still more traditions...

There are still more things to write about; though with last minute "everything" before leaving for Portland tomorrow, it is easy to forget the meaningful memories of this joyous season.  One such tradition, that I took a few moments out of my morning to do, is the rhyming Christmas card.  The poem has been a tradition my mom started before I could even speak - I think.  As Advent gets busier and busier for Mom, the card is often finished and/or mailed during one of the twelve days of Christmas.  I thought this year I would do her a favor and send her my lines instead of ideas for my lines.  Then Auggie e-mailed me his ideas, and I sent her his lines.  Then this morning I saw that Miki, Dad, and Nick sent me their ideas.  So I sat and typed up a few lines to help Mom out.  I have no intentions of taking over the tradition, but it is a lot of fun, and I always love a challenge.  peace and blessings...tori

time for bed

Time to go to bed!  What a fun day I had!  As a treat to myself, and to make up for some long hours of grant work, I gave myself the day off....TO BABYSIT EZRA!!!  What a fun little man he is!  I will try to upload a couple of the many pictures I took.  At six months old, he is a real charmer.  We played in the mirror, ate applesauce, played in the saucer, chewed on blocks, had a diaper change and outfit change (because of slobber, not the diaper), practiced standing, talked on the play cellphone, and so much more.  It was a real treat, and I am glad I could do it.  After dinner with Mary and Mary Pat, I am ready to crash.  peace

the reason for the season

Yes, there are all sorts of reasons people now find to celebrate Christmas...gift-giving, house decorating, cookie and candy making, etc.  Growing up in a Catholic family, the holiday always comes back to the expecting parents traveling by donkey and becoming a holy family.  Family is what it is all about, and mine is no exception.   My mom has consecutively celebrated Christmas with her family in Portland all the years of her life (a good daughter knows not to give away her mother's age).  Last year was the first without Grandpa, but the tradition lives on.  In my thirty-one years, I have spent all my Christmases in Portland with my family (and Mom's side of the family), too.  In fact, not a one of my siblings has missed either.  It is a real treasure to gather and celebrate together.  Granted, none of us are married and have in-laws who fight over us, though a few of us are celebrating with multiple families this year.  So come Christmas my parents will be beaming at the four Ford children sitting around the tree.  I can say for myself what a blessing it is, what a tremendous blessing it is to be so close to my family.  peace -

kris kringling...

Most are familiar with "secret Santa" gift exchanges among offices, classes, and clubs.  Kris Kringling is where it all began.  Growing up our parish had a a couple Kris Kringling opportunities: family to family and family to "shut-in".  I remember doing the "ding-dong dash" after leaving a package on the steps of a house and hoping nobody was looking out the window.  The exchanges happened all Advent long, and in the week before Christmas, our family would ring the doorbell and not run away or just sign our name.  Meanwhile, another family would be ringing our doorbell, too.  When we dropped goodies at the home of a shut-in, you didn't run as great a risk of (w) being recognized or (2) having an old lady mobile enough to catch you.  It was always great fun!   I suppose this really evolved from St. Nicholas, the wonderful bishop who tossed the bags of gold coins secretly to the poor father who lacked the money to marry off his daughters.  Mom still sends out packages of goodies for December 6th, the feast of St. Nicholas.  As kids we set out shoes outside our door before we went to bed.  When we woke up, our shoes would be full of nuts, chocolate coins, a tangerine or two, and often a pair of pajamas or slippers.  In college I remember having to go buy a nutcracker for the box of nuts I received (who can imagine needing to pack a nutcracker when you move into the dorms?).  How fun!!

my Christmas trees

The norfolk pine was actually the Christmas tree last year or maybe a few years ago.  It is a bit of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree....

my nativity scene

I got a little carried away Monday night tidying and decorating.  After putting up my nativity scene, I hung five stockings at the fire place.  I sewed them for the five us in the Columbine House, so it looks a little silly having all five in my one bedroom apartment.  I also hung my ornaments in the ficus and norfolk pine trees on my table.  It was a lot of fun pulling them all out.  I also hung some metal bells my dad was pitching last Christmas.  They are on my back interior door - a sort of Christmas security system, if you will.

a plate full!

Another favorite tradition, that would have been taking place right about now - years and years ago, is the "Merry Christmas" plate.  The Dorsey family would come over, and together the six of us kids would paint a ceramic plate for our teachers.  Once fired, it would be filled with pumpkin bread, chocolate peanut cluster, sugar cookies, spritz cookies, and any number of homemade treats.  The Dorsey kids could paint whatever they wanted, and we all painted the same thing.  We also painted a plate for Grandma Dieringer and a plate for Grandma Schaller, who said it was a waste because they always broke in the mail.  It was a fun tradition, and my mom and dad have quite a collection of them.  Many years I was honored to draw the design, including the manger scene with a holstein cow.  Likely, right?  It was a fun tradition that I revived last year at the Dorsey-Ford pre-Christmas breakfast.  I brought paper plates and coloring crayons.  It was a lot of fun.  Kelly's husband Seth took the prize with his creation; however, his breakfast got cold.  All in all we had a lot of fun!  Ahhhh...the memories!  peace and love...

the snow!!!

I think this is technically the second snow!  It was a good three inches or more piled up behind my apartment when I tried to drag the compost and recycle bins back from the alley this morning!  No snow day, but I did get to work late since I carpooled.  love and all!

the helmet pic

Finally the picture of the helmet - not worn as of this snowy day!!

A new scene

There is a new scene on my mantle.  Among the plants are a couple sheep, shepherds, musicians, an angel, and Mary & Joseph.  I received my first nativity set years ago, but for some reason never brought it to Denver.  So I pulled it out of the closet in September and forgot it.  But it arrived today in a package from my dad with a book he wants me to read.    The Advent wreath being the first tradition I mentioned, today it is the Nativity scene.  Usually when we began pulling Christmas decor out of the storage room, there was a special collection of boxes marked "fragile".  Inside was an old set of figurines that were chipped and glued back together: Mary, Joseph, a donkey and cow, sheep and shepherd, and an angel.  The three wise men and camel came out later.  There was also a mouse that sat in the manger scene, just like in the children's book.    By the time I was in high school, our old nativity pieces had been relegated to the Sunday School prayer service.  We started collecting a new Fontanini set.  Mary, Joesph, and the animals have been joined year after year with a few more pieces.  It went from sitting on two coffee tables to filling the top of the piano.  We would usually collect mosses and greens when we collected greens for the Advent wreath.  We would lay garbage bags and then cover them with the mosses, greens, and pine cones, you know - just in case Bethlehem looked like the Cascade Mountains or Pacific Northwest.  "/   Of course, Baby Jesus doesn't arrive until after we Ford kids went to bed on Christmas Eve.  And the three wise men and their camels and guide don't show up on the scene until January 6th, Epiphany.   peace and blessings...

Advent at last!

A week ago a cold was rooting itself in my head.  I was three days away from turning in my grant.  And not least of all, Christians celebrated the "New Year" with the first Sunday of Advent.  Fr. Don likes to say that we are not actually preparing for the a baby to be born, but we are preparing our hearts and ourselves to receive God anew.  God wants to pour God's entireness and love into our beings, so we can be Christ to each other.  But sometimes we are too full of ourselves to make much room.  I'm terribly summarizing his great homilies of the last two weeks, but I just wish everyone could hear him.  If only we worried about living our faith as much as we worry about how much we spend on gifts and if people will like what we got for them.  Goodness!  And the truth is that I still worry about that other stuff.  We all take time to be how we want to live.   But I'm drawn to this season of waiting because of the rich traditions my family shared.  So I am going to try to post as many of them as I can remember:   I miss the Advent wreath.  I still remember the prayers we would say for the different weeks (though not terribly well).  We made placemats with the little candle shaped cutouts with each week's prayer typed up.  Mom laminated them at the advent fair, and we would pull them out in December.  There was also the ring of different prayer cards, too.  Mostly it sat on our dinner table, which was when we took turns sitting by the window, so we could light or blow out the candles.  Dad loved to make the wreath larger and more beautiful each year until it took up a whole place at the table.  When we were little, the wreath was in the living room, and Nicholas singed his eyebrows or arm hair - maybe something caught on fire?  Last year I was climbing Mt Piltriquitron in Patagonia, and at the "refugio" where we stopped to snack and have a beer on our way back down, Peggy pulled out a birthday candle to light for the first week of Advent.  Ahh...the first sign of advent are the candles and the wreath!   peace and blessings...