Christmas Eggs

Colored or painted hard-boiled eggs are more common at Easter, so these six eggs I received for Christmas this year came as a surprise.  I think the story behind them is so sweet, though, that I'm going to adopt the tradition and make it my own!

Each of these eggs carries not just a primitive seasonal illustration but a virtue that when practiced help one to become a more Christ-like person.  It's a not-so-pushy reminder to carry the spirit of the Christmas season into the new year and strive for more peace, love, hope, faith, contentment, and gratitude in your life.

That was enough for me to decide it needed to be my new tradition...

Looking for a little more 'meat' for the story, I wondered if there was any special meaning that eggs might hold.  According to the authors of the Symbolism Project at the University of Michigan, an egg "symbolizes a primeval embryonic form from which the world later emerged... an image of totality enclosed within a shell."  Cool... but pretty deep.  I also learned that eggs have a more mainstream religious significance.  Depending on the path you follow they could symbolize fertility, eternity, or Jesus' emergence from the tomb triumphant over death. Interesting, but kind of a stretch for Christmas.

Tonight's Hallmark movie told me "Traditions are the stories a family tells together."  And there is more to this story!

PEACE

I called to thank the elderly couple who gave them to me and learned that when their children were small, they had a hard time slowing them down for breakfast on Christmas morning so they started putting breakfast in their stockings.  Along with the expected small toys and candy, they found mini boxes of cereal or granola bars, fresh fruit, hot chocolate packets, and boiled eggs. 

LOVE

It got their kids to slow down just a little and eat breakfast in the midst of the present opening frenzy.  

Then one year they had a guest stay with them over the holiday season... a man from India who'd converted to Christianity. 

HOPE

On Christmas Eve, he crept down after the family had gone to sleep and fished out all the eggs and painted beautiful images of the Christmas season on them.  That was the gift he could afford to give them for sharing their hospitality.  She said he was quite the talented artist and they'd tried to keep the painted parts of the shells but they were too fragile. 

FAITH

The man fell ill and passed away and, while not nearly as artistically talented as he had been, they decided to keep the practice of painting the eggs in their Christmas stockings alive in his honor. 

CONTENTMENT

Now their kids are grown and moved away and have grown children of their own so they are sharing this wonderful legacy and tradition with others.

GRATITUDE

I was lucky enough to be a recipient this year!  And next year I will be passing it on!!

The horrible, awful, terrible year...

2019 was the most horrible, awful, terrible year of my life and I have some doozies of bad years in my history.  I can hardly wait to be done with it and start fresh again with January's clean slate.  2020 is going to be a year of starting from scratch.

The first fresh start is a new place to live.  I've secured an apartment for me and Lightning and Gizmo.  We get to start moving in on December 27.  I don't have much to furnish or decorate with so the look is likely to be an ever-changing version of "Secondhand Chic" as I can upgrade our stuff.

One of the most exciting things about being fully on my own again is cooking my own food.  I've pretty much decided that my first meal in the new place is going to be soup.  But I keep changing my mind about what kind of soup it will be... Chicken Noodle?  Creamy Potato?  Navy Beans with Ham (and some cornbread)?

I'm also interviewing for a job that I'm really excited about.  It would be a huge departure from both my previous work experience and education but I KNOW I would make a heck of a good General Manager at a local Co-op that focuses on locally produced food and other goods.  The variety of foods being made close to home is pretty amazing with gourmet cheeses, maple syrup, lunchmeats, and honey topping my personal favorites.  It's so fun to discover more!

And I'm taking another stab at school... SNHU has a Master's of Counseling that I can enroll in for the quickly upcoming January semester and in 3-5 years have the credentials for LCSW licensure.  The distance between Maryland and New Hampshire presents some challenges but I'm hopeful they can be worked out.

My health also remains a focus area that carries over from the old year into the new.  There's still lots of fallout from the big PE (pulmonary embolism) event in November I'm thankful to have scored what's by far the best health insurance I've ever had in my whole life.  And I plan on taking advantage of that for as long as I can!

As if all that isn't enough... I really want 2020 to be a year filled with fun and adventure!  I want to see new places and try new things.  Things I've wanted to do for years but could never quite get done like learning to fly fish are at the top of my list.  If I can get the knees into shape I'd also like to bicycle the 15 miles of the GAP Trail that runs between Frostburg, MD, and Meyersdale, PA.  GAP means Great Allegheny (or Allegany since we spell it differently in Maryland than they do in Pennsylvania) Passage where it crosses the Eastern Continental Divide.  And I want to take a mushroom foraging class, crochet the temperature afghan that I worked so hard to track daily temperatures for all of 2018 and get my finances situated to buy a house in 2021.

Please help me stay on track by asking about these things throughout the year!