34 Years of Christmas Poems: Christmas 2007

2007 marked the 30th consecutive year that I wrote a Christmas poem and I wanted to do something special. I commissioned a website (http://frommomskitchen.com/) but it wasn't put together the way that I intended. I hope to change that this year; I just have to find the help of someone who can manipulate it for me. The original vision is captured in this card and poem.

In abandoning video, I decided to share one of my happiest childhood memories, baking holiday cookies with my mother. The picture of the stove on the cover is my kitchen and the Kitchen Aid mixer belonged to her. It still works incredibly well decades later and I always get compliments on the baked goods that come from that mixer with love.

The poem is a snapshot of a special time that I shared with her. There are no embellishments; it was just as I captured it in verse. As a bonus, I included my mom's butter cookie recipe on the back of the card. Feel free to copy it and make it your own (as long as you add the love!)

Christmas 2007

by

Richard Perrotti

As the calendar crept towards its inexorable end,

The day seemed like it would never arrive.

My mother smiled and said, “Let’s bake cookies,”

To her helper, a big boy, age five.

With these magic words, Christmas had come!

Two kitchen wizards concocting their potion,

Mixing flour, sugar, butter and eggs

With vanilla, into a holiday commotion.

My job was to watch the Mixmaster dance,

And observe the dough getting ready.

The oven was lit, baking sheets out

And mom’s cookie press gleamed clean and steady.

She was amazing, how swiftly she moved,

As I struggled to watch and learn.

Row upon row of angels, trees, stars,

Then she winked and said, “Now, your turn!”

She held my hand as I twisted the press,

Making a tree that looked like a blob.

“Good first one,” she reassured me,

“And rainbow jimmies will finish the job.”

I couldn’t be happier, helping mom bake,

And no cookie could ever taste better.

When we left some with milk under our silvery tree,

I told Santa so in a letter!

I can’t reproduce those cookies today,

No matter how often I try.

But the memory still lingers like a soft, sweet aroma

And heats up “the oven inside.”

Treasure your recipes, memories and stories,

From a life long ago, far above.

Things are more special when you remember they came

Direct from mom’s kitchen, with love.

December 2007; only four short years ago:
3rd - Devastating winter storms caused the Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, also closing a 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days. At least eight deaths and billions of dollars of damaged are blamed on the floods.
5th - Westroads Mall massacre: A gunman opens fire with a semi-automatic rifle at an Omaha, Nebraska mall, killing eight people before taking his own life.
7th - The Hebei Spirit oil spill began in South Korea after a crane barge being towed by tug collided with the very large crude carrier, Hebei Spirit.
11th - Two car bombs go off at the Constitutional Court building in Algiers and the United Nations office. An estimated 45 people are killed in the bombings.
13th - The Mitchell Report is publicly released listing the names of 89 Major League Baseball players that have presumably used anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. Notable players to be named include Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada.
17th - Republic of Lakotah asserts independence from the United States
19th - The Lakotah people, a Native American tribe, proclaim independence and withdraw all their treaties with the United States. They then proceed to establish the Republic of Lakotah, with an ongoing process of international recognition as a separate country.
20th - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
20th - The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.
21st - The Schengen Agreement area increases to include 9 European Union member states; Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia on land and sea borders.
27th - Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated by a suicide bomber.
28th - Nepal declared a federal democratic Republic by interim parliament, abolishing the monarchy.
31st - Bocaue Fire. Seven people injured when a fire razed several fireworks stores in the Municipality of Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines.
31st - The Massive Big Dig construction project in Boston, Massachusetts ends.

34 Years of Christmas Poems: Christmas 2006

This one required a commitment. The "river of time" danced in my head as a possible avenue for the poem in 2006. Fortunately, I got the idea very early in the year because I thought that showing a particularly scenic view of the Delaware river during all four seasons might just work as a video.

A snowy day set the scene for winter quite nicely. All it required after that was marking the calendar to capture "season scenes" from the same location on the river. Putting it all together in a coherent fashion was going to be the challenge especially since I had committed myself to this setting and theme. I recall that the rhyming proved quite tricky in this edition. I had abundant ideas but some simply proved unworkable in the chosen form. Eventually, it all came together.

I think this theme was also reflected by a state of increased peace in my life. Even with the HP job having ended, I rapidly found another interesting opportunity at XM satellite radio. I was also doing some occasional work on QVC as a tech expert during early morning broadcasts. My possibilities and and potential were expanding in satisfying ways and I was appreciative. I was also six years into a nurturing and supportive relationship with Jeri, precious to me beyond words. This is all part of my journey on the river.

This is the final video to date. The next five poems will all be cards, up to and including the most current.

Christmas 2006

by

Richard Perrotti

Life is an on-going, free flowing river

We float on in pockets of time.

Seasons are markers, signposts of passing

Ever constant; eternal; sublime.

A year sinks its roots into winter

When life appears dormant and slow.

Darkness and ice serve as contrast

To nurture what’s dozing below.

Beneath the surface is passion,

Awaiting its cue to burst forth.

In spring the world comes to life again,

Having regained its true north.

Summer sizzles and then slows down

To a bright and blazing malaise.

Thunderstorms bellow and light up the sky

In a show filled with awe and amaze.

The name “Fall” seems anticlimactic

For a finale so colorful and grand.

To so gracefully shed all one’s foliage

And watch a year’s efforts disband.

Overlaying this eternal story

Is a snapshot entitled “your name.”

As you capture your precious moments of life,

The seasons serve as the frame.

This river of life knows no Christmas;

It’s a season created by man.

Yet it perfectly captures the spirit

As if it were part of the plan.

Brotherhood and love will lie sleeping,

To be waked by a seasonal spark.

Then the heat and craze of December,

Dissolves in a holiday arc.

So whether it’s your first, or tenth, or hundredth,

Celebrate beyond boundary and reason.

For it’s not about seasons of your life,

But the living in your seasons!

December 2006 events:
4th - An adult giant squid is caught on video by Kubodera near the Ogasawara Islands, 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo.
5th - Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.
6th - NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.
7th - A tornado struck Kensal Green, North West London, seriously damaging around 150 properties.
9th - Moscow suffers its worst fire since 1977, killing 45 women in a drug rehabitational center.
10th - One million Lebanese opposition supporters gather in downtown Beirut, calling for the government to resign.
11th - The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust is opened in Tehran, Iran by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
12th - Peugeot produces its last car at the Ryton Plant signalling the end of mass car production in Coventry, formerly a major centre of the British motor industry.
13th - The Baiji, or Chinese River Dolphin, announced as extinct.
15th - First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.
20th - A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle.
21st - Puzzle Play aired to network Ten, replacing In the Box
26th - The 2006 Hengchun earthquake with 7.1 magnitude hit Taiwan.
30th - Madrid Barajas International Airport is bombed.
30th - Saddam Hussein is executed by hanging.

34 Years of Christmas Poems: Christmas 2005

After all of the man-made focus in the previous year's poem, I wanted to do something that was more aligned with winter. An excellent snow storm provided a perfect opportunity to think about the nature of these delicate ice crystals and how their relationship to each other can strike a note for both the differences and similarities in humankind.

A trip to the National Christmas Center in Paradise, PA (http://www.nationalchristmascenter.com/) gave me an amazing variety of seasonal displays, items and themes to gather and toss into the mix. It was fun to frame out the thoughts and let the verse take form, almost as much fun as finding an aluminum tree and color wheel to include in the video!

Yes, sometimes I am that easily amused. I hope that I can always feel that way; it makes life so much fun!

Christmas 2005

by

Richard Perrotti

A gentle snow was falling, enrobing the world in white;

Gliding on the breeze, weather-wise.

I stood watching in wonder and realized there must be

A million, million snowflakes dancing before my eyes.

Each delicate crystal different, yet essentially the same

In countless numbers, floating throughout time.

Each one’s an individual, ensnared by a single word;

Simply “snow,” subject of story, legend, myth and rhyme.

While watching this winter wonder, it soon became quite clear

That the story of these flakes was too, my own.

For I’m one of many people; assorted, grouped and free

And I’ve seen a million Christmases in my lifetime alone.

“Hold on!” you may be thinking as memories swiftly engage,

“Life’s much too short for that thought to be so.”

It seems that way upon first glance, so deeper in we’ll gaze

And then, my friend, the veil will lift and you will start to know.

Think about all the elements of which Christmas is comprised;

People, places, items but a few.

Then think of how they shuffle and rearrange themselves through time.

Now consider all the changes that you, your self’s, been through.

Folks departing or arriving, for a time or ever more;

Their lives, their loves like legends all displayed.

With laughter and tears remembered as holiday time comes ‘round,

Celebrated, maintained and passed forward (which is how traditions get made.)

Customs adopted or adapted from the world in which we live,

(Some simply fabricated now and then.)

I’m sure there was no “Chrismukkah” or “Kwanzaa” when I arrived.

But add (or subtract) just one thing and it starts all over again.

We’ve scarcely scratched the surface on our “millionth” Christmas trip,

A kaleidoscopic “whirl-dly” sort of game.

Remember, despite all changes, to keep love and joy alive

And I promise you that Christmas will never quite be “the same.”

December 2005 events:
2nd - Van Tuong Nguyen is executed in Singapore for drug trafficking.
3rd - XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.
4th - Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the Government to allow universal and equal suffrage.
5th - The Lake Tanganyika earthquake causes significant damage, mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
5th - The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there.
6th - Several villagers are shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China.
7th - Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of US federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.
8th - Ante Gotovina, Croatian army general accused of war crimes, is captured in the Playa de las Américas, Tenerife by the Spanish police.
11th - The Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead is rocked by explosions, causing a huge oil fire.
11th - Cronulla riots: Thousands of White Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese (and many who were not) in Cronulla Sydney. These are followed up by ethnic attacks on Cronulla.
15th - Latvia amends its constitution to eliminate possibility of same-sex couples being entitled to marry.
15th - Argentina's president Néstor Kirchner announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF.
15th - Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
15th - The 2005 Atlantic Power Outage began.
17th - Anti-WTO protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong
20th - US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
20th - The first same sex civil partnerships in Scotland are celebrated.
20th - 2005 New York City transit strike: New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike, shutting down all New York City Subway and Bus services.
23rd - Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Aktau, Kazakhstan crashes shortly after takeoff killing 23 people.
23rd - Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead.
26th - Boxing Day shooting on a busy shopping street in Toronto.
28th - A U.S. immigration judge orders John Demjanjuk deported to Ukraine for crimes against humanity committed during World War II.
30th - Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin.

34 Years of Christmas Poems: Christmas 2004

This remains my single most ambitious "poetry production" and I am still so happy with how it turned out. Watching the video until the end never fails to produce a few tears in my eyes. It combines one of the most joyous places on earth and the height of the holiday season.

At the end of 2003, Jeri and I traveled to Disney World to usher in the New Year and spend a week after the crowds had all departed. It was wonderful beyond description. I had only been to WDW once before, a mere three days in 1984. This time I knew that we would have ten days to enjoy the experience and I carried along both the digital camera and mini-DV camcorder to document it.

Since all of the Christmas decorations would still be displayed at the start of our vacation, we made it a point to take in everything. As I was shooting so much video, inspiration struck and I knew that the Christmas poem for 2004 would truly be "magical." Sure enough, that was the theme that easily developed around the footage, especially the emotional ending of my favorite fireworks show of all time, "Reflections of Earth" in Epcot.

Seven years later, this still makes me smile. I can't ask for more than that.

Christmas 2004

by

Richard Perrotti

At first it’s a night just like any other night,

Mostly quiet, peaceful, serene.

But on the horizon, something catches your eye

And the magic begins to be seen.

Something as visible as a tree set ablaze

With shimmering, glittering light.

Or a gingerbread cottage with mansion-sized dreams,

The magic can be quite a sight.

Sounds of the season float on the breeze,

Maybe even on a midnight clear,

Awakening old memories, bringing lyrics to life

Delightful magic, enchanting the ear.

Choirs sing sweetly, horns herald the times

In a soundtrack meant to extol.

A silver bell tinkles as you reach for some coins

And the magic reaches your soul.

Topped with a star is the star of our show,

The heart of this holiday story.

Now no longer simple, but splendidly regaled

As the magic enrobes it in glory.

Dependable as the deepest of cold winter nights,

It lights up our lives with a flair.

We always wish to feel it this time of the year

But the magic is always there.

Exotic or simple, colorful or plain,

Taking form in vision and sound.

It always surrounds us, every day of the year

The magic awaits to be found.

For there’s only one magic, one life, one dream

As nourishing to us as the sun.

Hold in your heart the light of the world,

The magic of knowing we are one.

December 2004 events:
8th - The Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
13th - Former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet is put under house arrest, after being sued under accusations over 9 kidnapping actions and manslaughter. The house arrest is lifted the same day on appeal.
14th - The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened.
23rd - Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean is hit by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake.
25th - Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
26th - A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people.
27th - Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet.
30th - A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194.
31st - The official opening of Taipei 101, the current tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet).

34 Years of Christmas Poems: Christmas 2003

It becomes increasingly obvious to me that I will revisit relevant themes from previous poems. Conscious choice will always be high on my list as I truly believe that we fashion and create our lives this way using power which we cannot fully comprehend. The deep sentimentality and ingrained patterns of the holidays can and usually do run contrary of our ability to exercise that choice.

Jeri loves carousels so I have researched classic examples around the country. If we happen to visit an area containing one, I will surprise her with a visit to the site. If I stopped to think about all of the different rounds that I have ridden with her... but it did spark an idea for the 2003 poem.

Up and down, around and around is a familiar dance we may find ourselves performing during the joys and rigors of year end festivities and visits. But how often do we stop and really notice what we're doing, who we're with and where we are? The situation is exactly the same with these carousels and calliopes. They are often quite magnificently detailed and ornate in every aspect but how many people notice that while riding the familiar motions and patterns?

With the help of a carousel toy, a real carousel and a newly purchased mini-DV camcorder, I set out to create a counterpoint examination of the holiday season using a familiar pleasure of the warmer months. The poem went out on a video CD, the first of four consecutive years utilizing a video format.

Christmas 2003

by

Richard Perrotti

Flashing lights, glittering colors,

Amidst a cavalcade of sounds.

Festive crowds, smiling children

In a whirl that spins and surrounds.

That feels like Christmas, deep mid-December

With its gaily maddening hum.

But think back a few months to a warmer clime

And a similar pandemonium.

Think beaches, boardwalks, amusement parks

And a clattering carousel.

Circular parades of faces fly by

In a sensory parallel.

There’s no destination, just elevation and motion

On a vehicle that you choose to ride.

Intricate details surround and embrace you

But largely go unespied.

A glance near the top of this circular tent

Shows placid homes in seasonal themes.

And center ring, captured by the merry-go-round,

Are idyllic childhood dreams.

The steeds that one takes is essential

For a rollicking ride so renowned.

Yet some folks prefer a predictable sled;

True and level, it courses the ‘round.

The holidays hearken like an old carousel;

So comfortable, so tried and true.

Yet you have the power on this familiar journey

To create the experience anew.

Maybe you’ll choose as your parents once did.

Tradition honored, time-bound, well spent.

Or break with convention and establish a new kind

Of holiday wonder and merriment.

Commemorate the choosing, revel in the glory

Of the rides continued enthrall.

See in all directions, truly notice what surrounds you

And celebrate… celebrate it all.

December 2003 notables:
7th - The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
9th - A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
13th - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit (see Operation Red Dawn).
14th - President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
14th - President George W. Bush announces the capture of Saddam Hussein.
17th - The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend Maxine Carr is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
17th - SpaceShipOne flight 11P, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first supersonic flight.
22nd - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits near San Simeon, California.
23rd - PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
24th - The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.
25th - The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe which was released from the Mars Express Spacecraft on December 19, disappears shortly before its scheduled landing.
26th - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam.
30th - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself and his office from the Plame affair.