Winter Retreat

Last night, I went to New Seasons and when I was buying my stuff, the cashier looked at what I was buying and said "it looks like *you're* going to have a nice evening!" I had: a bottle of red wine, an order of freshly-made pasta of the day, a slice of fudge truffle cake, and a bottle of bubble bath. :-) Okay, I didn't use the bubble bath last night--that was just because on the day after Christmas I was wanting a long, hot bubble bath but we had no bubble bath so I had to settle for a plain old long hot bath. Which wasn't bad.

I did have a nice evening, alone, last night. I usually enjoy having my family around but once in a while it's nice to have alone time. We had winter camp going on, and I was out there doing that too, but there are animals to be tended here so I took a break from camp and came back to my nice, empty house and enjoyed reading the newspaper for hours and good food all by myself.

Winter camp was great, though! It was for high school age kids, and it was just so nice and laid-back. Summer camp is fun but oh, so frenetic. Multiple activities going on at the same time, keep 'em entertained at all times so they don't get into mischief. This was just kids from our own parish, and just the older ones (except for Zac, and there were other 8th graders than just Hibi) and they all know each other, and they were happy just being together and playing games together and low-key crafts and other activities.

Gender Equity as a Cause of Environmental Woes?

Actually, I'm going to link another blog here....because it's just the post I've been wanting to write for a long time and haven't been able to spit it out. I would just quibble a bit on the use of the word feminism....because I think there is a way of being feminist that does have environmentally-friendly manifestations. I would consider the author's lifestyle to be a type of feminism.
http://blue-skies-urban-farm.blogspot.com/2007/12/environmental-impact-of-feminism.html

Family Christmas Traditions

Our family hates Christmases that start too early. Department stores starting up Christmas in September? No thanks! We avoid department stores altogether in favor of a much simpler, and more authentic, Christmas.

We start off the Christmas season on December 6 (or thereabouts) with St. Nicholas Day, whenever we can. That's the day we try to get our tree. We have a tree-decorating party complete with cookies and egg nog, and after all that we turn out all the lights except the ones on the tree and sing Christmas carols. It's something we all look forward to, and we usually all feel like Christmas is here once we've had our party.

For gifts, we've stuck with the tradition we started when we first moved to Portland. You can read about it here. We only buy locally-made, handmade gifts, preferably from the person who made it so we can actually meet him/her. We love our tradition and are happily on the third year.

Last night we began to read A Christmas Carol, another tradition we started some years back. It only has five staves, or chapters, though they are a bit longish. You can read it in five readings very easily. The story reminds us of the poor and the real meaning of Christmas. I highly recommend it!

And finally, we keep our Christmas tree up until Epiphany, the Baptism of Christ. The "Christmas Season" is really supposed to be the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany, so we celebrate it until then.

This year we'll also be doing Christmas caroling, which we don't do every year but I like to do it when we can. Our choir is going out on Sunday to sing for shut-ins.

Here's wishing all who celebrate Christmas a peaceful, simple, celebration of the Nativity. Merry Christmas!

Aurora Concert and brotherly visit

I had a blast singing in the Aurora concert on Sunday! That was *just* what I've been looking for--challenging music, performing, working within a community of wonderful women. If you're a woman and live within the Portland metro area and you like to sing, consider Aurora! It's a pretty big time commitment but I think it's well worth it. I will definitely be back next term.

My brother and sister-in-law came for a visit. They've been telling us ever since we moved to Portland that they would, and they finally got around to it! I enjoyed having them in the audience listening and I enjoyed showing off our beautiful city to them on Monday. They saw Powells, of course, AND LaDonna sold a few copies of her latest book of poetry to them to sell. So if you're in Powells, take a look in the small press-poetry section for her book, Secrets of Falling, unless it's sold out already, which wouldn't surprise me.

We also enjoyed Voodoo Doughnuts and the Saturday Market (which, in addition to also being open on Sundays, is open for the whole week before Christmas). We toodled along Mississippi St. and enjoyed the little shops there. And then it was time for them to go home and for me to get a cold. Yep, I've been trying to get sick all fall and not quite making it, and now I have an honest-to-goodness cold, and I'm kind of relieved because now maybe I can quit with the almost-sick thing.

Oops!

I don't know how that happened, but the link for The Story of Stuff wasn't working. I've fixed it now. Go watch it! But make sure you've got 20 minutes to do so.

NoBloInDec?

Yes, I've been busy, too busy to even think of anything to blog about. I've been mostly keeping up with other people's blogs. It's not the Christmas season that's making me so busy--it's Aurora! I've been trying to make sure I have all my music memorized and have had extra rehearsals and a weekend retreat . Tonight is our dress rehearsal. On Tuesday we rehearsed with the instrumentalists for certain pieces. I think it's going to sound amazing--especially John Denver's Amazon. It's going to be cool!

If you still want to come but don't have tickets, the 4 o'clock performance is sold out. I'm pretty sure you can still get tickets to the 7 o'clock. And last I heard they still need a couple of volunteers, for which you get in free.

And I leave you with this, since I don't have anything of substance to blog about. It's a video that's 20 minutes long. When I first started watching it I thought "20 minutes--too long" and almost turned it off. But I kept watching and am very glad I did. It's a concise explanation of the process of "stuff." How it affects our environment and the people in the world we live in.
The Story of Stuff