Christmas Eve

Tonight is Christmas Eve. In some places, folks open gifts tonight. This year we won't open gifts together until the day AFTER Christmas, when we all had the day off. That means I have two more days to finish and wrap gifts!

Agenda Today:
1. Prayer journal queries
2. Make a cheese ball
3. Hang our stockings with care
4. Christmas Novena, day 9

1. Prayer journal queries:
This last few days of Advent my theme is the Guiding Light of God. My image of God is a Spirit of Love and Light that lives in all people. On this final day of Advent I pray for a peaceful heart, and sit with these queries:

What have I learned this Advent period? What gift of grace have I been given? 

How am I called to see, hear, and act in the new year, with my new eyes and ears? 

My Journal: The gift I've received this year is a bittersweet heart-thing, an opening and relaxing, shedding of the need to do things This way. I've given up SO much this year, and it has been hard; but what is left is distilled to a pure crystal of love. 

In 2021, then, I'm called to be and act more accepting, flexible, and loving to those I disagree with, and more open to listening and learning different views. 

2. Make a cheese ball:

One of my memories of childhood is the Christmas table: My Mom set out a spread! Since we two are on our own tomorrow, and it seems mundane to eat leftovers on Christmas, I'm preparing a few delectable treats just for W and me to snack on tomorrow. This cheeseball is a simple favorite from my Mom's table.

Ingredients

• 
  16 ounces cream cheese
• approximately 1/2-lb. sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp. garlic chili sauce
• 1 tsp. fresh herbs (I used thyme)
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2/3 cup walnuts

1. Leave the cream cheese out to soften for an hour. Meanwhile, grate the cheddar to make 2 cups. Chop the walnuts and the fresh herbs finely.

2. Place softened cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add cheese, chili sauce, herbs, and pepper and mix well to combine.

3. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and gather the mixture into one lump. Oil your hands and form the mixture into a round ball.

4. Hold the cheese ball in one hand and use the other hand to scoop the chopped walnuts onto the outside of the ball, pressing them in gently and turning the ball to coat all sides.

5. Cover the cheeseball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour to firm up. Take it out again before serving to allow it to soften slightly. Serve with crackers and a spreading knife.

3. Hang our stockings with care:
For the first time ever, we are all hanging stockings in our own homes. (We will have a flurry of elf visits tonight.)

4. Christmas Novena, day 9:
From the Worldssps site:

In Communion with Street Children

The day has come at last when Mary will bring forth her firstborn Son. 

While we sleep tonight in our comfortable beds, in our comfortable homes and in a safe neighbourhood, an estimated 200 million street children will be sleeping down in conditions that are too dreadful even for stray animals. 

Our loving God must have grieved over the loneliness and desperation of these children. Where the world sees a filthy urchin, God sees a precious child created in his image. While we see their disposable lives, God sees their eternal souls. When the communities in which these children roam see a problem that needs to be fixed, God sees a child who needs to be loved. 

On the 9th day of our Christmas novena, united with the whole congregation, we remember all street children with and without names who are alive in our dreams, like the child Jesus who was born in a crib where animals fed.