Priecigus Ziemas Svetkus visiem LOL dalibniekim.
A Merry Christmas to all LOL members.

http://gpsinformation.info/main/merryxmas.swf

Cienijama Ambersun(bijusa Prezidente),
Sutu Jums sveicienu(ar novelosanu) Jusu dzimsanas diena(1. decembri)
Janis, Indianapole, IN, A.S.V.
Doma tautas dejas

Paldies Dievam Ambersun nav nekada prezidente, nedz bijusi, nedz nakama.

Ziemassvetku Nakts

Jau vieglas enu supas
Tumst eglu tornis zils,
Un dzilas sniega kupas
Dus plava, lauki, sils.

Tik zvanins liega takti
Kaut kur aiz meza trauc:
Varbut, ka svetku nakti
Kads celnieks majup brauc.

Caur darziem aizmigusiem
Ko mikstas parslas sedz,
Aiz logiem aizsnigusiem
Kads gaisas sveces dedz.

Balts cels caur tumsu lokas,
Un tale zvaigzne maj-
Kads siltas, milas rokas’
Par zemi svetot klaj.

    _Valda Mora-

A very Merry Christmas to All!

Irena

PRIECIGUS ZIEMASSVETKUS UN LAIMIGU UN VEIKSMIGU NAKAMO GADU!

Season’s greeting to Madam President and all the rest of the LOLers.

Andrejs

Ditto.

/P

A Merry Christmas to all !

Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus visiem!

Pierre

Irena, man loti patika Tavs dzejolis.  Pie mums nav neviena sniega parslina, neviena balta teka. Beautiful poem just stirred my imagination to what a white, silent Christmas night must feel like seeing candles glowing in windows and somewhere a lone traveler heading home through the woods.
Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you.

Arija, we, on the other hand, have all the new-fallen snow one could want for a picturesque Christmas Eve… now if only there were some “rakstitas kamanas.” Oh well, I’ll have to do with the ride on the commuter train that is in my immediate future.

Visiem novelu siltus, jaukus Svetkus.

Well, at least you have snow to give you that picturesque Christmas Eve.  “Rakstitas kamanas” would be asking too much, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to sit in them, under a “rakstita” blanket and listening to the horses’ bells as you glide through a snowy, moonlit path in a deep, dark forest? 
Bet they still do that in Latvia.

Snow we do have, here in Montreal, and plenty of it.

Still, what you propose as a traditional ride sounds wonderful, Anita and Arija.  And I do believe we have something similar, if I’m not mistaken, in some parts of rural Canada, but I’d need to know the exact translation for “rakstitas kamanas” , although I can take an educated guess.

In any case, Merry Xmas to all, and to all,
A good night.

Signing off for now,

Alana

I am sure there are places near Montreal that take tourists for horse drawn sleigh rides. The one and only time I have visited your city was in the summer.
“Rakstitas kamanas” to my limited Latvian knowledge are sleighs that have been carved with an ethnic design.  Same for “rakstitas” blankets. The ethnic designs and colors would be woven in them.  I am pretty certain most LOL’ers have one such blanket at home. “Rakstits” means “written” literally, but here the writing is the ethnic designing on the sled or the blanket. If my definition is wrong, would a more knowledgeable LOL’er come forward and provide a better explanation for both Alana and I.

Thanks so much, Arija.

Arija, man ari loti patik Valda Mora’s dzejolis.  And if it were but possible, I’d be more than happy to give up some of this snow here.  Although after a very rainy, windy Christmas Eve with rising temps, it’s amazing just how much of the white stuff has melted.  But, that’s typical here in New England—don’t, like it( the weather),wait a while and it will change.

As for Anita’s ‘rakstitas kamanas’, I have to confess, I didn’t quite understand the meaning, but now…I get it!  And this is something I have not yet, but would love to experience—a horse drawn sleigh ride through the snow at night.  Ar rakstiem butu jau labak, but, hey—I’ll take that sleigh ride with our without the ‘raksti.’  This reminds me of a story I once translated from Latvian into English for a lady friend of mine.  It was her personal recollections of how she spent Christmas, growing up in Latvia with her family.  From all the many weeks of preparation (foods, decorations)—beating oneself, one another with birch branches in the sauna before going to chuch. The family piling into the sleigh, huddling together under blankets, under the stars; their black mare’s hooves crunching on the snow,  soft tinkling of bells—the only sounds to be heard before their final destination, arrival—the white, shining church sitting high on the hill.  These are some of the descriptions which remain so very vivid in my mind, even , as I struggle, flounder trying to recapture these images in my own meager words. And I think, what a wonderful legacy to pass on to her grandchildren, who speak no Latvian, about their grandmother’s Latvian Christmas.  It also makes me ponder about how much of real life we’re missing out on,(a kind of atrophy of the senses), living in this very impersonal, advanced, sophisticated technologcial age.

Irena

You said it so beautifully, Irena.  I can just picture that sleigh ride to the church and the Christmas preparation.  And you are so right about what “real life we are missing” in our technological age.  I know we don’t have the hard work the grandmother had to prepare for her Christmas Eve festivities, yet knowing all that, why do I still feel a longing in my heart when I look back on her life?
Thanks for sharing that story.