Lessons from listening to a handbell choir Everyone has their own bell to play. Each bell sounds different from the others. Not everyone plays the same number of times. Some bells need to be played very softly. Some bells are played loud and often. Sometimes a bell is played with glad abandon, holding the bell up and letting its tone resound. Other times a bell is played very briefly, and then tamped to stop the […]
Today I mixed up my yearly batch of Franee’s Famous Nut Bread. Franee is my beloved mother in law who went to heaven many years ago. I first had it in her kitchen at Christmas time a few months after meeting my husband. The bread is rich with nuts, currants, and raisins, and after we married and moved away she gave me the recipe. Now I love making this bread at this time of year and […]
My house looks like a big party went down, the blessing of lots of family members willing to come and stay awhile. But all good things do come to an end, and this is it. And someone gets to put things to rights, and that is mostly me. This morning, the first morning after everyone has left, there is tired Christmas deco, some of it just barely hanging on, fragrant pine needles that seem to […]
Left about 11 am with the sun shining and dry feet, though bundled to the hilt against the close to freezing winds, and made it to St Sulpice in time for the end of mass and the magnificent organ concert. The music was particularly uplifting given the grandeur of the surroundings and the memory of what happened last weekend. We were all spellbound by the soaring and triumphant music. Found a tiny cafe which was […]
Crowding my coveted kitchen counter space are two seasonal candles, a headless nutcracker that needs mending, a doll’s dish full of random game pieces and dice, two cans of snow that we are afraid to reconstitute since a protective covering is mentioned in the instructions, a large stack of unopened mail and two small stocking gifts which did not find their way upstairs to be packed by my 10-year-old granddaughter. The kids’ play area is covered […]
It’s always kind of a letdown. No matter how “well” everything went, we humans are not meant for this sustained level of intensity and special-ness. Every meal, dish used (I am in the kitchen a lot), activity, and outfit, all must be different, special, festive, to commemorate the awesomeness of our Savior’s birth. And it is true that his coming is a wonderful and amazing thing. But the season never quite lives up emotionally, or […]
There is so much written in the weeks preceding Christmas about how to keep the “true meaning” of Christmas, how to keep from getting stressed out about to do lists, how to do Christmas right this year. Almost makes me feel a bit guilty about making lists, decorating, and cooking! I honestly love preparing for my family’s Christmas, and I’m usually pretty good about not killing myself over everything. Sure, I get stars in my eyes about what I’ll […]
A handful of quietness 