This Is Christmas

To believe in Christmas is to believe in miracles,

To believe that the ineffable God would choose

To be a human forever.

More, to believe He did it because

He loves you,

and could not bear for you to exist

and not to be with you.

So He came.

He was born miraculously once

on this planet, in time.

He is born anew each time

a human says to Him, "I believe."

He is born anew in our hearts

each Christ Mass,

the baby who came to die

and take our curse, our death.

The divine scheme for our rescue

begins with the wailing infant 

at Christmas,

And ends with the Mass of Christ,

The body, the blood, made in Mary.

copyright by the author

On the Morning of the Eve of Christmas Eve

(That's a silly post title, but yesterday Julia went around saying, "It's the eve of the eve of Christmas Eve!" Silly girl.)
Anywho, yesterday Adam and I drove to Goldsboro to pick up Peter and bring him home for Christmas. We got to eat lunch at Dee's Diner with him and Kara. For anyone desperate to know, yes, they are dating again. She's delightful and sweet.

Last night we all crashed in the living room after eating Adam's new recipe for pumpkin pecan pancakes. They are so good. Beau turns into a limp-rag version of a dog and snuggles into his daddy.

His eyes and whiskers look vaguely like a seal's.

I started knitting a Christmas scarf for Peter.

I woke this morning with an enthusiasm to cook fun, festive things! I was out of my chai, so I started a new batch on the back of the stove. Here you also see the cranberry relish (click for recipe) I keep on hand at all times (delicious with eggs and toast, but excellent on a turkey sandwich, and as a little side with pancakes). And I'm making applesauce.

The cranberry relish keeps in the frig in a Mason jar.

For making applesauce, I use a food mill, called by some a food ricer. I bought this in Iowa years ago.

People talk badly about Midwesterners sometimes, but let me tell you, those folks raised in the chilly plains have some golden traits! They work hard. They brave the elements with a grin. And the women clean and cook like no other women I've known. They preserve, can, or freeze anything edible. The food mill is a normal piece of kitchen equipment out there.
Meanwhile, the Christmas candles are burning and the Christmas music is playing in the kitchen.
Adam's mom sent us some of her famous caramels, in the dish in the photo below.

And for those who want a Jamberry nails update, here are my fingertips this morning. Still looking good! I think it's been six days?

Adam is no slouch this morning either. He woke with a great urge to make bread.

He's making me a cranberry/cinnamon breakfast bread.

This will be baguettes.

And this will be a healthy wheat loaf for an elderly couple who are coming home for Christmas from Greenville, where the wife is getting many weeks of cancer treatment.

Back to the applesauce. I realized that I was waiting for ideal apples before making applesauce -- local, organic apples that I could afford. Ha! That could preclude applesauce-making for years! So I bought apples at WalMart (I know, I know). I chose six Granny Smiths and six Jonagolds, for a nice blend of tart and sweet.
The wonder of using the food mill is this: you don't have to peel, core, or otherwise man-handle your apples. Get a big pot. Put a little water in the bottom (like 1/4 cup, or less - you don't want watery applesauce), turn it on medium, and cut your apples roughly in quarters or eighths, and dump them in. Cover. Stir often and don't burn them.

Eventually (1/2 hour maybe?), you will lift the lid and see that your apple sections have quietly exploded and turned to mush.
Spoon this mush into your food mill, and begin to crank the handle. Turn the handle a few times, and then reverse it one turn, to scrape off the apple matter than accumulates under the blade.

 Eventually all the soft apple pulp goes through the little holes, into the bowl below, and you are left with peels, seeds, and other hard stuff in the food mill. You can throw it out.

 Here's the bottom of the food mill where the yumminess emerges.

 And this is two quarts of fresh, healthy applesauce. To this I added about 3 tablespoons sugar, a good shake of cinnamon, and some ground allspice, the magic spice :)

 Finished applesauce, placed in old Mason jars. In the frig it will be fine for a few weeks, but I'm sure we will eat it up before then.

 The little leftover, I enjoyed in a ramekin. We use a lot of little ramekin bowls in our kitchen. Do you?

 And the chai, strained through into this carafe. So all my morning cooking is done. That was quite satisfying!

Today we will stay home and relax. Peter really needs to rest. He had such a tough, cram-packed semester of hard work and rigorous academics. Last week he spent in Raleigh with friends, staying up too late and going out to eat. This week I think he needs to sleep. I love having the kids home, and part of my enthusiasm this morning was simply knowing that I had three children snoozing in my house. It makes me feel homey, nurturing, motherly.
Merry Eve of Christmas Eve to you!

First Week of Vegetating

Hi all -- What've we been up to? The girls have spent a lot of time staring at screens, recovering from many months of "screen-deprivation," a.k.a. "school." Hmm. Adam threatened to turn off their internet, or change the Netflix password, whichever worked better. They went from watching on separate screens to watching together, sharing a pair of headphones. Thus they claimed to be engaging in a family bonding activity.


Together we've watched While You Were Sleeping, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, A Christmas Story.

Beau likes the couch too :)

 I snipped out a few oblong snowflakes for the front window. It felt festive. The pretty tree is a paper cut-out I did years ago at a ladies' gathering, with quite a bit of help. It's lovely.

 I finally bit the bullet and made some home-made deodorant. Did you know that almost all store brand deodorants and antiperspirants contain aluminum? Many people think that is cancer-causing, and it can't be good to slather a lot of it right near your lymph nodes each day. I used some aluminum-free deodorant for a couple of years -- Arm and Hammer, I think. Then I tried Tom's deodorant, but I was allergic to it. In frustration I switched back to trusty old Suave, but I really wanted to use something natural. Finally I made my own:

 I made 3 bars, 4 oz. each. I've been using this deodorant (I don't need antiperspirant) for several days, and I love it. It works very well, smells nice, applies easily. It's perfect. I keep it in a little ramekin on my dresser, with a bit of plastic wrapper around one edge so I can hold it. And it costs a fraction of what those pricey natural deodorants cost.
We've had a banner year of pecans, as I've said before. Adam has been cracking and picking.

 Tonight I made these for our Christmas church service/reception tomorrow night.

pretzels, Rolos, pecans, powdered sugar

 And on Monday, Peter comes home!!!!! Squeeeee! We bought two boxes of his favorite cereal. That should last him a couple of days. Now ... to empty the milk aisle.

 And for you ladies wondering (Rebecca, Sarah, Mags) -- here's a photo of my nails, mere moments ago. I've done a lot of typing, piano playing, tons of knitting/crocheting, dish washing, 3 soaks in the bathtub, and regular living, and they still look great. But it's only 3 days so far.

The Inexplicable Love of Fingernails

My college girl Anna has brought these things into our home.

They're the 21st Century's answer to Lee Press-On Nails. She let Julia pick out a pattern, and Anna did her nails.

She fits and cuts the nail paper (or whatever you call it) first.

Then, because we do not have a blow dryer in the house, she had to hold the jamberry in a pair of tweezers, close to a warm iron, so it would curl.

Then she applied it to Julia's nail, pressed it down, and below she is trimming them.

Here's the pattern Julia picked:

The really freaky thing is this: the Jamberry Party that Anna attended was held on Facebook -- yes, true! On Facebook! Virtual parties in which people play games, win prizes, and buy product. Then the nail patterns were delivered to our door.
Here's what I picked:

Yeah. I know. I'm 51 years old and I have fingernails that look like I'm in middle school. Sigh. But it was so much fun, and they really are kind of pretty. Plus -- they last for four weeks, supposedly. I'll keep you posted on that one.

I'm a Very Plain Fingernails kinda gal, so this is rather different for me. But the girlies loved doing it. Now if I could just get the paper edges to stop catching on my yarn while I knit!
Update: 48 hours later, and the Jamberries look just as good as when we put them on!

Origami Lights

My girlies are so creative -- Proud Mama here!
Julia bought a package of scrapbook paper at Michael's, and she's been making little folded boxes. I don't know if they qualify as origami, but they're pretty!

She strung twinkle lights around the windows in her bedroom, and then she mounted a little paper box on each light ... like this:

I like this red floral one.

Sometimes there's a jumble of lights.

And Julia likes this one best, with the script on it.

She's now put a paper box on each light, so her room is very festive. Isn't this a cool idea?
Update: Here are a few more pics, after Julia finished the light strings.