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We wanted to stay home this gorgeous, hot clear summer night. Remembering my favorite song "Up on the roof" Written by Gerry Goffin/Carole King and made popular by 3 different groups, The Drifters, Carole King and my favorite; the James Taylor version, we climbed up on the roof.
Here is Wally, setting up our Costco double folding chair (I'm glad, I shipped it when we moved here). While, I don't like flat roofs for possible leakage problems having one is great for viewing purposes. Of course, Wally made Wine coolers to bring up with us. You can see the tip of my glass.
Here's a picture we took of ourselves enjoying the night together. Our next door neighbor (I guess) doesn't have a sound system so he played the one in his car and we enjoyed listening to that while up there.Wally won't like that I'm adding this next hard to see picture but my camera doesn't take night shots well (Yeah, it's the photographers fault not the tool) I wanted to show the moon rise, it's in the center. You can see we are looking out over the neighborhood. We have one neighbor 2 streets away who lights his house in a cascading bright green light shown on the left. Wally likes that most of our neighbors have lights that "shine up" and highlight various trees. The up-light effect is rather cool but hard to see here. At midnight, there was a crescendo of fireworks going off in unison in the distance we saw what was a great display up in the city of Atlantida but we had a great night together here at home, up on our roof and we managed to safely climb back down again.
3 comments:
Hello Denise,
You certainly know that English is not my mother tongue… but I was wondering whether it would be fair to say that the term “Merry Christmas” necessarily has a religion connotation these days.
I know that the word Christmas comes from “Christ’s Mass”. However, I personally have got cheers from friends from China, Turkey… countries in which Christmas doesn’t mean much. They all said “Merry Christmas” as they could have said “Happy Holidays”. Happy holidays just lumps in Happy New Year with Merry Christmas as far as I am concerned. If the wishes arrive before Chanukah or Dewali then I would assume those holidays are included and while I'm not Jewish or Hindi I am not offended… :o)
I wish you two a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Take care because climbing ladders and drinking wine can be a dangerous combination!!! :o)
Cheers,
Geraldo
Hola Geraldo,
Your are right in that that most people now see Christmas as just another excuse to party or to receive presents.There have been articles showing how the celebration has really hit it big in Japan and other "Non-Christian" societies, as you have observed. While we appreciate,loving thoughts of good will and nice greetings wishing us happiness (who doesn't?). We don't celebrate most Holidays because their roots are seldom really christian and as Jehovah's Witnesses we try to keep our basic belief core free of questionable origins. Checkout an Encyclopedia to see where the December 25th date really came from. It was a roman celebration of the "SUN" God, Not, the "Son Of God". The celebration involved the winter solstice and that fact that the day light hours lengthen after that Holiday. Wally and I tend to mark the passage of time, people watching and appreciating the great variety of life around us. While being entertained with peoples rituals and customs, we also realize that these Holidays are not really "Holy" So we only acknowledge them. Often from afar, like on our roof! :0) Of course I always hope the best for you and your family now and in the coming years. It's always a pleasure to hear from you! Take care!
Denise,
I do understand and share your point of view ! Indeed no one knows when Jesus Christ was born, and many historians believe that it is very unlikely that it happened in the month of December… I don’t remember the reasons.
The first time I heard about the Sun God was when we lived in Norway, about 6 years ago… There they say that the Sun God is Mithras, a pagan god born in one of the shortest day of the year, Dec 25th… and as Mithras grew up the days became longer and warmer. To encourage Mithras to come back next year, they lighted candles and celebrated… partying, eating, drinking and giving gifts.
Honestly speaking, Christmas is nothing more than a massive shopping exercise where stressed out shoppers tear up and down the high street laden with carrier bags full of impersonal and overpriced gifts.
Of course we also exchange a few gifts… but what I really enjoy at this time of the year is the opportunity of being with my family… for the same reason I loved the festive season fo carnival when we lived in Brazil… :o)
Rgds,
Geraldo
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