Theophany and a birthday.

On Tuesday the 4th Kathleen and I went to Tea at Ten with Father Basil. It was fun. Other than his daughter and the Matushka we were the only ones there. It was a lot of fun. He made a tea cake, the tea was rose, the Archbishop sent a homemede fruitcake (lighter and sweeter than mine), there was some homemade Russian confections. The priest's daughter made orange chocolate liquer balls.

On Wednesday the 5th I went to the festal vigial for Theophany. This morning, Kathleen, Basil, and I were at the Divine Liturgy and filled up our jars and travel mugs with holy water. Basil brought the little holy water bottle I bought when he was a baby. I hadn't seen it in years. It warmed my heart to see him using it.

This afternoon I baked a cake for Kathleen's kids' birthday, which is the same date as Theophany. They requsted steak, macaroni and cheese, and broccoli, too.

Sunday, the 9th Day of Christmas.

Well, it has been a busy Autumn. Basil and I went bear hunting a couple of times (no bears), Kathleen and I went duck hunting a couple of times (no ducks), and there was teaching, and grading papers, and lots of church services.

The best thing or, probably, the most life impacting thing is that we have a kitchen again, for the first time since mid-June. I gained much weight from eating out. I am very disappointed in myself. Oh, well. Now that Christmas is just about over I am going back to no carbs and severe calorie restriction.

We got the kitchen built and the oven installed in just enough time to make fruitcakes in the first week of December. They didn't age as long as I would have liked but the people who received them seemed to enjoy them.

On December Kathleen and I attended church in San Francisco and I got to see my God children. They are so big!!! Tall, strong, and beautiful. I gave their dad the candy and letters from St. Nicholas to put in their shoes on that holy bishop's feast day.

I made a crown pork roast and a bunch of other stuff for Christmas dinner. in the days following we continued the feasting with chili verde, steaks, twice-cooked pork, cakes, pies, and fruitcake. On the 7th Day of Christmas we had some neighborhood kids over for Fr. Basil's flaming Christmas pudding and some games.

My son Anselm was given 10 days leave from the Navy. Oh he has graduated from submarine school and is awaiting orders to go to another school for something electrical before they put him on a boat. While he was here with me we went to church, went clay shooting, ate a lot, watched Christmas movies, played games, etc. He just flew back to the Navy today.

Christmas was pretty amazing, kind of a follow up to Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving, Athanasia, Kathleen, her children, Basil, and I spent Thanksgiving together at the Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca. It was so much fun that we all spent Christmas together. Yes, after Divine Liturgy on Christmas, we all opened presents and ate dinner. I put together a charades game where everyone had to guess the names of bizarre Christmas movies such as Santa Clause Conquers the Martians and Silent Night, Dealy Night. It was much fun. So far, I've been able to achive my goal of attending all the festal vigils for all the Great Feasts since the indiction. I am super happy about that, not because its some kind of great achievement but because the services are so beautiful and overflowering with pure theology. They are my favorite of all the services in the Orthodox Church.

Something very wonderful happened at church this morning. Kathleen, together with her son became a catachumens. She was surprized by the exorcisms. She said she met with the priest and he said he is going to "put her on the fast-track to baptism."