Are you decked?

decked on Design Folder!

Yes I am. And here's the proof of the Chrissy-mas pudding with a tour of my very own tree. The ornaments have been saved since the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s... with honest-to-goodness real live lead tinsel. I always look for short-needled trees with strong branches, usually fir, with lots of open space so that ornaments can actually hang. That allows them to move and brings the tree to life. Because the heavily laden branches tend to sag and look sad, I tuck dried plant material (in this case wild teasels) to give the tree more upward motion. Beneath the boughs I drape a clean white cotton sheet saved for decades for this humble service. Like snow, nothing looks more honest or pure.

The teasels are real, picked by the armload from nearby wetlands. They require a good shaking to remove the hundreds of tiny seeds from the flower heads. I do this as I cut them so they have a chance to replenish, come Spring. The tinsel is real too: made of lead (none of that slippery plastic stuff for me) and saved since the late 60s in unopened packages. Even as a teenager, I knew this stuff was an endangered species. The snowflake in the background is handcarved wood, one of several I bought in the early 70s.

This little angel earned her wings in the late 1940s. They were made of embossed silver foil paper and she wore a gown of white plastic with silver stars printed on it. Both grew tattered and were replaced by the mid-60s. Using her old wings for a pattern, my father cut these out of aluminum, while my sister sewed her a cowl-neck dress. Then in the 80s I fashioned the long overskirt from a piece of handmade lace found in Grandmother Amanda's camelback trunk.

Her halo is original: a clear plastic disk into which a small lightbulb fits, and still gleams. Atop my own tree now, the angel is always accompanied by a silver foil sun and a Hubble snapshot of our beautiful earth. View On Black

This elegant glass swan was given to me in the mid-1950s. It has a white pearlized body with metalic gold wings, and its tail is of softly spun fiberglass. Back and forth it wobbles on legs made of springs, and a clip (now a bit rusty but still trusty) afixes it to tree branches. I have cherished it from the first moment it was gently laid in my six-year-old hands.

About 60 years old, this celluloid deer has red glass eyes and remnants of glitter covering its coat. On its belly - the remains of a red paper stamp. My parents had a whole set of these guys tramping across their mantle. Although I'd like to say that Santa knocked them off and broke them while sliding down the chimney, the truth is few survived because we thought they were toys and played with them hard. I've got home movies of us doing exactly that, taken by my father with his beloved 8mm movie camera. His movie projector still runs. I must get it out and watch those old screen gems again, along with the early Kiko the Kangaroo cartoon "Skating on Thin Ice." Such memories.

Rounding out my holiday tour are these three tiny angels that once danced around a red plastic music box. It was given to me when I was about five years old by my Aunt Peg, who brought it all the way home from Germany. Once I got it, it only lasted the ride home in the car - no wait, that was the snowglobe that dropped from my sleepy hands and smashed on the cement driveway. That's the last we saw of that. But this is what is left of the music box - the angels - one without her wings, another without her torch. Charmers, just the same, and dancing still across my bookcase.

The Day it Snowed in San Francisco

All right, so, it wasn't exactly a blizzard, but it did hail. And I'm afraid my snowflakes and I are entirely to blame. We needed some festivity around the office but we didn't have any money. When we hauled out the old Christmas decorations they looked sorta sad. Tired. Musty. Yuk. So, I grabbed a pair of scissors and some printer paper and set to cutting snowflakes. I got my co-workers cutting snowflakes. I got my customers cutting snowflakes. We cut over a hundred. Shortly after I began putting them up, the temperature on Fisherman's Wharf dropped and it hailed like hell for a good fifteen minutes. Now when does that happen? Never underestimate the power of a bored office worker.


The Day it Snowed in San Francisco

(click on each image to enlarge)

Healthy Gift Ideas

Healthy Gift Ideas

Written by Dr. Andrew Weil
Published by The Huffington Post
December 18, 2009

Giving gifts to others is a fundamental activity, as old as humanity itself. Yet in the modern, complex world, the particulars of gift-giving can be extraordinarily challenging. In my view, the best gift is one that benefits both the receiver and the planet. So let me propose three categories of gifts for this holiday season that I believe meet this standard.

First, there are specific, person-to-person gifts that I feel would be appreciated by almost anyone:





A box of high quality dark chocolate
Good dark chocolate (with at least 70 percent cocoa) really is a healthy treat you could consider, especially for the women on your list (chocolate consistently ranks as the number one craving among women). Chocolate is a source of polyphenols, the same kinds of antioxidants found in red wine and green tea. The fat it contains is mostly stearic acid, which doesn't raise cholesterol levels. And the flavonoids in dark chocolate are good for the heart - they reduce the stickiness of platelets, inhibiting blood clotting and reducing the danger of coronary artery blockages. For those on your holiday gift list who like chocolate, splurge on a box of the best. The review website Yelp can help you find the best chocolatiers in your city. You may also choose to give fair trade or organic chocolate; an internet search can provide many sources.





Flowers
A beautiful bouquet or a long-lasting flowering plant is a traditional gift for women, but I have recommended that both men and women keep fresh flowers in the home for their beauty, fragrance, and the lift they give our spirits.





A massage
A gift certificate for a soothing massage. Some types of massage are more relaxing than others, such as Trager work, a gentle system that uses rocking and bouncing movements to lull you into a dreamy altered state.





Music
We're all affected by music. It has the power to inspire, uplift us, change our moods, and even alter consciousness. Almost anyone would welcome a CD or two, and for special people on your list, tickets to a concert would be a memorable treat. If you are unsure of the recipient's musical taste, give a gift certificate for MP3 downloads.





Nuts
Walnuts, almonds, pistachios and cashews contain healthy monounsaturated fats that can lower your risk of heart disease and heart attack.





A session with a personal trainer
This would be a great gift for someone who wants to get more exercise in the new year.





Extra virgin olive oil
A bottle of high quality extra virgin olive oil is sure to please the health-conscious cooks on your list. While my personal favorite is Lucini Italia, a trip to a gourmet market (or a farmers' market in some cities in the southern U.S.) should provide you with many possibilities. Depending on your budget, you could put together a sampling of two or three bottles.


And then there are gifts that you give to the larger world. It would be a generous gesture - and very much in keeping with the true spirit of the holiday season - to donate some or all of the money you normally spend on gifts to environmental protection, disaster relief or other causes close to your heart. You can do this as a gift directly from yourself to the less fortunate, or you can make it a family tradition to divert some of the funds you would normally spend on gifts for each other to worthy humanitarian and/or environmental causes. Talk it over within your family - you may be surprised at how open others are to the idea.

If you don't know where to start, check out The Huffington Post's Last Minute Holiday Store: Gifts That Give Back and its many worthwhile offerings, or Good Gifts, a British charity with an extensive on-line catalog that lets you purchase specific gifts such as restoring sight to a Bangladeshi child with cataracts, or providing a solar lantern to poor African villagers. Specific charities to which I like to contribute include the Humane Society, National Public Radio, Southern Poverty Law Center, Amnesty International and the United Way (this is in addition to donating my salary as co-director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and my share of royalties from the sale of Weil Lifestyle products to the Weil Foundation).

If funds are short, as they are for many this year, your charitable gift can be one of time. Soup kitchens, food banks, homeless shelters and other community organizations often need hands-on help. Volunteers of America is one of several clearinghouses that connect people with organizations that need them.

Finally, in this age of far-flung family members and challenging economics, consider telling your loved ones that their presence is a gift in itself. I know that personally, there is nothing I appreciate more than close friends and loved ones who have spent time and effort, and sometimes traveled great distances, to be with me during the holidays. Renewing and strengthening our human connections may be the best gifts we can give others - and ourselves.

Happy holidays!


Andrew Weil, M.D., is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and the editorial director of www.DrWeil.com. Become a fan on Facebook, follow Dr. Weil on Twitter, and check out his Daily Health Tips Blog.

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What If?

For the Winter Solstice a few years ago, I invited Kathleen Jenks, a professor of religious studies, to write something for a video I was working on. She graciously offered me her profound and beautiful poem "What If?" Our collaboration has been playing on YouTube ever since. You can watch it here or on YouTube; either way, watch it to the very end - it's got a coda!

On Kathleen's website, Mything Links, in a discussion of how Abraham, Moses, the Buddha, and other spiritual sages had lived into old age, she wrote: "How different Western civilization might be today if Jesus too had lived to be an elderly sage instead of dying such a violent, gruesome death -- a death that continues to foster what many view as a pornographic obsession with death, cruel military prowess, unceasing war, and the ceaselessly morphing attributes of economies built upon military/industrial might. At the risk of oversimplifying, let me point out that, like victims whose helpless terror drives them to identify emotionally with their oppressors (e.g., Stockholm, Muloccan Hostage, and Patty Hearst syndromes), the West has largely identified with the harsh, imperial role of ancient Rome instead of with a gentle, brilliant, compassionate man who chose stories instead of weapons to change the world. Did Jesus' approach work? No, not really. As one of my Pacifica colleagues, Dr. Lionel Corbett, once said, 'Christianity is a sane, beautiful, caring religion. Too bad it's never been tried.' "

Perhaps, at least for the next few weeks, we could give it a whirl.

What If?

Kathleen Jenks' Mything Links

Warm Winter Wishes

The Winter Solstice
Sunrise, 7:22am, December 21st

On the first day of winter we make our yearly trek up the eastern rim of Mount Tam to watch the sunrise, and to celebrate the turning of the year. From this point on, days grow longer, brighter and warmer in the Western Hemisphere.

Light Show

All of the season's holidays are celebrations with light, by no coincidence, as they align with the Winter Solstice on December 21st. This is when the longest night and the shortest day of the year occur, from which point the sun slowly returns to us and we begin our journey back toward Summer.

To dispell the darkness and create beacons of hope, we burn yule logs, light candles and put up strings of electric lights indoors and out, creating the shimmering displays of magic we so dearly love.

Barry Underwood is an artist who creates magic with light all year round, integrating it into the most unlikely of natural landscapes. He is currently exhibiting photographs of his work in a show called Earth Engines.

Earth Engines

Johansson Projects, 2300 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA
Showing November 21st 2009 - January 9th 2010
Hours: 12-6, Thurs - Sat & by Appt.

Barry Underwood's surreal staged photographs, intermingling issues of contemporary painting, cinema and land art, surveil landscapes of the impossible. Just as earth and electricity are the elementary particles from which energy takes shape, Underwood fuses authenticity and artifice to nurture nature into flashpoints of wonderment.

Johansson Projects

Earth Engines on Flickr

H/T to Design Crisis

Line (Red)

Bleu

Trace (Blue)

Bow Falls

Circle (Blue)

Fish II

Norquay (Yellow)

Blue Lines

Lightning Bugs

Line (Yellow)

Happier Holidays!

Be of good cheer and all that crap. Indeed.

After reading the 7 Deadly Sins that Lead to Hoarding on Charles & Hudson, after hoarding a bit more information about it from across the Net, after deliberating how I might write about this behavior, I've decided simply to face my own. Hoarding. No. I don't have to pee in a urinal in my living room because the bathroom's barricaded with stuff. Nor do children have to leave home because there's no room for them. I don't even love the quaint look of stuff-stuffed rooms the way I used to, and I used to stuff stuff to rather great effect, if I do say so myself. Nuh-uh.

Nope. Without suffering any major neuropsychiatric disorders, I can find plenty of other reasons not to hoard. One of them is money. Shopping's no fun if you can't buy anything.

Lack of space is another reason not to haul anything else into the house.

Dusting. What attracts dust faster than stuff? I really have no desire to pick up all my stuff and wipe it down once a week the way my mother did. That was her calling. It ain't mine.

Health. Stuffdust is notorious for sucking the life out of lungs. Breaking one's neck tripping over stuff, or being buried alive by stuff is also life threatening.

Planet earth. As we well know. Insurmountable environmental evils are generated through the making, shipping, marketing, and inevitable disposal of stuff. I can't be responsible for that.

Gluttony. Nuff stuff. Nuff said.

Rather than head for the bridge because I can no longer live with my stuff-hoarding self, I think I'll just change my ways. Find other hallways to fill with this obsessive compulsive behavior. What choice(s) do I have?

★ I shall photograph stuff instead of spending all my money on it. I usually find that once I get it home, the burning urgency to own it goes away and I end up returning the thing. Stores love returns, because the hardest part of retail is actually getting the customer into the store. Let them prey on someone else from now on. Listen up, WWD and WSJ, the camera is the new fashion accessory. If I'm wearing my little black camera decoratively about my neck, I can "snap" up anything I like. Way more satisfying and so becoming. Antique stores are particularly exciting, but any old strip mall will do. Bonus: cameras are great at taking notes and recording ideas. Then, when I really do need to buy something, not only do I have the money, it's more fun. Way.

★ I shall create more blogs, photo groups, galleries and favorites files. The only thing better than having my stuff is having everyone else's stuff too. Warning. These activities can also become addictive and a terrible waste of time. I'll get back to you on this.

★ I shall get rid of stuff. Donate it to charity where it can either go to someone who could really use it or be resold to pay for meals, medicine, clothing and shelter. While I'm busy peacock feathering and ostrich pluming my nest, others are in desperate need of a twig.

Hark, Mr. Scrooge! Hark! The spirits have done it in one night of blog posting! My tannenbaum and I are ready to turn a new leaf. Anyone care to join the festivities? The holidays are notorious for their commercial crap. Who needs it? Not Santa - he and the elves make their own gifts. Not The Little Drummer Boy - he makes music. And the Three Wise Men weren't wise for nothing - they gave stuff away.

Granted, for thousands of years, even before Christmas, the holidays have been all about excesses. Even the Church couldn't change that. But as ever, it's not what you do but how you do it that counts. The holidays don't have to be an excuse to hoard. They can be a celebration of excesses like peace on earth and good will toward men. Hey, isn't that a novel idea. So this year I think I'll get a jump on my resolutions: Don't be a stocking stuffer. Do be a stuff stopper. Go forth and don't multiply.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some last minute shopping to do.