Comfort Food

I've been thinking about comfort food today.

For lunch I had hash browns: I fry them up in some butter; while they're frying I beat a couple of eggs with some spices (salt, pepper, whatever sounds good) and then mix them into the hash browns fast (it has to be mixed before the eggs start to cook). Sprinkle on some cheese, turn down the heat, cover, and let sit until the eggs are cooked and the cheese is melted. Technically I think it's a side dish, but it works nicely as lunch. Yeah it doesn't sound like much, but Mum used to make them for us and they are my number one comfort food.

Then there's Kraft Dinner. The real stuff, with the bright orange cheese, in the blue box. Yes, I should have outgrown it by now but....when I was in Taiwan and missing home I learned about the American Box Store with food imported from the states. I was homesick enough to pay $4.00 for a box of KD. And it was worth it.

Finally, on my list is Campbells Tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. During that same time in Taiwan my baby sister, bless her, mailed me 2 cans of soup. It was pure happiness.

Those are my main comfort foods, the ones I want when life is too big or I'm too far from home or, on a day like today, when I'm relaxing and happy and avoiding the big, cold outside world.

So....'fess up. What are your comfort foods?

A Request for Next Christmas...

Someone please tell Keona (my 6 year old niece) that Auntie Dorothy does not need Hannah Montana cookies. Auntie Dorothy does appreciate the thought, but the cookies are rather bland (although they do have pretty pink sprinkles). Next year Auntie Dorothy needs chocolate cookies instead.

Thank you.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was interesting. Usually on Christmas morning there are other people; this year it was just me. There have been other years that I've been alone Christmas morning (although not many) but this one was different. Usually they either don't really feel like Christmas or I am lonely and wishing I was elsewhere. This year it felt like Christmas and I enjoyed it.

Christmas Eve I read from Isaiah 9 and John 1: promises of the coming Messiah and the Word becoming flesh. It is amazing, both that Isaiah was talking about Him hundreds of years before His birth and that He came.

Christmas morning I woke up slowly. I read from Matthew 1 and 2 and Luke 2 of the coming of the Messiah. There was time to stop and reflect and pray.

Eventually I did open presents, but slowly, taking time to enjoy everything and to think about the presents and the people who sent them. There was no reason to hurry, so I didn't. It may be the most relaxed I've ever been.

Now, eventually I did spend time with other people. I headed off to Pastor Lyle and Joan's in the afternoon. It wasn't so quiet then! When their son and his family arrived it took only a moment for the smallest (she's 3) to take her place on my lap so she could look at pictures with me. There were games and dinner and a lot of laughter. And that was just as much fun as the morning had been.

It was a very nice Christmas. And it came without the post-holiday let down. Yes, the presents are open and the food is eaten and it's technically over. But it isn't really, is it? Because the Word became flesh and unto us a child was born and that hasn't changed.

Merry Christmas

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
~John 1:14

For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
~Luke 2:11

Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.
~Luke 2:14

Light at Christmas

The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
~Isaiah 9:2

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkenss did not comprehend [overcome] it.
~John 1:1-5

Then Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."
~John 8:12

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
~1 John 1:5-7

A sign that you live too far north...

When the weather man says "right now it's -14" and you think "oh, good, it warmed up."

Getting Books

Today I had 2 parcel notices in the mail so I went off in the snow and chill to get them. I would have waited but the temperature is due to drop sharply so I thought I'd better go right away. The first parcel was from my mum and dad: Christmas presents. It's tucked away where I won't be tempted to open it just yet! The other parcel was a box of books I had ordered from Reformation Heritage books. They are beautiful books, but that's about all I can say since most of them are Christmas presents. Although I also got John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress Part Three which I did not know existed for myself. Anyway, it's not the books I'm writing about; it's the packing.

The box was larger than I expected, but I figured it was all paper and packing material or it would have been much bigger. When I opened it, I found that about a third of it was full of paper and cardboard and whatever it took to fill it up. The rest was taken up by another box, fully sealed and labelled...why they needed the bigger box is a mystery to me. I got the smaller box open to find that it was half full of packing peanuts. Then I got to the books...almost. They were wrapped carefully in bubble wrap and a thin sheet of foam wrapping. After that I got to two of the books (wrapped in plastic) and a brown paper package. In the package were the other two books, also wrapped in the thin sheet of foam wrapping.

Nothing was going to hurt these books!

The Three Musketeers

I finally finished this book; it took three weeks. It is really, really, really good! It's well-written, interesting, and ends well. I was fully prepared to dislike it (although I'm not sure why; probably because it's long, classic literature). I was surprised by how completely I enjoyed it.

As a side note: the character of Milady is the evilest character ever written. Seriously, the movie does not do her justice; she is EVIL. She is so bad that the elder (the one who told me to read it) said that his brother threw the book across the room during one of her scenes.

Go read The Three Musketeers. Trust me on this one.

If Anyone's Looking for Me....

I'm at work. I'm busy dealing with parents and students and teachers and bosses and numbers and papers and reports and programs and stuff.

I am also busy wondering why I went back to that job and if I will ever get things under control and fixed up and when I will find a new teacher to hire.

I'll be fine....eventually....when Christmas comes and I can stop.