Basking in the Glow

Lovers of sun light, rejoice. Soon, the winter solstice will pass for another year. Even though days grow longer only a few minutes at a time, we’ll soon enjoy more sunshine than darkness in a 24-hour span. Unfortunately, it takes a month or so of incremental minutes before longer days are noticeable, so until then let’s bask in the glow of Christmas lights.

For those who call North Central and Northwest Kansas home, residents can thank small town leaders for honoring this season with festive street decorations. Depending on the size of the village, those lights can be an illuminated bell, wreath, or star on each Main Street light post. A central focus like a giant Christmas tree or manger scene accents the center of some communities.

Bogue, Wakeeney, and Phillipsburg have Christmas trees in the middle of Main Street. In the first two, the big decoration is literally in the middle of an intersection. Anyone cruising main gets the full effect of driving past a triangle of lights. In Phillipsburg, that huge tree is actually on the courthouse square, but it’s so large, it brightens the entire block. In addition to these cheerful centerpieces, smaller decorations add festive flair to the central drag. If you drove downtown in a grumpy mood, you’d leave smiling after seeing the pretty lights.

Once you exit the Interstate in Ellis, illuminated poles guide folks home or to the center of town where a lovely manger scene appears among festively draped trees and bushes on the old green. After you reach this peaceful park, it’s easy to forget you’re in the middle of flyover country. It seems more like Mayberry USA.

After dark, Christmas lighting adds even more charm to Damar’s quaint French village-style main street. Once dusk falls, it’s hard to remember you’re in Kansas when you look south at the silhouette of a French style cathedral spire or read French words painted on the sides of tiny shoppes.

Further north on Highway 9, the tiny burg of Edmond electrifies and wreathes its city park. Coming into town from either direction after dark is an aha moment when you realize you don’t need much population to string lights and hang greenery. It’s a pleasant surprise on a lonely road.

Fifteen miles east down the same road, you run into Logan. Bright bulbs zigzag up Main Street, linking one radiantly decorated light pole to another. Residents add their own touches that add warmth to cold December nights. It’s clear this is a special time of year in this town.

Fifteen miles later, you hit Glade and spy all four Christmas stars brightening the quadrants of the main drag before you leave town. If you stay on 9, Kirwin’s colorfully lit old town square would charm even Scrooge.

No matter what direction you drive across the prairie, you’ll find Christmas alive and well in towns big and small. Residents ante up the change to both buy the bright decor and to pay for extra kilowatts used this time of year. 

Yes, prairie folks are antsy for longer days, but we know how to do a little brightening of our own until Mother Nature turns the light on.

December Needs Another Holiday

I know some of you might think heavens no; December doesn’t need another holiday. After all, it has Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but for those of us living in deer country, we need to make opening day of firearms deer season the kind of holiday that frees kids from school and employees from a day of work.  Even for people who don’t hunt, there are advantages.

For those families that put meat on the table the old-fashioned way, the first Wednesday in December is a red-letter day on the calendar. This date signals the opportunity for every licensed hunter in the house to provide pure, unadulterated protein for the family. Diners who eat venison harvested in the wild don’t have to worry about growth hormones or antibiotics leaching into their systems through the meat they consume. Protein in this form is also low in fat so it’s better for folks whose docs have told them to cut back on marbled beef.

Family hunts build bonds between spouses and among parents and children. Spending time on a frosty morning waiting to see a nice buck or fat doe come by creates memories and stories that liven up family gatherings for decades down the road. The meat in the freezer may be long gone, but tales of difficult shots or of recovering a deer from a field far from the road make great fireside tales year after year.

Not only are these times to create family legends, they are also moments to teach patience and respect for nature. Youngsters too young to carry a gun can learn to sit quietly waiting for game to come in range. Every hunt provides a wealth of lessons about the outdoors from studying wind patterns to discovering how still you can be when a skunk wanders near your hiding spot.

Once a successful hunt is over, family bonding and learning continue as youngsters help prepare the carcass for butchering. Much of my understanding of anatomy occurred as I helped either my dad or my husband cut up a deer. Helping field dress a fresh carcass made high school biology dissections look easy. These experiences have made me appreciate my source of meat so much more than buying a shrink-wrapped package in a grocery store.

For non-hunters and vegetarians, reducing deer populations through controlled harvests make driving down roads safer. In addition, managing populations is better for the herd health. Too many deer in an area not only makes driving dangerous, it also means more depredation on crops and native plants. A pitiful sight for any who have experienced is a sick herd. In regions where residents discourage hunting, disease whittles populations in a season or two.  

While the idea of an official holiday is tongue in cheek, I do love to hear stories of families that make this day and the rest of the season an annual event. Not only do these folks reduce deer populations that make driving to work a game of real life pinball with the car as the flicker and the deer as the puck, but they also strengthen family bonds, provide healthy protein for meals, and teach respect for nature.

Christmas Magic

As a little girl, I loved reading old-time stories about Yuletide. One of the traditions mentioned in those favorite tales was that after parents put little ones to bed the night before Christmas, they’d  go to work making magic in what had been a simple family room. When boys and girls awakened in the morning, they’d tiptoe downstairs to find the parlor softly lit by candles clipped to evergreen branches.

My childhood family didn’t decorate for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving, but our folks didn’t make my brother and me wait until Christmas morning to enjoy the soft glow of a string of bright lights wrapped around our Christmas tree. While I was glad we spent those extra days wandering around a semi-dark house lit only by colored bulbs in early dawn, the tales I read about Christmas magically appearing overnight appealed to my old-fashioned heart. I always wondered what it would be like to wake up one morning to a twinkling wonderland.

After all these years, I got my wish. I’m sure this has happened on many December Sundays in my life, but for some reason December 1, 2013, I noticed the magic. 

Last week when we left church, it was modestly decorated for Thanksgiving. This Sunday, I entered a quiet sanctuary with my arms filled with after-service hospitality goodies and nearly dropped them. My eyes must have been the size of dinner plates as I recognized my Christmas fantasy had arrived long after I outgrew girlhood. Artful and spirited decorators had draped lintels and wrapped altar rails with greenery and red ribbons. They set white candles into evergreen centerpieces on each windowsill. In addition, they placed a lovely Advent wreath with brand new candles at the front of the altar.

I don’t know how long it took and who had to climb the ladder but these miracle workers set up a towering tree full of tiny white lights behind the organ. This ancient symbol of eternity spoke louder than all the glitz in the world could about a Savior born in a humble stable who brought light to a dark world. The simplicity of this beautiful evergreen balanced the poinsettia memory tree placed opposite of it.

Though the subtly lit evergreen was taller, the bright red commemorative tree created by stacking dozens of poinsettia plants wrapped in gold foil was bold and eye-catching. Knowing each living plant making up that tree was a reminder of loved ones passed on connected me to everyone in that sanctuary. We share our sorrows as well as joys.

I know this instance was not the same as those little children in my favorite stories creeping down the stairs to see a lit tree surrounded by gifts, but for some reason it was magical to me. I’m grateful for those individuals who gave their time and efforts to turn a pretty but simple sanctuary into a festive worship place for the next few weeks. 

Although the initial moment of surprise has passed, my heart looks forward to enjoying more moments of Christmas enchantment. Let the carols ring.

To Grandmother's House We Go

Over the river and through the woods,
To grandmother's house we go;
The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh,
Through (the) white and drifted snow!

Over the river and through the woods,
Now Grandmother's cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!

I remember singing this song in fourth grade and thinking how it reminded me of visiting my grandma. We didn’t often make it to Kansas for Thanksgiving, but if we did, Grandma made sure the trip was worth it. When we couldn’t travel, my mother served feasts that had everyone in the house wandering through the kitchen to savor the scents emerging from the oven and simmering pots on the stovetop. Watching my mom cook her mom’s recipes made me want to be part of this cycle of kitchen magic.

Once I returned to Kansas, Grandma’s house became Thanksgiving Central. Mom, my family, and anyone else in the vicinity met in Meade for this annual feast. A few years after Grandma gave up her role as main chef, I designated our house as the place to be on Turkey Day. However, last year, we were moving so my mom invited us to her house for Thanksgiving. It was nice once again to eat mom’s roast turkey, candied sweet potatoes, and pie. While I loved that dinner, I missed preparing favorite recipes that connect me to loved ones.

This year, I get to host dinner for our gang, and I had so much fun shopping. I picked out a big turkey so there will be plenty of leftovers. I love to send platters of goodies home with my children and mom so the feast continues for several days. I loaded up on potatoes and stuffing supplies as well. We have a longstanding family tradition of overloading on carbohydrates, so we’ll continue that with bowls of buttery mashed potatoes, fried noodles, candied yams, savory stuffing, and homemade oatmeal rolls.

Mom brings fresh veggies along with her famous sweet potatoes. I’ve tried to make them the way she does, but without success. I’m not sure what I leave out, but Mom’s candied yams topped with golden marshmallows are my Thanksgiving favorite.

Her relish tray is amazing: bite-size carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, black olives, and jicama. When they were little, our girls put olives on their fingers like black fingernails and flitted around the kitchen pretending they had witch fingers. Maybe our granddaughter will be big enough this year to carry on this tradition.

The turkey is a Cinderella wannabe. It existed only for this day. Like the real Cinderella, the dressing makes the bird. Foods both pale and wan when placed in the pan emerge from the roaster glowing golden brown and perfuming the house with herbed aromas that pull everyone into the dining room like a magnet draws iron filings.

Following dinner, fresh pumpkin mixed with cream, sugar, eggs, spices, and molasses and poured into a butter and flour crust turns into a grand finale that pushes our carb load over the top. How can something that emerged from an orange gourd in strings turn into such a succulent dessert? 

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, not only because I love to prepare a meal that makes my family’s taste buds tap dance, but also because it’s the time of year that we focus on blessings that enrich our lives. It’s also a time to remember other Grandma’s houses at Thanksgiving.

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