Well, this has been quite a week. Many kid concerts and activities, and then a shifting schedule when things change. But I seem to have finished my Christmas shopping (mostly?) after a trip to the King of Prussia mall yesterday. I don’t shop there often but, whoa, there are a lot of stores.
I came home and then mostly finished the wrapping. There are only a few small items left to do. The sibling presents (minus the 15-year-old’s since he ordered online for delivery today or tomorrow) are under the real, more informal tree (my kids call this the “tree of the people.”). The family presents for Christmas day are under the “fancy tree” (the fake one with all white/silver/gold lighting and ornaments). My extended family’s presents are in my office, to be taken out when they show up this weekend.
I’m thinking maybe next year a goal could be to finish more of the shopping earlier. I start to feel more relaxed about Christmas when everything is procured and wrapped. So if this was done at Thanksgiving, December could mostly be about experiences.
Easier said than done of course, as people change their minds about their Christmas lists, and there are more gift-oriented items on sale by December. But something to think about.
In the meantime, here is a currently-unnamed sonnet. Looking for something catchy as a title!
Before the stars, before the planets set
into their orbits, which define a day
and year, then what was time? The alphabet
came after words, one could still chance to say
“I love you” never knowing what was “v”
or “l” or what it meant to write a thought.
These constructs come after the thing, we see
our rules imposed on things existing not
because of rules — and yet, how good to know
that if we say we’ll meet at 3 p.m.
at the appointed point of spin we’ll go
to our shared spot on earth and on a whim
we’ll write each other notes, sweet nothings, such —
these lines that mean so little and so much.
This is a great sonnet!
@Dawn – thank you!
Yes, I noticed that there are many people that you’ll need to wrap gifts for, Ms. Laura Vanderkam. I wonder how many of them specifically asked gifts from you.
I can also tell that there are people whose relationships with you will deteriorate if you don’t give them gifts at certain times of the year. For your reference, I will never require anyone to give me gifts every year as a prerequisite for me to be willing to maintain the relationship between me and the other person. I also can’t remember a time in the past when I have ever required anyone to give me gifts every year so that I’m willing to maintain the relationship between me and the other person.
The name I came up with for the sonnet is “This is the Spacetime to See You”.
The sonnet is beautiful! And so true!
I really love your sonnet too – and I would be tempted to give it a title from words within the poem itself: for example, ‘Before the stars’ or ‘Before the stars and alphabet’ or ‘So little and so much’. It is a beautiful poem; thank you for sharing it with us. And Merry Christmas to you and your whole family from Belfast!