Silver Bells

Dear, dear me! Here is, December 19th, and nary a sign of Holiday Cheer on this blog! It's abominable, I tell you! Absolutely abominable. So to make up for it, I thought I'd give you a nice plummy post today filled with this Christmas, Rachel-style. Ready for it? Okay.

It begins with liberal doses of hot chocolate periodically. I heat the water in the old blue and white teakettle, then dump in far too many spoonfuls of the powder if we're out of cocoa and milk to make it the real way.

 I always use a Christmas mug this time of year, because what is better, honestly, than a Christmas mug at Christmas? (Thank you, Mary.)

I read books till my eyes are heavy and my mind is full of noble thoughts that never make it onto the blog like I mean them too, and I glance up at our Christmas tree and realize just what a beautiful one it is. The book I'm reading might be "A Christmas Carol"--a stave or so each evening.

“And therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that [Christmas] has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

I might still shake inwardly over Marley's ghost. I might still smile and chuckle over the Crachitt's Christmas meal, thinking how like our own it is. I might, even, tear up when Tiny Tim comes on-page because if one can't be sentimental at Christmastime, one must be strangely inhuman and bereft of all feelings.

My season is interrupted by pleasant but odd things like 3D glasses and small glimpses of what C.S. Lewis called "Joy", but what manifests itself in odd, sharp-sweet stabs. I go to the midnight premier of a fantastic movie and stay up till 4:30 watching a meteor shower--stars dropping from the sky--and then take pictures to commemorate it.

The season continues. I make gingerbread men. I attempt to make fudge. I eat the not-so-fudge anyway, and discover Fudge-ish-gloop is quite as delicious as what it was meant to be. My friends concur. We imbibe deeply in not-so-fudge and then take a long walk to counteract its effects. Mama makes sugar-cookie dough--tradition of all childhood traditions!--and I pinch a bit when I pass the fridge, reveling in the taste of childhood.

I go shopping with the girls--my first trip to The City by myself as a licensed driver, and I did not get lost! Furthermore, it felt awesome having hard-earned money to spend, taking myself to spend it, and coming home all in one piece.

I sing. I sing lots of everything ranging from Matisyahu to Tenth Ave. North, to Bing Crosby's "Let it Snow" and a new-found-appreciation-version of "White Christmas." I listen to the girls play "The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy" on the piano and I get my yearly yearning to try a sugar-plum...whatever it is. I sing "Marshmallow World" before I can help myself, and then regret it immediately afterward.

I smell Christmas trees--coming in from being out and getting hit with the scent of fir. It's one of my favorite things in all the year! <3 There is nothing like home, for comfort, after all. I also sniff cinnamon, cider, vanilla, and my 7 different bottles of lotion from That Place. Ahem. Yes, I caved and went into That Place and blushed all the way home. Dear dear. 

I look at the world differently. Everyone has a story. The world is lit by candlelight and evensong and amethyst dusk. People go around acting different as if, for this one month out of the year, they sense a bit of what it means to be compassionate and loving.

I hear jingle bells and I smile. I hear accents and I smile broader. I hear "Far Over the Misty Mountains" as sung by Richard Armitage, and my heart both soars and plummets. Soars because the wander-lust is soft and swift, plummets because there are no literal dragons to slay.

I wait. I wait for Christmas Day, I wait for friends to arrive, I wait for parties and roadtrips and other beautiful events of the season. I wait for my family and friends to open the gifts I've given them, and I wait to open a few myself. I wait for Les Miserables to come out. But mostly I wait with expectant heart, arms high, and heart abandoned, in awe of the One who gave it all.

Can I get an Amen?

Today my heart is warm...

My heart is full of thankfulness today. Today of all days. But laying aside a day just for giving thanks puts me in mind of the state my heart should be in every day. "So I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the one who gave it all." Amen?

Today my heart is warm over the small things:

Pie-crust, golden and flaky for once

A pair of kittens

Walking--alone--in the moonlight

Nonsense

Sleep

Music--when there are no words to describe the matter.

The scent of cold pines through the darkness.

Hunters

And their dogs

Fresh venison

Boyish smiles

Blushes

Laughter

Books to read

Stories to write

Windows to stare out of

Cranberry sauce

Today my heart is warm over the large things:

Family. My family.

My dear sister-in-law-but-not-quite, Abigail.

Christian men and women who have gone down this road before and scattered their wisdom along the way....such a treasure.

Traditions

Salvation through grace--the end of me, the depths of Him.

Worship songs that pierce my soul and lift it up.

Prayer--on my knees--with a dear friend.

All my dear friends-my love to you always

They mystery of provision always-especially when it never works out on paper.

My life story.

This chapter of my life story.

Today my heart is warm. Warm with gratitude and happiness and the good cheer and hearty American-ness of this season. May your day be as warm and bright.

Next year on the 20th of May... :)

It's finally here!!! Props to my sister Sarah for reminding me of this fabulous holiday!!!

"It has always been my belief that them what pinched it, done her in!" ;)

Happy Eliza Doolittle Day, everyone! Go sing "Without You"! ;)

♫"...Next year on the twentieth of May, I proclaim Eliza Doolittle Day!"♫

-"Just You Wait" from the musical My Fair Lady

April Fools: The History of this Mad, Merry Day! :)

It is April Fool's Day today! In our house, that calls for loads of light-hearted pranks, many of which are remembered for years after. We bring forth all of our wit and ingenuity and generally fare well enough. But I thought I've give you a little bit of history of this jolly holiday, just for fun....

It all started (at least according to most records) back in the 4th century a.d. when the Celts and Gauls would sneak into each other's encampments to swap their rivals' real weaponry for carved sticks and stones and other things. Of course this got rather tiresome for both parties so it was unanimously restricted to happening during the Festival of Young Stars which fell around the first weekend of April.

In the next few centuries the holiday spread throughout Europe and into the East. There are even accounts of a young, somewhat plucky armor-bearer tricking Cesar into thinking Rome had started a Revolution and was marching to burn the temples! Needless to say, the youth got prison time for that. :P Note to self: Never play April Fool's tricks on an emperor!

But that didn't deter merry pranksters from celebrating the chance to make fools of their friends! The holiday took on gigantic proportions in France so that there were huge parades in the streets where the royal family was mixed up among the people dressed, in raggle-taggle clothes. According to popular songs and stories of that early period if you caught one of the royalty and kissed them you would receive a ransom of gold to let them go---needless to say there was a scramble to find and kiss the queen and her little children! :D That tradition, of course, led to security issues so was discontinued. The holiday died out in popularity in France and was revived around 1530 in England after being mentioned in one of Shakespeare's lesser-known plays.

The holiday, at this point, had morphed from its original form but now swung back to the pendulum--petty thieveries were being committed in London and other large cities under the guise of making the victim appear an "April Fool". In 1542 the King of England issued a decree that

"Alle sutch Aprile fooleries must needs be comited on Aprile the first and on no uthre day of thee yeare."

That was how the holiday came to be set officially for April 1st of every year. Eventually the holiday spread to America where it is much revered--I can't say if this is true or not, but it is presented in several old wive's tales that the Jamestown settlers staged a fake Indian attack on the fort on April 1st, 1618. Captain John Smith, according to the tale, let them go without punishment, but did give them a warning and a demerit each.

And so the holiday has continued as a day of merry-making for years and years. May it never die out, and may we never grow too old to enjoy a good prank or two!.....including this one. :D

Happy April Fool's, everyone!

A Tale of Turkeys, Pollyanna, and A Selfish Girl

"Happy Thanksgiving!"

 It has become a trite expression, and one I'm sometimes reluctant to say because I don't get that excited about turkey. I mean, come on! And then I mentally stagger backward, realizing what I just did. I just succumbed to America's holiday illness--that of commercialism! The word "Thanksgiving" now means nothing to my imagination except for another family dinner and a big turkey? I refuse to accept that.

Some years I am overwhelmed with gratitude on this holiday. Other years, the stress of life has caught up with me and I am not even in practice at recognizing blessings for what they are. As little as I want to admit it, this is that sort of a year, in some ways. Not that I am ungrateful for the big things: food, shelter, family, etc., but I've been feasting on God's goodness and not even stopping to thank Him for it. It's not easy for me to admit it, because it sounds so...horrid of me! Truly. If I stop to think about it, my heart crinkles up inside me with shame. I feel like precisely like Amy March when she said, "I'm a selfish girl."

I will admit to focusing on everything that is either happening too quickly and too much, or the things that are not happening at all. I've labeled my blessings as things I'm entitled to, and I have not recognized them as God gifts. Now that I'm stopping to confess this spirit of ingratitude in myself, I am ashamed. What is it that I've let myself slip into? And as silly as it sounds, the first person I think of when I think of someone who has the best heart of thanksgiving I think of....

Pollyanna.

I never much liked her in the Disney version--it seemed she knew the Glad Game was just a game. But recently I watched the Masterpiece Theatre version of Pollyanna, and I found my heart reaching out to this little girl who was so full of the joy of living. It sounds sappy, but it's true. There was one scene where she was just laying on her stomach in the grass, staring at the lake and singing a hymn...it was so simple, and yet it was so right. I know in my own life I am guilty of the sin of trying to fit too much in the cracks. Every moment is filled with something. I am always doing things, and this year in particular, I've left no time for being. It's a lesson children know well. Pollyanna asks her aunt, after she hears her new schedule: "But when will I have time to live? I know I shall be breathing, but it's not the same thing as living, you know."

A.A. Milne said it well: "Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."

I think of the story in Luke 10:38-42....

³⁸ Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” ⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. ⁴² But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

I have been a Martha this year, and I've been wrong. Oh Lord Jesus, forgive me for my ungrateful, busy heart. Let me be Mary, before Your feet, enjoying life as You give it to me, and contenting myself in Your gifts to me. Now the only thing left to do is to say with Lady Harriet, "I feel chastened...truly." And to make a list of the first twenty things I am praising Jesus for.

1. I thank You for your loving arms that hold me, even when I am as fractious as a croupy baby
2. I thank You for my sisters
3. And my brothers
4. I thank You for parents who are bringing me up to love You, and to trust You
5. I thank You for godly men like Peter Marshall who have taught us to love You better
6. I thank You for literature and the ability to read
7. I thank You for quotes. :)
8. I thank You for distinct seasons
9. I thank You for laughter...what would I do without it?
10. I thank You for the gift of music
11. And for the way You with-hold some gifts, only to pour others into our laps more richly than before.
12. I thank You for whoever thought up baking
13. I thank You for holidays were everyone pauses and remembers the simpler things in life.
14. I thank You for inspiration for so many projects
15. I thank You for health
16. I thank You for dancing
17. I thank You for dear friends
18. I thank You for your vast, unending, incomprehensible, enormous love that NEVER leaves me
19. I thank You for cranberries
20. I thank You for Cricket (my cuddly black pussy)

Thank you Jesus! Now all the rest of you have a blessed Thanksgiving, and please, let's not underestimate the value of Doing Nothing. :) I pledge here and now to take some time to Do Nothing each day...will you? :)

                                               Love,

                                                    Rachel

She's Making a List...

I know it is not even November yet, but now is the time of year I begin to think about making presents for people. Mama, Grace, Anna, Daniel, Benjamin, two aunts, and several good friends have their birthdays before Christmas, and then there are Christmas presents to get too. Needless to say, I could start much earlier and not be amiss! Naturally, I haven't the funds to buy presents for everybody, and I detest cheaply made things. Homemade can be amazing, or ridiculous. I vote for the amazing side of things. It's pretty easily done, actually! Some of the ideas I've had (and executed) are:

• A Christmas-themed novelette: "A Tale of Fairfax and Cloves"
• Aprons

not mine. :)

• Flower bobby-pins

Looks easy enough but no, I didn't make these. :)

• water-color painting

This belongs to an unfinished children's book about a toad named Mr. Otis Puddleby. :)

• homemade cordial cherries and cookie-dough truffles
• a bird-cage made out of Popsicle-sticks with a tiny fake bird for a younger sister--she *adored* it!
• hand-made dolls
• crocheted hats or scarves. Please, nothing lumpy. The idea is fashion. ;) 
• straw-hat work-basket. (instructions from the 1800's! :)
• Elaborately decorated and decoupaged book of quotes
• tea-stained stationary

My hand-decorated Pride and Prejudice stationary: "It is a truth universally acknowledged..."

• Egg-dolls

This is Miss Eglantine Benedict. She was recently shipped off to Washington a girl who won her. :)

•  Decoupaged paste-board boxes

I made this for a recent contest on my writing blog

There are so many many things you can make to give as gifts that cost little or no money. Handmade doesn't have to mean a sorry excuse for a present. Some of the best gifts I've been given were made with bits and pieces from around the giver's house. Don't be afraid to go wild. You'll come up with something, I know. But if you have the funds to buy gifts, I am not belittling you. It would be a whole lot easier to be able to buy something you really know the person will love. It just seems my budget entitles me to the Dollar Tree or my own resources...I prefer my own hands to those of some factory-workers in China. ;)