Holiday Reflections and Welcoming the New Year

Travels with Heart: By Annie Bowler, Vol 21. January 1st, 2025

Decorating our Christmas tree and house brings back so many wonderful memories. To be

clear, our decorations would never make it into Better Homes & Gardens, not even close.

We use the same, many homemade, decorations year after year and so by now, most are worse for the wear. But as a collection, they’re quite lovely, at least in my mind. The star of our collection is the Swedish wooden fan that I begged my mom to buy when I was

11 years old. It’s caught on fire a few times, so it doesn’t have all its fan blades, but to me it’s still magical. My grandkids are delighted when they get to light it and the smoke turns the merry-go-round of Christmas characters.

I treasure the homemade ornaments given to me by students from my teaching days; they

remind me of all those sweet kids and wonderful moms, some of which have become lifelong friends.

How can you not treasure the tree-branch-Rudolph that 7-year-old Fran made in Patti Dalton’s Cub Scout troop? We thought we’d lost one of his antlers, but alas, we found it.

And then there’s our large collection of bread dough ornaments. John is a sculptor and so over the years, we’ve made salted bread dough, and all have a great time making these ornaments. Numerous of them have lost their hooks, (salt is hard on metal) so they now sit on our counters, like friends going caroling.

And then there’s the tiny tree and angel that’s just big enough to hold birthday candles; they were my Grandma Minnie’s and must be more than 150 years old by now. There’s the papier-mâché globe, because we love to travel, and the felted cross-country skier,

that I just had to have for obvious reasons. There’s the old rusted red truck and the silky

chicken that remind us of the Flower Farm. There’s the duct tape “mom,” given to me by Jake when he was in the sixth grade and was obsessed with everything duct tape. And of course, there’s many god’s eyes made by many kids over the years.

But our most favorite ornament of all is Rudolph. John and I bought Ruddy, as we fondly call him, before we got married 51 years ago. I was just 18 and he was 19. We had no Christmas decorations and no money. We would start our college careers the following January.

Both our families decorated for Christmas quite nicely with all the trimmings, so we were

perplexed as to how to make our tiny house feel festive. We got our first Christmas tree for

free, cut down from a friend’s ranch; it was as wide as it was tall, a true Charlie Brown tree. We crafted paper chains and strung popcorn.

After much debate, we purchased just one ornament that season which was Rudolph.

Handmade in South America, Ruddy, as we fondly call him, still gets a proud spot toward the top of our tree, even though he is definitely worse for the wear.

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In December, John and I attended the wedding of longtime Casque patrons, John, and Lori. It was such a special evening! Congratulation to this sweet couple. John and I took a picture in their photo booth, something we rarely do. I don’t think we look worse for the wear either.

John and Lori

Annie and John

I couldn’t be prouder of Kelley Davis, Rachel Radell-Harris, and Sandy Amara who were sworn in to serve on the Auburn City Council recently. Sandy will serve as mayor for the second time, while Kelley will serve as Vice-Mayor. It will be interesting to see the impact that this 4-women majority will have on Auburn.

Kelly Davis, Rachel Radell-Harris and Sandy Amara are sworn in for Auburn City Council

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I am equally proud of Karen Alvord who was recently sworn in to serve on the Roseville City Council district 5. Karen won an impressive 49% of the vote against a crowded field vying for this seat.

Karen Alvord taking oath of office for Roseville City Council, District 5

And last but certainly not least, I am delighted that Jan Clark-Crets was reelected to the Loomis Town Council after a particularly contentious election. All these women will provide thoughtful and forward-thinking leadership to their municipalities.

Jan Clark-Crets - Loomis Town Council

In honor of the new year, I am sharing Amanda Gorman's new poem, New Day's Lyric, to inspire as we begin this new year…

New Day's Lyric

May this be the day

We come together.

Mourning, we come to mend,

Withered, we come to weather,

Torn, we come to tend,

Battered, we come to better.

Tethered by this year of yearning,

We are learning

That though we weren’t ready for this,

We have been readied by it.

We steadily vow that no matter

How we are weighed down,

We must always pave a way forward.

This hope is our door, our portal.

Even if we never get back to normal,

Someday we can venture beyond it,

To leave the known and take the first steps.

So let us not return to what was normal,

But reach toward what is next.

What was cursed, we will cure.

What was plagued, we will prove pure.

Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,

Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,

Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake;

Those moments we missed

Are now these moments we make,

The moments we meet,

And our hearts, once all together beaten,

Now all together beat.

Come, look up with kindness yet,

For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.

We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,

But to take on tomorrow.

We heed this old spirit,

In a new day’s lyric,

In our hearts, we hear it:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne.

Be bold, sang Time this year,

Be bold, sang Time,

For when you honor yesterday,

Tomorrow ye will find.

Know what we’ve fought

Need not be forgot nor for none.

It defines us, binds us as one,

Come over, join this day just begun.

For wherever we come together,

We will forever overcome.

Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman

Since Martin’s are some of the best guitars made and I’m a lifelong Martin, I’ve longed to own a Martin guitar since I was 14. Christmas came early for me. My new guitar is steel string and slightly less than full size, which makes it easier to play and very portable. It’s been carefully crafted of laminated wood, which will make it tough and able to withstand climate, humidity, and elevation changes well, i.e. it’s perfect for van travel. I am loving playing this little beauty!

I plan to sell my giant 12 string guitar that I never play. My dad, who was quite the musician, bought it for me long ago, so this has been a hard decision but I’m learning that if something isn’t working, it’s time to let it go.

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John and I have been on a road trip recently in our new van. We’ve visited all kinds of

wonderful people and places. We’ve been so busy we but have had little Internet, so you’ll haveto read my February blog to learn all about our adventures.

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Happy New Year to each of you!