I love the way holidays create the illusion of time standing still. No-one has to be anywhere. No clocks to punch or meetings to rush around for. Today is quiet.

Our Solstice eve last night was warm and full of folks. Friends, family and neighbors converged on our living room for a feast. We had elk roast in the slow cooker and a big salmon. I made an old traditional dish of red cabbage and apples and stewed up pots of spicy mulled cider. Our little Charlie Brown tree is spectacular, adorned with the warmly twinkling old glass lights and wicker ornaments, felted animals and sterling collectables. My sons opened a present or two brought from our guests.

After the kids were all gone home we who were left retired to the back deck for a breath of cold winter air – and for me some mugwort smoke, which I’ve been doing lately. It’s very relaxing!

Tonight, the longest night of the year, we brave the cold and partake in our community with a festival of light. There will be drum troops, story tellers, fire-spinners and labyrinths, fire sculptures and Morris Men dancers, with a lantern procession through the streets at the end.

Then, we celebrate Christmas as well on the 25th, primarily with our extended families who all do this – but also so that we welcome Santa through the chimney that eve to fill up our stockings. My husband, his dad and our older son will do a shift at a local soup kitchen to serve turkey dinner to the homeless. I am very proud of them.

Wishing you all a merry merry this season. Whichever holiday you celebrate this time of year, they are all filled with light and love and blessings for our loved-ones and thoughts for the less fortunate. May yours be grand. Let the light shine my friends. Let the light shine.

featured image of Chinatown/Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden: 20th Annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival in Vancouver by luke-me.up