The day after the big dog snow

We wound up with a solid foot of snow in the middle of the yard.

Church for tomorrow 12/20 is cancelled. Also, no choir party tomorrow night.

The wagon is cleared to the street, but we haven't been plowed yet.

The snow is melting a little bit, but something more is supposed to fall tonight.

Menu for a snowy weekend: biscuits and gravy; tortilla pizzas; artichoke spread; potato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches; pancakes and bacon. And that's as far as we are right now.

The walkway is cleared; part of the deck is cleared. The picture below is before I started on the front entryway.

Libby's in the kitchen; pray for us.

Some friends have lost power already; pray for Andy.

More pictures here.

Big dog snow

We haven't had much in the way of snow since we arrived. That changed today. It started snowing before sunrise and went for 4 hours or so. It switched to sleet mid-morning, but by lunchtime was back to snow. Briggs and I made a trip out to see what was going on at church (nothing); buy a couple of food items (popcorn, snack mix and milk), and get kerosene (the fire department responded to a motorist in distress while we were there). And it's been pretty steady ever since. We've got about 3" around the house. Ray's Weather is predicting near 12" for Black Mountain and straight north of here to Burnsville.

It was pretty weird: this morning we had a robo-call from the county school system telling us schools were closed for the day. It was not snowing then. Twenty minutes later it did start snowing. It was like a scene from The Truman Show. I'll get pictures later.

There is all grade of fretting over church activities: our big music is this Sunday for both services. Not sure what we'll wind up doing yet. Kind of depends on how much snow we actually get overnight. We also have our choir party on Sunday evening. That will be up in the air until decisions are made about church services.

Our street got plowed early this morning, but it's covered over again. Not sure if or when we'll see the plows again!

Not your father's Christmas Pageant

From Highland Park PCUSA, just last Sunday. Enjoy.





I'm not sure the track is the best choice (there are plenty of great danceable songs more on point), but I get it. The only thing my co-workers say when I suggest doing something like this is, "yeah, right." Hmmm.

Random December

A couple of shots from the past week or so...

Halloween

Calvin spiked a fever yesterday and so he's at home for a 24-hour quarantine from daycare. So I have a few minutes to catch up. Hence Halloween in December. We did the usual town thing, despite the drizzle. It's a miracle none of us got sick. Nick M. joined us while his parents were away. Continuing the tradition, Calvin was a red-hot-chili-pepper this year. Briggs and I re-discovered a junior-sized Dracula cape earlier in the season, so he wanted to be a vampire. He even enjoyed the whole make-up thing. Eli, because we would not let him solicit candy unless he were wearing some sort of costume, was a garbage bag that had been "gotten" by a black bear. The sign says, "Bear-1, Trash bag-0." Nick was the elf from the Tolkien Ring Trilogy.

Dinner theater

We had a Christmas dinner theater at church last week. The play was "In Bethlehem Inn" by John Carter, a drama I have mounted several times, in two previous churches. It all went great. Late last week I asked Briggs if he wanted to be a shepherd in the outside nativity scene. He said, "Sure," with his usual nonchalance. We got him a costume, and when we learned that we had not only a donkey, but it's yearling offspring, we made plans to let Briggs be the baby donkey's minder. He did great. This was on top of his debut as a percussionist at early church that same morning. He played triangle on the Taize "Prepare the way of the Lord." I taught him a down-and-dirty" short-short-long pattern, and had him join the band on the fifth layered iteration. He did a great job. All-in-all a busy day for Briggs, and an awesome outing for him.

Joke of the Day

How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb?


A committee of 7 to stew about the need to change the bulbs and fret about the expense (for 7 months), a motorized $300 a day lift to hoist the hired contractor into place to do the work (plus his paid assistant on the ground), 4 people (including Briggs) to move the pew cushions and drape the pews with plastic to keep dust off them, one person to dust the ceiling rafters since we're already in there making a mess anyway, and two willing brutes (including the Chief of Police for the Town of Montreat) from the committee hanging around to do anything else needed on the ground, and one organist to take pictures of the whole event.


Seriously.

Happy Holidays and Merry Xmas

Get over it. Even if non-Christians think they are neutralizing Christmas by using generic terms like "holiday" and "Xmas" it can't really be done. Sure, part of the rationale is to try to create a term that is all-inclusive of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Well, okay, but adding those two celebrations to the mix certainly isn't going to diminish Christian holidays this month. Substituting "holiday" for Christmas isn't going to make that happen. Saying "holiday" only widens the door as it were, for inclusion of a myriad of Christian celebrations and commemorations. At least for me.

What is the derivation of "holiday?" You knew it already: "holy-day." So if you wish me "happy holidays," I hear a good wish for the whole slate of special days during December (here are a few):

December 4: John of Damascus, writer of the hymn texts "Come, ye faithful, raise the strain" and "The day of resurrection"

December 6: St. Nicholas of Myra, the original St. Nick, Saint Claus, or, yeah, Santa Claus, known for his compassion and generosity

December 21: St. Thomas the Apostle, the doubter who turned to belief upon touching the risen Lord

December 25: The Nativity of the Lord

December 26: St. Stephen, the first martyr for the faith

December 27: St. John the Apostle, or variously St. John the Evangelist, or St. John of Patmos (writer of the Revelation of St. John)

December 28: Holy Innocents, for the children slaughtered by King Herod because of his fear surrounding the birth of a new King Jesus

December 30: The Holy Family, commemorating the flight of Joseph, Mary and Jesus to Egypt

January 1: Mary the Mother of Jesus

January 6: Epiphany, Twelfth Night, commemorating the arrival of the Magi to honor the new-born Savior

First Sunday after Epiphany: Baptism of the Lord

to mark Jesus' baptism by John the Baptizer

So if you wish me "happy holidays," thank you. Whatever you may intend, I call to mind these people and events of faith and the days on which we commemorate them this time of year. Whatever you think you're getting away with, this is what comes to my mind. If I happen to hear this good wish on one of the dates listed above, I try to mention that fact to my well-wisher when I can.

And as for "Merry Xmas." You can't take Christ out of Christmas period, let along by using a letter X. Get over it. X is the letter "chi" in Greek, which is the first letter in the name Χριστός which is Christ in Greek. This has for centuries a symbol for Christ our Lord. Don't even think that by using this anyone is taking "Christ out of Christmas." You can't do it with an X. And you pastors who know better, but who rail on with an ignorant general public, or who don't bother to set things straight for the folk entrusted to your care: shame on you for taking the easy way out. Grow a backbone and set your folks straight. In fact an X drawn casually in the sand was a secret way people of faith have signaled their believes to others in times of persecution (especially in the history of the early church). Now it's a secret way for us modern-day people of faith to convey Christ to a public that thinks it's merely creating an abbreviation, or taking

Christ out of Christmas. It can't be done. In reality they are putting our Lord Christ more forcefully in the minds of people who see this symbol. X marks the spot, people! It just needs to be explained to a world that honestly needs to hear more about Jesus the Christ. Get over it, and get with it.

So go ahead, wish me "happy holidays" and "Merry Xmas." I'll take them all, and thereby be reminded of my baptismal vow to go into all the world and convey the love of Jesus to a hungry, thirsty and weary world.

Another Artist

Maia C. drew this picture of our church organ recently. It appeared one day on my office door. I had to share it! I especially like the "smokin' sounds" that our organ produces!

Thanks, Maia! This is awesome!

You can click on the image to get a larger view.

Lee Child

I know: it's like 6 or 7 novels. I have enjoyed the Jack Reacher series. I haven't gotten tired of the pattern yet. But in the most recent one I did find myself being tempted to skip the parts I knew intuitively. I want to figure out the timeline of publication and see which ones I've missed. The ancillary novel library at church has given me a new addiction!

I knew I wouldn't have to go far: here is a nice wiki article on the main character.