Terrapin Station

A Great Light

Isaiah 9:2-7

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness-- on them light has shined.

 

You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, 

as people exult when dividing plunder.

 

For the yoke of their burden,

and the bar across their shoulders,  the rod of their oppressor,  you have broken as on the day of Midian.

For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood  shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

 

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us;

authority rests upon his shoulders;

and he is named:

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 

His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace

for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it

with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.

 

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Friday Five: Almost Christmas!

Jan says at RevGals: 

In a few days the Fourth Sunday of Advent will be celebrated, immediately followed by Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. A lot of worship and celebrating will be packed into these few days, which for my husband and me also includes our wedding anniversary today (41 years!). So for this holiday Friday Five, let's have a free-for-all: Write 5 items about anything connected with Christmas, which of course includes Advent. Be personal, professional, spiritual or however you are feeling!

1. I attended a Blue Christmas service last night for the first time.  It was lovely and very well done.  I was grateful to have the time and space to sit quietly with the sorrows of this year, the things that are making it hard to feel "jolly" right about now.  All the writing I have read about the Sandy Hook shootings has left me with this assurance: I don't have to feel jolly, now or ever. I have to practice joy, which is a fierce thing, rather than a light and frothy thing. 

2. I have one more gift to buy (unless I am forgetting something), plus a dress to wear to a wedding next week.  The latter is by far the harder thing, but I have enlisted a friend to go with me. She will make sure I do not attend the wedding in jeans.

3. Brandon and his girlfriend are coming on Christmas Night.  Fun!  Now that I know I can start planning a menu. 

4. This campus is SILENT. Almost.  Someone on a skateboard is going by under my window. But otherwise, silent. The department down the hall had a party earlier, with much loud laughing. My phone has rung once today. After 5:00 the heat will be turned off in all campus buildings and we will be in hibernation mode until after New Year's. I'm grateful to work at a university so that my holidays can be configured this way...but it is eerie here. 

5. The birds and squirrels that I feed outside my south window will be fine in my absence. I will look forward to seeing them next year. They are a large part of my daily joy.

Items of Christmas Eve (and the eve of it)

Night before Christmas, we go to bed early. Ken wakes up ~10 spiking a fever, over 100 degrees, very high for him. Alka Seltzer, rubbing alcohol, panic. Fever comes down within an hour. Wake up all night to take his temp with the forehead thermometer (such an invention). Not much sleep. Do not know why this happened.

Also in the night: dog barks like maniac, indicating unwelcome small visitor in kitchen. Ken deliriously constructs a Maginot Line of household items in doorways to prevent dogs from getting into kitchen. Visitors are welcome to do as they wish this night, but dogs MUST. STOP. BARKING.

He didn't get a lot of sleep either and snoozes past noon. Wakes up ready for Christmas with Brandon. We go to IHOP for the classic family meal.

The three of us go shopping at Tractor Supply, cause that's how we roll. Visitor removal supplies obtained.

Come home, nap. Wake up feeling like I've poked myself in the eye, and with a mouth full of ulcers. Stress much?

Dog barks like maniac: visitor spotted. Ken sets up the supplies purchased for him. I feel a great relief that I am no longer the only person in the house doing this sort of thing. Welcome back to mousetrapping, sweetie!

Soon: leave for church. Because my mouth hurts but my heart is glad. :) Merry merry to you all!

Friday Five: Christmases Past

A simple Five from Jan: 

Tell us about five Christmas memories you have.

1) I think my earliest Christmas memory is Christmas Eve, of Bill, Sarah, Nancy and me all wearing pajamas and sitting on the living room floor in front of the Christmas tree.  There's a picture of all of us grinning at the camera like monkeys...I was about four, I think.  What I remember aside from the picture is Bill giggling with glee, holding his feet and rolling on his back like a hoop, and saying "SandyClaws is coming tonight!"

2) My dining room table.  I'm not sure when my mother took ownership of that furniture, but it was before I can remember.  It and the chairs were built by my great-grandfather;  it's a gorgeous piece and I love it.Today while wrapping some gifts, I realized that this dining table is the only place I remember wrapping gifts throughout my childhood and until I left home...and then it came to live with me about 6 years ago. I imagine my mom continued to use it for that in the interim years.  Think of all the years of wrapping that entails...all the gifts bought with love and excitement and anticipation. 

3) My younger sister got married in May of 1989, and that year she and her new husband didn't come to our home for Christmas.  I can't remember what they did, actually, but I do remember that Nancy's absence left a ragged hole in what had been our family of four.  It is natural, it is life, it is what happens...but I remember a sense of loss and confusion on that Christmas morning.  (you makin' me cry)...

4) My "best Christmas presents ever"

Josie, 2002

Boudreaux, 2005

These two dogs have introduced me to what it means to love a canine.  I can't imagine my life without them.  When we went to pick up Josie on Christmas Eve, she was SO tiny.  Brandon wanted to hold her (in the backseat) and I let him.  He whispered to her all the way home from East Texas where we'd gone to meet the breeder.  That night, I put her in a crate by my bed, determined! to crate train that dog from the beginning!  Yeah, right.  She cried for a few minutes and I brought her into bed with us. 

At about 3 am, Brandon came knocking at our door!  Ken said, "what do you want?"  Brandon said, "It's Christmas!"  Ken said, "It's too early!  Go back to bed!"  Brandon said, "But I want to see the puppy!"  Well, so he came and got in bed with us (one of the only times) and all four of us slept together the rest of that night.  When he woke up, Ken went poking around in the bed to make sure neither of us had rolled over on the dog...but she was fine! 

5) No list of Christmas memories could be complete without Christmas Eve services at church (every, every, every year), and singing in the choir.  Once we were in junior high school and beyond, we always went to midnight Masses.  Beautiful...darkened sanctuary, and the light spreading from candle to candle as "Silent Night" is sung. 

6) Just one more!  My mom had a record album called "Organ and Chimes by Robert Rheims" and the record is RED, oh my gosh, it was the coolest thing ever.  I loved putting that on my mom's stereo and listening to it...so cool.  I need to get it copied to CD or mp3 format because I haven't been able to listen to it in years.  You can buy the one pictured below on Etsy, if you would like...

 Merry Christmas Past and Present!  Veni, veni Emmanuel.

Friday Five: December Survival Guide

Thanks to kathrynzj for this Friday Five at RGBP:  

Whether a RevGal or a Pal most of us in this cyber community have enhanced responsibilities during this time of year. We also have traditions - religious and secular - that mark the season for us in a more personal way.

For this Friday Five please let us know five of the things that mark the season for you.

And the bonus? Tell us one thing that does absolutely nothing for you.

A retrospective sense of my life.  I think back to past Christmases...as a child, as a young adult going home to my parents'; the first Christmas I spent away from home; Christmases at the beach when my parents lived there; and then Christmases with Ken and Brandon...from the years when we struggled to put together toys at midnight and the year we got Josie the Wonder Dog at Christmas...through to now...and wonder what the years to come will bring.  

Families lighting the Advent wreath in church services...

Lessons and Carols service...

Chilly or even cold weather and cooking the foods that go with it.  This year, it's Amy Lin's Hot & Sour Soup.  

Salvation Army kettles...I always put in something.  

Bonus:  Okay, I'm not trying to be anti-commercial, but shopping does not excite me.  This is not special for Christmas time...it's all the time.  

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day

I arrived at church at about 5:30 yesterday evening and left at about 12:30 this morning.  This is nothing when one considers that the priests, organist and choir director were already there, conducting the 5:00 "children's" service. 

The choir sang at the 7:00 and 11:00 services.  A buffet was provided in the Youth room in between (squishy couches! bourbon balls!) and there was lots of opportunity to knit, talk with folks I don't usually get to spend quality time with, and rest.  But by about 9:30, it seemed awfully tempting to curl up for a nap in a pew...

except we were singing the Messiah's "Glory to God" at 11 and did not need a sleepy voice! 

The services accomplished, I headed home and fell into bed!

This morning I tidied the bedroom, did a lot of laundry; otherwise we stayed in bed (Ken is still pretty sick so he's not going anywhere).  Watched "Get Smart" on our cable's on demand feature.  I read the paper and napped.  He coughed and napped. 

A while ago I went to the grocery store for a few things.  Now I have dinner under way:  steaks are marinating, green bean casserole is ready to bake, the  Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes are boiling (hat tip to Songbird for this addition to my repertoire).

Brandon is coming to us in the early evening. 

A lovely, peaceful day. 

In his sermon last night, Father David asked us to consider what the true meaning of Christmas was to us, personally.  I looked around at the sanctuary full of people and thought, "Them."

That "them" doesn't extend only to members of my own parish, but also other Christian friends, including so many that have come my way via RevGalBlogPals.  And, taking another step, all the other people I see, (and do not see) in the world, who may not be Christian but are my brothers and sisters none the less...because of Jesus coming as one of us. 

I honor the indwelling Spirit in each one of you who reads this.  I send a prayer for peace in all the world. 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Gift!

 

Cotched ya!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!!!

What did Santa Bring?

Santa was so smart this year - he shopped from my Amazon wish list. 

Here are the earrings: 

Here's the Ipod!: 

Benedictine Daily Prayer!: 

Salad Spinner!: 

and the big surprise: 

A Schwinn Electric Scooter!  It goes 15 mph, so it's perfect for me to ride to work (speed limit between here and work is 20 mph) 

you should have seen me riding up and down the street on Christmas morning! 

Plus knitty apparatus from my mom, courage from my big sister, a darling jacket from my little sister...etc. 

Thankee one and all!

Merry Christmas!

The Christ Child Asleep by Bernardino Luini

I hope that all my RevGal friends are geting some well-deserved rest today - sometime today!  Or tomorrow for sure!

Our family celebration, including gift giving, was on Friday-Saturday.  So yesterday was a day of resting up for evening services, going to The Nativity Story movie (see previous post) and then 7 hours at the church, during which time we sang two services, the 7:00 and 11:00.

In between services the choir, clergy and altar party enjoyed a wonderful repast and time of fellowship provided by the Daughters of the King.  And I had the pleasure of teaching my young friend Robert to begin knitting. He has been begging me to teach him for months, ever since he saw me knitting before choir practice.  He is almost 13 and a very accomplished pianist, so I was not very surprised that he "got it" almost immediately.  (He is the only youth in our adult choir, too...perfect pitch, amazing soprano (for now!)

Robert is an exceptionally precocious young man, and one of his traits is telling bad, bad jokes.  For instance, last night he was telling the one about the bus driver who had on his bus Two All Beef Pattys, Special Ross, Leonard, etc. etc.  (This is more or less endearing, depending upon your mood and whether it is CHRISTMAS EVE AND YOU ARE AT CHURCH FOR 7 STRAIGHT HOURS, SHUT UP SHUT UP!)

My taking Robert to the other room for a knitting lesson was greatly appreciated by his tired audience.  One on one, he is much calmer, and it helps him to have something to focus on.  HIS family had been there from 4:00 until 1:00 a.m., because they participated in the 5 p.m. service, too.  His mom is our wonderful organist, his dad was co-celebrating the Eucharists, and I think Robert just needed a little extra attention yesterday.

Of course, he got so involved with the knitting that he didn't want to stop when we began rehearsing again, and I had to speak to him and finally take it away. 

It takes a village, I guess, and I remember well all the people who helped "raise" me at church while my parents were running things.  Although laity, they were involved in almost every ministry, so we were there pretty much every time the church opened.   

Thank you Klagers, Eddys, Graveses, Engelberts, Walkers, Stoehrmanns, Daniels, Mr. Atherton, Mrs. Kalinec, and many others whose names are not coming to me now.  I'm certain that I could be pretty much of a smarty-pants (although usually a quiet one, as I was mostly reading!) and needy of extra attention, and their care and influence is not lost or forgotten. 

Photos from the English Tea!

It was a Christmas Tea!

The lovely lady on the right in the right-hand photo is my mom!

And here's a bonus photo of me with the dogs in their favorite resting position:

You can click on each photo to see it larger...