Rose's Cottage

This story is from my childhood. I thought everyone knew this story, but for those who don't...

This is the story of what happened in the stable the night Jesus was born. But the story starts earlier in the day with the donkey. The donkey carried the Virgin Mary all the way to Bethlehem. On the one hand, a donkey is not a particularly big animal for carrying a person, but they are powerfully built. On the other hand a woman who is about ready to have a baby is not a particularly light burden, though maybe still smaller than a man, so maybe it is a wash. Joseph and Mary and the donkey had started out very early in the morning. Joseph and the donkey had walked all day with Mary riding the donkey. But Joseph and Mary were kindly and when they stopped to rest, Mary got off the donkey so that he could rest too. And when they ate, they made sure the donkey had fresh water and a meal as well.

They walked all day long and into the twilight and on into the evening before the donkey saw the town. He knew his journey was almost over. But even when they reached the town they went from place to place to place. Until at last Joseph led the donkey around to stable in the back. Joseph brushed the donkey down and made sure he had fresh water and clean hay. And the donkey was very happy. He was lucky to be with kind people and very happy to be at the end of the day and able to rest in the stable. And he had been whickering to the other barn animals while Joseph had been caring for him ,and the other animals seemed like a good sort to be spending the evening with. The donkey was very content.

But this lasted only a moment, because he looked around and saw Mary settling herself down in hay pile to rest and Joseph going to bring her some water and a small meal and realized that the two pople were staying in the stable also. The other animals of the barn could see he was upset about the peope staying.

The cow advised him, "Well, sometimes the people do stay here also when they have no place or no money to afford better."

The donkey replied, "Oh, you don't understand. See now, this is a nice enough barn for me, and you all are a good sort, but the woman is going to have that baby soon, likely tonight (animals have a sense for these things). And while this is a fine place for donkey, it is not so fair for a woman with a newborn baby."

Now that the animals knew the situation, they could see the donkey's point. The cow, being oldest of the lot and well experienced with people, spoke first. "well, we will do what we can. The people may take my hay crib and fill it with fresh straw and their newborn will have a soft place to sleep."

The sheep spoke next and said, "The man can comb out my coat and use the wool around their new baby and that will keep the baby warm against any night."

The goat said, "They may use my milk to drink. They at least will not go hungry." You scoff, but a great many people drink milk from goats....

The morning doves in the rafters said "We will sing our best song and soothe them all to sleep and gentle their slumber."

The barn kittens, there were a great many of them, young as they were, ran around mewing "we want to help! We want to help!" And the mother cat said "Hush! Do not wake the baby! You may be the baby's playmates in the morning. And you may ask the baby's mother if you can curl up with it and purr to help the baby feel warm and loved. Now go to sleep yourselves!"

And so it went. All the animals of the stable shared what supplies and talents they had. And so the baby Jesus was born into the world without anything, but through the kindness of those animals, Christ was born into the world without want.

The Bible will tell you that the very first people to see the baby Jesus were the shepherds of the field. And as far as the story goes, it is correct. But the very first to see Jesus were the animals of the stable that night.

And they say that to this very day, at midnight on Christmas day, the very first moment that heralds Jesus' birth, they say the animals of the barn can talk. They can speak long enough to tell their story of the gifts they had for the baby Jesus, so that we can all learn the story and not forget it.



Merry Christmas, friends.

It is currently knee high on me! The kids went out for the first time about 6:30 this morning. As in, it was still more dark than dawn. I ran around restoking the woodstove, filling up 4 carboys and a bathtub, starting bread and starting a pot roast in the crock pot (on high). We tend to lose power for these events. Well, we still have power! And we have supper, and lots of homemade bread, one new pair of mittens. If I could get the snow plow to stop dumping 3 blessed feet of snow between my front bumper and the road at irregular intervals, I would be a happy camper. I am going to sleep tonight.

Because really, trips up and down, truly only the down part is really bad, to get ornaments are terror inducing!

Steps! Work is sponsoring a walking program with the goal being to walk 1,000000 steps for the twelve week program. I hit one million yesterday! Made it with 2 days to spare!

This one appeals to me on so many levels, snarked from piscesgirl

( Yes, Miky, There Are Rabbis in Montana )

Just want to send birthday wishes to the_cheese_lady!

OK, technically, the pods are not empty. One of them still has a rolltop desk and a woodstove in it. But neither of those items are my problem! When the wood stove is collected by its new owners we are having the pod and desk delivered to my younger brother who will con someone into helping him move it out of the pod and into his new (first ever) house!

Today has been a great lesson in triumphing through ingenuity and sticktoitiveness. DH is med down with a small tear in the rotator cuff of the shoulder he broke about a year ago. Making me (the middle aged fat lady) the primary lifter and toter. But young son is starting to come into his strength. Not nearly what a grown man has, but not a child. He comes up a bit short in the wingspan department too, his father's son. But DH and DS *together* can provide enough extra strength and stability to get the heavy objects onto the furniture dolly and into the house. And I can move everything else with the handcart. They are veeerrrrry useful.

Not only do I have my bookshelves back after a 5 month hiatus, they have book s on them again already! I am one happy lady!

We had Thanksgiving twice this year, which in and of itself speaks to our blessings. The first was with a group a SCA friends on the day proper. It is the Thanksgiving Orphan's Party which an extended circle of friends shows for if they have no other opportunities. Like all SCA potlucks, the food was astonishingly good, though not always traditional. Much schmoozing was accomplished, along with much geekiness (Star Trek in the living room, Doom 3 in the kitchen, archery practice, etc). And as the first M in M&M pointed out we had 5 bottles of plonk for 13 adults, so we were doing OK.

The second was the traditional family scene. Traditional good food, much schmoozing, and the working out of the Christmas plan. My nephew has hit that stage in life where the question has become "Will he be taller than me the next time I see him?" Because he is certainly taller every time I see him, the last time being just 4 weeks ago. My niece is blossoming in college, except for the OCD roomie, but that is changing in the new year. Mr. Anthony remains immortal and timeless which always brings me joy. I could talk with him for hours if I could only convince him I enjoy his company. It goes OK if I can just get him started.

Hope your holiday was much the same.

Some things have to be done. Like trying to make cranberry jam when you inadvertently end up with 3 bags of cranberries. An internet search turned up any number of cranberry-XXX jam combos but I wanted just straight cranberry jam. I eventually found a recipe on the Certo (kraft foods) website. It tastes remarkably like cranberry juice, very tart just a little sweet. It is going to be incredible on a turkey sandwich. I only used 2 bags, I want the third for Thanksgiving supper. It made almost nine jars of jam. A worthwhile experiment.

Ah yes, the cats. i have half adopted a pair of outdoor cats. My neighbor down the street is the one who has put flea collars on them and started feeding them. But she is not letting them in. And mind you neither am I. But I am putting out water and food as well and trying to figure out what to do about some shelter for the winter. I've got a rag bag with as many rags as they could need for bedding. And the pair of them travels together so they have each other's warmth as well. Do any of you have any experience with outdoor cats or barn cats? What would they want? Should I put a tarp over a "nest " of some sort? Would they use one of those igloo things? What do you all think?

1. I am *blessed* to have a friend who would spend an hour helping me turn her car inside out to find my keys. Blessed!

2. I am thankful to be home. Today and from this trip.

3. I am tired enough to be thankful for leftover chili, and to DH for having sense enough to have it ready when I (finally!) got home.

4. I am thankful to have folks to pick me up some things at Holiday Faire that I want for Christmas and 12th night presents since I can't quite make it this year. No one is actually buying their *own* present, yet....

5. I am thankful for Ms Karen (yeah Ms Karen!) who instead wanting to *drop off* DD at home when I was running late wanted to *pick up * DS because she didn't want him alone too long. She was DS's babysitter until this fall.

6. I am (eternally) thankful that I was raised by my mom who insisted that in almost every circumstance the correct (and most effective) solution involves keeping a civil tongue in one's head. If for no other reason than you want people to be able to tell you apart from the idiot. And it has enabled me to build a great many bridges where a lot of people would have built walls.

7. I am thankful it is almost my bedtime, and I have a glass of wine to drink. I will sleep well tonight.

I had the time of my life at the shuttle launch.

( because for once I am longwinded )

Really! Wow!

We are in Florida. The kids have been in the pool for over an hour. I am on my second glass of wine. I have numerous PB&Js to get us through whatever timeline presents itself tomorrow. We have about 4 different recording technologies ready to go. We have local gouge about commute times. And a good Mexican restaurant. Hopefully in less than 24 hours I will have checked off another one on the to-do list!

Well, the car is loaded (really loaded) and breakfast will soon be underway. Then we are off! Florence today, Titusville tomorrow, STS-129 on Monday! Its like the story of my professional life, 99% monotony, 1% heart pounding excitement.

Mostly I cleaned yesterday.

But for an hour and half or so I held my own private Cynthia Rylant bookfest. She is an author of children's books. Her most famous may be the Henry and Mudge books. My favorites are the Mister Putter and Tabby series. She won a Newberry Medal for Missing May, which is too sad to be my favorite, but hey, not everybody likes oatmeal....

Yesterday I read two from a series I did not know about. They are for a very young audience, but they were fun, The Whale and The Octopus. I read Gooseberry Park wherein I believe I glimpsed a younger Mr Putter and Mrs Teaberry. And last came The Islander. The longest of the lot at just over 100 pages and on the "old" end of her typical audience, but charming and gentle and engaging. A wonderful break from all the cleaning. And a great way to ride out a rainy day.

So last night I did what every demoralized, still a little sick, unhappy dragon should do. I went to my lair, found a toasty warm spot, made vast quantities of hot tea and engaged in a mildly intellectual pursuit. I do believe I'm going to live, and be happy to do so.

I'm not reading ANYTHING right now! How weird is that? Except for Fablehaven, which is what I am reading to the kids at bedtime.

However, I am eagerly awaiting the chance to start reading the second Artemis Fowl book tonight. I am so hopeful of a series with villians that are not cookie cutter characters but actually are complex and have interesting motivations. I hope I can start it tonight. If not, tomorrow's schedule is ripe with opportunities.

Well, I was right about the cakes. I had one slice of the ugly cake left and perhaps a third of the red velevet cake left. The icings were a snap, though I do they benefitted from having a few more brain cells check in Sunday morning. Both came from the Cake Mix Doctor Book. She starts with basic cake mixes and doctors them up from there and I must say, I really like the results. And I can actually bake cakes myself no problem. Her icings she does make from scratch. And homeemade icings are 1- a dozen times better than the stuff you can buy and 2- somewhere between easy and not all that tricky to make yourslef. The lady knows where to exert the extra effort!

And yes, my cold is vastly improved. So is my mood!

OK, here is a chance to do some good for at least one person. Check out this community save_dave , act as you see fit.

No, I've NOT cross-ref'ed or verified beyond a very superficial glance. Please I don't want any lectures. All I can say is that I've done similar things to help two friends in the last year. For even smaller amounts. Both are back on their feet and still in their homes. It kill sme to think of years of equity, inheritances , etc lost for nearly trivial amounts of money.

I have a head cold, thus the "grumpy" mood choice. Yes, I am certain that it is only a head cold. You really ought to try explaining how you are certain that it is NOT H1N1 to your very upset DD at midnight sometime. Parenthood is grand. But I suppose in a few years she'll be a teenager and just let me pass in my sleep as opposed to waking me up to make sure I'll be OK. i hate being sick, less than fully functional, OK actually just plain stupid.

I went to rehearsal last night wherein I learned that I should not have. Just too worn out to have fun. So I'm grumpy. So I stayed home from yoga this morning, thus the "grumpy" designation.

I am, I think, on the uptick though, so I thought I would be able to be part of DS's rockclimbing party tomorrow. But one his buddies called to say he can come after all, so I lost my slot. So I am grumpy, because I am only 10 y.o. myself at heart and it sure looks like fun.

On the plus side DS wants a homemade birthday cake (because mine are better!!). And so far, even with only about two working brain cells, they have come out. Yes, there is more than one. Because with 6 boys aged 11-13 and DD (who is part hummingbird), and DH (who is still in the post-A2A eating like a teenaged boy mode) and a few others, I thought one bundt cake would not answer the mail. So we have one "ugly cake" and one red velevet cake . The icing gets to wait until tomorrow when , hopefully, a few more brain cells will be back online.