Second Sunday of Advent

Amor (Love)

 

 

 

Advent
Thomas Merton 

Charm with your stainlessness these winter nights,
Skies, and be perfect! Fly, vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your full!

The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four parts of the starry universe.
Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.

Charm with your stainlessness these nights in Advent,
holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed by starlight.

Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over all our solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets’ stately setting,
Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!

Will Elk Ridge Lose Its Magic?

A Spell for Midwinter's Heart, Morgan Lockhart
Thank goodness! A romantic novel with adults who act like adults!

Years earlier, Rowan Midwinter desperately wanted to save her grandmother's home from developers. Her hometown, Elk Ridge in the Rockies, is a haven for many magic users who follow pagan traditions, and she was to help cast a spell to save it. She failed and quit using magic that day. She won't even use it to help persuade people to invest into a worthy solar power franchise. But she promised her mother to come home for Yule; on her path home, she re-encounters her old school rival Gaven McCreery, whose father is now hell-bent on selling out the whole town of Elk Ridge to some big city developers. And it may happen, because Elk Ridge makes its biggest money at their winter festival at Yule—and this year's may be a bust because there's no snow.

The two storylines develop in parallel: Rowan and Gavin's rediscovery of each other as well as Rowan and her friends and family trying to keep the specter, of cookie-cutter commercial development from taking over Elk Ridge and its unique inhabitants. Rowan must come to terms with what she saw as her initial failure that just let her into a downward spiral in which she sees failure as her only future, and learn to love herself as Gavin also begins to love her, and she him.

This book includes a great supporting cast, including Rowan's brother, mother, and father, and her best friend, Zaide, and Zaide's lover Naomie. I really enjoyed this one!

Monster "Mash" at Christmas

Scary Book of Christmas Lore: Forget About Jingle Bells & Jolly Old Saint Nick, Tim Rayborn

Christmas! Sweet Santa and his reindeer deliver presents! Back at the North Pole, Mrs. Claus makes cocoa for the elves! It's all sweetness and light at Christmas...

Well, maybe today, but in the past, did you know that the "Santa" figure sometimes was accompanied by a companion who punished naughty children, some by eating them, some by stuffing them in a bag. Not to mention, there's a Yule cat and a Yule goat wandering about, contemplating mayhem. In Greece and Turkey, there are the Kallikantzaroi, evil goblins who wander the countryside during the Twelve Days of Christmas. Additionally, there's Frau Perchta, who slits the bellies of naughty children and makes straw people of them. And then there's the infamous Krampus...

If you want a different Christmas read, this roster of Christmas monsters may be up your alley. Short entries for each Christmas ghoul make it perfect days-before-Christmas reading.

First Sunday of Advent

Spera (Hope)

  

Advent
Christina Rossetti 

This Advent moon shines cold and clear,
  These Advent nights are long;
Our lamps have burned year after year
  And still their flame is strong.
'Watchman, what of the night?' we cry,
  Heart-sick with hope deferred:
'No speaking signs are in the sky,'
  Is still the watchman's word.

The Porter watches at the gate,
  The servants watch within;
The watch is long betimes and late,
  The prize is slow to win.
'Watchman, what of the night?' But still
  His answer sounds the same:
'No daybreak tops the utmost hill,
  Nor pale our lamps of flame.'

One to another hear them speak
  The patient virgins wise:
'Surely He is not far to seek'—
  'All night we watch and rise.'
'The days are evil looking back,
  The coming days are dim;
Yet count we not His promise slack,
  But watch and wait for Him.'

One with another, soul with soul,
  They kindle fire from fire:
'Friends watch us who have touched the goal.'
  'They urge us, come up higher.'
'With them shall rest our waysore feet,
  With them is built our home,
With Christ.'—'They sweet, but He most sweet,
  Sweeter than honeycomb.'

There no more parting, no more pain,
  The distant ones brought near,
The lost so long are found again,
  Long lost but longer dear:
Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard,
  Nor heart conceived that rest,
With them our good things long deferred,
  With Jesus Christ our Best.

We weep because the night is long,
  We laugh for day shall rise,
We sing a slow contented song
  And knock at Paradise.
Weeping we hold Him fast, Who wept
  For us, we hold Him fast;
And will not let Him go except
  He bless us first or last.

Weeping we hold Him fast to-night;
  We will not let Him go
Till daybreak smite our wearied sight
  And summer smite the snow:
Then figs shall bud, and dove with dove
  Shall coo the livelong day;
Then He shall say, 'Arise, My love,
  My fair one, come away.'

(Image: Kim's Cottage Art)

Stir-Up Sunday

"Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." (Collect for the Sunday before Advent.)

The traditional Christmas pudding so beloved by the English is mixed the week before Advent begins, so that the pudding can age by Christmas Day. This "pudding" is actually a rich fruitcake, and is steamed instead of baked. You should stir the pudding "east to west" (the same direction the Wise Men would have traveled) and recite the Sunday collect as you do.

This recipe is from James Beard:

•     2 pounds raisins
•     2 pounds sultana (golden) raisins
•     2 pounds dried currants
•     4 tart apples, finely chopped
•     3/4 pound mixed citron, lemon, and orange peel
•     1/2 pound chopped blanched almonds
•     2 pounds beef suet, chopped*
•     3 cups flour
•     3 to 4 cups fresh bread crumbs
•     2 teaspoons salt
•     1 teaspoon cinnamon
•     1 teaspoon mace
•     1 teaspoon nutmeg
•     1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
•     1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
•     1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
•     3 lemons
•     1 cup cognac
•     1 cup Grand Marnier or Cointreau
•     12 eggs, beaten

Combine raisins, sultana raisins, and currants in a large bowl. Add apples, mixed citron peel, blanched almonds, and beef suet. Combine all this with flour and bread crumbs. For spice add salt, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, ground cloves, ground ginger, and ground allspice. Mix very thoroughly with your hands, then add the juice and grated rind from the lemons, cognac, Grand Marnier or Cointreau, and eggs. You will notice there is no sugar in this recipe—you don’t need it with the sweetness in the other ingredients.

Mix again with your hands, and if there is not enough liquid, add more cognac or Grand Marnier, or even beer. It must be well bound together and thoroughly mixed, but should not be a tight dough. Cover with foil and let stand to mellow for a day or two or even three, before cooking. Then taste and see if it lacks salt, spice, or spirits.

Fill your pudding basins or molds with the mixture, leaving some room for expansion. Put on the lids if you are using covered molds, or tie around the basins or bowls cloths that have been wrung out in hot water and dusted with flour. Tie foil over the cloths. Stand molds on a rack in a deep saucepan, add water to come halfway up the molds or basins, cover the pan, bring to a boil, and boil from 6 to 8 hours, depending on size, adding more water if it boils away.

Remove from the heat and let the puddings cool in the pans. Once they are cool, remove them from the basins and wrap in cheesecloth, then in foil. Keep the puddings in a cool place for several weeks or months (not necessarily in the refrigerator, although this is a good place to store them if you have room). While they are ripening you can unwrap them periodically and add more cognac or other spirits. Piercing the puddings with a fine skewer or needle makes this process easier.

Yield

3 to 4 puddings, depending on the size of the mold.

Feast of All Souls

Following Hallowe'en (All Hallow's [Saint's] Eve) and All Saints Day is All Souls Day, when you pray for the souls of those who are not quite ready for Heaven. This is related to the Hispanic holiday growing more popular in the current years, Day of the Dead, in which family members visit the graves of the dead, clean the gravesites, and pray for the souls of departed family members.

More about All Souls Day on Catholic Online.

 

Michaelmas

Otherwise known as the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. This holiday was once an important festival on the calendar, relating to the harvest and the autumn. The traditional dish for the day was goose, ensuring a fruitful year.

St. Michael is the patron saint of police officers, soldiers, mariners, firefighters, EMTs, and others who put their lives in danger through their work. St. Michael medals are often popular in police departments and military barracks. He is known as one of the four angels who defended the Kingdom of God from Satan and the legions of the fallen. As in the icon to the right, he is usually portrayed as carrying a sword in order to accomplish his mission of defending the good. St. Michael also acts as guide to the souls of the deceased.

Purple asters with their yellow centers are also known as Michaelmas daisies as they grown around the date of Michaelmas.

In some British universities, the autumn term is known as the Michaelmas term.

The Abbot's Circle: The Story of Michaelmas 

National Trust for Scotland: Michaelmas Traditions

The Feast of St. Michael

Catholic Culture: Traditions of Michaelmas Day

Historic UK: Michaelmas 

Poetry and More

A West Country Christmas, edited by Chris Smith

This is another of Alan Sutton publishing's "Christmas Anthologies," which contain short excerpts of Christmas/Christmastide passages from various British novels, memoirs, and poetry books, with the action taking place in the shire or historical era denoted in the title.

Covering England's "West Country" (Cornwall and Somerset), known for their oft-parodied "z" accents, this particular volume is almost half-filled with poetry from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Herrick, Christina Rossetti, Charles Kingsley, and others. Contributors of prose include Conan Doyle with an excerpt from Hound of the Baskervilles (although it really had nothing to do with Christmas), Agatha Christie (Poirot celebrates the holidays), Daphne DuMaurier, Blackmore's Lorna Doone, and Thomas Hardy.

The Glastonbury Thorn, the legendary tree that supposedly blooms every year on "the real Christmas" (by the Julian calendar, now January 7), has its own chapter, as does the West Country tradition of mumming. Other memoirs tell of old-fashioned Christmases with simple toys and reveling, there is—of course—a ghost story or two, there's a long chapter with Christmas excerpts from West Country newspapers, and even the amazing story of a shepherd who saves 66 sheep from freezing on a snowy night by carrying them back two by two to a barn. Old engravings, photographs, and advertisements complete this interesting volume.

Everything That's Christmas: Memoirs, Memories, and Ghosts!

A Warwickshire Christmas, edited by David Green
This is another in Alan Sutton publishing's line of Christmas books, either from English shires (their equivalent of a county) or during a certain time or literary period. Having picked up one (Worcestershire Christmas) at a book sale, I've collected one or two at the time when I can find them inexpensively. I've collected all the regional ones now, and this is the third from the last.

The contents of these books are kind of a coin toss. Sometimes it's obvious that there aren't a lot of Christmas writings from the particular shire and they have tossed in winter observances like the weather or references to cold weather or they've included the "St. George and the Dragon" play in its entirety. This volume, however is crammed with memoirs of holiday celebrations from the POV from all walks in life, from Daisy England, a poor child whose father left the family and who eventually ended up in the workhouse, to the Christmases celebrated by Frances, Countess of Warwick. Three contributions are from Ursula Bloom, a prolific writer of 560 books, from childhood memories to ghost stories she was told by a family servant. Vivian Bird recalls a chill, cheerless Christmas in which he was serving in the Army during the Second World War. There are excerpts from Silas Marner, another George Eliot novel Brother Jacob, and two excerpts from Washington Irving's Old Christmas (a part of The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon), as well as a short account of Christmas at Aston Hall, the prototype for Irving's Bracebridge Hall. There are accounts of meager Christmases in poor homes and bountiful Yuletides at manor homes, and even a fascinating article talking about stagecoaches—you are used to seeing stagecoaches in Western movies with passengers riding inside and the driver and the person "riding shotgun" on the outside, but, on British stagecoaches at least, passengers who paid less actually rode outside.

Plus there are illustrations and many many nostalgic photos of snowy lanes and old-fashioned sights like poultry shops and horse-drawn vehicles. One of the best Sutton Christmas anthologies!

Not Nostalgic Enough

Christmas TV Memories: Nostalgic Holiday Favorites of the Small Screen, Herbie J. Pilato
I've been waiting on this book since I saw it promoted and learned that it had a chapter about The House Without a Christmas Tree, which is one of my very favorites, if not favorite (it changes by year) Christmas movie ever (it alternates with The Homecoming). Now that I've read it, I loved the House chapter and about half of the rest of the book.

I found the rest...kind of annoying. First, the book seems to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about television variety Christmas specials. I realize they're a rara avis these days, and certainly the biggest of them, hosted by Bob Hope, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, etc., were fabulous and bear examining; I loved it a few years back when MEtv showed a bunch of these gems, including Perry Como's Early American Christmas and Christmas in Paris. It's the one- or two-time specials that seemed out of place, and after the first few chapters they seem all jumbled together.

The remainder of the chapters address animated specials, Christmas television films, and Christmas episodes of series favorites. The quality wavers between detailed examinations of one item (like The House Without a Christmas Tree) to chapters like the one about The Simpsons which basically just lists all the Simpsons Christmas episodes. It would have been better to say there were 21 episodes and mention the first and a couple of notable ones.

Pilato also says, naturally, there wasn't time in 300 pages to mention every Christmas special and every Christmas episode of every series—I was particularly disappointed by the complete omission of all eight Lassie Christmas episodes—yet there is plenty of time, apparently, to mention Thanksgiving episodes and New Year's episodes!—not to mention numerous asides about what star was married to another star who went on to produce fill-in-the-blank famous movie with no connection to Christmas. Not only that, but the subtitle is "nostalgic holiday favorites." Everyone's nostalgic about Rudolph and Frosty and other 60s and 70s animated shows and episodes; who the dickens is nostalgic about some forgettable episode of Reba that's aired ten years ago?

Particularly irritating was the chapter about The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, in which several pages were wasted talking about the dreadful remake they did a couple of years ago which I turned off in disgust after ten minutes when Jason started berating John-Boy about his stupidity in wanting to be a writer! The set decoration looked like it came out of an issue of "Country Living" and makes the Walton family look prosperous instead of just getting by. Ugh! And the chapter about The Gathering devotes two of the four pages to another film the director did called Peege. Huh?

Pilato even gets part of the plot of the memorable episode of That Girl called "Christmas and the Hard Luck Kid" incorrect: Tommy, the little boy Ann Marie is keeping company at Christmas, isn't Jewish; his friend whom he eventually spends Christmas Day with is the one who's Jewish.

I'm keeping this because of The House Without a Christmas Tree chapter, but, really, I wish I'd found it at the library booksale instead of forking over $20+ dollars on it.

Mysteries and Ghosts Make a Good Combination

Mystery for Christmas, edited by Richard Dalby
This is a collection of mystery stories...surprise...set around Christmas, with most of them having a supernatural twist. It begins with the ultimate in ghost story authors, Charles Dickens himself, with "The Black Veil." Several other classic authors are represented, including Thomas Hardy. Some of the stories feature murder, but there are other situations including a kidnapped child, a reluctant church attendee, a mysterious photograph, sudden deaths at a house party, even an unusual meal eaten in Persia and the adventures of a ghost, not to mention a locked-room mystery.

I loved almost every one of these stories; I think my least favorite was the one by Keating. Even the Sherlock Holmes pastiche and the story that's a takeoff on M.R. James and King's College.

There are several of these collections done by Dalby, including Ghosts for Christmas, which I've previously reviewed.

A Christmas at the Lake

The Tuckers: The Cottage Holiday, Jo Mendel
This is the Christmas entry in Mendel's Tuckers series, about a family of five children, stay-at-home-mom, and a dad who runs a variety store with his father. The stories are usually simple, but sometimes humorous, sometimes dramatic situations around family life.

Cottage Holiday revolves around seven-year-old Penny, who's the often-sick member of the family, who's tired of being pampered and longs to discover what she's good at like her talented brothers and sisters. She wishes the whole family could spend Christmas at the family's summer cottage on the lake—and what a surprise to discover that her doctor says she is well enough to go!

The rest of the story involves the kids' adventures on the lake, which includes hiking, hunting a lost calf with some young friends who live on a nearby farm, finding an abandoned baby, and coping with the fact that a renegade cougar is prowling the area.

The main charm of this story is nostalgia: the kids sometimes quarrel, but they love each other as well; their simple adventures encompass positive values without being preachy. This story is particularly charming because Penny, who's usually a background character, comes into her own here. Her baby steps into finding herself gives it an introspective undercurrent that the other books don't have.

A Depression Christmas

Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Kathryn Lasky
This is my knock-down favorite "Dear America" book (and believe me, there are good ones and bad ones). I love Kathryn Lasky writing anything, especially her Callista Jacobs mysteries and Prank, and, brought up on my parents' stories about the Depression, this story rings very true.

Minnie Swift, youngest girl and next-to-youngest child in the Swift family, tells the story of "a Christmas of dwindling." Her father, an accountant, is working fewer hours, and the family begins closing off rooms in their house in order to save coal. Then they receive a startling telegram: a young cousin they didn't know existed is coming to live with them: Willie Faye Darling, deep from the Dust Bowl. Willie Faye is the same age as Minnie, but has never seen a movie, doesn't know about comic strips, and is so small people think she is younger.

Yet Willie Faye is the glue that will hold the Swift family together on that "Christmas of dwindling" in which they eat meatless meals, work on home-made Christmas gifts, cope with a tragedy concerning a friend's family, discover some of the sobering things Willie Faye has lived through, and enjoy the antics of Minnie's older and creative sister, "Lady" (short for Adelaide) who loves fashion and Greta Garbo films.

Based on my mom's stories of Depression privations, Minnie's story seems very real. The only false note in the story is the epilog, which I find a bit fanciful.

Happy Christmas from the Clarks!

Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot, Frances Frost

Between 1947 and 1956, Frost, a native of Vermont, wrote a series of children's books about the Clark family, who have a small dairy farm in northern Vermont: parents, three children, Toby, age 12; Betsey, age 9; and Johnny, five and a precocious (and sometimes annoying) poet. In the first book of the series, Windy Foot at the County Fair, Toby, a budding artist, is given a Shetland pony named Windy Foot. He also meets Leticia "Tish" Burnham (who's planning to become a doctor), and the two children become fast friends. Now it's Christmas, Tish and her dad Jerry are coming to visit, and the whole family is full of anticipation.

Plus there's a renegade bear wandering the area and one of the Clark cows is about to birth a late-in-the-year calf.

This is hygge at its purest: simple family doings on a late 1940s independent farm, much hard work, but much fun as well, home-cooking, collecting greens for Christmas decorations, horse-and-buggy and horse-and-sleigh rides, carol singing on the town green, Christmas shopping in the general store...with a few hair-raising adventures thrown in for good measure.

The Clarks are fine folk to spend Christmas with! I do it every year.

The Windy Foot Books