December Reflections

 

Like every December I participated in Susannah Conway's December Reflections on Instagram. It is a good way for me to reflect on the year, go through my photos and just take it a bit slow. Sometimes I feel the prompts are not really for me, but funny enough I always come up with something.

Here are my 31 photos. There are quite some faces to see and they, of course, are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

There are a couple photos I want to say a few sentences about.

Day 24 was "patience". How do you express this in one photo? I was a bit lost first, but then I thought of my mom who loved to do jigsaw puzzles. There was a specific one of a painting by Albrecht Altdorfer, "The Battle of Alexander at Issus".

We had that as a puzzle of 1500 pieces and every year we would put it together between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Well, it was my mom who did most of it, but we all loved to help and find those pieces that just seem to disappear and then magically reappear right before you. This painting is probably the one I know best. When the puzzle was finally finished, it would be left on the table for a couple days and then put apart again and back into the box until the following Christmas.

Here is my mom working on a different puzzle (I think this was the English countryside):

Day 25's prompt was "memories". That is a wide open field. I chose a photo of my family - i.e. my husband and daughter, and my parents. This was taken during one of our visits back home. Staying with Omi and Opi was always special for Kaefer and I am so glad that she has these memories of happy, careless times with them. Both my parents adored her and she in turn adored her grandparents.

One last photo, for the prompt "birds", day 5. I had taken this photo of a Black-crowned Night Heron at the lake on a very foggy day when the lake was very still. The bird - one of my most favorites - is also perfectly still (that could have worked for "patience" as well) and the picture seems to be all grey in different shades. But there is the tip of the branch the heron is sitting on that has some light color as well as some slightly lighter part on the heron's chest where one solitary dappled ray of sun has hit. Not a masterpiece, but an image that truly reflects that morning.

I want to thank you, my wonderful readers, for reading my blog, leaving thoughtful comments and getting in touch outside of my blog. Thank you to those who checked in after our very forceful storms in the last week. And thank you for taking up with my sometimes weird English expressions that are colored by German.

To all of you I wish a happy and healthy 2026.

December Reflections

In Germany we call this time between Christmas and New Year's Eve "between the years" (zwischen den Jahren). It's a time when we often have a break and consequently more free time - time to reflect on the year that is almost over and looking towards the new year that's almost here. I'm off work from both the high school and the German School right now which is a more than welcome break from the quite hectic days at both schools. Kaefer has been home since the third weekend in December and will be here for another week before she, too, needs to get back to the work and college life.

I do love the more quiet time after Christmas. Since we celebrate on Christmas Eve as is our German tradition, Christmas Day itself was very relaxing with playing games and cooking (and eating) a good meal for dinner. Kaefer and I did a complete re-run of all the Downton Abbey episodes - binge watching at its best for almost two weeks - and enjoyed the Christmas special of "Call the Midwife", our favorite TV series. We were invited to a lovely 65th birthday party which resulted in some great dancing and lots of laughter. The clutter in my studio has bugged me for a long time and I finally cleaned out at lot of stuff and brought it to the thrift store that specializes crafts supplies. I have been working in the garden - there has been a lot of trimming back and I'm still not done. We had frosty mornings and mild days - oh, how do I love the Northern Californian winter. We also had some heavy rain which is always much needed in this area, and it has kept away the fears of wildfires for now.

Good old-fashioned German Glühwein

For the entire month of December I have joined Susannah Conway's "December reflections 2018" challenge on Instagram which I enjoyed very much and is a beautiful tool to go back and reflect about the year. If you want to you can see the results on my Instagram.

This was a mixed year and not everything was good. But when I look back it's mainly the good thinks that stand out for me - our trip to Istanbul, a Turkish wedding, traveling in Turkey and Ireland. 10 marvelous days on the Big Island where we could enjoy the wild beauty of Puna before many parts of it were consumed by the lava spilling out of fissure 8 a few months later. Some lovely hikes and seeing how nature bounces back after the devastating wildfires of October 2017. We're seeing burned down neighborhoods springing back to life, fire survivors re-building their homes. Our daughter was traveling in Europe on her own, then going to Dubai and finally to Cape Town where she was doing an internship in two hospitals, experiencing a completely different life. It is delightful to see the young woman she is growing into.

The last of the roses in December, "Anna's Promise"

But I also felt a bit in a rat hole. November and the first part of December have been very busy in my shop and I was constantly knitting - my hats sold like hot cakes. It's lovely, of course, but I do feel that I would also love to knit something else. Over the past two weeks I have started to knit a baby sweater which I enjoy, and a cat pillow that is not quite as fun to knit as I had thought. However, I would also love to go back to painting. I actually did paint a bit over the summer and it felt so good to have paint on my hands again. So I decided to enroll in a year long online class, hoping that my creative juices will flow a bit more easily again. I also took part in a short five-day journaling class - actually "took part" is not quite the correct term since I mainly took notes, but it gave me a considerable amount to think about. Wonderful beginnings for 2019.

For the new year I wish that my family and friends stay healthy and happy. I hope that our country will be kinder than it is right now and that common sense finds its way back here.

To all of you a lovely 2019 - may the new year give you many reasons to laugh and experience the joy of life.

Sunset on Christmas Eve