Music and Cats

Three years ago, I posted a photo on Flickr of the small wooden Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus figures from the nativity scene that my family has had since I was a child. I’d taken the photo to use with an Advent post about a group of children putting together a nativity scene at my [...]

On this shortest day of the year, it is almost 70 degrees in Houston, and sunny. On this day when, according to ancient traditions, the old year dies, the sago palm tree in my parents’ yard has set seeds. Brilliant red-orange, and glowing in the light, the seeds are ready for the new year — [...]

We must’ve been good this year. While they won’t be in our stockings, we received Christmas oranges yesterday (and grapefruit and tangelos, too). I peeled and ate the first of them today; the tangy scent of orange oil in the air made it feel a little more like Christmas.