It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

                  It's Friday evening, December 22. By Christmas Day, all decorations should be in place, all baking done, and the house as spotless as I can make it, given the ubiquitous presence of Greye-the-cat, and Billy-the-grandson, whose room is off limits.

                Both china cabinets and the dining table are decorated, as well as the buffet. The living room chairs and sofas are still laden with plastic bins of decorations awaiting last minute attention. Mantel--done in red maroon and sliver. Piano--Christmas music retrieved from bench. Coffee table--that'll have to be the last surface to be “Yule-d.” Bathroom towels are in place, so that’s done. Mincemeat pie  aroma, cheese log waiting for caramel coating, almond-barked pretzels tinned. Fudge on schedule for tomorrow.

              But I CAN’T FIND the BABY JESUS! I had him last year! Four bins of Christmas stuff, but no BABY JESUS. Surely there's another sack or box in the attic. SURELY.

              Using gourds, huge pine cones and large, gaudy ornaments, I filled a large basket for the outside-part of the window AC.

                I hung a Christmas-themed porch flag, and set up a wooden creche of Billy’s –with his permission—on the shelf of my china hutch.

             Oh, and after tripping and face-planting into the tree and table, I had to discard the poor table and find a sturdy oak TV table as a substitute. I'll likely have a black eye Sunday at church. What kind of story can I make up to explain it???

            But now, I MUST find Baby Jesus!

               

Ah! I found BABY JESUS! All is well. Merry Christmas, and thanks to all who read this blog.

c 2017, Pat Laster dba lovepat press

               

Looking Ahead: CHRISTMAS BOOKS for 2017

Iced Holly at Christmas: a new (possible) book if someone would write it.

              In the far-off days before the ease and cheapness of buying books on Amazon—which I now do after I received a gift card for the same amount as my age at the last birthday––I bought, or was presented with, several Christmas-themed books. The seven smallish volumes adorned the coffee table last year and included one I’d found at Dollar General, Agatha Christie’s Star Over Bethlehem. A trade paperback of “Poems and Holiday Stories,” it’s not at all the expected mystery genre. The first poem and the first short stories are all the holiday fare I could discern. Available at Amazon from $4.29 and (way) more.

Politically Correct Holiday Stories—For an Enlightened Yuletide Season by James Finn Garner, 1995, is a ninety-nine-page hardback volume of humor. Retold stories are “’Twas the Night Before Solstice,” “Frosty the Persun (sic) of Snow,” “The Nutcracker,” “Rudolph the Nasally Empowered Reindeer,” and “A Christmas Carol.” Amazon’s prices vary from used (.01) to Kindle ($2.99) to audio/cassette (.49).

A gift from friend Linda in 2007 is an unpaginated hardback with dustcover, Christmas Wishes: inspiring sentiments for the festive season, edited by Tom Burns, 2004. Black and white photos of polar bears and other animals in the snow accompany each sentiment. Examples from the first, the middle and the last follow. “The perfect Christmas is a frozen land full of warmth.” “There’s nothing sadder in this world than to wake up on Christmas morning and not be a child.” “May peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!”

The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans, 1993, has become to some a classic. Unlike most generic Christmas stories, Evans manages to bypass triviality, imbedding these pages with humble truth and emotion. One-hundred-twenty-five-pages, hardback, dustcover—I have no idea where or when or how I came by this book. Amazon shows over 350 reviews. And since I Googled Amazon, an ad for the book appeared on Facebook--$10-something as the price.

“Creative Questions to Illuminate the Holidays” is the subtitle of Bret Nicholaus and Paul Lowrie’s book, The Christmas Conversation Piece. Hardback, red-spined, the small book contains 302 questions to use for prompts—either written or spoken. The first one is: “In your opinion, what would the ultimate winter wonderland look like?” The 100^th one is: “If you were going to create and market a holiday cologne or perfume, what would you choose for the fragrance?” The 200^th question is: “You have two options for where you can spend Christmas: a ski resort in the mountains or a tropical resort on a Caribbean island. Which would you choose?”

The 300^th one is: “If snow could somehow fall and accumulate in a warm climate, would you enjoy it more?” As with the other books, I have no annotation about where this little book came from. On Amazon, it can be bought for $.01 plus s&h up to $8.99 on Kindle.

John Grisham’s 2001 novel, Skipping Christmas, offers “a hilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that have become part of our holiday tradition,” according to the book jacket. Amazon’s prices range from $1.65 to $14.00. It later appeared on my FB page advertised at $5.68.

Last but not least, is the Hallmark Book’s, The Joy of A PEANUTS CHRISTMAS: 50 years of Holiday Comics.  Hooray, there’s an inscription: “To Billy, March 22, 2003, from Susie Leird, (friend from Benton’s First Christian Church), whose birthday was the same as Billy’s. If you don’t have this book, it’s available at Amazon for one cent!!! Hie thee to Amazon pronto! It’s not too late to begin stocking up now for Christmas, 2017.

Happy New Year. We hope.

Another countdown to Christmas

            We have a few days left to do whatever it is we intend to do before the big day, or eve--clean and decorate the house, bake or mix the half-dozen recipes we’ve collected and have the ingredients for, put up the tree and the outside lights, decide on gifts, wrap them, send cards--with notes in most. There’s still enough holiday joy left to make plans for out-of-town-or-state kinfolk coming for a visit––or maybe for a week.

My Florida son and family came for a week at Thanksgiving because they can’t come for Christmas. Granddaughter Breezy graduated with a Master’s degree in accounting in Tampa on December 12, followed by a week’s cruise with friends.

                Besides weekly bell rehearsals, my first major event of the season was hosting BFF Dot-from-Beebe for a Saturday together before our schedules got too hectic. She still has a five-day-a-week job as secretary at the Wilbur Mills Educational Co-op. Her children come after Christmas due to their church and church-music duties.

We decided to meet the first Saturday of December, and since I’d driven to Beebe earlier in the year, she agreed to drive to Benton for “the day.” We visited for two hours before lunch and two hours afterwards. Subjects? Writings, readings, families, church, writing—she’s working on her fifth book and fourth novel. I’m working on a collection of “short stories and long poems” since my second novel has been published.

                I actually prepared a heavy noon meal, compared to my usual sandwiches and potato salad.  Baked chicken breasts, au gratin potatoes—a new endeavor––steamed broccoli, cornbread muffins and biscuits comprised the meal. Stewed pears topped with a spoonful of frozen yogurt ended it.

                Activities on my calendar this month are fewer than in other years. And I’m glad. This week, I'll meet two men friends who were students of mine 50 years ago at I-Hop for breakfast. Wednesday, I’ll take deviled eggs to the Salem UMC bell choir's brunch. The Fourth-Friday Lunch Bunch will meet on the third Friday, and the fourth-Saturday poetry group will meet on the third Saturday.

                In the meantime, I’ll finish decorating the “tree” which is only the top-most section of a large, pre-lit, artificial one. It sits on a cloth-covered table in front of a window. Easy peasy.              

                 Ringing hand bells in one church’s early-service presentation of Lessons and Carols, rushing back home to play in another church’s late service infused and inspired me with as true a meaning of the season as is possible, given the recent shootings in Colorado and California.

                May the God of love and peace be present within us every one this season.

Amen and amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye to 2012; hello to 2013

               An early poem of mine is appropriate today: Titled “Farewell,” it is a double-form piece, an acrostic and a Farewell pattern.

                        Galloping swiftly, as on fire; 

                        Over minutes, hours and days,

                        Obeying nature’s agenda,

                        Dashing through time down the

                        Backstretch of December,

                        You daze us with speed – an

                        Entire year gone.”

            Winter has arrived, calendar-wise, and though we usually consider all of December “winter,” we lived through some nice warm days earlier this month and snow at the end. My tubular wind chime pealed a lot.

            Finally, in time for gift-giving and for Christmas, I got to those molasses balls’ ingredients that had sat on the countertop for several days.

After two hours, 77 of them cooled on wax paper and rested in air-tight containers until they were needed. (There would have been 80 but I had to taste one. It was nearly supper time and I was hungry. I ate one more. And it was nearly Christmas, so I ate just one more.)

            Here is Steve Long’s recipe for Molasses Balls that appeared in an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s recent Wednesday's Food section. He noted that these store well. If they last that long. I recommend them.

            In a large bowl, sift together 4 cups all-purpose flour, 4 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt.

            In a separate large mixing bowl, cream together 1-and-1/2 cups shortening, 2 cups granulated sugar (you’ll need more sugar for rolling). Mix in 2 eggs.

            Stir into that mixture 2 tablespoons PLUS 2 teaspoons molasses, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, 1 heaping teaspoon ground cloves, 1 heaping tablespoon ground cinnamon and 1 heaping teaspoon allspice.

            Add flour mixture to make a stiff dough. (I used a portable mixer which ran hot before I finished. A wooden spoon might have worked just as well.)

            Roll dough into 1-inch balls, then roll each in a bowl of sugar. Place balls on ungreased cookie sheet and slightly flatten each one with a spoon or the bottom of a glass. (I used a glass with a deep “tread” on the bottom. The pattern was star-shaped, but after cooking, it was not visible.)

            Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes (I used 13) until light brown. Cool and store in an airtight container.

            Makes about 10 dozen cookies. (I rolled mine out to the size of a large marble and made only about 7 dozen. They are nearly twice the size of a ginger snap.)

            Since Christmas is over, you might bake a batch for New Year’s. Or Valentine’s.

The Paulus-Laster gathering at Couchwood on the Sunday before Christmas was fabulous. As usual. Even with the unusual (Norfolk Pine) tree.

Ready or not, here comes two-thousand-thirteen. May it bring you and yours much joy. #