Erin Rhea

NEW SONG RELEASE! It's December Eve, and Christmas is upon us, along with all that the holiday brings. New song, DECEMBER EVE available on Bandcamp with more avenues coming soon. peace, pcb

WHAT’S THE WEATHER?

Sook would say it’s (almost) fruitcake weather. Well, at least it’s cooler.

What’s your favorite recipe that heralds in the holiday season?

Mine is strawberry bread. My mom made it every year shortly after Halloween.

In the small town where I grew up, for decades the local ladies have held “The Christmas Sampler,” an event which helps to fund the upkeep of the historic home where many of the women’s clubs meet and hold events. Once upon a time, a portion of the home served as the first library in town. Locals also report that the home hosts a bossy ghost who is particular about where things are kept and how the curtains are arranged.

The Christmas Sampler is the first weekend of November. Ever since I can remember. (Many many MANY apologies to my Dad for his often overlooked birthday of November 2 on the years that my Mom has been heavily involved in the running and/or organization of the event.)

Leading up to the event, there it would be. Some years it would be in the afternoon when I would come home from school. Some years it would be 10:00 at night as my mother’s day stretched into the wee hours to get everything done.

But there it was.

The smell of strawberry bread.

Sugary, cinnamony, fruity goodness.

I knew that tomorrow morning I could have a fresh slice with melted butter for breakfast before school.

And in a couple of days, we would all be down at the civic center surrounded by the twinkling lights of Christmas trees, all kinds of hand-crafted merchandise to buy, and my favorite - the plethora of canned and baked goods of many ladies in town, the proceeds of which all went to support the women’s club building. There, among the canned jams and jellies, the watermelon pickles (if you could get them before they were gone), the sourdough bread, the chess pies, and chocolate cakes, there was my mother’s strawberry bread. The signal that Christmas was, at last, within shoutin’ distance.

What food smells like Christmas to you?

(ALSO…In a day or two…some exciting news on the topic of Christmas and baking and what kind of weather it is. IYKYK and if you don’t, you will!)

HEADS OR TAILS?

Sometimes making decisions is simply more than I can do. My bandwidth just won’t allow it.

I’ve read studies, listened to podcasts, and reviewed countless articles that mention all these (mostly) small decisions that we face each day fill up our brains and then it makes bigger decisions even harder. Maybe making tough decision out of ones that shouldn’t be that difficult – mountain out of a molehill, anyone?

In my brain in rapid fire succession:
“Chicken or beef?”
“Mom, which pollinator do you choose: yellow jacket, wasp, or honey bee?”
“What should I do with last year’s kid art?”
“Should I get rid of these pants?”
“Where do I need to move that shelf so that it’s more useful?”
“Mom, do you think red or blue?”
“What can we get for Dad’s Birthday?”
“When in heck am I going to do the taxes?”
“Do these shoes work with this outfit?”
“Should I fix this or throw it away?”
“Would you like fries with that?”
“What’s a good get-away destination?”

In my heart, I know that the answers to most of these questions won’t matter tomorrow. My best answer is good enough. Decide. Move on. BUT HONESTLY, and I know I’m not alone in this, it is energy-zapping to be facing small detail questions all the time. That last one though…

That one is fun. An adventure.

How to decide?

Time and money are factors, of course. Maybe draw a circle on a map and throw a dart at it? Maybe write ideas on paper and draw the answer out of a hat. Or the ol’ flip-a-coin classic.
It’ll be less mileage than choosing between Carolina and California a la Jo Dee Messina, maybe more like Heads Bugscuffle, Tails Buck Snort.

My current lack of capacity for decision-making has stopped me in my tracks. Not the first time. Or anything to worry much about. To make it easy, I have DECIDED to stick with the heads/tails tried and true solution. One that we’ve used before.

Years ago we had little financial resources, a car with broken air conditioning (dependable otherwise), a window of time on our hands, and a BIG TRAVEL JONES! My husband asked me where I wanted to go. THE BEACH! We threw the camping gear in the car and started heading south. Heads Gulf, Tails Atlantic. We tossed the coin just before getting to Nashville where we had to decide which interstate to get on. Heads. Grayton Beach State Park it was. Too bad there was a hurricane coming, and we had no TV and no clue. We squeezed in a great trip before being asked to evacuate with the volunteer evacuees on what was our planned last day anyway. We ate some oysters and headed North, perfectly willing to get out of Mother Nature’s way.

Heads or Tails? I’ll let you know.

In the meantime, what do you want for supper?

Happy Mother's Day Weekend...

To all Moms and all the ones doing the Mothering. It's fun, hard, heart-breaking, and soul-filling.

Thank you to everyone who joined in/is joining in on the Remembering Burdett's event today at Main Street Boutique (10a-3p) - Thank you for the wonderful memories at Burdett's and thanks to my Mom, the driving force behind it all. Thank you to those today who had a bite of chicken salad and brownies, a sip of fruit tea, purchased some Blue Roses tea and something pretty, and got one of the postcards for ONE MORE MINUTE. If you missed the postcard, the link is in the comments to go to Bandcamp and listen to the song. It's about being a Mom. 💗

Photo: 2019 Smile Darling Photography

MY CHRISTMAS MEMORY

Christmas has always been my favorite season of the year. The traditions and the comfort that accompanies those traditions. Finding ways to show our love for one another with gifts and time together. Gathering with family around the fireplace, hoping for snow, the year I got the china doll, the year I was afraid I hadn’t been good enough for Santa to bring the Atari (he did), the times I’ve watched my children’s eyes light up looking at Christmas lights, the time my husband and I had a Nashville staycation in a hotel room overlooking the Christmas tree at the Capitol and enjoyed a couple of nights of amazing concerts downtown, the year it snowed and my parents kissed out on the front lawn and I captured the moment with an actual camera before cell phone cameras existed, the year my Grandmother and I made rolls by lantern light as snow fell outside and we hoped the power would return so we could finish cooking Christmas dinner, the year she cried because her children gifted her (along with my lovely step-grandfather) a weekend at Opryland Hotel, all the years she cried watching the Christmas show I was in that featured David Alford and Paul Binkley’s version of Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.” As we sang the closing Christmas caroI each night I loved seeing the magic and tears in everyone’s eyes, and I knew that my Christmas had been made better by sharing our holiday show. The audience spoke of how it had “made their Christmas,” entirely unaware that mine had been made as well. How I have missed it on the years that we were unable to reunite to share those holiday performances. Well, this year, you can bet I’ll be in the audience hearing about Fruitcake Weather, gathering pecans, HaHa Jones, and Queenie’s bones while also hearing about Buddy and his friend at Thanksgiving. Paul and his band underscore “The Thanksgiving Visitor” while “A Christmas Memory” remains the same as ever. David, telling the entire story as Truman Capote wrote it with Paul playing his original music as a kind of harmony to David’s storytelling. What a wonderful moment of theatre and humanity that always enriches me every time I see it. Although it’s not tomorrow I feel the anticipation of Sook as she says, “Well now, I can’t wait for morning…”

(Link for more information in comments)