Happy Epiphany

Epiphany

God is shining forth

in the most unwanted

and unsuspected places

January 6 is the Feast of the Epiphany. It is the 12th day of Christmas. A lot of people do not know this since the media and the merchants have done their darnedest to convince us that those twelve days are for shopping and are therefore before Christmas.

The Epiphany is 12 days after our Lord's birthday and is remembered as the day the 3 Magi, the Kings, the Wise Men found the Baby in the manger after they followed the star.

May we all follow the star and find the Babe.

The Christmas Story 2007

Most bizarre Christmas ever - and that’s going some!

Lil man was at his dad’s. This ended up being very good!

As previously reported, my sweetie was ill on Thursday and Friday. I was ill on Saturday and Sunday. We ventured out on Monday to pick up the last few things necessary for dinner.

Julie was supposed to be off Friday and Saturday, work Sunday and Monday, and then be off Tuesday and Wednesday. She ended up working 8 on Sunday, 16 on Monday, 16 on Tuesday and I don’t yet know what she’s doing today.

I had not planned on cooking Christmas dinner, just for Shorty and me. Not being pathetic - we had planned to spend the day going to Mass and then working on the house (the skirting is still not on!).

We decided that since Julie had to work so many hours over the holiday and since her lil man wasn’t home, the least that I could do was to, as a Christmas gift, make her the “softy salad” that is part of her Christmas tradition. It is my ex-mother-in-law’s recipe - not my favorite.

The salad led to the ham which led to the potatoes which led to the pineapple stuffing which led to the pumpkin pie which led to the raspberry pie…you get the idea.

I had a relapse Monday evening.

This led to me, lying in bed, trying to explain to my sweetie how to pull recipes out of the computer. I love my husband AND he is not the most adept at anything but the most basic of computer crap. He finally found the file and then

The power went out.

Our house is 100% electric.

So, 2 hours later, the power came back on. I was lying in bed, trying to explain to my sweetie that mixing butter and sugar together is CALLED creaming them and there is no cream involved and no, it is not supposed to be the consistency of cream and…

I got up and we cooked dinner together. Shorty then took dinner to Julie and came home. I went back to bed.

As long as I don’t move and don’t put anything in my stomach, I’m fine.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Y'all from Me and Mine!

Christmas Program

Friday morning, lil man had a Christmas program at his school. There was a "grandma" reading the Christmas story from the Bible. Originally, the other 19 kids were supposed to just sit and listen. Uh huh. They're 2nd graders. In the end, parts were assigned and lines were given. However, and this is a stroke of genius which I totally failed to capture on film, no costumes were required. Signs were made with the characters drawn on them. The Holy Family was there, the wise men were there, the shepherds were there (lil man was shepherd #1) and of course, there was a plethora of lambs and sheep and cows. When it was time for a particular character's line - the sign popped up, the line was spoken, the sign popped down. It was very cute.

The best line of the entire production, in my opinion, was NOT lil man's but was Joseph's. Mary explained to Joseph that God had come to her in a dream and said that she was to bear a child who would be the Savior. Joseph said that that was all well and good and maybe when they'd been together a couple of years and had a little money set by, she could do that. She said that she was already 'with child'. Joseph said, "YOU'RE WHAT?"

Sick

We had an uneventful trip to Abilene with the lil man on Friday (except for that self-inflicted tour of Lubbock) and a safe drive home.

It snowed Saturday morning or so my hubby says. I have been in bed with the creeping crud and have just surfaced for some "sick noodle soup".

If I don't blog before, Merry Merry Christmas to y'all!

Busy, busy, busy

We just finished opening our Christmas presents! Lil man has a "Christmas Theatre" presentation at school this morning and will then be dismissed at noon. His mom and I are then driving half way to his dad's house and meeting his dad for the 'Christmas vacation swap'.

So, since lil man will not be here till next year! we opened our gifts this morning. It is the only time that Grampits, Mom, Lil Man, and I could all be awake at the same time!

My poor hubby was sick all last night and insisted on going to work this morning, so he was not much in the gift-opening mode. Lil Man took him his presents while he was still in bed and Julie and I, such empathetic souls we are, started giggling and comparing him to the grandparents in the Willie Wonka movie...lol. Thank goodness he laughed, too.

It was a great morning, all in all, and I will post pics later but today I am at sixes and sevenses and just wanted to let y'all know where I disappeared to.

Worth Searching For

I love Christmas. I love Christmas movies. This is my all time favorite movie. It is Nestor, Long-Eared Christmas Donkey.

I first saw this movie in a truck stop, probably about 13 years ago. I fell in love with it but could never find it to buy. My husband, who never remembers what I want, tracked it down and bought it for me for Christmas the next year. It was, and is, the sweetest and most romantic Christmas gift he has ever given me.

It was on TV the other night and lil man and my daughter got to see it for the first time (Julie was already out of our house the first time I saw it). It is still a wonderful story, true to the Christmas story.

I love Christmas.

PPL- Cinquain and Celebration

Want this button?Please scroll down for Fun Monday! Thanks.

What is Pensieve's Poetic License? A monthly carnival designed to encourage EVERYONE to exercise their poetry gene. Everyone is born with one; sometimes you just need "permission" (or a kick in the behind) to use it.

December: Form: Cinquain Theme: Celebration

Post poem week of December 17th

Here are my two (yes, I am an overachiever) contributions for this month on theme.

Celebration
Joyously happy
Singing, smiling, giving
My heart is overwhelmed
Salvation
Celebration
Sacred solemn
Observe, perform, honor
We participate in ceremonies
Christmas

Here is one I wrote before I knew this month's theme. It is a gift for my sweetheart.

Passion
Strong emotion
Surging retreating recharging
My soul sings entwined
Marriage

The Suckiest Christmas Ever

The Irish have “the troubles”. In our family, we have “the bad times.” There were a few years, ok, more than a few when all was not goodness and light.


One of those years, my oldest daughter was at boarding school and my youngest daughter was living with her grandparents in a different state. I took time off of work to drive to my ex-in-laws to deliver Twidge’s Christmas presents.

About 2 hours from home, on the lovely drive (it really was) through the snow-covered mountains, I noticed smoke coming from the engine compartment of my car. I pulled over, popped the hood, and voila! My car was on fire.

A very nice trucker (at great personal risk) stopped his rig, hopped out with his fire extinguisher, and tried to put out the flames. The police came, the fire department came, a lot of lookie-loos came and, when it was over, my car was totaled, the gifts were burned, and I was in shock.

The very nice (I am surrounded, at all times, by very nice people. I think it’s part of that whole “God protects fools and drunks” thing) highway patrolman did tell me to not just use the on-call tow service since then my car would be there - 2 hours from home. He suggested that I call my local tow service. It would be a longer wait but at least the car - or should I say car-cass - would end up at home. I took his suggestion and he stayed with me as long as he could, but he got another call.

So, there I was. December, lovely snow-covered mountain road, smelly hulk of a burned-out car, sitting on the side of the road waiting on a tow truck. To say that I was feeling sorry for myself, and for the Twidge, who was waiting for me without any way of knowing what had happened, is putting it mildly. I was sitting there, just sitting there when, apparently out of nowhere, a very nice man appeared. He had walked up from his residence down the side of the mountain to bring me a cup of coffee and to make sure that I was all right. Angels among us.

The tow truck arrived and they had a cell phone - this was back in the day, y’all. Cell phones were a rarity and generally possessed only by those people who needed them for their jobs. Mort, the tow truck driver, asked if I wanted to call my husband. I did. I called and told my sweetie that there had been a problem with the car. Yes, I am the Queen of Understatement. His response? “What did you do to it this time?”

Not our most pleasant holiday, trust me.

Christmas Past

This is a picture of the Nativity scene in front of the City Hall in the town where I grew up. This picture, taken from the local newspaper, is from around the mid to late 70's when my girls were small. Attached to the City Hall was the Fire Department, where my girlfriend's dad had worked for as long as I can remember.

My parents lived in the same house, the house they built in 1941, until my dad died in 1998. At the time of this story, the girls and I lived in the neighboring county but visited my folks a lot, especially during the Christmas season.

I was driving home one evening with the girls and the 37 imaginary bluebirds that accompanied my oldest daughter everywhere. Thank goodness I had a pickup truck. It was raining and the weather was as close to winter as it ever got there. We were driving past the City Hall when my daughter screamed for me to stop. I did, you know that graceful way you stop when a 3 year old is screaming?

She was crying because the Baby Jesus was getting wet.

We took one of her sister's receiving blankets and covered the Baby as best as we could and went home.

I did not tell anyone this story but the word got out when my girlfriend's dad returned the blanket, washed and folded, to my mom.

All of the years after that, the Baby had his "swaddling clothes" when He was laid in the manger.

I have always been nurtured by small towns and the good folks who live in them.

More Christmas Baking

The other day, lil man and I made Magic Cookie Bars, using the recipe on the magic. They were wonderful and everyone loved them.

The next day, lil man and I were watching Miss Paula on the Food Network and she made "5 Layer Bars" with exactly the same ingredients. However, she put them together in a different order and hers came out of the oven looking just wonderful.

Yesterday, lil man and I made Miss Paula's "5 Layer Bars" and they absolutely knocked the socks off the original recipe.

So, if any of y'all were going to make these for Christmas or a church bake sale or whatever, do yourselves and your eaters a favor and use Miss Paula's recipe.

Ornament Swap

I participated in the ornament swap orchestrated by Julie at AbbilyEverAfter. The other day I picked up my mail and, lo and behold, not only were there 10 trees from the Arbor Day Foundation (who knew you could mail trees?) but also a manilla mailer. Hurray!

I opened the manilla mailer when I got home. Inside was this lovely wrapped box (I forgot to take a picture before I took the card off. Sorry, Julie)



Yep, my ornament was from Julie herself. She enclosed a lovely note explaining that her family gets the annual Christmas ornament from the White House Historical Society and she thought I might like this year's ornament also.


She was right!


The ornament box itself is lovely.


Inside is the ornament along with a booklet explaining the event depicted, in this case Grover Cleveland's White House Wedding, and the history leading up to the event.


Here is the ornament on my tree, where it will be AbbilyEverAfter!

Thanks, Julie, for this lovely ornament and for organizing the ornament swap!

Fun Monday - Favorite Ornament

Our hostess this week is the lovely Lady K, who

In the spirit of the season I would like to see your favorite Christmas tree ornament. Not to be confused with the WHOLE tree. I want you to zoom in and show me one or a few(you know I can't choose just one!) of your favorite ornaments. If you don't decorate a tree, show me your menorah or dreidel, Kinara, or Yule Log. I want to see your favorite decoration for this holiday season.

I have had several favorite ornaments through the years that are either misplaced or broken, but this

is an angel that I made myself. She is patterned after an old window shade pull. She has travelled well through the years and is aging gracefully.

This one is warm and fuzzy

Thursday night, while my daughter was at work, LilMan, Grampits and I went to the big town. We had dinner first at The Cattle Call. Wonderful barbecue and they DO deliver. We had dinner delivered once to us when we were at Julie and RJ's in San Diego. It was awesome.

My two favorite guys.

Word search (the pork was in a spork)

There are no pictures of the ribs, etc. but this is what was left of the JackDaniels Bread Pudding. Oh my gosh, it was GOOD!

The Angel Tree

What we bought for an 8 year old little boy.

Mittens

Mud Bogger T-Shirt

Glow in the dark Spiderman shirt with toy

Levis (even though our lil man wears Wranglers like Dale Earnhardt, Jr.)

My husband could not believe I payed good money for pants that were already "worn out".

We also bought a set of Magnetix toys that I forgot to take a picture of.

Then LilMan got to see Santa

Santa told LilMan to go to bed early on Christmas Eve so he (Santa) could get to work early. You might want to pass this on.

We had a wonderful time.

Happy St. Nicholas' Feast Day

St. Nicholas

(the 1st Santa)

O good holy Nicholas,

you who brought joy to children,

put in my heart the spirit of childhood

about which the Gospel speaks.

Teach me how to sow

happiness around me. Amen.

Image and prayer courtesy of the Franciscans (www.americancatholic.org)

12 Questions of Christmas

For the holiday season, Hootin' Anni started a meme. "The Twelve Questions of Christmas" If you'd like to participate, she'd be honored to have you join in the fun. If you'd like, you are welcomed to use the meme header graphic!

1. Christmas is MAGIC. [fill in the blank with ONE WORD]

2. In memories, what was the best part of your Christmases past? Midnight Mass when it was still at midnight, singing in the choir, and getting to stay up SO late.

3. Was Santa ever good to you? I hate to do this to my Mom and to Santa, but I honestly cannot remember a spectacularly great Christmas when I was a kid.

4. Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or both? When I was little, it was one on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas day. Nowadays, a lot of it depends on who is at which parent's for which holiday.

5. Is there something you make each and every year? Fudge, always.

6. What is your favorite five[5] Christmas songs/hymns? God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlmen; Silent Night; Angels We Have Heard on High; Adeste Fidelis (in Latin); The First Noel

7. Is there a new tradition for Christmas since your childhood days? Baby Jesus' Birthday Cake

8. Describe one of your Christmas trips. My husband and I used to drive truck cross country. We were on the road for a whole lot of Christmasses and spent a lot of them with friends we had made on the road (special waitresses, customers, etc.) One that particularly stands out was when we got snowed in at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. We were there so long the truckstop ran out of food! The snow was so deep that our boxer, Holly, took one look outside (the snow was over the running board of the semi), turned around and stayed inside for 3 days!

9. Do you have a special Christmas outfit to wear for the day? Jams

10. Have YOU or any of your family members sat on Santa's lap? Lil man did just last week

11. What is/or will be on your Christmas tree this year? A conglomeration of storebought, handmade, old, new, pretty, crafty, clunky.

12. Do you/or have you decorated your yard for Christmas? I tried. The dogs ate the wreath.

Not all warm and fuzzy

So, my blog today was supposed to be a warm and fuzzy post about another annual tradition - the Salvation Army Angel Tree.

Last night, we (lil man, hubby, and I) were supposed to go the big town, have dinner at Johnny Carino's and then go to the mall, where the Angel Tree lives.

Instead, we sat at home and ate Taco Bell because I had no dinner cooked and was too ticked to cook anything on the spur of the moment.

Why, you ask? Was there 10 feet of water over the highway? Was there 6 feet of snow blocking the roadway. Was there an area wide power outage?

No, to all of the above.

What there was was a small selfish child who took 30 minutes to whip out his spelling homework (20 words written twice each and 10 original sentences using the 1st ten words) and then took 3 1/2 friggin' hours to write 7 sentences that he was assigned as punishment for misbehaving at school.

I was not amused.

His grampits was not amused.

His evening was not pleasant but, as I pointed out to him, I am sure that it was more pleasant than the Christmas morning of some poor child who will have no Christmas gift to open because I was not there to buy one.

(We are going Thursday night - he does not know it)

Christmas Baking

Lil man and I made fudge last night. I was gonna make Magic Cookie Bars but had no magic. I made chocolate fudge without nuts because one of my favorite little girls is allergic to nuts.



This reminded me of a story from long, long ago.


Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away there lived a mom with 2 little girls, 2 little jobs, and just enough money. It was Christmastime in the kingdom and the mom and the little girls were making candy to give as gifts to the babysitter (who was helping), the landlord, the mailman, etc.

We were making 2 kinds of candy at the time. Walnut Bourbon Balls and Unwalnut Bourbon Balls.

The littlest girl, 6 at the time, rolled one of the UBB into a perfect ball and placed it in the paper cup and said, “There, isn’t she pretty?”

I said, “Yes, it is, baby, but why is it a she?”

“No nuts, Mom.“

Reindeer Facts

REMEMBER

THIS AT

CHRISTMAS

TIME

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl.

We should've known... ONLY women would be able to drag a roly-poly, jolly old man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.

The Christmas Centerpiece

A while back, I wrote a blog about rednecks and included a picture of a centerpiece that was a collaboration between me and my grandson.

Well, autumn is over and Christmas is near.

Lil man went through the shotgun shells and we had only red and green shotgun shells for the Christmas centerpiece.

Then he brought me three yellow ones and asked that they be included. I asked why and he said yellow like the star of "you know, that town" and three because the star led the three wise men to "you know, that town" where the Baby was born.

His first time using the wire cutters.

Please note the "wise man"

Yep, just like we wanted!