Year: 2020 (Page 1 of 16)

These are a few of our favorite things (or moments!):

December 24, 2020 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Last week, we asked you to share the memory of a favorite gift or gesture you received on a past holiday. Here are your responses:

  • A barbie house ❤️
  • A letter/song about how wonderful of a mom I am from my preteen son about 10 years ago.
  • A puppy!
  • A surprise loaf of homemade bread😘
  • An airplane ticket to USSR in 1988.
  • An iPad from my family so I can see them on FaceTime, it’s been a blessing this year
  • Baby arrived right after Christmas, 7 weeks early…UU Rowdy Moms stepped in to help with older kids so I could be at the hospital while baby was in intensive care.
  • For the past 12 years we have received a calendar from our kids documenting the past year in pictures.
  • I enjoyed a personalized calendar with pictures of extended family.
  • I received a Wellspring 2020 solstice small package on my front porch yesterday. The contents filled my heart with surprise and joy!
  • In 1967, my HS junior, I was the only one without a letter sweater when pins were awarded. I’d lettered in 4 sports so I had go up to the stage 4X, embarrassed 4Xs. I knew the embarrassment would continue my senior year. In August my Grandmother said she had an early Xmas present for me and I’d just have to understand there would NOT be another gift at Christmas. The gift was the letter sweater! This $20 gift was huge, far more than any gift she could afford. I’ll always remember how much I was loved and how well she understood what a 16 yr old girl “needed” to feel “included”.
  • Last Christmas my brother flew me to North Carolina so all my brothers and sisters could all be together. It was great!
  • Last year my partner got us dancing lessons.
  • More than anything time with those I love. The laughing, the treats, the drinks, the hugs ❤️
  • My first figure skates … more than 70 years ago… from “uncle” Benny a dear friend of my parents. Only to be revealed decades later that my mother actually picked them out and wrapped them for me. Gotta love those Santas!
  • My late husband gave me beautiful sapphire & diamond earrings his last Christmas. They have become my most prized possession
  • My son wrote on some wrapping paper one year “Dad, I couldn’t have asked for a better role model”. It’s one of my favorite gifts ever. I framed it and put it on my wall. I don’t even remember what was in the package.
  • Ornaments for my collection
  • Our children all traveled to Fort Collins last year for our first Christmas here.
  • Our son surprising me by coming home from college early. He was hiding in a big box, wrapped, and I took my time saying hi to the family first, before opening the package! 😬😳😱😁🥰
  • Received my bicycle from my grandparents. I was 10 years old.
  • The first Christmas I was single and the mother of four little boys, my neighbor took them to the store and they each bought me a different color of nail polish. Best gifts ever!!
  • The gift of family and friends.
  • The joy our grandkids have as they experience traditions with us year after year…
  • The t-shirt that says “Papa like a grandpa only cooler. Also a book called “How to babysit a Grandpa” and a custom book that our oldest daughter had made go Father’s Day.
  • Visit with all my family and my son’s homemade eggnog.
  • When I was in high school I spotted an expensive (to me) sweater that I fell in love with. I must have mentioned it to my mom because much to my great surprise is was under the Christmas tree. It showed me that she pays attention to me. 45 years later, I still have the sweater and treasure it.
  • While living in Mx. For many years we did not exchange gifts with family snd friends. . We always gave each other the gift of travel. And tried to do the same with our family by bringing them to our B&B for a unique holiday. We still try to do the same.

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What’s Your Path to Holiday Magic? Take the Quiz!

December 11, 2020 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”39769″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In 2020, holiday magic may feel like an especially tall order. Magic is a tricky word. Even in a “normal” year, the marketing of holiday magic can seem trite, fake, or flimsy.

It helps to remember that in the most basic sense, magic describes one thing changing into another. Not just any sort of change, of course. Magic implies a change that is inexplicable, unpredictable, and awe-inspiring. The sort of change people long for when they feel stuck or helpless. The change people crave when they cannot see their way to a better world.

Living in this time when we feel stuck and it’s hard to imagine a better future, we don’t need the trite, false sort of holiday magic. We need magic that transforms the 5 pm darkness into a signal not of life’s end but its beginning. We need magic that stirs within us a sense of possibility, preparation, and transformation.

We need magic that transforms division into community, fear into trust, greed into generosity, injustice into liberation, and chaos into peace. We need magic that reminds us we are never alone and love abounds even when darkness limits what we can see in the moment.

I know it’s a a lot for just a few weeks. This is why the task this season is not to get this magic all at once. It is simply to find our way to small moments of magic. To tune into moments of wonder, love, connection, ease, laughter, and joy sprinkled throughout our days.

I’ve developed a fun, short online quiz to help you proactively identify and engage in practices that will awaken magic. The purpose of this quiz is to offer a path to remembering that life-sustaining magic is still possible, even in 2020.

With love,

Rev. Gretchen[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title=”Take the Quiz: What’s Your Path to Holiday Magic” color=”turquoise” size=”lg” align=”center” button_block=”true” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fquiz.tryinteract.com%2F%23%2F5fd11463fc4760001688f857||target:%20_blank|”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Quotes That Keep Us Going…

December 10, 2020 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Last week we asked you to share a quote or mantra that has kept you going. Thanks to all who shared something. Here are the responses:

 

“A bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush.”

“All good things come to me.”

“All models are bad, but some are useful.”

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Gandhi

“Because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they have.”

“Breathe in, Breathe out.”

“When I breathe in, I breathe in peace. When I breathe out, I breathe out love.”

“Choose discomfort over resentment.”

“Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

“Do what you can. Be who you are. Want what you have.”

“Every day I wake up a better pickleball player!”  😉

“Everyone has their own God taking care of them. ” (Meaning that I don’t have to take care of everyone and can release myself from that responsibility when I start to feel it.)

“Everything is a choice. Choose happy.”

“Fail, fail fast, and fail again.”

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and to accept the things I can change and the wisdom to know the difference.”

“Happiness is not a destination but a way of life.”

“Have Courage and Be Kind”

“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”

“In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa

“It is a mark of leadership to adjust.”

“It is always darkest before the dawn.”

“It is better to light one candle than to curse the dark.”

“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” And this actress passed away last week.”

“Just Do It” the iconic slogan of the company named after the Goddess of Victory; “Just friggin do it”—my oft repeated version of that slogan.

“Let it Be.”

“Never let what you can’t do get in the way of what you can.”

“Nothing without joy.”

“One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk.” – Tahshunke Witko

“Pick myself up, dust myself off and start ALL over again.”

“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” – Scott Adams

“Shared joy is double joy; shared sorrow is half sorrow.”

“Everything will be alright in the end; so if everything is not alright, then it is not yet the end💖”

“Six more months, just six more months…”

“The worst four letter word in the English language is “mine”.”

“This too shall pass.”

“Toward the One, the perfection of love, harmony and beauty, the only being, united with all the illuminated souls who form the embodiment of the Master, the spirit of guidance.”

“We are still in the middle of the story.”

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“When you are going through Hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill

“You can always have your way if you have more than one way.”

“You got to be a little crazy, so you don’t go insane.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

What we are thankful for…

December 3, 2020 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Last week we asked you to share what you are thankful for. We created a word cloud with your beautiful responses:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”39348″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Thanksgiving Meal Favorites (and a few thing you would rather not see again…)

November 25, 2020 /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Thank you to everyone who share your Thanksgiving favorites (and least favorites) with us! Here are your most and least favorite Thanksgiving dishes (keep scrolling to the end for a few shared stories as well):

 

  • Most favorite: sweet potato casserole with SO MANY MARSHMALLOWS – Least favorite: dressing!
  • Favorite Thanksgiving dish is fresh ham with pineapple – Least favorite is green bean casserole
  • Favorite: oyster dressing – Least favorite: creamed pearl onions
  • Most favorite, my wife’s home cooked stuffing. It’s delicious. – Least favorite, my fathers giblet gravy. He thinks it’s the slickest dish ever. The rest of us only eat it to make him happy. Yuck.
  • Favs: Sweet potato anything, pumpkin anything, salad with lots of veggies and pomegranate seeds, STUFFING! – Least fav: turkey…I have always disliked turkey and then I raised turkeys and now I just can’t. They stink (literally) and that’s all I can smell when it’s cooking YUCK!”
  • Favorite: pumpkin pie – Least favorite: green bean casserole
  • Cranberry sauce is favorite. – No least favorite!
  • Cranberry sauce in the can- it is only eaten by the elders, as the rest of us will not touch it 😁
  • My mom used to make oyster dressing every year. I always loved the part made out of crushed saltines drenched with butter, but the actual oysters… *shudder *. So rubbery and blech.
  • Sunset magazine’s overnight soft herb rolls are my very fav dish. Boiled and mashed turnips are my most hated dish.
  • I love Thanksgiving dishes, the sweet potatoes with the just perfect marshmallows toasted on top, the cranberries, the olives, everything!
  • I’m not a vegetarian but honestly the turkey is the tiniest portion on my plate and if it weren’t there for everyone else I would just make everything else for me!!  The only Thanksgiving dish I didn’t like was if the green bean casserole is made from really soft green beans.  It’s just too mushy 🤢 But with fresh green beans not over cooked…amazing!”
  • Most favorite: Mash potatoes and gravy  – Least Favorite: Oyster dressing
  • Most favorite: Cranberries – Least Favorite: Stuffing
  • Favorite, which I’m notorious for in my family: Canned Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, which absolutely MUST have the lines from the can still on it. I even love that sucking sound it makes when it slides out of the can!
  • Favorite is the turkey – Least is the sweet potato dish with the little marshmallows on top.
  • Best: Cranberry salad, then Pecan pie!!
  • Most – Gravy on everything – Least favorite: Tofurkey
  • Favorite: mashed potatoes with gravy – Least favorite: Not a fan of stuffing.
  • Favorite: pumpkin pie! – Least favorite: tomato aspic, which is lemon Jell-o with canned tomatoes mixed in. (Yuck, right?) My dad always offered to bring it, until last year we finally had the nerve to tell him that none of us like it! Apparently, many years ago, my father-in-law complimented my dad on his tomato aspic dish, and ever since then, Dad assumed we all liked it!
  • Favorite: Turkey – Least favorite: Brussels Sprouts
  • Favorite: roasted Brussels sprouts – Least Favorite: Mashed Potatoes
  • Least favorite – sweet potatoes with marshmallows, also green beans with those weird canned fried onions on top. Why spoil two great vegetables so much?
  • Pumpkin pie and whipped cream for sure❤️ And the joy of family around the table❤️
  • Mashed potatoes and stuffing are probably my favorite foods. “Yucky yams” is the food that I will NOT eat. You know, the sweet potato casserole made with canned yams, brown sugar and butter with marshmallows on top. Yuck! 🤣 the latter is probably Jon’s favorite, though we don’t make it anymore.
  • It’s stuffing…no funny story, I just don’t like it.
  • Favorite: stuffing – Least – boiled onions
  • Most: apple cranberry pie – Least: dressing with oysters
  • I never liked the squash my mother served, but I loved her curried fruit!
  • Canned squash made me gag.
  • Most: homemade apple pie with whipped cream – Least: When I was a kid, green bean casserole with crunchy onions on top. I don’t eat or make it as an adult.
  • Favorite sweet potatoes – Least gizzards n things
  • Jell-O salad with canned fruit.
  • I love gravy fortified with mole’.
  • Turkey is my favorite & I don’t have a least favorite traditional dish.🦃
  • So many people ruin good sweet potatoes with syrupy whatever and top it with toasted marshmallows! Yuck!
  • Boiled brussel sprouts
  • My least favorite Thanksgiving dish is actually turkey.  I just never got excited about the taste of turkey.  Growing up, my extended family would all gather at an aunts house.  We had both a mid-day meal, the turkey, and later the evening meal, ham.  I loved the ham!!  My favorite!
  • Least favorite – canned yams with marshmallows melted on top – yuck!  I love candied yams, but not those fake interlopers!
  • Favorite – Gramma’s pumpkin pie recipe – sooo yummy!
  • I’m fond of stuffing. Thumbs down to sweet potatoes with marshmallows.
  • Favorite: pumpkin pie! – Least favorite: tomato aspic, which is lemon Jell-o with canned tomatoes mixed in. (Yuck, right?) My dad always offered to bring it, until last year we finally had the nerve to tell him that none of us like it! Apparently, many years ago, my father-in-law complimented my dad on his tomato aspic dish, and ever since then, Dad assumed we all liked it!
  • Favorite: mole (over gravy) covered turkey – Least favorite: cranberry sauce
  • Best: Green bean casserole w/xtra crispy onions and cranberry sauce OUT OF A CAN!!!” – Least: Any kind of dark meat turkey especially the legs and yams
  • Most favorite: stuffing with gravy – Least favorite: pumpkin pie
  • Favorite…cornbread stuffing – Least…cranberries
  • Favorite is stuffing – Least favorite: corn, dumped from a can.  Seriously!
  • I live the baked cranberries served with cream cheese that are a tradition in my family.  My kids call every year to review how to make them😊. And I HATE candied yams. Yuck.
  • Favorite: sweet potatoes with apricots and pecans – Least favorite: deviled eggs
  • Mashed potatoes
  • I never liked the squash my mother served, but I loved her curried fruit!
  • Once a friend who was an experienced cook volunteered to do the turkey and only after several hours realized he had never taken the oven off of the “Preheat” setting producing a turkey that was nearly raw on one side and scorched on the other.
  • I live the baked cranberries served with cream cheese that are a tradition in my family.  My kids call every year to review how to make them😊. And I HATE candied yams. Yuck.
  • My mom used to make oyster dressing every year. I always loved the part made out of crushed saltines drenched with butter, but the actual oysters… *shudder *. So rubbery and blech.
  • Favorite is squash casserole – I really don’t have any least favorite dishes
  • Favorite dish..stuffing with sausage, apples, celery, onions, seasonings..yum – Least favorite.whole cranberry sauce
  • I never liked the squash my mother served, but I loved her curried fruit!
  • Pumpkin pie and whipped cream for sure❤️ And the joy of family around the table❤️
  • Spinach Dip with clams. Whole cranberries. – Not really fond of the Three Bean Casserole.

 

Stories you shared with us:

 

“Once a friend who was an experienced cook volunteered to do the turkey and only after several hours realized he had never taken the oven off of the “Preheat” setting producing a turkey that was nearly raw on one side and scorched on the other.”

 

“I got very creative, as a child, at hiding the food that revolted me but I was expected to eat. I would line my pockets with napkins so that I could slip slimy vegetables into them without telltale stains. I would take my shoes off at the table and drop disgusting-to-me food into them as well, then nonchalantly carry them away after the meal was over. I would drop things into the nearest potted plants in the room, mostly the overcooked vegetables because they were less likely to be discovered later. Excusing myself to go to the bathroom with a carefully disguised mouthful of unchewed food was another ploy. One time I slipped some mushy broccoli under the tablecloth and the table pad and forgot about it. Months later my mom went to remove the table pad and found the moldy broccoli, adhered to the wood of the table, ruining the finish. I secretly considered it karmic justice. Needless to say, learning how to cook and enjoy eating vegetables has been a life’s journey for me.”

 

“Once a friend who was an experienced cook volunteered to do the turkey and only after several hours realized he had never taken the oven off of the “Preheat” setting producing a turkey that was nearly raw on one side and scorched on the other.”

 

“My mother’s folks would make pies, mincemeat and pumpkin.  I always loved the pumpkin pies, probably because I would watch my big, strong, grandfather in the carpenters apron he wore in the kitchen, fork in the pocket designed for a pencil, making the dough for the crusts and then the pies themselves.  I learned early that men can cook too!  (All British style cooking, boil everything to death, salt and pepper the only seasonings.  But, men can cook!)”

 

“In taking turkey out of oven getting ready to carve, fork got stabbed into turkey,  lifted up to go onto tray, but instead, slid off fork sliding gracefully across my kitchen floor…”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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