Wedding Dress by J. S. Marlo

 

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When my daughter got married... Actually, more like eleven months before my daughter got married, we spent a weekend together wedding dress shopping.

In one boutique we saw a gorgeous deep sapphire blue dress. It looked like a Disney Princess wedding dress. My daughter and I fell in love with it the moment we saw it, but unfortunately the style didn't fit her at all. The dress that she ended up choosing (or was it the dress that ended up choosing my daughter) was even more gorgeous, but it was a classic white, not a stunning blue.

Traditionally, white was the most common colour in many western cultures as it symbolized purity, innocence, and a fresh start. However, not all countries favoured the same colours for the same reasons.

In Chinese culture, red was the traditional and common colour that symbolized good fortune, happiness, and fertility.

In some countries, the more vibrant the colours were, the better for the wedding dress. While browsing for pictures, I saw all the colours, including black.

Until the mid-1800s, black was the traditional colour in Catholic Spain. It symbolized the bride's devotion to her husband until death.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, black was also worn by Finnish brides but not for the same reason. At the time, black fabric was more readily available, and black was seen as a solemn colour that reflected the bride's commitment to marriage.

Back when I got married, I wore my neighbour's wedding dress. It was white, not quite the style I would have liked, but it fitted perfectly. Besides, money was short, and it was cheaper to borrow it for one day than buy a new one that I wouldn't have worn again. In retrospect, it was a lucky dress... I'm still married to that same wonderful husband more than four decades later. 

Stay safe! Hugs!

JS

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

A new tradition? by J. S. Marlo

 

 

 

 

The Red Quilt

"a sweet & uplifting Christmas story"

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J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

For as long as I remember, Christmas and the Holiday Season have blended together to describe the two weeks between from Dec 20 to Jan 3. This is a festive time when the younger kids are mostly off-school, when the older college kids drive or fly home to enjoy home-cooked meal and free laundry services, and when family and friends get together for indoor or outdoor activities. This is also the time when I get to clean and decorate the house from top to bottom, inside and outside, and to cook and bake my kids' favorite food.

 This year was different. Yes, I did say "was", because this year, Christmas and Holiday Season don't go hand to hand.

I have a daughter who lives oversea. I hadn't seen her in two years, but even before Covid-19, flying to Canada during the holiday season was a long, expensive, and not always pleasant adventure, especially when Mother Nature threw snowstorms in her path, cancellations lit up the airport boards in red, and her suitcase stayed behind. I also have another daughter with a husband and seven-year-old daughter who live ten minutes away, and a son with a new wife who live in a different province. Spending festive time with both sides of respective their families and working shifts is a juggling act for all of them.

So this year, we decided to have an early Christmas on the first weekend of December. It allowed the kids to fly at a more reasonable price before the holiday rush, it made scheduling time off and time with their in-laws easier on them, and it gave my daughter and new daughter-in-law a chance to meet in person for the first time.

Mother Nature outdid herself. She dumped more snow in the last two weeks in November than I wanted to shovel. That's usually my husband's job, but he fell on the ice coaching our granddaughter's hockey team and broke his elbow. No shoveling for him until January.

For three wonderful days, they were all here in town. It also happened that my granddaughter had a hockey game and a one-day swim meet last weekend. So, lots of catching up done in the bleachers, board games and puzzles at home, walks in the snowy trails, favourite meals ready to heat or reheat, gift exchange, and lots of new memories made during the weekend.

 Now the house is empty and all the kids are back where they belong. Yes,  Christmas and the Holiday Season are still approaching, but now hubby and I will just relax. We already had our Christmas. It was early and unconventional, but it was also wonderful, and I'm hoping this is the beginning of a new tradition.

Enjoy time with your family, whenever you can, because those precious moments are timeless.

Happy Holiday & Stay Safe!

JS

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

 

Christmas Stockings - Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Christmas #Traditions #Stockings

 

 

Christmas Stockings

 

 

I don’t have any one book completely dedicated to Christmas but Christmas is a feature of the Leo Aquarius Connection. It’s also coming up in my next Moonchild story – Haunted Dreams. But Christmas Stockings is what I’m talking about this month.

 

My father was a steelworker in Pittsburgh, PA and often during the years after WWII there were strikes and many of them extended over Christmas. In our house, this meant money could be scarce so my parents spent the year finding things to put in the stockings for their children and themselves. My mother loved to knit and so she made us stockings. These were magnificent and able to stretch to massive proportions. Unfortunately most of them have disintegrated over the eyars and I believe there are two and maybe three left. Those were stockings, she mad for my children and not of woolen yarn. Perhaps the kind still have some of them

 

The tradition continued with my parents filling stockings for children and grandchildren until first my father and then my mother died. I’ve taken on that chore and I really enjoy doing this. Finding odd and different things for each person. Often in all the stockings, there were socks. I still continue this tradition. I stopped sending oranges when the stockings had to be mailed. This was after the year one of the orangers was flattened in the mail.

 

This year with Covid in the air, and children and grandchildren at a distance, I had to make the stockings to be mailed early. So of the fifteen I do every year, 7 have been sent. The rest will be done on Christmas Eve – maybe a day or two earlier and be around the tree and fireplace for everyone. What I wonder is who will maintain this tradition started when money was scarce when I no longer can.

 

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