As Christmas Nears
Christmas Is
St. Patrick
Thanksgiving2001
Thanksgiving 2002
Thanksgiving 2003
Thanksgiving 2004
Christmas 2003:Visions
of Christmas Past
Animated Christmas 2003
Christmas 2004: Joy to
The World
Thanksgiving 2005
Christmas card
Christmas05 Tis the
Season
ChristmasCardTerry
And April
New Years 2005
Easter 2006
Upon a
This section is still under construction as of today December 4, 2005. But I wanted to at least have some graphics and titles on the site for this 2005 holiday time, specially for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I will forgo introductory comments and leave them for another time. By golly, I discovered I had indeed written some introductory remarks for the original collection and so I am inserting them here. As with the other sections, I will update these commments periodically.
tedc Dec.5, 2005
The original text: **
The seasonal poem, "As Christmas Nears", (1997) describes what took place in my childhood home. Dad bought the tree, my brother, me and dad ( mostly dad and I ) decorated it. Mom did the present shopping, my brother tried to find the hidden away presents and most often he was successful much to mom's chagrin. Often we had house guests that stayed for several days or more. On Christmas day our home was filled with friends, relatives and others that my folks had invited in to share the holiday time with us. The latter group included elderly without family, others who today would be seen as the homeless, chronically mentally ill or alcoholic. All were welcomed to our home throughout the year, but the holiday time was indeed a special occasion for these folks my parents had befriended and looked after. These are indeed pleasant memories recreated for me in this poem.
Following Don's death on the 12th of December 1997, I dedicated "As Christmas Nears"to him and sent it out as my holiday greeting card. As a youth he never had the continuity of experiences identified in the composition. But in some measure Don was able to capture this ambiance as he entered adulthood and new family relationships and traditions begun, some created through both our marriages. His sister-in-law Judi, Jane's sister, is married to my ex-wife's brother, Tom. For Don this created a family linkage which, while unnecessary to our friendship in my mind, was important for him. He said to me when told of my engagement and asked to be my best man, "now I am really part of your family." He always was and will be to me.
These two pieces, "When My Love Speaks...." and, "A Friendship Valentine" are of course seasonal. They were fun to write and have been shared with internet and personal friends. Both were placed on the internet using backgrounds associated with Valentine's Day and with romantic music embedded in them so when opened the viewer heard music and viewed background images representative of Valentines Day. Because of its expressive sentiment, one individual reading the first poem on the in- internet was sure the card was written to a real significant other. It was not. These two and the Christmas poem were enjoyable to write and of course were quite different than others I had written to this point.
I was not going to include the "St. Patrick's Day" greeting as it is not very good at all! But then, I got to thinking "what the hell" maybe none of it is! So here it is! It was written hurriedly and really in part to have something to go along with the neat graphic I had found!
Well, just as I was reviewing and revising these remarks in Sept-Oct '98 I found myself writing one more composition to be added to the whole of the collection for the holiday times. Although, "Sights of Thanksgiving Time",( retitled Thanksgiving2001) should come at the head of this section, it was written last so here it stays...at least for the time being. Its sort of funny, for some reason on the night I wrote it I felt pressed to complete it in one setting and send it out to friends on the internet, which I did. Within an hour of placing it out on the internet, a friend from Canada wrote back thanking me for sending it in time for the Canadian Thanksgiving celebration. I had forgotten that this particular weekend was indeed the Canadian celebration. Perhaps next year I'll do one for Halloween, witches and all!
"Sights of Thanksgiving Time", I retitled simply, "Thanksgiving Time" for my first email production of my holiday greetings. The sights are those brought to mind during the fall season and the beginning of the holiday season. The Thanksgiving greeting for 2002, is the same text but with different graphics. The one created for 2003 has the additional poem, "Twas the Night of Thanksgiving." The second variation of my Thanksgiving compositions, 2004 and 2005, continue with the "Thanksgiving Time" theme along with "Pilgrims Landing" written 1826 by Felicia Hemans. Written in what I am sure is old English wording, some of the text is ardous to read, however, this poem tells of the Pilgrims leaving their land of childhood to find religious freedom in America.
While, Upon a Midnight Clear, written for Christmas 2006 has an interesting story behind the development, the remaining holiday greeting are self-explanatory. "Upon a Midnight Clear" was written in one afternoon following an evening touring the Christmas light display at the Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother (The grotto here in Portland). The landscape of trees and bushes is covered with Christmas lights, there is a "petting zoo" on the grounds, and throughout December various local church, high school, college and private choir groups perform in the chapel making for quite an inspirational and entertaining evening. The visit the night before I composed this piece, set the stage for words. But a tragic event earlier in the week added poignancy to my search for the content. A family from California had traveled to Seattle to celebrate Thanksgiving. On the return trip they took a detour from the acceptable traveling route, became lost and stranded in the coastal range mountains of Southern Oregon. The mother and two young daughters survived. But the father and husband who had set out on a hike to find help, died of hypothermia. Against these two backdrops the prose for, "Upon a Midnight Clear ", took shape and form.
tedc April 2007