ANTOINETTE'S CHRISTMAS SITE
I began arranging Christmas villages on our mantel a few years ago, mostly because villages
are harder to set up under a tree,
and also to keep our Godzilla cats from stomping them. The fragile cardboard houses are from
around 1930 pre-war Japan,
and the tiny figures (lead Zinnfiguren) are mostly pre-war Germany. As satisfying as this
ephemeral holiday art is to create,
I found that it needed a story. I began my Christmas tale with the 2006 mantel and have
added characters and their stories to
it since then. If you want to know about Will and Harmony and all of the other townspeople
in my mantel villages, just click on the 2006 button below, read the "chapter" for that year,
and then follow the links toward the present mantel.
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2011 Season's Greetings to all ...
Yes, the year passed quickly, and, yep, it was sometimes scary. Is this new? Not anymore.
I used to blame advancing age, but I've given up on that idea.
Every generation now seems to feel the burden of the "hopes and fears of all the years."
Twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, does it matter? We're all living together in an era when we have
less than ever to say about our destinies; when our jobs may or may not be there tomorrow; when
our children and grandchildren -- eager and educated and ready to go -- have no place to
go and no money to get there. Get sick?
Better not. A government that cares? Doesn't look like it.
It's incredibly tempting to throw up our hands and say, "The world doesn't work anymore.
It's broken. There's no hope." We can think it, write it, blog it, text it or tweet it -- but we'd still be wrong.
We would have ignored the couple who give up their day off to volunteer in a soup kitchen, and the ladies who sew
quilts for the charity raffle and roll out pastry dough for the bake sale to benefit the animal shelter.
The Big Sisters, the Big Brothers, the mentors of every stripe -- we would have forgotten them, too.
And what about the congressman who's willing to risk flak and cross the aisle towards a compromise?
The teacher who stays after hours to help a struggling student? The attorney who works pro bono?
The soldier who takes the time to comfort a frightened child? The teens who show up -- in the actual morning! --
to clean up litter from the riverbanks? A list called "People Who Are Making A Difference" would spill over many pages,
burn through megabytes, and cramp the thumbs of the most seasoned texter.
For all of those everyday heroes, we can be grateful. In this season of counting our blessings,
let's count those people first; they belong at the top of any list. They make the world a better place,
and they make the season a little more merry for those who are having a hard time feeling much joy.
May God bless them and those they care for -- every one.
