Chain Letter

 

A lot of people use this time of year to declare their New Year’s resolutions – things they intend to accomplish during the coming year. I may do that, eventually. But today, I’m posting my anti-resolutions. This coming year, I intend NOT to smoke or vape. As I’ve never done either, keeping this resolution shouldn’t be too hard. I also mean to avoid alcohol, coffee, and energy drinks. They’re vile, and there are much more fun ways to ruin your health. During the next twelve months at least, I intend NOT to take up sky diving, bungee jumping, or tattooing. I won’t be piercing my nose or my navel, and I won’t be gauging my ears. I will not take up mountain climbing or cave diving. I won’t go anywhere in a car – as a passenger or a driver – without my seatbelt safely buckled. I hope you won't, either. Here’s to a safer, saner new year for all of us!

Twenty Chain Links

 

Robert Lewis May was born to a wealthy secular Jewish family in Long Island. The Mays lost everything during the Great Depression, when Robert was in his early 20’s. For most of his career, Robert was a poorly paid in-house advertising copywriter for Montgomery Ward. In 1939, his employer asked him to write a cheerful children’s book for the department store to give to Christmas shoppers. Deeply in debt (his wife had just died from cancer), Robert wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. In 1946, RCA Victor asked Robert for permission to make an audio recording of the booklet, but Montgomery Ward owned the rights to Rudolph. In an unprecedented move, the department store GAVE Robert the rights. Three years later, Robert’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, wrote the song that’s running in your head right now. Gene Autry’s version that same year sold 2.5 million copies. There was a Max Fleischer cartoon in 1948, and a full-color stop-motion TV special in 1964.

Three Dozen Wonky Log Cabins

 

The best way to avoid infections (colds, flu, norovirus, RSV, COVID, etc.) is to shun crowds, practice good hygiene, and keep your immunizations up to date. Beyond that, anything you can do to boost your immunity is a plus. Here are a few hints to help you do that:

Get plenty of vitamin C, found in citrus, kiwi, strawberries, broccoli, tomatoes and peppers.

Eat more mushrooms. They’re rich in riboflavin and niacin – B vitamins that help your immune system.

Load up on quercetin, a flavonoid found in onions, shallots, fennel, red apples, grapes, berries, citrus, and leafy greens. Quercetin is an antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties.

You’re probably vitamin D deficient right now. If you can’t visit a warm, sunny beach, you can take a supplement or eat more fatty fish or egg yolks.

Lower stress hormones by getting more exercise, improving your sleep habits, and meditating. Taking an occasional mental health day also improves physical health.

Sixteen Butterflies

 

Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread

 

3 sticks softened butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1 tablespoon shortening

1-1/2 cups finely chopped nuts

 

Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla. Add flour and salt. Mix well. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place on cookie sheets and flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Cool completely. Melt the chocolate chips and shortening in a double boiler over hot water, stirring until blended. Dip each cookie halfway into the chocolate, dip into the nuts and place on waxed paper. Refrigerate until the chocolate is set. Makes 5 dozen, unless you tasted a few while you were making them.

Three Dozen Louisiana Blocks

 

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!” – Fred, from A Christmas Carol

Cutey Pie Pin Cushion

 

“We are all children of the covenant stretching across the earth in nations and cultures on every continent, numbering in the millions, as we await the glorious return of our Lord and Savior. Shining as a light to those around us, we consciously shape our desires, thoughts, choices, and actions. Seeking with all our heart to know and love the Savior, we separate ourselves from the world through covenants with God, being distinct, uncommon, and special, as we honor Him and His teachings without isolating ourselves from others who believe differently. It is a wondrous journey to be wheat among the tares, sometimes fraught with heartache but always calmed by the maturing and assuring settling of our faith. As you allow your love for the Savior and His love for you to sink deep into your heart, I promise you added confidence, peace, and joy in meeting the challenges of your life.” – Elder Neil L. Andersen

Sixteen Chain Links

 

I don’t expect anyone but other musicians to understand this, but I have a love/hate relationship with Sunday. I love the opportunity to worship our Lord with music. But between being asked every week to play hymns, prelude and postlude on the organ, accompanying choirs and providing special numbers in my church and others, Sunday becomes less like a day of rest. When Christmas falls on the Sabbath, it’s exponentially worse. I’d been grumbling (again) to a friend about this, and she said something that made me think. Next time Christmas falls on Sunday is in 2033; eleven years from now! In eleven years, my grandchildren will be grown. Several family members will probably no longer be with us. There’s a good chance I won’t be here, either. So, I’ll go to church with my family tomorrow. I’ll sing and I’ll play and I’ll try to enjoy every moment. I hope you will, too. Merry Christmas!