WHAT IS A WHISTLE STICK?
this weekend my handsome and talented husband made me a "whistle stick", which in many ways resembles a christmas tree, but it is made from copper tube and dowels, and is reusable!
this weekend my handsome and talented husband made me a "whistle stick", which in many ways resembles a christmas tree, but it is made from copper tube and dowels, and is reusable!
WHAT IS WHISTLE DAY?we are not religious, but we do use the holiday as a good excuse to go and visit my family in the northwest where we like to take advantage of the good cheap thai food and cute kids that are related to us and are good for snuggling and squishing. my family celebrates the generic american gift giving holiday version of christmas, which is to say there are presents and there is food and sometimes there's a movie and there is always plenty of liquid cheer, and a few swedish twists (such as the christmas eve appearance of a fat dude in a red suit) but i am getting off track. since jak and i have been together i have been trying to make something of a winter holiday celebration that sort of makes sense for us.
one of the things that i like about the holiday season is the light. the days are shorter, the nights are longer, and i like the warm glowy ambiance of christmas lights and candles.
the other part i like is the food. i like to celebrate special occasions with special foods (who doesn't?)the solstice (the shortest day of the year which always seems to land a few days before christmas) seems like a sensible thing to build a celebration on/around. i am not a pagan, or particularly new age in any way, i really just wanted to make something up that incorporated the things that i like about the holiday season, i want(ed) a way to make the season and the celebration meaningful to me in a way that doesn't revolve around shopping or church.
DECORATIONS
i have a collection of ornaments that i have accumulated over the years and i like to hang them up, but i don't like the idea of all the trees that are wasted each year (even thought i love the smell) so i asked jak to make me something (that something is now called the whistle stick).
i have quite a few sun, moon, and star ornaments, so that kind of works with the whole moon/solstice idea, but there are also some monkeys, so i guess they need to be worked into the mythology of whistle day somehow.
it was fun to unpack all my ornaments (which have been boxed up for about 6 years or so) i had forgotten what was even in there. all the various boxes that the ornaments were packed away in were cool too. who else out there remembers ice cream that came in boxes like these?
FOODthe food part takes care of itself, we usually have a dinner with our philly family before we depart for the northwest, and while in seawa we usually split up the cooking duties with my brother, my favorite part is the cheese (especially roquefort) and i always make sure there is some pate, conrnichons, and plenty of yummy red wine. everything else is gravy.
a few years ago then i first started thinking on this was when i was obsessed with we like the moon we somehow associated the moon with the solstice and winter and decided that we would call it "whistle day" which has something to do with winter and the solstice and the moon and singing rodents who like spoons more than the moon because they are more use for eating soup. so, i'm thinking that we need to work a traditional "whistle day" soup into the mix.
LIGHTS
this is the first year that i have done anything in the way of decorating the house. last week i got the idea to make some origami balloons and put them over christmas lights. i thought this was a brilliant idea because i have many, many extra special pretty origami papers that i "save" because once you make some origami what do you DO with it? i didn't want any of my special paper to go to waste i wanted it to be enjoyed somehow. i decided that i would buy a string of lights and make origami balloons shades and that way i could enjoy my origami for years to come! i was so excited! it was a bit of a trial to find plain white lights with white (instead of green) electrical cord, i had to go to 3 different stores before i found some and then it took me 2 days to make 100 balloons (my OCD at it's finest) but the results are BEAUTIFUL!
it has been hard to get any really good picturesit has been so dark lately
but i will keep trying
whew, that was a long post
2 comments:
I can't stop looking at this post...
:)
i'm so glad, it took me awhile to write it...to get it all to sound right, and explain what i was trying to communicate, all with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek.
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