I'm a week into my resolution to create weekly/monthly lists and so far? It's been awesome. Who knew that writing down what you need to do will help you do it? Oh, right. Everyone. Granted, last week's list was pretty skimpy because I didn't want to overwhelm myself and fail before I even got started, but I rocked it.
Obviously 'write a blog post' was not on my list. That's been corrected for this week.
An item on this week's to-do list which I really didn't expect is learn to play crib. It's a game that my mom taught me as a child but we only played it when we went camping so I'd forget from year to year. I think I've 'learned' to play crib (or cribbage) three or four times. Even over the summer it came up in conversation and I joked that I had retired from crib. Then I learned that Ed (this guy) needed people to play with.
Shortly before that post, Ed lost his wife. The building managers (BMs) have gone above and beyond the requirements of their position and regularly meet up with him for coffee, dinner or games of crib. For my part, I drop off treats whenever I bake and I anonymously sent him a postcard from Ireland. When I finally admitted to him at Christmas that the card was from me, he gave me and our BMs grief for not telling him. "Do you know how long I've stared at that card trying to figure it out? EVERY DAY!" But the big grin on his face was worth the fake anger.
Our BMs are leaving on holidays for two weeks on Saturday; Ed will be without his crib partners. Knowing that I have a soft spot for Ed (I went with them to visit him when he was in the hospital last March), one of the BMs asked if I played crib. Learning crib was on my to-do list before the conversation was even over.
I can't wait to cross it off the list!
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Monday, January 9, 2012
Sunday, December 4, 2011
CMC: Christmas Around the World
This is part of my Christmas Memory Challenge, a goal I set for myself to recall 25 things I love about Christmas. You can also check out Shannon's memories here.
Tucked away in one of my dad's boxes of Christmas decorations is an old book called Christmas Around the World which I first discovered when I eight. The book is nothing special, just a simple children's book about old traditions from around the world. Even when it was first printed in the 70's, I get the feeling a lot of these traditions were out of date. Not saying that all were (or even that they are all now), but it seemed to focus more on traditions which were apart of the countryside culture. I find it hard to believe that someone in London in the 70's was holding onto last year's yule log to start the fire for this year's log... assuming the flat even had a working fireplace.
Still, as a child, I didn't realise this. All I saw was all the ways that people different than myself celebrated Christmas and I loved it. I learned that our tradition of cutting down a Christmas tree is from Germany, poinsettias come from Mexico, and my dad is not the only person in the world (because he was out of my friend's parents) who puts a red candle in the window. I'd pour over the every year looking for new information about holiday traditions from places I had only ever seen on our gigantic map.
My obsession with this book eventually turned into a fascination with other cultures and how they celebrate holidays. Not just Christmas, but any sizable holiday. And not just the big community parts of the celebration, but the quiet things people do in their own homes. I think it also goes a long way to explain why I love the traditions of Christmas more than the actual idea of Christmas (we're celebrating the birthday of a guy who was born [probably] in September in December so it would line up with Saturnalia and entice the Romans to Christianity, and we celebrate by beating people up so they can't take the last X-Box priced at 60% off. Yeah, great idea).
Tucked away in one of my dad's boxes of Christmas decorations is an old book called Christmas Around the World which I first discovered when I eight. The book is nothing special, just a simple children's book about old traditions from around the world. Even when it was first printed in the 70's, I get the feeling a lot of these traditions were out of date. Not saying that all were (or even that they are all now), but it seemed to focus more on traditions which were apart of the countryside culture. I find it hard to believe that someone in London in the 70's was holding onto last year's yule log to start the fire for this year's log... assuming the flat even had a working fireplace.
Still, as a child, I didn't realise this. All I saw was all the ways that people different than myself celebrated Christmas and I loved it. I learned that our tradition of cutting down a Christmas tree is from Germany, poinsettias come from Mexico, and my dad is not the only person in the world (because he was out of my friend's parents) who puts a red candle in the window. I'd pour over the every year looking for new information about holiday traditions from places I had only ever seen on our gigantic map.
My obsession with this book eventually turned into a fascination with other cultures and how they celebrate holidays. Not just Christmas, but any sizable holiday. And not just the big community parts of the celebration, but the quiet things people do in their own homes. I think it also goes a long way to explain why I love the traditions of Christmas more than the actual idea of Christmas (we're celebrating the birthday of a guy who was born [probably] in September in December so it would line up with Saturnalia and entice the Romans to Christianity, and we celebrate by beating people up so they can't take the last X-Box priced at 60% off. Yeah, great idea).
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