Wonderful Moment In Time...

For the first time in years do I get to celebrate Christmas with children.
There is that wonderful atmosphere in the air, the one that the mind of a child brings to this time of the year - the sense of utter enchantment and anticipation and that special joy that the adult mind lacks.
Yet the one that is so very contagious...

Sneaking away from the busy preparations, I would like to wish you all, my dear friends, the same moments of wonder and joy that are saturating my world today.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU

from my home to yours

Reflections In Snow.

View From Our Kitchen

I sit once again in my favorite spot, in our kitchen, looking out onto the bare birch tree, as it stands so very still in the snow. I try to savour the stunning wintry images as much as I can. Despite the fact that the alabaster blanket is several feet deep, a major thaw is on its way, robbing us most likely of all hope for a white Christmas.

I have mixed feelings about snow - driving in it is a true nightmare and the adrenaline rush cutting through my body as the car wheels start sliding uncontrollably is the most terrifying feeling imaginable. Add some evening fog to the mix and I become paralyzed with fear. Night fog is in my opinion the most horrid condition to drive in. Especially thick fog banks that come out of nowhere and force me to slam on the brakes as I suddenly hit a wall of total nothing and visibility of zero.

Views During My Daily Drive

Thus in the past two weeks, following snow storms that made it impossible for me to set out onto my long daily commute, I have been confided to the house for some days here and there. Yet, as the roads cleared and the sun came out, the drive to work turned into an enchanting and visually stunning experience and the views of the snowy landscape touched me almost to tears...
Therefore I will truly miss the snow, as it illuminates the darkest months of the year, creating so much beauty. Almost every morning this past week as I sat behind the wheel, the only though occupying my mind was "I wish I had my camera with me and I wish I could stop and capture all this endless brilliance of nature and winter at its very best..."

With barely a week left to Christmas I wonder where the time is going.
I find myself so out of it and am becoming increasingly disorganized.
I, who used to live by routines and had every week meticulously planned in advance am now living from day to day, where my reality is improvised and spontaneous. My life is a wonderful mess and there is an intensity in it that makes me feel alive.
Carrying boxes with our Christmas ornaments out of our garage the other day, falling knee deep into the pristine snow in the process, the sight of the garage interior made me gasp. So much stuff! And it all has to be sorted out, packed into boxes or disposed off within the next month. It will be a difficult task to do in the midst of a cold winter.
Perhaps the thaw that is coming is after all heaven send.

Our Decorations Detail

Later, when I decorated the house, it struck me that this was the last time I did so here. Next December, I will be decking the halls in our new home. As always, I felt nostalgia grasping my heart - every ending is sentimental and everything that concludes usually comes across as bittersweet, no matter how much we look forward to what is to come.

Sometimes I lie awake late at night, when everything is so very still. My mind starts racing, my thoughts run like wild horses. Facing two mortgages in the future, how will that go?
Being a landlord, I am still connected to my past through the white house on the hill. It is an odd feeling, knowing there is a property out there that belongs to me on paper, yet which I never see, only maintain. Here and there something breaks and I am asked to repair it, which means I make a call and a craftsmen is send to the house. It has been months since I last visited the property that I own. The other day, sending a Christmas card to my tenant, writing my old address yet another name on the envelope, I experienced a truly surreal moment...

Our Entrance

For most of my adult life, I have been alone.
Every problem, every decision, every hurdle - I had to overcome them and solve them on my own. That notion still envelops my being and I still become anxious and apprehensive about the difficulties that the future holds.
Yet as time moves on, I am slowly learning to live in the present, something my husband is greatly proficient at. His smiling face and loving arms reassure me at all times that I am no longer alone.

Taking risks and taking action -  these are what brings us forward, enriching our experiences and our perception. However hard it is for me to accept that the uncertainty of the future is the only certainty there truly is, simultaneously I am realizing that this very fact is the essence of a rich, full life in progress.

View Of Our Backyard

 

Everything Is Illuminated.

As we step into December, the weather has turned bitterly cold and the first snow of the season has fallen - as if on cue - with the onset of the first winter month.
Embarking on my long commute after work the other day, three hours into a dark winter evening, I left the traffic of a busy metropolis behind and set out onto the deserted freeway. Driving along, I experienced a sudden sense of enchantment.
The darkness subsided and the full moon peaking occasionally through the clouds cast an alluring silver light onto the road ahead, while my favorite musical piece kept playing in the background.

I felt as if suddenly everything was illuminated.

Thus yet another unforgettable moment formed in my perception - an occurrence that is fairly common these days.

My dreams and hopes are all slowly become reality and the future indeed seems bright.
In a couple of months we will begin the process of moving into a new house - a place that will become our home.

Sitting in our lawyers office this past week, getting through the last administrative paperwork before signing the dead, my mind went through a short flashback to almost exactly a decade ago.
Seated in a similar office, in a another part of the country, I was signing a deed to my very first house, the white house on the hill, having an entirely different future planned ahead off me. I never thought then that ten years down the road I would be embarking on a novel journey once again. I find this to be the most alluring aspect of life - not knowing what the future holds.
One thing remains the same though - I feel equally excited about the prospect of the purchase as I did then. When we walked into our house for the first time, both me and my husband, without any communication between us, knew in our hearts we have found our home.

Giving in to the wave of changes, I have taken the decision to change my citizenship.
It is an important step, one that I take gladly, but one that is leaving me full of nostalgia.
I am giving up a country where I was not born and where I have not lived for over two decades, yet where I spend twelve very important and formative years. It is a country that took my family in and gave us shelter and a promise of a better future. It was where I spend a blissful childhood, where I went to school, where I had my first home and my first employment. It is where I made the friends I still have in my life and where the foundation was laid to who I am today.
Thus I take this step with a sense of apprehension, even though there is no doubt in my mind that my decision is the right one. After "belonging" to one country almost all my adult life, despite my many moves and relocation - I guess I have finally found a reason to belong elsewhere. I have found a reason to lay down my hat right here.
I have finally found my home.

Indeed, everything is illuminated, even though we are amidst the darkest time of the year. November noir has ended, becoming replaced by December brightness - not just defined by the shine of the full moon, but by all the twinkling, ornate lights adoring houses and lining the roads and the multitude of candles burned throughout the Scandinavian homes.
I have always loved this time of the year, when this undefined yet so tangible and unified joy settles all across my world.
Still, never before have I enjoyed the onset of the Holidays more than I do today.

Love, family and home - these are the blessings that define Christmas and currently these make up the very core of my life and are the shinning beacons that illuminated my heart. 
Each and every day is precious and even the darkest winter night is suddenly full of light.

Unthinkably Good Things.

When I was a child, Christmas was an enchanted time. The whole month of December resonated with incredible bliss. The anticipation, the decorations, the various traditions, the scents, my family - it all created a harmonious atmosphere which filled me with happiness.

I recall how unthinkable it was to me then that some could perceive this time so very differently. Those that felt loneliness and sorrow, for one reason or another. Those who felt excluded from this unified joy and for whom during the Holiday Season the world turned into torment and melancholy.
Thus, when I found myself celebrating one New Year's Eve all alone not that long time ago, I did shed a small tear realizing that I had to endure what I thought would never happen to me - being lonely and sad.

Today, within the walls of our warm and cosy home, one that exuberates safety and comfort, as I sit surrounded by people that truly love me like I was loved once before, I become slightly sentimental recalling all these moments in my past. Seeing the children with so much excitement and expectations in their faces, those memories of Christmas celebrations from my own childhood come streaming back. And yet again, that feeling of happiness and unity I once felt seems to fill my world.

Lady Fortune has finally granted me my wishes, those that I carried with me as dreams for what seems like an eternity. They are packaged slightly differently than I envisioned, yet they are my wishes indeed. Today I wonder why I had to reach this late age to finally find that which has been so elusive my whole adult life.
Perhaps our dreams can only be appreciated and savored fully when achieving them takes all that we have got. Perhaps we are to walk those lonely and difficult paths to learn those vital lessons that will become our old age wisdom. Maybe if I would have been granted all that I wanted at an early age, I would never have been where I am now nor would I have seen what I have seen. Additionally, I would have not appreciated what I have been blessed with so passionately and valued it so strongly. Maybe the best is worth waiting for.

To live fully is to dare.
We need an ounce of luck along the way of course, but the quality of our lives is at all times determined by our own actions, something that became very clear to me this year. Thus, as this very important period in my life is closing towards its end, I look back upon the past twelve months and feel thankful, blessed, excited and ultimately surprised. I feel reflective, amazed and endlessly happy.
But most of all, I feel fulfilled, as I am finally exactly where I want to be, even if it took me half a lifetime to get here.

The below clip contains one of the final scenes from one of my favorite movies entitled "Under The Tuscan Sun".  Today I feel the sentiments expressed within these images and words mirror my own life, as indeed - "Unthinkably good things can happen even late in the game..."

Every Love...

"All, everything that I understand, 
I understand only because I love."
 Leo Tolstoy

 We are in the midst of the holiday season and I feel it is time to revisit that subject that lies so very close to my heart - the subject of love. I have written about love before - and many of you recall this, I am sure.
I have written about love the way I have known it and perceived it at that given time, with honesty and passion. I am convinced that love is what I live for and why I was born - I am here to love and to be loved. In fact, everything I have ever done in my life has been in the name of love.

Despite this, the surpassing emotion has truly been quiet elusive in my life.
Until now.

In my past I have loved with fiery passion and I have loved many times. But the bliss never lasted, always ending with someones heart shattered in pieces - thus I became almost convinced that the romantic love was not meant for me.

"Every love is different" - once I was told these words by a brief acquittance and today I feel they are the most profound words ever said about love.
I believe with all my being that we can love more than once and that indeed, each time we love differently. Not more or less, not stronger or weaker, not more passionately or more distantly, not for the first time nor the last. Just differently.

I believe that a human heart is capable of breaking and mending endlessly. It is resilient and can recover fully, if we only allow it to feel and heal, never sheltering it or hiding it away. It will only grow stronger when given away.
Love has no beginning nor end. It is constant and it infuses everything. It is pure and when it is right, it is enough and it is all we need. The lucky few find that kind of love instantly, while the rest of us might have to look for it feverishly.
Still it only takes once to get it right - and when we do, we will know.

The capability to love is one of the most precious abilities we posses. Therefore I do not regret loving in my past, as I know that the love I gave away was never lost. Ultimately we will receive as much as we give. It might take years and even decades for this generosity to be returned, but if we only persevere and believe in its allure, one day true love will come streaming back to illuminate our existence.

(I made - and shared - the clip below last year, however I feel it can be reused. I dedicate it to all of you, whether you feel loved or lonely this Christmas, and whether you are with the ones you love or miss them dearly...) 



(Images in the post: Photobucket
Images in the clip, my own photography)

Ornate Details.

A new house is like a new friend.
It takes time to get to know it and its occupants; the different moods, quirkiness, the versatile traits, both negative and positive. It takes time to settle in and although I have lived here for almost six months, I am still establishing new routines and my own place - not just in the new house but also in my new life.

Slowly, I am introducing my touch, so to speak, into an already establish home. Trying not to be too overwhelming and larger than life, remaining respectful and apprehensive, yet still - having a strong desire to have my home reflect the fact that a woman has moved in.
Whether I am succeeding in this endeavor or not is mirrored in the reactions of my new family. I win some and I loose some, as to be expected. The boys are mostly oblivious to my efforts, but the lovely girl senses the changes and has stated in no uncertain terms that her father's house has become much more cosy and delightfully scented since I moved in.
I take that as a sign of success.

Thus this year the Christmas decorations in my home are much more austere than I am used to. Still, the ornate details here and there create an atmosphere of familiarity and celebrate this delightful season in the spirit of love, family and companionship - the very essence of Christmas.

Countdown In Light.

This December is very special to me, as I get to experience the Holiday season for the first time in my new home.

I am looking forward to celebrate this enchanting occasion in the company of my new family, as we combine our traditions, creating something novel and something that is ours.

While most of my possessions are in storage, I made sure all the red boxes once stored in my old basement, with Christmas written on their side, were tucked away safely in our garage. Thus some of my Christmas decorations are now finding their way into our home.

Such as the familiar Calendar Candle. Christmas is simply not complete in any home I live in, unless I get to experience this simple daily pleasure in this ultimate month of the year.
Those of you who know me well know that starting the 1st of December, I burn a special candle, the one that has twenty four numbers printed on its side. I burn each number down for each day in December until I reach 24 - The Christmas Eve.

This year is no exception. I opted for a simple white candle, made of natural wax, so very fitting our austere home.
Thus yet again, the countdown to Christmas has begun and each day I will post a new picture of the burning candle on my side bar - turning this month into weeks of progressive photography in light.
And days of sweet anticipation.

White Christmas.

Everywhere I look, a pristine white blanket covers my immediate surroundings, adding an enchanted feel to this special day.
Today is Christmas Eve and the culmination of the Holiday Season has begun. For the second consecutive year our Christmas is white, a truly rare occurrence in my part of the world and one for the record books for sure.

Nevertheless, the snow creates a truly spellbound atmosphere, a picture perfect reality, so magical and dreamy...

As I savour this ethereal stillness of the early morning, I am transported back to the days of my childhood, when happiness would envelop my entire being as soon as I opened my eyes. The anticipation and excitement was one of the kind and holding onto it through the years, being able to feel this way still - keeps my heart and soul as pristine as the white snow outside.

I would like to wish all of you reading this a wonderful Christmas, spend among your loved ones. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your endless visits here in the past year, always offering words of kindness and comfort, making 2010 a great year indeed.
I am taking a holiday break and will be back shortly after New Year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Winter Lights.

As we step into the final week of Christmas anticipation, my surroundings grow darker by each day.
These days,  I find myself suffering from a mild case of insomnia - of the good kind. Thus being wide awake in the early hours of the morning, I love to watch the world, as it is still submerged in darkness and stillness.

I do not mind this current state of my mind, as pleasant thoughts fill my entire being and I find incredible comfort in the ebony of the winter dawn. The only illumination - in my home and outside my windows - comes from candles and the beautiful Christmas Lights. Their delicate shine creates a feeling of enchantment and tranquility, spreading a soothing and comforting atmosphere.

Each morning, I enjoy watching the sky turn milky grey, as the illumination slowly looses in intensity, until it at one point vanishes all together, signaling a birth of yet another winter day.

A Christmas Kiss.

Staying with the romantic theme this week, I have to admit that I love to be kissed. Oh yes I do - and I love to return the kisses even more.

A kiss can mean so much - it can be such a very innocent display of fondness and devotion as well as it can be the most intimate display of romance and love.

I was brought up in a loving home and physical display of affection was always present. I recall that we always kissed our parents good night, for many years as kids.

Thus when I love, I kiss.

I kiss Batcat daily on his cold nose or shower his black beautiful fur with kisses when I hold him tight. I kiss my friends on the cheek and of course, the men I fall in love with can expect to be kissed by me constantly. When I flirt, I blow covert kisses to my admirers and I sign love letters occasionally with a lipstick kiss.

And of course, during Christmas, there is always a Mistletoe hanging somewhere in my house. I love this romantic tradition that belongs to the holidays.
Not many know that this beautiful evergreen is actually classed as a hemiparasite and in nature it grows attached to trees or shrubs, draining them of nutrients.

Kissing under the Mistletoe is suggested by some legends to be of Scandinavian origin; if enemies met under the mistletoe in the forest, they had to lay down their weapons and observe peace until next day. Ultimately, a mistletoe bunch was hung from the ceiling as a symbol of goodwill and friendship.

To me though, this beautiful Holiday plant simply adds a romantic streak to my Holidays. And maybe one Christmas, there will also be a man there for me - to kiss and to be kissed by - standing underneath it.

That Transcending Emotion...

Love.
That fleeting, yet such a completely transcending emotion; one that makes us feel so fragile and invincible, simultaneously.
At times I truly doubt that the romantic kind of love was ever meant for me - still I do believe and rejoice in its existence for others. As it is that one single human sentiment, which makes everything worth our while.

Even though some of us might feel lonely right now, missing that special connection with another human being, I believe we are never really alone - as love connects us all...
I became reminded of this belief by a set of touching sentences of comfort, send to me recently by a stranger, yet a kindred soul. Her poignant words resonated so strongly within me, I decided to share them here with you;

"Many people forget we belong together as one Universal family - when we forget we feel isolated... The Soul knows no ego, no pride nor fear of humiliation, whilst acting from the heart..."

Such a powerful message from an unexpected source...

Christmas is the time to remember those we love and have loved, no matter what kind of love that might be. As love takes all shapes and travels across vast distances to warm those we hold dear.

To celebrate this surpassing and collective emotion of Love, I have compiled a few of my favourite love quotes in the clip below, using my best winter photographs and the harmonies of one of the infinitely most poetic and romantic songs ever written.

I dedicate it to all of you, whether you feel loved or lonely this Christmas, and whether you are with the ones you love or miss them dearly...

The Enchanted Tree.

My Holiday home is never complete until one special guest enters my house.
The Tree.
Some of you might recall that I have a particular tradition in my white house on a hill - I cut down my very own Christmas tree each year.

Well, I do get help with the actual cutting - nevertheless - it is a winter Saturday that I look forward to with almost a childish enchantment and anticipation.

In Denmark, tree plantations that grow spruce trees for this purpose, where people are allowed to select and cut the tree of their choice, are very common. The experience to walk among the trees and finding the one, which is just right - is one of a kind. It carries so much symbolism and represents an almost nostalgic Holiday sentiment.

This year the white snow added a great deal of magic to this December tradition, as the tree, its branches still heavy with the wintry precipitation, entered my home. The air grew gently saturated with the scent of fresh pine and the spices of hot wine, while I trimmed sparsely its evergreen attire - keeping it simple, the way I prefer. As the day slowly closed towards its end and the afternoon twilight brought on the illumination of my beautiful guest, the atmosphere of happiness in the company of my very good friends created a perfect Holiday moment, completing a winter fantasy...

Christmas Memories, Part II.

(Please click here to read part I)

The Christmas celebrations that I recall most vividly are the ones that were spend in Sweden, whereto my family immigrated when I was thirteen and where I lived until I was twenty five.

Upon our escape to the west, when we found ourselves as political refugees, my family became a very closed knit one and still is today. Thus Christmas, which highlights the value of family and celebrates those who are us near, was always a very joyful and infinitely happy time that I recollect today with absolute fondness.

Never forgetting our central European origins, we kept many of the traditions of our Slavic roots, nevertheless also tried to integrate with the new society and thus allowed ourselves to be assimilated by the Scandinavian Christmas traditions.
Such as the Advent observance, which turned December into a month of celebration, when the house became illuminated by multitude of candles. Particularly the lighting of Calendar Candle and the opening of Christmas Calendars became a wonderful daily ritual as we counted impatiently down to Christmas Eve. The weeks were filled with scents and tastes that are so significant of this special time, such as Glögg, a type of mulled wine, a very traditional Christmas drink in Scandinavia, the ginger biscuits and the saffron buns, baked on Saint Lucia Day.
Among all this,  the perfumes of the traditional Slovak and Czech holidays cuisine kept us close to our origins and reminded us of the culture we once came from, bridging the past and the present in a poetic way...

The warmth of these almost twelve years of traditional celebrations in Sweden was what laid base to those I established as a young adult. My very own Christmas was born in North Carolina, where I lived for almost a decade.
It was here that I for the very first time decorated my home for the Holidays, trimmed the tree and started slowly to combine the traditions that I have carried with me from my past, all the way from childhood. Slowly, Christmas became a holiday that I no longer celebrated with my parents, but with my friends. It was difficult at first, but I realized quickly that all the love and happiness I felt once in the past, when I was a child or a teenager, resonated still within me.

I realized that I was capable of creating my own traditions, the ones that would dictate a new direction of the Holiday celebrations that would become my very own.

My Holiday Home.

Traditionally, I decorate my home for the Christmas Holidays around the 1st Advent, which usually takes place on a Sunday shortly after Thanksgiving.
I relish in that weekend, when everything begins for me. When the atmosphere of my home changes as if by magic and becomes saturated by colours and illumination. The sentiment of that weekend is always the same and has a transcending effect on my mood and my state of mind.

While I try to bring that spellbound feel of Christmas into my house,  I am always taken back in time, recalling the holiday home of my childhood, when my mother would deck the halls in red, green and golden. My love for aesthetics and the sense of creating a safe haven was instigated during those years, as I watched her transforming our home into a fairytale of light and colours.
It was without a doubt then that my love for this beautiful time in the year was born.

Christmas Memories, Part I.

As I was decorating my home for the holidays this weekend, some of the shapes and colours brought back a wave of memories of Christmas celebrations of my past.

It made me contemplate with a hint of nostalgia the fact that I have adopted and gone through so many different traditions, stretching some forty years back in time. Having lived in so many places in my life, it is inevitable that even the celebration of my Christmas today is a product of my cosmopolitan past.

I have decided to reminiscence over my past celebrations in two posts; today and next Monday. I hope you will enjoy this sentimental walk down the memory lane with me.

I was already born into a family that combined traditions of two cultures; the Czech and the Slovak. I do not remember much from my early years, while we lived under the Tatra mountains in Slovakia. That time seems so far removed from my consciousness today, it comes across almost as an entirely different life. Still, a few odd and amusing details enter my thoughts as I recall these Christmas celebrations during the communist era.

Such as my parents covert attempts to trim the tree the day before Christmas Eve, while my sister and me still believed in the enchanted Christmas in which the tree and the gifts magically appear out of nowhere.
The carp, that used to swim around in our bathtub a few days before the 24th, bought live at a marked, to fulfill its grand destiny and be served at the dinner table, according to a long lived Czech Christmas tradition. Although my parents very quickly abandoned this custom, feeling sorry for the poor creature, unable to inflict it any pain.

I recall our pre Christmas visits to the Tuzex store, located in the stunning and beautiful Tatra mountains. Its concept was the irony of the communism regime, selling western merchandise in exchange for hard currency, to those who were privileged and could afford foreign bills.
The drive would always be a very enchanted one, and always in snow, taking us on deserted roads through breathtaking natural scenery and today I smile with amusement as I recall how we would say that "the trees were covered with whipped cream"...

Finally, the enchantment I felt when watching Cinderella on television, when the broadcast of this famous fairytale in a Slavic version became a tradition during Christmas. The Czech adaptation is still today one of my favorite films, due to its stunning visual and infinitely romantic feel.

Thus I leave you with the final scene of this cinematographic gem, one that still today keeps me spellbound, even though I should long have outgrown the allure of make believe and naive fantasy...

A Celestial Event.

With todays celebration of Epiphany (from Koine Greek ἐπιφάνεια, meaning "appearance", "manifestation"), the Christmas is officially concluding. This day commemorates the visitation of the Biblical Magi to the child Jesus.
In my culture, the 6th of January is called The day of the Three Kings and I recall that it meant the absolute end to the joyful Holiday time and a return to the routines of daily life.

All of us are familiar with the story of The Three Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar), carrying gifts (gold, frankincense, and myrrh) and following the Bethlehem Star, which finally lead The Kings to the infant.
I am intrigued by this tale. The spiritual me rejoices in this event; the scientific me likes to look back in history, searching for facts that would depict it in the heavens, those two thousand years ago.

Was there really a star, or a glowing, moving object in the skies around the birth of Christ?

I am not the only one asking this question. For centuries, the answers have been proposed by theologians, historians, astronomers and laymen.
The primary reference for the Star of Bethlehem is in the Gospel of Matthew, which was probably written around 80 A.D or slightly later. In modern times, astronomers have offered various explanations for the star. A nova, a planet, a comet, an occultation, and a conjunction have all been suggested.
In 1614, German astronomer Johannes Kepler determined that a series of three conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and Saturn occurred in the year 7 B.C; the nights sky of that event can be seen here.
Halley's Comet was visible in 12 B.C and another object, possibly a comet or nova, was seen by Chinese and Korean stargazers in about 5 B.C. A recent hypothesis states that the star of Bethlehem was a supernova or hypernova occurring in the nearby Andromeda Galaxy.

Of course, to those of faith, the Star Of Bethlehem is a magical event, that needs no explanation nor have to be supported by any facts. The magi seem to have been the only ones who saw the star— this further supports the notion that the star of Bethlehem was a supernatural manifestation from God rather than a common star, which would have been visible to all.

After searching for the facts myself, I eventually realized that facts matter very little in this subject. What matters is what we believe. Sometimes a belief is the ultimate proof.
After all; "There where science ends, faith begins."

Wonderful Time.

I would like to wish all of you reading this a joyful Christmas celebration, spend in the company of your families, loved ones and friends.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you ALL for your lovely visits and comments here this past year - your kind words have made these twelve months special in more ways than one.

I am taking a Holiday break and will return shortly after New Year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU

xoxo

Zuzana

The Day Before...

Thoday is somehow the best day of the Holidays. In Scandinavia and some other European countries, we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, on the 24th of December. Therefore the day before is a very magical day.

It is called "The Little Christmas Eve" and is often used to celebrate Christmas by families that spend the 24th somewhere else.
As a child, I recall the day before to be filled with uncanny excitement and great happiness.

My home is today receiving the last touches before the big day, as is the case in many other homes around. Everything seems to be ready; the house is decorated, the presents are wrapped or send and the scents filling the air are very traditional. I will spend tomorrow with very good friends of mine, a tradition I have carried out for many years by now.




I guess I was not all that bad this year either as the postman, all dressed in red, brought me packages with a big smile on his face the other day. As I gaze at the neat handwriting, that I so well recognize, I feel extremely blessed, lucky and very loved. Even though I will be missing my loved ones this Christmas, I am with them in my heart and soul.

Everything in my immediate surroundings is covered by snow. We received even more of it in yesterdays storm and the fluffy blanket is adding to the magic in an unusual way. I could not resist documenting the heavy snow fall in the short clip below, as it gives us our first White Christmas in many years.

Slowly the true Christmas spirit settles across my house and home, bringing back memories of times gone and stirring up hopes of wonderful times ahead.

Christmas City Illumination.

Cities become fairytale like during the Holiday season. Particularly after the onset of darkness, which happens in the early afternoon in Scandinavia.

I love to take a walk in the streets just a few days prior to Christmas Eve. There is an atmosphere of joy all around. Despite the certain feel of the holiday rush, as some still feel overwhelmed by the last gift purchase, when I watch the smiling faces around me, I sense happiness.

The lights lining the streets and decorating the stores take my breath away ever year. Intricate decorations, unusual ornaments line the sidewalks and the walkways, making the evening bright and tranquil. This year an extra Holiday feel is added by the white frosty blanket that covers the streets.

When it comes to the magic of the bustling metropolis, it is never more appealing or enchanting than during winter, as it becomes decorated by the glittering snow and illuminated by Christmas lights.

Winter Tree.

Today is the fourth Sunday in Advent, which means Christmas is imminent. As I light the fourth candle in my advent candle holder, I remember my family and the holidays of my past.

In my childhood, last week before Christmas was so very special. It was the time when all the scents and decorations became so much more distinct. The atmosphere of happiness and joy so very obvious, the excitement and expectations so strong.

It is a long time ago that my family was all gathered under one roof for Christmas Eve. And it is even longer, perhaps decades by now, when we all lived in the same city. Today we are spread all across Europe and at times it fills me with certain melancholy when I ponder this fact.
However, in spirits we are always together, as we all carry on with the same traditions.

This week the snow has given our landscape a true holiday feel. It has been a while since we had any December snow. There is still an uncertainty in the forecasts, whether the snow will last through the 24th. In fact the suspense grows by each day.

Interestingly, the heavy snow blanket indeed finalized the series of photographs I took in August through November, as a part of my progressive photography. These documented the changes in the foliage of a beautiful Birch tree, which grows just outside my kitchen windows. The winter picture I took this past week completes its three seasons.
In a few months, when the light slowly returns, and with it the warmth of the air, I will return to document its awakening in the spring.

(Please click to enlarge.)