Oh By Golly!

i’m not so much a Christmas person myself
something about being forced to enjoy the barrage of gifts i didn’t want and never used seemed very wasteful and frustrating to me as a kid
as much as being forced to act happy around people that i didn’t feel happy about
the whole thing seemed plastic to me
(and, indeed, we had a plastic tree every year coz my mum was allergic…)
so
since i’ve been on my own
i do my best to avoid the holiday all together
about 4 years ago
i got really into solstices
and in 2002 i spent it in Stone Henge
last year
Leo and i stayed up all night (well, i did at least)
and we followed that again this year, though i was a tired boy
somewhere around 5am, when the sun moved into Capricorn
we lit up the tree and took some pics
Leo is a Christmas Person, obviously
and does the “christmas card” thing
which i’ve Never done
but this year and last year he asked me to take pictures to send to all his friends as christmas cards
this is what he sent out:

after sending that out to all of Leo’s friends
i sent it to one person who i know enjoys the holidays
and would probably enjoy knowing i stayed up all nighta
and that we cut the tree from the forest around our house
and lit it with beeswax candles from from the Cologne Christmas Fair
with little metal clips that held them to the branches…
but who else would i send it to?
a few days later i thought of other people
and then thought of how they’d probably read my journal anyway
so
Oh By Golly
Have a Holly Jolly Christmas
This Year
(i’ve been obsessed with Burl Ives lately… his redition of that.. .and the image of his face… oh… all i want for christmas is Burl Ives in bed… )
anyway
here are other pics from that night
and my preferred christmas pic:

we couldn’t get a picture with both of smiling that Leo actually liked
so here is the cut job of me looking jolly instead of a deer in the headlights:

here’s Leo as his ideal:

and Leo playing with his Christmas Voodoo Doll