Last week we were busy as we made our final preparations for Christmas. The house was fragrant with the aroma of baking cookies and gingerbread and other holiday dainties. Packages and cards arrived at the house almost every day. There was secret activity as gifts were wrapped and hidden away. The music of Christmas filled the house. All week the excitement grew day by day, hour by hour. It created a happy magic.
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| Baking days. |
We got a little snow overnight on Monday. I heard the township snow plow go up the road at 4:30 a.m., a welcome and yet unwelcome sound. Tuesday morning the world looked appropriately wintry. There was about three inches of snow on the ground. I was called into school that morning at the last minute and the roads were still a bit scary driving there. By the time I came home, they were good. That’s what I like least about snow. If we can stay home and just watch it fall, I’m fine with it, but if we have to go out on the roads, I’m not.
When I got home from school that day, the chickens were not at their back fence waiting for me as they usually are. I changed into chore clothes and went down to the barn to see what was up. Their automatic door hadn’t opened, so they were stuck inside the coop all day. They were not happy. Chickens are excellent complainers. I investigated and figured out that the snow had covered up the solar cell that powers the automatic coop door, so there wasn’t enough power for it to work. I ran an extension cord to it and unhooked the solar cell. It will stay that way until spring now.
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| Flowers in the winter, my houseplants. |
Wednesday began with a pretty pale sunrise. It was too cold to take a long walk, 14°, so I just enjoyed it from the front porch. That was another errand day. I set out early and headed to Wellsville. I had some gifts to deliver and then went for my usual load of chicken feed. When I got home, I unloaded the feed at the barn. When I came into the house, Miriam was baking ginger spice cookies and the aroma was pure Christmas happiness. The day ended with a beautiful, incandescent sunset. I walked out into the orchard to watch it. Winter sunsets seem especially intense when we actually get to see them. More often than not, the sky is too overcast.
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| Sunrise on Wednesday. |
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| Sunset on Wednesday. |
On Thursday we arrived at the Winter Solstice. Here at 41°52' North Latitude, the sun rose at 7:33 that morning and set at 4:32 that evening, giving us just eight hours and fifty-eight minutes of daylight, the shortest day of the year. That is an event in the solar cycle that I celebrate wholeheartedly. It marks the great turning point in the year when the earth begins to tilt back toward the sun and darkness begins its retreat as we head back toward June. That night, looking out upon the darkest evening of the year, I had to recite Robert Frost’s poem – a poem I memorized for an English class assignment fifty years ago and am happy to say I still remember perfectly.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
I love that poem. Standing there at my window, with the woods brooding in the dark at the top of the hill and the lake, actually a beaver pond, frozen across the road below me, I felt the sudden need for a wagon and a little horse with harness bells. Maybe someday.
I am a great believer in the importance of keeping traditions. They anchor us to the past and bridge us to the future, helping us remember who we are and where we came from. Christmas is rich in traditions in our house. Food and decorations and food and music and food and movies fix it firmly in our memories. The sound of certain music, the smell of pine and the aroma of baking, the decorations in their ordained places, the taste of a certain cookie , these conjure up a thousand happy memories of years past and joins this year’s celebration to their joyous company. I love knowing that what I’m doing now was done by my parents and grandparents and countless generations before me and will be done by my children and grandchildren for generations yet to come in a lovely chain made of sights and sounds and smells and tastes.
I read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol last week. I don’t read it every year, but in the years that I do, I’m glad I took the time to do it. After the story of the birth of Christ, I think it is the best of all Christmas stories.
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| Reading A Christmas Carol by the wood stove. |
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| Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present. |
The Shilligs came over for dinner on Friday. It was our traditional Hannah’s Friday Homemade Pizza Night. She made five delicious pizzas. The Shilligs brought the salad. We had to set up an extra table for the children to sit at. That will be how things are for a while as our house fills up with family for the holidays.
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| Pizza night at the adult table. |
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| Pizza night at the children's table. |
The Fosters arrived here yesterday. Josiah and Vanessa, after much tribulation, flew into Buffalo late last night, more like early this morning. Miriam and Hannah picked them up and brought them home. They got here at 3:00 this morning. The Thayns will arrive in a few hours. Then our Christmas guests will be complete and we will be merry together. If only Geoffrey and his family could be here and Daniel and his family. We will think of them and miss them as we light our traditional bayberry candle tonight.
Today is Christmas Eve. It’s been a gray and drizzly day. Only the sparest vestiges of snow remain, and that’s okay. The snow was getting ugly anyway. We won’t have a white Christmas this year. Our church service was just one hour long this morning. We had a program that consisted mostly of carols with some narration in between. Christmas Sunday is supposed to be one of the best attended meetings of the year, we had thirty-seven people there, which is pretty good for our branch. Of course eleven of them were our visiting family. The program turned out pretty good. Sarah played the piano, Stacey was the chorister, Miriam and I were the narrators. Now we are home and taking it easy before our Christmas Eve gathering.
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| After church today. |
This evening we are going to the Shillig’s house for our Christmas Eve gathering. The Shilligs are providing the savory treats – hors d'oeuvres, tamales, and wassail. We are providing the sweet treats – cookies, gingerbread, and egg nog. We will play games and sing carols and then we will read the account of the birth of Christ, the reason for all our celebrations. It will be delicious and noisy and joyous. And then tomorrow is Christmas Day!
I wish you a very Merry Christmas!
