It snowed on Christmas Eve so Irving, Bing, and I were all pretty happy. We had a white Christmas after all. Our Christmas Eve observance was very traditional. We read Luke Chapter 2. We ate cookies and gingerbread and drank eggnog. We burned our bayberry candle.
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| Christmas Eve. |
Christmas Day was a very grown up celebration. I was awake at my usual time – 5:30. Stacey had to work. Since we couldn’t do any celebrating until she got home, Miriam, Hannah, and Josiah slept in. We spent the day preparing our Christmas feast and staring at the wrapped gifts under the tree. We worked on a jigsaw puzzle all day, a Christmas/New Years tradition at our house. When Stacey arrived home at 4:00 we ate dinner – the traditional ham, funeral potatoes, etc. After dinner, we sat down to open presents. Everyone gave and received some very nice and very thoughtful gifts.
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| Christmas Day. |
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| Doing our jigsaw puzzle. |
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| Waiting on the stairs. |
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| Christmas dinner. |
On Wednesday, Miriam and I undecorated the house. Taking down and putting away the decorations takes a lot longer and is much sadder than putting them up. We dragged the once beautiful and now naked tree out to the woodland garden. It sits there now looking very forlorn, awaiting its immolation in the spring. Now the house looks “normal” again and a bit plain and melancholy. Even so, I always like to have a clean and tidy house for the new year.
The days between the two holidays are always a bit somber. There’s so much excitement and anticipation heading into Christmas. The days just after it seem dull until the new year approaches and we start revving up for another celebration.
After getting snow for Christmas, the weather warmed again and it rained and the snow melted away again. Last night it snowed again, but it’s just a thin layer.
We’ve had a bit of sickness at our house. Stacey, Miriam, Hannah, and Josiah have all been suffering with congestion, sore throats, and coughs. I’ve managed to avoid it so far and hope not to succumb. I credit my daily breakfast drink of golden milk (haldi ka doodh) – warm milk with turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and black pepper in it for my resistance. I offered some to the sick people, but they all refused saying it is gross. I actually like it.
Today was the last Sabbath of the year and our last three hour church service. Starting next week we’ll begin our new two hour schedule. Despite the coughs and colds, our family sang an a capella rendition of Ring Out, Wild Bells in sacrament meeting today. Today was also the last Sunday School lesson I’ll teach in the old style. On the new schedule we’ll only have Sunday School twice a month on the first and third Sundays. The new Sunday School program, with its emphasis on home study, will take some adjusting to on my part. I’ve been teaching the Gospel Doctrine class here for nineteen years now. I’ve been through the old four year curriculum cycle almost five times. During those years, I’ve practically memorized the lesson manuals and developed my own style of teaching. Now I’ll have to change the way I teach and I’ll admit I’m a bit nervous about it. I’m an old dog and very slow to learn new tricks. I’m excited that we are studying the New Testament. The new lesson manuals look great. I just hope everyone does their lessons at home like they are supposed to. Otherwise our class time will be very dull. We’ll see how it goes.
Today is my mother’s birthday. She turned 90 today. My brother and sisters and other friends had a surprise party for her there in Missouri yesterday. Over the weeks as the party was being planned, I went back and forth trying to decide if I would go. I’m a very reluctant traveler under the best of circumstances and especially so in the winter when the weather is so unpredictable. You never know when flights will be canceled. Just driving from our house to the airport in Buffalo is a chancy thing to try and plan during the winter. I finally decided not to risk it. I also reasoned that my parents were just here visiting for two weeks during the summer. I feel a bit guilty now for being the only child not there. I hope the party was a huge success.
My mother, Mary Dolores Rathfon, was born on December 30, 1928, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She is the oldest of the four children of Arthur LeFevre Rathfon and Mary Elizabeth Showers Rathfon. She is the only one of her family still living. During the hard times of the Great Depression, my mother went to live with her grandparents Samuel Adam Showers and Mary Elizabeth Hench Showers. My great grandmother Showers wanted my mother to be the next Shirley Temple. She enrolled her in dance classes and dressed her in Shirley Temple-esque clothing. Later my mother returned to live with her parents and siblings. For a while they lived on Forest Street in Harrisburg. Later they moved across the river to the little town of Perdix in Perry County. While living there, my parents met, courted, and were married in 1953. In 1954 my sister Hollie was born. In 1958 I came along and in rapid succession after me came my brother Steve (1960), and my sisters Nancy (1961) and Mindy (1962). My mother’s last child, my sister Jaynan, was born in 1966. Now, after 90 years of life and 65 years of marriage, she is the mother of six, grandmother of 32, and great-grandmother of 31. At 90 she is still going strong. My mother is a wonderful person and I love her with all my heart. Happy birthday Mama!
The days between the two holidays are always a bit somber. There’s so much excitement and anticipation heading into Christmas. The days just after it seem dull until the new year approaches and we start revving up for another celebration.
After getting snow for Christmas, the weather warmed again and it rained and the snow melted away again. Last night it snowed again, but it’s just a thin layer.
We’ve had a bit of sickness at our house. Stacey, Miriam, Hannah, and Josiah have all been suffering with congestion, sore throats, and coughs. I’ve managed to avoid it so far and hope not to succumb. I credit my daily breakfast drink of golden milk (haldi ka doodh) – warm milk with turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and black pepper in it for my resistance. I offered some to the sick people, but they all refused saying it is gross. I actually like it.
Today was the last Sabbath of the year and our last three hour church service. Starting next week we’ll begin our new two hour schedule. Despite the coughs and colds, our family sang an a capella rendition of Ring Out, Wild Bells in sacrament meeting today. Today was also the last Sunday School lesson I’ll teach in the old style. On the new schedule we’ll only have Sunday School twice a month on the first and third Sundays. The new Sunday School program, with its emphasis on home study, will take some adjusting to on my part. I’ve been teaching the Gospel Doctrine class here for nineteen years now. I’ve been through the old four year curriculum cycle almost five times. During those years, I’ve practically memorized the lesson manuals and developed my own style of teaching. Now I’ll have to change the way I teach and I’ll admit I’m a bit nervous about it. I’m an old dog and very slow to learn new tricks. I’m excited that we are studying the New Testament. The new lesson manuals look great. I just hope everyone does their lessons at home like they are supposed to. Otherwise our class time will be very dull. We’ll see how it goes.
Today is my mother’s birthday. She turned 90 today. My brother and sisters and other friends had a surprise party for her there in Missouri yesterday. Over the weeks as the party was being planned, I went back and forth trying to decide if I would go. I’m a very reluctant traveler under the best of circumstances and especially so in the winter when the weather is so unpredictable. You never know when flights will be canceled. Just driving from our house to the airport in Buffalo is a chancy thing to try and plan during the winter. I finally decided not to risk it. I also reasoned that my parents were just here visiting for two weeks during the summer. I feel a bit guilty now for being the only child not there. I hope the party was a huge success.
My mother, Mary Dolores Rathfon, was born on December 30, 1928, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She is the oldest of the four children of Arthur LeFevre Rathfon and Mary Elizabeth Showers Rathfon. She is the only one of her family still living. During the hard times of the Great Depression, my mother went to live with her grandparents Samuel Adam Showers and Mary Elizabeth Hench Showers. My great grandmother Showers wanted my mother to be the next Shirley Temple. She enrolled her in dance classes and dressed her in Shirley Temple-esque clothing. Later my mother returned to live with her parents and siblings. For a while they lived on Forest Street in Harrisburg. Later they moved across the river to the little town of Perdix in Perry County. While living there, my parents met, courted, and were married in 1953. In 1954 my sister Hollie was born. In 1958 I came along and in rapid succession after me came my brother Steve (1960), and my sisters Nancy (1961) and Mindy (1962). My mother’s last child, my sister Jaynan, was born in 1966. Now, after 90 years of life and 65 years of marriage, she is the mother of six, grandmother of 32, and great-grandmother of 31. At 90 she is still going strong. My mother is a wonderful person and I love her with all my heart. Happy birthday Mama!
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| My mother with her parents. With her teddy bear. The dancer. |
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| The Rathfons on Forest Street. My mother's engagement picture. Wedding picture. The family in 1980. My parents last summer. |
And so we arrive at the end of 2018 and the beginning of a new year. Our New Years celebration will not be a big deal. It never is. It will just be the five of us and we aren’t party people. We’ll have our traditional foods on New Years Eve – a variety of Japanese, Chinese, and Mexican foods. We’ll probably play some games and watch a movie. We won’t stay up until midnight. I’m more than happy to meet the new year sound asleep. On New Years Day we won't watch any football games. We are not sports people, never have been and never will be. We’ll eat our traditional pork and sauerkraut. I still have some of my homemade apple and garlic kraut and it will be delicious with a pork roast and mashed potatoes. The rest of the day we’ll take it easy, play some games, maybe watch another movie. It’s a low key way to start the year. I prefer it that way. The year of Our Lord 2018 was full of changes in our family, in our community, and in the world. The coming year will be full of even more changes. That is the nature of time and life and people. I hope that as the new year unfolds, the good will outweigh the bad, the blessings prevail over the problems.
Happy New Year!
