A Very Merry Advent

I love the idea of using Advent as a period of waiting and reflection, I really do. It just ain't happenin' this year. Perhaps if I were a little less social. But, I am doing all kinds of wonderful things, things I have always longed to do, things that make my heart just open right up and sing. I've been absurdly busy this weekend and am working on about 12 hours of sleep for the weekend. However, my soul feels wide awake & alive.

Friday night, I rushed home from tutoring and excitedly threw together a pot of my very favorite (and very easy) mac & cheese, with sharp cheddar, transferred it to my big, yellow mixing bowl. I drove the dark streets to Jill's, admiring Christmas lights and singing along with Harry Connick Jr's "(It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus," my #1 Christmas song these days. Marcy had recommended My Little Red Book by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff for the Uppity Book Women's December selection and when Jill offered to host in their lovely home, she suggested we all bring comfort food. Amusingly enough, Marcy had also brought mac & cheese, hers being Kraft with really yummy beef hot dogs from a local butcher. Jill offered lasagna, which we both eagerly accepted. We had a good discussion, on all aspects of our lives as well as on the book (which we all really enjoyed and which I highly recommend for every woman). We finally wrapped it up just before 10 so that Marcy could go out with a friend and I could have some little giftie I could present to my Art Gang Ohio friends. I stopped by the grocery on the way home to pick up candy-making supplies.

Late as it was, Jeannene and Scot were still out shopping. I got started on Jeff's birthday cake, a fantastic flourless chocolate cake that takes a good hour just for baking, right away. Jeannene went to bed shortly after they returned, while I danced around in the kitchen, feeling like one of Santa's elves. I hoped to make it to bed by 2, but it was closer to 3:30 when I finally closed my eyes. In the interval, I managed to turn out a beautiful cake, a batch of peanut brittle, a collection of hot pink lemon drop spoons (to be stirred into the packets of chamomile tea I added to my gift bags) and even homemade marshmallows, my first attempt at that. I was pretty frustrated when I pulled my candy thermometer out of the drawer only to discover that the end was shattered. I decided just to wing it, giving myself the advice my life coach once gave me regarding cheesecake---"What's the worst thing that can happen if it doesn't come out right?" Hmm, some sugar, Karo and gelatin wasted. Not the end of the world. However, they came out just fine, thank you very much, and I included them in my sacks with candy canes for stirring and packets of fancy cocoa. By the time I was finished with the night's candy-making project, I was high on accomplishment and fun. Tired, but flying high. I'd even chosen a name for my (imaginary) candy kitchen, Happy Cat Kitchens. Perhaps that might not be such a good name, though. It might bring to mind images of grinning cats dancing through the cake batter, pawing the marshmallow fluff, napping atop the peanut brittle. Not the case, but nonetheless, if I ever open a real candy kitchen, that probably won't work as the name! I took a sample of peanut brittle up to my sleepish wife, who happily awoke for such a sweet treat. Funny thing is that she ended up liking the marshmallows best of all, when she usually despises marshmallows.

I awoke too early Saturday morning for such a late Friday night, but I was buzzing on excitement about the Art Gang Ohio Christmas tea. I finished up my packages and packed up a smudge pot I glazed and a Spirit doll I am working on needle-felting. Then, I got on the road. Jeannene's GPS took me a completely different way than the MapQuest directions, so I was later than I expected but didn't miss out on anything besides conversation. Darlene's house was lovely and filled with wonderful art and antique pieces. My favorites were her collection of icons, including some Virgin of Guadalupe ones. We visited and waited for other arrivals, catching up on one another's lives and latest creative projects. We started with tea. I was happy to see that Darlene had Earl Grey, my tea of choice, and tiny chicken salad finger sandwiches, much adored by me. Hers were some of the better ones I've sampled, too. Must get recipe! There were egg salad dainty sandwiches, miniature shrimp summer rolls with peanut sauce, beautiful apricot scones, sumptuous desserts. Then when it was gift-opening time. I am constantly blown away by the talent & generosity of these gals. My treats paled in comparison to amazing artwork, handmade ornaments, wonderful collections of edible delights, fun art supplies & ephemera. I felt so overwhelmed. I was even more bowled over by the show and tell time, with all kinds of funky and fabulous art pieces, from lushly-colored yarn to an intricate art journal to adorably cute felted figures. How am I lucky enough to be part of the Uppity Book Women, Wild Mango Queens and AGO? Thanks, God! After show & tell, we came up with our 2010 project, "Some Time AGO." I am incredibly excited about that! I'm hoping it will give me incentive to actually make art, rather than just thinking I ought to do so, would love to do so, need to fill my well by doing so. I also got pretty charged up seeing Darlene's studio and thinking about the possibilities for our new studio once we kick Jeff out of his man cave/basement lair and move him upstairs. I am seriously considering mango walls.

Once home, I had only a minimal amount of time before more celebration, a small amount of time in which to wrap Jeff's (ridiculously expensive, available only for an extremely brief time and therefore requiring the money we'd set aside for me to join Jeannene in Vegas last week) new X-Box 360 and adorn his cake with fresh raspberries. Then, it was off to pick up Jeff's friend, Chris, for dinner at the local Japanese steakhouse. Quite a step up from the gas station food he requested for his 14th birthday last December. We had dinner at BP that night. Chris then spent the night, our living room transformed into a gamer's haven and our bedroom transformed into a sleeper's haven. I still only got about 6 hours of sleep. I am not a morning person and arising at 7 every Sunday feels a bit much. Good thing I adore my job.

Today, I got paid to go Christmas caroling! Okay, I did a little more than that, but I got to go Christmas caroling for the first time in years. First, I got to hang out with the middler church school class while they began work on writing their own prayer of confession. I am always pleased to hear their insights. Then, I hung out with the extremely sleepy youth class. The teacher and I were sleepy, too. We were quite a sight! Then, worship, annual meeting and carolers' lunch, enormous baked potatoes with chili atop them. We caroled and delivered cookies, ending up at the home of a darling elder member of our congregation within sight of the lake. Ah, the lake! I love it! We all ventured down there, Barb wishing to take a photo of the gingerbread man with Lake Erie in the background. Meghan rode her mom piggyback to the end of the street and her brother's shoulders back to the car. It was very sweet. Much fun was had by me, despite my shyness about my utter lack of any musical talent whatsoever.

Now that I'm home, I am being thoroughly amused by the adolescent homework angst opera that is occurring in my home. Jeff is in so much trouble for his grades and he and Jeannene have been very comically going back and forth. She is aggravated enough to throw bacon at him and tempted herself with ham, as well. He has done marvelously funny impressions of his teacher and has raised the foam numchuks high in the air. They are hilarious!

So Much For Walking Meditation!

I've been meaning to start walking again for awhile now and today was the day. I'd like to lose the extra weight I put on in seminary (or, rather, on the 4-hour drive between seminary and home, during which I munched on junk to keep myself awake and stave off boredom) and I'd also like to use the time to connect with Spirit. My friend Gene, who has walked every day since last February, has inspired me to make the time for mindful walking now rather than later. Why I thought it would be a good idea to do this with a willful 80-pound Rottweiler-Dobie mix today is beyond me.

Mindful walking is a wonderful way to connect with God and all that God does in the world. However, there is no such thing as mindful walking with a dingbat...I mean, dog. Or perhaps there is, for people who like the whole dog ownership thing. I am a cat person, through and through, and can easily meditate with a cat bathing next to me. This doesn't mean I don't like dogs. On the contrary, I adore other people's dogs. I admire Leo, my aunt & uncle's Golden, immensely and think he is beautiful. Starr, his housemate, another Golden, is adorably naughty and happy-go-lucky, with her tongue generally slung out the side of her mouth. My heart melts when Faith, my auntie's long-haired Dachshund, grins at me and I just love her brother, Rowdy's, fabulously venerable little face. I woke up in tears the other morning because I dreamed my cousins' amazingly cool wolf dog, Xavier, died and I am planning to spend my Halloween afternoon at the pooch parade. In short, I like dogs, just not the tedium of owning one. However, my wife wanted a dog and I felt grinchly not letting her have one ever again for the rest of our lives, so I caved. Sigh. I caved. How could I?

So, my walk with Harley (who is, by the way, an unusually well-behaved dog, really) today started out not mindfully, but pleasantly enough. She'd been guffing me all morning to go for a walk, having neglected to poop on either of the two walks my dearest darling wife (her real owner) took her on this morning. Oh, no, she had to complain to me all morning instead. By the time we entered the walking trail, she had done her thing, though, and I had gratefully made a deposit in the trash can nearby. We enjoyed a stroll through a neighborhood that looks like the sort where I'd eventually like to live and were headed back on the walking trail when I saw another dog. Not wanting to alarm the owner with Harley's enthusiasm and not sure how the other dog was with fellow canines, I took Harley off the path in hopes of distracting her with the lure of the woods edge. Did my ever-so-brilliant tactic work? Oh, no, of course not. Rather, it only succeeded in getting my sneakers all dirty, my socks damp and a rather large swath of mud deposited on my freshly-washed jeans by Harley's leaping attempt to go play with the other dog. Oy vey! Why can't dogs only have to go out when the people who actually want them in the household are home and not busy? (Did I mention walking Harley last night so my love could complete some online tutorials for work?)

I am clearly not cut out for this dog thing. So, for tomorrow's walk, it will be just me and God. Harley can stay home and annoy the cats. Today, I will smooth down my ruffled feathers with a trip to the library for chick flicks and then dress in my Halloween costume (myself as a teenager---pictures to come, I hope!) to go tutor.