New Year's Eve Feast

For the first time at my own dinner table, Crab! 

Can you tell that beside the plate of crab is a set of crackers and little tiny forks?

Those were our Christmas present from Meredith and David and because of them, 

we had crab at home for the first time for either one of us.

We bought two of them at Costco and only ate one tonight, cold with cocktail

sauce. So - tomorrow night we will have the other hot with butter and lemon dip.

Oh yum!! And at Costco, not that expensive or extravagant. 

The perfect New Year's Eve celebrate meal.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas Eve Happiness

This morning has brought tears of joy, smiles and much pleasure to The Mama Susan.

It started with a delightful video that I can't quite figure out how to post here of our youngest grands singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". The 5 year old sang the whole song on key in her beautiful soprano voice. The almost 3 year old made it through a measure or two and then was much more interested in what mom was doing with the camera. I was so proud of his sister who just kept singing and was not at all bothered by his defection. 

Next came this gorgeous sunset from last night with two more gorgeous grands sending greetings.

This morning a McKay family tradition continued as Emily helped her mom make her Grandma Nancy's chocolate cake. I love the concentration ~ 

~ which is definitely helped with the proper placement of the tongue. 

And finally came pictures of the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia which Meredith pointed out is our time's version of the market The Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge (in George C. Scott's Christmas Carol).

We love that movie, the best rendition of Dickens' that I have ever seen, and so this makes me very happy as well. 

It may be a rainy, grey Monday and it is Christmas Eve and there is Joy and Hope and Gratitude for all manner of things. Blessed be ~ 

The Fourth Sunday in Advent

On this final Sunday of Advent, I offer you a poem that I have quoted here before.

By Madeleine L'Engle, it remains appropriate, year after year.

God did not wait till the world was ready,

Till . . . nations were at peace.

God came when the Heavens were unsteady

and prisoners cried out for release.

God did not wait for the perfect time.

God came when the need was deep and great.

God dined with sinners in all their grime,

turned water into wine.

God did not wait till hearts were pure.

In joy God came to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.

To a world like ours, of anguished shame

God came, 

and God's Light would not go out.

God came to a world which did not mesh

to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.

In the mystery of the Word made Flesh

the Maker of the stars was born.

We cannot what till the world is sane

to raise our songs with joyful voice,

for to share our grief, to touch our pain,

God came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!

It's a Huge Learning Curve!

Dean and I decided to list our two guest rooms on AirBnB. Of course we finalized it during high season in Tahoe. He listed them last Friday night and 48 hours later we were booked solid through the 5th of January. Phew.

Now hosting is not a problem for me. Most of you know me ~ I know how to spread hospitality, arrange rooms, offer amenities and in general make folks feel at home. Hosting is not the issue.

The issue is learning to navigate the AirBnB website and when and how to answer requests and deciding on when it is ok to ignore your own rules and when it is better to stay with the plan.

Of course when we posted, we were not Quite ready for guests and so the days between Friday's posting and yesterday afternoon's arrival of the first guests were a flurry of activity. Dean and I both worked through list after list. Housekeeping came and cast a professional eye over the space and went to work deep cleaning ~ one woman cleaned corners I didn't know I had!! A very handy man came to attach door locks and touch up paint and even repair some dry wall that had been neglected for ages. Housekeeping came again for one last check up.

We were ready though - and when our first guests arrived at the door about 3:30 yesterday afternoon, we were glad to see them and welcome them to our home. So far so good. There were still some website issues today and mostly routine has set in: people in, people out, people in and people ~ well, you get the idea.

Once this routine gets really set, we are going to have fun, meet a lot of delightful people, and enjoy the guests who come through our door.

Do I Want This Responsibility?

We decided a while back to list our guest rooms with AirBnB and we finally got around to it this week. It is high season in Tahoe and we were booked solid within the first 48 hours of the listings. Phew ~ busy time. So I wrote to my best friend since childhood to tell her of all the busy-ness we have been doing and she replied:

Wow, you're an Innkeeper at Christmas. If a pregnant couple shows up, be sure to let them in.

I hadn't thought of it exactly like that and she is right. We have no stable, but by golly, I will find a place even if it is an air mattress on the den floor.

May we always find room ~

The Third Sunday of Advent

This year I have been thinking a lot about Light in the darkness. The church I attended in Virginia is having people write Advent meditations based on finding God's light in the darkness that pervades our lives. Those stories have been wonderful and inspiring. And it has occurred to me that our darkness is not always tragedy or trauma. 

Sometimes it is just being overwhelmed by something as simple as a dinner party or Christmas event or realizing your whole family is coming for the holidays. "What have I gotten myself into??"

We can feel the darkness closing in. And then we get up, put one foot in front of the other, do one task at a time and slowly the stress is relieved, the burden lightened, The List shortened. So ordinary that we don't even see God's hand in the process. 

Remember though when many Biblical folks met Jesus: going about their ordinary lives. The woman getting water from the well; Martha cooking and busy in the kitchen; Peter fishing; Zaccheaus collecting taxes. All these folks were going about their daily lives and Jesus was there to bring light and life to those mundane chores, raising spirits and pointing the way to Hope. That is the way God moves in our lives, always with Light and Love and Hope even if we don't recognize it. May we be blessed with the ability to recognize the Light of the Spirit even in our most ordinary darkness. 

A Seller of Purple

Scripture tells us that one of Jesus' followers was Lydia, "a seller of purple." She evidently donated money to help Jesus' ministry. When I was first taught about her in Sunday School, we were correctly told that purple was a highly valuable color for clothes in these times, especially by the Romans. So Lydia was a retailer of some note and strange for those days, an independent woman.

Today I became even more impressed with her ~ although there is no indication that she actually dyed the cloth she sold.

I am reading a delightful book, Corsets and Codpieces by Karen Bowman, a history of fashion from the beginnings of humanity dressing ourselves into the present. In it Bowman, talks about the manufacture of the color purple. The process "was a long and laborious  business involving whelk mucus, honey salt and water, and long-term heating in a lead vessel."

"The worst aspect of the job was the smell. The tiny shellfish first had to be crushed down (on average 1000 shellfish would yield enough dye for coloring one cloak) then put into water." It was fermented for ten days, at what time more ingredients were added for alkali and then it was left to rot again. After the end of the prescribed time, the mixture was light blue and only by feel could the dyer tell if it would turn purple when exposed to light and air. It was a long and smelly process and if Lydia had anything to do with it, she was an even more amazing woman than I already thought.

Bowman also tells of other chemical reactions that produce yellows, browns, light and dark greens, and even black dyes. I am fascinated by the idea that people took the time to mix and work with these various plants to discover all this. It would be interesting to know who for some reason when through this long process and first said "Oh, look, I created purple."

Language Change

This week a friend was telling me about a medical procedure her husband was having. I did not know the term so I Googled it.

Did I research it? No. Did I look it up? No. I Googled it.

I realize this bit of language changed a long time ago and I have been using Google as a verb for a number of years. Still today it struck me as funny. We still talk about researching a subject but even as we do, we know that a large part of that research is done on line and a large part of that is from Google.

It's just interesting the way language is a living a entity that keeps moving and changing.

The Second Sunday in Advent

It’s the second Sunday in Advent. Darkness reigns not only in our brains but also in our souls and on all sorts of landscapes: politics, home, church, and school. This prayer, written by Keith Watkins, sometime before 1995, still seems very appropriate for today.

God, we confess that ours is still a world in which Herod seems to rule:

the powerful are revered,

the visions of the wise are ignored,

the poor are afflicted,

and the innocent are killed.

You show us that salvation comes

in the vulnerability of a child,

yet we hunger for the “security” of weapons and walls.

You teach us that freedom comes in loving service,

yet we trample on others in our efforts to be “free.”

Forgive us, God, when we look to the palace instead of the stable, 

when we heed politicians more than prophets.

Renew us with the spirit of Bethlehem,

That we may be better prepared for your coming. Amen.

(from Thankful Praise: A Resource for Christian Worship)

Hanukkah Light

When I posted about the first light of Advent, I had not realized that Hanukkah began yesterday as well. I was pleased to find this quote which speaks to what I wrote and reflects my thinking as well. Thank you, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.

“For though my faith is not yours and yours is not mine, if we are each free to light our own flame, together we can banish some of the darkness of the world.” (Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks)

The First Sunday in Advent

Yesterday I posted to FaceBook that Dean and I had decided to forego a tree this year. It was a rather easy decision to make once I had realized what I really loved about our tree: the lights. The tree sits on a table in our little solarium and filled the tiny room with light. The answer seemed to be to have the light without having the tree. And so we draped the lights across the windows where they are multiplied by their reflections.

Our treeless solarium is lovely. The Nativity is lit by a small candle and we eat at the table surrounded by light and the reflected love of the holy family

Somehow that speaks to me of Advent. This year I added our Love candle to the wreath. It continues to glow even when we need to extinguish the other candles. There is so much darkness right now: racism, sexism, fear and plain old hatred. We need Light. Even the gentle light of one Advent candle to remind us that Love does come down at Christmas and Hope is born eternal. 

May your Advent or Solstice journey toward the Light be blessed and filled with Hope and may the gentle light of your spirit fill your space.

Random Thanksgiving Thoughts

Whenever I am asked for what I am thankful my list always begins with clean sheets, indoor plumbing and anesthetics. I realize this is a very practical gratitude list and has nothing to do with world peace or love of family and friends or any of the other things we are all grateful for. The fact remains, those are the first things on my list.

After that my gratitude is wide open.

Dean and I always sit over our Thanksgiving feast and express our thanks for family, calling each of our grands by name and thinking of how blessed we are to be a part of their family. We eat well. We have a roof over our heads. All of our children are happy where they are and doing well in life. We are very healthy for our age and blessed to have found each other.

And then of course, there's food. We were a little less traditional this year:

Dean prepared a rib roast on his "new" convection grill given us by son Rob.

Mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts with bacon accompanied the roast.

Yes, that is snow out the window. Winter arrived Thanksgiving morning.

The only other picture I have of the day is from the family in Oregon.

Along with the traditional turkey, dressing, gravy and other trimmings, 

the Oregon folks had desserts!!

Joshua (apple pie), Sam (homemade pomegranate cranberry bars), Trinity

(pumpkin and berry pies) and Akira (chocolate). 

Trinity made her first pie crust for the apple her dad loves. Joshua and Sam

made the fruit bars from scratch. Akira made the chocolate filling. 

All of them are welcome in my kitchen any time.

Our blessings are plentiful. Our prayers remain with those whose blessings are more

basic as they are simply grateful to be alive. May we all continue to be thankful for all

Life and Love bring us.

Driving Through Northern California

Lots of California is on fire and that includes the north. Although my drive home from Oregon was free of fire, there was lots of smoke. 

There are two kinds of fires: prescribed burns, set to control wild fires and wild fires, set by high winds, lightning, loose sparks of some kind. Both have one thing in common: smoke. I think I encountered both kinds today. Smoke hung low in the valleys and covered the tops of mountains. Signs said “Smoke ahead. Don’t report.” And so I just kept driving and no one coming toward me looked like they were having any problems. The eyes still itch and the breathing is still hard sometimes. 

Another observation: at one point I had on both my phone and my car GPS. They both told me to turn left. Now I have a horrible sense of direction - inherited from my father I understand. But I Knew - after all I had just come this way a week ago - that I was supposed to turn right. I pulled over and called Dean and told him my dilemma. He assured me that I was correct. And of course as soon as I made the right turn and drove a short way down the road, both GPSs adjusted. But what if I hadn’t known? It might not have been the wrong turn but it certainly would have been the long one. Sigh. 

Every time I make this trip, I think I have gotten too old and then I make it and I am fine and I cope with little quirks here and there and I have a grand time with my family and then make it home just fine. Grateful for two good trips. Continuing to pray for those who have lost homes and loved ones in the fires. ~ blessings on your journeys wherever they may take you. 

Wild Horses

I know today is election day and this post should probably be some deeply philosophical statement about the importance of voting. I know we have just spent ten days with grandchildren and you should be and will be getting pictures of adorable little people playing soccer, winning awards and posing patiently with their grandparents. However, today I am offering you a very gentle, peaceful scene which I had never seen before: Wild horses in the wild.

We were driving across 120 and there they were. Dean had to slow down for them to cross the road although they turned and ran for a short distance. Beautiful. Then they stopped to graze again and so we stopped to take pictures. The car behind us stopped to take their own pictures and to stay out of the way of our pictures. We all smiled and waved at each other when the pictures were done. 

As I looked behind us as we drove away, the horses were starting back across the road. It was a lovely moment in time so here they are. 

Things Happen

This is not the kind of picture of one's cute granddaughter one expects to post. However - it happened. She was at a birthday party at Jump House. She and a friend had been leaping from a high platform when they decided to go off backwards. He fell on her and ~ here is her elbow.

She and her mom were transported by ambulance to a children's hospital in San Diego where the following morning early, they reset the bone. Here's what is amazing. Although it was surgery and she was under anesthetic, there was no incision. The bone was reset by laser, getting it exactly where it needed to be. Then pins (long skewers) were placed into the bones to hold them together. To remove them four weeks from now, the parents will distract her and the doctor will simply pull them out. Wow - no cutting, no scarring, and young bones growing together.

So here is our one-handed weaver!! 

Although still in pain occasionally she is adapting to being one handed and figuring out what she can do for herself and patiently waiting for Mama Susan to finish this blog and come back to help with what needs two hands. 

Dire Predictions

Dean and I have driven down from Tahoe to SoCal to visit family around a meeting he has. We stayed overnight at our favorite B&B in Bishop. At a rest stop before Bishop and again at breakfast this morning at the B&B, people from Southern California told us about road construction on 395.

It was horrible. There was only one lane and you had to wait for the other lane to go by before you could go and on and on. The only way around it would be to go west toward Los Angeles and neither of them thought that was a good decision for us ~ but still . . .

After we had lunch today, I called Rob and told him about the construction. We could only say that we would arrive whenever. And then we came to the construction. We settled in for the long horrible wait ~ and watched the cars in the other lane go by ~ and then it was our turn.

What? That's it?

Dean and I had to laugh. We had sat longer than that going to a meeting in Truckee a couple of weeks ago. None of the these people live in Tahoe. We deal with one lane road construction all summer. Remember our four seasons are Almost winter, Winter, Just past winter, and Road Construction.

We arrived at the time our GPS said we would. If only all dire predictions would turn out so well.

Trying to Stay Sane

I have often commented here that once in a while, while reading a quite good mystery story, I come across a statement that is more universal than specific and touches much more in life than the solving of a crime or the furthering of a plot.

Given the state of the world right now ~ and maybe because I have recently been at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, home of both our Declaration and Constitution ~ and maybe because I believe in Love and Hope and Peace, I found this reflection by amateur detective Mordicai Tremaine to be particularly gratifying.

from Murder Has A Motive by Francis Duncan

“You couldn’t see only beauty in the world. You had to see the disfiguring stains, the sordid and sprawling things, too. Because that was life. Life was ugly and untidy besides being beautiful and marvelous and full of wonder. You had to see the dirt as well as the stars. To see the dirt and not become a cynic, to hold fast to one’s ideals, to preserve one’s belief in the underlying decencies of humanity — that was the real purpose of living. “ 

It Was A Big Bang

Last night Dean is downstairs watching football. Oso and I are in the living room. I am watching a show that includes flashbacks and the way they do it is to have the picture undulate in a colorful spiral. That has just come on when there is a HUGE CRASH - and something tells me, it is not in the show I am watching. 

Dean hollers up “What was that??” I’m up and looking and say “I don’t know but get up here!!” We are not finding anything and then I look out to the front deck ~ and one whole pile of wood has toppled over into the middle of the deck. Wow!!!

It took Dean a while to really look at it. He was so proud of how well he had piled the wood and getting it done so early. Sigh. 

I am so glad it happened at night and not while we were out there eating lunch. The logs would have avoided where we would have been sitting but it would have taken some time getting back into the house. Phew.

News on the Street

We arrived home from Delaware tired and happy. After a little something for supper, we went to bed about our usual time, 10:30. I slept until almost two before waking although sometime during the night I had heard a siren, not an unusual occurrence in Philadelphia. 

The next morning we are sitting in front of the tv with our coffees and tea and the local news comes on and there has been a shooting, three people injured and sent to the hospital, cops on the scene, and here is the street. Wait. What? That wall looks familiar. “Mama”, says Meredith, “that’s right outside your window.” We look and can’t see the wall for their tree but when we go outside and around the corner, there it is. The wall we have just seen on the tv right across the street from the back of their house. A shooting, and we had all slept through it.

The next night, we come home from touring Independence Hall and eating at the City Tavern, and are doing ordinary stuff. Meredith has heading to the basement with laundry. I am cutting a piece of cake. The doorbell rings, David answers it and comes back into the living room followed by three large men, detectives investigating the shooting. 

Bless them, they were right out of central casting. We had Kojak, tall, bald, and the obvious leader; the intellectual, black messy hair, black rimmed eye glasses and knows all about the internet and navigating the video footage; and the young one, who probably hasn’t been a detective long. And there they stood in the middle of the living room. 

David accessed the footage from the video cam for them and they loved it. They got lots of information and were pleased with the visit. Meredith was a little startled when she came up from the basement to see them standing in her living room but again, David introduced them and they were very polite and efficient and grateful for being let in and shown the footage.

It was definitely a lesson in white privilege as we were not scared or worried and they were surprised (as they said several times) to find the necessary electronic equipment in this lovely little apartment. I asked David if they had shown him ID and he said, yes, their shields were out when he opened the door. 

I do enjoy visiting my family and I have to say, there is never a dull moment, and sometimes you are almost on the morning news and feel like you are in the middle of a tv show. 

Philly Phood

I ate my way through this last week so was delightfully surprised to discover that I had also walked my way through the week because I lost two pounds!

Not all the food was restaurant style. Some was deliciously homemade.

My cousin Doris, in Delaware, gave us homemade pimento cheese for an evening appetizer. Oh yum!

Pimento cheese is such a Southern dish and one that has been around our family for a long time. The original was cooked - because it had eggs in it I believe. Doris makes a much easier recipe which she graciously told me and I shall blend up here in the next several days.

Doris also baked Sam's mother's (my Aunt Lalah's) caramel cake. Aunt Lalah put the caramel icing on hot milk cake. Doris put it on a maple cake, very similar to what David had as child in Canada. We ate cake for three meals and brought some home with us. So good! So sweet! Just had to forget about being off sugar and become 8 again and enjoy. 

When we arrived back from Delaware, we were stuffed but into the evening wanted a little something, "a little smackeral" as Pooh says. David made Toad in the Hole. I had heard of it but had no idea what it was. It is egg in Yorkshire Pudding. He adds rosemary for flavoring. Perfect. 

My last night we topped the visit with David's prime rib. 

He spent three days preparing the roast and finally letting it sit in fridge

wrapped tightly with a salt crust.

And of course, with rib roast comes more Yorkshire Pudding. 

Light, airy, puffy and delicious. Perfect for absorbing the rib juices.

Meredith asked if I wanted green beans with almonds or green bean casserole with my roast.

I make really nice green beans almandine so I opted for a good old fashioned casserole which Meredith made to accompany the roast. 

My roast on Yorkshire pudding ~ 

~ with a addition of green bean casserole.

And from the sublime to the ridiculous:

during a long Independence Hall touring day, we had a street hot dog.

Although I have had street food before, this was my first hot dog. It was 

as good for what it was as any of the other amazing food we ate. 

City Tavern, Philadelphia

We left the amazement of Independence Hall with some time to wander before our reservations at City Tavern. Here are some of the things we saw on our way. 

George Washington, who chaired the Continental Congress that created the Constitution. 

Abraham Lincoln stood here when he raised the flag on Independence Hall,

February 22nd, 1861.

Walking several blocks toward the Tavern, we passed and went into Ben Franklin's original

Post Office. We even mailed a letter there. 

And then we reached the Tavern ~ 

~ "the most genteel tavern in America" according to John Adams.

The place where the Congressional representatives went to continue to discuss

business and finally to celebrate the signing of the Declaration. (Signed mostly August through November in spite of the wonderful picture of them all gathered at the table.)

As it was a treasonous document, it is no wonder John Hancock commented (in the movie at least), "If you look closely, gentlemen, mine is the only name on the damned thing."

Steps to the door. 

Wonderful breads, brown bread that was Ben Franklin's favorite; sweet pumpkin

rolls that were Thomas Jefferson's favorite, and Sally Lunn (Lund) bread. Of course

we all ate one of each. 

Corn Chowder, classic and delicious.

Meredith and I had corn chowder. David had the mallard duck sausage on

red cabbage. To drink, David had apple cider with rum; I had plain apple cider; 

and Meredith had champagne.

Our lovely server Melana ~ in period costume as they all were. 

Lobster Pie ~ whose picture I forgot to take until I/we were half way through.

Dessert options: creme brûlée', Martha Washington's chocolate sponge cake, pumpkin cheese cake,

pecan tart, raspberry torte, and apple crisp. Meredith and I shared the pecan tart.

We left very full and very happy and very in accord with John Adams. 

Independence Hall, Philadelphia

Here we are: Independence Hall, the place where treason was debated and declared as for the first time in history a colony broke from the mother country in a successful rebellion. Had it been other than successful, all these men would have been hanged as traitors. "If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately." (Benjamin Franklin) It was a difficult and frightening time even while they were being brilliant and hoping to fulfill a vision beyond any ever imagined before. 

I know we have not lived up to that vision. Sometimes we don't even come close. And ~ my soul needed to spend time where these men sat and debated and their voices and those of their wives echo down the centuries. Here's to Tom and John and Ben and all the others who sat around these tables. 

The first room we entered was a court room, the first in the country. The judges sat behind the desk on the dais. The lawyers at the round table on the floor. 

This is the dock. The suspect stood in the dock which is where the phrase "standing trial" originated. 

Meredith was very happy to be in this historic court room. 

Across the hall was the room where the Continental Congress met, both to debate declaring independence and later to write the Constitution. The chair in front was where George Washington sat to chair the Congress that wrote the Constitution. I don't know if it was the same chair used by John Hancock during the Declaration debates. 

I loved being in this room and feeling the echo of the past and the so important present. 

Our guide spoke very fast because as she said, it was a 20 minute tour and there was so much history to impart. If you have seen the movie 1776, the desks were separated for blocking and cameras and they created the room to perfection.

It was a wonderful day and although there was more wonder to follow, I will leave you for now in this very important room to dream your dreams and have your visions of what this country can become.  ~ blessings, my friends.