SALT and The Tree!

Today was the SALT group at the Presbyterian Church in Newcastle. It is women of various churches who meet together monthly. Today was the Christmas meeting and they presented the Nativity story. Last week Sadie invited me to come and then asked if I would be Zechariah. I agreed thinking she would give me some lines to read. No, my instructions were to “tell Zechariah’s part of the story in the first person…keep it to about 3 minutes”. I looked up information about Zechariah on the web and wrote my script. It was interesting to learn about the duties of the priests at the Temple. Of the 20,000 or so, about 1,000 served each week at the Temple. They were rotated so that each group of 1,000 served two weeks out of the year. Zechariah was the one who offered the incense offering on the day that Gabriel appeared to him. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and he would never get to do it again. It would have been his responsibility to come out and give the blessing to the multitudes who awaited. But as you know, he was struck mute.

I gave the first reading. It was difficult to condense Zechariah’s story into 3 minutes but there were many characters to come after me.  There was Elizabeth, Gabriel, Mary, Joseph, the Innkeeper, the shepherd, the sheep, a Wise Man, the star, another Wise man, Simeon and Anna. (There may have been more, I don’t recall. It was apparent that much study had gone into the preparation by these women. Their own personalities flavored the presentations. There were funny parts…from the Innkeeper who had ‘hired’ a midwife so also told her story and the 75 year old “wee wisp of a girl”, Mary, serious parts (the Magi and the star were very informative), and tender parts. I was blessed to be a part of this!

A rich prayer time followed and of course, coffee, tea and shortbread!

Marian and Sadie took me back to Murlough.  Martin had arrived and had found things to do…wash more windows, clean the cabinets, etc. Jen was still working on Christmas wreaths—she made 3 fireplace garlands and 6 or 8 wreaths from fresh greens that Richard had cut. Deirdre and Richie had gone to buy a Christmas tree and garland for the stair banister.  Soon they were back. I pulled leftovers out of the fridge and   some of us had a lunch. The afternoon was spent in getting the hallway ready to have the floor cleaned and waxed. The second dining room had been done by Nathan and Bebe last night while we were at the “shortbread demonstration”. 

After lunch Martin and I assembled the 8 ft.  tree. He checked all the lights for Jen to string. Bebe and I decorated the tree while Jen finished the wreaths. Other decorations were put up. Tables were moved back into the small dining room.

I decided to bake cookies for the Bible study group that is coming tomorrow. There was no shortening so Jen took me to Brennan’s. Richard had taken Little Suzy to Belfast to do some Christmas shopping.  I’m making Yankee Quaker Cookies….I had the recipe on the computer and wanted to make something that would be different.  I mixed the dough but it needs to be refrigerated overnight.

Yankee Quaker Cookies

1 cup Crisco shortening (solid)

2 cups brown sugar (packed)

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup rolled oats

Mix in order given. Refrigerate overnight or longer. Form walnut size balls, roll through a dish of granulated sugar and place on lightly greased baking sheet. Don’t put them too close together. Press down slightly with bottom of a glass.

Bake at 350 oven for 11 minutes. Makes 5-6 dozen.

                           -Recipe from Eunice Godown, 1993

The recipe is from Eunice Godown who was past 80 when a group of Indiana USFW went to Washington, D.C.  She shared the recipe and I've made it many times and try to give her the credit. They are easy to make and I love the name of them. Pics later.  Our trip was about the health care issue...yes, that has been around a while.

Baking another dessert is almost funny as we have things left over from the weekend. We still have Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake from Friday, Apple Tart and Peach Crumble from Saturday, Banoffee Dessert from Sunday and Shortbread from Monday so now we will have Yankee Quaker Cookies from Tuesday!!

The hallway had the third coat of wax by 10 pm (applied by Deirdre) so tomorrow morning we will return all the furniture and finish decorating. I didn't do any of the waxing on these three rooms...but I did move tons of furnitures!!