Finials Of Broken Glass - Christmas Eve Votives

Friday, I visited my dear friend, Marijane, in Half Moon Bay. She made us lunch; we walked down to the beach and threw sticks for her dog, Blue. The air was cold, but the sky was clear and blue and the tide swept in and out, stretching a glittering hand across the sand. Later, we drove into town and walked about the shops on Main Street.

We’d stopped at an odd little shop stocked with junk, antiques, and whimsical garden ornaments. A wheelbarrow full of broken glass (at only $5 a pound) caught our eyes. The barrel seemed mainly full of glass finials, old doorknobs perhaps, or cabinet knobs. Some large, some small. Some with holes in their bottoms where the salvagers had carelessly torn them from their doors, others with uneven yet solid bottoms, some with chips on the sides or jagged edges. Some deep blue, with streaks of purple; others a light, flimsy gold, with yellow and green streaks that reflect the light. They all seemed luminous, charming, and spoke of a by-gone era, now discarded in a dirty wheelbarrow left outside and still wet from the previous day’s rain.

I paid $5 for a pound of broken glass and the half hour’s pleasure of sorting through various pieces of ragged, rough, broken finials. Marijane and I laughed and giggled, and brought some of the broken shards up to our eyes, to the light, to peer through and see the world differently.

I think the broken finials make some interesting candle votives.

Yesterday, I spent the day baking, cleaning my home, wrapping presents, and then visiting friends. Today, my son will join me for Advent Sunday breakfast and we will light the fourth candle. My daughter returns home later this morning from visiting relatives on the East Coast. She and I will attend the ballet (The Nutcracker) and share dinner. Tomorrow, we’ll all three drive to Santa Rosa - over the bay and across the bridge to Grandmother’s house we go – to me stepmum’s for Christmas Day celebrations.

As I write, I sip delicious coffee and listen to Handel’s Messiah. My home is clean, the tree, lights aglow, is beautiful. I am content. And I hope all of you are as well.

Have your selves a Merry Christmas,

Bird