A Vegetable Christmas Tree

This centerpiece is made out of vegetables. I just came from a party that used this Christmas Tree as a centerpiece. The inside is a Styrofoam cone, but everything else is a vegetable. The tree itself is broccoli crowns. The star was something I never heard of. But the decorations on the tree are cauliflower, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and lemon zest, or skin, for garland.

Very nice. Clever. Too pretty to eat.

Community Life

You know that often used verse in weddings, from 1Corinthians 13:4-7. I don't think it's meant for espoused relationships. I think it's referring to community life.

In Discussion Group, tonight, we were discussing how hard it is to live in community, especially a celibate one. It is especially so in a male celibate community. If you're competitive, and feel the need to present a certain persona, it is very hard to love your confreres. The verse tells us basically to be humble enough to forget ourselves--our needs, our ego, and consider the other person's needs. We need to see Christ in them, and one can't if you're maintaining the persona of an alpha male.

Love is patient, is kind; love does not envy, is not pretentious, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, is not self-seeking, is not provoked; thinks no evil, does not rejoice over wickedness, but rejoices with the truth; bears with all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Read this verse again, thinking of a couple making their marriage vows. Between two people in love there naturally is this mutual give and take. What bride is more ambitious than her husband? Self-seeking? Unkind? Thinks evil? Come'on! They're just getting married! This verse is wasted on them.

Now read this verse again, thinking of a Lay Dominican Chapter.

Oh boy!

Those that live in community need to forget all pretense, ego, ambition, and look for the best in their brothers and sisters. That's where God abides.

Augustine's Confessions, 10.27.38

Wrongly thinking that beauty lay without,
blindly I cast about.
How late did I begin
to realize your beauty lay within.

To one bereft of sight
you said Let there be light.
Thus to my deafened ear
you called, you cried! hoping that I might hear.
I thirsted, hungered, yearned.
You touched me, and I burned.
How late I came to you,
to beauty ever ancient, ever new.
How late I came to you.
Tim Murphy --October 2008

Our Lady of Guadalupe

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This is Our Lady of Weight Loss puzzle. Think I'm kidding. Go to the Kick in the Tush site and you'll see Our Lady of Weight Loss.

I don't think she compares to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Managing Stress

Oh no! I can feel that I'm stressing. That makes me stress that I'm going to get stressed, and that might affect by health and the ability to be happy and live a productive life. I've already had one stress related disease. So I know it can happen.

OK. What's happening? I'm baking these tiny loaves of bread for Christmas presents, for people at work. Since they're gifts, I want them to look nice and taste good. And it looks like that's not happening. Some dough spilled out of one of them already. Messes dropped on the oven floor stink up the whole house and make me worry. I've already burnt my index finger on the oven rack. Santa better bring me some new oven mits because these are getting too thin.

They're still not done. It's taking these small loaves longer to bake than large loaves!

As soon as these are out of the oven, I'm destressing. How?

This is how to manage stress according to the Book of Faith.

1. Blog Yes, get on my computer and rant. I didn't even mention how I got stuck going to the children's Mass, this morning. It was the only time I could make it. Almost an occasion of sin. Then when I went to go to Chapter, I wasn't allowed in. It seems there was a mix-up of times. And now, my Christmas baking is testing me. So it's good when no one wants to listen to me (Hubby's watching the football game.) that I can blog.

2. Go outside and walk around the block.

3. Telephone someone and chat.

4. Eat an apple. Yes, I'm a stress eater and I'll eat something unhealthy unless I can eat something more readily available. Always have a fruit bowl.

5. Go to the movies. Today that wasn't practical.

6. Drink. Tea or wine is relaxing. Yesterday at a Christmas party I drank a Reisling called Relax. I think it's better than a Blue Nun.

7. Change your clothes. Take an inventory of your closet and see what you need. Get on line and do some shopping. When I don't have the money, I make a list of what I want to buy for when I do have the money--some day.

8. Plan something. Plan how to decorate the house for the next holiday. Plan what to do for someone's birthday.

9. Think of someone in a nursing home and think of something nice to do for them.

10. Pray a Rosary. It's particularly relaxing to listen to a CD of the Rosary. The ones I have are very calming.


The important thing is to take my mind off myself. I have to enjoy and not stress. Life is too short. Nothing matters except saving my soul and taking along a few others. Focus. Focus. Focus.

All is passing. God alone sustaining. God alone abiding.

Christmas Alphabet Game

The answers follow the letters of the alphabet from A to Z with the answer to # 1 starting with an A and # 26 starting with a Z.

1. They herald the miracle of Christmas.
2. Heard in churches on Christmas day.
3. Used in both decoration and illumination.
4. What little girls may like to find under the tree.
5. What we all do too much of at Christmas.
6. Where the stockings should be hung.
7. What everyone should have for everyone else.
8. Traditional Christmas decoration.
9. We like real ones outside and artificial ones on the tree.
10. Santa is supposed to be this.
11. What a German child calls Santa Claus.

12. Christmas parcels, when mailed, should always be
13. People kiss under it.
14. They get cracked during the Christmas baking.
15. First word in the song, "O Christmas Tree."
16. St. Nick carries it.
17. When kids are waiting for Santa they are
18. There are supposed to be eight of them.
19. Another name for St. Nick.
20. Meat often eaten at Christmas.
21. At Christmas, it's a lucky child who has a rich
22. Besides, meat, we should make sure we eat a variety of
23. We hang it on our front door.
24. Abbreviation for Christmas
25. In England, people always brought one home for Christmas.
26. The way some folks walk after an overdose of Christmas spirits.

Answers: angels, bells, candles, dolls, eat, fireplace, gifts, holly, icicles, jolly, Kris Kringle, labeled, mistletoe, nuts, O, presents, quiet, reindeer, Santa, turkey, uncle, vegetables, wreath, Xmas, yule log, zig zag These answers aren't open for discussion. They're not up for debate. I'm the mommy, that's why.

Santa Joke

Brother Tonto: I got a job as a substitute Santa at the Mall.
Brother Diotrophes : What's your job title?
Brother Tonto: Subordinate Clause.