Christmas Star Planetary Conjunction 2020

 

This photo was shared by Kelly but taken by a friend of a friend of her PA friend in Chile.  The little dots are moons. So amazing!

"Do I hear the sweet sound of Christmas carolers?"

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Joy to the World

O Holy Night

Santa Baby

 

Pretty darn cute, we are.

 

A time to decorate

 Kelly

I went to find the house off of Peachtree Dunwoody with the bazillion blow up Christmas toys, and apparently they’ve moved. So sad. 

So here’s my favorite Christmas buddy instead.

Robin

When Duffy and I went to Big Trees for a hike over Thanksgiving, we saw an evergreen by the creek dripping with Christmas tree ornaments.  It was beautiful and brought great joy.  We had actually seen the tree with sparser and eventually no ornaments over the years.  Duffy and I went back yesterday to take a picture of that beautifully adorned tree and voila, it has been mostly stripped of its ornaments, save for a few.  There is a sign next to it now which says, “Please do not undress this tree.  It is meant to bring joy.”  So, it stands there in its natural beauty, much as we do before climbing into the shower with maybe our rings and earrings still on.  

Pam

We drove by a big cemetery recently. I saw where someone had decorated a grave with a Christmas tree. They had also placed a red toy truck under it. Poignant is the word that comes to mind. So, today I took a slow drive, then a slow walk, through Arlington Memorial Park is see if there would be many trees. The answer is yes.

This unfancy tree is one of my favorites. It had fallen over. I righted it, and quite a few of the others.

Emily

Goats on grills make pretty good Christmas decorations, you might say. 

It is all fun and games until a goat ends up inside the grill.

Tales of a holiday

 Kelly's 

So here’s a Christmas memory of shame             

(shame and some weird kind of pride)

When I was little and enamored with shiny, pretty things, I developed a reputation after repeatedly threatening (fine - we’ll say extinguishing) the life of cherished Christmas ornaments. Eventually, my parents, aunt and grandmother (possibly more due to ridiculous rumor mills), started a new tradition of tying the tree to an immovable anchor, say a wall joist or door frame, with hardy gauged wire. I cannot tell you why I would risk the shame of pulling over a tree time and time again after that first frightening crime, involving a slow motion tipping, realizing that I was definitely going to be in trouble, because the crash of many fragile glass ornaments is surprisingly loud. Especially the older more favored ones.

Who can resist a closer inspection of such tempting, intricate and fascinating visual candy, even if you aren’t tall enough to see things as near as you would like? Perhaps most have restraint and a will power beyond my then young capabilities, but seriously, if you’re in the room alone with that gorgeous tree, and you just want to see that one sugarplum that is just past your fingertips, and this time you’ll be soooo careful . . .

Mom said I was always covered in tinsel.

Merry Christmas, my loves!

12.10.20

Pam's

"That looks like a lot of work, Mom"

Our Christmas mornings are warm ones with the lights, pajamas, fuzzy slippers and family members close. We appreciate all that, and we also appreciate that our Christmas mornings have their own scent. Sure, you will smell the tree and the coffee, but the main smell, the headline of the smells, is Tennessee Pride sausage.

That's because my Mom is usually visiting from Tennessee, and she's made us dozens of Sausage Balls which are now lined up like toy soldiers and baking in a hot oven early on Christmas morning. She does the work on the balls on Christmas Eve afternoon. It is a simple recipe and she's particular about it.  The baking mix should be brand name and not low fat or gluten free. This is Christmas, after all. The cheese can be Kroger or Kraft, but it should be sharp or extra sharp. The Bisquick and cheese must be measured, but then adjusted to correct proportions, adding a little more according to how it all looks. The recipe, by Mrs. Johnny Wood Jr. printed below, is only followed as a loose guide. The sausage should be set out on the kitchen counter for an hour or so before you are ready to work the dough. You don't want the ground sausage to be refrigerator-cold when it is mixed because it is painful to hands and fingers, and it doesn't mash as well. When the real work starts, Mom gets out my big glass bowl, washes her hands thoroughly, and the three ingredients, Bisquick, cheese, sausage, are dropped in. Mom gets her sparkling clean hands in there and everything gets a vigorous kneading and a hearty mixing and smashing. Family members may wander in and out of the kitchen during this time, trying to be friendly and encouraging, usually asking how is it going?, wondering if it will be sorta spicy this year, and making remarks like: "That looks like a lot of work, Mom."  The resulting mixture is a gray blob with some orange pieces all over, not unattractive in our eyes. Mom starts pinching off bits, then carefully hand rolls out the one-inch balls. She continues to apply her 80-something year old muscles as she forms the spheres making them tight and solid. You don't want them to fall apart in the oven. Further, when taking a bite, you just want the bite to separate from the ball cleanly, not crumbling into a mess. These balls will, you see, be consumed by the tree in the living room where there's carpet.

So, the Sausage Balls are famous around here. They come out of the oven quite brown with a flat little bottoms that are created when the cheese runs down to the baking sheet getting concentrated and delicious. I don't remember us having them any other time of the year. Also, since she cannot travel, I don't think Mom will be here this year to make them for us. I suppose I will try to make them, and I've helped in the past, but there's no doubt they won't be as good as when she does. This picture of Mom was just taken last week. She is 88 years old, and doing very well.

Robin

The Start of a Christmas Tradition

One year, when Blais and Robert were in middle school, we as a family decided to serve Christmas dinner on Christmas Day at the Atlanta Union Mission.  When I called to volunteer, I learned that we were the only people who had called to serve.  

On Christmas morning, we opened our stocking presents, had our usual cinnamon rolls with eggs, maybe opened a couple more presents and at midday headed down to AUM to help prepare Christmas dinner for over a hundred people who were all in the AUM program.  The kitchen was run by a graduate of the AUM program and there were a couple of others in the program who were there to cook.  I think we prepared ham, mashed potatoes, probably a vegetable, rolls and pie.  We helped cook, carve, and set up the serving line.  We started serving by mid to late afternoon.  I think I served the ham because I remember the manager told me to serve everything, even though some of the pieces of ham looked like they had too much fat.  Everyone in line was very appreciative, thanking us for being there (except for one or two people who did want that much fat).  Robert had on a Riverwood sweatshirt and one young man being served told Robert he had gone to North Springs.  After we served everyone, we cleaned up the kitchen.  

The manager of the kitchen asked if he could speak with us when we were finished.  We sat in the dining area and he told us, tearfully all around, how much he loved seeing our family together and seeing how much we loved each other.  He had become an alcoholic and homeless and lost his family.  He went through the AUM program and was trying to reconnect with his kids, although he wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t want to.  We gave hugs all around and left.  

It was dark and we were hungry to eat our own dinner, so we headed to Sandy Springs and Hunan Gourmet to have Christmas dinner with all the Jewish people.  The restaurant was packed.  The only other place open was a Chinese buffet in the same vicinity across Roswell Road.  It was awful!!  and I think no longer in business.   After a meagre dinner, we went home and finished opening our presents, which, by the way, we space out so that each of us opens only one present per hour until they run out.  We play, or read, or eat after each round of opening.   Duffy started that one, and we wouldn’t have it any other way now.  

We felt blessed that day to share Christmas with so many who had lost so much but were working hard to find their way back, and to be able to give the kitchen manager hope that maybe he could find love with his children again.  Had the kitchen been overrun with volunteers, we could not have made that vital, hopeful connection.

We tried to serve again the next year and a few years after, but AUM always had more volunteers than they needed, so we never went back.  We have, however, eaten Chinese on Christmas Day from then on.  And, a week ago, I learned that Hunan Gourmet is now Ming’s up on Lower Roswell Road, so I know where we will order dinner this year.  

ANOTHER CHRISTMAS TRADITION THAT HAS GONE BY THE WAYSIDE

I will keep this one short, but it is happy, so I wanted to offer it too. 

When our kids were at High Point, Kathy Broyles and I were discussing how many toys our kids already had and how Christmas was coming once again, which meant more toys.  High Point had a lot of Title I kids and we knew their Christmas’s were probably a lot more meagre than our kids’ Christmas, so we decided we wanted to host a Gifts for Kids day at Church of the Atonement.  We asked our priest if we could 1) ask our friends and fellow parishioners to donate gently used and outgrown toys to share with other kids and 2) set up the parish hall with tables of toys, where parents could come on one day and “shop” for Christmas presents for their kids.  When we asked our priest John Brewster, he said, “Why just used toys?  Why not new toys too?”  He set about asking the more wealthy church members for money to buy a new toy for each child who signed up.  

Counselors at High Point signed up Title I children for the gift giving.  We might have had 60 kids the first year, 100+ kids the next year and it grew from there for several years.  We had tables with gifts for kids, divided by age groups and sex, and parents could come, first come first served, and pick one toy from the new gifts table for each child signed up.  We also had set up a corner of the room with donated used toys and parents were limited to a grocery bag for those toys.  

Parishioners signed up to do mega-shopping trips, to set up, to wrap, to make cookies, to control traffic. The day of the event was filled with music and eating and wrapping and gift giving that gave joy to those who served and to those who received, a true win-win.  

Dunwoody churches serving Sandy Springs Mission kids started a similar program, so we stopped ours.  Instead we started a “sharing and caring” flea market in the spring.  More about that at Easter.

December is here. We are too.

 

Some tidbits about Thanksgiving

What is the one food/dish/recipe that you (or another family member) makes and serves for Thanksgiving that makes you say "This is the taste of Thanksgiving here at our house."

 

Kelly Spetalnick	Sun, Nov 22, 12:58 PM (11 days ago)
to me, Robin, Emily

Cornbread dressing - sage, buttermilk cornbread, chicken stock and  . . . and the leftovers are gone in a day. I can't wait!!

Pam

For us: I make a fresh cranberry relish. There's no cooking, just food processing, sugar, maybe a little orange peel and --- this part is key --- time in the fridge to macerate before bringing to the feast. So delicious!

Robin Hickey	Sun, Nov 22, 2:02 PM (11 days ago)
to Kelly, me, Emily

We know it is thanksgiving when some number of people run/volunteer at or watch the thanksgiving half marathon and then pig out at Waffle House.  That is followed by naps or watching the National Dog Show (mainly by Robert and me).  Dinner is the usual turkey cooked in a bag stuffed with dressing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, all of those smothered to some degree in gravy,  jiggly cranberry sauce from a can, green beans and salad.  Pecan pie with vanilla ice cream.  We follow up with a walk at the river if still light outside, or in the neighborhood if not.  Usually at some during the weekend, we watch It’s A Wonderful Life.    

K

Some things from these wild November Days

 Some favorite things from the time of Covid.

Kelly

1 - Spent a month with my Mom at the lake during my two month stint

2 - Pushed me to learn new things like taking a drawing class

3 - On a good slow day, I can tackle longer projects than when my calendar is full, and those days made me better at reaching out to friends

K and P on a hike with S.

Robin

.  I was regretting that I was too busy and should be staying home more, enjoying Bonnie and the house.  I do that more now, as in all the time.

2.  Because we were all home, we saw the George Floyd video which we might have missed if we were all our usual busy selves.   I think this has led to a more diversified awareness and support for racial justice.  I know I have read so much about it now, I am amazed at my unawareness of these pressing issues before I had more time to learn.

3.  The four of us got together again.

Some wind and strong weather came through Atlanta thanks to Hurricane Zeta. Robin's beloved white oak tree, already partially held together with chains, split further down the middle. Dangerously. They regretfully decided to take it down.

Note the guy way, way up there in the red sweatshirt.

Pam

Some good things about the time of COVID:

---more knowledge about epidemiology, my daughter's field of work

---more biking

---more art, creativity, projects

---PERK, in a new way

---fewer errands; less shopping, less money spent (? but maybe not), less running around here and there.

Also, my tutor boys!  Here's a picture of one of them, Aldair.

Leaf through this fun page.

Emily

Pam

Robin

Kelly

Codswallop

 

Using words from our birth year, as included in the Merriam-Webster Time Traveler Dictionary shared by Kelly.

Robin

Robin Hickey	Tue, Oct 20, 5:22 PM (18 hours ago)
to me, Emily, kspetaln

Hate sucks and balling or baller, maybe because I am stuck on the old definition.  

So many good words:
Babblegab
Cotton-picking
Capris
Rabbit ears
Stoned
So many others in 1952 that are cultural and medical indications of what was going on.

Pam

Pam, getting dressed in 1956

She wore a crop-top-top, toppity, top top top.

Sipped a margarita, margie-margie-eita.

With her kitten heels, glitzy heels, heels, heels.

And she seemed quite slim, hiding her stretch marks, marks marks.

Ultrahip she was, hippity-hip-hip-hip.

She was sharp and high-end, endy-in-in-in.

Ziltch worries and zilch fear, fear-ity-fear-fear-fear.

Looking oh so fine, thanks to one great year-year-year.

Kelly

I hate

Suck

Like

It is what it is.

Words from my birth year, 1959, are:   (Everyone note how she stuck to three, sort of.)

1. Codswallop

2. Oral Sex

3. Sock Puppets

Honorable mention: monkeypox 

Emily

My 1964 word is 

Polarity Therapy.

My irritating word is 

Awesomesauce.