I’m not sure if it was fifteen or sixteen Novembers ago that Ginger came home with an idea for Advent. She had been on staff at First Congregational Church in Winchester for a short time and, since I was trying to finish my master’s degree in English and teach fulltime, I had not gone to…
I have new glasses! My contact lenses are on back order, or so said the receptionist at Eye Health Services when I talked to her yesterday and convinced her that I needed to see my doctor to get a prescription for glasses so I could function in the world without squinting. On the way to…
I have several disconnected things on my mind, so here they are in no particular order. _______________________________ I got my first birthday-related piece of mail today: an invitation to join the AARP now that I am turning fifty. I am old enough to remember when AARP stood for the American Association of Retired Persons, but…
Advent is un-American. The malls have been decorated for Christmas since the day after Halloween and we are still days away from even beginning to wait for Christ to come. We, as Americans, are not really built to wait. We are accustomed to getting what we want when we want it. But there is more…
In the span of a day, I have gone from reveling in knowing that I am uniquely and wonderfully created in the image of God to feeling painfully in touch with my human limitations. I’m not speaking in metaphor here: I really hurt today. Mondays are my longest days at the kitchen. I get there…
Since she got back from sabbatical, Ginger has made a point of preaching on some difficult texts and topics, rather than simply choosing the Gospel reading from the lectionary. She has been doing a great job. This week, her text was “the last words of David.” Her choice of subject sent me back to chorus…
The last pie is in the oven. Since I got a late start, there are only eight, most of which will end up on someone else’s table tomorrow. OK, half of them will be somewhere else. I made a couple of old favorites (chess, pecan, pumpkin, blueberry), a new one (chocolate whiskey pecan), and a…
Several months ago, I was walking down the aisle of our local Target store when a mother and her son, who looked to be about ten or eleven, rounded the corner and started coming toward me. They were obviously having a fight. I only heard one sentence. The mother said, “You’re right. I don’t know…
About a month ago I found out I was going to have to work on Thanksgiving. The Red Lion Inn has a long history of serving dinner on Turkey Day and we serve a lot of them. There are three seatings – 11:30, 2:30, and 5:30 – and over three hundred people will stuff themselves…
I love Thanksgiving. It’s about not eating alone – what can I say? I can begin by posting a couple of recipes: cranberry sweet tarts the best apple dip ever We’re not talking gourmet here, but we are talking quick, easy, and pretty darn good. I’ll have a few more recipes as the week goes…