Endings

It's the end of the year and the football season.  We'll spend the next few days with non-stop football games.  I half watch them and occasionally get involved if it's a team I love. The sports season almost completed has been less than satisfying for me, but I can hope for better in the coming year.  

We'll see the new year in with a few close friends and plan for a fresh start.  Too much uncertainty makes my resolutions vague, but I can strive for personal improvement.  2014 will be a good year, as good as we make it!

Peace on Earth...or my little corner of Earth.

Today I choose joy!

Christmas morning has just arrived and I am ready to go to bed.  I needed some quiet time to reflect and mentally settle my mind for sleep.  It's been a very very busy few days.   I love the season, I love the crowds in the stores, I love the music, and of course I love seeing the little ones with anticipation in their eyes.  As I watched them this evening proudly wearing festive holiday dresses and shirts, an overwhelming sense of sadness settled in my heart.  It has been so long since ours were children and now even the grandchildren are all nearing adulthood.  Oh my, how did this happen?  It is the order of life as it should be.  Oh but I do miss preparation for the little ones' Christmas.

A few minutes of quiet solitude and I am at peace.  I'm not in the throws of exhaustion as I remember this time in past years.  Yesterday was very busy, yet I was able to pace my activities and enjoy some special time with my 93 year old stepfather.  We had a Christmas Eve tradition of  shopping.  I always went with him to find that special gift my mother might have on her wish list.  We only missed two or three seasons out of 33 years of their marriage.  Today I sat with him and wrote out checks inserting them in cards for him to sign.  Afterward he commented that it was much easier to shop this way.  We laughed and his memory sparked some rare clarity.  I can equate the joy from those minutes to the same joy of children at Christmas. 

Tonight I was fretting over some little things I failed to purchase.  I'll survive and so will everyone else without those little things.  In a few hours, family and friends will arrive for a Christmas dinner and more will come later for dessert.  If I could carry a tune, I might just make a joyful noise.  I don't think others in the house would appreciate awakening to that!

Festive

Finally it is done!  Every gift has been purchased, wrapped and now resides under the Christmas Tree!  It's been a year when the "perfect gift" didn't jump out for anyone on my list.  I bought a few things at the Nutcracker Market in Houston, unsure if I would give them as Christmas gifts or simply pass along to the intended recipient.  A couple of those items are included in as a part of the Christmas bounty, one sits in the bag to be delivered tomorrow, and others were presented immediately.

I miss my big basement...the dining room table has been the holiday work area this year. A reminder that the ironing board was the right height for gift wrapping helped a little. Still, collections to be wrapped have remained stacked on the table for the last week, along with ribbon, wrapping paper and trims.  As I clear the table and move the ironing board back to its hanger in the laundry room, I vow to slim down my ribbon collection.  Well, that really means I won't buy any more ribbon this year.  

Can you tell which one is properly assembled?

There are times my ribbon collection is handy.

Some fun little containers purchased at Nutcracker Market were perfect to package several tiny gifts together for a nice ensemble.  I tinkered with the boxes all week in an attempt to figure out the mechanics of closing them.  Little tabs appeared to have purpose and slots seemed to be the right shape to receive them, but try as I might, the maneuver escaped me.  As I assembled the third one, an accidental fold, and voila it all became clear!  This project is now complete.
The time has come to prepare my table for it's intended purpose.  I'll start cooking tomorrow morning...but for now, I think I'll sleep.

Sin

I usually avoid writing about political flap.  It is the Christmas season and I am mindful of the day when we celebrate the birth of the savior we believe to be the Son of God.  As Christians, our faith is centered on this one person who walked the earth preaching love and forgiveness.  He died by the vile method of crucifixion about three decades after birth, but returned alive just three days later.  That's the basic tenet of all denominations of Christianity.  All  believe that salvation or eternal life will be achieved only through faith in this man born to a virgin and resurrected after death.

A recent interview with a reality show celebrity with devout Christian belief, has caused outrage from almost everyone, whether they watch his show or not.  It sickens me that our season of joy has been so stirred by outrage over comments he made regarding sin and what sinners cannot expect to inherit.  I have studied closely the teachings to which he refers (my grandmother was of his same denomination) and wish he had followed with additional truths I find in the Bible. Not one of us is without sin, but all sins are forgiven with acceptance of the gift of grace.  Jesus taught that we must not judge one another. It is the trust of God to judge.

At our house, we have enjoyed watching the show from time to time.  The outrage by one group labeled as sinners has been vehement and the network has taken action against the patriarch of the clan.  While I do not claim to know if any one person is going to heaven or hell at the end of this life, I have read in my Bible "for by grace you have been saved, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast".  Ephesians 2:8 (NKJV).

Somehow I find a certain outrage over the condemnation of this devout man, when another sect would call us "infidels" for Christian faith.  It is branded as intolerance to be concerned that some among that sect believe it is their mission to remove infidels from the earth.

Cheers

Yesterday was the annual President's Luncheon for the Women's Golf Association.  Since I just became eligible to play with the ladies on the golf course, there are many I didn't know...and perhaps a few I might not care to know (mind you that opinion is not my own, but a bit of advice offered unsolicited).

Scheduled starting time was 12 Noon and I walked in at 11:55 only to be the last to arrive.  Must remind myself, this group arrives early and I must follow that lead if I want to choose my seat in the future.  Other gatherings I have attended have been outdoors, a pool house barbeque and a picnic, so seating had little relevance.  This time I was positioned with my back to the people I knew best.  You might say I was squarely in the middle of the Catholic Ladies group.  Just across from me was a disheveled irreverent woman wearing red sparkly reindeer antlers.  By the time our lunch was served I had learned that she would need to leave soon to pick up her brother as he arrived at the airport.  OK, holiday arrival of a relative no big story.  She explained that her sibling had "no useful brain matter", having purchased his plane ticket after arriving at the airport, then complaining loudly at the price! After all, he had long ago taken a vow of poverty and all that goes with priesthood. Even though he is president of a prestigious Catholic University in the North, he finds little ability to navigate the most mundane daily tasks. He prefers to bless those that see to those banal requirements on his behalf.  She was clearly looking forward to his visit despite any shortcomings.  My other companions discussed the services provided to the poor and underpriviledged by the local church.  I was offered advice for assisting my aging Papa and dealing with Ol' Abner's ailments.  A couple of them only live here in the winter months, going to a cooler climate when the summer heat comes. 

The food was good and the wine cheered my spirits. We toasted the outgoing President and toasted again to the incoming officer.  I think I'll join the group for a round of golf next week.  

Shocking!

To offer a cliche, when it rains it pours.  After spending most of a day staring at totes and boxes filled with Christmas decorations.  I unplugged the lights on the naked tree and went to bed. The next morning I went to the dark utility room to fill the dogs dish. The light switch did not respond with illumination.  Backing into the kitchen and flipping switches revealed the overhead lights and the pantry light were dead.  Thinking circuit breakers were probably to blame, I whined to Ol' Abner as he was testing his sleeping chair fully clothed. (This tactic made perfect sense because I was barefoot wearing pajamas).  He re-flipped the switches and a few others. Some lights and electrical appliances were fully functional while others that seemed to be on the same circuit were powerless.  After making the usual rounds and flipping circuit breakers, he pulled out his handy tester thingy and went around the house beeping and chirping.   He finally concluded that the light fixture in the pantry was mal-functioning and had shorted out the rest of the lights as well as the plug for the cable box.  The last plug made the situation urgent. Football games must be watched in real time.   A trip to the hardware store, after opening the garage door by hand, and the light fixture was replaced but power to it was not!  In the midst of his storm of activity, I was carefully finishing the tree decorating and Papa sat quietly in his chair, commenting from time to time that electricity was something he didn't have as he grew up.

A heavy duty electric extension cord from the dining room revived the dormant cable box and television.  The mantle and tree are adorned.  Old world Santas and reindeer reside in the kitchen and the stockings are ready for filling.  That's about as much as I plan to do this year. The electrician came today.  A wire had been crossed at some point in the past and a switch designed to turn a light and ceiling fan on independently had been combined, for unknown reasons.  He corrected the installation and voila, everything worked perfectly again with the bonus that I can turn on the ceiling fan and light in the living room with two different switches!

Christmas Tree...it's a start!

I prefer to be completely over Autumn before I begin my Christmas decorating.  The first full weekend in December is usually the time I start pulling out the Yuletide festive items.  It took me awhile but I found many of them in the attic...and some I have not found yet!  

From the Attic

I spent the better part of two days first staring at this batch of boxed decorations, then unloading a few at a time.  My first goal was to get the already erected Christmas Tree decorated.  Every one of these totes had to be opened and unloaded before I found my hand carved ornaments from the years we were in the Ozarks.

So here they are, and if I was more adept at blogging and arranging my photos and posts these views would not be so strung out on the page.  Maybe one day I will master this, but for now the tree is up and the ornaments are on it along with other handmade decorations from the last few years.  Now what to do with the remainder of the contents of all those totes.  

I still haven't found the items used in my new mantle decor purchased last year.  It was rather expensive and my plan was to use it for many years.  First, I must discover it's hiding place. It may be time to go over to the off site storage facility and begin moving those boxes around.

It's up and decorated!

Maybe not, It's cold out there!

Deep Breaths

We returned home on Saturday from the plains bringing Pappy along with us.  It's his third day here and he is finally finding his chair without  direction, the bathroom is a destination he can navigate without too much help and when it's bedtime he strolls to the end of the hall where his familiar pictures hang.  We stocked up on his choice foods soon after our arrival at home and his routine continues.  At 93, routine is a must.  Habit kicks in when memory fails.  Physically his health is stellar, mentally he struggles.  Always though, he is cheerful and grateful for our assistance.  

Ol' Abner is struggling physically.  Breathing takes more and more effort.  He cannot walk around outside without the ever present oxygen tank on his shoulder.  Frustration makes him short tempered, then remorseful for his angry outbursts.  He knows I don't take it personally but my stress shows I guess when I see him in distress.

Today he turned in the information to be contacted for an evaluation of lung transplant candidacy.  It was a step that confirms the decline in his lung function.  While we are both hopeful, apprehension about the path ahead cannot be avoided.