Evelyn C. McDonald
Arts & Culture Reporter
December 21, 2016 1:00 a.m.
Funny how we set markers in time as points to stop and reflect. For the longest time, September always seemed like the start of something new. That was the result of 16 years of education. Somehow my birthday in mid-year never seemed like a marker. Now I think it’s the yearend holidays. They are a time to reflect on the past year.
I love all the Christmas lights. Imaginative decorations are all over the place lighting up the town. This holiday season I noticed another item that is being decorated – cars. I know this isn’t new but it has risen to a level where I became more aware of it. I guess it started with wreaths attached to the front grill of the cars. I saw a car the other day with an odd decoration that took me a minute to process. The front grill had a round red thing on it that looked like a small pillow. It was only when I saw the reindeer antlers sticking up from the front windows that I realized it was a homage to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
This has been a good year. I’ve enjoyed doing this column and have greatly appreciated the comments from readers indicating that they have enjoyed the columns as well. I don’t have a bucket list but I do like to think about things I’ve done and seen that I never thought I’d be doing and seeing. One year it was getting into a kayak for the first time. This year it was entering my first 2 mile walk for charity.
Years are always a mix of good and not so good. The end of the year is a time to reflect on the balances and to look forward to the holidays with family and friends. This column will resume the first week of January when I may talk about surviving the Orange Bowl game between my alma mater Michigan and Florida State.
My best wishes for a happy holiday, lots of good food, and a happy new year go out to all of you.
Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. She is a chair of Arts & Culture Nassau, a city commission charged with support of the arts in Nassau County. She serves on FSCJ’s Curriculum Committee for the Center for Lifelong Learning. She is also the chair of the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.
M go Blue