So we have four services on Christmas Eve. The first is a children’s pageant. This year I will be working the nursery for that service, with the assistance (?) of little she and miss m. As a parent, I never get to volunteer in the nursery, so I’m excited about that.
Then we will have our […]

One of my favorite topics:
1. Favorite cookie/candy/baked good without which, it’s just not Christmas.
Our pralines, although we’ve had two botched batches so far this year. I don’t get what we’re doing wrong… I mean, it’s really humid today, but we used to make them in Houston!
2. Do you do a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve, […]

daybreak is a blue receiving blanket
edged in baby pink, tucked tight
under the chin of a world that was
up half the night, wailing.
all is calm, tender and mild,
damp, glittering.
then out of nothing
a silver thread appears, streaks the sky
and hangs for a long piercing moment.
an airplane’s hasty journey?
or a lightning strike, frozen on film?
(I can almost believe […]

from the lovely Songbird:
1) It’s a Wonderful Life–Is it? Do you remember seeing it for the first time?
I love this movie. I try to watch it every year, although some years I watch the abridged version (from Uncle Billy losing the money until the end).
When I went to college, we had to fill out this […]

The divine miss m is much better. She’s still waking at night for various reasons, but hasn’t had fever all weekend. The snot river’s dried up, minimal coughing. Breathing treatments are prescribed through Tuesday; then we’ll see. We’re hoping she’ll be back at daycare tomorrow. She seems to be getting pretty sick of our house.
Meanwhile, […]

So, my love-hate relationship with the 24/7 Christmas music we’re all subjected treated to is well documented. It gets too sentimentally sticky-sweet sometimes, yet I find myself unable to resist it. And so…
1. A favorite ’secular’ Christmas song.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. There are many versions and most of them are good, except the […]

worship
though it’s embarrassing,
like talking in one’s sleep
or feeling milk chortle out the nose.
it is unseemly, the amnesia of the self,
the adoration unto death, the testimony,
against the evidence, that there is
only
this:
the beloved
addressing her:
be loved,
as i am.
you cradle me, but it is i who will
save you, gather you back
from the
abyss;
with a
pair of eyes studying her face, […]

This is just a note to thank you for providing us with nonstop Christmas music during this month—and half of last month too!!!! More than the shopkeepers, cashiers, stockers, Wal-Mart greeters, more even than the Salvation Army bell-ringers who provide a convenient place for me to put loose change and gum wrappers—in this season of […]

the heavenly music floats high, high enough
to catch sunlight,
its pure white patches—
distant through naked trees—
puffed and fat with trumpets,
or combed into pianissimo wisps.
and it came to pass
that the weary world reached up,
snagged the misty amens,
clutched them close
until puffs of angel song
pooled in the valleys of chill,
got tangled in gnarled branches
making the weary wonderful,
a suburb sublime.
you […]

1) Do you observe Advent in your church?
Yes. Advent wreath, advent dinner, advent hymns–although by Advent 3 we’re holding people off with a whip and a chair, so a few carols creep in.
2) How about at home?
We light the candles on the advent wreath
3) Do you have a favorite Advent text or hymn?
Oh, I’m full […]

they looked up, and saw a star shining
in the east
beyond them
far—
it hung fat in the sky
and taunted them for days.
when they moved, it slid alongside,
when they stopped and turned, it halted too
and winked like an idiot.
no-
eloquence
in its message: approach.
no-
elegance
in their response: buzz off,
swatting it;
but a few sighed:
all right.
we’ll go that way,
just to get you
off our […]

This started as a comment to the comments on the previous post but it just got too long. Proving that if blogging is good for anything, it’s good for driving a discussion firmly into the ground.
Point the First
Apropos of Songbird’s and Keith’s comments, it seems that real life lies on that great continuum between “perfect” […]

Some of you may have read or are familiar with the Five Love Languages books. In essence, each person has particular ways they prefer to give love and receive love: gifts, acts of service, physical touch, quality time, and words of affirmation. These fall on some sort of continuum for each person. The trick is […]

My husband accompanied my brother this morning to stand on line for a Nintendo Wii. They headed out at oh-dark-thirty this morning but were, sadly, thwarted. There were 30 people in line for 6 units. They are trying to be philosophical about it–”That’s the most I was willing to do, so I’m OK with it… […]

It’s Thanksgiving morning and the house is full, with two more at the extended stay motel for reasons of crowding and allergies. R woke up this morning realizing that the turkey was brining in 2x strong solution so he’s taken it out and returned it to the fridge. Now the 20 lb. CostCo Megabird will […]

We are asked to say five things we are thankful for.
The grace and hope that hums below the surface of so much of life
Husband whose company I enjoy after 12+ years and who seems willing to put up with me as well :-*
A network of support that helps make this very full existence possible: MaDear, […]

The divine miss m is TEN months today! Blessed be.
And now…
You wanna see something *really* scary?
1. Do you enjoy a good fright?
I really don’t. I startle *extremely* easily and don’t find it fun. This startle reflex totally short-circuits my rational brain, so that even a haunted house, which I’ve paid for and chosen and know […]

In talking to ChaplainMom tonight I realized I may have given the wrong impression last week. When I said that our costumes growing up were often original and/or homemade, I wasn’t implying that they were all particularly good.
Exhibit A:
In third grade I went as a Rubik’s Cube. (Why yes, I was a nerd, why do […]

I am preaching the world’s most boring sermon tomorrow. Really! It bites. But in the immortal words of my sister Will Smama: “If you got a dog, walk it proud.”
The divine miss m is feeling much, much better. She’s just about back to her normal grinning self–nighttime sleep is not quite back to normal though. […]

From little she-who-is’s Mother’s Day card made at preschool:
How old is your mother? I don’t know.
What does she like to eat? Guacamole.
What does your mother like to do? Play.
I like it when… she brushes my teeth with the Cinderella toothbrush.
If I had a million dollars I would buy my mother… food.
I’ve had a nice morning; […]