Wednesday 17th December - A Christmas Morning

On we trot, and we are are only 8 days away from Christmas!  So much to do!  Cake, mince pies, croissants, knitted nativity (long story), cooking, cleaning, travelling!  And the dentist!  All before I can pull back the curtains on Christmas day...

A Christmas Morning Robert Gemmell Hutchison

It is becoming the Blogvent of Impressionist Scotsmen, and here we have Robert Gemmell Hutchison, born in Edinburgh in 1860 and best known for his breezy, glimmering seaside scenes.  However, today we have a girl opening up the curtains on Christmas morning.  The room is unwillingly allowing the light to steal in.  Actually, it's not light in the sense of daylight but the light reflected off the snow that fills the window-view.  I love how the loose brushwork seems to hint at snow falling inside as well.   The paleness of the scene, the gold of the curtains and the snow blends through to that pink bow on the back of the frock.  Is it a bow of an apron?  She's wearing a little cap too and her sleeves are rolled up for work.  Whoever she is, she appears to be 'unwrapping' the day, peeling back the curtains to reveal the beauty and wonder of Christmas.

Her First Christmas Robert Gemmell Hutchison

I think I am going to guess the figure in A Christmas Morning is just a girl, the daughter of the house maybe because Hutchison specialised in children. In Her First Christmas we see the beloved daughter about to wake up to a stocking and toys and all the joy of Christmas morning.  There is a parent's anticipation about the scene.  The baby is far too young to appreciate what is going on but the artist (if this is his daughter) will remember how it felt to be a parent at Christmas for the first time.  For the record here is Lily's first Christmas...

She was about three weeks old, so by this point we hadn't slept for three weeks and I was as mad as a box of frogs.  Other than that, it was magical.  Okay, this one is slightly better...

That was Lily's second Christmas, she was just over a year old and we were sleeping by that point.  I was still as mad as a box of frogs but that only lasted for another six months after this.  My sympathies go to parents at Christmas as the pressure to make your child's existence special, as special as the little girl in Hutchison's picture of a baby's first Christmas, is so intense at this time of year, that it can threaten to overwhelm all the nice stuff, the other things that should be uppermost in your mind.  The people you love and who love you, want you this Christmas, in one piece and vaguely sane. The greatest gift you can give to people is your time, your kindness and your love.

And a box of Ferrero Rocher.

Okay, so my pressie suggestion today is especially for you.  Take today off.  Take 24 hours to relax, read a book, have a snooze in front of Poirot, pour some booze over your Christmas cake, and possibly a little into yourself.  Replace words in film titles with the word 'muff'. Remember wherever you are, you're doing a marvellous job and people appreciate and love you.

Happy Christmas.