673 Christmas for new Christians

According to my FamilyTreeMaker genealogy software, we are step-relatives, but I've only seen him once--at the wedding that put us in the same database. However, I do know that this year Christmas has a whole new meaning for him and his family. And for others refreshed, renewed, or newly aware.

James Davis, Religion Editor of the Sun-Sentinel (Florida) had a unique Christmas story to share for the Christmas issue, "A Newly Found Faith," stories about new Christians and how Christmas this year was going to be different. Instead of "Giftmas" or parties until they dropped, or an occasion for huge family get-togethers, this year it was going to be about Jesus Christ.

Story tip from Terry Mattingly at GetReligion. This site is not always kind to Christians (covers all faiths), but has had good coverage of the "Christmas culture wars," even the accusations that the stories we hear amount to summer "shark attacks" news stories--i.e. overblown.

Looking forward to 2005

Karol has had a really, really bad year, and is looking forward to things getting better in 2005. She writes very movingly, particularly about her grandmother's death. Read the whole essay here.

671 Christmas--the Word

The disappearance not only of nativity scenes and wise men but even the mention of the word "Christmas" has been quite a story this year. I saw a news item about a pastor (in Atlanta?) who was telling his flock not to buy at stores unless the word "Christmas" was mentioned in the promotions. It is sort of an odd backlash for Christians, who for years have been telling each other that Christmas is way too commercialized and losing its meaning. There is an old tradition of Christians attempting to put the skids on the commercializing of the holiday.

Mark Roberts writes: "My own theological ancestors, the Reformed Puritans of Britain, attempted to get rid, not only of Christmas carols, but also of Christmas itself. They attempted to “purify” the church of both secular and Roman Catholic elements. When they were in power in Britain in the middle of the 17th century, the Puritans actually succeeded in making the celebration of Christmas illegal. No carols, no fun, no Christmas! The earliest Europeans in America, coming from English Puritan stock, did not celebrate Christmas, and in fact made a point of not doing so. In fairness to these folk, however, we should understand that the secular and pagan celebrations of Christmas were often filled with drunken excess, rather more like Mardi Gras in New Orleans than most secular Christmas celebrations today (except, perhaps, for office parties run amuck)."

Little did we know that the valiant and ever ready ACLU would help us with that problem by taking the holiday away from us! However, I saw a story in the Washington Post, "Money Is Not Enough at Christmas; Many Filipino Immigrants Ship Presents Overseas," By Phuong Ly, Washington Post Staff Writer, on Friday, December 24, 2004; Page B05, in which "Christmas" the word is in the headline, and used 5 or 6 times in the story. The writer may not chose the headline, but it could be that WaPo watches the news too. Anyway, I wrote Ly expressing my appreciation for the acknowledgement of the reason we have this celebration each December.

670 Kittens

Fatboy Slim in three and a bit minutes performed by kittens!
Via MonkeyFilter

Can't decide if I like this. Opinions?

669 Festive Christmas Salad

The family gathers here tomorrow for dinner and gifts. The table is set and most of the food is prepared. I'll pop the meat in the oven before we leave for church. I'm not using the "good" china, but rather my colorful blue and white color scheme with special Christmas plates and mugs.


Snowflake by Debbie Mumm

I'll be serving a festive red, white and green salad. In my recipe box it goes by the name, "Broccoli Salad," but its colors are so seasonal I've renamed it. I think the original (before my revisions) came from the premiere issue of Taste of Home.

1 bunch broccoli, separated into florets
1 head cauliflower, separated into florets
8 bacon strips, fried and crumbled
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 dry pint grape tomatoes
2 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
1 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
1/3 cup sugar (I use Splenda)
2 tablespoons vinegar

In a large salad bowl, combine broccoli, cauliflower, bacon, onion, tomatoes and eggs; set aside. In another bowl, combine mayonnaise, sugar and vinegar; mix until smooth. Just before service, pour dressing over salad and toss. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Tips: Amounts are quite flexible. Use any amount of broccoli and cauliflower you have on hand. Doesn't seem to make much difference--same with bacon. I don't use the onion. Added a little crisp celery for some extra. I don't use that much sugar/Splenda, but doesn't seem to change flavor much. Serve in a clear glass bowl to show off the pretty colors of the season. And oh yes, I use a small red bowl of my mother's to mix the dressing--that's just an extra touch for memories.

668 Winter Wonderland

Yesterday it rained; then it snowed 6 or 8 inches; then early this morning at about 34 degrees, it started raining again; now the temperature is dropping and it is turning to snow. Icicles are dangling from the trees. I'm watching the weather channel, and the change from snow to rain runs right through our county, north to south. Going out this morning doesn't look like a good plan.

Still scoring pretty low

You are 27% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator. Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend. You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines! Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals! You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

666 Library Dreaming

Yesterday I attended the Departmental Librarians Christmas luncheon at a local restaurant. I sat next to one of the assistant directors of OSUL who had been my former boss. We spent a lot of time discussing the plans for the renovation of the Main Library.



These plans had begun before I retired in 2000. They will include the relocation of the Education, Psychology, Social Work, and Human Ecology collections to Main from Sullivant Hall which my husband worked on in the 1980s (the space that now houses that library will be remodeled to house Technical Services, the Information Technology Dept., and lots of public PCs with production software in addition to library resources; the Music/Dance Library will stay),



the closing of the Main Library for several years, and the demolition of the 1970s addition to the Thompson Main Library to which I returned professionally in 1978.

It must have weighed heavily on my mind (or it was the onions in the soup), because I dreamed Pat came to my house to ask me to come back to work. Except, it wasn't Pat, it was Barb C. from our Lakeside summer community, whose Christmas card label hasn't been used because she and her husband have moved and we don't have the new address. But I told Pat-morphed-into-Barb, "No," because I was having too much fun being retired.

Then our calico cat decided it was time to be fed. (She has issues from having been homeless.) First she jumped atop the dresser and adjusted the blinds, then she returned to the bed and sat on my chest, with her tail in my face watching the bedroom door. If I move even slightly, she uses my body as a springboard to rush out of the bedroom into the bathroom where she waits to hurry me along in my morning routine.

Consequently, I never found out if Pat, the assistant director, was disappointed or relieved that I turned her down. Or was that Barb? Or Lotza Spotza?

665 A picture is worth a thousand ACLU lawyers

Two large photos in two different newspapers caught my eye today. In the Columbus Dispatch it was a photograph of a fabulous, elaborate, snow-sculptured Santa Claus in northeastern China. Originally the Anti-Christian Lawyers Unrelenting just went after the nativity scenes, now it is red and green, Santas and Christmas trees, all of which are pagan in origin. Anyway, in this regard, the non-Christian Chinese have more freedom of expression than we do.

And in the USAToday there was a photo of another non-Christian nation and peoples celebrating Christmas without the assistance of lawyers and school principals. This one was of blind Palestinian children having a Christmas party at the YMCA (which if it has parties in the USA for American children probably calls them "holiday celebrations"). The party is sponsored primarily by the Mormons, the Jews, and the Presbyterians.

664 Another baby sleep story

A few days ago I gave my advice for getting children to sleep. Here's a great story about what a little one needed and what we need, too.

663 Frivolous vote challenge thrown out in Ohio

Overlawyered has the story about the challenge to the Ohio election results.

"The Ohio Supreme Court's Chief Justice threw out a lawsuit backed by Jesse Jackson and funded by a partisan Massachusetts election monitoring group. The lawsuit claimed that Pres. Bush unfairly won Ohio due to some indescribable fraud by his supporters. . .[w]ithout listing specific evidence, the complaint alleges that 130,656 votes for Kerry and John Edwards in 36 counties were somehow switched to count for the Bush-Cheney ticket."

662 The Perkins Cat

The Ohio State University Libraries used to have a departmental library at the Perkins Observatory in Delaware, OH. For 63 years the University had an arrangement with Ohio Wesleyan to maintain the Observatory and that ended in 1998. I believe HUDL (Heads of Undergraduate and Departmental Libraries) met there shortly before the astronomy collection was disbanded and moved to Ohio State. Perkins had a library cat named CAT. CAT was in charge of rodent control and really didn't care much for visitors, according to this story. There are a number of libraries that have cats, the most famous were Baker and Taylor, two Scottish Folds named for a book distributor. When I was the veterinary librarian, I had their poster on the bulletin board. There was even a documentary made about library cats, called Puss in Books.

660 Letter to Santa

This is the most beautiful letter to Santa you'll ever read.

And here is a heart warming story by a Florida librarian.

My December 21st poem (posted last year on the 21st).

659 Step Grandchildren

At the family Christmas in Indiana I was watching Brandon and Christopher interact. Both beautiful young men in spirit and body, well over 6’ tall, towering over their parents, now both dark haired although both were blond as little boys. It seems like yesterday that I was watching them through the window run around outside when they were about 12, trying out the new helmets and swords and camping gear their grandparents had given them for Christmas. They are first cousins. Sort of. One is my sister-in-law’s biological grandson, and one is her husband’s biological grandson, but in this family they are simply “the grandchildren” and there is absolutely no difference. My sister-in-law has a step-daughter from her first marriage who also has children, and they too are “cousins” and “grandchildren, ” with no distinction, at least not that I can see. Their photos are framed and on the end tables along with the rest of the grandchildren.

Blending a family isn’t always easy at holidays. This family has made it work with love, a sense of humor, prayer and hard work. I liked the advice on this page. They could have written it.

And just because it is Christmas time and I'm thinking about family, here is an excellent letter written by a Professor at George Mason University to his parents about his thoughts on freedom. Don't miss a word--it is outstanding and shows that giving a child material things isn't what teaches the best lessons.

658 Hmmm, smells like apple pie, he said

Maybe it smelled like apple pie, but it looked like sewage from the bottom of a broken garbage disposal. This morning I decided to slice and cook some withered, soft apples. So I put a bit of margarine in the cast iron skillet and sliced the apples into it. But they were dry, so I added a bit if apple cider. Then I got really creative and sprinkled over it some cinnamon and old fashioned oats. It was smelling quite lovely, so I decided to add some walnuts. The whole mess turned charcoal black.

After I threw it out, I decided to turn the kitchen into a chemistry lab. I heated up a bit of apple cider in the cast iron skillet and added walnuts. Turned the liquid black. Then I put some apple cider in a stainless steel saucepan and added walnuts. Turned darker brown, but not black. Then I took that brown mixture and added it to a different, smaller cast iron skillet, one with more baked on black gunk (I like to call it seasoning). No change. Then I moved it to the other cast iron skillet, which probably needs to be reseasoned, and it immediately turned black.

From the kitchen I went to Google, and tried all manner of combinations, finding lots of recipes that use both cider and walnuts, and lots of advice on how to properly season a cast iron skillet (this one is 45 years old). But nothing about turning out a black porridge that looks like I scraped it off the garage floor at the end of winter in Ohio.

So if anyone with more lab experience or more cooking experience knows why an improperly seasoned cast iron skillet turns cider black when walnuts are added, I'd like to know about it. Just don't ever try this unless you've got a lot of extra ingredients so you can start over.

657 Where is Miss Beazley, the latest Barney film

Here is a nice Christmas card from the Bush family, "Where in the White House is Miss Beazley?" featuring their dog Barney, who is looking for Miss Beazley, the new puppy. Lots of fun, including some great shots of the White House decorated for Christmas.



Safe for children and Democrats.

656 New Writer on my List

I've added The Zero Boss to my Writers' Links down at the bottom left. I think he writes mostly about parenting, as well he should--he's 30 years old and has 6 kids! Through him I discovered an e-journal for Ohio State that I'd never heard of--not sure if it has actually had its first issue yet. I found him through Paula, who is a writer discovering other writers (instead of writing), and has just composed a really cute 12 days of Christmas verse about other bloggers.

Update: 3 years later and all three of these links are dead.

655 The Killing of Expectant Mothers

When I heard of another expectant mother being killed and her baby removed from the womb and kidnapped, I immediately thought of the Scott Peterson case. I again wondered why he was the only suspect, since apparently this horribly, brutal type of murder happens more often than we want to remember. Now the Washington Post is running a series:

"Their killings produced only a few headlines, but across the country in the last decade, hundreds of pregnant women and new mothers have been slain. Even as Scott Peterson's trial became a public fascination, little was said about how often is happens, why, and whether it is a fluke or a social syndrome."

"A year-long examination by The Washington Post of death-record data in states across the country documents the killings of 1,367 pregnant women and new mothers since 1990. This is only part of the national toll, because no reliable system is in place to track such cases. . . Homicide accounted for 50 of 247 maternal deaths in Maryland over a six-year period -- more than 20 percent. It had caused more deaths than cardiovascular disorders, embolisms or accidents."

Most of these homicides were committed by boyfriends or husbands unwilling to become fathers or afraid of child support. But not all. When the latest story was reported locally, other killing/kidnapping cases were also reported. Enough for me to question the death penalty for Scott Peterson--again--because the media and police never seemed to look beyond the husband for a suspect.

654 The UCC ad

The other night I saw the UCC ad on a cable station. I think it probably needs to be bumped, or at best, ignored because it depicts other Christians as white, skin-head bouncers. UCC has suffered from declining attendance and membership in recent years, as have most main-line denominations. I don't think it can shore up its sinking ship by throwing water on other Christian groups. Conservative denominations are more integrated and diverse than liberal, not because of lobbying or committees or white papers, but because they preach the Gospel of Salvation through Jesus Christ instead of preaching Good Works gets you to heaven. It always helps if you have a reason for people to darken your doors.

653 Prayer Job Jar December 18

At least now I have an actual jar--my sister gave it to me when I was about 16, and I think it contained bubble-bath. For years, it was a cookie jar, then it just sat around feeling useless for a decade or two. This week's list is a bit full, but that's how prayers are if you actually sit down and note the requests you've heard or received in e-mail or read on a blog. Listing them has the additional benefit of making you feel things are really pretty good at your own address. That could be the primary benefit of intercessory prayer--helps stomp out navel gazing at pity parties.

I'm using up old card stock with our former address, and we include the requests with our table grace. It certainly improves that routine! We'd gotten a bit sluggish with the same words, night after night.

For Chuck, healing; special comfort and peace for his parents and sister whom we've known for so many years.
For Beverly's brother, the same problem, same request.
For Phil, the best possible job for his skills and temperament.
For Keith, a position with tenure.
For Danny, good contracts for his construction firm.
For Robert Jr., a position closer to home so he won't miss the kids.
For Melissa's Dad, wise doctors, skilled testing, and healing.
For new babies of friends and family, God-fearing, loving, mature parents.
For Vicky's family, God's comfort in sorrow.
For our four pastors, a clear, glorious Christmas message.
For Mary, speedy adjustment in her new home.
For Dad (father-in-law) and all in nursing homes, loving caregivers.
For Kate, healing from back surgery.
For Sue and all volunteers in home-bound service, perserverance.
For a mother and daughter, a new way to commumicate.
For Marylyn, skilled doctors and accurate diagnosis, and a quick return home.
For Joe and Julie, blessings on their new house.
For Jean and Bob, safe trip to Florida and lots of company.
For my wonderful husband, his greatest desire.
For all travelers, visitors and guests this season, travel mercies.