It’s December and the holidays are now officially in full swing. Let us avoid holiday clichés and focus on meanings – loving our fellow beings, caring for those in need, and lighting up our long nights here in the northern hemisphere.
You may find these recent videos to be helpful: Memorializing Loved Ones with Luminarias, a Mortality Minute look at the Southwest tradition of illuminating and visiting graves on Christmas Eve, and Tips on How to Stop Christmas Clutter, a few ideas on minimizing materialism and focusing on doing things with people we love.
While you might think giving someone a book contributes to clutter, you can give clutter-crazed friends or relatives a coupon for your time and assistance in addition to a copy of KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die. There are two more KICKING THE BUCKET LIST book signings coming up this week: Thursday at the Horn Family YMCA, and Saturday at Treasure House Books in Old Town Albuquerque. You’ll find location addresses and times in the events section below.
And the next Albuquerque Death Café is scheduled for Saturday, December 17, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The holidays can be an especially tough time after a loved one has died – it’s okay to talk about it here. RSVP for the address – it’s at my home. More information here.
Wishing you much holiday merriness, brightness and cheer! Links to recent posts at The Family Plot Blog, upcoming events and a funny quote follow. Please call 505.265.7215 if I can be of assistance!
Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death®
The Family Plot Blog Highlights
Click on the titles to read the blog post and see the associated videos. Review all posts on The Family Plot Blog.
A Roadster for Car Enthusiasts and Funeral Directors If you saw this vehicle on the road, you’d probably think it originated in the 1920s or 1930s. But this Baron Roadster was originally designed in the 1970s by Max Prinzing, a pioneering automotive manufacturer who created vehicles that looked like old classics.
Casket Pods for Green Burial from Capsula Mundi Capsula Mundi’s founders, Italian designers Raoul Bretzel and Anna Citelli, see death as not the end, but the beginning of a way back to nature. They have redesigned the coffin, using secular and universal symbols of life: the egg, the tree and the fetal position.
Upcoming Events and a Funny Quote
Thursday, December 8, 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.— Discussion and book signings for KICKING THE BUCKET LIST and other A Good Goodbye products at the Horn Family YMCA, 4901 Indian School Rd NE, Albuquerque, NM.
Saturday, December 10, 1:00 p.m. — Speaking and book signing event for KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die at Treasure House Books, 2012 S Plaza St NW, Albuquerque, NM.
Saturday, December 17 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. — The next Albuquerque Death Cafe will be held at Gail Rubin’s home. RSVP for the address. More information at this web page.
“The nerve of those Whos. Inviting me down there – on such short notice! Even if I wanted to go my schedule wouldn’t allow it. 4:00, wallow in self pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one; 5:30, Jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me – I can’t cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness. But what would I wear?” — The Grinch, How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000 movie)