe's and looked over their picked-over lot.  We found a 6' Douglas Fir as a fitting symbol to represent hope and renewed life of the Christ child in our home.

Now, a Doug Fir without argument is a superior Christmas tree to the old Virginia Pine found growing at the verge of the East Texas province, but picking a tree out of a bin, just the two of us, has me feeling a bit hollow.  For me, it is more than just the tree, it is the event, the tradition.  It's just not the same as driving an hour in anticipation of hunting and finding and cutting your own tree with the whole of the family.

To everything there is a season.  
There was once a part of the season of Christmas that included the traditional tree hunt.  I see that part of the Christmas season has now faded, the family dispersed, and the tradition but a memory.  Such are seasons.

A wish for a season of fine old memories and may it be filled with fresh and pleasant new ones as well.

Christmas 2014 Douglas Fir
Evergreen a traditional symbol of hope and renewal
representing the spirit of the coming Christ Child

  

Holiday Travels

It is a 9-hour drive from The University of Missouri, Columbia to Garland, Texas.
The trip back home for the holidays can be buoyed by the fact that one is done with finals.  But how long can the euphoria last, when there is another semester to work through and then it is out into the 'real world', job or no job.  This reality has to be tempering.

My suggestion: get a girlfriend.  That should make the drive a lot easier and more fun.  Actually, I did not need to make this suggestion to Grant, as he already figured it out on his own.  Smart kid.

Grant and Kaileen finished finals on Tuesday.  Kaileen lives on the north edge of Houston, another 3 1/2 hours south on I-45.  Grant brought Kaileen home to meet the parents (us).  As it has been for every generation, I suspect that Kaileen got the download on all the perceived family quirks and how to interpret and handle 'the parents'.  I am thinking I did OK for the first meeting.  We certainly enjoyed Kaileen.  They arrived on Tuesday night, and we served the requested chicken in buttery lemon-white wine sauce over pasta with some homemade focaccia bread.  Grant and Kailene toured the museum district and lunch in downtown Dallas the next morning.

Thursday, they were off to Kaileen's home dispatched with a plate full of Sue's homemade Christmas cookies.  Grant stayed overnight, and returned to Dallas in the evening, just in time to join us to Love Field where we met Inga, arriving from her home in Portland.

 I can not but help enjoying each stage of life.  Good to see Grant and Kaileen together and enjoying themselves.  This is what I have come to treasure most about the holidays.

Sly Mr. Grant and Kaileen catch up on social media.
Kaileen's major is Journalism that emphasizes the convergence
of all digital and traditional forms of communication

  

My Nephew... The Doctor -

My nephew - The Doctor...

(Well, technically not a doctor; but he is a graduate of University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School)

Nephew Brian arrived in Dallas 18 months ago from San Diego as one of 13 in the Prosthetics and Orthodics program.  We had him over to our house occasionally and (as promised to his father) every Thanksgiving.  He did well, graduated at the top of his class and landed an internship in Olympia, Washington, only 26 miles from his fiancee's school.

Brian allowed as how graduation was anticlimactic after working so hard.  He was just ready to pack up an leave Dallas to get near Amy.  His mother (my sister) and his father flew into town to see the graduation event and help pack up and drive him up to Olympia, via California.  We, of course offered to host and help in any way we could.

First order: Dinner on Saturday once everybody was assembled in Texas.  Dinner was barbecue.

Wendy joins Sue and Brian with a plate of pulled pork and ribs

Sunday, December 7th, a day that will live in infamy...  oops.  

Sunday, December 7th, a day set for graduation from UT Southwestern P&O Program.  We joined Brian, Wendy and Barth in the mostly packed apartment and then drove over to campus for the ceremony.

Brian receives his hood

We took Brian's last scraps of remaining food, and headed home to turn the items into a spaghetti dinner.  Once Brian's place was all packed into the U-Haul trailer (pre-planned and diagrammed by Brian), they came by for dinner and night's sleep.

Off they drove in the early morning, destination: Grants, New Mexico for night 1.

Well done Brian.  We hope to join you in the Northwest someday.

CONGRADULATIONS!

Around and About the Big D

All dressed up at the Perot Museum
A Dapper Dinosau
Festive for the Holidays

We missed feasting with Bill and Susan on Thanksgiving.  We had originally planned on going to Wichita Falls as T-Day guests.  Then Grant made plans to leave for Missouri right after the meal.  Then the Cook's table had a few more additions....

And then it was decided that we would get together the day after Thanksgiving.  We would host them in Dallas, ride the DART train to downtown, eat from the food trucks in Klyde Warren Park, see the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and return to our house for a pot roast dinner.  But not just pot roast -- Sue had been saving the tomato aspic for just such an occasion.  The T. aspic was not served to under appreciating guests at Thanksgiving, but was held back because only true members of the Cook Clan can savor tomato aspic at Thanksgiving time.

Group Portrait in Downtown Dallas
Mark, Sue, Susan & Bill

Bill & Susan at Asian Fusion Food Truck
One of the lunch offerings at Klyde Warren Park

Bahn Mi Vietnamese Sandwiches all around

The Ancestral Photos
Now who is that?