Sweet Bells and burnt onions

Here is what I am listening to a couple of days before Christmas. Find the Youtube channel with the entire album if you like her. I know it's sappy and very Adult Contemporary of me, but I just am over the moon about Kate Rusby. Her voice is transfixing and her accent impossibly charming. The instrumentation on her music is simple but well-textured and sweet, and some of her songs are completely heartbreaking. Oh lordy, don't get me started on "My Young Man." I think a few of my readers would really like Kate Rusby (and you can certainly share her with your small children.) I don't know if she's a Christian or not, but her music seems well rooted in a very old Christian folk tradition. After bafflingly secular Christmas preparations in a public school, I appreciate that very much. 

 

Here are the lovely lyrics to "The Holly and The Ivy," for those, like me, who have never heard this song.

The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a blossom
As white as lily flower
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To be our sweet Saviour
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a berry
As red as any blood
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To do poor sinners good
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a prickle
As sharp as any thorn;
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
On Christmas Day in the morn.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a bark
As bitter as any gall;
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
For to redeem us all.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly and the ivy
Now both are full well grown,
Of all the trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

It's my first REAL day off. My poor mailman husband has to work 12 hour days (in 8 hours of daylight) all this week, excepting Christmas day (although they tried to make him work on Christmas day too.) The post office sucks big time. The money is good but during the Christmas season, it's basically a factory job on wheels. My husband isn't feeling very festive right now.

Gotta do a bunch of dishes, go get milk from Amish people with someone who used to be my babysitter and might end up being my friend (that keeps happening around this town,) and try to make some of those Parmesan shortbread cookies that some readers worry will basically be crackers. Tonight, I'm excited about making mujjadara for dinner. (Sub water or veg stock for the chicken broth and it's a very satisfying Lenten meal for an oil day.) It's really good if you burn some of the onions. So says my mother-in-law. My husband and his sister grew up eating this during Lent at their Arabic church. They pronounce it "mmmmmjudra" but called it "yuck-judra" when they were young and mischievous.

The final peregrinate sibling will return this afternoon, so there might be some lazy accidental festivities over at my parents' house as well.