Merry Christmas!

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

Burton Hillis, pseudonym for William E. Vaughan, American columnist and author (1915-1977)

From our family to yours:

Merry Christmas!

♬ O Come All Ye Faithful ♬

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

May the Blessings of Christmas,

Peace, Love, Joy and Hope,

Be with you tonight and all your days.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Of Ice and Candlelight

You never really know your friends from your enemies until the ice breaks.

Inuit Proverb

We awoke this morning to an icy world; a beauty to behold but also one tinged with sadness because a number of trees bore the open wounds of broken limbs. One large branch succumbed to the weight of the ice and had thudded onto our roof, so Dad and I geared up and played lumberjacks all morning, sawing and hauling a great deal of wood to the backyard.

Then the lights went out. And, surprisingly, they stayed out. Usually a power outage lasts mere minutes. The rather uninformative information provided by the electric company on its website read that power would be restored by 4pm on Tuesday . . . 48 hours away.

So we ate a supper of cheese sandwiches by candlelight and snuggled under an extra layer of covers at 6:30pm for a long winter's night sleep.

Sometime around 7pm I awoke to the sound of the furnace's purr. Power had been restored. And with it the world of ice and candlelight has evaporated into a memory. Thankfully so.

Christmas Cat

There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat.

Tay Hohoff, author of Cats And Other People (1973)

 My aunt created the purrfect Christmas card for me showing a single black kitty with a white cross on her chest looking out the window expectantly. Her artistry is remarkable and her thoughtfulness touching. Thank you, it made my day.

♬ Deck the Halls ♬

Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Tis the season to be jolly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Don we now our gay apparel,
Troll the ancient Yule tide carol,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Lyrics of Thomas Oliphant, Scottish musician (1799–1873) for traditional Welsh carol 

Gay apparel donned many in the audience at the Bach Elgar Choir's outstanding performance of Handel's Messiah at the church on Saturday evening. The church offered good acoustics for voices and instruments and the trumpet solo sent enjoyable shivers down my spine -- not to be confused with the other shivers from sitting in a old stone building. ;-) The yuletide season rings in my ears and heart.

Queen of the Castle

(S)he that has a house to put's head in has a good head-piece.

William Shakespeare in King Lear

Cat and I received early house-warming gifts today from my aunt and cousin. Cat is as thrilled with her toys and treats as I am with my exquisite first-Christmas tree ornament.

Work at my little abode has slowed. Handles were added to the cabinets this week and I am very happy with the result. Without exaggeration, I must have looked at more than a hundred different handles of metal, ceramic, plastic, plain, painted, ornate, knobs, pulls, and lugs. All those choices and yet just one choice. I guess that made the decision easy. ;-)

Now I await the completion of the 'odds and sods' and 'bits and bobs' -- with the biggest bob being the installation of the granite countertop. I must wait 10 more days to see that landmark. Stay tuned.

Sunbeams on a Blustery Day

The juice of the grape is the liquid quintessence of concentrated sunbeams.

Thomas Love Peacock, English novelist and poet (1785–1866)

Thank goodness we can drink sunbeams on blustery grey days! And what better accompaniment to soothe chilled body and soul than a wee bowl of soup and a grilled cheese sandwich! An adult update for the comfort food of our childhood is a thin slice of pear embedded amidst the cheese layers. This we learned from Sue Ann Staff's mom who manages the grill as Sue Ann serves her latest vintage to Wrapped Up in the Valley passport holders. The event gets better every year. We came away with a packet of good recipes and a few cases of red and white sunbeams that should get us through the winter. Cheers!