Cranberry Morning: November 2014

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Bach, Carolers, and Craisins

Procession of Light

First Sunday of Advent

2014

This is the closest I'm going to get to St. Paul's Cathedral for the First Sunday of Advent this year (which is tomorrow, by the way). If you have an opportunity to visit St. Paul's, to see and hear the Procession of Light, it is a very wonderful and moving service, both in the visual and in the music. I love it.

I tried to find a YouTube clip online, but evidently St. Paul's is being stingy with their videos, so you'll have to make do with the beautiful music of Bach's Choral Prelude, 'Wachet Auf' (I have no idea how to pronounce that, and I can only remember the title by calling it 'Wash it off.) Anyway, it is one of my favorite pieces of music. Watching someone play it in person, as we have, is spectacular. The organist plays with both hands and both feet. It's even more challenging than patting one's head and rubbing one's belly at the same time.

So, for your listening and viewing enjoyment:

My little carolers had belonged to my mom, and I think they must be from the 1950s. The bowl is actually an old light fixture I found in the basement this afternoon, put some tealights in it, and surrounded them with fresh cranberries. It looks quite pretty. I've no idea whether in the morning the cranberries will have turned to 'Craisins' or will have become soft and squishy. But for now, they are quite cheery.

Have a blessed Lord's Day!

For beautiful music and everything else that is good in life,

Soli Deo Gloria!

Although I usually forget to do it, there is a chance that this post will be linked to one or more of these great linky parties: Amaze Me Monday and Inspiration Monday and Mosaic Monday and The Barn Collective and Treasure Box Tuesday and Vintage Bliss Tuesday and KatheWithAnE and Rubbish Tuesday and Our World Tuesday and Tuesdays at our Home and Tuesday with a Twist and Knick of Time Tuesday (vintage) and Tweak it Tuesday and Vintage Inspiration Wednesday and Ivy and Elephants Wednesday and Adorned From Above and Artsy Corner Thursday and All Things With Purpose and Home & Garden Thursday and Good Fences on Thursdays and Time Travel Thursday and Freedom Fridays and Vintage Inspiration Friday and Saturday's Critters

Friday, November 28, 2014

New England Clam Chowder Recipe

We will be celebrating the First Sunday of Advent on November 30. Some friends will gather with us at our home, have a small Advent service and eat a meal together. Everyone will most likely bring some dish to share, and I am planning on making my favorite recipe for New England Clam Chowder. (In case you missed it last week, you can find a list of my favorite Advent resources HERE.)

In the weeks to follow, I'll be posting a few of my favorite Christmas recipes. These will be repeats for those of you who have read this blog for a while, but I tend to ~~get in a rut~~ enjoy traditional recipes. This recipe for New England Clam Chowder has been a tradition in our family for many years. Now that our family includes more people, however, not all of whom grew up eating clam chowder on Christmas Eve as our own children did, we'll probably have something else for dinner at that time. I understand that not everyone is a fan of clam chowder.

My mom's Christmas dishes

New England Clam Chowder Recipe, my version:

10 slices of hickory-smoked bacon, fried crisp, broken into tiny pieces

Hormel® Natural Choice® ham can be substituted for the bacon. It has no preservatives and is 100 percent natural with no artificial colors or flavors, and no added nitrites or nitrates.

4 small potatoes, skin on, diced
3 small carrots, diced

4 ribs of celery, minced
1 med. onion, minced
1 Carmen red pepper or red bell pepper (sweet), diced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced

3-4 cans of clams. Do not drain. If minced, use as is. If chopt, run through food processor first. This is simply a preference. I don't like big, rubbery hunks of clam. Ew!!!Also, I prefer Gorton's brand.

2 quarts of whole milk
3/4 c. flour

1 bay leaf, broken in pieces
1-2 t. thyme (I used 2 t.)
black pepper
sea salt to taste

Open 3-4 cans of clams, pour all (incl. juice) into saucepan. Add potatoes and carrots and cook til they are just tender, not mushy.

In a skillet, saute celery, onion, peppers in a couple T. butter until tender.

In a separate bowl, whisk flour into a couple cups of the milk. Add remaining milk little by little, whisking as you add so there are no lumps.

Pour all (including the liquid from the potato/carrots/clams) into my large Martha Stewart stainless steel pot which doesn't let anything stick on the bottom. Heat on Low, stirring. Add seasonings.

Bring to near boil, but DON'T BOIL. At this point, you can then cool the chowder and keep refrigerated overnight OR (if you're going to eat in a couple hours,) let sit covered, then bring back to temperature and serve.

A great accompaniment to my clam chowder: popovers (an old post, but the recipe is still good).

Misty, Christmas 2003

I'm thinking that today might be a good time to get the Christmas tree that will go on the front porch. I like to get a tall balsam. Maybe we'll get another very small, tabletop tree to put in the house. Do you get a large tree? small tree? When do you put up your Christmas tree? What kind of tree do you prefer? Did you eat too much Thanksgiving dinner yesterday?

Front Porch Christmas Tree, December 2013

***

Check out my handcrafted, vegan soaps

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

Christmas Soaps

Natural, Vegan, Handcrafted

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop

lthough I usually forget to do it, there is a chance that this post will be linked to one or more of these great linky parties: Amaze Me Monday and Inspiration Monday and Mosaic Monday and The Barn Collective and Treasure Box Tuesday and Vintage Bliss Tuesday and KatheWithAnE and Rubbish Tuesday and Our World Tuesday and Tuesdays at our Home and Tuesday with a Twist and Knick of Time Tuesday (vintage) and Tweak it Tuesday and Vintage Inspiration Wednesday and Ivy and Elephants Wednesday and Adorned From Above and Artsy Corner Thursday and All Things With Purpose and Home & Garden Thursday and Good Fences on Thursdays and Time Travel Thursday and Freedom Fridays and Vintage Inspiration Friday and Saturday's Critters

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Thanksgiving Eve

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

He's thankful that his mommy is nearby.

I am thankful that this little guy is so easy going!

He's thankful for his first taste of popcorn.

(Recent test by the allergist showed that he's not allergic to corn.)

Sitting on the living room floor, watching Despicable Me.

'Just like people in a movie theater do, Mom!'

(Made me cry.)

I am thankful for every new thing that child can enjoy.

(and no, he's not going to be eating all of that.)

I'm thankful for all our grandchildren.

I'm thankful for their parents.

I'm thankful that I'm the grandparent.

Praise God, from whom

all blessings flow!

We will be traveling to our daughter's home, a couple hours away, to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. I hope all my fellow US bloggers will have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope my other blogger friends will eat a piece of turkey and think of us (in a good way) ;-).

Comments are closed this evening.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Evening and Morning at the Bird Feeders

Juncos at the Bird Feeder

See the little fella perched on top?

What? A lamp in the bird feeder? I took this photo about 4 PM. Check the photo below to see 'the rest of the story.'

I loved how the sinking sun threw light onto the glass of the bird feeder, and of course I had to grab my camera. Late afternoon light is fleeting, and a few seconds makes all the difference.

Finches, Junco, and Chickadee

They're eating what the others kick from the feeder.

You two can actually eat together?

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess.

Bluejay and Cardinal

Red-bellied Woodpecker

The four preceding photos were taken early morning.

Do you feed the birds? It's not exactly cheap, but our first real snow arrived November 10. Where else would the birds find food with all this snow cover? Birds are such beautiful creatures. I'm so thankful that our loving and generous God gave us birds to enjoy. I'm also thankful that my husband has never called bird seed 'shredded money, ' as he has nicknamed the dog food. Grrrr.

***

Check out my handcrafted, vegan soaps!

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

Mandarin Orange Spice

Olde Thyme Christmas

Figgy Pudding

Christmas Soaps

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop

Monday, November 24, 2014

Vintage Farmall and Standing Corn

Golden corn in the late afternoon light

Does she smell deer in that cornfield?

Ready to go indoors
where there's a good fire going in the living room
(Yes, Calvin, in the stove!)

Keeping the house warm

I am thankful for sunshine, south-facing windows, and fire.

***

Check out my handcrafted, vegan soaps!

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

Vanilla Bean & Cocoa

Christmas Soaps

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Celebrating Advent, Books for Advent

Some Advent/Christmas resources for children

Mary's First Christmas

Song of the Stars (All Creation Has Been Waiting)

A Christmas Story

Good News of Great Joy

Papa Panov's Special Day (Tolstoy's 'Where Love Is, God Is')

Room for a Little One (especially for very little children)

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (read it to middle schoolers)

The first Sunday of Advent is a week from today, on November 30. For the next four Sundays and then Christmas Eve, we will ponder the prophecy of a promised Redeemer and fulfillment of that prophecy in God coming to rescue His people.

^"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

Why celebrate Advent? Taking the time to sit down with the family and read the Scriptures in the weeks preceding Christmas keeps us focused on what exactly it is that we are celebrating. As Christians, we could complain that consumerism has hijacked Christmas and have nothing whatsoever to do with it, but why would we not want to contemplate the Creator and Savior of the world who loved us enough to become one of us, to save us? Why would we not want to be reminded, once again, of the message of the prophets and the fulfillment found in Jesus? He is our Light, our Hope, our only Savior.

My new favorite this year:

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift

A Book for Families by Ann Voskamp

The Jesse Tree, December 1 - 25 readings about the lineage of Jesus.

Not only a wonderful book for Advent, but beautiful artwork and printed on quality paper.
(If you're like me, you notice that kind of stuff.)

From the Preface:

'If we want our Christmas tree to really stand wondrous and full of meaning, the tree we really need to understand and be astonished by is the family tree of Jesus Christ. Because this is our story - your story.

God doesn't cut off all the big cheaters, bad liars, weaselly sneakers, battling brothers, fighting families, and brokenhearted from His family tree - He makes families just like these perfectly His! He adopts all the messy and broken and imperfect people into His tree and His story and His heart, and He gives us His family name. He gives us His absolutely perfectness and makes us alive and fully free.'

A few more resources for Advent

which I've used over the years

Come Thou, Long Expected Jesus by Nancy Guthrie and R. Kent Hughes

God Rest Ye Merry by Douglas Wilson

Family Celebrations for Christmas by Ann Hibbard

Christ in Christmas - A Family Advent Celebration by various authors

Along with those pictured above, I also have, on my Kindle, G.K. Chesterton's Advent and Christmas Wisdom and Dietrich Bonhoffer's God is in the Manger, Reflections on Advent and Christmas.

"There is a place in one of Martin Luther's Nativity sermons where he asks something like, 'Do you know what a stable smells like? Do you know what that family would have smelled like after the birth when they went out into the city? And if they were standing next to you, how would you have felt about them and regarded them?' He is saying, 'I want you to see Christ in the neighbor you tend to despise, in the political party you despise, in the race you despise, in the class of people you despise.

'Christmas is the end of thinking you are better than someone else because Christmas is telling you that you could never get to heaven on your own. God had to come to you..." - T. Keller, from Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Check out a prior blog post about making an Advent wreath
and celebrating Advent.

Why did I post this a week early? Just as a reminder to gather your resources, and so that I could share some of my favorites, with which you may not be familiar. I encourage you to celebrate Advent. It will transform your Christmas season and perhaps even transform your life.

I am thankful for excellent Christian writers who help me better celebrate Advent.

Have a blessed Lord's Day!

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Wisconsin Barns and The Neighborhood

Our barn.

Check out the far right corner of the photo. That's what's zoomed in on above. Our poor barn needs a new roof. But, the house roof had to come first, and that was accomplished this fall. Maybe we could've done something to repair the barn if the big snow hadn't come so early in the season.

Barn Roof, zoomed in

The photo above is from this little block barn, which is probably actually a pump house.

And because of the great Wisconsin gun deer hunt,

which opens today...

Wouldn't you love to have lunch here.

But when you think about it, I guess it's no worse than

The King's Arms

The Queen's Head
Which both sound pretty gruesome to me.

Vintage Coke Machine

Buck Snort Bar and Grill and the Coke machine are found in Colfax, WI

***

Check out all my handcrafted, vegan soaps!

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

'Cranberry Tea'

Christmas Soaps

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Good Fences - Reminiscing - Harper's Ferry, WV

RR bridge and foot bridge

Can you see the steeple of the church at far left of the photo?

You might think that what I love best about Harper's Ferry, WV is the gorgeous landscape, where three states meet (Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia). It's true, I do love it, along with the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, but I also love

the bridges, tunnels, and trains.*

My dog Bridger (R.I.P.) was actually named after the bridge at Harper's Ferry. When Mr. C. complained that 'you can't name a dog after a bridge,' I suggested the name 'Trainer.' Nothing more was said.

Old Bridge Pilings

Where the Shenandoah River flows in to meet the Potomac

And now for something completely different...

* There are actually many reasons I love Harper's Ferry, WV. Civil War history, natural beauty, good bookstore, gorgeous views from atop Maryland Heights, the rivers, along with the bridges, trains, and tunnels.

Linking to Theresa's

GOOD FENCES

***

Check out my handcrafted, vegan soaps!

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

Olde Thyme Christmas

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop