Last Christmas Party of the Season

Our family gathering in Charlotte was technically still in the Christmas season, since it was the day before Epiphany. The date didn’t matter, because our hearts were festive. The celebrants were relatives of brother Bob and Beth. Because of illness, Bob and daughter Julie were missing. Those pictured are Susan, closest to the camera, and left to right Bill, John, Kathie, Sam, Max, Kate, and Beth. Husband John was standing with me and out of range. Everyone was smiling, probably because they didn’t have to move or pose formally. I didn’t look, but I’m sure John was grinning, because he avoided being in it.

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We had a lovely afternoon visiting with each other. The hilarity broke out when we played Speak Out. The game has plastic pieces that stretch your mouth. One person reads a game card with immobile lips, and the others try to guess what he is saying. Max and Sam were good sports and volunteered to go first.

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Susan went on the deck with her dog, coming back to tell us a deer was lying there watching them. Four or five of us walked out to see him, and he posed more willingly than humans. We were about 15 to 20 feet from him. He and his herd move freely on the land behind the condos that connects to a green belt. We saw at least six of them walking there. Can you believe I saw more deer in the city of Charlotte in one afternoon than I’ve seen in the mountains in four years?

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I texted Beth to let her know we were home safely. Her drive to Winston Salem should have been shorter than ours to Waynesville. It wasn’t. A tire blew out, and AAA rescued her by putting the spare donut tire on the car. She made it home without further incident.

One day later niece Julie and her friend Tommy picked up our grandson Nathaniel from the airport in Charlotte. He was returning from Christmas break with his dad. They took him out to brunch and delivered him to his dorm. What a kindness that was!

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Everyone is back in place and ready to resume normal living after a wonderful Christmas season.

Magnetic Mobile

Grandson David had a magnet in his hand as he walked by one of his cousin’s Christmas mobiles. He found the wires were magnetic, so we sat down at the table and played with it. David made it look easy to cause the stars to turn by moving the magnet in circles. If his hand went too close, the small stars jumped and glued themselves to the magnet. When that happened, we couldn’t stop ourselves from laughing. I tried it, and after a few moments, I handed the magnet back to the master mover.

Here is a photo in case you can’t see the video clip.

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Our nephew, Christopher Pollock, is an artist, and he created the mobile shown here. I particularly like his mobiles and stick figures. This link to his blog https://christopherpollockart.com/tag/kinetic/ will take you to the kinetic area.

Minor Flooding

The rain was very effective here. John drove out to run a few errands and came back to get me to see the high levels of brooks and creeks. We came to Park Branch first, and it overflowed its banks on the left. This little stream dries to a trickle in the summer.

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The tree above came down in the snow storm a few weeks ago.

Jonathan Creek was also impressive. Included are views up-stream, across, and down-stream.

 

While in town, we went to Richland Creek near the rec center. No one would want to sit on that bench.

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Son John $ sent us a photo of the cabin he arranged for us to stay in after Thanksgiving. His friend Rose saw the full deck of a house floating by. Logs, picnic tables, and chairs are now hung up in low trees and littering the highway in his area. Old-timers there said they had never seen the river so high.

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I haven’t read a paper or seen news on TV, so I don’t know if there was much damage from the storm. Maybe I’ll get back in touch with the world next year.

Christmas with Logan

Neighbor Logan’s family had more visitors than we did over Christmas. There had been no time to give him the little gifts we had for him until the day after Christmas. His mom was busy cleaning up after company, and his dad was doing a project in the garage. Logan chose to have cookies first and then open presents.

A few weeks ago Logan was in the musical Elf. When we saw an elf hat in the store, we had to buy it. He popped it on his head and wore it while he finished opening his gifts.

Nathaniel handed him another small package, one daughter Kate had sent down from New Jersey. Logan had a big smile on his face when he saw it was the card game, Uno. David and Nathaniel played one game with him that lasted over an hour.

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David, Logan, and Nathaniel play Uno.

This was Nathaniel’s last full day with us, and he made us a proper chicken pie. By proper, I mean it was made from scratch. He roasted chicken breasts in the oven, used the drippings as a base for the sauce, shredded fresh carrots, cut up celery and onion, and cooked peas and corn to go in it. He had planned to make his own puff pastry for the top, but we were running out of time. He made pie crust instead. It was delicious. The vegetables had just the right amount of body to them, and I liked the very fresh taste of the onions. He spoiled us to the end of the visit.

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Chicken pie, and yes, that’s a train on the table

I insisted on one last informal portrait of the fellows, to have their smiling faces all together.

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We were not going to forget the mirror ritual this time. Nathaniel started high and ended in a goofy stance to check his appearance. Until next time….

Food and Mirth of Christmas

Christmas is a time we often gather around the table to celebrate with family and friends, so there are an inordinate number of foodie photos. On the Fourth Sunday of Advent we went to a Japanese steakhouse after church. The chef was home-grown. He had lived in the town next to us and learned to cook when he was a dishwasher at a Japanese restaurant in Asheville. We laughed through the delicious meal.

 

There are natural and flash photos to show John’s Christmas tree. No one could be more meticulous in the placing of lights and ornaments to make it a work of art.

 

Grandson Nathaniel cooked a festive dinner for us on Christmas Eve. David worked all afternoon at Burger King, joining us in time to eat part of the meal. He finished in the car on the way to the 11 pm service.

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For the foodies: We savored roast pork with a sauce, roasted asparagus, and baked sweet potato.

The service was beautiful. Midnight is not the high point in a day for me, but I stayed

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Our church at 11 pm Christmas Eve

awake and thought the message good. This was the fifth year for me to celebrate not being on the organ bench – a benchmark of sorts.

 

 

 

 

 

A few days before, I pressed the boys for suggestions of something Santa might bring them. David agreed to a quick shopping trip, but Nathaniel wouldn’t play the game. He said, “I need a toilet bowl brush for the dorm, but I don’t want Santa to bring it.”

What would you have done with nothing else to go on???

Nathaniel was not awake when the rest of us looked at our gifts from Santa. We stood around watching him with his stocking. He posed with a bag of chocolates and set of measuring cups, not looking down at the floor again. He seemed to be studiously avoiding the toilet bowl cleaner.

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I asked, “Nathaniel, are you going to look at the other thing Santa brought?”

“What? Oh, no!!!” he said, as he keeled over with laughter. “I didn’t see that!”

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After that, he wore the toilet brush proudly.

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Neighbor Connie made Christmas stockings for all of us this year. Aren’t they lovely? We were very touched and pleased with these gifts from the heart.

 

Nathaniel took it one step further and tried his on without touching the floor.. He said it was perfect, but it could have had a bit more toe room.

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After the 10 am service on Christmas Day, neighbors Dawn and Jeff shared our traditional family dinner. I took a photo as the flame from the pudding died down. Logan was with us for only a few minutes of the day, but that was fitting. We consider him neighbor, family, and friend.

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John, Logan, David, Jeff, Dawn, Nathaniel

Foodies: We had the Chicken and Stuffing casserole, cranberry sauce from a 100 year-old recipe, peas, lemon-lime Jell-o salad, frozen cranberry salad, Christmas pudding, Lebkuchen, and coffee.

The four of us had at least one gift each under the tree, and we opened them around 9 pm. The last photo of the day shows John with his new shower curtain. Daughter Lise helped me locate it on line, and it arrived on Christmas Eve. As Nathaniel held it up, John began to tell us about the name of the engine and much of its history. That was much more information than the manufacturer provided.

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Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Candle on a Biscuit

I was promised snow on my birthday, which pleased me. No snow fell, so thousands of others were happy. How could I be sorry?

Grandson Nathaniel baked his special biscuits and lit a candle on mine. Your assumption is correct, they were scrumptious.

Nathaniel practiced piping with chocolate, as he was supposed to do during the holidays. Taking parchment paper, he cut and rolled small piping bags. He snipped off the tip and made designs on paper. David took a stab at it, then piped the rest in his mouth. I liked my name in chocolate. As delicate as the designs were, we could pick them up after they cooled.

John offered to take us out for lunch, and I opted for pizza. It was something I was sure I could taste, despite my head cold. The red pepper flakes helped.

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We ended the day with chocolate cake and Nathaniel’s eggnog. As a rewards card holder at the supermarket, I was given this cake for my birthday. For Miser Me, that was super special. We knew the eggnog was going to be wonderful, because Nathaniel prepared it for us last year. A year is a long time to wait for a treat like that.

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It’s hard for me to remember numbers, but it’s going to be easy to recall my age this year. I’m pegging it to the song from Music Man, “76 Trombones”.

It was Bad, Even for Me

Misers do not throw things away lightly. When a head cold struck, I searched the bathroom closet for something, anything!, to make me feel better. Since my children regularly check for out-dated medications, I was confident nothing dangerous lurked there. I found cough medicine in a new-looking box. The expiration date was December – so far, so good. The year? 2006. It was 12 years old! I moved that box from New York to North Carolina when it was eight years old. Did I think it would improve with age, like wine? I certainly was not improving with age.

A day later, we bought cough syrup in the supermarket. Wouldn’t you think pharmaceuticals would have improved in 12 years? I thought so. I’m still getting worse after three doses. It must not be a miracle drug. I think my eyelids are swollen, because they don’t feel like they fit on my face any more. I would take a selfie if I thought it would prove I’m still alive.

The Contortionist

After grandson David’s college graduation, we were driving through the Pennsylvania countryside on our way home. He and I were in the second row of seats to make chatting easier. The headrest prevented his seeing to the front, so he tried to remove it. It wouldn’t budge. With the tips of his toes, he maneuvered the levers on the side of the seat until it was as far back as it would go. I laughed that he had stuck out his tongue, so he posed that way. How could anyone keep a straight face while watching that?

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Contorting himself a bit more, David covered his toes with Grandpa’s flannel shirt. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and using the headrest as a chin rest. Surely doubters will now see for themselves that we have serious fun with our grandsons around. I would say we were laughing a mile a minute, but John was driving faster than that.

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Graduation!

The graduation ceremony was like most others – dignified and solemn. What made this one different? This graduation was OURS!!! Our grandson graduated from college, and we were as proud as could be. There were only three tickets per student, which covered Kate, John, and me. We wished for one more for David’s roommate, but he saw it streamed to a nearby building.

An organist and two trumpeters played a beautiful piece as the faculty processed in.  They switched to the traditional Elgar for the students.

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We wondered if David could find us, because we were in the very first row! Kate saw him looking straight at us from that group of 219. John and I were amazed at the number. We thought there might be 10 or so mid-year graduates.

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David is in the middle, wearing a blue tie.

One of David’s favorites, the head of the music department, was announcing the names as the students went up for their diplomas. David was in the choir all four years and enjoyed Dr. J. Maybe this is standard procedure, but I thought it brilliant. Each student handed him a card with his name on it, along with the phonetic spelling.

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The president of the college handed the diploma to the student and turned to pose for the official photo. Dr. Nunes had a wonderful smile for each and every one!

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Dr. Nunes addressed the class and instructed them to change their tassels from the right side of the cap to the left. I was relieved none of the caps were tossed into the air. The new alumni followed the faculty out of the building to music by Handel.

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We ended the day with a celebratory meal at the Odyssey. The Odyssey is the diner in Broxville where John took Lise, Kate, and David (all now alumni of Concordia) when he went to see them or was on campus for a meeting. Justin and Caroline were special friends of David who were at the graduation. They returned to campus, and Kate drove home. We began the trip to North Carolina, going into Pennsylvania before stopping for the night. It had been a long day, but a very satisfying one.

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Justin, Caroline, Kate, David, and John