Sunday Salon, Nov. 27th

Sunrise  November 26, 2016. Photo by Nancy Nelson. Used with permission

Sunrise and Mt. Rainier. Nov. 26, 2016. Photo by Nancy Nelson. Used with permission

Weather: Overcast and sprinkling rain.

Spectacular sunrise: Saturday morning we awoke to the most spectacular sunrise. See the photos above taken by a friend, Nancy Nelson, from her house, which is not far from here.

Thanksgiving: We hosted dinner this year. There were thirteen of us, just enough that we had to split into two tables. It was a lovely day and meal with everyone contributing something but by the end of the evening I was completely spent. I crawled away from the party around 9 PM and fell exhausted into bed. Wednesday evening we all attended a multi-congregational worship service to thank God for our many blessings. The front of the church was festooned with symbols of plenty and reminders of God's bounty. See photo below.

Football: It was not a good weekend for our teams: The UO Ducks lost to their rivals OSU Beavers and the WSU Cougars lost to their rivals UW Huskies. The Husky win means they will go on and play for the conference championship, which will make people around here happy. Don started wearing his Seahawks jersey later in the day in hope that they would win their game today. Ha.

Books and reading: I brought home several books from school on Tuesday, hoping I'd have enough time to get away and read a bit over the holiday weekend. That did not happen. I seem to be just plodding along in the books I've been reading for weeks now:

• Little Women...I have a goal of finishing this book for my Classics Club Challenge by Dec. 1st. It may be a race to see which happens first: the turning of the calendar page or the finishing of this long, classic, children's book. 91% complete.
• Girl at War...a fictional look at what children go through when war hits their country. It is not a light read and I am finding it hard to want to read many pages at a time. 69% complete.
• The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan...Tan is an artist who created 3-D objects to represent aspects of many of Grimm's Fairy Tales. I am discovering fairy tales I haven't heard before.

Finished this week:

• John Ball's In the Heat of the Night by Matt Pelfry...a full cast audio production of the play In the Heat of the Night. Very well done. Look for my review today or tomorrow.
• Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford...another audiobook and a book club selection. The book had a lot of good messages but I felt it to be too melodramatic. Not a favorite.

Prayers for: Sharon's mom. She had surgery for an obstructed bowel last week and now is struggling to regain her health.

Our sanctuary was transformed over the weekend and now we are ready for Advent.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. We look forward to the reminder that God loves us and he sent his Son to the earth as a reminder of that love. Maybe I'll be able to talk Don into helping me get out the holiday house decorations.

Have a good week, my friends!