Terrapin Station

Friday Five: Advent Confidential

As posted by me at RevGals:

Good morning, all! In the United States we are waking up from our annual turkey feast, a day and meal surrounded by traditions of all sorts.

One of my favorite Thanksgiving morning traditions is listening to a National Public Radio program called “Turkey Confidential,” in which Lynne Rossetto Kasper and a selection of celebrity cooks take calls from people with problems like, “I put too much cayenne in the cranberry sauce!” and get advice like, “Add a little fat, like cream, to cut that heat.” It’s folksy and amusing, and celebrity chefs join in as well. And I do it every year, so: it’s a tradition.

Waiting for us, just around the corner, is Advent, which almost all of us observe in some way…whether by that name or no, we are all preparing for the coming of the Christ.

Today’s Friday Five, following that line, is Advent Confidential. What are your favorite traditions, observances, hymns, or memories of Advent? Is there something you remember from childhood that you’d like to do again? A funny story you can share about the time the Advent wreath got a little over-lit? We are here and listening!

Play along with us, and if you do so on your own blog, let us know in the comments.

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1. As a child, I loved lighting the Advent wreath at the dinner table, and taking turns doing a reading that ended with the antiphon: "Our King and Saviour draweth nigh / O, come let us adore Him." Given our current work schedules and preferences, we rarely eat at the table, so if this happens it's elsewhere.

2. I must confess that part of the fascination in the above was lighting a candle at the table, which was not usual for us and which my sister and I fought to be able to do. What is that fascination with fire? We also had a long-handled candle-snuffer, which I learned in Godly Play teaching (as an adult) to call "the light-changer." (The light never goes away...it just changes.)

3.  When I was little (this was the early 70's) my mom made us a wonderful Advent calendar out of felt, a wall-hanging of a Christmas tree with little ornaments in numbered pockets below. Every day we could put an ornament on the tree. We had some Advent calendars of the paper variety as well, but I would love to see that homemade felt one again. Mom, any idea where it is?

4. I appreciate Advent as a change of liturgical season and a time to re-charge my devotional batteries. There are very many printed and online resources for Advent, and I always choose one. In the past, as noted above, family Advent observances were at dinner time. Now I weave them into my morning prayer time.

5. One of my most favorite things to do in the Advent season is to sit and read by the light of the Christmas tree. In my childhood family, we put it up in the days following Thanksgiving, so there was a good long time for that. As I look back at this, I am lying on my stomach with my book propped up on a stack of wrapped gifts. The varicolored lights on the tree make for wonderful reading. Today, I am not likely to lie on the floor to read, particularly since the floor is hardwood, and I think I might need a little bit better light. But I'll get a chair close by the tree.

2013 Advent: I am excited for a trip to Houston (where I grew up) in December, just before Christmas. My mom, dad, younger sister and I will meet there for a visit with two of our older siblings and their offspring...which include my parents' three great-grandchildren. The youngest two we have never met, as they live in LA and New York. It is great anticipation...as is the waiting (come Spring) for my first grandchild. :)

Advent Disciplines

I've been thinking about Advent as a season of penitence. Somehow, despite the purple (or Sarum blue, O thou purists), I do not remember thinking of it that way before.

That may be a lie. If I look back into the archives of this blog, I have probably realized and discussed it. But it feels new to me, today, anyhow. That's why it's nice to be me: I get to realize things over and over again.

Here are some resources I found. 

What do you think?

 

Here's an online resource

Friday Five: Thanksgiving Food.

This week’s Friday Five is because of my preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner celebration, which here in the US will be next Thursday, November 28th. I hope our RevGals and Pals who are not in the US will play along, particularly as it relates to menus and food!

Be sure to link us to YOUR blog post by pasting your link into the comments.

1. Turkey: love it? hate it? self-basted? fry it or roast it? Tofu-turkey? Tell me more. (I’ve only had one roasted turkey come out totally delish so I’m fishing for your tips!) I love turkey, because I make it the way my mama taught me: with a Reynolds Turkey Oven Bag. Testify: it works every time.

2. Stuffing: bagged? homemade? sage? sausage? cornbread? oysters? nuts? Got any inspiration for me? I call it dressing, because it is never stuffed into anything except the mouth. I make bread dressing with cubed bread dressing starter, lots of onion, celery, butter, and chicken stock. Mmmm.

3. Cranberries: When we celebrated Thanksgiving in Europe one year, our French friends thought we were nuts to choose a very sour berry and then load it with sugar. (Let alone the stuff that comes out of a can in a blob of gelatinous ooze!) What do you do with cranberries? I learned to make whole berry dressing from a former student assistant (who was horrified that I used the canned kind...!) 

4. Potatoes: (Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew…) What’s your pleasure? Yes, please. I prefer butter and cream. My husband thinks they should be made akin to hot potato salad, with mustard, onion, chopped egg and dill pickle (that's not even how I make potato salad!) But if he likes it, I will make it.

5. Pie: I’m married to the Pie Man. Anything but coconut pie floats his boat. What do you make? (or buy?) Pumpkin? Pecan? Apple?  Usually a pecan. I don't like cooked apples.

BONUS: A recipe that you’ve tried out and will make it to your table this year.

I don't have one, but need to find one fast. We are going to Thanksgiving dinner at Courtney's parents' home...the first time we will have met them! Woo woo.

Change of heart

So, a while back I made a decision: I was not going to attend my parents' church any more. You can read about it here.

And the next time I went to visit, I didn't go to church. And no one died.

And then, as I prepared for a weekend visit last week, I remembered something about growing up with my dad:

when the introduction to the hymn starts playing, he sings or hums along. Yep, during the introduction, the part during which you are supposed to be quiet. When I was little I would say, "Daddy! you aren't supposed to sing now!" He would grin at me and keep doing it. It was embarrassing.

Now-a-days, both of my parents do it. But I don't find it embarrassing. I really find it quite endearing. Especially in my father, who does very few things that he is not supposed to do.

I realized that if I didn't go to church, I would miss that. So I went on Sunday.

If I had not gone, I would have missed the early singing...and I would also have missed hearing my dad serve as lector, to read from Job 19:23-27:

O that my words were written down!
O that they were inscribed in a book!
O that with an iron pen and with lead
they were engraved on a rock forever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see on my side
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

What a treasure, to hear that witness, and those words that I know he means with all his heart. He is 88 years old; and if he died this afternoon, he would be quite ready.

My parents raised me as a Christian, and as a lover of music. We all took guitar lessons together and went places toting four guitar cases, playing in the Folk Mass at church. Those formative things in my life have very much made me who I am, and I will always have them to treasure. Going to church together is a gift. I am grateful for it.

Friday Five: Super stah!!

My friend Anne says at RevGals: As I transition from a vocation as a parish priest to a very different kind of ministry I have been astounded by the kindness and helpfulness of others. Their words have encouraged and affirmed me, and they have shared ideas and initiated actions to benefit my new venture.  All of these individuals are women, and I am blessed and a little overwhelmed by the genuineness of their support. It stands in contrast to too much of my experience serving in the Church, which is often plagued by pettiness toward and criticism of its clergy.

Because there is far too little of it, for clergy in general and clergy women in particular, today I want to focus on affirming what we do well. Let’s practice giving ourselves complements, and—gasp!—accepting them with grace! It may be challenging, but I promise it won’t hurt.

List five super powers that you use in your vocational life. This isn’t bragging. It’s naming the light that shines from your lamp stand. Go!

• I have a gift for finding things on the web. I always say, if I had a superpower, that would be it. (That's where I found my hubby, you know.)
• I am a good listener and reflecter-back. At least that's what I hear.
• I am very good at seeing both sides of a story. This is a gift unless you want me to angrily take a side with you, and I am not necessarily going to do that. :)
• I love, LOVE, my friends and family. Don't mess with them, because then I won't see ANY other side of the story, and you better watch out. 
• I am a CRAZY fast reader.