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.