Sunday night – Solstice/Chanukah

Happy first night of Hanukkah .. Happy Solstice !

We got on the road this morning at 7 to avoid the worst of the snow.. The drive back was slow, but uneventful.. actually it was kinda fun. We had three dogs in the car.. and the constant arraigning, fiddling. calming feeding, walking of them kept the drive interesting.. as did the audio book we were listening to .. (Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.. very good !)

We got home around 2ish… to find oVermont full of beutiful kneedeep snow.. It was pretty cold out.. but it wasn’t much warmer inside !  Our room was 48 degrees.

It was tough coming back into a cold and dark house.. sometimes I swear that coming home is the hardest thing for me to do. At the moment I came in..it was easy  feel thayt it was  the darkest day of the year..   But withing the hour we had lights and candles lit, the fire roaring and the heat on.. and things began to feel better for me..

We got settled for a bit then headed out in the snow to get our Christmas tree. we’d put it off until Max was back..and now, he’s here.   We skidded our way up Wes White Hill to Puritans.. They pointed us up back to where the bigger trees were going… We quickly homed in on a pretty 8 foot guy that stood out from the rest…   I like this picture.. it has  several of those mystery spheres in it.. I love the one over the tree. Sam.. is that you ?

Cutting the tree down was a comedy of erros. our saw broke half way and Diane had to go fetch another
..

… but in the end it came down with a gentle woosh…   and we pulled our prize back the long way to the car…

We got it home and Gabe unwrapped the thing.. It’s a beutiful treee..It’s smell makes me happier..

..
Our house was full of kids when we got back. Skanky Green and their enterage were practicing in the barn.   Gabe sat them down and taught them the finer points of playing dreidel… the 4 sided top used on Hanukkah… The stakes were high.. they were playing for real candy !

Diane was busy in the Kitchen making a huge platter of latke, the special potato pankakes of hanukah…

So I got busy pullign ou thte condiments. most people stop at apple sauce and sour cream for their latke.. We have chile and mango pickle, thai chili sauce. sambal, thre kinds of mustard, barbeque sauce katchup, island pepper sauce, enchilada sauce, cranberry chutney, vidalia onion sauce,   and humous. Yummm..

We rounded up the 11 of us and lit the first hanukah candle

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’o’lam asher kid’sha’nu beh’miz’vo’tav veh’tzi’va’nu leh’had’lik ner shel Chanukah.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָה יְיָ אֶלוֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הַעוֹלָם אֲשֶר קִדְשָנוּ בֵּמִצְווֹתַיו וְצִיוַונוּ לֵהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶל חֲנוּכָּה׃

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the Chanukah lights.”

And we lit the candle for Sam….

Then we dug in !.. Yum !

The last thing tonight was something I chose to do for solstice observance. A group of folks lead by Melissa Etheridge, Salman Ahmad and Deepak Chopra have asked everyone to ring a bell today for peace… It was to have been at noon.. but since we were driiving then. we didd it when we could.. It’s a beutifil throught.. Yyu can read about it here

And you can hear my bell ringing here.
..

I’ll end tonight with a Wiccan prayer for the earth on this longest night… 

Cold and dark, this time of year,

the earth lies dormant, awaiting the return

of the sun, and with it, life.

Far beneath the frozen surface,

a heartbeat waits,

until the moment is right,

to spring.

blessed be everyone.. you too, Sam

-me