Christmas Coming

The holiday festivities are moving in. Two days ago, as a December opener, the Point Roberts quilt group had its annual Christmas potluck dinner. We always have it at the same house: the person who has the biggest house AND who decorates a lot for Christmas. This year, we invited the husbands, as well, in order to make sure all the food gets eaten up, but also because we like them, as individuals and as a group. We did, however, make them sit all together at one table while the quilters sat all together at a different (but equal) table. It really was pretty much equal, anyway. Word comes back to me that they discussed gardening and, briefly, the unfortunate situation in the stock market (Least said, soonest mended?).

After dinner, the quilters traded little four-inch squares called ‘fat book pages.’ We all ended up with eleven pages, each one made by a different member of the group (except for Natalie, who is away for the winter). Next, we will take the pages back to our own workspaces and make an exquisite cover for them: a book of and for a 2008 Christmas. I have known and worked with these 12 quilters for about 14 years and they are wonderful women, every one, so I am especially pleased to have this memento gift.

This is about my most Christmas experience of the year, as I quit having trees and buying gifts (except for grandchildren) and all the accompanying foofara when the children stopped being around for Christmas…maybe twenty years ago? And we don’t go anywhere for Christmas; well, we go to B.C., but that doesn’t count as anywhere in the sense of going somewhere for Christmas. Up there, our neighbors usually invite us for Boxing Day dinner (the day when the peasants are traditionally offered the leftovers from the Christmas dinner—and very grateful to be the peasant of choice.).

But Point Roberts is not short on the Christmas stuff. There was the Christmas Craft Fair in mid-November, and today is the Christmas Seniors Tea at the Community Center, where the Woodwind Ensemble will perform. Also, at the grocery store today, there were two women dressed in Santa hats who rang excellent bells to encourage us to donate to PAWS, a group that deals with animal welfare here on the Point. Mr. Drew of Drewhenge has severely trimmed his cedar hedge and left lovely-smelling stacks of cedar boughs with a written invitation to all who might need a little cedar bough Christmas addition to make free with them. The Blue Heron is having an opening exhibit today of gorgeous glass work which, by its very glitteriness, speaks of the season at hand. There will be a Christmas Musical Offering next week and the children’s art exhibit, to be held at the Marina, and the First Lutheran Church has, of course, a series of programs and services for everyone.

Even the weather is cooperating, as it has been getting very close to freezing at night. Often we get a little snow by Christmas Day, but that is actually a Christmas tradition I can do without. Today, the parking lot at the post office was absolutely full at noon, which is another traditional Christmas experience. The post office is barely open today (only to pick up packages for 90 minutes). But there’s a lot of Christmas packages that appear here, and clearly the P.O. rush is well underway. With Christmas advancing this fast, I really should get the garden to bed, a fall tradition in which I participate only reluctantly. Here I am: an Autumn and Christmas slacker.