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| Nature enhanced our decorating with real icicles. |
We’ve arrived at “the most wonderful time of the year” now. At least that’s what Andy Williams and Johnny Mathis tell me. It’s December now and we have wholeheartedly embraced the Christmas season at our house. Miriam finally arrived home from her trip out west on Thursday and on Friday we began decorating the house.
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We have acquired a lot of Christmas decorations over the years – so many that we could cram every room full of them if we chose. We choose not to. Some of them are too worn out to be pretty anymore, but we are too sentimental to discard them. We pick and choose among the boxes and tins and every year the house ends up looking pretty much the same.
So on Friday we hung the garland in the archways where the living room opens into the dining room and the music room. We put a wreath on the front door. We set up Nativities. We have a lot of Nativities. We put the one we call Aunt Nancy’s Nativity (a gift from her many years ago) on top of the cupboard in the living room, and the Big Nativity in the music room. This year we decided to put all the small Nativities inside Miriam’s blue hutch that sits in the music room.
So on Friday we hung the garland in the archways where the living room opens into the dining room and the music room. We put a wreath on the front door. We set up Nativities. We have a lot of Nativities. We put the one we call Aunt Nancy’s Nativity (a gift from her many years ago) on top of the cupboard in the living room, and the Big Nativity in the music room. This year we decided to put all the small Nativities inside Miriam’s blue hutch that sits in the music room.
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| Aunt Nancy's Nativity |
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| The big Nativity |
We put the collection of Santa figurines on the small bookcase in the living room and the collection of Christmas tree figurines on the large bookcase. We hung the Christmas stockings in their usual place. It all looks very festive. We will get our Christmas tree later in the month. Then the decorations will be complete. To add to the decorations, my Christmas cacti have begun to bloom.
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| The Santa display. |
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| The Christmas trees. |
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| One of my Christmas cacti. |
Decorations make the house look like Christmas, but music makes it really feel like Christmas. In addition to accumulating decorations over the years, we have also accumulated a lot of Christmas music – carols and songs, the sacred and the secular. If I load all of my Christmas music into one queue, it will play for seven hours. And sometimes I do that. I love to have the music fill the house.
This weekend marks two big events in our Christmas season. Last night we attended the Rigas family’s Christmas Concert. The concert was held in the very nice auditorium at the Masonic Consistory in Coudersport. The auditorium was beautifully decorated with lighted tress and poinsettias. Hannah and Miriam were ushers and Josiah was chauffeur to some elderly guests who live up in Wellsville. Stacey was responsible for getting Mr. Rigas there. I just went to enjoy the concert. The group that performed was a string ensemble from New York City called Shattered Glass. This is the third year they have performed at the Christmas Concert. They did an excellent job, as they always do. They performed Christmas carols and classical pieces. Afterward there was a catered reception for Rigas employees and invited guests. It was a very nice event.
This weekend marks two big events in our Christmas season. Last night we attended the Rigas family’s Christmas Concert. The concert was held in the very nice auditorium at the Masonic Consistory in Coudersport. The auditorium was beautifully decorated with lighted tress and poinsettias. Hannah and Miriam were ushers and Josiah was chauffeur to some elderly guests who live up in Wellsville. Stacey was responsible for getting Mr. Rigas there. I just went to enjoy the concert. The group that performed was a string ensemble from New York City called Shattered Glass. This is the third year they have performed at the Christmas Concert. They did an excellent job, as they always do. They performed Christmas carols and classical pieces. Afterward there was a catered reception for Rigas employees and invited guests. It was a very nice event.
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| Shattered Glass at the Christmas Concert. |
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| At the concert. |
The second big event is the First Presidency Christmas Devotional tonight. I love to watch the Devotional. I love the music by the Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square. I love the messages given by the First Presidency. It is the perfect reminder of the sacred origins of celebrations.
It is warm and rainy today. It feels nice after all the cold and snow we’ve had lately. The snow is melting, but not fast enough for me. I know this weather won’t last long. The forecast says it will start snowing again tomorrow night. Anticipating what lies ahead, Josiah spent time yesterday replenishing the woodpile on the back porch.
It is warm and rainy today. It feels nice after all the cold and snow we’ve had lately. The snow is melting, but not fast enough for me. I know this weather won’t last long. The forecast says it will start snowing again tomorrow night. Anticipating what lies ahead, Josiah spent time yesterday replenishing the woodpile on the back porch.
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| Josiah splitting wood. |
The holiday season is sometimes difficult for me in terms of food. I have been pretty good at sticking with my lifestyle change and avoiding the foods that I’m supposed to avoid. As the months and years go on, it has gotten easier for me to resist the temptations. But from Thanksgiving to New Years it gets a bit harder. There is so much wonderful food that I’m not supposed to eat. All those super sweet cookies, cakes, candies, and rich starchy foods are things I cannot have. My family helps me a lot. At Thanksgiving at the Thyan’s house they had good things for me to eat. Sarah is always trying different things. And at home, Miriam is always ready to try an alternate version of some treat for me. She made ginger cookies for me the other day that were delicious. One of the things I love most at this time of the year is soft gingerbread with lemon sauce. I made one today. I tripled the amount of ginger in it and used dates as my primary sweetener. My flour was a mix of whole wheat flour, almond flour, and strong flour. It turned out pretty good. Everyone else liked it too. I’m hoping we’ll have more good food like that in the days ahead.
This weekend was our Stake Conference but we did not attend. They broadcast the Saturday evening session (which we couldn’t watch because of our involvement with the Christmas Concert), but they’ve stopped broadcasting the Sunday session to the distant branch buildings. It’s difficult for us to make the five hour round trip to attend. So we didn’t go to church today and it feels strange to have a Sabbath without church. It throws my whole week off kilter. We’ve been listening to sacred music all day – carols, of course – and that helps a bit. I spent a few hours working on my Sunday School lesson for next Sunday. And we will watch the devotional tonight. That will help a lot.
This weekend was our Stake Conference but we did not attend. They broadcast the Saturday evening session (which we couldn’t watch because of our involvement with the Christmas Concert), but they’ve stopped broadcasting the Sunday session to the distant branch buildings. It’s difficult for us to make the five hour round trip to attend. So we didn’t go to church today and it feels strange to have a Sabbath without church. It throws my whole week off kilter. We’ve been listening to sacred music all day – carols, of course – and that helps a bit. I spent a few hours working on my Sunday School lesson for next Sunday. And we will watch the devotional tonight. That will help a lot.
