Booming Banter

This morning we had our Kairos advisory council meeting. The council is comprised of sixteen volunteers including Pastor Sharon who always gives us a short devotional. Sharon spoke this morning about joy.

Did you know there are five types of joy? They include singing joy and dancing joy.

After lunch we moved to the prison where we met other volunteers and then went inside to meet our Kairos graduate.

We see them once each month at our reunions but the one before Christmas is always special because we have lots of Carols and traditional Christmas songs.

All the volunteers wear festive gear. Today I had my special earrings on that my friend who is also a volunteer had given me last year.

There is a lot of the singing and dancing type of joy that goes on and today unbeknownst to Sharon the music lead had chosen Ode to Joy as the music for one of the songs.

There is always much joy, and this of the everlasting kind, when we meet our graduates for the last time because this means they are going home.

Today we hugged and shed a few tears of joy as we said goodbye to several people.

They all have touched our hearts and we feel so near and dear to them but we know we won’t see them again. They are going to be free.

Blessing # 545 – Flying Away

The winter brings its challenges. It also has some very good points.

We get together with old friends at Christmas festivities that we haven’t seen from the previous year.

Krishna and I did this today at our company’s annual breakfast for retirees. This has been going strong for 34 years and it’s always a joy to see those we worked with and catch up on their ever expanding families.

At the breakfast we met our friend Sandy whom we are often in touch with. He is a great photographer and it is his photo that I am using to share a joy that Scooby and I have had these winter mornings.

With the leaves gone from the trees we see the birds so clearly. One little fellow a Cardinal always seems to be in the same tree about the same time each day. He is so vibrant and Scooby pays him hommage with a paw lift!

At dusk it’s a different story. We meet the deer. Last night a four pointer came so close not just Scooby but I could smell it. Talk about gamy it was tank! Just wonder was it the same young buck who passed through our yard last year!

We also have happenings underground that are most apparent before dawn. When we step out with the frost in the ground we hit on soft spots and these spell moles.

The critters are wrecking havoc with our lawn but here’s the good news they are moving outwards. That Scooby is one hot hunter.

Blessing # 544 – Nature Moving

The full moon that greeted Scooby and me at 6:00 am was beautiful. It was so bright you could see the frost twinkle on the ground. It’s so hard to capture even though it was really very clear.

Don’t ask me why but it made me think of moonlight sonata. None of us play piano and its not a piece of music that’s ever on in our home so why it crossed my mind is a mystery. Maybe it’s Scoobys’ favorite.

It wasn’t the only music of the day At ZUMBA we’ve started the Christmas hits so we’re burning off a few calories to among others the little drummer boy and of course the now 20 year old « All I want for Christmas is YOOOOOO »

Krishna and I we’re going to a lunch party at 12:00 so after ZUMBA I thought I’d get the mixer humming once more and make mini cranberry Christmas cakes before we left.

Now my mixer is to scale with my baking skills. It’s tiny, one of those little hand held babies. Like babies it shouldn’t be left unattended which is of course what I did.

Mixing eggs and sugar for six minutes is called for so being pressed for time when I went to get the flour I’d propped it up on the side of the toaster, along the lines of the simulation above that you should never follow. It definitely wasn’t  moonlight sonata we heard as the instrument took off across the kitchen more like Grandma got run over by a Reindeer!

A quarter of the mix ended up on the counter and a fair amount splattered over the wall. Talk about more haste less speed!

Oh well onwards and upwards in went another egg and another cup of sugar and we were singing again.

The texture I’d say is rather special but the appearance is festive so we’ll pretend this is how they were meant to be. Henceforth they shall be called cranberry crunchiest!

Blessing # 543 – Making Music

Today has been very productive all thanks to lessons learned earlier in the week.

Our Lily Circle star baker Kathy gave us a master class on Monday night on the art of icing sugar cookies. People come from far and wide to buy her cookies at our sale. Her Santa’s in particular are works of art.

We didn’t get to those this year but we did learn lots and once started it wasn’t as hard as it first seemed.

So today armed with knowledge and lots of melted chocolate since I didn’t dare try icing I got to work in eight dozen cookies for the sale.

Such was the progress, only four broken, that I swung on into six dozen more for our party on Sunday.

Scooby took up a seat to watch the action and was so good he got one made specially for him.

These are far from perfect and I know most of you could do much better but since they are so my best to date I’m happy.

I know also that Patricia who gave me a book and kit on Christmas cookies maybe a decade ago will be delighted les petites anges était à côté de moi!

Blessing # 542 – Star Baker (😂!)

The closer we get to Christmas the more hectic things become. No wonder Santa has to make his lists and check them twice.

There are parties and there is preparation for parties. This week alone we’ll attend four celebration and then on Sunday we’ll host one too.

The clock is ticking on the things we need to make not to mention the shopping. It seems there are just not enough hours in the day.

It can get a bit stressful at times and then before you know it all the excitement will be over.

We all hope though that that clock will keep on ticking. For some perhaps it may not. That’s why we must enjoy every minute  together.

Just this week two things happened that made me stop and think about time.

The first was my trusty steed turning over it’s clock to 100000 miles. That car has been some places in six years. Since we got it Aaron has become a teenager, officially become an adult and started driving himself. It was nearly a write of this summer. Now though it looks like new and we’re hoping it will keep on rolling for many years to come.

The other thing that gave a pause for thought was discovering on Sunday morning that we’d left a candle burning overnight. It probably wouldn’t have caused a fire even if it had burned through. Just a timely little reminder though to double check. Even if it’s burning a little dim each light has the potential to become a blaze.

Blessing # 541 – Present Time

Scooby has made it clear to Santa what he would like for Christmas.

After a walk in the rain and another since I am soaking she is going to throw me in the sink start to the day he pulled out his chew rope.

This started as an indestructible super strong tug toy about six weeks ago.

It has since gone through multiple transformations going from a rope to something closely resembling a wreath. Very festive work Scooby!

Most of it has been shredded and ingested and it is now in the shape of a ball making it handy to play with even without a partner.

Today though it proved to be insufficient to vent the frustration of having to undergo beauty treatment for the second time in less than two weeks.

So what to do to make your point? Hit the laundry basket of course and shred that woman’s nickers.

Some write notes some leave more subtle suggestions!

Blessing # 540 – Santa’s Smart

Back home in Ireland you were lucky to get a Christmas Carol any earlier than the fourth week in Advent although the Messiah would have hit the halls by now.

Here we’re well into the seasonal song. Not just the traditional advent tunes like Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel either. Today we were rocking out The First Noel.

The Methodists of course with Charles Wesley can claim the best of the best so they probably like to cover the entire repertoire. This is much appreciated as we get plenty of Christmas pop on the radio but not so much of those great hymns and Carols.

Sometimes I wonder about the sequence of events when it comes to classics like these. For example, did Wesley hear Mendelssohn music and write Hark the Herald Angels sing to match it or was it just by chance it was such a perfect fit.

This year from what’s been popping up on social media the traditional nine lessons and carols service is also getting a new twist. Now that could really help you sing with gusto!

Blessing # 539 – Stretching It

Like many of you perusing recipes is a hobby of mine. We post them we save them but how often do we take the final step and make them?

On the videos everything looks so easy and we dream of being the hostess with the mostest. Our Christmas parties will be filled with delicious home made appetizers and not a drop of sweat will fall from our brows.

It’s never that way for me. I end up  thinking it will be Julia Child’s resurrected and it ends up being Just Chill Gill and bring out buckets of cocktail sausages and cheese cubes.

Today though a recipe for Antipasti Squares I’d scheduled for posting on Buddies appeared and it was so tempting it had to be tried.

Well of course it wasn’t exactly as it appeared in the video.

The crescent rolls as base and top were about half the size they should have been in theory. They didn’t  cover the tray at all.

The rest was easy to layer up and cook.

The end result a bit flat maybe I didn’t stuff them up enough but man those little suckers didn’t taste bad at all according to a certain two legged growing boy!

Will we make them again for parties. Maybe but it will be with big biscuits and not with skinny crescent rolls.

Blessing # 538 – Teenage Appetite

Last year at Christmas our friends Tim and Joan gave us a little Christmas cactus. It had lots of pink flowers when we received it and they stuck around for a month or so.

During spring and summer the poor soul took a turn for the worse and at one point looked like it was on its last legs.

To give it a second chance it was moved to the kitchen window for intensive care and plenty of sun and now happily shares a space beside rosemary and parsley.

Bingo the baby took on a new allure and true to its promise is loaded with buds and ready for the big day.

There is a mixed result on the poinsettias.

The white one from last Christmas kept a white leaf or two throughout the entire year.

Three of the four older red ones are as green as grass.

Today though a little hope dawned with the appearance of two tiny red leaves on the scrawniest of all of them.

All these signs and wonders are brought about by light and are almost totally outside our control.

A good life lesson. Just wait and don’t fuss if it’s mean to be it will happen.

Blessing # 537 – Perfect Timing

This morning my cousin Anne sent me a video with a song about Banbridge the town where our grandparents grew up.

There were some great photos in the video that got me thinking of what Christmas past must have been like all those years ago.

For sure there wouldn’t have been too many decorations in the homes of the working classes. Maybe some holly and mistletoe from the woods, colored pine cones and fir branches and paper chains.

The Church, that played a very important role in life, would have been so festive and much the same as it is today with advent crowns, candles and Christmas trees.

This photo was taken just a week ago at our Parish Church in Ireland Holy Trinity at Ballylesson. The Church was built in the 1790s. It looks so beautiful.

It must have really been quite impressive for your average person way back then to live through the advent season.

Lovely that these traditions are retained glad though that we each get to deck our own halls with a bit of bling today too!

Blessing # 536 – The Old & New