Sunday, December 25, 2011

Ponderings of Christmas

Indra and Guy

9x12 inches

Pastel on Pastelmat

Anni

8x10 inches

Coloured pencil on drafting film

The house that Sam and Karen built


Christmas is such a strange time really. The last week has been a haze of last minute shopping, cleaning, cooking and young people coming and going in a blur of social engagements and long working hours (our three older boys work part time at Toys R Us - and have had several 2:30am finishes in the last few weeks). There were high expectations amongst them all and some of those expectations were met and some were not. As we get older, the excitement for the materialism of Christmas is replaced with a yearning for everyone to be happy, and sadly enough this doesn't always coincide with Christmas Day. Now, it is Boxing Day, and in typical Australian fashion, all the men in our house set their alarms for 10 to 10 so that they could rise just in time to watch the start of the cricket. The frantic pace has been replaced with a gentle laziness and everyone seems happy and content and expectations have disappeared. For me the day after Christmas sometimes holds more of the peace and joy that we long for on Christmas Day.


4 comments:

Debra Keirce said...

Beautiful dog portraits, Karen! I love what you do with pastels! I agree about Christmas. Our three kids are all teens, so we are in the same place.... I miss those days when Santa was central to our Christmas, but this time is much more relaxed, which is nice too. Happy New Year!

Unknown said...

It's so true Deb - but I'm glad you had a wonderful Christmas and hope 2012 is your best year yet!!! :)

Wendy Mould AFCA said...

I love the dogs, they are both great. We have been busy with Christmas too. I don't know where the days go, they seem to fly. Have a good New Years.

Unknown said...

Thank you Wendy and a very Happy New Year to you and all your family!!! :)