Okay, Now It Can Begin to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Good Morning -

I'm a One Holiday at a Time kind of gal, so it was just yesterday that I started listening to holiday music and contemplating that thing called "Christmas". I had actually cut out this image for the Virgen a few days ago, but then couldn't bring myself to use it until yesterday.

I love Christmas and everything that comes with it, so I'm always super excited when the day after Thanksgiving comes around. I love making gifts, and making cards, and making cookies, and sending boxes, and wrapping presents, and decorating, and finding that one thing that is just perfect for the someones I love. I love the lights and the garlands and the pine trees and the cocoa and the fire and the songs and the velvet dresses and the fancy shoes.

Christmas is a time I tend to get a little traditional. I like the classic Christmas songs, and the traditional approach to decorations and food. I'm not interested in the latest neveau-est recipe for cookies or Christmas dinner or the avante garde approach to tree decorating - give me the classics.

I also tend to get a little more spiritual. I love the sacred songs more than the secular (Jingle Bell Rock? Really? What happened to Grandma? Come on.). Sometimes these songs make me cry thinking about the darkness and then the hope of people banding together to light the darkness and don't care as much this time of year if people call that coming together to light the darkness "Jesus".

Because of my love for the holiday, I also get quite grumpy at the commercialism (which culminated as badly as it could have yesterday with a Wal-Mart worker being trampled to death. Shameless.). While I generally avoid commercials, I have to be extra vigilant this time of year because my blood boils with every "prove your love with this gift" or "don't worry - exchange it and get what you really want" commercial.

Enough of that for now. Here, for your viewing pleasure, are photos of the date night we had last night in which we loaded up a thermos of homemade cocoa (Buy Nothing Day and, also, my partner's cocoa is way better than anything you could buy, anyway) and walked downtown to watch the lights get turned on at the City and County building and Union Station.

Beautiful.
Mr. Boris. He loves turkey and I can't help feeding it to him because it's protein which is supposed to be good for his little diabetic self, and I never see him as perky any more as when he's begging for some breast meat. He may die sooner, but he'll die happy. We're at a quality of life place, methinks.

One of those "stretch your arm as far as you can for the couple shot" photos on Larimer Square. Happy.

The beautiful lights along Larimer.

More beauty on Larimer.

We stepped inside the Oxford Hotel (an old hotel here that fights with Molly Brown to be "oldest" - it's older, but MB has been continuous, while it had a closed period) wooed by its tree in the lobby.

There, behind the hydrant, is my honey taking pictures of Union Station.

Union Station all lit up. We went inside to dry off for a bit (it was a wet, wet snow) and finish our cocoa. While inside, we saw info on their model train, so followed the signs downstairs for a look-see. Turns out we both think model trains are kind of silly, so we didn't linger.

The City and County Building. It's so fascinating in its blatant blend of (Christian) Church and State. There's a life-sized manger scene on the front steps (behind plexi-glass because people have been known to steal the Baby Jebus), "balanced" with an elfen scene and Santa on the other side of the steps. I thought I remembered them trying to be diverse in past years by including a menorah or blue and white Star of David, but didn't see that this year. Maybe sometime in the ten years I've been gone, the Jewish community in Denver said politely, "Really. Don't. Please."

Local cheerleaders handed out candles to the crowd, which we were supposed to light on cue. People look so much softer by candle light. The candles kept blowing out, so drawing on my peace vigil experiences, I constructed a protective cage using a Styrofoam cup that was discarded on the lawn from the free Salvation Army cocoa .

As if on cue, snow began to fall right before they switched on the lights. Both my partner and I experienced a little PTSD with the flakes and had to check in with each other that it really was snow and not manufactured bubbles like they used in Tucson when they wanted to pretend it was snowing. It was real and beautiful and had tears come in my eyes.