Family Friday: Peace and Love

As we near the midpoint of the traditional twelve days, a period of 'time out of time', I hope you're all enjoying the holidays in whatever fashion works for you.

Here are some of the aspects of Christmas/Yule holiday tradition that I particularly enjoy:

• all the light/fire references, reminding us that it all stems from a celebration of the return of the sun as the balance shifts from dark to light again
• the greenery decking the halls, a lovely piece of sympathetic magic encouraging the non-evergreen life to remember that life goes on
• the rich, warming, spicy food and drink (as I write this, I can smell a ham boiling away merrily in apple and orange juices with cinnamon, cloves and allspice) to nourish ourselves for the coming winter
• the sense of self renewal which has become the tradition of New Year Resolutions, possibly stemming from a natural inward-turning impulse in these longer and darker nights

This is my last post for 2011, so: whatever holidays you celebrate, I hope you're making great memories and that 2012 will be a great and positive year for you.