I spent the day baking bread. Always enjoyable for me and any of my house guests. The aroma of baking bread permeates our home.
My first loaf of the morning I made for my father. Since our family is celebrating Christmas (by opening presents and feasting on an Italian themed dinner) tomorrow, I wanted to make a fresh loaf of his favorite: White Sandwich Bread <= (click link for recipe).
The third and final loaf will be Rustic Sourdough, modified to mix and rise in the dough cycle of my bread machine. The original recipe from King Arthur is really a double batch (makes two loaves) and I would have to drag out my Kitchen Aid mixer to accommodate five cups of flour and the other ingredients.
Once the loaves are all baked and cooled, I will take some photographs and post them below.
As I sit her watching the Christmas tree lights fade slowly from one color to the next, I wait expectantly for my own son (and his wife) to arrive here at home after a long, long drive north. I thought now would be a good time to re-read the arrival of our Savior, humbly born to Mary in a stable in Bethlehem. I like to remind myself of the reason for the season:
1 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, his fianc’e, who was obviously pregnant by this time. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn. 8 That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! 11 The Savior — yes, the Messiah, the Lord — has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!” 13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others — the armies of heaven — praising God: 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors. ” 15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Come on, let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this wonderful thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 They ran to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17 Then the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20 The shepherds went back to their fields and flocks, glorifying and praising God for what the angels had told them, and because they had seen the child, just as the angel had said.
My true love gave to me … a tour of the Surgery waiting room, holding and recovery area at Menorah Medical Center. Meanwhile, he was prepped for surgery and waited and waited and waited and waited and finally entered the operating room at around 2:30 p.m. In about half the time originally mentioned by the surgeon (thirty minutes instead of an hour), he was in the recovery room and already awake and alert. Even though he had fasted (both food and all liquids) since before midnight (on the first day of Hanukkah), the anesthesiologist and my husband decided a general anesthetic was not necessary for the surgery to his right hand. A local block for the right arm, coupled with some sedative, provide sufficient. Which made recovery faster and relieved my anxiety immensely.
About an ninety minutes after the surgery, Terry was dressed and ready for the road trip home. The nurse sent me off to fetch the car while she wheeled him out to the entrance in a wheelchair. We left the hospital just in time to catch a gorgeous sunset and all the rush hour traffic along I-435 that southern Johnson County is so famous for. We still made it home before dark but not before the sun set on the shortest day of the year (Winter Solstice 2011). He’s doing as well as can be expected this morning. His attempts to contact his surgeon (and doctor) about some medication concerns (and some swelling this morning) are frustrated by the Friday before Christmas Eve short-staffing epidemic.
Thanks to everyone for their prayers and thoughts for us doing this stressful time. We greatly appreciate it.
It occurred to me this morning that people receiving my Christmas cards this year may be wondering where exactly I’d hidden my annual Christmas letter in this blog. So I did some quick rearranging and reconfiguring of categories to make it easier to find all my posts related to the Holidays (especially Christmas and Thanksgiving).
As you can see, I’ve condensed my blog menu and added a section just for Holidays. Each menu heading contains at least two or three submenus for my most frequently used categories. Musings and Mutterings appear under the Home menu. Family and Rottweilers appear under the About heading. Any reviews I write and post here can be found under Reviews. And anytime I see something strange in the sky, you can be assured to find it under Astronomy.
All posts are full-text indexed soon after they are posted so please take advantage of the Search box at the top of the right-hand pane if you are looking for something in particular.
This concludes my public service announcement on navigating around my blog. I now return you to your regularly scheduled life.
Just one more day until the Winter Solstice and four more days until Christmas!
I read the book this movie was based on last year for Christmas. The author, Greg Kincaid, lives in Olathe, Kansas, just twenty or so miles south of my home via K-7. But for some reason, the movie was not re-aired last year (or I completely missed it in the avalanche of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies that start in late November and don’t stop until nearly New Year’s). This year, I caught the movie on my DVR when it aired on Saturday night. My husband and I spent a very pleasant Sunday evening with the McCrays and their on-again-off-again adoption of a dog named Christmas.
‘Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the house,
Not a Rottweiler was stirring, nor even a mouse
The stockings were packed in the basement with care,
Along with the tree and decorations to spare
This time last year, we were in Texas celebrating our son’s graduation from SMU. In fact, I mailed my Christmas cards out as soon as I returned from our second North Texas Thanksgiving and wrote my annual Moss Family Christmas letter very early in December 2010 (publishing it electronically via this blog). I sent out fewer cards this year and waited until now to finish writing this year’s letter. I also opted not to print and mail the letter. I’m sharing it here for family, friends, and anyone else who stops by.
Winter 2011
Ground Hog Day Shovel Fest
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. And boy did it ever! The first two months of this year dumped more snow, that I had to shovel without the assistance of my son (who fled south in 2009 to Texas to finish college and settle into a warmer climate). I spent most of Ground Hog day either shoveling the driveway or baking bread. At least I didn’t have to drive in it, since I had joined a vanpool in the Summer of 2010.
Rachelle visited us in January and grouted our entryway tile floor. Except for live streaming concerts broadcast by her college (UNT College of Music), I didn’t see her in person until Thanksgiving last month. She opted to endure more than one hundred days of one hundred degree heat in one of the driest and hottest Texas summers on record. But I’m jumping ahead.
Terry and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary at a flooded Table Rock Lake resort. No, we didn’t take in any shows in Branson. We did see evidence of flooding in the area, but nothing that interfered with our stay (since we didn’t plan to water ski or tour the lake by boat).
Summer 2011
We enjoyed surprise visits from my uncle Ron and son Derek and his wife Royna near the 4th of July weekend. We spent hours visiting and enjoying the cool air from my newly installed and updated central air unit (well, newly installed in December, but not tested until the heat arrived in June).
Home renovation began with the roof, followed by the driveway and then the fireplace. Our experience with the roofers left us euphoric, while the driveway contractor caused us ulcers. The first torrential rain waited weeks to arrive, and when it did, we still had a leak next to our fireplace. Every roofing contractor we had bid on our roof assured us the leak would be sealed by the new roof. Unfortunately, while the extra care taken by the roofers to seal around our fireplace did not fix the broken cap and mortar none of us had noticed. We found a highly recommend chimney repair contractor who replaced our cap, some firebrick and the mortar. We are happy to report that the recent rains (before and after Thanksgiving) did not result in any new fireplace leaks. We did discover our gutter draining into a basement window well, but we’ve solved that minor water mishap with some weaterproofing and gutter run-off upgrades.
We attended one of the largest SF conventions (the infamous Dragon*Con) in the country in Atlanta, Georgia (the last state of the lower 48 that I needed to visit). We won’t be returning to the venue, as the sheer number of people crowded into five huge hotels in downtown Atlanta blunted our enthusiasm for the events. I did get to meet three of my favorite artists: Don Maitz, Janny Wurts and Michael Whelan. We spent a pleasant evening with Don and Janny at a local steak restaurant.
A first for me (but probably not the last) attending a funeral on my birthday.
The Third Annual North Texas Thanksgiving gathered in Derek and Royna’s apartment in the Colony, Texas. A strange name for a community (or maybe not so strange) but a very nice place to live.
Advent 2011
December started with a ‘changing of the guard’ with respect to my vanpool. I became the sole driver. I managed to find three new willing riders, in addition to the remaining Hallmark rider. We finished our second full week together and we’re settling into a routine, just as we approach the holidays. I’m praying for good weather, not just because I’ll be the one that has to navigate the ice and snow, but also so my kids can travel safely home next week. Derek and Royna are driving up from North Texas on Christmas Eve and Rachelle is flying in on the Tuesday after Christmas.
While I’m looking forward to seeing Derek, Royna and Rachelle again, I’m also concerned about my husband’s health. As I mentioned last week in my request for prayers, something new has cropped up to dampen our festive moods. He did see a specialist last week and a biopsy is scheduled for three days before Christmas (so please keep those prayers flowing!).
No matter what the storms of life may bring, though, I will take time to ponder the wonder, the pure joy, of the greatest gift of love ever bestowed on such an unworthy world.
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given,
and the government shall be upon His shoulder;
and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. — Chorus, Handel’s Messiah
Hallmark Lobby Christmas Tree (with the Mayor's Christmas Tree in the background)
I drive a vanpool from Lansing to downtown, midtown and the Plaza areas of Kansas City, Missouri every weekday. My final stop, before heading to my own work place, is Crown Center, the ‘home’ of Hallmark Cards. As you can see from the slightly blurry cellphone photo I took this morning, the decorations at the world headquarters for Hallmark simply exude the Spirit of Christmas. I need this extra immersion for Christmas cheer to confront the gauntlet of bland and vaguely wintery decorations my building lobby sports. I left the house without my red and green ball Christmas tree ornaments, so I can’t ‘occupy’ the decorations today. And I have my uncle to thank for that ‘Occupy Christmas’ idea, thanks to a comment he posted to my post yesterday about the prevalence of unholiday decorations littering the lobby.
For the entire drive in this morning, I kept thinking of picket sign slogans I could hand paint for such an occupation, such as: “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” or “Put Christ Back in Christmas” or “The Cross (X) Marks the Spot” and so on. Rather than being the 99% we could be (and are) 100% loved by Him. I know I’ll be saying “MerryChristmas” rather than “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” for the next thirty or so days (until Epiphany anyways).
I’m also curious about the decorations in the lobby of your workplace buildings. Snap a photo with your cell phone and comment with the link to participate in this unofficial and informal survey of corporate expressions of Christmas (or unHoliday) cheer.
I returned to work today after a long Thanksgiving break. As I approached the elevators, I became concerned that a new form of fungus had usurped our sedate lobby ferns. Then I remembered. The building must have hired the same interior designer from last year’s decorations. I am tempted to scrounge through my Christmas decorations at home and bring in the largest brightest red and green balls to hang clandestinely among the bleak colorless concoction displayed above.
I’m getting depressed just looking at this picture. Ugh.
For my twenty-eight posting in my ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ blog series, I am extremely thankful for the Interstate Highway System championed by the only President hailing from Kansas (albeit as a transplant from Texas): Dwight D. Eisenhower. Thanks to his vision and backing, construction was authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and took 35 years to complete. The network has since been extended and as of 2006 it had a total length of 46,876 miles. About one-third of all miles driven in the country use the Interstate system (2003 figures). The cost of construction has been estimated at $425 billion (in 2006 dollars), making it the largest public works project in history (for more interesting facts and trivia about the Interstate Highway System, please click here).
Last Wednesday, my husband and I embarked on our third annual trip to North Texas via the Kansas Turnpike (consisting of I-70, I-470, I-335 and I-35), paying for the privilege to drive from one end of it to the other for just $10.75, continuing on through Oklahoma and about forty miles of Texas to reach Denton. Within just the past couple of months, Kansas raised the speed limit on all Interstates to 75 mph, which made the trip from Kansas City through Lawrence, Topeka, Emporia, the Flint Hills and Wichita, seem to fly by. Oklahoma, however, still maintains a 70 mph speed limit and thanks to the ‘no delay’ Dallas interchange (between I-35 and I-40) and all the attendant reduced speed zones through the Oklahoma City metropolitan area makes the trip south seem to drag on forever. Terry slept through the second half of Oklahoma and I listened to music via my Nook Color. I had to switch from Heart‘s Greatest Hits (which started to put me to sleep) to Iron Maiden‘s Powerslave (nearly all the songs on this album race along at tempos that rival the Trooper). I managed to stay awake and arrived in Denton just as the sun was setting.
For the rest of the weekend, we visited Rachelle, Nic, Derek and Royna, enjoying a fabulous smoked turkey and ham with the usual Thanksgiving fixings. I made two batches of sticky buns, which didn’t survive more than an hour or so once they came out of the oven.
We avoided any of the early bird Black Friday sales, but attended the special Black Friday show at the Abbey Underground. Saturday we spent more time visiting and watching movies, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Tower Heist and Super 8. We had some dysfunctional family comedy at the movie theater Saturday evening and drama early Sunday morning, but nothing that we couldn’t overcome and laugh about. Sunday we did some more shopping and then spent the evening reliving my childhood by trying to tune in television stations with an indoor antenna.
Yesterday, Terry and I were up early to hit the road north, since we had a pickup time at the kennel of six o’clock to retrieve Roxy and Apollo. We left Denton at 6:55 and pulled into the driveway in Lansing at 3:25 p.m.
We experienced an uneventful drive for the most part, except for an incident involving an Oklahoma State Trooper. He pulled me over, not because I was speeding, but claiming I had crossed over the white line (the one between the right lane and the right shoulder) several times and was concerned that I was suffering from fatigue from driving too long (I’d only been on the road a couple of hours by then so no, I wasn’t tired, nor do I believe I was weaving erratically around the highway). He asked for my driver’s license but not my registration or insurance. He also asked for my husband’s driver’s license, which always makes Terry angry, but he restrained himself from sarcastic outbursts. Essentially, the only reason this trooper pulled us over is (most likely) that we had out-of-state tags and he was fishing for illegal drugs (good luck with that) or outstanding warrants (ditto on that one). I need to poll my attorney friends and determine if when pulled over, an officer can ask for passenger identification without stating a reason. Otherwise, it might be harassment or just a way to extend the length of the stop. The officer did not ticket me, but gave me some kind of warning (not really a warning, just a record of our contact) for me to sign. I signed (since I didn’t feel like making a scene) and proceeded north, finally and thankfully reaching the Kansas border at noon.
Despite the prevalence of State Troopers in Texas and Oklahoma (I only saw one Kansas State Trooper just south of Topeka), we made record time. I purposely prefer to make the return trip on a Monday because traffic after the Thanksgiving weekend is horrendous on Sundays, but non-existent on Mondays. I attribute the ease of our travel to the exceptional highway system we enjoy in the United States. I’ve ridden or driven quite a few of the Interstates and someday I need to figure up which ones and how many miles. With a nod to Eisenhower, I’ve visited his home town of Abilene, Kansas several times (and driven through it more times than I can count while traversing Kansas via I-70 east or west) and been through his birthplace of Denison, Texas via US-75 and US-69. Roads and facilities are named for him in my unofficial home town of Leavenworth, Kansas, probably because he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. I’m just grateful that Eisenhower brought back something good from WWII Germany:
Eisenhower gained an appreciation of the German Autobahn network as a necessary component of a national defense system while he was serving as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II.[6] He recognized that the proposed system would also provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion.
