2016: It Was Full of Awfulness, But...

Me and my Mom, circa 1960

The first thing that let me know this was going to be a rough year is that we lost my Mom in January.  She had dementia, and had been difficult to have current conversations with (you could share past memories all day long, she remembered the past.  Just not the last few minutes) for quite some time.  Still, knowing your Mommy isn't there anymore when you just want to hear her voice is really hard to get used to.  Especially when you were her baby, and spent a LOT of time alone with her in your early years.

There were some good moments this year, though, in spite of all the beloved celebrities we have lost.
I got to meet THIS little sweetheart, even if it was while I was in Los Angeles for my Mom's burial service. 

That's me and my grand niece walking on the pier.  I got to see the ocean again this year, as well.

In February, I got another year older.  This can be both a good thing and a bad thing.  Aging is not for the faint of heart, especially if you're a woman.  I decided to own this gray hair, but I refuse to be a fat, flabby old auntie.  I walk several miles every day,  and do the Zumba class with the library sponsored crowd every other week.  (When it's my turn to facilitate the program , that is, set up and  clean up, I participate in the class.  Not required, but encouraged, because they want us to be as healthy as possible!)

I remember I had a lovely birthday. 

Tweet I received from Ron for my birthday.  He's such a sweetheart.

I also got flowers from friends, and from my hubby.

Flowers from my wonderful husband Matthew

Flowers from Fi, gifts from other wonderful friends far and near!  I am so spoiled!

My friends, near and far, made sure to let me know I was thought of and loved on my special day.  The fact that this happened is one of the best parts of 2016.  I have people I care about who care about me, too.  That is a priceless treasure.

Memorial Day weekend was also a great high point of 2016.  I got to meet some online friends for the first time, and I got to hug a bunch of my wonderful thoughtful friends who've been there for me for several years now.
Matt and I went to Space City Comic Con, both to see Ron, and Michael Ornstein, and to meet our favorites from Star Trek Continues, and also to see our friends Mary, Jana, Kelly and Mal again. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hugging on Doug

 

 

 

 

There were problems with the con that messed it up for a lot of folks, fortunately for us, we didn't have many issues.  A lot of the celebs had issues, though, and that was very sad.  They want to do the best they can for their fans, but it's hard when the con organization lets you down. Typical of 2016.  Mess things up for as many famous people as possible...

We got to meet Doug Jones for the first time, that was definitely a good thing that happened.

We also got to see and speak with Ron Perlman again.  My "spare" big brother.  Love that guy, he's the best.

Me and my buddy.

 We got to see, and Matt bought me a painting by Michael Ornstein. 

  Michael has always been so kind to me on Twitter, and he encourages my writing.  He's a very talented and very nice
guy.

We also met a few of our favorites from Star Trek Continues at that con.  We got to see the newest episode on the big screen before it was released online. 

Me and Michael Ornstein.

The painting by Michael that Matt bought for me is shown at the right.  We have it hanging in our entry hall here at home.

This is the poster for Come Not Between The Dragons, that the Star Trek Continues cast signed for us.

Later on, in the summer, we got to meet Vic Mignogna, and he added his autograph to the poster as well.

There's us with Vic at Soonercon.


Summer was far too hot, but I got to participate in a library event on July 4, and again in October.

These jack-o-lanterns are the Perlman themed ones I made for our house.  They were a big hit, even if some of the trick or treaters weren't sure who exactly they were...








Of course, early November was a big disappointment for some of us, and we are still trying to be hopeful about the after-effects of all of that.

There was ONE good thing; a new grand nephew.  Jackson joined the family in early November as well.

Christmas, however, was wonderful, as it always is, a celebration of the coming of light, and the restoring of hope.

I got a new cocktail shaker for Christmas.  Mostly because I have tried a lot of cocktail recipes this year, and Santa knew my "shaker" was two mixing glasses one inverted into the other. 

This was my favorite among the cocktails I learned to make this year.  The Lemon Chiffon Cake Martini.  SO tasty!

I have gotten a new journal for writing set up.  Gotta close out this year's , then I shall post some entries I have made lately.

Just wanted to remind myself that there were SOME good things about this year.  It has still been one stinker of a year, full of much sadness, and at least one major health scare.  (Matt had to have an appendectomy, and it was rather an emergency.)

May the year to come be less sad, filled with fewer frights and losses, and even more full of the the love of friends and family.
Many blessings to you and yours!

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

A very foggy Christmas Eve,
And I  was hoping Santa had Rudolph with him
For none of the tall buildings downtown
Could be seen at all
Through the fog.

And this morning,  the wind has come up,
It tugs with relentless fingers at the fog,
And the darkness.
It sets the skies to clearing a bit
And gives us a chance to see the light.

Oh, could we but keep the joy
And goodwill of this day
In all the dark times
That are sure to come
In this life
In a world still broken
In spite of all that has been done
In the name of healing
And love.

So blessed
Spent time with people who mean a lot
To me
To be able to sing, to worship,
And to share the joy
That bubbles up in my heart this day.

Replete.  Full.  Content.
The day has been a good one,
I have perhaps eaten too much, but it is a season for feasting.
I have yet to drink, and I could do so in style,
As I  was given a new cocktail shaker for Christmas.
So many good friends seen, hugged, and heard from this last two days, and the texts from the siblings,  too.
Such a joyful holiday.

Treasures

I happened to remember this story the other day, and decided to have my husband unearth it from the archive of an ancient website.  It is one I wrote 10 years ago.  It is based on actual events, but details have been added to make it more entertaining.   My family really did gather at my Uncle Dick and Aunt Clara's house every Christmas Eve until 1971.  That was the year we lost Uncle Dick, and Christmas was never quite the same without him.  He was such a sweet man, and I miss him AND my Pop every year about this time, more than usual.  
Family memories are a true treasure.  
The broken bottle of liquor I mention in the story was a real event, only it was a half-gallon of vodka that took the wax off the kitchen floor when Pop dropped it.  (My aunt and uncle were visiting, and Mom and Aunt Clara had been making vodka gimlets, I think maybe they got carried away a bit.)
This is my first Christmas without Mom.  I haven't spent Christmas with her or my family since about 1988, but she was always there to call and talk to.  (Though recently, it had been a challenge, as she had dementia.  She could remember the past quite well, though, and we shared many happy memories.)
There is a picture that I hope to find and include with this, of me with my dog in front of the Christmas tree, but I don't know if I'll have time to hunt it up!
Well, I couldn't find the photo. It is SOMEWHERE in the mess that is my office file cabinet.
Today we will share time with friends and with our St. Paul's family,  
Our wish for you is all the peace, light, joy, love, and hope of the season, and health, happiness, and prosperity in the year to come!
Please enjoy my little story. 




One Crazy Mixed Up Christmas
By Carolyn Kay Armistead, 1996

It started off like any other Christmas Eve. Mom made me wash my hair first thing in the morning, so it would be curled by time to go to Aunt Clara and Uncle Dick's house that evening. She set it for me as soon as I got it dry enough with my sister Susie's old hair dryer. I had to play all day with rollers in my hair. Not fun. They itched, and sometimes even pulled my hair and hurt me. But, Mom wanted me to have curly hair, so I wore them. (Why couldn't she ever accept the fact that all of us, except Walt, had straight hair just like Pop's? Walt never let his get curly, he kept it slicked down with "greasy kid stuff" as Pop called it.)
Anyway, things started off OK, like I said. Pop came home from work early, bringing the usual turkey AND a ham, and a bottle of liquor of some kind that would join the unopened multitudes on our highest kitchen shelf. (Someone at Pop's job always gave everybody a bottle of "holiday cheer". My parents weren't drinkers, so every year, the stockpile got bigger.) Mom then got after me to get dressed, she brushed out my hair, looked disappointed with its insistence on remaining fairly straight, and told me not to get into anything while she finished getting ready.
Walt showed up with his girlfriend, and we all got ready to go. That is when things started going nuts. We were going to ALL pile into Walt's Fairlane. Me, Mom, Pop, Walt, and his girlfriend. Well, theoretically, there was plenty of room. We loaded up the trunk with the presents for Aunt Clara, Uncle Dick, my cousins and their kids, and all piled in and got ready to go. The car started, no problem. Walt went to put it in gear, and the gearshift came off in his hand. I don't mean the knob came off, I mean the entire gearshift came loose from the floor of the car. Ooops.
Well, Pop said, we'll just have to take Mom's car. No, Mom said, there's not enough gas in her car, and besides, its been making that funny noise again. We all groaned. You couldn't go anywhere with Mom in a car making a "funny noise." She would spend the entire trip with her eyes clamped shut, whispering prayers under her breath. By the time you got where you were going, everybody in the car would be nervous.
So, we had no choice. Mom and Pop and I, and as many of our presents as would fit, scrunched into Pop's 1963 Volkswagen Beetle. Walt and his girlfriend had to take his Ranchero, which ran OK, but didn't have a heater that worked at the moment. Mom gave them an afgan or two, and told them to be careful. We started out in our weird caravan, down the crazy freeways from Compton to Placentia. We made it just fine, much to Mom's great relief. (Pop's driving in the VW always made Mom really, really nervous. She was always sure we were going to get squashed.)
There we were, at Aunt Clara and Uncle Dick's house, and already all the cousins were there. (I was hoping there would be some food left for us, until I remembered that Aunt Clara wouldn't let ANYBODY eat until everybody she expected showed up. Besides, with Aunt Clara around, you NEVER went hungry!) Uncle Dick met us at the door with his usual big smile and warm hugs for everybody. I usually didn't like huggy grownups, but Uncle Dick was different. He kind of looked like Santa without the beard and white hair. He was always laughing and joking, too. His eyes twinkled and his mouth was "drawn up like a bow" just like the Santa in "A Visit From St. Nicholas". (Which he read to us kids every Christmas Eve, by the way. ) Aunt Clara greeted everyone from the kitchen, where she was, as usual up to her elbows in wonderful smelling food preparations. Mom went in as always to try to help, and as always, Clara got her a cup of punch and shooed her out to the living room and told her to relax. ("After all, Sarah Gene, you'll have all that work tomorrow when we all come to your house." That's what she always used to get Mom out of her tiny kitchen on Christmas Eve. It always worked, too.) The usual round of cousins asking where Susie and Jim were came then, and they were answered as always: "They have Christmas Eve at Jim's folks' house." ( My sister and her husband didn't know what they were missing this year!)
Well, the cousins and I were just about done comparing Christmas lists, and getting ready to start bugging the grownups with the usual "When do we eat?" "Can we open presents yet?" litany that we observed every year, when there was a knock at the door. We were puzzled, the whole family was present, who could possibly be at the door? Aunt Clara thought perhaps one of the neighbors needed to borrow something, so imagine her surprise when she found Santa Claus on the front porch. Seems he'd been making the rounds of the neighborhood, "doing last minute checks for my naughty and nice list" as he put it. Well, Aunt Clara decided to be nice and let him in, she gave him some punch, and all us kids took turns sitting on his lap to have our picture made, and tell him what we wanted most of all for Christmas.
When my turn came, I noticed that "Santa" smelled a lot like that bottle of booze that got broken on its way home with Pop one year. I played along so as not to upset the littler kids, who really thought this was Santa. Once I had a chance, I went over and told Uncle Dick what I noticed about "Santa." About that time, "Santa" started singing German drinking songs, and my older brother Butch was about to join in because he knew the song. (Much to his wife's displeasure.)
Uncle Dick then suggested maybe Santa had better hurry on his way, after all, he had a lot of homes to visit that night. Uncle Dick offered to walk him out to his sleigh. He told all us kids to stay in the house, it was too cold to go out anyway. Uncle Dick left with Santa and was gone quite a while. When he came back, I heard him talking to Aunt Clara in the kitchen. "Yes, I got Hans home all right. Greta was worried that this might happen. At least they live right next door, so he wasn't out driving anywhere."
Aha! I knew that Santa had to be a phony. It was fun, though, to watch the littler kids get so quiet, and so determined to be on their best behavior. For the first year in ages, Kimberly and Joey didn't try to dismantle each other. The only bad effect was that Butch kept starting up that drinking song again. Oh well, Anne had a little talk with him and he was OK after that.
We had our usual wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with the whole family, and after dessert, Uncle Dick read to us "A Visit From Saint Nicholas", and we each got to open one gift. I got a really nice stuffed dog from Uncle Dick and Aunt Clara. I always liked stuffed animals. I held him all the way home. That trip home was pretty normal until we passed Walt's Ranchero pulled over by the side of the road. Seems the headlights had joined the heater in deciding not to work. Well, we just made sure they were following us all the way home, and Pop had his emergency flashers on so people would see us both. There wasn't much traffic at all at that time of night on Christmas Eve, anyway.
Every time I think about that crazy year, I remember how much fun it all was in spite of all the crazy things that happened. Christmas Day was almost a let down after all the excitement that Christmas Eve. Our Christmases were always a lot of fun. Mostly because of my Mom and Pop, and Aunt Clara and Uncle Dick and all the neat things they did for all us kids.
So my dear family, wherever you are, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! I miss you all very much.

Thoughts on an Advent Evening

There are Christmas Cards yet to be sent,
And laundry that needs to be done,
But the wind outside is Howling fit
To make a banshee run,
And I  would rather curl up here
In my cozy nook
And listen to it moan so drear
While I read my book.

As I walk the neighborhood lately, I can tell it is that time of year,
When Zombie 'toons lounge in yards by day
And cartoon characters cavort in those same yards by night.
At least the drunken snowman that graced one yard every year is gone,
And poor worn out "biker Claus" has yet to appear.
And 16th Street after dark looks like it could give
Vegas a run for its money.

Sunday Morning:

And still the weather is restless

And rather undecided.

Fitful sun through heavy cloud,

Air rather misty after all the dryness,

Wind still high, but shifting around here downtown

Amid tall buildings . 

the air is a bit warmer,

But this promises to change

As it is but early in December yet.

Many levels and layers of clouds above us

But yet the sun breaks through

Now and then.

The bells call.

Time for the service to start,

but we don't have clergy or acolytes yet.

And now we are all processed  and seated, at sermon time already.

Friday, Dec 16

I spoke too soon about Biker Claus! 

He has returned in all his fading, careworn glory 

To cheer our neighborhood up for the Holiday.

The weather has been cold, very cold.

Today it is warmer, but it is very wet.

I walked yesterday morning, but not today.  

When it is wet, I am too likely to slip and fall.

it is approaching Christmas very quickly.

I must finish the preparations

Even though my spirit isn't completely in it at this point.

I need to bake a few things, find Matt a couple of treats, get the tree up,

And it seems time and the weather are trying to thwart me.

I am hoping that Monday, the day I need to go to the base to shop,

Is not too unpleasant as far as the roads go.  

It is so difficult to ignore the political situation as much as I would love to.

We need to be vigilant against the abuses this incoming administration is likely to try.

It is my fervent hope that the Electors decide to call for a new election, or to vote for someone else.  

This man has too many questionable ties that are easily proven.  

I know the other side felt this way about our current President, 

But there was NEVER the kind of evidence and interference that is evident in this election.

God help us.  We're going to need His help to survive this.

For once

The library is more or less quiet.

Except for one unhappy child

Who is ready to go home and have their nap.

The weather is dreary, 

But not cold

In fact, it is quite mild.

Many seem to be out and about

The parking lots and streets

Exemplify it -

All full and busy. 

Though nobody appears to be in here.

Though the road ahead appears dark and stormy

I know You are there to guide me.

I know You will not leave us to the enemy

But the dangers seem so close and so real

Even though nothing is as real as You.

Your love that has always provided all we have needed.

Always supported us, no matter how bleak the prospects seemed.

Please strengthen us for this journey

And help us know what You would have us do

In every situation with which we are faced.

This third week of Advent is almost done.

A time to celebrate the Joy of the Lord's appearing.

Difficult though Joy may be to summon

Some days for me.

Sunday, Dec 18

The Lessons and Carols service
Was WONDERFUL
We were all in good voice,
It felt good, it sounded good,
And we had a pretty good congregation.
NOW I'm in the Christmas spirit,
And looking forward to next weekend
And the joy of singing some more with my
Choir family!