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Renee Writes Now!

Tag Archives: Holiday

Happy Holidays?

23 Thursday Dec 2021

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author, Family, Holiday, Home, inspiration, Memories, tradition

My early Christmas memories in New England resemble a Norman Rockwell painting, with my aunt and uncle arriving at my grandparents’ house for a lavish holiday meal.  Friends and neighbors dropped in for a sip of eggnog (and some Fanny Farmer chocolates) while we waited for Santa. 

When my children were growing up, we stayed home for the holidays. The menu may have varied, but the essentials stayed the same: watching our favorite holiday movies, friends and family stopping by and spending time together on the couch. Today, my kids live in separate states with families of their own, so our traditions have changed. They usually involve an airport, and sometimes that feels like a loss.

Here’s the truth: our adult holidays may never match the magic of our childhood. And celebrating on Zoom is definitely not the best way to connect with our family.

But instead of scrolling through Instagram and looking at other people’s picture-perfect (and undoubtedly, STAGED) holidays, I am thankful for the holiday I do have — TSA checks, airport food and presents in my purse instead of under the tree. 

It’s not perfect, but it’s enough.

Renee Garrison is the award-winning author of “The Anchor Clankers,” and “Anchored Together.” She is President of the Florida Authors and Publishers Association.

Memorial Day

24 Friday May 2019

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Tags

Family, Holiday, inspiration, Life, Memorial Day, relationships

20190427_175852.jpg

I won’t be spending Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery this year and I feel a little guilty about it. As a child growing up in New England, I remember my family’s tradition of gathering at the cemetery to honor our relatives by straightening tombstones, clearing brush and debris, and finally decorating the graves with fresh flowers. We said prayers for the dearly departed before eating “dinner on the grounds” (quite literally, on a blanket.)

It was a family reunion of sorts – between both dead and living relatives. I never considered it strange that we were picnicking atop the graves of our ancestors. It was simply a peaceful, all-day event, which included sharing stories and laughter.

Today, I live too far away to continue the tradition, but part of my heart will be in Washington DC and Brookline, Massachusetts, on this holiday.

May they all rest in peace.

 

Renee Garrison is the award-winning author of The Anchor Clankers.

Santa says avoid stress

20 Thursday Dec 2018

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Christmas, Family, Health, Holiday, inspiration, Life, relationships

christmas-12-20-2018

Ideally, the holidays should to be a time of thankfulness, reflection, and celebration. Yet the idealistic visions of a perfect holiday are often marred by tensions and stress. Financial pressure, over-commitment and unrealistic expectations are among the culprits. However, I’ve discovered a few adjustments that can bring joy and peace to the season.
-Have realistic expectations. Magazines, The Hallmark Channel, even commercials depict elaborate holiday decorations, spotless homes and amazing meals. All of those images push us toward unrealistic expectations of ourselves and everyone else. Instead, do what is realistic for you without feeling guilty, lazy or inadequate.
-Be flexible. You might have to make concessions about when and where celebrations occur to avoid stress in families. Be willing to get together on a different day before or after the holiday if need be. The actual day isn’t as important as the opportunity to gather in a relaxed, unrushed atmosphere.
-Downgrade décor. Just because neighbors or family members decorate excessively doesn’t mean you can’t opt for a different experience. Simple decorations are just as festive (and perhaps more peaceful) than over-the-top extravagance. Include a few items that are special to you or your children, but don’t feel obligated to go overboard.
-Don’t break the budget. Gifts, parties, decorations and travel create a lot of financial pressure during the holidays. Your budget may require reducing the number of gifts you give or finding other ways to cut costs. Ignore the retail hype that plays on your emotions and avoid the temptation to buy with credit cards. Your stress level will skyrocket in January when the bills arrive.
– Just say no. A full holiday calendar equals exhaustion. Consider the logistics before accepting too many invitations. Leave holes in your calendar for quiet evenings at home or impromptu gatherings. You’ll be glad you did.

Renee Garrison is the award-winning author of The Anchor Clankers. 

An Illuminating Hobby

02 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by ReneeWritesNow! in Uncategorized

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Tags

Architecture, Christmas, Christmas light show, Christmas songs, decorating, Design, Holiday, Home, House, lights

Jim Cheslin lights

Jim Cheslin estimates it takes 200 hours to set up his annual Christmas Lights display.
That sounds about right, since it includes more than 13,000 lights on the roof, over 9,600 lights on the walls, over 6,200 lights on the windows, over 5,800 lights on the columns and over 3,400 lights on the palm trees.
“It is a labor of love,” admits Jim, a technology engineer for VISA, who started the process on September 20 and finished November 22.
Indeed, his Florida neighbors have loved his Christmas light show for the past eight years.
“It’s gotten bigger every year,” says Jim, who only needs a 28-foot ladder and partner Alex Laneaux to install it.
On a recent afternoon, the third garage bay of the 3,100-square-foot home was converted to a staging area: 25,000 feet of lights – 1,200 separate light strings – sorted by color and folded with zip ties, lay stored in clear plastic bins.
“We use 13,750 feet of extension cords,” Jim says with a grin. “That translates to 375 separate extension cords.”
Neighbors suggested “premiering” the Light Show on Thanksgiving Eve and the resulting crowds have been huge. Their street is blocked and full of people. Children line up along the curb, while adults bring chairs or sit in golf carts.
This year, the lights are choreographed to 30 Christmas songs which can be heard from speakers mounted above his front door, as well as a local FM station (which broadcasts 300 feet, for spectators who remain seated in their cars.) The show is run on a computer using Hardware and Software from http://www.lightorama.com.
“The show runs every night from 6 until 9 o’clock and on Christmas Eve, until 1:00 a.m.,” Jim says. “If I see people out there, I can extend the show. If nobody is watching, I can turn it off.”
The 53,000 L.E.D. (Light Emitting Diodes) lights use 90 percent less power than traditional lights. That means the cost of electricity to run the 2013 show was about $1.25 per day.
How much does the couple have invested in their decorations?
“A lot,” Jim says, laughing. “Over five figures. I’d be embarrassed to admit how much I’ve spent on this hobby.”

Photo by Susan Torregrosa/Studio T Photography

The Anchor Clankers

20 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by ReneeWritesNow! in Uncategorized

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Tags

boarding school, Christmas, Christmas tree, Family, Holiday, Home, Houses, midshipmen, Naval Academy, Norman Rockwell, Sanford Naval Academy, siblings

DSCN0269

The ghost of Christmas past haunts us all.

My early Christmas rituals occurred in a snowy city, with aunts and uncles, neighbors and friends gathered at my grandparents’ dining table…It was pure Norman Rockwell.

However, in 1971 my parents migrated to a new home on the southern shore of Lake Monroe in Sanford, Florida. After 28 years in the Navy, my father retired and accepted a position as Commandant of the Sanford Naval Academy, a private boarding school for boys in grades 6-12.

Norman Rockwell never painted this one.

I’d never had a brother – at least, not a biological one – but I acquired 150 of them as a 14-year-old freshman in high school.

For a time, boarding schools – with small class size, structured environment and 24-hour supervision – were Southern parents’ primary vehicle for raising young gentlemen who embodied the values of integrity, honor, duty and service to others.

The Sanford Naval Academy used a military structure to achieve that mission: Develop young men of character. The routine of class, physical activity, military training and study varied little from day to day. Midshipmen were responsible for the cleanliness of their room, for shining their shoes and for taking care of their uniform. For many, these were alien activities prior to arriving at the school.

Admittedly, at their age I was more inclined to read “Seventeen” magazine than worry about shiny shoes. Yet, I felt a connection to those midshipmen, my gray, pleated, Catholic-school uniform looked remarkably similar to the gray uniform pants and shirts the midshipmen wore. We were all prisoners, of sorts, living a kind of life we would not have chosen for ourselves. My father the “Commandant,” perhaps, was the ultimate prisoner of a second career that fell short of his life as a naval aviator.

When the school emptied of students during Christmas break, his nightly ritual of scotch, consumed in a reclining chair facing the television, drove my mother and me from our small apartment on the first floor to search for something festive.

We found it in the lights on the 20-foot tree, which glowed brightly in the middle of a deserted “Quarterdeck”- originally built as the lobby of a resort hotel called the Mayfair Inn.

Seating areas in the far corners of the room disappeared in the dark, along with offices, classroom doors and a stairway leading to the upper floors. Surprisingly, the illuminated area surrounding the tree seemed cozy as my mother settled on one couch and I, on another, basking in the Christmas lights.

When it came to enjoying holiday decorations at the Sanford Naval Academy, it was either a feast or famine: The small tree in our claustrophobic apartment or the enormous version in the deserted school lobby. Odd that both spaces felt equally empty, lacking in the humanity that gives holidays special meaning.

Yet a Christmas tree alone does not a holiday make. That came in the form of the young gentlemen-in-training, who arrived at our door in the evenings under the pretext of questions for my father. In truth, they needed my mother’s attention more, and some semblance of family life.

I never considered myself to be an only child, yet the seven-year age gap between my sister and me made it seem so. She left for college when I was in elementary school and, by the time we got to Sanford, she was living in Boston with an engagement ring on her hand.

Magically, our home had filled with new siblings for me. A handful became regular guests at our dinner table, since an invitation from my family provided a chance to escape the “mystery meat” that was served in the school Mess Hall.

Midshipmen joined our family based on some combination of my father’s opinion of them, my mother’s intuition and my tolerance of their friendly overtures. They filled a void we scarcely knew existed and suddenly, they were gone.

The Christmas tree was the last remnant of weeks filled with cookies, gift exchanges and Santa’s arrival at an ice-cream-and-cake party hosted by the Naval Academy for 60 children from the Methodist Children’s Home. It provided a backdrop for photos during the Christmas Formal dance, where I was escorted by a quiet young man from Mexico with soulful brown eyes. His courtly manners were a welcome change from the attentions of another midshipman from Mt. Pleasant, who had tried to woo me with weed. (Manners were important, indeed, as my mother and father – in his full dress uniform – also chaperoned the dance.)

Those activities had lessened my “transplanted Yankee” loneliness and filled me with a sense of family far greater than the one I had been born into. The midshipmen needed us as much as we needed them.
New rituals replaced our Norman Rockwell Christmas. Yet that night, I couldn’t shake the sinking feeling that we’d been jettisoned in favor of the boys’ real holiday, the one spent with family members who shared their name.

Sitting in the empty Quarterdeck on Christmas Eve, we wondered aloud about their homes, their parents — if they might miss us, too, when they returned to their native habitats. My mother, surely wondering how she came to be married to a man who drank himself to sleep each night in front of the television. And I, missing the young men who had become such a part of our family — until they joyfully abandoned us to return to their biological ones.

The temporary nature of our bonds became clear that night, as the Christmas tree shimmered with blue and gold ornaments above “gifts” wrapped in shiny metallic paper. And I knew the boxes that lay beneath it were as empty as my heart.

(The Sanford Naval Academy was established in 1963 by The Bernard Macfadden Foundation and closed its doors in 1976. My new book, “The Anchor Clankers,” will be released in 2017 by Southern Yellow Pine Publishing.)

 

It’s Thanksgiving!

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by ReneeWritesNow! in Uncategorized

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Tags

Family, Holiday, Home, Memories, Thanksgiving

Chapter 1

Dorothy said it best: When she returned from Oz, she closed her eyes and whispered, “There’s no place like home.”

I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Sweet Beams: Inspiring everyone who lives under a new roof!

Realistic expectations

13 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by ReneeWritesNow! in Uncategorized

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Tags

Architecture, Build, Construction, Holiday, Homes, Moving

  • House_under_constructionIf your home is under construction on or during the holidays, be realistic with your expectations of time and people.

 

  • Building a home or moving can take place in any season of your life. There’s never a perfect time for a major change. Just don’t miss the significance behind it all.

 

Excerpted from “Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart”

Jingle all the way

01 Saturday Dec 2012

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Christmas, entertainment, Holiday, Home, music

Christmas_hornJust before Thanksgiving, my car radio began blaring “Jingle Bell Rock.” Next came, “White Christmas,” but not the version Lady Gaga recorded last year. It was Bing Crosby’s original – the largest selling record of all time – released 70 years ago.

When it comes to Christmas music, the oldies appear to be the goodies.

Contemporary artists still record new holiday albums each year. As a Floridian, I’m hopeful that Colby Caillat’s “Christmas in the Sand” album has at least one original song that will become a classic.

However, newly composed holiday music is rare and most albums are filled with tunes like “I’ll be Home for Christmas” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which were written in 1943!

One recent addition came in 1979, when Sir Paul McCartney wrote and recorded “Wonderful Christmastime” and, according to Forbes magazine, it has earned him roughly $500,000 every year since.

Another exception: Mariah Carey’s 1994 song, “All I Want for Christmas is You,“ was a rare holiday hit that ranks highest in digital downloads since 2003. “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t be Late)” from 1958, is in second place.

As I pop in my Nat King Cole CD and sing “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” I admit a special fondness for music that’s older than I am – and just as resistant to change. Quite a holly jolly thought.

A new office party

18 Thursday Oct 2012

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Christmas, clothing, dress code, fashion, Holiday, office parties, style, sweaters, ugly holiday sweaters

The season for funny pictures with Santa and ugly Christmas sweaters is fast approaching…

C’mon – we’ve all worn them. (Kindergarten teachers still do.)

Mom probably bought your first one, but I’ll bet you’ve paid for at least one more: One of the most popular holiday parties thrown in college is the “Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.” Students don their tackiest and funniest holiday sweaters (usually purchased at thrift stores) and some even wear holiday hats, shoes, and accessories. During the party, guests to vote for the best holiday sweater, and winners receive a prize.

In recent years, hideous holiday attire has practically been elevated to an art form: Mario Batali and Jimmy Fallon cooked some wine-stained garganelli in “ugly holiday sweaters” on ABC’s “The Chew” last year. Who could forget the one worn by actor Colin Firth (“Mark Darcy”) in “Bridget Jones’ Diary?”

Killington, Vermont, resident Anne Marie Blackman even based a business on the trend. “My Ugly Christmas Sweater,” incorporated in 2010, offers customers a vast selection of tacky sweaters in collections ranging from retro 80s embroidered items, to embellished over-the-top sweaters with lights. Blackman’s website received over 2 million page views last holiday season.

 
Not surprisingly, employers have come to appreciate low-key alternatives to expensive, energy-consuming office parties. This year – perhaps well on its way to becoming an annual tradition – many corporations will designate a day for employees to wear and enjoy their favorite glittery, holiday-only, ugly sweaters. Selected and loved with poor taste and abandon, the ugliest holiday sweater contest should spark fun and laughter all day long.

I can’t wait to see the pictures.

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