Freedommas

In spite of all my Thanksgiving posts, I have actually moved on to the next holiday. I've been enjoying the Christmas songs, secular and sacred alike. All through high school and college, I played Sleigh Bells in the band. The traditional instrumental version that we hear on the radio is the same one we played, and I can still remember the slide positions on my trombone.

I think my favorite song is O Holy Night. My music appreciation professor would say that it has appropriate "fittingness-intensity", i.e., the meaning of the lyrics is reflected in the emotions of the music. Additionally, the words of the song contain the entire gospel. The verses put forth the facts. In verse one, we learn that the world is full of darkness, yearning to be in the light; feeling worthless until Jesus comes. Verse two (which I'd never heard before writing this post) has people gathering to stand by Jesus' cradle. I especially like the last couplet, "King of kings... born to be our friend." Verse three is my favorite. It talks about how the world is transformed now that Jesus has come. The three choruses are what we are to do in response to Jesus coming to earth: Fall on your knees! Behold your King! Christ is the Lord! It's magnificent.

Oh holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
Oh night divine, Oh night when Christ was born;
Oh night, Oh night divine, Oh night Divine.

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here come the wise men from Orient land.
The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friend.

He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,

Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King, Behold your King.

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
His power and glory evermore proclaim.
His power and glory evermore proclaim.

Verse three is by far my favorite, and the most meaningful. I love the image of Christ coming to break us free. The Bible teaches that we are slaves to whom we obey, and everyone is either a slave to sin or a slave to Christ. The problem is, slaves can't free themselves. O Holy Night declares that Jesus came to earth to break us out of prison. But even better, is how this song proclaims that when we are free from slavery, we follow Christ's law, the law of love. The slave is our brother. That means that under the law of love, we are required to care about people. It doesn't say "the freed slave is our brother", but instructs us to love those who are still in bondage. For Christians, there shouldn't be an "us versus them" mentality. Like Christ, we are to love people so much that if it takes our death for them to be freed, it is a glad sacrifice.

Christ was born so his death could bring us freedom. And that's what Christmas is about.

Thanksgiving Fun - Part 4

The Drunken Turkey

All week long, I heard about the "Drunken Turkey" that J.C. made last year. He uses a lot of alcohol; rum, brandy, and I don't know what else. It was talked about a lot, right along with Aunt Macie's beans.

When Thanksgiving morning came around, I walked in the kitchen and J.C. was preparing the turkey. When he put it in the oven, he used a foil roasting pan and put some sheets of foil on the lower rack to catch any drippings. I remember thinking, he should probably use a cookie sheet or something more firm. But, it was his turkey and I figured he knew what he was doing. J.C. left to serve at the Salvation Army for the afternoon, to return around 4 p.m.

I spent that afternoon playing games with my grandma in the breakfast nook, watching everyone prepare food in the kitchen. Around 3 p.m., people started arriving with their food to contribute. We kept playing, incorporating people as they came and went. I peeked in the oven once or twice, and noticed some smoke, but figured it was just some turkey juice leaking, and J.C. would be home soon.

Four o'clock came and went. Other people were peeking in the oven. More smoke was coming out. Around 4:20 p.m., my dad, along with Uncle Ronnie, decided the turkey had to come out. They opened the oven all the way, and tried to lift out the 23 pound turkey, but the foil pan foiled thier plan; they couldn't get a good grip. Then the fun started.

Trying to lift the turkey let more of the liquid out. Now, keep in mind this is a new gas oven that hadn't been used before. The next thing we know, the liquid has caught on fire! The door is quickly closed and someone yells for a fire extinguisher. Some of us (okay, me) protest that a fire extinguisher will make the turkey inedible. In the midst of all this, the kids (all under 5) run by and dad yells, "Get the kids out of here!" I might have also called for a camera.

The door is opened again and the fire shoots up. Chris says, "Get some baking soda!" I think I kept my mouth shut that time, but I wanted to protest - the Drunken Turkey sounded really good! Since no one knew where the baking soda was, someone ran to the house next door, and still couldn't find any. We finally decided that the best thing to do was keep the door closed and hope the fire suffocated. It worked.

Uncle Nacho came over, saying "People keep running around; what's going on over here?" I think there were 15+ people in the kitchen, standing a safe distance from the oven. All the windows in the house were open, the fans on. The turkey was safely rescued without a bit of burning. It was the oils spilling out of the pan that caused the fire.

J.C. came home not very long after everything settled down. He didn't seem too worried about the turkey, and it ended up being underdone. I guess 5 hours isn't long enough for such a large bird.

Our card game and dinner preparations continued.

Thanksgiving Fun - Part 3

Several times over the week, I watched people respond to my Aunt Laura's loving attitude. People do things for her because she's so nice and sweet. I don't think she realizes that not everyone is like her. This is one of those instances:

The Cable Guy.

When Aunt Laura chose her new TV, she went for a big one. She wanted a 50-some-inch screen, but the TV niche only fit the 47-inch screen. Actually, I think the niche was 48 inches wide and the TV was one of the new high-def plasma screens, 47 3/8 inches wide. It was a tight fit.

On Tuesday, the guy from Dish Network was scheduled to come to the new house and hook up the satellite. I was outside when he was heading in, and I overheard Aunt Laura welcome him. Before he got inside, he learned that his name, Mark, is Aunt Laura's favorite name. That was her son's name, but he died several years ago.

Then Mark came inside and I followed to watch the action.

Mark took one look at the TV and said, "I can't do this job. That's an HDTV and the work order from the satellite company doesn't include that." Apparently, he's a subcontractor and is only authorized/able to do the work the company tells him to do. Mark is a nice man, and calls Dish Network for Aunt Laura. He was on the phone for awhile, and rescheduled the job for her for December 1. Then Laura commented that the three bedrooms need cable.

So Mark told Laura that she needs to make sure the rooms are wired. If her grandson can do it, he can buy the wire at Home Depot and it will save them the $59/hour that Dish Network will charge. Aunt Laura says, "My grandson is a CPA; he hires people to do that sort of thing for me." Then I pipe up.

"If you're a subcontractor," I ask Mark, "can't you do it for less than $59 an hour?" He gave me a sly look, and said that he doesn't take side jobs, but he knows someone he can call.

While he and I are talking, Aunt Laura calls her daughter, Chris/Lil. She's talking to Chris about why Mark can't do the job today and Mark steps outside to call his friend about the wiring. Aunt Laura says, "Oh, he's walking out the door. I don't know where he's going!" Then she hands the phone to me.

Chris tells me to make sure the three rooms get wired for regular TV and the family room for HDTV, and remember to include local and Spanish channels. I repeat everything back to her and think I've got it down.

Mark returns to the room, and says he has a friend who can do the wiring job for $100 cash on Friday night. Aunt Laura says okay.

Mark calls Dish Network back, because the job has changed again; now instead of one HDTV hook-up, we need an additional 3 rooms. Then I tell him about the local and Spanish channels. Aunt Laura talks for a moment about how important her novelas are and she's so grateful I said something. And then she's asked about TIVO.

Sometime during all this, my grandmother came in the room. At the mention of TIVO, she says, "What is that? We don't need that. I have my VCR to record." The rest of us know that they'll use it all the time, so after a few confusing moments of defining TIVO, we get the message to Mark that we want it for the main TV only.

Mark is still on the phone with Dish Network, so Aunt Laura asks about when the old house will be hooked up and transferred to her brother's name. Unfortunately, that information can't be looked up without his phone number. After trying a few different numbers, Aunt Laura says to wait just a minute and walks across the yard to her brother's house. I was washing dishes, listening to Mark tell the satellite people, "I'm just holding the line."

When all was said and done, we got the job rescheduled for December 4, and the wiring for the day after Thanksgiving. Poor Mark. He didn't get paid for this job, and he missed his next job because of the amount of time he spent with us.

All in all, I enjoyed every minute.

Conclusion
On Friday when we returned from an all-day outing, the guys were there wiring the house. Aunt Laura was confused about why they wanted $100 when the TV still didn't work. After figuring it out, she said, "Let me get my checkbook." Of course, they were expecting cash, per the agreement with Mark, and their faces showed dismay at receiving a check. Chris says, "Don't worry. My mother's check is good." And they left, the wiring complete.

Thanksgiving Fun - Part 2

After figuring out everyone's names, we settled into the house(s). The first couple days, we mostly helped Grandma and Aunt Laura with thier new house. We helped Chris put up light fixtures, fans, went to the hardware store for picture hangers for Grandma's room, and so on.

I hadn't known my grandma and Aunt Laura to be so Catholic. As we started helping them put knicknacks on shelves and pictures on walls, I realized we were handling a lot of Jesus figurines. Both of them have Jesus statues that are about 2 feet tall. There are pictures, crucifixes, and wall hangings. There are also Marys, but not as many as there were Jesuses.

Aunt Laura said she realizes that some people thinks she worships the figurines, but she doesn't; she just likes looking at Jesus. He brings her comfort and she likes the constant reminders of her Savior.

It was fun to hang Grandma's family pictures. There were some of us, her other daughters, and her son, Raymond, who died of leukemia in 1980/81. There was also one of my grandfather, who died around 1985. It was a picture of him when he was in the service for WW2. My sister looked at it, and said, "Put curly hair on him and that's Jackie!" So we went to find my sister Jackie, and sure enough, she's the spitting image of Grandpa.

The only things I remember about my grandfather are that he gave us sips of his beer (which was gross, but we kept sipping anyway) and he drove us around in his baby blue Volkswagon beetle. But my grandma still talks about him.

Thanksgiving Fun - Part 1

Over the next few posts, I want to share some of the fun I had over Thanksgiving. I know it's already past, but the stories are fun. Here's the introduction:

On Sunday before Thanksgiving, I traveled with my two-year-old neice, Olivia, to Modesto, CA. I bought her a little teddy bear backpack with a leash on it so I wouldn't lose her. She liked to wear it backwards, so she could hug the teddy, and I've never had so many people looking at us. She's really cute, and was very well behaved.

We arrived in Oakland and met my mom and my one-year-old nephew who flew in on another flight, and my grandmother and her neice (my mom's cousin). I've never met the cousin, and when grandma introduced me, she said, "this is Lil". But Lil, upon giving me a hug, said, "The family calls me Lil but I prefer to go by Chris. You can call me Chris." And she called my grandma "Aunt Amelia", which is strange because my entire life, Grandma's name has been Frances. I know her name is Amelia Frances, but she has always preferred using her middle name.

After about an hour and a half drive, we arrived in Ceres, outside Modesto. My great-aunt Laura and great-uncle Nacho and his wife, Macie, all live on the same property, along with J.C., Aunt Laura's grandson. Aunt Laura's husband, also called Nacho, died about a year ago and J.C. moved in. Apparently Aunt Laura has wanted a new house for years, so she built one, right next door to the mobile home she's lived in for 35 years. Then she convinced Grandma and Uncle Nacho to move in - Grandma in the new house and Nacho and Macie in the old one.

Now if you're not yet confused about everyone's names, here's the fun part: Uncle Nacho's real name is Ignacio, but he goes by Manuel (I only heard Macie call him that) and the family has always called him Nacho. My grandmother is known by her names, Frances and Amelia, but also as Cotana (a nickname her grandmother gave her), and Nacho calls her ADD. Aunt Laura is just called Laura, but Nacho's daughter is also Laura, and one of Aunt Laura's granddaughters as well.

There were more of us in addition to everyone listed: my sister and her husband, mother-in-law, oldest son, and our younger sister, drove down and arrived at grandma's on Monday morning. Dad drove in on Wednesday with a rental car (he had been working). My poor nephews and neice - there was "grandma" (my mom), "grandmama" (paternal grandmother) and "nana" (my grandma). They never quite got it.

Uncle Nacho's daughter, Laura, came with her husband and two kids. My aunt Alice and uncle Ronnie came with their grandson. Aunt Laura's daughter, Mary Helen and her son Paul (J.C. was already there) and his wife came; as well as her daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren. There were a few others for dinner who's names/relations I don't remember.

I didn't realize that I'm part of a big family. It was really fun! My mom's cousin Laura when she met us, said, "I always called you my white cousins!" We laughed...my grandmother is the only one of her siblings who married a Caucasian, and all of her children did as well. The family members in my mom's generation are much more latino than my mom and her siblings, but the cousins my age are pretty well mixed. I love coming from an ethnic background. My aunt Laura made all kinds of great Mexican food, and Aunt Macie makes the best beans I've ever had.