Wednesday Hodge Podge

Joiniung Joyce at From This Side of the Pond for Hodge Podge

1. So, when did you last take a walk in the woods? A stroll along the beach? A drive going nowhere in particular in the car?

When David and I train-chase, it often starts as a drive to nowhere in particular. I used to go to the park to walk every day when it was nice and no snow. Yes, even in the cold as long as there wasn’t ice and snow to slip on I walked about a mile or so daily. I think now I might consider going to the park for a “walk” for the mental relaxation, but after the power chair is okayed and here.


2. Are you sending Christmas cards this year? About how many do you send? Photo card or something more traditional? How do you display the cards you receive?

We send cards, either our family cards or train cards every year. I always sent family cards and David always sent train cards, so now we send them both. They are photo cards that I created using Digital Scrapbooking and I write the verse on the card.


3. What's a word you've heard too much of in the past week?

“Grrr.” ?? I audibly “grrr” when I get frustrated, like getting in and out of the car on long rides or the lifting and moving necessary for baking. I don’t like to be grouchy, but a temporary “grrr” and some minor grunting helps me get what I need done. Think of the grunts you hear in a tennis match; it really does help!


4. December 13th is National Cocoa Day-are you a fan? Plain or flavored? Marshmallows or no marshmallows?

I love cocoa! I like really good cocoa just in its chocolaty awesomeness, but I also LOVE cinnamon hot cocoa and I like it with a splash or two...or three, of peppermint schnapps!

I can do without the marshmallows although as long as they melt, I can deal with them.


5. What is something you do to help alleviate the hectic pace of the Christmas season?

Oh! The hectic pace of the Christmas season is what I do to alleviate the mundane day to day of every other season!


6. Besides jewelry, what's a favorite sparkly-glittery item in your home or closet?

Wow. I’ll think of something as soon as I hit “publish” but I can’t think of any sparklies that aren’t jewelry right now.


7. Share a favorite line or two from any Christmas carol.

“How do you measure the love of a mother, How do you write down a baby’s first cry?” From Candlelight Carol

That was the first song on the CD I listened to while meditating on Christmas Eve the year my Mom died and I cried for about a half hour. It still makes me tear up but they are happy remembrance tears now.


8. Insert your own random thought here.

I’m on break right now from Ginger Bats, Bells and Birds baking. When I can barely lift the tray from the hot pad on the chair to the counter to put the cookies on the cooling racks, it’s time to take a break! It takes me longer now, but I still get it done! (And I love it!)

Now you may have noticed that there are birds added to the mix in my Ginger Belles and Bats. It occurred to me, strange as it sounds to me, that some people may not appreciate the blessing of the Christmas Bat. I know, I know, how odd, huh?

Bronner’s, my favorite Christmas store makes up stories for some of their ornaments. I mean, “Legend of the Christmas Chile Pepper?” So, why not the “Legend of the Christmas Bat?” A cute furry bat with garland on its wings, right? Think about it; if God saw fit to make sure Noah put 2 bats on The Arc, I highly doubt they flushed the bats out of the stable. If “I said the dove” cooed that baby to sleep, couldn’t “I said the bat” have been the one keeping the mosquitos away from him? I think it’s perfectly okay to offer all of God’s creatures a place in the Christmas celebration.  (I have a dog and three cats in my Fontanini Nativity.) And before you bring up spiders to my arachnophobic self, there IS a story about a spider creating the first strands of tinsel on a Christmas tree, which is one of the reasons we don’t use tinsel, but I even respect that there is a place for a Christmas Spider; just that place is in someone else’s home. Ours has a Christmas Bat.