Four Rocky Mountain Stars

I like the way the Scottish celebrate New Year’s. They call it “Hogmanay,” a word with several different spellings and pronunciations. It’s a two- or three-day celebration, which gives everyone plenty of time to get it right. The first day, New Year’s Eve, is spent putting your affairs in order: cleaning house and paying back debts. After midnight, you make a very big deal about the first guest who sets foot in your freshly cleaned house. Depending on where in Scotland you’re from, you might engage in singing or dancing, baking and eating cakes, ringing bells or parading through the streets swinging fireballs from sticks. Since New Year’s Eve is Sunday this year, any cleaning I do will probably happen today. Tomorrow I’ll take the dogs to the park, play the organ in church and cook dinner for the family. There may be time January 1 to enjoy a jigsaw puzzle and to begin a Marvel Movie Monday Marathon.

Turnstile

Researchers from the University of California in San Diego conducted a study in 2013 using genetic information from 2,000 individuals and their friends. They came to the conclusion that somehow we choose as our closest companions people with very similar DNA to our own. It goes way beyond gravitating towards people with similar ethnic or cultural backgrounds. The people we call our best friends often share 1% or more of our genome (fourth cousins or closer) though we’re usually not conscious of the connection. Alan Robinson and Walter Macfarlane met in grade school and have been best mates for sixty years. Walter never knew his father, and Alan was adopted. Separately they turned to DNA tests to learn more and discovered they share the same birth mother. “This is the best Christmas present I could ever imagine having,” says Alan. The bosom buddies – who were half brothers all along – have decided to spend retirement traveling together.

Rocky Mountain Star

A year from today my husband and I will celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary. My friends at the nursing home tell me forty isn’t really something to crow about. (If you want a new perspective on life, I recommend spending time with people who’ve seen more of it than you have.) It feels like a big deal, though. Fifty-five percent of all married couples have been together at least fifteen years. Thirty-five percent make it to their 25th anniversaries and only six percent live to see fifty years. Most marriages that end in divorce do so during the first decade. When I think about our first ten years, that makes perfect sense. We were raising small children and building a new career at the same time. There was never enough money, and we never got enough sleep. It’s a miracle we made it to our tenth anniversary. We celebrated then, and we’re celebrating now. Next year, we’ll celebrate again. 

Blue Windmill

Not all Christmas songs are cheerful. Some, like Bob Carlisle’s “Christmas Shoes” or Nat King Cole’s “The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot” are maudlin to the point of being laughable. When I was very young, daddy owned the Simon and Garfunkel album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Time. The last track of side B was an odd combination of “Silent Night” accompanied by an acoustic guitar and the 7:00 news. But some sad songs might be just what you need at this time of year. If you’re in a blue mood, I recommend Judy Garland’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” (Frank Sinatra’s version is a bit less weepy.) Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas,” Bing Crosby’s “I'll Be Home For Christmas,” Charles Brown’s “Please Come Home For Christmas” and Stevie Wonder’s “Someday At Christmas” are all good choices. You might even try Faith Hill’s “Where Are You, Christmas?” Just don’t overdo it.

Violin Window

Our house has an arched window in the front room that faces directly west. Many of our neighbors have identical windows hidden with blinds, curtains or shutters, but when we moved here ours wasn’t covered. A few weeks each year – spring and fall – the setting sun would interfere with music lessons and with dinner in the adjacent dining room. I drew this design on a piece of butcher paper which I took to a stained glass studio near the ballpark in Salt Lake. A few weeks (and a few hundred dollars) later, they installed the finished product. I loved the way the colored light danced across the floor and the wall each afternoon. But one of our tenants didn’t love it. We found the window hidden in our garage with a large crack through its middle. It was sad, but this maple tree (bottom center) has since doubled in size, rendering the window invisible and unnecessary. 

Santa at the Window

“As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice. None other has had so profound an influence upon all who have lived and will yet live upon the earth. We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.” – The Living Christ; the Testimony of the Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Four Bear Paws

Charles Dickens had originally planned to call his work “An Appeal to the People of England on behalf of the Poor Man’s Child.” It was to be a pamphlet criticizing poverty and brutal child labor practices. At the time, many thought helping the poor would make them lazy and lead to overpopulation. (Okay, they may have had a point. There were 18 million people in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales in 1840, and nearly 66 million today.) Eventually Dickens scrapped the pamphlet idea in favor of a work of fiction. He worked feverishly on A Christmas Carol for six weeks. As he wrote, Dickens wept, laughed, and wandered the streets of London long into the night. His novella hit the shops December 17, 1843, selling out in three days. 174 years later, it still encourages us to see each other as “fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”

Christmas Tree

When we moved to England almost nine years ago (!) we knew our new home wouldn’t have room for holiday decorations. Our plush Halloween pumpkins, our basket of Easter eggs, our huge artificial Christmas tree and collection of Hallmark ornaments were left behind in storage. I’d supposed we could do without all that for the few short years we’d be there. Heather disagreed, and she was right. We bought this little pre-lit tree at a local DIY store. I dried orange slices overnight in the oven, shaped homemade salt dough in clay shortbread molds, and hung them on our little tree. One year we draped it with popcorn and cranberry garlands, but it looks like that Christmas we didn’t take a photo. When we moved back the ornaments (being technically food) weren’t allowed to come. The tree was wired for British power, so we donated it. Our new tree is stunning, but I still miss this one.

Sixteen Cotton Reels

Meteorological winter begins on the first of December every year and ends on the last day of February. Astronomical winter begins on the shortest day of the year and ends somewhere around March 19. So no matter how you look at it, by today winter has well and truly begun. Today the north pole is tilted as far as it can be away from the sun, which means the sun is as close to the horizon as it can get. This is the shortest day of the year, and tonight will be the longest night. Of course, I’m only talking about the northern hemisphere. If you’re lucky enough to live near the equator, your days and nights are about twelve hours long regardless of the season. And if you live in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand or Chile,  today is your summer solstice – the longest day of the year – and you have nothing but warm sunny days ahead.

Bear Paw

Several years ago I was involved in a production of Meet Me in St. Louis. The play is a series of seasonal vignettes that portray a year in the life of a St. Louis family just after the turn of the century. It begins and ends in the summertime, but the play’s climax takes place at Christmas. To usher in this scene, several cast members dressed in Edwardian era winter wear would stroll along the section of the stage called the apron, singing traditional Christmas carols. Every single performance, as I sat in the orchestra pit, I could hear the audience happily singing along. It didn’t matter that we weren’t staging the play at Christmas time. Today is Go Caroling Day. It’s probably too late to organize a caroling party for this evening, but you can always make plans to host one next December 20. If you do, don’t forget to invite me.

Nine Cotton Reels

The first time we took Heather to Disneyland, she rode in an umbrella stroller. She wasn’t speaking much  yet, but we’d taught her a lot of signs – banana, cat, milk, toilet, popcorn – the really important ones. We were on the sidewalk beside Main Street, USA when I noticed a long line of people on the opposite side of the street, queued up for a chance to get Mickey’s autograph. I knelt down beside Heather, pointed across the street, and signed, “Mickey Mouse.” I don’t know how much cast members can see from inside those big costume heads. I do know that somehow he (she?) saw me signing whilst juggling autograph books and posing for photographs. As we watched, Mickey’s head turned to look straight at Heather and signed, “I love you.” For this and for dozens of very similar experiences, we’re always counting the days to our next Disney trip. Nine weeks to go!

Pinwheel Star

“Throughout the year, and perhaps especially at this Christmas season, it would benefit us to once again ask the question “How am I seeking Christ?” During a difficult period of his life, the great King David wrote, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee.” Perhaps this attitude of seeking God was one of the reasons David was described as a man after God’s own heart. During this Christmas season and throughout the entire year, may we seek with our hearts and souls our beloved Savior, the Prince of Peace, the Holy One of Israel. For this desire, in large part, defines not only who we are as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but even more who we really are as Christ’s disciples.” – President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Four Japan Blocks

One of my neighbors is a public defender. She’s one of the smartest, most compassionate people I know. I have a lot of friends who are nurses, and a lot more who are school teachers. I don’t believe any of these women chose their careers because they hoped for money, power or fame. In fact, I’m pretty sure they decided to become teachers, nurses and public defenders because they wanted to live in a world where children get a good education, where the hurt and sick are comforted, and where the accused have the right to legal counsel. There are men in all these fields, but it’s been my experience that most women tend to chose positions for reasons that have very little to do with the size of the paycheck. No one’s offered to pay me to be a homemaker. I just wanted my kids to grow up in a home that has one. 

Four Cotton Reels

There was a time when my purse was full of little slips of paper. If I had a question about anything I’d jot it down and save it until I could get to the library and look up the answer. When I had room I kept a set of Encyclopedia Britannica and a Funk & Wagnalls (no, I’m not kidding) for questions that couldn’t wait for a library trip. Then I bought a desktop and installed Encarta. Suddenly there were answers to my questions at my fingertips – as soon as the computer booted up. How far away is the moon? Which animal has the longest gestational period? What’s the recipe for bouillabaisse? Google just announced this year’s most common searches. Apparently in 2017 people wondered about the latest hurricane, the newest iPhone, the men accused of inappropriate behavior, and the girl engaged to Prince Harry. I didn’t Google any of these. I must be out of touch.

Japan

This is the primary block in the Quilt Etc. free block-of-the-month for December, made exactly the way the directions indicate. It wasn’t remarkably difficult to assemble: just eight rectangles – six white and two brown – each with a covered corner triangle at one end. But the finished product seems to me to be weird and awkward; completely lacking in grace and balance. As soon as I got my block kit home, I tried looking up the pattern in my books and on the Internet. I never found it. The nearest match was https://mombowe.blogspot.com/2017/12/windy-city.html which I made and posted a little more than a week ago. I decided to give this block another chance this week, to see if my opinion of it would improve. It hasn’t, but you’re free to like it if you choose. I’ve learned (and keep on learning) that there are as many ways to see a thing as there are eyes looking at it. 

Cotton Reel

I teach fifteen half-hour long piano lessons every week. When a student walks in the first words out of my mouth are usually, “How did your week go?” I guess I’m hoping to hear they found time to practice, that they fixed the fingering problem in their recital piece, or that they did their theory assignment. Instead, I usually hear about how stressed their parents are, especially at this time of year. I get it, I really do. You want everything about Christmas to be perfect: the decorations, the food, the parties, the presents. But there’s only so much time and energy and money to go around. When Christmas is over, the kids won’t remember how many toys they got. They’ll remember time spent with you. Skip the elf on the shelf and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas together, with popcorn. Bake cookies together or build a fort out of sofa cushions. Make memories. They’re cheaper. They’re priceless.

Four Coral Courts

The story of Hanukkah dates back to the year 167 BC, when Israel was being oppressed by Greek-Syrians. Practicing Judaism was forbidden, and the Jewish temple was defiled with pigs’ blood. A priest’s son named Maccabee led a revolt, taking back their city and their temple. When the temple was rededicated there was only enough oil to light the lamp one night, but somehow it burned for eight days and nights. That’s why the Festival of the Lights takes eight days to celebrate. Last year Hanukkah began on Christmas Eve, and next year it will begin December 2. Today is the first day of Hanukkah this year. You might celebrate by playing dreidl or by eating something fried in oil, like jelly donuts or potato latkes. Other traditional Hanukkah foods include brisket, short ribs, challah, and noodle kugel. 

Four Ex

“My brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness—be they family members, friends, acquaintances, or strangers. We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us. That service to which all of us have been called is the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us. That service to which all of us have been called is the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.” – President Thomas S. Monson

Coral Court Friendship Star

 It was still dark and cold (21 degrees Fahrenheit/-6 Celsius) Thursday morning when the firetrucks began to gather in the mall parking lot. There were dozens of vehicles, carrying more than a hundred firefighters from all over northern Utah. I caught a glimpse of them as the sun began to creep over the eastern mountains. My first thought was, “Oh, no! Is our mall burning?” But the trucks weren’t there because of a local tragedy. They were headed to the California to help battle the raging wildfires there. It’s sobering to think that these people are going toward danger, putting their lives on the line to save other peoples’ malls, other peoples’ homes, and other peoples’ lives. There’s a very good chance they won’t be back until nearly Christmas. I’m amazed and grateful that there are such selfless people in the world. And I pray they’ll all be safely home soon. 

Bow Ties

Today’s National Brownie Day. What better way to celebrate than with a fresh batch? You can add chocolate chips, chopped walnuts or frosting. Or gobble them up plain.

World’s Best Brownies

1/2 cup butter (plus extra for greasing)

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350F. Spread parchment in an 8-inch square pan. Brush paper liberally with butter or spray with cooking oil. Melt butter in a large saucepan. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat in cocoa, flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Don’t overbake! Cool 10 to 20 minutes, then remove brownies from pan (parchment and all) and slice. Serve warm with milk. Makes 16 small brownies or 9 huge ones. 

Four Windy Cities

Weeks ago one of my oldest and dearest friends sent me a folder full of sheet music with a letter listing the songs she wanted to be performed during her funeral. There were more than two dozen pieces – classical numbers, hymns, popular songs and show tunes – enough to fill a two-hour concert. I didn’t tell her she’d chosen too many songs, or that it was possible she’d outlive me. Instead I tucked the folder in my piano bench, out of sight and out of mind. Then the day after Thanksgiving she suddenly passed away, and the funeral she’d planned actually had to happen. I played the songs she chose as prelude and postlude music. Now that letter is one of my most prized possessions. In addition to listing her favorite songs, she’d written about how much our friendship has meant to her over the years. Today is Letter Writing Day. Is there someone who needs a note from you?

Ohio Star Variation

We woke to fresh snow Monday morning, and it put me in the mood to make cinnamon toast. The first step is to pull out a jelly roll pan and fill it with a single layer of whole wheat bread (I can usually fit eight or nine slices without overlapping). In a small bowl, cream together half a cup of butter at room temperature, half a cup of granulated sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a pinch of ground nutmeg. Divide this evenly among the bread slices, spreading the mixture to cover each slice edge to edge. Pop the pan into a 350F oven for ten minutes, and then turn on the broiler for a few minutes more for a crispy golden finish. (Whatever you do, don’t multi-task here. You’ll be crying over burnt toast.) Serve warm. I don’t know what I’d do with leftover cinnamon toast; I’ve never had any.

Windy City

I meant to post this Friday, December 1. But last week was especially stressful – the kind of week you’re relieved to be done with – and many of my good intentions ended up being nothing more than intentions. In keeping with the idea that it’s usually better to finish a task late than not at all, I’m posting this today: For the second consecutive year in a row, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is encouraging members and friends to “Light the World” with random acts of kindness. You can find an advent calendar full of enlightening ideas at  https://www.mormon.org/downloads . Yesterday’s hint was, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” We surprised a few neighbors with loaves of freshly baked banana bread. Today’s is, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” I haven’t yet decided what to do today, but I probably won’t post it. I suspect boasting about your own good deeds defeats the whole purpose.

Framed Star

“The Mormon people teach not only of Heaven and its attendant glories, but how to live so that their social and economic relations with each other are placed on a sound basis. If the people follow the teachings of this Church, nothing can stop their progress—it will be limitless. There have been great movements, started in the past, but they have died or been modified, before they reached maturity. If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generations, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known.” – Leo Tolstoy

Four Spinning Squares Blocks

Easy Bolognese

1 pound sweet Italian bulk sausage

1/4 cup olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped

1 carrot, coarsely chopped

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

8 fresh basil leaves, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add sausage, onion, and garlic. Saute until onions are tender, about 8 minutes. Add celery and carrot and saute 5 more minutes. Add mushrooms, tomatoes, parsley and basil. Cover and cook over low heat until the sauce thickens – about half an hour. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over cooked spaghetti or spaghetti squash, topped with grated Parmesan.

Christmas Stockings

“The lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.” – Garrison Keillor

“Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.” – Victor Borge

“There are 17 more shopping days until Christmas. So, guys, that means 16 more days till we start shopping, right?” – Conan O’Brien

“Adults can take a simple holiday for children and screw it up. What began as a presentation of simple gifts to delight and surprise children around the Christmas tree has culminated in a woman unwrapping six shrimp forks from her dog, who drew her name.” – Erma Bombeck

“The worst gift is fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.” – Johnny Carson

“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.” – Shirley Temple