The Angel Gabriel From Heaven Came Down
What would you say if you were a 14 year old unmarried virgin, and God asked you to have a baby? Mary said “yes.”
“I’ll be home for Christmas – if only in my dreams”
This is a nightmare year for people trying to get home for Christmas in the United States – weeks of storms have caused snarled schedules and cancelled trains and planes, stranding passengers eager to be home with family for Christmas.
Worse – my friends tell me – many groceries have not been resupplied, but that’s OK because many of their customers can’t get to the stores anyway. It’s hit merchants hard in what is already thought to be one of the most dismal selling seasons in a long, long time.
Here’s a write up from National Public Radio:
Winter Storms Frustrate Holiday Travel Nationwide
by Scott Neuman
NPR.org, December 23, 2008 · Bitter cold temperatures and snow have placed the northern half of the nation in a deep freeze, affecting travel in planes, trains and automobiles just as the holiday season gets under way.
Some of the worst winter storms on record have cut a swath from the Pacific Northwest to New England. Across the country, tens of thousands of people are without power after freezing rain and strong winds caused transmission lines to come down.
Heavy snowfall in western Oregon has caused traffic to come to a near standstill along Interstate 5, and state highways through the northern edge of the Coast Range are closed.
Amtrak’s Cascades passenger train service between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia, was halted, but officials said they expected it to resume on Tuesday. Greyhound bus service in Portland and Seattle was also shut down.
At the Seattle-Tacoma airport, thousands of people have been waiting in hours-long lines to re-book canceled flights.
“There’s no flights going into [Las] Vegas that has any available seating,” Air Force Airman Alex James told NPR’s Morning Edition.
James said he and three other Air Force buddies hope to avoid driving from Seattle to Las Vegas, where their families are preparing for the holidays.
“We leave on our deployment on the first of January,” James said. “So, however long it takes us to get back from here is how much reduced our time at home is.”
Alaska and Horizon airlines, the West Coast’s principal carriers, resumed limited service Monday and the carriers said they hoped to resume near-normal schedules Tuesday at Seattle-Tacoma and have things normal flights by Wednesday.
In the East, the town of Eustis, Maine, got nearly 3 1/2 feet of snow. Snow and sleet — but no additional accumulation — are expected Tuesday in the Northeast.
In the nation’s midsection, the situation is just as bad.
In Illinois, which has experienced subzero conditions and wind chills as low as minus 35 degrees in recent days, temperatures are expected to rise into the 20s Tuesday. But with the reprieve will come several inches of snow, according to the forecast.
More snow is expected across the upper Midwest. Michigan could get as much as a foot of snow, while ice, snow and sleet are in the forecast for Indiana, where many people have been without electricity.
Travelers have been stranded in airports as they wait for flights to resume so they can make their way to friends and families for the holidays. Routes to much of the Pacific Northwest have been canceled, and flights to the East Coast, including New York and New Jersey, have been delayed by hours.
You can read the entire article by clicking HERE.
The Year of the Secret Santa
One year AdventureMan was attending school in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, a special school to train men who aspired to the highest ranks of the military. There were lots and lots of families, all approximately the same age group, and there were lots of family activities. For many of us, it was one of the few times we were stationed in the United States. It was also a high-testosterone, highly competitive environment.
We lived on a small, unique street, about half students and half permanent party – teachers, instructors, people who were not part of the huge student cadre. The “old-timers” organized us into a neighborhood. We had block parties, we babysat one another’s kids, we went to auctions together, and we kept each other’s secrets. Best of all – they introduced us to Secret Santa.
Just before Thanksgiving, we had a potluck and drew names. Each family drew the name of another family, and until the Christmas party, when you revealed whose name you had, you acted as Secret Santa to that family.
It’s funny – I can’t remember all the things that were done for us or things we did for our family; all I can remember is that we had a LOT of fun, and not a single one of us knew who our Secret Santa was. I remember that one of the guest speakers at the school was an old friend of my husband’s. He came to dinner at our house, and after dinner, we asked him to move his car to our Secret Santa family, and then deliver a breakfast bread to them. He was sort-of famous, and when he showed up at the Secret Santa family with the bread, we were hiding upstairs in a darkened bedroom, watching, and we could see the amazement on their faces when this revered gentleman delivered the bread. They were astounded he would be delivering their Secret Santa gift, and they could not imagine whose friend he might be. Oh, what fun!
Baked goods, toys, snow shoveled off the walks, handmade Christmas ornaments – it was all so much fun. At the Christmas dinner, when we all revealed who we had been Santa to, there were shouts of joy and whoops of laughter. Best of all, it really knit us together as a neighborhood, doing good to one another. It was one of the very best Christmas times I can remember.
Good Morning, Kuwait
Another gorgeous winter day dawning in Kuwait, with a high expected around 77°R/25°C today, while my poor family in the US is shivering with cold. I have a good friend who had three different family members stranded in three different airports, trying to get home for Christmas, and snow accumulating up to 18 inches while she prays for their safe arrivals.
Have a sweet day, Kuwait. 🙂
I will spend the day preparing for major meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Mom, I am making your Cranberry Salad. 🙂
Ask the Builder
Those of you who have read this blog for any amount of time know that I love house stuff. When I am in my own house, I do a lot of my own painting, wall papering, and general fixing. I remember being a kid and wanting a tool box – I like doing things with my hands. I have reupholstered chairs, even a couch (the couch went well, not every project went well, however!) and I am always interested in how things are done – how do you tile a floor, how do you fix a gutter, etc.
When we were in Pensacola, I saw that I need to re-mortar some of the bricks in our yard – we have brick stairs and brick walls, and some of the mortar is beginning to crumble. So I went online, and found a whole bunch of sites, but the site I like the very best is Ask the Builder.
Now, I get a newsletter from him every now and then. There is a lot of stuff I get, ads from stores, people who want me to spend money – stuff that I delete most of the time, unless I have a specific need. But I never delete Ask the Builder. I read the newsletter from top to bottom, and some of the things I copy and save, because while I don’t need them now, I know I will need them later. His advice is down to earth, easy to read and just plain helpful.
You can subscribe to the newsletter by going to the above website. Happy puttering!
Good Morning, Kuwait!
Good morning, Kuwait, and another gorgeous morning it is!
For a moment, I wondered why I was doing this – all my college students missing Kuwait are back home for the holidays. But – with all that partying, going to diwaniyya, etc. I am guessing most of you missed the sunrise.
It’s considerably warmer. The day is going to be perfect, warm, comfortable – not hot. Not cold, either. Have a great day, Kuwait!
“Generation of Spoiled Idiots”
I have a dear friend who sends me the most amazing things. This started my day with a howl of laughter:
I am embarrassed to tell you – I remember rotary phones. I even remember party lines, where you had to wait for your neighbor to finish his call before you could make your own, and you never knew who might be listening to your conversation. I remember planes that had large, beautiful lady’s lounges, with a seating area for nursing mothers. I remember when living in Germany was a huge problem to many young people who ran up huge phone bills, calling their families when they were lonely – no internet, no VOIP. I remember transistor radios, and Walkmen! LLLOOOLLLL!
Christmas In Kuwait 2008
I’ve lived in so many Islamic countries, and I have never seen an Islamic country that celebrates – or allows the expat population to celebrate – Christmas – so lavishly.
In some countries, you live on rumors. Can the compound residents put up Christmas lights this year? (Yes! And all your Moslem neighbors put up lights, too, and the compound is like a fairy-land, and people walk around in groups at night ooooh-ing and aaaah-ing over the fanciful displays) or is this the year when it’s all word-of-mouth about the Indian grocer who has Christmas trees hidden in his back room but there is ne’ry a Christmas decoration to be seen on the streets or in the windows, and people are told not to decorate or to draw any attention to themselves . . .
Not so in Kuwait. Thanks be to God for religious tolerance here, allowing us to decorate for Christmas, allowing us to celebrate according to our private beliefs.
For my stateside and European virtual visitors, here are some of the Kuwait Christmas sights this year:
As we were waiting for our flight back to Kuwait, AdventureMan overheard several students talking about their experiences.
“You should see New York!” one student was saying, “There is even a big sign saying ‘Happy Birthday, Jesus!'” and they all laughed.
Why do you think we are so happy, dear ones? Why do you think we celebrate? Why do you think we get together and sing joyful songs, and try to delight one another with special, thought-filled presents? The greatest gift of all, we believe, is born on Christmas Day!
Qatteri Cat Says “Whaaaaaat?”
Those little eyes look SO innocent, don’t they?
Don’t believe it for a moment!
Every morning, I have to gather up ornaments that have been knocked off. I have to glue them back together (I don’t hang anything very valuable on the lower branches, but it is annoying to have to glue things back all the time.)
He had his eye on one ornament and I said his name. He looked at me. His eyes said “Whaaaaaaat” you know, that three syllable what that means “why do you think I would do something like that” when you are thinking of doing something like that.
You don’t fool me one bit, Qattari Cat.
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