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  My blog was filled up. I'm too lazy to clean it out. So I started a new one. |
| Nativity scenes are everywhere. But what do you really know about The Nativity? Answer the following questions according to the Bible, as opposed to myth and tradition. 1/ What did Mary ride to Bethlehem? 2/ How many wise men were there? 3/ Were the angels singing? 4/ What animals were in the stable? 5/ True or false: They were all there at the same time-shepherds, magi, and angels? 6/ Did the shepherds see the star over the stable? 7/ Did the magi ride camels? 8/ Was it winter or summer? 9/ How old was Mary? 10/ Were they traveling alone, or were there other taxpayers traveling and looking for lodging with them? A French tradition has the village peasants at the stable or creche, too. There are two sources of information--one is Matthew, the Jew writing for Jews, who wanted to prove the authenticity for a Jewish audience. The other is Luke, the physician writing for a larger audience. They each add different data. Remember neither was an eye witness to the events. Luke came later, so both relied on the memories of Mary and others. For the quiz, base your answers on the New Testament stories and not the ceramic set you bought or even the carols. Tune in tomorrow for the answers. |
| I went to a church Christmas dinner tonight. Now that I'm retired I can do that. I took my dad, too. They served ham and turkey and lots of sides. We have a ministry to the housing complex near us. The parents were invited to this dinner, and an unrehearsed play took place afterwards. The play was cute. Someone read the very serious Christmas story, while two adults helped the kids enter at the right time. They had some simple costumes and some toy sheep to carry. They had studied the story for two weeks previous, but had not assigned parts or walked through any of it. This was to keep it stress free. Whatever happens, happens, like that night in Bethlehem: it just happened. Well, most kids did well, standing at the right place or kneeling by the manger. The two young sheep (I guess they were sheep. They had sheeplike skirts and floppy ears, like a dog's ears.) hopped all over the place and examined the Christmas tree. At one time, one of them was hanging off the handrail with her feet on the wall. The narrator worked that into the summation about that night in Bethlehem with "sheep running all over the place". (My dad wondered if his great granddaughter was up there in a sheep outfit.) We sang carols with them at various points in the story. A lot of the kids were Hispanic. One of the fathers brought us Mexican hot chocolate in a crock pot. Oh my, how good was that. I figured it would have red pepper or something spicy. But it was delicious and very thick. Not diet food. So I had to look it up. The Barefoot Contessa has a stove top version that involves cayenne and sounds simple. I want to take a larger batch to an outing, so I looked up the crock pot version. It calls for chili powder instead of cayenne. It also requires cocoa as well as bittersweet chocolate, chopped, and condensed milk instead of brown sugar. I have to try this. Apparently, the unrehearsed play is a new fad. Not only did my family dream it up for us, my brother's neighborhood did it in another city for their annual children's party. They were assigned roles, but had no rehearsal or costumes. This one at the church has been done for several years, but I was always working and didn't see it. A good fad. Especially, with all that food and chocolate. |
| You know Santa has a naughty list. Just for the record, I am not on it! However, I heard a remark on a Christmas show on TV last night about a weakness. It occurred to me that I have a few of my own, making a different kind of naughty list. Of course, I'm referring to food weaknesses, not addictions like alcohol or gambling. I can't remember that character's "one" weakness, but I have quite a few. Number one: Creme Brulee. Fortunately, I hardly ever encounter it. It's made with whipping cream and half and half, not to mention the caramelized sugar, which actually has fewer calories than the dairy parts. Next, I'd have a whole group of things involving pecans. Pralines--that's just pecans in melted butter and sugar. You can add other flavorings, but as long as you don't burn the butter, they are all great. Then, there's turtles--pecans, caramel, and chocolate. Next is homemade or bakery made pecan pie--not the kind that comes from the freezer case at the grocery. Other weaknesses that will break all my resolve include hot fudge on Breyer's coffee ice cream, chocolate chess pie, and /or cheese grits. I did not grow up on grits. I learned about those after I got out of college when I was visiting North Carolina with some other students. They couldn't believe I didn't know about them. We just had them plain with butter. I was introduced to the cheese version many years later. I have to mention hot crab dip, another item I hardly ever encounter. It's served warm, with a cream cheese base. The main ingredient after cream cheese is crab meat. Serve with any kind of cracker strong enough to hold it. I'm not a picky cream cheese person. Low fat or fat free are just as good. Cheesecake almost makes the list. I've had enough varieties that weren't very good that I'm wary of cheesecake. But if it turns out to have quality ingredients in a good combination, I might not be able to stop. Actually, a good Philly steak and cheese is hard to resist. But no sides to avoid the stomach ache later. My personal naughty list is probably longer than most people's. My "one" weakness is multiple stimuli. I'm headed to the grocery store, but none of these items is on my shopping list. |
| We have a large barn, or my niece does. There is one half door in a section, which could serve as an inn for our play. We-the grandfather, aunts, uncles, etc., want to use the children to act out the nativity scene in a mixture of truth and tradition. I have made angel wings, like June Cleaver did for the Beav, with silver cording to tie them on. I finally found some white tinsel to use as halo headbands. You get the idea. It's going to be an outdoor, homey, cold crude play with a long of winging it, I've written a narrative with directions for movement and spotlighting. Only the angels need to speak.We plan on doing each year. As they get older, more speaking parts will be introduced. We'll be able to adjust without rewriting as we add props and costumes. For now, the narrator tells the story, and people will go through the motions. We have some adults, and six kids. We could use more wise men and a King Herod. A woman is going to play Joseph with a party store beard. The audience will be small: a great grandfather, a few nana's, and maybe some others. We have electric lights for the roof of the barn, and a big electric star to put over the stable. I'm making a shepherd boy's robe out of upholstery fabric scraps. Afterwards, we'll have chili, hot cider, and Christmas cookies. Weather permitting, we'll eat in the barn with a heater and our hats and gloves. Or we'll go inside the house, but make it short. Our goal is to make it light-hearted and fun. We don't want it to be one more obligation or busy thing on the calendar. We want the kids to understand what Christmas means and to have a pleasant memory. And we want to enjoy it ourselves. |
| I feel sort of foolish. I was trying to feed my neighbor's cat while she was in another state for the summer.Her husband had given me some cash to buy food since he left a week or two after her. It's an outdoor cat. They tried to get her accustomed to eating at my house. The first night, I called her. She moseyed up from their yard and came to my porch, but wouldn't eat while I was out there. After a few days she disappeared for a week. Even the step daughter who was going to take care of her yard and do the monthly flea treatment couldn't find the cat. Then she started showing up again, never eating while I was with her. She would rub against my ankles while I was placing her food, but she acted afraid of sudden movements and never ate all that I put out. She's a multi-colored cat. We obviously never bonded. I never heard her meow. She never came around during the day, only at night, like they trained her. I worked late several nights a week, so she'd be out there waiting. Sometimes, Dad would put out a little dry food, but she wouldn't hang around when he came out. Some days I didn't see her at all. She continued to be stand-offish, despite feeding, since we had always tried to keep her away from our bird feeding enterprises. I retired September 30. Starting in October she started showing up around 6 pm or so. She'd meow, so I thought she was getting used to us. Then in November I noticed the green eyes. Why hadn't I ever noticed that before? She was begging more, so I would give her more treats or a tad dry food. I looked at her to see if she was gaining weight. No, she was looking thin. I noticed her colors were gone. I thought maybe she's molting her summer hair. I thought I was going crazy. My neighbor's cat was almost solid black! About a week before Thanksgiving, the cat was showing up every morning between 10 and 12, meowing for food. At first, I thought okay, I'll give you a little more. Then the noise became annoying. She started clawing at the back door. I was wondering if my neighbor was coming home for the holidays. I had seen her husband walking the dog once, but thought he must have gone back.Then right before Thanksgiving, he was cutting grass. I couldn't figure out why the cat was still coming to see me. She can't eat at both places. By now, you've figured it out. A second cat had slipped in. I never looked to notice it was a tomcat. The personality difference was not my imagination, the lack of picky eating was not just the cat adjusting to me, and the fur color and eye color were not signs of my going crazy. It does tell me I was going through the motions without paying attention. I'm really not a pet person. So here's my dilemma. I'm stuck with a demanding cat. I don't know his background, rabies, etc. I don't want to adopt him and the vet bills. I don't mind feeding him; in fact, since he's gotten dependent on me, I don't want to leave him hungry. But my dad is a bird watcher. He has made the sacrifice for the neighbor. He enjoys feeding the birds. Now only the jays and the squirrels come. I need to get the owner to take back the cat, or have someone adopt him. If he's going to be a stray, I should have him neutered, but I don't want to foot the bill for other vet things, like worming and flea medicines. And I feel very foolish for ignoring the signs. I should have realized there were other cats in the neighborhood. I've put out money of my own, even after the neighbors were home (it was hard to tell, since they had so many grown children checking on the house and yard and popping in and out). The cat has to go. The birds come first. |
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