Christmas Has Just Begun

Tabitha, Desire, Mehetable, Rebel, Charity, Hester, Eunice, Sary, Lovice, Submit, Thankful, Content, Azubah, Abiah, Lament, these are all names of females I found from a list of headstones at the McDonough Cemetery in Connecticut. Some of the male names are Hiram, Hezekiah, Noadiah, Jabez, Giles, Ebenezer, Recompence, Janna, Chabod, Jehoshaphat, Justus, Comfort and Ozias. The underlined names are family names that were passed down for several generations. (Probably a good thing we did not know this when my brother and I were naming our babies.) The press has a meltdown when celebrities claim to name their children Moonunit, Blanket, Bean, River or North or Jax and Rain. Seriously?? Naming a daughter Submit or even Desire? Sound like stripper names. Starring tonight on center stage Submit Slavofmine fresh from Las Vegas!! What were they thinking? Of course it was the 1700s and strippers were not common. They were not Quakers nor are they Catholic so they are not Saint’s names. They are Biblical names and words that are traits and characteristics that good Christians should strive for.  It does make it a bit easier to locate them in the sands of history because looking for William Jones is not as easy as chasing down Jabez Jones.

              Mason Children painted about 1670 David Joanna and Abigail

I am truly shocked at the number of people who take down their Christmas tree so close on the heels of Christmas. Some that very day most the day after. Do they NOT realize that the first day of Christmas is truly December 26? That January 6 is the 12^th day, also known as Epiphany or King’s Day? The day set aside to celebrate the visit of the Magi or the entourage of the Kings. How beautiful the house looks still for New Year’s parties. We never took our tree down until after January 6 or Twelfth Night. Mother would say it was bad luck for the New Year.

I feel like Merry and Pippin from The Lord of the Rings and their concerns about when they will eat. Do other people not get visits from Father Time and the New Year’s Baby? I do. 

Do they not put out apple slices for the camels, donkeys and horses, fruited cakes for the Kings’ and their entourage as they pass by on their journey? I do. 

          Defendente Ferrari [Italian, active about 1500 - 1535], Adoration of the Magi, Italian, about 1520,

Just as I do for Santa, his elf helper and the reindeer. They all leave gifts for us in return. On January 7 the day after King’s Day we have a King’s Cake for breakfast. I feel troubled that most are missing out on the true Christmas celebrations. They live in a frenzy until Christmas day and then in an explosion of torn paper, ribbons and food it is over and all they want to do is get rid of the evidence. How do they ever enjoy it? Do they not practice the daily gift exchange that takes place during the 12 days of Christmas?

                                    

This year I am gifting a group of Romance Writers and Readers I have become fond of on line with photos of gifts I would love to give each one. They are liking it but I know they do not enjoy it as much as I enjoy gifting them. One day it was a sleigh ride with a horse, another a Red Velvet cake. It is fun for me and a way to be thankful for them and to let them know I am thinking about them.

Every morning I awake and wish for each of you a gift. Today it is the gift of gratitude to your parental units for not naming you Recompense or Submit. 

The John Hancock

One day 12 years ago a demon sneezed and a kitten named Goblin was born. This morning he decided it was time to get up because he wanted to be fed. I keep the cat food bowls with kibble all the time so they free feed. He knows this. After listening to him meow, chirp and grumble forever and have him sit beside me as I lay abed purring while he starred laser beams at my back I got up. He shrieked at me. I wandered into the kitchen and low and behold there was food in the bowl. He sauntered up, squatted down and started to eat. I checked his water bowl and there was water. He refuses to eat in the morning unless I get up. If I just wander past the kitchen he will continue to torment me until I enter the kitchen when he will settle to eat. I turned off the light and went back to the bedroom to text a morning hello to a friend. It was 4:55AM!!!!!!

 I usually wake up at 6. That bloody cat woke me well before 4 this morning so he could fuss about being hungry when there was food in his bowl already. And, because I had not stayed in the kitchen so he could eat he was now back screeching at me. I checked the bowls again, put on some sweat pants a hoogie, boots, grabbed my purse and left the house. Now who are you going to grumble to reject from a demons nose? I was out for a little over 2 hours. The only good thing about Walmart. They are always open.

I am still researching my Sumner line which is on Mother’s side of the family. I am presently at William Sumner III who was married to Hannah Henchmen.

Now, I am not going to bore you with all the details except, Hannah is my 9^th Great Grandmother and she has a brother named Hezekiah (keep reading), who is my 9^th Great Grand Uncle, he married a woman named Abigail. They had a son whom they named Daniel who is my cousin, (stay with me). Cousin Daniel married a woman named Elizabeth and they had a daughter they named Lydia (we are almost there). Lydia is also a cousin, but that is not how she is famous, she married a man named Thomas Hancock. 

                                                     Thomas Hancock by John Singleton Copley

Does the name Hancock ring a bell? Cousin Lydia and Thomas Hancock had no children. Thomas Hancock had a brother named John Hancock who was married to a woman named Mary. They had a son named Johnny who was born in 1731 and orphaned in 1744. Little Johnny went to live with his Aunt Lydia and Uncle Thomas who were very wealthy and had established The House of Hancock, a trading firm. This wealth will come in handy for not only Little Johnny but also George Washington and a growing America. In 1764 Thomas Hancock died leaving little Johnny who was 27 one the wealthiest men in Massachusetts. In May of 1775 little Johnny was elected as the Fourth president of Congress. During his term as President, the Congress readied and created the Declaration of Independence. As President, Little Johnny, now known as John Hancock was the first to sign it. John Hancock. He presided over Congress while the country was at war until 1777 when he resigned.

                                     John Hancock  by  John Singleton Copley

This just gets me thinking that you just do not know the plans GOD has for you. Had Thomas and Lydia had their own children little Johnny Hancock may not have ever been given the love, support and courage he would need to be that one person who would step up and sign his name to a document of treason. Had his parents lived he may never have been given that spark that would lead him to encourage independence and perseverance. I cannot help but think that my dear cousin Lydia played a vital role in shaping young John Hancock. She died in 1776 shortly after being removed from Boston to Connecticut for her safety when the war broke out

                            Lydia Henchman Hancock by John Singleton Copley

John Singleton Copley, an artist in Boston painted her portrait and there is a hint of a smile lingering near her lips that starts in her eyes that is the same look I would see on my Granny when she was content. I think it blossoms from a whisper from GOD that says “your children are OK.”

 I want all of you children to know that the love, strength, courage, the desire for justice and freedom that nurtured John Hancock has been handed down to you too. You are better than your tragedy and a glorious story waiting to be written.   

Champagne Message

Adel and I had just finished up some shopping and were ready to exit the parking lot. It was about 7:45, dark and very busy, with cars rolling at Mach 4 down the access road (I think there was a time challenge going on). Two girls had been strolling down the sidewalk and after a pause strode behind the car in front of us so it could pull on out if it needed to.

 We rolled on up to the stop sign and Adel looked both ways. She saw some cars zooming up on us from the left, she glanced right, there was nothing coming as it was a one way street so she focused back to her left. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye to the right and there, appearing out of nowhere, was a woman wearing booty shorts and a tank top, (it was about 64 degrees)  headphones on, eyes focused on her phone not on the path ahead of her. She kept coming toward us, and still had not looked up. I was not worried as there were cars approaching on the left so I knew we would not move if jog woman failed to stop or move behind us. Then the cars from the left slowed, blinkers on and were going to turn into the parking lot we were exiting. I felt Adel release the pressure on her brakes as the oncoming car turned, and jog woman who still was looking at her phone moved in front of us as though she were entitled to treat others as being inferior, as though dressing skimpy and running allowed her free access to move however she wanted because they all always stopped to let her pass so they could stare at her skinny legs and lack of ass. It was obvious she was used to being waited on and felt in control of the world and powerful. The oncoming car had seen her and stopped just a few feet away, I said “Ade, stop! Do not go!” She hit the brakes as she turned her head catching the jog woman, head down still looking at her phone. But it was too late. Adel bumped into her. The startled woman looked up as she was pushed, clearly shocked (Uhh…. Pay attention mouth breathing, hunger deprived, female creature!) She recovered, kept jogging until she was about 10 paces away, and then she turned and yelled at us. But we were screaming at her and driving on!  A few moments later we saw ambulances rushing in the direction we had just come. I wonder if someone else had actually hit her.

That was not the end of our adventure though. We decide to grab some soup and salad at a local restaurant. We pull into this parking lot and as we drive through looking for a spot we encounter another female creature encased in a Cadillac sitting in the middle of the road blocking going in or out. We sat a few moments and waited but she failed to move. We turned into the parking area she was blocking and she still failed to move. We decide to go for it and complete our turn coming within inches of her door where we pause and both glare at her. She stares straight ahead and does not look over at us. We burst out laughing because we just cannot believe the night we are having. 

As I get up to leave the restaurant I catch a man staring at me, like a leopard sizing up a gazelle.

 (oh goody! I think. Play time!!) I smile at him and he saunters over with what he believes is a cool amount of swagger. As he gets up close, he smiles and starts to speak. I smile again and say good night. He stumbles to a halt and mumbles “huh…uh…ummm I was going to…..” Really dude!!?? Sending over a couple glasses of champagne would have been a better and less awkward and humiliating experience for you. It would have sent a couple of messages and conveyed information about you that may have peaked my curiosity or not.

I will say the journey was blessedly uneventful.

Cheers

Scarlet the Vile

In case any of you are wondering Scarlet showed back up and she did not look even the least bit remorseful for having left. Cats!!

Twas a Monday night a few days before Christmas and I had just snuggled in bed for a brief nights respite. When, out in the living room I heard a small scuffle. I accounted for Goblin who was curled in my bed and then realized that it was that she-devil Scarlet again. There was shuffling and pawing and dashing pell-mell. It was not a burglar lurking throughout, more like it was Scarlet frolicking about. I wondered if I should get up and have a look around but decided not. This morning as I remembered the conflict I had heard the night before I hesitantly went into the living room to assay the damage. There, lying three feet from the Christmas tree and two feet from his original position, was Santa, on his back and laying in the opposite direction from where he should have been, had he just fallen over. It seems the malevolent Scarlet had attacked and skirmished with Santa. I knew she was wicked but to ambush, terrorize and melee Santa in the dead of midnight was beyond her usual hatefulness.

Where is she now? Sitting under the Christmas tree glaring with hate filled squinty eyes at the prone Santa. I think even the cat known as Grumpy Cat, who wears a perpetual scowl on his face would be intimidated by her. 

She has a habit of staring at me from across the room and then as I am distracted by something else she magically appears right in front of me starring as though that is where she had been not 10 minutes prior. If I startle or ask her what she is doing she gives me this very soft little “mew” sound as if to innocently be saying “what?” It is unnerving.

I was at a meeting yesterday when who did I see do a slow rolling drive by? Horatio.

 He did not come from where I was sitting so there must have been mayhem at the T-Mobile store. If any of you have ever had to experience T- Mobile I am sure you can imagine.

 The frustration, the dissatisfaction of being at their mercy and their unfair barbaric policies. Their unwillingness to listen, to understand and react to human emotion. Yes it is easy to see why Horatio may have been there. Some dissatisfied customer/prisoner of T-Mobile went all violent with a hammer and every phone in the store is smashed, wrecked, shattered and broken. Yes, we have all had the thought. But one of us has acted upon it. I kind of wish to cheer them on….

I have to get my expense sheet to my accountant or I there will be no Merry Christmas here.

Cheers!

A Really Bad Morning

Woke up, warmed up, and accomplished my morning hike. Put water on for coffee, and placed the last slice of walnut date bread in the toaster. My toaster is a mean-spirited machine that reacts with a scorn filled vengeance when I deign to let it out of the closet to use. 

My bread started to burn. I turned on the fan, opened the front door and started fanning the smoke alarm. Both cats were in the kitchen observing this chaos with feigned boredom. 

Next thing I know they are gone. I do not let the cats outside except for a few steps onto the porch every now and again and Goblin likes to chew on grass which I allow him to do from the porch. I found him outside nibbling grass and Scarlet is gone. I would panic and become disturbed by this but if the creature wishes to move on….

My guess is she will show back up and sit at the door screaming as she has before when she has made the choice to move on. I have explained to her many times that there is no food to magically appear in a dish, no warmth, no cushions, no water and no litter box and still sometimes she just makes a run for it. I wish her the best of luck. That is money I will save on cat food.

Because I know some of you will be horrified by this; I will say that NO I am not a soulless, inhumane, person. She does not want to be here and it would be soulless and inhumane to keep her here against her will. The last time she spent two days under a bed hiding when she came back.

I am not here to share my early morning drama today I am here to share the drama of my former manager and friend Louise …..

Okay… Okay… Friends and family… There I was minding my own business I had just woken up in the morning and I was thinking oh good I can stay home today and get some rest after the busy busy last few days that I have had… That's when my little puppy sugar came up to the head of the bed right by my ear and threw up… Oh no… I jumped up....we had just taken her to the vet last week for a rash… And was told she has allergies… upon jumping up… I found that she had left two big brown puddles on the floor…so I cleaned everything up..called the vet… (frank slept through all of this )....I threw a sweater over my pajamas and put some boots on over my slippers...and Off we went...she threw up about three more times before we made it to the vet.. another $125 later which makes it to total of $252 ...three shots and three medications..the vet assures me it is only allergies that have traveled inside her gut... And she should be ok within 24 hours..,or not... To come back if she's not better by Thursday..so I took sugar home… Frank is still sleeping… So I rouse him awake… And tell him to watch sugar while I go get some dog and cat food which we are out of… And off I go again… Leaving on my pajamas because hey… It's only going to be a short trip…I get theThe dog and cat food....and leave to go home… When all of a sudden I hear the distinctive sound of a police siren behind me… Oh no...I'm thinking… What did I do… I'm not speeding I didn't run any stop signs what could be the problem…???ma'am… The officer says… Do you realize your inspection sticker expired two months ago… And license plate on your car expired back in 1998 and are not for this car ...and doesn't match the sticker on your window…uh no !!! How can that be I ask ?? I know I am a fine upstanding citizen..and have never stolen a license plate or sticker in my life... I was dumbfounded Then I thought.., hey maybe I accidentally put franks sticker on my window....he goes back to his car to check on things.. Am I going to be arrested?? My car impounded??Then it hits me... I ordered my sticker on line.., it came with new license plates.., I put them under the car seat to put on later….. And promptly forgot about them ....I never realize that when they sent you new license plates that means that they're changing your license plate number… Did not know it was so critical to get those suckers on my car so fast… Even though I did get them in June…well I pulled the plates out from under the seat and showed the officer when he came back.., he was not impressed and wrote me a ticket for fraudulent license plates and expired inspection ticket and said I would need to go to court to explain…as for The expired inspection sticker I had every intention of getting my car inspected when I got the oil changed… But alas… They were due in October… And I again forgot about both… I think it's my age… Do you think the judge will take that into consideration??so I said merry Christmas officer as I accepted my ticket and proceeded home...nope… My story is not over… So I open my back door and go walking in… When the most her horrendous smell hits me right between the eyes…after looking around the house it became quite evident that little sugar had gotten very sick and had pooped from one end of the living room to the other with big brown puddles… In the carpet...Couldn't of been on the bare floor… No in the rug…..not a simple wipe it up job but a job that required bringing out the industrial-strength rug cleaner… So there I go cleaning everything up again… And where is Frank… Still sleeping…obviously not watching sugar as I requested...so rug is cleaned sugar is cleaned houses aired out and I am sitting here with my Stevia cream soda telling my Facebook friends and family… My terrible story… Of today's adventures… And I'm feeling a lot better now… Thank you all… Sheesh…

Aren't you glad to find out that I am not the only one like me? There are more of us around. I am! Was this a bad morning or what? Oh yeah she captured and posted a photo of the officer on social media in case this was a traffic stop that went bad. Very sneaky she is.

Just heard a choir of sirens. I hope Scarlet is not engaging in criminal mischief. 

Breakfast Letters: Endure with Strength Descendant of Sumner

Breakfast Letters: Endure with Strength Descendant of Sumner: Fort Sumner in New Mexico may sound familiar to some. It is associated with names such as Billy “The Kid”, Pat Garrett, and Lucien Maxwell....

Endure with Strength Descendant of Sumner

Fort Sumner in New Mexico may sound familiar to some. It is associated with names such as Billy “The Kid”, Pat Garrett, and Lucien Maxwell.

The fort was established 31 October 1862 to protect a reservation, which covered about 40 square miles at Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. Many military officers were against these plans as, the land allotted for the reservation had a poor water supply and minimal trees. Congress insisted and the reservation was established.

Fort Sumner is located 160 miles west of Lubbock, Texas on Hwy 60 in New Mexico. The post was named for General Edwin Vose Sumner. He never saw the fort as he died in 1863 before it was completed. Sumner was appointed Brigadier General by Abraham Lincoln, one of only three he appointed and dispatched to the Department of the Pacific in California. After being recalled back East, General Sumner was in battle in 1862 at the battle of Antietam along with Brigadier General John Sedgwick. Sumner was promoted to Major General in 1862 and has the distinction of being the oldest field officer on either side during the Civil War. Commonly referred to as “Bullhead” earned, according to legend, by a musket ball once hitting him in the head but instead of penetrating bouncing off.  He died in 1863 while visiting his daughter in Syracuse, New York. Edwin Vose Sumner is my 4^th cousin. We share a great grandfather, William Sumner, who was born in 1605.

Why all this Sumner chatter? One beautiful summer day in August I was at Fort Sumner with a man I adored and we were creating amazing memories. We were on our return trip from Sturgis and had been on his bike on an adventure for a month.

 I had been chasing some Sumner ghosts in Mothers past when I wondered if we were any relation to the Sumner the Fort was named after so I went hunting for him. I came across 7 great grandfathers and one great grandmother named Sumner and the common link as I said was William Sumner in 1605. He was born in England and arrived in America in 1630 settling in Massachusetts. He was a Trustee for the school and the land it occupied as well as being an officer in the court and a prominent leader in his church.

Sumner is a sept, saeptum, or in English it translates to enfolded; as to be part of a fold or clan of Clan Lindsay who were prominent not only in Scotland but also in England. The Sumners are absorbed into the Lindsay clan and considered an integral part of it. The Lindsay clan motto is Endure Fort (Latin) it means Suffer Bravely or Endure with Strength. Clan septs, like us Sumners have the right to wear clan tartans and badges and use the clan motto.

The clan badge is a swan rising from a coronet and can be used by all in the clan including the septs.

I was at a high tea with Mother on Friday when Patsy said something in the course of conversation that led mother to ask if she was interested in Genealogy. Patsy shrieked and said “oh heavens no, no no no! I want to look forward not backwards. I do not want to know nor do I care! There is nothing for me there, However I do know I descend from kings.” Really?? I thought. Mother than looked at me, I could see where she was going to go. She was going to want me to give a line of descendants all the way to Prince William. The other ladies at the table were somewhat impressed with Patsy’s statement. I knew if I did what mother wanted Patsy would have shut her down, dismissed her, rudely left the table or interrupted her and changed the subject. So, I asked the ladies at the table if they had heard of the Bondurant Brothers. The bootleggers with the moonshine one Lady asked with awe. Yes! Those boys are related to Mother. Let the chatter begin. They were impressed and thrilled and the topic took off in another direction giving mother the center of attention and creating a lively round of dangerous, rowdy, relatives.  

Glad I have that clan motto: Endure with Strength!!!!

Sassamanash

Cranberry sauce.

Those cans of jellied cranberries that have been served at Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and other festive Holidays and meals. Who thought of it? Why cranberries? This thought has plagued me this year. How tacky and unattractive it is to just scoop it out of the can and serve it. My mother makes a cranberry salad out of oranges, walnuts and fresh cranberries that is gloriously sweet, tangy, tart and crunchy.

My grandmother made a frozen cranberry salad that was smooth, creamy, sweet, crunchy from walnuts and cold in contrast to the other hot food on the table.

My favorite is still the can of jellied goodness. I know it is a childhood comfort food memory that says you are loved. Loved? By a can of cranberries? Yes, after hours of preparing food that would tempt, tease and please adult palates my mother and my grandmothers would take the extra couple of thoughts to buy, chill, open and serve canned jellied cranberries to us children. It was more like a treat. You children are having something special we are not getting with our meal. YES!!!! We would be thrilled and be glad we sat at the Children’s table where the adults would not know of our special treat.

Shall we explore the cranberry?

Cranberries are native to North America, growing on low creeping shrubs or as vines that can grow about 7 feet long. The flowers are dark pink with small green leaves (berries are actually larger than their leaves). Cranberries start white and turn red as they ripen, and are incredibly tart which overwhelms the sweetness.  They thrive in the chilly air and highly acidic soil of our northern states are found growing in Massachusetts, New Jersey, West Virginia, Oregon and Washington with wonderful Wisconsin producing over half of the cranberry crop of the world.

Blueberries, and huckleberries are related to the cranberry or craneberry as the first European settlers called them. The flowers look like the head, bill and neck of a crane. 

In England they are called fenberries. A fen is a bog, marsh, wetland, forested swamp. Moss commonly grows in bogs and in Canada cranberries are called mossberries. These berries grow naturally in bogs and wetlands. Today they are cultivated by flooding the bogs. This loosens them from the vines. The cranberry has four small hollow chambers inside it and this causes them to be very buoyant.  The berry floats to the top of the water and can be harvested. So those guys in waders in the Ocean Spray commercial standing in water surrounded by cranberries is how it happens.

The Algonquian people of North America had used cranberries for food, and dyes as well as for medicine long before the Europeans came here. They call the berries Sassamanash. In 1550 there was a reference in a book about the people native to the New World eating cranberries. In 1633 a petticoat dyed pink with cranberry juice was sold at an auction. 30 years later a recipe for cranberry sauce appears in a cookbook. It became very common to create a sauce for meat from the cranberry in the soon to be country of America.

Up until the 1930s cranberries were sold in their raw and natural state in grocery markets and stores. Imperfect and low-grade berries were soon being culled out and crushed, processed and canned.

In a book, New England Rarities Discovered, written in 1672 by John Josselyn he says this of the cranberry plant: "Sauce for the Pilgrims, cranberry or bearberry, is a small trayling plant that grows in salt marshes that are overgrown with moss. The berries are of a pale yellow color, afterwards red, as big as a cherry, some perfectly round, others oval, all of them hollow with sower [sic] astringent taste; they are ripe in August and September. They are excellent against the Scurvy. They are also good to allay the fervor of hoof diseases. The Indians and English use them mush, boyling [sic] them with sugar for sauce to eat with their meat; and it is a delicate sauce, especially with roasted mutton. Some make tarts with them as with gooseberries."

So… enjoy your native American food with joy and gusto. Your forefathers did.