The Story of Christmas

I've dusted off this post from four years ago as a reminder of the importance of tradition. This year, due to various work and school obligations, it feels like we've hardly sat down to dinner together as a family. That means we've lost and picked up the thread of the Nativity story we usually read with grace. And rather than the kids vying to light and blow out the candles, they do so with a sense of "meh."So here's to reclaiming traditions....or perhaps starting new ones. 

 My daughter had to give a presentation at school about her family’s holiday traditions. She chose to talk about Advent. When she had finished speaking, a boy in her class raised his hand and asked, “Do you still celebrate Christmas?”

 Actually, this year we may be just celebrating Christmas since, in the move, I’ve managed to misplace our Advent wreath, children’s nativity set, and Advent calendar, a book called The Story of Christmas. 

 Those objects are replaceable of course, but one of the nice things about traditions is unpacking the ones you have used year after year. The corners may be dog eared, the wreath may be splattered with pink and purple wax, and the donkey may be missing a tail, but that is part of what makes them yours.

 Whether you are starting a new tradition or supplementing an old, perhaps one of these books will add to your Advent season:

 The Light of theWorld: Daily Meditations for Advent and Christmas by Phyllis Zagano

 Advent of the Heart: SeasonalSermons and Prison Writings - 1941-1944 by Alfred Delp

 A Gift for the Christ Child: A Christmas Folktale by Anne Wilson and Linda Schlafer

 Manger edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins

 Light Upon Light: ALiterary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany compiled by Sarah Arthur

Who Built the Stable?: A Nativity Poem by Ashley Bryan

Pretty Paper by Willie Nelson and David Ritz

Maddi's Fridge

Best friends Sofia and Maddi play at the park and commiserate over their little brothers. One day Maddi invites Sofia over. When they go to the fridge for a snack, Sofia is shocked to see that it's empty apart from a bottle of milk. After promising not to tell, Sofia attempts to share the contents of her fridge with her friend. However, she soon discovers that however healthy fish and eggs may be, they aren’t very portable in her backpack. 

How can she help her friend without revealing her secret? As it turns out, some secrets aren’t meant to be kept.  

Great for any age, Maddi’s Fridge (written by Lois Brandt and illustrated by Vin Vogel) reminds us that hunger can be present where we least expect it. But it also emphasizes the importance of true friendship. When friends are hurting, we shouldn't stay silent.   

Giving Thanks for Vegetarian Cookbooks

Since we've lived in Washington, Thanksgiving has been a meal for four. I'm still vegetarian, but I'm outnumbered three to one. This year I'm looking forward to perusing the recipes of Half Baked Harvest - a cookbook I eventually hope add to my collection - for a dish that will appeal to the pickiest among us.

This week's post harkens back to something I originally posted in November of 2008.

As Thanksgiving approaches my husband and I are faced once again with the vegetarian’s dilemma of what dish to bring to the family feast. We strive to make something that contains protein, serves more than four people, and is not too odd as to freak out the carnivores (we’re probably not going to show up with Curried Tofu Scramble). Since we’ll be traveling this year, the dish or ingredients should also be portable or simple enough to make in someone else’s kitchen. I’ve perused three vegetarian cookbooks worthy of meeting the challenge.

Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates by The Moosewood Collective

I have to add this book to my collection. It has both vegetarian and vegan menu ideas for Thanksgiving. It also contains the most recipes that appeal to traditional palates. Contenders include: Lentil Salad, Harvest Stuffed Squash, Mushroom Filo Pastries, Crisp Autumn Salad, Roasted Squash with Corn and Beans, and Gingered Carrots with Hijiki (this one probably won’t make the cut since hijiki - Japanese seaweed - has high freak-out potential).

Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

I also borrowed this one from the library, but it’s on my wish list for the pomegranate reds, grainy golden yellows, and spinach greens that pop out from the photographs accompanying the recipes. Even more impressive is these photos were taken by the cookbook’s author. Although these dishes probably wouldn’t meet any of our criteria, I’ve bookmarked the Risotto Style Barley, Otsu (a soba and tofu dish), and Hijiki and Edamame Salad. Ok, so I like hijiki.

Three Bowl Cookbook by David Scott and Tom Pappas

My Buddhist priest friend sent me this book after I returned from Japan. I received it just in time for that year’s Thanksgiving, so I made the Rutabaga, Leek, and Sweet Potato Puree. Once I procured the ingredients (I had to have the Whole Foods produce guy show me where to find both the rutabagas and leeks), I had little trouble making this tasty alternative to traditional milk and butter mashed potatoes. Other recipes I’m considering: Carrot and Parsnip Puree with Fresh Tarragon and Green Beans with Ginger, Corn, and Miso.

“I don’t dislike him, I just don’t like him. Which is quite different.”

Maybe, like me, you still haven’t seen The Movie. At this point, I’ve resigned myself to wait for it to stream. 

In the meantime, I’m revisiting some of the Downton-esque reads I created for this list compiled in October of 2015.

Atonement by Ian McEwan after multiple readings never disappoints.  Briony, age 13, misinterprets a brief scene she witnesses in the library and changes lives in ways even the impending war cannot.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton shifts between 1924 and 1999. When a modern filmmaker decides to make a movie about the Hartford sisters, she finds a primary source in former housemaid Grace Bradley. As Grace thinks back to her years in service, she remembers not the glamour of the times, but the craftily concealed deceit. 

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton opens in 1913 with a four-year-old wandering aboard a ship bound for Australia. The little girl grows up with her adopted family and decade after decade discovers another part of her mysterious past. When she dies, she bestows a house to her grieving granddaughter. Tracing her grandmother’s steps, she fits the pieces together for the reader.   

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters looks at a once stately household now fallen into disrepair. The Ayres family is befriended by a lonely country doctor. He soon discovers that their ailments are hauntingly difficult to diagnose.

Music Memoirs

Maybe it’s my selective listening of podcasts lately, but I’ve come across several music memoirs that sound intriguing.

Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley by Sybil Rosen

The Beautiful Ones by Prince

Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren

High School by Tegan and Sara Quin

What’s your favorite musician memoir or biography?

I could talk about...

We tried this exercise in my class the other night as an opening “check-in.”  The idea is to finish the phrase “I could talk about…,” but then not talk about it. So here goes.

I could talk about…

the book I’m reading for work (For Better, for Worse, for God: Exploring the Holy Mystery of Marriage)

the book I’m reading for school (Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age)

the book I want to read for work (Mercy in the City)

the book I want to read for my internship (History of the Catholic Church)

the book I read for my internship (Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation)

the book I hope to read on the red-eye tonight (When Katie Met Cassidy)

But I won’t. And that’s ok.

"Chihulys are the pigeons of Seattle"

In honor of the movie that was recently released, I dusted off a review I originally posted in 2012.

A case of the blue meanies has interrupted these posts of late. Perhaps you've turned to other blogs in the meantime, but I hope you'll check back because a book called Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple has inspired me to start posting again.

Bee Branch, a Seattle eighth grader convinces her parents to take her on a cruise to Antarctica to celebrate her straight As. She is flummoxed, however, when her mother goes missing the day before the trip. When her mother doesn't return, her father, a Microsoft workaholic, decides to send Bee to boarding school a semester early. While at school, Bee receives an envelope filled with emails, magazine articles, and other documents leading up to her mother's disappearance. She immediately sits down at her PC (mocked by her Apple loving classmates) and begins writing her book. The book we've been reading.

I second Jonathan Franzen when he says on the front cover, "I tore through this book with heedless pleasure." A feeling I sort of vaguely remembered but welcomed anyway.