The feast of the Three Kings! I'm rather disappointed that our parish didn't bless chalk this year, and I don't have any chalk (blessed or otherwise) to put the traditional marking over our door. Maybe my parents have some, and I can borrow it once everybody in their house gets over the flu—Little Bear's been very disappointed that we haven't visited Grandma's house in so long, but we definitely don't need to bring the flu into our house! It sounds like this year's strain is particularly awful.
Oops, Epiphany. Excuse the scatterbrained-ness; sleep's been spotty recently. Today I learned, and felt a little silly for never realizing earlier, that there are two different meanings to the "CMB" of the Epiphany door-marking: I'd always heard that we used those letters to signify "Caspar Melchior Balthazaar," the three wise men who visited the Christ Child. But CMB is also an acronym for "Christus Mansionem Benedicat": May Christ bless this home. Which makes perfect sense, because the point of writing with the blessed chalk over the door is to ask blessings through the coming year on the house, household, and all who enter.
As Epiphany marks the close of Christmas, Little Bear and I packed away our Christmas decorations this afternoon, and when Matt got home from work our tree made its exit as well, probably destined for the first bonfire of spring in however many months it takes for the snow to mostly melt. The house always looks a little bare and sad, stripped of its Christmas finery; for as long as I can remember, my mom has transitioned into a snowmen-theme after Christmas ends, but so far we don't really have anything for the time between Christmas and Lent, so there are some pretty empty-looking spaces right now. Having a 2.5 year old running around keeps anything from looking too bare for very long, though. I have no idea how he managed to make messes appear out of nowhere, in no time flat.
I thought about making a king cake tonight, to go with the three kings, but there are still so many Christmas cookies in the kitchen that I really couldn't. Surely there's a rule of some kind that you have to eat all of the Christmas cookies before baking any other sweets? Tonight's supper was very briefly going to be Middle Eastern, because the three wise men probably came from Persia, but I quickly realized that baby Kit has been causing many "fun" foods to disagree with me recently. I wound up making a nice, but more to baby's taste, meal: pork chops, sauerkraut padahae, and green beans. And Christmas cookies.
Not Epiphany-related, except in relation to supper, but I keep meaning to mention this and forgetting: at my last appointment, I commented (no idea how it came up) that the baby seems to like sauerkraut, and my midwife said that sauerkraut is actually a very good thing to eat during pregnancy. Which is great, I like sauerkraut and could happily eat it at least once a week. But I can't remember why she said it was good. Something about it being fermented... Has anyone else been told this?
And to anyone on the Julian calendar who is just beginning their Christmas season tonight, Merry Christmas! Christ is born!
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