2017.14 Party To-Do list

I meant to post this last week, but you know, whatevs.

Thursday night here was what I was really, REALLY needing to focus on

45 Christmas trees of various sizes for party decorations.

A way to serve blue cheese, pear, walnuts and honey that retains the flavors, doesn’t turn brown, and still looks appetizing at the end of the evening.

Gift bags filled with candy for the children

Christmas games (because sometimes children and young teens left without something to do equals disaster)

Did I mention 45 trees? I have to make those trees, they don’t make themselves.

Christmas coloring books and crayons.

Cookie press cookies, (meaning find the press, find the Scotty dog disc because it’s always missing, and then find the recipe. I have one that always works, but I can never find it) Then make the cookies.

45 Christmas trees. What was I thinking?

trees trees trees

Also, I needed to find a cookie recipe for Matthew. My cookies 3 ways works, but we didn’t get jelly for the thumbprint cookies, or Hershey kisses for the ones with those. So maybe cookies one way? Where you just roll them in colored sugar? 

Alcohol, when I am going to get to the store for party alcohol?

45 Christmas trees, it is no wonder I need alcohol.

Plus, I still have more day drinking and crafting projects. I may wind up doing a double header…

And lastly, finish the 45 trees.

Will I ever get it all done?

2017.13 Jolly Holiday

I am behind and I know it.  I have had a busy last few days what with the party prep, the party, and other big events keeping me busy. Plus I left my laptop at my in-laws and kept neglecting to bring it home. Not that if I had I would have remembered to blog, but you never know.

Tonight I want to share my experiences at one of this weekend’s highlight events. As usual the event was lavishly decorated.  The attendees were dressed in very festive attire. One attendee was resplendent in a lovely gold dress, another wore festive Christmas pajamas, and a third wore reindeer horns.  The snacks, well, what can I say? There were no complaints and as the evening wore on, some attendees were seen to be taking treats off of their friend’s neglected plates. 

Later in the evening, as the festivities progressed, there was much giggling, and frivolity.  Games were played, discussion of the upcoming Christmas holiday and what gifts they wanted.  One attendee wandered around randomly singing “jingle bells, jingle bells…” One young mother kept putting her baby on the floor and wandering away. I hate to bring up the following but by the end of the evening one guest had even peed on himself.  He probably should have not had so much to drink, but I am not judging.

All in all though, I would never trade doing childcare with the toddlers and babies at church for anything.  They are always a jolly and festive bunch, especially at Christmas.

Not tonight's rowdy jolly children, but a rowdy jolly bunch nonetheless. 

2017.12 Inheritance

Today's post is another guest post, because, clearly, I am slow to get original content out there in a timely manner.  Today's Blogger is Candace Halbrook Fowler.  When I knew her at OBU she went by Kami and sang in chorale and stood next to Heather Cook.  Years later when she sent me a friend request on the facebooks I had to ask Heather, do I know this chica?  Heather reminded me that she had probably, at countless performances, stood next to Candy/Kami and said, "look, Judson and Kathleen are here, no, over there, sitting together. No, they are "not dating" still."  

Post OBU Candace used her considerable music talents to marry Brian Fowler and start a family of 5.  I am pretty sure there are a few more than that, but they stopped counting at 5.  Recently, in a move that surely shocked the nations, and the alumni organization, Candace became a Methodist. What's more? She is in seminary, and recently preached her first sermon (excluding the ones she has been preaching to her children for years).  I say all of this tongue in cheek because I love to give Candy a hard time, but honestly, I am excited for this new path for her. I also cannot help but wonder, if the structure and patriarchy and baptistness at OBU had been different, had other options even been available, what might Candy have done?

Recently I was asked to think on something that I inherited from a family member. The inheritance could be a possession, a habit, or physical characteristic. Thinking…Thinking... My friend shared that she was thankful for her singing abilities. Another was thankful for his straight teeth and the propensity to avoid cavities. My mind ran through all the different choices I could voice. I finally settled on one. For me, the answer was not as important as the process of choosing. For in this thought process I realized that I have little to claim as my own. So much of who I am today is from the influence and gifts of others. Talents given, information gleaned, habits formed; all learned in the shadows of others who have loved me and poured into me. I have spent countless hours at the feet of those I love, learning from their wisdom and ways. Even the lessons I have learned from pain and heartache come from time spent with others, if only for a chance to know how I would act differently when the decision was mine to make. A brush against distaste calls me to do better. Again, I cannot do this without knowledge from someone else. Again, I inherit. The culmination of who I am comes from the good and bad gained from a life spent with others. For me, this brought a feeling of thankfulness. Thankfulness for the talents I enjoy, habits I put into practice, and difficult lessons that eked a change in my life.

What have you inherited? Is it your mother’s gift of storytelling, your uncle’s gift of laughter, or a friend’s patience? Will you be eating on china that was passed through the family, sitting on a chair where your father always sat or donning your youngest in the hand-me-downs of an older sibling? Or maybe you’ll play the piano and remember your loved one playing the same Christmas carols or perhaps a niece’s laughter from the other room will remind you of her mother or yours. Inheritance. In the words of John Donne: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…” We all are the culmination of the goods and bads inherited from a life with others, inherited from those who have gone before.

So, as you gather 'round your table this Christmas, be thankful. Be thankful for what you love and what you don’t because it is all part of you. And the essence of who you are will be an inheritance to someone else

Blessings!

2017.11 Happy Happy Hanukkah!

***Full disclosure.  I sat down to type this up last night, and then promptly fell asleep on the couch.  So, yeah, falling more and more behind every day, but here we go…

Tonight is the first night of the festival of lights.  If you observe, I hope you are with family and eating your heart’s content of fried foods.

In a previous incarnation as a big wig in the tanning world I traveling back forth between Denver and Oklahoma City and found myself eating out, often.  One of the restaurants in Denver I frequented was Zaidy’s Deli.  Best Reuben sandwich in Denver, not to mention their German chocolate cake is out of this world.  Maybe not as good as Kathleen’s but better than no German chocolate cake.

So, one particularly rough day in December 2010, when I was missing my family, I stopped by Zaidy’s on my way back to where I was staying.  Traffic was especially bad near city center because they were having a Christmas tree lighting.  I thought I was never going to get to Zaidy’s let alone to the place I was staying.  When I got to the restaurant it was about half an hour from closing, but the usually grouchy waitress welcomed me in, assured me it was no issue, they were staying opened until everyone had eaten.

When she seated me, she did not give me a menu, asking instead, “You want the Rueben right? And latkes of course, its Hanukkah, you are having the latkes” I agreed, although I was not previously aware it was Hanukkah.  When she brought me my dinner she sat at the table and chit chatted with me, pointing out the live feed of the state capital building all lit up for the holidays.  When I finished my meal she brought me a huge piece of German chocolate cake and a handful of chocolate Hanukkah gelt. 

As I paid the bill, and thanked her for a lovely dinner I confessed that I hadn’t realized it was Hanukkah and that I wasn’t even Jewish, she just laughed and said, “It is the first night of Hanukkah everyone is Jewish.”

2017.10 Tucson memories

I have a theory that time speeds up in relationship to a person’s age.  When I was a child it seemed like Christmas took forever to get here, and now, as an adult, if I am not careful, I still have boxes of Christmas things waiting to be put up and suddenly here it is again.  Yes, there is the whole thing where out lives are busier as adults, and how technology speeds things up even more.  However I am not convinced that somewhere a twisted Dumbledore is spinning a time turner with my name on it.

I was working on a blog entry on Christmas books, and I had this memory I wanted to share from December 1985.  I was a sophomore in HS and I had flown to Tucson to spend Christmas with my Mom.  Jenni had hitched a ride with the youth group at First Christian to take her to Santa Fe to spend Christmas with our Dad. In the middle of all the usual Christmas stuff, my Mom was preparing for the Great Peace March.  If you don’t remember, or perhaps weren’t around in the 80’s it was a was a cross-country event in 1986 aimed at raising awareness to the growing danger of nuclear proliferation and to advocate for complete, verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons from the earth. The GPM consisted of hundreds of people, began in Los Angeles, CA in February 1986 to walk from L.A. to Washington, D.C,  The group left Los Angeles on March 1, 1986 and arrived in Washington, D.C. on November 15, 1986, a journey of about 3,700 miles, nine months, and many campsites.

Now I have stories for days about that experience, both from my Mom’s perspective and my own, but that is not what I am sharing today,  In order to prepare her for the insane amount of walking she was going to be doing we went on long walks just about every day of my break.  I am not sure how we managed to find the time for this, because surely she was working?  Or maybe she was substitute teaching that year and had winter break like I did? One afternoon we walked down Prince, or maybe Grant, farther than we intended and then the “shortcut” my Mom suggested, was hardly that, and we wound up sitting on the grass at a park recuperating from a walk that had already been 5 miles and we still had to head home. 

So in our park time I showed my mom I could do a back handspring.  Then my Mom told the me the store of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. “Video-o-o-o-o”  and we laughed and hung out until we felt up to finding our way home.  Thing is, I can remember what I was wearing, levi 501’s, the surf ghandi tshirt, a long sleeve grey sweatshirt and a sleeveless bright blue sweatshirt with mickey mouse faces on the front, grey saucony running shoes.  I can remember what my mom was wearing, long sleeve generic yellow jersey with #88 on it, denim overalls, and brown hiking boots. For the life of me, I can’t remember what we talked about, besides the mad max movie. 

I miss my Mom, of course, and her sense of humor, and mostly I miss having long conversations with her about clearly very important topics. 

2017.9 Throwback Movies

Yes I know I missed a day yesterday.  I had plans on what I was going to post, and then I also needed to do laundry, and then there were two parties to go to, and some imbibing of grownup drinks and then I came home and, well, what is a polite term for passed out on the couch? In any case, I am a day behind and it is just December 10^th. Anyone betting on if I can get caught up?

As you may know my oldest son Paul works at Harkins Bricktown Theater here in Oklahoma.  Occasionally they show older movies, “throwback movies”.  Typically they show the vintage movies on Tuesday nights.  Through the end of this month however, every Tuesday and every Saturday they are screening some holiday classics.  I am disappointed that I have already missed Love Actually, Polar Express, and White Christmas, but I am looking forward to the rest of this month’s choices

              

• Tuesday December 12^th     Christmas Vacation
• Saturday December 16^th     Elf
• Tuesday December 19^th     Home Alone
• Saturday December 23^rd    It’s a Wonderful Life
• Tuesday December 26^th     Die Hard

The Tuesday night showings are usually at 7pm, and the Saturday shows are 10am. The best part? These special screenings are only $5. So if you are looking for something low key, but still festive to do during the holidays, this is a great choice.

2017.8 Wassail to You!

Like many churches, our church has a traditional Christmas eve service, and we also a time before the service affectionately called a ‘Christmas sampler’ where church members bring cookies or candies from home to share and the church provides coffee and warm wassail (pay attention that is important).  

Now the very first time we visited the church it was Easter, but the second time we visited, with Kathleen’s parents, was Christmas eve. As is my habit I carefully selected festive attire for both boys.  If I remember correctly Matthew was 3 and Paul was 6 and Matthew wore navy blue pants with an oxford blue dress shirt and a blue and green sweater vest, (the pants and shirt were the ones Paul wore to my sister Jennifer’s wedding weekend, the sweater vest was a Christmas concession).  Paul wore black cargo pants, and an oxford blue dress shirt with an orange and navy blue sweater, (hand-me-down pre-loved from his cousin Baby Scott). 

Cute Picture but not of the years I mentioned.

Now all this fashion talk aside, we were there maybe 15 minute, Matthew had 2 cookies, and then spilled the hot wassail on his lap.  I quickly got him in the bathroom, out of the pants and got cool water on it to prevent a burn, and once we knew he was ok, I bundled him up, pants less in my coat and took him home and changed his clothes.  This time he wore navy corduroy pants and a red turtleneck.  We made it back just in time for the church service.

By the following year we were attending regularly, and looking forward to Christmas eve, and Matthew was looking forward to the Christmas cookies he felt he had missed out on because of the whole hot wassail accident. Christmas Eve came, and again, as is my nature I dressed the boys festively.  Matthew wore green slacks, a green shirt and a blue cardigan sweater vest (that he did not like, but that Paul had loved when it fit him).  There was some good natured joking that I should pack a change of clothes for Matthew, ha-ha. But surely he wouldn’t make the same blunder two years in a row?

Nope, 15 minutes in, one cookie eaten and then a lapful of hot wassail.

I asked my Matthew about this last night, and he had this to add—According to him, anyone who has ever been to our church on a Christmas eve knows, it is not Christmas if you do not have a blistered and burned mouth and throat from wassail that is way hotter that it has any right to be.  Who needs to drink something that hot?  Coffee is not that hot, Tea is not that hot.  Why does wassail have to be served at a temperature hotter than the surface of the sun? No one knows.  But it always is.

Matthew said the reason he spilled both years is the same.  He ate a cookie, took a sip of hot wassail and then, “OH NO! FIRE! FIRE IN MY MOUTH!!! AHHH!!! SO HOT! PANIC!” followed by the loss of control in his hands and feet, causing him to stumble and let go of his cup of lava. Then “Wait, What? NO NO NO! MY PANTS ARE ON FIRE! MY LEG! MY LEG! ITS BURNING! I HAVE HOT WASSAIL LAVA ON MY SKIN!!!!!”

His version of the memory had me crying, literal tears of laughter. You know what they say, from the mouth of babes…

***disclaimer, this post in no way is meant as a slight to David Swenson, the former church chef who is rightly adored, or a slight to his loyal volunteers, it is just some serious hot wassail is all.