Reading Jackpot

I have verily hit the jackpot with my reading lately. I have finished two beautiful and profound books and am in the middle of a simply fascinating book, but I won't tell you about that until I finish it. I will, however, tell you about the other two.


Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry~Oh! I am in raptures about this book! I had not read any Wendell Berry before, and actually I listened to this one on CD, but I will get myself to the library to get more soon. Berry writes with a beautiful simplicity and straightforwardness that was a joy to my ear. His prose is musical in rhythm and cadence. Hannah is someone I wish I knew. I loved listening to her tell her life story. I felt like I was sitting with a beloved elderly relative reminiscing about her past. Hannah's was a simple life and not very sophisticated, but she shares her wisdom freely and without pretension. This is a late book of Berry's, and so I assume that his fully formed philosophies and beliefs can be found in it. I've been mulling them over ever since. This book has made me a Berry fan!


Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Anthony Esolen~More raptures! I actually put down the above-mentioned fascinating book to read this, so you know I must have loved it. I was wowed by Esolen's eloquent yet clear writing style and even more by what he had to say. Esolen is tongue-in-cheek throughout his book, reminding me of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters. He gives ten methods in which children's imaginations are being destroyed today, why our society desires this, and how our schools and our very lifestyles assist in this. Since my oldest is now out of the house and my youngest is just shy of 14, I was a little apprehensive that I would be guilt-ridden after reading this book, but I wasn't. I plan to give this book at baby showers. Cindy at Ordo Amoris will be doing a book club about this book, and I urge you to join. This book is for parents, grandparents, teachers~~anyone who has a child in his life.

Christmas 2010

For all of posterity, here is a somewhat (in)complete record of our Christmas festivities. This is the first Christmas since Man of the House and I were married in 1987 that we have not traveled for Christmas. We loved being at home! Even more we loved having Girl Out of the House (Girl 1) and That Boy visiting!

Man of the House had Christmas Eve services at two churches. It just doesn't seem like Christmas without singing God's praises and welcoming His Son come in the flesh for us.

A picture of our tree trimmed and stockings stuffed late Christmas Eve . . . or was it early Christmas morning by this point?











Here's the same shot with the flash on so you can actually see everything. With me it's either flash on or flash off. I'm a point and click kind of gal.












I made those stockings for Girl 1 and That Boy! They didn't have anything really nice, so I decided to remedy that. With many dark mutterings, quiet cursings, and a little weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth I deciphered the pattern instructions. Why do you need to know how to sew already in order to sew anything from a pattern? Gee! I do better with instructions from the internet, but I couldn't find anything I liked on-line, so I muddled through with a pattern, even making small adjustments here and there. There is a special circle in hell for authors of cryptic pattern instructions. (JK!)

Now a picture of all the presents. It does seem profligate, doesn't it, but those are for five people giving and receiving, plus a few others. It's not really so bad to give gifts to those you love, is it? Isn't that what God has done and continues to do for us in Christ? A tree overflowing with presents is a reminder to me of God's provision and blessing.












Since we don't have little kids anymore, there's no mad rush to the tree in the early mornings anymore. That gave Man of the House and me a chance to shower and dress before opening stockings and having breakfast. Here are the young'uns well-manneredly pillaging their stockings Christmas morning. I'm sure they won't mind one bit that I've posted pictures of them in their jammies on the world-wide web. ;-)









After homemade waffles, sausages, and Christmas Scripture readings for breakfast, the youngsters showered and dressed and then it was time to open presents.

Girl 1 loves scarves~












That Boy and his favorite ale (Hey, we're a bunch of Lutherans and Calvinists. What can I say??)~













Isn't Girl of the House (Girl 2) the cutest thing?












Man of the House looking very dapper in his new hat~













Even the cats got in on the action~















After that came a couple heated rounds of Harry Potter Clue in which the husbands narrowly beat the wives by the luck of the draw (so to speak). Unfortunately, Girl 2 was out of the running by the end both times. All that sleuthing worked up our appetites for the Yorkshire pudding, green bean casserole, pies, fruitcakes and other yummies.

It was a truly delightful day and we thank the Lord for His manifold blessings to us!

Merry Christmas to All!

Busy day today with the making of many pies this morning and then two divine services at the churches two hours away that Man of the House is temporarily serving. But before I ignore my computer for the next few days, I wanted to share this from Dr. Gene Edward Veith's blog debunking the myth that Christmas got its start as a spin-off of a pagan holiday.

Have a blessed Christmas, everyone, celebrating the One Who became flesh for us!

May I Just Say Something, Please?

I have a rant to make on a piddly subject, but it grates on my nerves, so here goes.

When you buy someone something for Christmas, you GIVE it to him. You don't GIFT it to him, for Pete's sake. You are GIVING presents, not GIFTING them. The hideous Thomas Kinkade knock-off statuette that you dear mother-in-law presented you with last Christmas? She GAVE it to you; she did not GIFT it to you. The nifty-neato present you've got for your husband all wrapped beautifully and waiting under the tree? GIVE it to him; don't GIFT it. "Gift" is not a verb in this context. It's a noun~a NOUN, I tell you! The child genius who lives next door is gifted, as in he's been given a gift of extraordinary intelligence, but he's not being given as a gift. The lady at your church who sings like Renee Fleming is a gifted singer. She is gifted with an incredible voice, but she is not being given as a present. I know you can see the difference. You're intelligent. You're smart. Please stop the madness before I'm driven mad myself!

If we didn't already have a verb to denote the bestowing of something, then I would not complain. But we do, and it's a good verb; it's a fine verb; in fact, it's an exemplary verb. Please, give "GIVE" a chance.

All right. There. Humph. I feel better now that that's off my chest. Please resume your regularly scheduled holiday preparations. Ho ho ho!

From My Commonplace Book~~Christmas Edition

"The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends be even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shop-keepers."~~C.S. Lewis

"It is in the old Christmas carols, hymns, and traditions~~those which date from the Middle Ages~~that we find not only what makes Christmas poetic and soothing and stately, but first and foremest what makes Christmas exciting. The exciting quality of Christmas rests on an ancient and admitted paradox. It rests upon the paradox that the power and center of the whole universe may be found in some seemingly small matter, that the stars in their courses may move like a moving wheel around the neglected outhouse of an inn."~~G.K. Chesterton

"Savior of the Nations, come,
Show Yourself the virgin's son.
Marvel, heaven, wonder, earth,
That our God chose such a birth.

No man's pow'r of mind or blood
But the Spirit of our God
Made the Word of God be flesh,
Woman's offspring, pure and fresh.

Here a maid was found with child,
Virgin pure and undefiled.
In her virtues it was known
God had made her heart His throne.

Then stepped forth the Lord of all
From his pure and kingly hall;
God of God, becoming man,
His heroic course began.

God the Father was His source,
Back to God He ran His course.
Into hell His road went down,
Back then to His throne and crown.

Father's equal, You will win
Vict'ries for us over sin.
Might eternal, make us whole;
Heal our ills of flesh and soul.

From the manger newborn light
Sends a glory through the night.
Night cannot this light subdue,
Faith keeps springing ever new.

Glory to the Father sing,
Glory to the Son, our king,
Glory to the Spirit be
Now and through eternity."

St. Ambrose of Milan

Auntie Leila's Linky Party

Auntie Leila of Like Mother, Like Daughter (one of my favorite blogs!) is having a linky party about kitchen sinks! I thought I'd join in and show you mine.

First is a picture of my kitchen sink area in its entirety:



It's a small room~~just 13' x 8'~~but I've decided I don't really mind because everything is only a step or two away. Leila has been talking about making the kitchen work for you instead of you working against it, and that's really quite easy to accomplish when the space is so small. In fact, reading her post about her kitchen made me laugh because our kitchen set-up is almost identical!

The windows up close:





I like to put these "gingerbread" Christmas decorations in the kitchen. Girl of the House made the paperbag gingerbread boy when she was four. Isn't he cute? The little red gingham bag was made by the director of the preschool where I used to teach and is over 20 years old. The felt ornaments were made by my grandmother, the one who lived to be 96. She gave them to Girl of the House a few years ago. Remember when sequined felt decorations were all the rage in the 70's? Grandma made oodles of them and have passed lots on to both my girls. Of course, those belonging to Girl Out of the House now reside with her. (You can see them here. A grammatical aside: Aren't you so glad she capitalized "is" in her title because ALL verbs are capitalized in titles, even when they are only two letters long? I'm so proud of her!) And don't you just love geraniums on window sills? I brought this one in from my front porch when the weather turned cold.

The curtains are just dish towels put up with clips and cafe rods. Very inexpensive and easy to care for. I just unclip them, wash and dry them, and hang them back up.

Notice the view? Yes, it is really that dismal. The house next door sits a mere six feet from ours; hence the blank white wall. That's why I try to keep pretty things on the windowsills. I have to have something to look at!

The little objects between the two windows are my British thimbles. My mother bought them all during her visits to Great Britain over the years. The first is of Clandon Park, then Victoria and Albert in silhouette, the Queen Mother sporting one of her famous hats, a Wedgwood thimble, and lastly a thimble from Windsor Castle. I'm sorry the picture isn't clearer. I miss Girl Out of the House for her photography skills!



The colors in this room were horrible when we moved in: olive green walls and floor and dark wood cabinets and paneling, which were not so bad in themselves, but this small room needed to be lightened up. So we painted the walls and cabinets a color just shy of white and leaning slightly to yellow and refinished the floor, stripping away ancient vinyl and even more ancient linoleum until we got to the original hardwood. We kept the gold counters. Much, much better now!

That's my contribution to the linky party. Be sure to visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more kitchen sink fun!

Christmas Decorations Part I

Last weekend we put up our tree and other decorations. Come along with me for a tour!

The center of anyone's Christmas decorations is the tree. Here's ours:



A few years ago my grandmother, who died in 2009 at the age of 96, gave me these "candles" from her own stash of Christmas decorations. This was long after she gave up elaborately decking her own halls. They are wooden and fit into tin holders. They are eight of them, and they are some of my favorite decorations!



My mother gave us our nativity set. I love the simple elegance of the gold trim on the ivory porcelain. It sits prominently on our living room mantle.



The Christmas village has all the most important establishments: a church, an Italian restaurant, a library, a theatre, a pub, a piano shop, a bakery, and a chocolate shop! We used to have a grand piano which was big enough to hold the whole shebang, but last January we traded it for a much smaller spinet. Alas, all the buildings would no longer fit. Here are a few on display this year:





I love having a banister I can do this to!



About ten or twelve years ago some dear friends gave us this copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas. They are actual letters that Tolkien wrote to his children in the guise of Father Christmas. The book has envelopes with facsimiles of the real letters inside relating the life and adventures of Father Christmas and the North Polar Bear and includes Tolkien's own illustrations. The thing that tickles me about this book is that even here he has included a battle with goblins! Tolkien seems unable to leave goblins out of anything, even Christmas stories!



I'll be back another day with more pictures of our festive Christmas house!