Christmas is Coming

 This time of year I am in the middle of getting quilts to customers before their Christmas deadline, getting pattern submittals to fabric companies for winter releases, thinking about getting continuing ed hours for my engineering license that I hang on to for hard times (but always waiting until the 11th hour before I actually DO anything about it)...and then there's Christmas.  The gift buying, the card writing, the decorating that just doesn't quite get done.  It's a mad world of running at top speed and crashing. Plus, add in the extra bonus that 2020 is and it's just a little bit stressful.  I used to REALLY love Christmas and then I became an adult...or what passes for an adult most days anyway and now, I still love Christmas but don't take time to enjoy it.

So, the other day, I took a pause.  I decided I was going to the Salem Candle Tea.  I've gone almost every year since I was maybe 6 years old and I really didn't want to miss this year because it was going to be so different.  Because of COVID, they were doing the candle tea as a drive through.  So, I left the shop, picked up David at the house and we went to the candle tea.

They had different stations set up around the square and as you drive through, you listened to a narrative on an app on your phone.  Instead of singing Christmas carols accompanied by the old organ, here's where we learn about the importance of music to Moravian life and worship.

Instead of heading downstairs to the dining area and watching them make the beeswax candles, there's a demo.

They have a rendition of the kitchen where we would sit down, have coffee and sugar cake and learn about life and chores in the Brothers House.  

Instead of heading to the cellar to see the putz, there was a small display of sample houses.

And just like in the regular tour, the last stop was the telling of the Christmas Story and even though it wasn't the beautiful putz we love to see, it still had that calming, hope-filled effect on me.

But really... the part that made me smile the most was that Shelby got to go to her first candle tea.

 

So, we decided to keep the Christmas pause going and made a run out to Tanglewood for the Festival of Lights.  We haven't driven through them in years.  We hit the back of the line right at the entrance to the park so I thought, we're not far from the gate so that's not so bad...at which David laughed because he knew they had added a road that took the waiting line all the way around the steeplechase field.

It was 2 hours before we got to the gate.  But, we had lots to amuse us.  Shelby was taking in all the sights and sounds.  There was music and lights and people jumping out of their cars to go to the port-a-potties.  From the other cars around us, we could hear kids laughing and people singing...one guy in particular was loudly singing the 12 Days of Christmas and not well.  It was wonderful.

We finally made it to the gate and the "paid" part of the light show lasted about 45 minutes.  There were some new things but mostly the same lights as the last time years ago.  That didn't matter one bit because it was all the other parts...the being together part that mattered.

(But I really did miss that coffee and sugar cake.)