How was your Christmas?

Last Christmas, if you recall, we managed to celebrate the day by smashing up our car after hitting an invisible patch of black ice.

This Christmas, thankfully, things were a lot more peaceful and less exciting.

We started by wrapping our gifts to each other. A few years ago, I abandoned wrapping paper altogether and embraced the Japanese practice of furoshiki, or wrapping gifts in colorful fabric. Honestly, this was one of those "Where have you been all my life?" moments. Fabric wrap is infinitely reusable and creates no waste.

I keep a bag of festive fabric bits (some large, some small) in our Christmas tote, and we use them for wrapping gifts.

On Christmas Eve, we attended our church's evening "Lessons and Carols" service and sang our hearts out.

The next morning was the Christmas Day service. I took this photo from the choir loft before anyone had arrived.

We opened presents, spent the day lounging around, and watched George C. Scott's "A Christmas Carol" in the evening.

(Also, I made my first batch of Parmesan cheese, which now has to age for ten months, so I have no idea how it turned out.)

How was your Christmas?

The orphan party

For the last few years, since she's been at her European duty station, Younger Daughter has been throwing what she calls "Orphan Parties" at Christmas.

These are Christmas Eve gatherings of as many service people as want to celebrate together, since so many are far away from their families. She has a spacious apartment, and the party starts on Christmas Eve evening and lasts past midnight. She is arranging car pools and designated drivers, and is also offering floor and couch space for those who just want to crash overnight rather than navigate their way home (especially helpful for those who overindulge).

Although adult beverages will be available (brought by guests, since she doesn't supply either food or alcohol), the entire party is wholesome and family-friendly. This year she is expecting 20 adults and six kids, including three babies ranging in age from seven months to eighteen months. She has gifts for each party attendee, including stockings for the older children. (She decided on just stuffed animals for the babies.)

When we last spoke a couple days ago, she said she was working on games and prizes. 

• People are encouraged to wear (modest) pajamas, so she'll have a prize for the "best dressed" nightwear.

• She plans a "hide the pickle" game, in which a pickle-shaped ornament is hidden somewhere in the apartment. The extra rule is the finder must visibly hold the pickle at all times, and others can steal it if they want.

Gifts and prizes are equally fun or goofy. She has four anonymous gifts, wrapped up, but they can only be given if the gift is identified through a series of clues.

• One of the prizes is a coupon for a free painting (she's very artistic, and apparently people hound her for artwork).

• Another prize is a very large bottle of hot sauce shaped like the Grinch’s head.

• Because (as she puts it) so many party attendees are immature, one of the prizes is a Nerf gun, which is apparently very popular among sailors.

• For caffeine addicts, she found a vintage mocha coffee set at a thrift store. She said it was a little pricey, but very handsome.

I love the idea of an Orphan Party! It's tough on military personnel to be so far away from loved ones, but she is helping forge both ties and memories by offering a place to safely celebrate.

America's hope

Last night, Don and I were invited to attend the Christmas pageant of some local Mennonite schoolchildren singing carols and reciting some religious poetry. The event was held in the newish barn of a member of the nearby Mennonite church, a man whom Don knows through their mutual involvement in a professional project. The barn is multipurpose and is often used for community gatherings.

Aside from a few people, Don and I didn't know a soul. And yet – everyone went out of his (or in my case, her) way to introduce him/herself and welcome us to the event. It was absolutely lovely to feel so embraced by this group of strangers.

There were children everywhere, ranging from infants in arms to teens. Kids dashed around engaging in spontaneous games of ring-around-the-rosey and hide-and-seek. Adults ranged from young parents to elderly grandparents and great-grandparents. I'm guessing there were maybe 100 people in attendance.

The pageant opened with a prayer, and then a couple of community carols in which everyone in the audience belted out holiday favorites (we all had hymnbooks on our chairs). Then the school children, ranging in age from about five through fourteen, stepped up and sang their hearts out. And here's the thing – these kids had practiced. They knew every word and line, and they sang it acapella with impressive harmony. They recited some poetry that even the five-year-old knew flawlessly. It was terrific.

Then a group of nine adults took the stage, and they also sang a number of pieces acapella, and they were (in my opinion) polished enough to be professionally recorded. Just beautiful.

After this, the whole audience was invited to pick some favorite Christmas hymns to sing, after which the program closed with a prayer. Everyone mingled to socialize, then lined up for a potluck meal.

I came away deeply impressed by the whole thing. In some ways, it was a snapshot of America's hope. Here was a group of God-fearing, hard-working, community-minded, family-oriented people, young and old, children and elderly, gathering to celebrate Christmas ... and welcoming strangers into their midst.

As I said, Don has been working with this one man on a community project, and he's come to appreciate the Mennonite church and its members for their enthusiastic community involvement and genuinely pious lifestyle.

For the last several years, in our last location and now here in our current home, we've noticed a large influx of Mennonites from other parts of the country. I, for one, welcome them with open arms. We simply couldn't ask for better neighbors.

Gathering Christmas boughs

Last week, Older Daughter wanted to collect some Christmas boughs for decorating the house. Usually she and I drive into the mountains with Darcy to do this, and this time we decided to move fast since we were trying to beat a spike of rain moving in.

We haven't had any snow yet this winter (which is typical; generally we get a massive whomp of the white stuff after New Year's), but as we climbed in elevation there was a modest and festive amount on the ground.

Darcy, needless to say, was thrilled by the excursion, which supplanted his usual morning walk. As I told Older Daughter, I was giving him at most thirty seconds before that excitement translated into taking a dump once he was released from the car.

As it turns out, it was closer to forty seconds...

...and then he unleashed not one, but two enormous loads. Good thing I brought bags.

After that he felt much better and happily romped along the road.

While Older Daughter carefully selected cedar branches (taking no more than one per tree)...

...I observed snowberries, something we had everywhere in our last location but don't have near our current home.

Here's Older Daughter's car, parked among the trees.

Cedar branches are beautiful, perfect for draping.

Because the road we were on is a maintained logging road winding deep into the mountains, much of it had a steep dropoff on one side.

We had to select branches that overhung the road.

We filled a tub with branches and came home, ready to decorate the house.

I like being so close to the mountains that we can take a short jaunt into the higher elevations. So, apparently, does Mr. Darcy.

How was your Christmas?

Aside from our unexpected car accident, we had a very nice (if quiet) Christmas.

It started in mid-December, when Older Daughter and I took Mr. Darcy and drove higher into the mountains to cut some cedar branches (with permission from the Forest Service). Darcy is always so thrilled by these excursions.

The forest was beautiful. (That's Older Daughter's car at the bottom.)

Darcy was raring to go, so I walked him around while Older Daughter collected branches. She was careful not to cut more than one branch off any one tree.

It soon became apparent, however, that a service crew had come through a short time before and trimmed a bunch of branches along long stretches of the road, presumably for maintenance purposes.

When we realized this, it was a simple matter of finding a collection of downed branches and taking as many as we wanted. There was a nice amount in this bend of the road. (You can see Older Daughter in the pink coat.)

What I didn't realize, however, was in this particular location, the fairly thin layer of snow on the road disguised a solid sheet of ice. I fell once and hurt nothing but my dignity. But then I fell a second time and managed to pull my entire left quadriceps muscle. Whee! That had me limping for a few days.

See that dark spot on the road?

That's the place I slipped. You can see the ice under the snow.

The muscle tear wasn't bad ... at first. It was much improved within a day or two, and then I took a misstep and injured it again. Then a day or two later, I slipped (on dog poop – in the yard!) and re-injured it again, at which point Don practically tied me to a chair to keep me from moving. The muscle finally healed.

Meanwhile, Older Daughter was weaving garlands with lights and hanging them above windows and doors.

On the eve of Christmas Eve (the 23rd), when we all settled in to watch "A Muppet Christmas Carol" (well, why not?). Older Daughter made us a tasty dinner of Cornish game hen and trimmings.

On Christmas Eve, we had a leisurely day of not doing much. I made sure to feed the livestock extra well on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Legend has it animals are granted the gift of speech at Christmas and will gossip about us. Can't have any bad news spreading to the neighbors!

Toward evening, we opened a few presents. For the first time this year, we skipped using wrapping paper and wrapped the presents in fabric according to the Japanese technique of "furoshiki."

With my long-time interest in sustainable and zero-waste living, I'm shocked I never even heard of this technique until last Christmas, and then I experienced a "Where have you been all my life?" moment. It makes so much sense, doesn't it, to use something for wrapping that can be used again and again? Accordingly, last year after Christmas when fabrics were on sale, I purchased a selection of holiday-themed fabrics (as well as some non-holiday samples for birthdays, etc.). Some of the fabrics are small, others larger, for different-sized packages.

So all the presents were wrapped in fabric, which meant no waste. How cool is that?

Late on Christmas Eve, we attended our church's "Lessons and Carols." The darkened church looked lovely.

Christmas Day, of course, was dominated by the car accident that prevented us from attending the proper church service, but these things happen.

In the evening, we gathered to watch George C. Scott's version of "A Christmas Carol, arguably the best version of that famous story ever made (in my opinion).

Above all, we thank God for the gift of His son.

How was your Christmas?