Merry Christmas

A mild December day. It was still foggy when I left the house to go for a walk at Shubie around 10:30. It wasn't long after that the fog lifted and the sun came out. The fog has rolled back in now at 7 pm.

With the nice weather there were lots of people at Shubie. One family was feeding the chickadees. This was one of the photos. As I started to continue my walk, the woman whose hand this is, asked me if she could see the photo on my camera. Her mother was with her but did not see the chickadee on her hand. She heard my shutter click, so she knew I had a photo. She showed her mother, then she told me that the people with her were her sisters family from France. Hand feeding the chickadees will be one of the highlights of their trip.

As I continued my walk I saw a couple that I chat with when ever we are there at the same time. They are photographers and birders, so we have met at various trails. She was hand feeding the chickadees too. Just before I came up to them, a woodpecker had landed on her hand and grabbed a peanut. There are a couple of blue jays that will also land on your hand, but neither of them would land while we were there.

A friend was having a few people over to her place this evening. I had planned to go, then decided to have a second glass of wine with my supper. Being along at Christmas doesn't bother me now. It's been 5 years since the last family dinner at my sisters. She passed away 6 weeks later. The first year without her was really hard and it didn't help when another sister, who I no longer talk to, told me that it was my fault that I was alone at Christmas. Now I do my own thing. I enjoy driving around to see the lights, but I don't feel the need to put my own decorations up. This year I put some music on youtube when I feel like it, and I have watched some of the Hallmark movies on Youtube.

Christmas should be celebrated doing things that you enjoy, instead of trying to create a fairytale of happiness.