CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
This year, for perhaps the first time ever, we stayed home for Christmas and purchased and put up a live tree. In more recent years, we’ve gone to Manhattan for about ten days to see family. This time, our son and family and our daughter-in-law’s parents all came to Florida. With lively granddaughters ages 6 ½ and 2 ½, it was a boisterous and fun occasion!
Growing up, my grandparents and my aunts, uncles and cousins all lived hundreds of miles away and, thus, my family virtually always stayed home. There were four kids plus my mom and dad, and we had our own well-established rituals and treats. Stockings upon awakening before the parents were downstairs and then presents opened in rotation from youngest to oldest. Most people would think this an unusual approach, not the bedlam of everyone tearing open gifts at once, but it slowed down the process, spread out the enjoyment and enabled us to see and comment on each other’s gifts. We did it this up to the last Christmas we spent with my mother! She was a very organized individual and probably is the one who started it.
I also have good memories of my father bursting in through the front door, either just home from work or having completed an essential errand with something special to show us. He always had a ready smile and brought with him warmth and palpable affection.
This year we created some new memories, especially for the little girls: festive Christmas Eve dinner here with all the grandparents, walks along our quiet road, and swimming in the pool. Plus, we reprised favorite activities; saucing the pizzas with Grandpa and providing Grandma an assist with blueberry pancakes for breakfast.
I hope you enjoyed some equally special times this season.
HOLIDAY BRASS
Seraph is an all-female brass ensemble, five women playing trumpets (2 of them), trombone, tuba, and French horn. Two weeks ago, they performed in Sarasota and their Sunday afternoon concert was a treat! A work by Grieg, selections from The Nutcracker Suite, along with a medley of favorite carols were among the highlights. Their performance was enhanced by the fact that each member got to introduce one of the pieces and told us where she was from.
READERS’ FAVORITES
A few of my readers sent their choices for the best book or their favorite for 2018. Here they are:
Barb: Educatedby Tara Westover. Her second choice would be: The Language of Baklava, by Diana Abu-Jaber.
Cathie: Mudboundby Hillary Jordan. “Most thought provoking. It is set in 1950s rural Tennessee and focuses on the interactions between two families–one White and the other Black.”
Claudia: Overstoryby Richard Powers. “I thought it should have won the Mann Booker prize. To me it was an ecological epic.”
RECENT READING
LOCAL HISTORY
The Ringmaster’s Wife by Kristy Cambron
Mable Burton, born Armilda, grew up on a farm and was keen to escape to a different life. Heading for the big city of Chicago at the time of the world’s fair, she became a waitress and met a man named John. Little did she realize initially that he was the already successful circus owner, John Ringling. They eventually married and made a life for themselves, wintering in Sarasota, Florida. Mable Ringling loved roses and planted a rose garden that still exists on the Ringling Museum grounds. She also oversaw the design of their luxurious Italianate home, Ca d’Zan, House of John, which visitors today can tour.
In this historical novel, the fictional Rosamunde Easling, although a titled lady and wealthy, also seeks a more exciting life. She loves riding her prized horse, and when the horse is sold, she agrees to see it to America where it will become part of the circus. She too joins the circus.
Cambron is a Christian novelist, but this book is a good story, wholesome in some ways, but not overtly religious. I selected the book because of its Sarasota setting and the chance to learn more about Mable Ringling, albeit in a fictionalized context.
THE SOLACE OF BOOKS
Morningstar: Growing Up with Books by Ann Hood
Novelist and essayist Hood has written a charming and engaging memoir about the books of her childhood beginning when she was a new reader all the way through her adolescence. Each chapter is pretty much devoted to one work, and I found that I had read almost all of her picks, as I too was an avid and voracious reader. It’s a brief book, but one that will set you thinking about the books that made an impact on you.
HISTORICAL NOVEL: MORE WAR
The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason
I’ve read Mason’s other two novels and consider him an excellent stylist. This recent novel is a grim one about Lucius, a young, inexperienced and mostly untrained physician, who is posted to a field hospital in the Carpathian Mountains during the First World War. Conditions are primitive, supplies limited, and the risk of attack by enemy soldiers is high. The senior doctor has left, and it is just Lucius, two orderlies, and the nurse Sister Margarete. She teaches him how to amputate limbs and what the routine is. Lucius is initially fascinated by her and gradually becomes attracted to her, but is unaware if his feelings are returned. How the ongoing slog of the war wears them down and how the arrival of one severely injured soldier changes everything is the stuff of war, mystery, and even romance. Mason is himself a physician and it is clearly evident in the plethora of gruesome details about wounds and battle scars. Despite this, it’s a rewarding read!
SMALL SCREEN
I just finished the last episode of Season 3 of Silk, and I’m in mourning. It was simply excellent! I got so immersed in these characters, Martha, Clive, Billy, and the others, that I could hear their voices. And the way the season ended, there could have been a next season, but apparently not in the cards.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
This is my last blog post for 2018. May 2019 be a healthy, happy year for everyone!
s
