This may seem like a strange statement to make on December 10th… but for me, a historic house manager the crisis and stress of Christmas ended today at about 9:48 pm when I locked the front gate at the farm and headed home…
Christmas started on November 15th… this is not everyone’s Christmas start date… Many, no, most prefer to celebrate Thanksgiving before starting Christmas… Laughton Wainwright has a song about this… a too early Christmas… But my house museum Christmas starts in mid November… and ends in mid December…
I started my day getting ready for too many 3 yr olds… lots of 3 yr olds… with parents and sibs… building fires in the fireplace, in the stove… cookie dough ready… lamps lit… Father Christmas was in my office… getting ready, for 3 yr olds…
I welcomed the 3 yr olds… I got the horse… harnessed ( a halter) the horse… and brought the horse out to meet the 3 yr olds… Father Christmas was on the porch welcoming the 3 yr olds…
I and the horse visited the groups of 3 yr olds… we walked about… the 3 yr olds and the horse (Jiggs) enjoyed the visits… Jiggs and I visited Father Christmas…
I put Jiggs away… in his corral, his home… I returned to the house, where Father Christmas held court… the 3 yr olds were visiting Father Christmas… Father Christmas was entertaining the 3 yr olds…
The 3 year olds (and parents) left… and we transitioned to “regular” visitors… we gave tours… regular tours in the afternoon… I ran to City Hall to turn in paper work, paper work which should have been turned in earlier, but didn’t happen due to too much Christmas and a broken computer… but the too much Christmas is now mostly over, and the computer is fixed, and it is now time for paper work… possibly too much paperwork, safety reports, warrant requisitions, budgets, marketing plans… all in all too much, but too needed…
We prepared for our annual Christmas evening in the afternoon, while giving tours of the house… We were putting out oil lamps to light the path as the light failed… the sun went down… the house glowed, wreaths in windows silhouetted by room lights, Christmas trees glowing…
The evening event started about 5:00…. People arrived… they looked about… they said “wow”… I checked on how things were going… I walked back and forth between the train station, the entrance to the park and the house. I tended fires. I talked to our guests… people seemed happy, they liked the house… all was good.
Eventually the event ended… the people left… the lamps were put away… the fires dying… the park, the house locked up… I went home.
Now it is all about the few tours left… and about thinking about next year and the year after… and about the other Christmas celebration… at home…
No comments:
Post a Comment