Welcoming Season

"Welcome," 5 x 7 watercolor holiday greeting card

  Christmas, the holidays, will be different this year, just as Thanksgiving was.

We can't exactly put out the welcome mat in the midst of this deadly pandemic, but at least holiday decorations  remind us when friends and family were welcomed with open arms, not social distancing and masks.

It's the thought that counts this year. That's what they're really supposed to be about anyway, welcoming warmth in a cold year.

Decoration Season

"Decoration Season," 5 x 7 watercolor holiday greeting cardAdd caption

A week from today, Thanksgiving, if not sooner, people will be putting up Christmas decorations, burning on lights, putting up trees, adding color to the days and nights. It's already happening in stores and malls of course.

This year, we're ready for some decoration in our world, some brightness...the pandemics of disease, deaths, racism, intolerance, hatred and political sickness have made it a dark year.

While most sane people will limit the number of guests, there will still be welcome signs out...much needed decorations of normality in an abnormal year..

Today's watercolor.

Holiday hope

"Decoration Dawn," today's 5 x 7 watercolor holiday greeting card

 I won't gripe about people putting up holiday decorations early this year. I don't think there can be an "early."

I'm not talking about the holiday music already playing in stores, trying to sell more merchandise. "Black Friday" has already become a month-long endurance tests for unending ads, which does make sense as merchants also struggle to survive.

But I wouldn't be surprised if some people are more than ready to hang some wreaths, get out holiday lights, and more. In the biologic and political disease ridden year of 2020, we need some holiday hope.

I saw these fence posts in the Texas Panhandle a few years ago, and  thought it would be appropriate to hang some holiday hope on them. It would brighten my day to see them, no matter how early, this year.

When there should be room at the inn--3 days 'til Christmas

"Welcome," 5 x 7 watercolor card

"Welcome!" Shouldn't that be, or isn't that, the intended messages on Christmas houses and buildings this season?
In other words, "Glad to see you! Come on in."
We said that this week when friends Roy and Jill Kelsey showed up at our front door, unannounced of a visit of Christmas cheer.
We don't say "Welcome" much any more in our over-scheduled world when we need it more than ever. America is blanketed with Christmas lights,  but "gated" subdivisions, border walls and intern camps for children cry out just the opposite. 
Do we see any irony as we remember an innkeeper who told some expectant parents there was no room in his inn?  What is the spirit of Christmas about, symbolized by all those lights?
Remember the inner joy when someone made you "feel welcome" in their office, home or presence?  Just questions, about the meaning of Christmas, and a certain word, "Welcome."
Oh, we say an obligatory "You're welcome" to "Thank you," but that's not the same, as a "Welcoming" spirit.
Consider the origins of the word.
It comes from the Old English (450-1150 A.D.) wilcuma "an exclamation of kindly greeting, from earlier wilcuma "welcome guest," literally "one whose coming suits another's will or wish," from willa "pleasure, desire, choice" + cuma "guest," related to cuman "to come," from the proto Indo European root *gwa-, "to go, come." It's similar formation in Old High German willicomo, Middle Dutch wellecome.
The verb form, Old English wilcumian meant "to welcome, great gladly."

The meaning "entertainment or public reception as a greeting" is recorded from 1530. "You're welcome" as a  response to "thank you" is attested from 1907. "Welcome mat" is from 1908; "welcome wagon," from 1940.

Just thinking about the need for joy and warmth and friendship in this season, three days from Christmas, in the word, "Welcome."

More than you wanted to know? Sometimes it's good to dig into the meanings of the words we mouth without thinking.

Today's watercolor, New Mexico adobe and blue, says "Welcome to me."

Oh, "You're Welcome."