The Christmas Hope

 Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

🎄  Merry Christmas! 🎄 

It's a Christmas miracle!

Years ago I saw a beautiful Christmas cactus in bloom at the grocery store in December, so I bought it.  I brought it home, and a few of it's numerous buds bloomed.  The rest proceeded to fall off unopened.

I watered the cactus all year long and the next December, I noticed it forming some buds.  When it seemed close to blooming, I brought it out of it's corner in the room and put it on my coffee table (where I could see it and enjoy it).  It proceeded to drop every single bud over the next few days without blooming.

So I went to Kroger and bought another.

I watered them both all the next year, and saw them forming buds again in December.  So I brought them to my coffee table, where they repeated their pattern of dropping all the buds in a few days time.

So I went to Kroger and bought another.

Fast forward five years or so.  I  now have five Christmas cactuses.  Over the past years I've tried it all - I've fertilized them with cactus fertilizer, moved them to various spots of the room, watered them less and watered them more.  In short, I've toiled to solve the mystery of why my Christmas cactuses tease me in the worst way every holiday - threatening to bloom, until they're moved in the spotlight where they drop all their buds.

They are not near heat vents, as far as I can tell.

Maybe they just hate being moved?

The story has never changed, UNTIL:

2020, the year of plant neglect.  This is the year I have driven between two houses for six months, bringing some plants back and forth between, but leaving the bulk of my houseplants more or less neglected, receiving only occasional waterings.  There were a few casualties.

Honestly, the Christmas cactuses looked like they were barely hanging on when I returned home in November.  It had been two weeks since their last watering.  (I had forgotten to call the neighbor).

My expectations were zero.

But then suddenly I noticed two of the cacti growing buds.  One of them grew three.  The other grew about twenty, the most I'd ever seen.

So I moved them to the spotlight, on a ledge over the kitchen sink.

The pink one with three buds dropped two, but gave me one flower.  Typical.

But the other - the other!  The other STILL sits in the spotlight, over a week later, blooming it's little heart out.  It must have given me 15 flowers so far.

I NEEDED this in 2020!

2 of the 4 underperformers

Ok, so I STILL haven't solved the mystery of WHY one performed (finally!) while the other four did the usual.  But I'll take it.

(If there are any Christmas cactus experts out there with ideas, please tell!)

I'm sure a lot of people would throw them away when the holiday is over.  But I love TRYING to bring them back every year, even though I've ended in failure 95% of the time.  Why?  I don't know.

Having one succeed after all these years of trying has renewed my hope.  I guess I needed it.

This is the first year I haven't bought a new one at Kroger so I could have a guaranteed few flowers at Christmas.

I did it.  I made one succeed.  I have no idea how I did it, but I did.  And that hope will keep me going.

Not everything about 2020 was terrible.  I cling to the positives as the year draws to an end.  How about five blooming Christmas cacti for December 2021?

Perhaps not.  But maybe.

And that hope will keep me going.

When you run out of time? Plan B!

I thought I'd share a couple of pics from Christmas in 2018.

I had bought 3 pumpkins for my family to carve for Halloween and we just never got around to it.  I sure did hate to waste them, so I cut up 2 of them and used them for soup.  But after filling up half the freezer with pumpkin, I still had another left over.

So I decided to carve a turkey in it and use it as a Thanksgiving decoration.  Except that I ran out of time and never did that either.

So that left...Christmas!

(I'm pretty sure this is about as affordable as Christmas decor gets.)

Here I share with you our Christmas pumpkin:

My husband's taken to calling the new season between October and December when you're driving around and see Halloween/"fall"/Christmas lights outside people's houses all in the same day "HallowThanksmas."

I think we're right on trend!

Another time, another place

After Thanksgiving I decided to take a fun day and drive a bit to another part of the city that has some wonderful antique malls.  I still need a few things for the house, so I told myself I was working (sort of), but really it was a pre-Christmas-hecticness day off.  

(That is, it was a day off minus the extra 20 miles I drove to pick up a video game chair for my son that I was buying from someone on craigslist.  Though the chair was part of his payment for helping me paint at the House of Goodwill, so it was definitely worth it!)

Anyway, as I was wandering around the usual antiques and random old stuff I saw a cookbook that I could not NOT pick up.

I love reading cookbooks and perusing recipes for fun.  As I was glancing through this one, I couldn't help but wonder about a lot of things (?)

Obviously, I HAD to see what was inside.

Question #1 - Does this lady actually know that her picture made it on the cover of this cookbook?  Did she approve it?  If so, I would like to meet her.  (I think.)

Inside, along with a lot of "normal" recipes (perhaps a tad heavy on the canned ingredients and processed foods), were a few that made me pause.  For example:

I'm really not sure what to say, really.  I can't help but wonder how old Pardie Tickette lived to be?  But I suppose this is no worse than Hostess cupcakes, or Little Debbies, which we all would eat and not think was odd at all.

Question #2 - Is this for real?  I mean, was the whole cookbook done as a joke, or was it meant to be serious, with a few recipes thrown in for entertainment value?  I know there must be someone somewhere STILL eating fried squirrel, but I'm pretty sure the people who do are probably not the same ones who buy cookbooks.

Question #3 - What the heck is a cooter?  (Actually, I think I figured this one out by the context clues.)

But - Question #4 - Is THIS a real recipe?  Do people who whack apart cooters with hatchets really add thyme and crushed garlic when cooking them?  And what I really want to know now is - Question #5 - what am I setting aside the liver, tripe and eggs for?  The recipe does not say to throw them out.  Is "cooter liver" a delicacy?

(Somehow I imagine if I was a talented French chef I would answer, "of course.")

I just assume that this recipe would not make it to publication in today's politically correct world, and would be about as appealing as the (former) Mississippi state flag.  

Which begs Question #6 - would this cookbook even be published today?  I'm still not sure how serious/funny it was meant to be, but no doubt there is a group somewhere who would want to protest it.

Speaking of which, if anyone finds this post offensive, I would just like to apologize as it's not intended to be condescending in any way - I think it's obvious by this book's cover that it wasn't meant to be taken 100% seriously.

I'm just an ignorant suburban woman who's grateful she's never HAD to soften up an old, tough squirrel in a pressure cooker.

But if my husband ever puts an unapproved photo of me on the cover of anything I may just have to purchase a shotgun after all.

My sophistication does have its limits.

The invitation must have been lost in the mail...

I'm feeling a little bit like Charlie Brown right now, because darn it, I don't have one single white elephant Christmas party on my dance card this season.

And I found the PERFECT "gift" at Goodwill yesterday!

I mean, come on!

*Sigh*

Just ANOTHER reason to hate Covid.

It's that magical time of year - .88 cent poinsettia time!

I am NOT a Black Friday shopper.  Early mornings and big crowds are definitely not my scene, especially after a long busy day of cooking.

But every year, on Black Friday, there is one sale I can't resist - Lowe's sells tiny poinsettias for 88 cents.  My husband always makes a trip to Lowes and buys me 12, so I can put them all around the house.

They last through New Year's, and may be my favorite Christmas decoration after the tree.

Years ago I painted some tiny pots and decoupaged vintage Christmas postcards on them.  The poinsettias fit in them perfectly.

The last two years my husband got to Lowe's too late and all the poinsettias had sold.  So many people have moved to this area, they cleared out early.  It just wasn't the same.

This year, he got there before noon and came home triumphant.

Christmas is officially on it's way now!

A flat of poinsettias for under $12 - this is bargain holiday cheer!

I guess it's time to get the fall decor put away...

Hello Christmas!

And 2020 was like...

How did I spend my down time over Thanksgiving weekend?  (Relaxing - NOT setting up the Christmas tree)?

Like Ross Geller, I too like to kick back with a puzzle once in a while. 

I found this great 998-piece puzzle at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago.  Of course, when you buy something secondhand, you sometimes don't know exactly what you're getting, or whether that great discovery will be "all there."

That's the chance you take, right?  I spent hours working out this puzzle, only to come up 2 pieces short at the end.

Somehow it seemed like the perfect metaphor for my life.

It was almost there.

My life, in form of puzzle

It was a good reminder to focus on the joys in the journey, not on the end result.

Life seems to contain a lot of unfinished puzzles.  While I wish I had all the pieces to pull them together, I don't.  That's just how it is.  I love a holiday that reminds us to be thankful anyway.

May your Christmas season be full of Thanksgiving - for everything.

"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

1 Thessalonians 5:18