We are ready for Xmas in our house. Last Saturday, December 8th, Iris and I decorated our tree as we do every year exactly on December 8th. It is a holiday here in Italy and it seems to be the right day to begin decorating the house and mounting the tree. I said 'mounting' the tree because some years ago we decided to be environment-friendly and bought a plastic tree which looks quite good in fact. Of course the smell and the real green of a little pine tree is more beautiful but it is a pity to throw it away after the holidays are over. We have tried to plant our trees after the holidays in the past, but none of them survived, so we gave up.
In addition to the tree we have other objects that we take out only at Xmas time. This is our electrical '7-candles light' that we have bought in Norway in 1998. I saw on hedikliev that the same light exists also in Sweden. In Norway they usually place this light in their windows and that was what we used to do in our other house. Unfortunately, in this house we don't have a proper place in the windows so we place it over one of the furniture in our living room.
Over the fireplace and on our coffee table we place different candle holders. The Santa-figured candle holder was a gift from our gasoline station a few years ago. The Santa-hat on the coffee table belongs to Iris.
The candle holder on the left is one of my favorites. It was a gift from a friend of ours some years ago. The snow ball shaped tea-light holder is from Norway, we bought it in 1998. The other tea-light holder below is Swedish and it was a gift from a friend who visited us in 2003. I love these Scandinavian design objects.
As is the tradition Iris has written her wish-list for Santa and placed it over the fireplace. She began writing it in early October and every week one or two new things are added to the list :-) This year she wants objects of Winx Club, different games of Winx, computer of Winx etc. There is a Winx mania in Italy among little girls, and of course, my little one is also a part of it :-) There are some electronic toys, dolls and few innocent stuff like colored pens, a new pencil holder on the list as well. My favorite on the list is: computer come quello della mamma, a computer like my mother's :-) Eh, I know that also the father would love to get a computer like mine (a MacBook Pro), but my little one, I guess you should wait some more years before you can get that wish granted ;-)
Iris likes Xmas and Xmas decorations a lot. She also likes making drawings of the Xmas tree. For now, we have only two drawings in the living room: one over the fireplace and one on the Xmas tree itself :-)
The decorations on our tree increase every year with the edition of new pieces. The two pieces in the photos above were Xmas presents from one of my husband's assistants a couple of years ago.
These two were products of the tiny hands of my Iris. The first one she made in kindergarten, the second one even before, when she was still in daycare.
I think that this is one of the most beautiful decorations we have. It was a gift from my Norwegian professor Trond. He sent it with his Xmas card in 2004, saying that the minute he saw it he thought about Iris :-) The little girl sitting under the tree with black braided hair does look quite much like Iris :-)
These five figures above are my traditional Norwegian Santa Claus, 'nisse' (click the link and read the story of nisse in Wikipedia, really nice), that protect our tree :-) I bought them in 2003 in Bergen at the Christmas Shop, Julehuset, an all-year open traditional Xmas decorations shop, along with some other decorations. One of them was broken, but I didn't have the heart to throw it away, so it has been glued (as can be seen in the photo).
The last important Xmas item in our living-room is the tree mat. When we bought this plastic tree I also looked for a nice tree mat to put under it, but didn't like the items in the market. Hence, I went to a shop that sold beautiful cloths with traditional Xmas figures and bought two different textiles and made my own tree mat using one textile as the border and one as the center piece. I even used an old bed sheet as lining under the mat ;-) I am very happy with the result.
15 comments:
silindi koca yorum.. neyse, al bastan.
evin cok guzel olmus yasemin, civil civil. bir de pek cok sey el yapimi oldugu icin cok daha anlamli duruyorlar.
ayrica, ne kadar tatli ve ilgili bir profesorun varmis, taa italyalar'a hediye gonderiyor. cok sansliymissin. bulunmaz hint kumasi gibi boylesi..
sana ve ailene simdiden mutlu bir christmas ve yeni yil diliyorum.
sevgiler
I love this time of the year . . .
And I'll be politically correct by wishing you and your family, as well as your readers Happy Holidays.
müzicim, tesekkurler iyi dileklerin icin. evet, benim prof harika bir insandir. taa 92den beri tanisiyoruz, beni esimden iyi tanir bazi konularda. beraber konferanslara gittik, bana ickiler ismarlardi, birlikte gece gezmeye cikardik, konferans onceleri cumartesi pazar bile ofise gider birlikte calisirdik falan. sonra 2004te geldi bizim evde kaldi 4 gun. kuzey ulkelerinde hoca ve ogrenci arasindaki bu senli benlilik turkiye'de sanildigi gibi ishe laubalilik degil samimiyet getiriyor. ben cok memnumdum hocamdan, hala da gorusur haberlesiriz (2003te savundum doktorami halbuki).
Metin, I also love this time of the year, though it is full of stress ;-) I love the lights and ornaments everywhere, on the streets, in the shops, in the houses, even in the planes (I used to fly with SAS all the time and during the holiday season they ornamented the interior of the planes). I also enjoy all the pre-Xmas dinners, giving and receiving gifts. But everything becomes more fun when there are kids around you. Watching their excitement during the intense waiting period before Xmas night... it is beautiful :-)
I think you are too much around politicians lately; you are even talking politically correct :-P
Thanks for the good wishes :-)
You know how I 'love' politicians . . . not!!!
:)
Speaking of SAS airlines, I remember quite a few airlines I flew on that have since folded, or not heard from lately . . .
Among them, JAT (Yugoslavia), Sabena (Belgian), and of course Pan American (US).
But my first ever flight was on a CSA Czechoslovakia Airlines from Istanbul to New York, as a young kid emigrating to the U.S.
During my first few months of schooling, one of the teachers had given us a spelling test with a tricky one to spell. And I was the only kid (amongst the entire class of American born and raised children) who spelled correctly the name of the country of (then) Czechoslovakia.
Now add that to the several things about me that I reveal every now and then . . .
:)
Metin, I do seem to know how much you love the (non/pretending-to-be/make-believe) politicians :-P
Well, this fact about you was OK; waiting for more :-)
So cute! We don't do such things here. It has different meanings, also Brian is Jewish... Although Atheist, he has allergies to christmas things. :o)
www.elifsavas.com/blog
I used to have a Jewish girlfriend. But she was a reformed the Jew, which by the way was what I ended up as when I took one of those tests that determine what religion you are (are you taking notes about 'revelations' Yasemin?).
And we had a Xmas tree with blue balls . . . lol . . . and a star of David at the top of the tree. All that was missing I guess was the Quran recitation blasting out of the tape recorder underneath the tree.
I hope I haven't offended the 'sense of humorless' Muslims with that thought . . .
Elif, in our house in Istanbul, we always had (some kind of) a Xmas/new-year tree. I said some kind of because the plant we decorated was not necessarily a pine tree, but any big plant we had in our living-room :) My mother continues with our family tradition even now although she lives alone. I like the Xmas spirit of decorating the house and buying presents to people you care about (yes, the commercial part, I know, but it is fun). Otherwise it has no religious meaning whatsoever in our family since, like yourself, we are parents brought up in different religions (we don't practice) and our kids are growing up with no specific religion, but simple principles of humanity..
Metin, if you continue commenting like this, soon we can write your book of revelations :-P
Yasemin, Metin, I understand your points. Bur for a Jewish person in America, Christmas means Christmas. He can not disconnect it from its religious context. If we lived in Turkey, it would be different, but he can't get himself to be seen with a tree in the house. Also, Metin, since he is an Atheist, he would probably throw those blue balls to the thrash can before I knew it! :o)
Religion presses itself onto people in America, just like in Turkey. And you can not separate things like Christmas from the meaning. I don't wish to look like I am celebrating it to my neighbors with lights and all. I am not an Evangelist, or Catholic or Born Again or whatever. But I like the look. But! I would have the tree in the house because it means nothing to me. Very complicated! :oP
www.elifsavas.com/blog
Elif . . . lol about the blue balls...
Actually many ppl celebrate Xmas not because of its religious or Christian symbolisms . . .
Btw . . . xmas tree was a pagan tradition long before Christianity claimed it.
Unless one's a Jehova's witness, even your husband can appreciate the tree and the decorations, as well as the gift giving . . . yup . . . it's capitalism at its best . . .
:)
Iris, (parlo a voce bassa)
....spero....che ...il Babbo Natale ...sia ...mooolto ...generoso ...con te.... sschhh....
Elif and Metin thanks for nice exchange of ideas :-) I make my tree just because I like it as a decoration, and yes, because I am a victim of capitalism ;-)
B5, babbo natale is verrryyy generous with Iris this year like all the other years, don't worry ;-) I hope he is generous with you, too :-) Have you been good? :-P
No.. :(
Post a Comment