December 25, 2009 – Merry Christmas from Bedlam Farm. This is a different Christmas for me, and one to think about. I saw my daughter in New York, and am spending Christmas Day with Maria and her mother and the dogs. Got some nice gifts, a sweater jacket. We are taking Maria’s mom to the opera in New York in March.

I gave Maria two beautiful classic jigsaw puzzles from Liberty Puzzles of Boulder, Colo, and they are enchanting, in that the puzzle pieces tell their own stories. I will love photographing them. I’ve fallen a bit in love with this ballerina, and have begun telling her story in my head. I see her as sweet, exhausted, vulnerable, struggling to get into the ballet in the big city, practicing day after day. I don’t know how the story turns out. Great, said Maria. Does she have to be jealous of a jigsaw puzzle piece?

I love the Liberty Puzzles. This one has 378 individualistically carved wooden pieces. From “In the Garden,” by Donna Schuster.

This afternoon we are going out to see the new “Sherlock Holmes.” I love the Doyle series so it will be interesting to see how it is being re-imagined for the digital age.