Saturday: John and I had such a lovely evening for Christmas Eve. We watched two of our most favored movies. We really love the old black and white "A Christmas Carol" with Alistair Sim as Scrooge. The second movie we watched was "The Bishop's Wife". We had popcorn and hot cocoa to go with our movies.
This morning, we had our usual canned orange Danish for our holiday meal. I was out of sausage of any sort but no hardship to go without. It's the Orange Danish that's a must!
In my home this week, we are seeing the year through to the end. I cannot say I'm sorry to see the backside of this year. It was, in its own way, as difficult as the year that went before. Just a different sort of difficult than we had in 2020.
Shabat/Christmas was quiet and lovely. I enjoyed it very much as did John. We had a lovely dinner, which was delicious and of which we had plenty of leftovers. One doesn't go from planning for 4 or 5 and end serving 2 without leftovers. Never mind. We added them to our freezer and will make extra meals using those items.
Here we are...The time is here. The door has opened. We are through to the other side.
Angels came and spoke to men. A child was born. A gift, the Son of Man, came to heal the world and carry its sin. He came with only a handful to know. A young girl and a young man, shepherds and wise men. The world was in darkness and sin.
Saturday: Katie was quite right. We had enough food and only a few leftovers to deal with. I made the Ranch Roll ups, BBQed Smoky Franks, the Marinated Sandwiches, Sausage Balls, Chips with various dips and salsa, veggies with Ranch and Hummus, and a Fruit Platter. The kids ate like they'd never had a meal before. Every adult had a plate that was fully loaded, too.
The pile of presents under the tree was rather amazing. Every one of the adult children bought for each other and every child. Of course, we'd done the same, so it was an impressive looking stash. Only us girls all knew that many and many a bargain was in those packages. Katie is queen of Target and Bess excels at CVS ECBs. Gramma just loves to find sales/clearance items. We all came well under our budget for spending and none of us will owe anyone after Christmas.
There are stages in our waiting season. The moment when we rest. The moment when we begin to prepare. The moment when we begin to look beyond ourselves and love one another. And then, when we have become comfortable in our waiting season, and are thinking perhaps after all it's not such a bad spot to be, we find that anticipation comes. We begin to prepare with fresh strengths.
In my home this week, we are pretty much done with the holiday as far as family is concerned. Our Christmas Day will be fairly quiet but that is ahead yet. This week shall be a lot less hectic and a whole lot more relaxed. I don't plan to work too hard at all this week. In fact, I'm going to just cool my jets and I mean it.
Saturday: Our day was very quiet. No carols, no tuning on the tree lights. We mostly just did nothing. I made our usual Saturday lunch pizza. This week I made Buffalo Chicken pizza. I don't make this one often, but we really enjoy the change when I do make it.
Late afternoon and evening were a whole different story from our morning and early afternoon. We were just beginning to get ready to leave when the weather blew through with heavy wind and rain. It poured. It started getting really dark by 4:30. We were determined we'd keep our evening as planned but it was tempting to just stay home.
We were pretty sure we'd go the route of a mobile home. Financially it made the most sense. Aesthetically, mobile homes were on the uprise and while they might look like cookie cutter homes on the outside they were often well designed with modern finishes and arrangements inside. As well, most of the homes on the lots were staged, long before anyone was staging traditional built homes to sell, and that staging could really help you see how well a home could adapt to your own needs and family and furnishings.
In days of old, a man entertained strangers often. Doors were opened and the stranger was welcomed within. No decent man would turn away a stranger who appeared. In Biblical times, hospitality was not simply inviting someone to stay to supper. It was a spiritual obligation as much as a personal one to offer one's home and comforts to a weary traveler. It was more than entertainment. Hospitality was something deeper. It was a reverence for the person, stranger though they might be. Hospitality was an offering of refuge, refreshment, rest, and restoration. It was the essence of 'Love thy neighbor'.
I'm going to skip the room reviews until the end of the year.
In my home this week, I'm going to be busy, busy. I was thrown off my preparation plans for the Family Day last week and this week will be hectic as can be as I try to get things ready. I have gifts to wrap, cards to finish addressing, decorations to finish, cookies to bake, food to prepare and Caleb to keep all week long, as well. It's going to be a busy week.
Saturday: When he got up this morning, John lit the tree. That made me smile. I usually don't decorate it right away but it's still pretty and very pleasant if one is sitting in a semi-dark room which John was doing. He didn't open the curtains behind the tree at all, and I left them closed so that he could enjoy the lights.
Hello dears, do come in. There are Snickerdoodles and Hot Cocoa, Coffee and Tea. Take your choice of hot drinks and come sit with me here near the sparkling Christmas tree which to date has only some inexpensive pinecone ornaments attached. I plan to do more to the tree, but Caleb...hence the inexpensive pinecones. I know that his little fingers are so tempted and if no one is the room he must touch and remove something from it as he did this afternoon and who can blame him? It's asking far too much of a two-year-old who is entranced by this lovely tree that has appeared in the middle of his favorite window, to also say "Don't touch" and think he's going to mind. Of course, he's going to touch! and stand and stare and talk to himself before it.
Often enough the waiting season comes on the heels of a hard season, one in which we'd already begun to question the reasons of our own place in life. There is sometimes a shock when we find ourselves in the waiting zone, but waiting has many purposes.
1. It's a time for rest. Our time at synagogue came on the heels of 10 years of intense involvement, work and study within the churches and synagogue. When John finally agreed to attend church with me, he encouraged us to be active in services, study groups and activities. We often attended church two or three days a week. John entered a period of intense creativity and wrote numerous songs, got involved with the worship team at church and became an ordained worship leader for our synagogue. I started a church newsletter at one church and volunteered for various activities, including church clean up. John mowed grass. We planned vacations to fall between church services.
I think this is likely a style from the very late 1920s or early 1930. I thought it would be fun to share various rooms throughout the house, but I have to say that honestly dining rooms are pretty much classic, aren't they? I would think the hutch was newish to the era but the buffet at the back is common enough and seen from the 1800's onward.
The Duncan Phyfe style table and chairs shown here were very popular around this period and many reproductions appeared. I saw this style often in older family homes during my childhood. The buffet in the room is likely a holdover from Victorian days and probably was a family piece. But that China hutch? 20th century. The secretary to the left here might well be another antique, older than the buffet. This room is a true mixture of modern and antique and yet manages to be harmonious.
Sunday: Up early this morning as John was off to church and I had Caleb coming so that Katie could work an extra shift. After John left home, I realized with a start that he'd had no breakfast. I was so in the Caleb schedule zone that I never even thought of making anything before he arrived. As for John, I hate he left without eating, but we (including himself) all know that he knows where foods are kept and how to make them. I like doing things such as that for him but if it's obvious I'm unwell or zoned into a different schedule he can make anything he likes without fuss from me.
