Merry Christmas!

This holiday was much harder than last year. I was glad I only worked half a day on Friday. Payroll kept me busy until noon, but otherwise I was having a really hard time and was glad to leave at noon and keep my sadness to myself.

Last night I went to a Christmas service at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. I am not Catholic and have no desire to be, but I wanted to sit in the middle of the spirit of Christmas. I had to make myself go. I thought going by myself might make me feel worse. They started with "O Come All Ye Faithful" and I started crying. Despite all the ritual that I do not understand and all of the sit, stand, kneel, the spirit really was in that church and I could feel it. The inside is also beautiful, kind of a cathedral art deco.



Here is a link for more photos of St. John's,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livingstudios/4223163739/lightbox/

My theme for Christmas presents for my family this year was "made in Idaho". I bought Mom this nativity,


The white sheep is attached to Mary and Joseph, but I got a grey one, too, because it matched Joseph's beard. It was difficult to find a nativity, even here in Idaho, but I thought this one was super. That is real sheep wool on the sheep and making the beard, from the artist's neighbors sheep ranch. I met the artist at the Christmas show in Kuna. She sold out of her nativity by the time I met her, but I called her and she came over with a bunch for me to choose from a few weeks later. She is another artist that used to do something else not at all creative and it was fun to meet her. I confess it was difficult not to buy myself a nativity and a few sheep.

This evening I am going to Mary Kay's for dinner and I decided to make something different than the usual apple pie, a cranberry kuchen,


It sure came out pretty, just like the picture, but there is no way for me to taste it and make sure it does not suck before I take it to dinner without ruining the way it looks with a spoonful out of the top.

The recipe calls for fresh orange juice and grated orange rind. Mom sent oranges, and grapefruit and clementines, for Christmas and I was supposed to save an orange for this recipe, but I forgot and did not realize I ate all of the oranges until this morning. I walked over to Jackson's, since I know the grocery stores are reverently closed today, and bought a newspaper and looked for an orange. No oranges at Jackson's. Nothing like a walk on a 20 degree morning to make your skin tingle and the house feel really warm. Rather than hunt all around this morning for an orange, I used orange juice and no rind. I did not know that cranberries pop when you cook them, but they were popping away as I cooked the cranberries in the orange juice and sugar.

My boss lives on a ranch in Parma, which is close to the border with Oregon and last week she was late to work because there were horses on the freeway. I guess the sheriff is not equipped to rope horses, even here in Idaho, but they do carry phone numbers of the local ranchers. My boss's husband gets a call on a regular basis to come help rope loose horses and bring some hay to lure them with while you are at it. These are horses loose off someone's ranch, not often wild ones. I guess being late to work due to horses on the freeway is a reasonable excuse in Idaho.

What is the spirit of Christmas? I know I felt it in that cathedral. It was like feeling full of something good, some good feeling inside that had no real reason. I thought of the people that I miss and wished them the same good feeling. Merry Christmas!

Time for a nap and the Christmas movie marathon.