Christmas 2025

Quite a nice holiday, actually.

Om went and picked up Josh to ensure that he would show up. Steve called and we did gift opening with phone commentary. He's done that the past few years, but he seemed to really get into it today with me sending him pictures of the various gifts. So, that was really fun.

After the successful experiment a few days ago, I made a real batch of the low cal/carb cinnamon rolls. These turned out even better. I learned a few things the first time.

The table looks good. But wait... five plates?

Yup! Doug and Cathy were going to go spend the day with one of their daughters. But all the kids are really sick, so they are waiting a few days. That was perfect- they came and ate with us. We had ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry relish, and a low-cal chocolate dessert. That list sounds impressive, but we really kept it simple. It's also a meal that most everyone will eat.

Cathy brought a game we all played. It's called Marbles and Jokers. It's very similar to Sorry, but it will work for three to eight players, and there is more strategy to it. Doug won if anyone cares. The board is very ingenious. Each player choses a color and you hinge the sections together with a 2-D ball and socket joint to create the track.

We tried to get a family picture. Well. Josh says this is his smiling face. We couldn't find a location where the light didn't bounce off my hair. Om looks pretty good.

As is so true in most holiday homes, the day started with cleaning up the kitchen so that I could make another kitchen mess. The second one is partially cleaned up. Om took care of all the wrappings (most are fabric and bags, so it's just a matter of folding them and putting back in the box. The only paper wrapping here is on things someone else brought in.)

Cathy gave me a jigsaw puzzle. Actually, I have six new ones. I may have to start one this week. She also brought some pumpkin bread and sweet snacks. That bag of mint M&Ms got opened and devoured.

I'll share some of our loot another day. Right now, I'm beat. And too full of food.

See Food Coma

Sausage Day

This should have been taken care of a couple of weeks ago, but who would have guessed we'd get two feet of snow so early.

It was more work to get Sunny ready to cover this year because I had to get all the snow and then water off the top. But today was almost 40° and sunny, so the top was dry. The ground, however, was really wet. So I got pretty much soaked getting the straps underneath and tieing it up like a little gray sausage.

But, I got 'er done. I had high hopes for taking the trailer out at least for a couple of days this fall, but it didn't happen. Sigh. This is not the latest I've gotten it covered, but it's the first year it had that much snow on top that I had to clear!

It was a busy day. Edited, etc. Did errands, took something to Cathy's. Josh stopped by. Put Sunny to bed to hibernate. I'm rejoicing in the extra minute of daylight!

Today's LOL moment. I saw a meme with Morgan Freeman looking stern and saying "I don't know who needs to hear this, but throw away the box your phone came in."

This made me actually laugh because while hunting for my camping-themed ornaments this month, I found a box full of empty phone boxes that Om has saved, possibly from as long as we've had cell phones. I think he's actually going to recycle them now.

See Sausage Time for Sunny

Chrismons

I learned something new this week! The white and gold ornaments on some Christmas trees have a name. They are called Chrismons- a portmonteau word of Christ and monogram. They are always symbols of the Christian faith. That much I knew.

Not being raised in a liturgical church, I did not know that white and gold are the liturgical colors of the Advent season.

Just to remind you, here is the Chrismon tree at the Lutheran church next door.



This type of ornament was first created in 1957 by a woman named Frances Spencer who made all the ornaments for the Ascension Lutheran Church Christmas tree in Danville, Virginia. She said the tree was not complete until someone had the story of Christ explained to them through the symbols. So... a truly US-based tradition that has spread to many denominations and throughout the world.

Here is a small Chrismon tree at the Ludington Methodist church.

I have some closeups of the symbolic ornaments, but not all of them are great pic. I'll highlight a few.

Symbols of the trinity are always featured. These have three connected circles (a trefoil), or a triangle, or both. They represent the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The trees also have only clear or white lights if they have lights. You can see that some have strings of white and gold beads.

This picture isn't very good, but it shows a shell. This is the symbol of baptism (because a shell can hold water), the beginning of a journey (as baptism is seen as the outward display of a serious desire to follow Christ), and spritual growth. The ribs of the shell symbolize paths to spiritual truth. Actually, I'll bet a lot of you already knew this, even if you didn't know you knew it. The shell is associated with St. James (Iago), and the Camino de Santiago- the way of St. James in Spain- uses the shell as its trail marker and symbol. I know two people who have chosen to get a small shell tattoo as a reminder of their walk of the Camino.

Behind the shell is a star- a fairly well-known symbol of Christianity not only for the Christmas star, but as a reminder that Christ is the light of the world, and we are to be the light to others.

Various kinds of crosses are alwyas found. The cross, a Roman emblem of shame and execution, became the symbol of triumph for Christians as Christ rose from the dead. You'll find any number of styles of cross. This one has something hanging from the arms. The left one is probably Alpha, but the one on the right does not look like Omega, so I'm not sure what's going on here. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. God and Christ are called the Alpha and Omega- the beginning and the end, a symbol of their eternal nature.

If you look at the pictures of the entire trees, you'll also see sheep (Jesus as the Lamb of God who was sacrificed for our sins), doves (symbol of the Holy Spirit), circles (symbol of the eternal nature of God), the Chi Rho cross, which looks like a P with an X on the upright. These are the Greek letters chi and rho, a monogram for Christos- Christ in Greek.

Here is a crown- symbolic of our future reward in heaven, and that Christ is King.

Some other symbols that may be used are the shepherd's crook (Jesus as the Good Shepherd), the butterfly (eternal life), the rainbow (God's promise to Noah), the chalice (symbol of the Eucharist), and the anchor (God is an anchor for our soul).

I don't see any fish on these trees, but this is one of the oldest of the Christian symbols IXTHUS means fish, and it's an anagram for "Jesus Christ God's Son our Savior." Early Christians would identify themselves to each other by scratching a semicircle in the dust. If the other person completed the fish, they know it was safe to talk of spritual things.

Of course, many of these symbols are now mocked or discarded. But I like symbols. A lot. I have several books on symbology. They are great as mnemonic devices, and they are sort of like puzzles in pictures. I'm glad I learned these ornaments are called Chrismons.

And here is another full tree- this one at the Methodist Church in Manistee a few years ago.



I got quite a lot done today. Hopeful for more of the same tomorrow!

See Concert at Our Savior Lutheran

Bell Choir- Christmas 2025- Part 1

The handbell choir prepared four songs for the holiday this year. Here are two of them. We performed all four at the two previous concerts, and did three this morning. We'll do all four again on Christmas Eve. I'll share the other two that day.

Here is "We Three Kings," always a favorite. No title screen. I truly hate the "new" free video software that came with my computer. Apparently you can get the old version, but you need a piece of translation software that I'm not up to dealing with today since I'm also trying to get another new piece of software to work. And trying to get my calendar to sync across devices. So annoying.



Next up is "One Star."



I'm saving my favorite to post on Wednesday.

I must have hit stop on my alarm instead of snooze this morning. So when I did wake up the second time, I had to leap out of bed and dash out the door. Of course, I couldn't wake up and felt like crap all day. Mostly ate junk which is often my response to the days that start out like this.

I did go for a walk after church. The trail was bumpy ice with crusty snow over the top, but I walked 2.7 miles.

Finished my column for the paper, did other computer tasks, and tried to stay awake in the afternoon.

Miles hiked in 2025: 475.5

Ludington School Forest, various trails, 2.7 miles

See Bell Choir- November 2025

Three Tales of a Tree

I was going to share a Tale of Three Trees. Instead, it's more interesting to give you three tales of the same tree.

This tree is a small apple tree in our side yard. In the 30 years our house has been in this spot it's grown small wormy apples once. It never seems to get bigger. It's a pain in the butt to mow around. So why don't I cut it down?

Sometimes it's my own personal bonsai tree. This is last week on one of our snowy days.

Here it is on a foggy winter morning in 2018

And a sunrise picture also from 2018

I was pretty good today. Editing and all that. Cleaned up the kitchen. Wrote my column for Ludington Daily News. Also wrote a shopping list. Good writers are versitile like that.

There was an LOL moment. I'll share.

See Great Balls of Fire! Or Not