Twelve Days of Christmas

I've always wanted to make something of the week between Christmas and New Years, somehow include the "rest" of the year with the rest of December. The time after Christmas and before New Years always seems disjoint to me and then New Years shows up and sweeps one into an abrupt "new" year, like turning the page on a calendar, as if there's a difference between one day and the next. It's like the old joke for me of when someone asks you "how do you feel?" when it's your birthday and you're supposed to feel "a year older" like they're discreet blocks of time.

So, I've decided this morning to "invent" a celebration that incorporates the Twelve Days of Christmas into my life in order to tie the two years together.

http://www.cresourcei.org/cy12days.html

It won't be a wholly religious celebration for me, I love history and think I'll incorporate some historical sleuthing in it also, maybe some genealogy too (since we're talking about "birth" of Christ and death of the old year). I'll include psychology of what ties me to Life and my beliefs, to my past and future (kind of new years resolution forming) and to my "heritage"/attributes and genes.

I guess I'll try to think of twelve personal attributes I cherish (because I "have" them or want them); honesty, creativity, wisdom, reason/intelligence, faith, hope, love, etc. and maybe do something candleish :-) like Hanukkah, and meditate and "work with" each day's attribute but try to also weave things into a whole so the years merge more seamlessly, despite one's tendancy to write the old year on new year checks.

cool idea Perna... i'll try and follow it : )

Sounds like a good idea to me!

Research/ideas:

http://holidays.about.com/od/decorat...schristmas.htm

http://www.worldofchristmas.net/12-d...christmas.html

http://www.holidays.net/christmas/story.htm

http://www.abcog.org/12days.htm

yes... very cool idea....

And then there's Festivus.

Wasn't he Matt Dillon's sidekick in "Gunsmoke" :-)

I've now decided I'm going to think up 12 tasks, 6 to "complete," to finish off before the old year is done and 6 to begin, new routines, or clean sweeps, or something for the first week of the new.

History of New Year's:

http://adoptionworld.org/kid/newyear.html

Interesting that the Babylonians had an 11 day new year celebration.

VERY INTERESTING!

My choir in high school sang "The twelve days after Christmas"-the recipient is angry with his true love and destroys all her gifts.

The other choir was jealous of us doing it.

I still remember the lyrics-you can find them online, I'm sure!

peace,

OCD chick

http://humormatters.com/holidays/Chr...2daysafter.htm :-)

Our high school choir did silly things with the original song; had a bunch of strapping football-type boys illustrate 6 geese a laying, etc.

Festus? lol

I'm assuming I'm my own true love :-)

This is the last of the "old year" six days and I'm getting ready to go into the new year six tomorrow.

So, what about the old year? My husband and I saw all the relatives we could in the last month and I got my address book updated (finally, I moved and started a new address book almost 2-1/2 years ago) and got Christmas cards out this year to nieces and far-flung relatives. I want to write a letter or two to others. I got an important genealogy book done and sent to my brothers and pretty much feel like I've "caught up" with everyone and am back in sync with myself and friends and relatives and ready to start "again" and maybe keep up better in the new year. Grand nieces and nephews and their names are better fixed in my little brain for the moment.
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Bridging the years? I have a largeish decision to make on what limited projects I want to give my energy to in the coming year and how to do that and how to let go of and mourn the "old" projects that will be dropped. I'm going to spend the rest of today working on and praying about that.

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New year? My health looks like it wants priority and Wednesday or Thursday of this week I want to go by the dentist's and make appointments as I have 2-3 problems in my mouth that need immediate attention. I also have a thyroid blood test that wants doing probably this month. I know I need to work on weight and fitness also; I'm 115 pounds overweight and everytime I start a fitness program I get a medical problem making it necessary to stop. I want to look at that whole thing.

I've already decided the aforementioned family/friend keep-up desires and discussing my genealogy book I made with relatives of mine and my husband's I think I have 2 new books I want to make there and I want to "fix" the one I made as it was done quickly and first (I had never made one so had no practice/had to learn how) so has mistakes and omissions I want to correct.

My husband wants to travel more this year and use our RV and I have issues with leaving my two cats. I want to sort out their health needs (they're overdue for vet appointments/shots) and care for when we go away so I feel good about whatever "system" I set up.

I badly want a clean, organized home that is easy to care for and I'm a long way from that. That too will probably be a priority for me in some way this coming year.

Perna, keep it up! You are an inspiration.

I made my largeish decision and am putting that into effect starting today. I "deleted" both my blogs and reformatted them, dedicating them to the new plan. I'm a little excited even.

The rest of the 12 days of Christmas look to be learning to juggle self and helping others and getting back to the "mundane" world but from a different, hopefully better perspective.

Decalogue is another name for the Ten Commandments. I, on the other hand am doing sort of New Year "ideas" and I decided to only do five to make sure I was not overwhelmed. So, guess it's my New Years pentalogue?

I thought of the things I really and truly wanted right now and stated them "simply" but they're based on thoughts, plans, and background I've been working on since New Years Day:

1. Energy back
2. Continuing with writing plan
3. Deal better with what makes me anxious
4. Find teacher/mentor/therapist
5. Heart's plan

It's interesting when you put things in writing and sort of commit them to memory how they show up when they're "supposed" to. Yesterday for lunch and last night going out for dinner, I made good choices for my body to help get my energy back. I worked on my writing yesterday and got a lot done with that. There's 4-5 categories of things that make me anxious so I keep an eye out on how to behave in relation to those matters in order to make me feel more secure (like finances and the future). I don't know yet what's with the teacher/mentor thing or the Heart's plan, I'm just "working" and assuming they'll show up in time.

I have plans I've put in place for a couple, like the writing, but I'm still actively exploring others in my journal and elsewhere and a couple I only have vague hints of what I want and I'm waiting for guidance/clarification over the next few months. Some activities call for re-evaluation in March so I'll probably re-evaluate all and adjust then.

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-...ne%3A+epiphany

A sudden, powerful, and often spiritual or life-changing realization that one experiences in an otherwise ordinary moment.