Category Archives: Stories of my Life

A Greeting on the Eve

Stories of my Life, ,

Christmas in Astoria - 2016Dear Friends.:

Tomorrow is Christ’s birthday. The day after is mine. Talk about going from the sublime to the far less so. All the same today I’m feeling grateful for the grace and kindness that have carried me through this past sometimes challenging year to my present moment of comfort and contentment.

We remain in our New York City home. This is our city apartment tree. Tall and narrow to nestle in a corner and double its light effects in the window. The branches are crowded with ornaments handmade by our grandchildren. You can read more about them at Homemade Ornaments

Jonathan continues to work as Project Manager of our contracting company – a career demanding field that keeps him always alert and growing. More about that at Orr & Orr Contracting Facebook Page which I really need to update once in a while.

I continue to write with two novels and a novella published this past year. Many generous hands and hearts opened to me along the fascinating road of this new adventure. I cherish the warmth of those well wishes and shall never forget them.

Our family remains our abiding joy. Daughter Kathleen and son in law Luis live only five blocks from us and that is most gratifying. Son Ed and daughter in law Deborah and our amazing grandchildren Maya and Julian continue to live in Brookline MA just a ride over the Massachusetts Turnpike or Amtrak’s Northeast Regional line. We see them all often but of course never as often as we’d like.

Our friends are a beloved sustenance. Though we do need to work a little harder to keep those bonds close and caring instead of letting perpetual busyness take precedence. That sounds like a New Year’s Resolution to me. Meanwhile we create delightful fresh connections wherever we go. Especially among our newly discovered church family at Church of the Redeemer in Astoria .

A lovely woman who has been very supportive of me this past year sent me a birthday card. What she wrote inside touched me with the perfection of its sentiments. I hope she won’t mind me sharing them with you. May your next trip around the sun be filled with everything you need and the best of what you want. Enjoy the ride!

Love and Blessings. Alice – December 24, 2015

Ways to Stay in Touch. I’d love to hear from you.

Alice’s Email Address – aliceorrbooks@gmail.com

Website – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Facebook – www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter

Twitter – www.twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks

 

The Best Pageant Ever

Stories of my Life, ,

Christmas Pageant imageWhen I was growing up the church Christmas pageant was a serious event. There were auditions – musical auditions – and even though I sang in the choir and thought I had a lovely voice I never made the cut.

There were rehearsals too. Lots of them as I recall stretching through Advent month with anticipation rising as the weeks passed. The strange thing is I don’t remember a single one of those most likely impressive performances.

Decades later – way past my Northern New York girlhood – my husband Jonathan and I moved to an island in Puget Sound a twenty-minute ferry ride from Seattle. Many things were different in our new home place. Including the Christmas pageant at our small island church.

First of all nobody said anything about auditions. A pageant was listed among the planned holiday events. I waited for an audition schedule to be listed as well but none appeared. I hadn’t even told Jonathan of my intention to try out but eventually I had ask somebody.

“We don’t audition. Everyone participates.”

I had no idea what that answer meant but I didn’t want to appear too eager so I kept quiet on the subject until Christmas Eve. The pageant was at seven in the evening because that was a better time for the children of the parish than the later service near midnight.

Jonathan may have thought midnight was the more adult choice but he’d detected my eagerness as he often detects my secrets. At my insistence we arrived early with home-baked cookies in hand as suggested.

“Are you an angel or a shepherd?”

The question was so unexpected I answered without thinking.

“An angel of course.”

I’d intended that as a rather nervous joke. It was honored all the same and soon a pair of wings was pinned to my back and a halo of silver tinsel garland circled my head.

“This will tell you what to do.”

My dresser thrust the bulletin that was our script into my hand. The line of people behind me was pressing forward so I moved on without asking more. Meanwhile Jonathan was carrying a wooden staff and had a blanket draped over his shoulders. He’d become a shepherd.

Everyone was in a festive mood – much more jolly than reverent – and the following hour was just as joyful. We went forward to the altar when our scripts directed us to do so. We sang carols in unrehearsed voices – “Angels We Have Heard on High” from my contingent.

Wings were askew. Shepherds’ blankets slipped off shoulders. Children giggled and the baby Jesus slept through it all. Eventually most of the congregation was on the altar singing and listening to the familiar nativity story being told by the priest whose halo bobbed over one eye.

A few timid souls still in the pews were our only audience. I was especially glad not to be among them this time because it was the best Christmas pageant ever. And afterward we ate cookies.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com.

RR

A Vacancy at the Inn is Alice’s Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Christmas Novella. Just 95 cents. The Best Price Ever at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017RZFGWC.

 

Homemade Ornaments

Stories of my Life, ,

Christmas 2013 -- Tree without lights onThe tradition began with my daughter in law back when our granddaughter was too young to handle anything more dangerous than scissors and glitter. Her mom took over where a hot glue gun was required. The gold and purple stocking at the top of the tree in the photo is an example of one such project.

I don’t honestly know if the stocking was made by our granddaughter or our grandson who joined the glue gun posse a few years later. What I do know is that I dearly love every one of those homemade ornaments.

I’m kind of a nut about Christmas. Maybe because my own birthday is December 26th and somewhere in my soul I imagine the Christ child is sharing a tiny bit of his thunder with me.

Friends and family are aware of this yuletide obsession of mine and the tendency to over-decorate that goes with it. Tree ornaments have been a favorite gift choice for years. The Bloomingdales taxi was also my daughter in law’s inspired bit of glitz in reference to another of my holiday obsessions.

In fact each of the ornaments on that tree is a gift from someone I love. But the homemade ones are all from our grandchildren. Eventually they graduated from scissors and hot glue to dough and paint and the era of the home-baked tree began.

We were living in the Pacific Northwest by then and every year new home-baked ornaments arrived. Carefully crafted and even more carefully wrapped they nestled under the tree they would soon adorn – waiting for Grandma to unswaddle them with a full heart and glistening eyes.

The Santa face and the red flower on a blue background and the brightly colored sun – all in the branches of the photo tree – plus many more. They accumulated as the boughs hung heavier and more precious to me with each passing year. Until it was time to move back home from the northwest to the northeast.

A great deal of packing was involved but none more crucial to me than the packing of the homemade ornaments. Yards of bubble wrap and heavy duty tape were employed. I didn’t care how many boxes it took. And I insisted they were not to travel in the moving van with the rest of our belongings.

My red Jeep Wrangler was being shipped east too. Under my vigilant supervision the cartons of homemade ornaments were stacked inside. Still I was anxious about their fate. Jonathan promised to call me the moment he saw the Jeep at the east coast pickup point.

“The ornament boxes are fine,” he said before I could even ask the question. “Thank you,” I answered. My heart was more articulate as it whispered, “God bless us every one.”

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com.

RR

A Vacancy at the Inn – Alice Orr’s Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Christmas Novella – A holiday bargain for 99 cents at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017RZFGWC. Enjoy!