Preparing for the festive season?

Festive season by Máire Rua

Well, here we are moving towards the start of the festive season and the end of year 2019.  How was your year? I hope you’ve had a good one.

This week I was invited as honorary guest to my former primary school’s Christmas Story.  I loved it!  It was wonderful to watch the progress and development of all the ‘little stars’ as they performed this beautiful story.  I was delighted to hear the quieter children deliver lines with such clarity and energy.  How they have blossomed under the guidance and direction of hardworking staff.  
My visit to school prompted this week’s blog post.

Best wishes to you and your families during the festive season.

‘Twas the night before Christmas …

‘Psst, move over.  Let me in.  It’s freezing outside’.

They all moved over, Ma, Pa and the others. It felt good to be back inside again. It was warm and cosy in the old barn.  The straw smelled sweet, almost heavenly, if only I knew what heaven smelled like!  There were voices outside and they were making their way towards our barn! The latch on the barn door rattled.  The door opened.

‘Shhh, be quiet everyone!’ ordered Pa.  We froze, all six of us.

‘It’s the best I can do, I’m afraid.  It’s the busiest time of year and everywhere is fully booked.  It’s not very pretty here but it’s warm and dry.  At least, you’ll both have a chance to rest before you move on.’

‘Thank you sir.  This is fine.  We’re very grateful.  We’ll be just fine.’

She looked tired, exhausted and in serious need of a lie down.  He led the weary, overloaded donkey into the barn.  He loosely secured the donkey to a post, not far from where we were observing the scene. He cleared a space, took her hand and beckoned her to sit on a blanket that covered a fresh bale of hay. She smiled at him and sighed. She looked as if really needed to sleep.

‘I’ll bring some hot food and more blankets for you. You must be hungry,’ said the Innkeeper.

We all felt the chill when the barn door opened.

We watched, curiously and fascinated by the woman.  We didn’t make any noise for fear of being chased from the warmth of the barn.

He tended her lovingly, placed another blanket around her shoulders and began to unwrap provisions from the basket they had packed for the journey.

She busied herself with an old crate that lay nearby. We watched with interest as she wiped down the crate and lined it with hay.  She looked hot and tired. She groaned every now and again. He moved towards her and lovingly held her arm.  She winced as if in pain.  He tried to comfort her but she appeared to be distressed.

Several hours later, we were awoken by the cries of … a baby!

Under Ma’s watchful eye, we crept quietly towards the couple and baby.  There he was, a small, chubby, crying baby.  He moved towards the crying child. He smiled. He spoke quietly, ‘He’s beautiful’.  She nodded and then wrapped the crying baby in swaddling clothes. She kissed the baby’s head, soothed him and placed him in the makeshift crib.  She sang softly to the crying baby to lull him to sleep.  In the morning, a church bell rang out for Christmas Day.

I tiptoed closer to see the baby.  As a baby field mouse, I was too small to be noticed by anyone but I had a strong sense that a baby born on Christmas Day would be a special baby and one that would make a difference to our world.

Where did you get that hat?

Hats by Máire Rua

‘Where did you get that hat?  Where did you get that hat? Isn’t it a lovely one, I’d like one just like that’?

Okay, admit it, you did have a little sing-a-long when you read the title of this blog post.  I did.  I’ve been busy recently ‘getting hats’.

Why?  I hear you ask.  Let me explain.  It was my turn at Writers Group to host a workshop.  It’s something we do during the course of our writing year.  As writers, we all benefit from the workshops, manuscript evenings, author visits, competitions and social events too.  I particularly enjoy the variety of activities and the support and learning generously shared by members.

Anyway, ‘Hats’ was the theme for the workshop.  As I collected hats from friends, I was inspired by the stories shared as to why and how they had acquired their particular hats. As I put together my own collection, I found myself recalling and reminiscing about travels and places where I had bought my hats e.g. Spain, France, Australia and New Zealand.  My collection included a black fur hat, which I negotiated fiercely for The Man, one year at a Christmas market in London!  I’m not sure who enjoyed the negotiation banter more, the stallholder or me?  At the end of the day we managed a Win- Win-Win, everyone was happy.  The stallholder had a sale, I had a bargain and The Man had a warm cosy hat!   We celebrated with a festive gluhwein, vin chaud or was it a mulled wine?  Whichever, it was just the thing for a bitter cold evening and the celebration of a new hat!

The Hats workshop proved quite a success too. Everyone brought a hat to the meeting, which in turn provided wonderful material for writing stories.  Hats told their own stories of happiness, sadness, excitement and mystery. One hat was abandoned after a long theatrical career, another mistaken for someone else’s hat in a bygone time, and one hat ended up in a lovers’ tiff between a squaw and Tonto (of Hi Ho Silver fame!).   Calling time at the end of the meeting shortened the creative flow but I know stories will be developed over the forthcoming weeks. I believe there will be some great ‘hat tales’ to tell when the new writing year starts … and who knows maybe a new lyrics for a song about hats too?