Beacon December 2018
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St. Timothy Episcopal Church, Chehalis WA ✠ ✠ ✠ ✠ ✠ December, 2018 celebrate the birth A December of Jesus. The sea- son of Advent gives To Remember us a chance to jour- write this in the almost overwhelming ney on the road to I quiet of my home after the departure Bethlehem. We re- of the last of a dozen Thanksgiving member the words guests. We had a wonderful weekend of of the prophets. food and laughter and noise and stories We remember the and games – we are thankful to be a fami- Holy Family trav- by The Rev. ly! I hope that your Thanksgiving gave eling down the KAY FLORES you times of joy, too. road, the shepherds who heard the an- I am thankful for the gift of our St. gels sing, and the Magi who brought Timothy family, especially this time of gifts to the Christ Child. year. Since the last edition of our fabu- During Advent, take time to remember lous newsletter, The Beacon, we’ve bap- the stories of our faith. These stories feed tized Stephanie, Walker, and Maddox! us as we spend time celebrating, and as We hosted a successful and fun Nut Sale, we spend time caring for others. Remem- Craft Sale, and blood drive. We’ve made ber too that Christmas in our tradition financial pledges. Folks gathered for a lasts until January 5, and on January 6 we Thanksgiving meal, coordinated by celebrate the Epiphany. Kristie! A personal invitation: Save the date! On And now – it’s time to look forward January 5, 2019, you are all in- again. The month of December is al- vited to my house for an ways a busy one! We rush around and Epiphany Eve gathering and go from place to place. That is one way house blessing. I’ll share more of getting ready, but during the season details in the next edition of of Advent, we are also getting ready to The Beacon! Page 2 December, 2018 Men’s Club ECW November by DAVID UNDERWOOD, ECM Chair Meeting Notes ECM’s November gathering was a quieter affair than October’s; many men were out • It was agreed the craft and nut sale went of town, out of state, had scheduling con- well. It was discussed that some visitors flicts, or were wary of being out (i.e., driv- had difficulty finding the table selling ing) after dark. Four of us gathered for a raffle tickets and many missed the ta- small-but-effective potluck dinner and bles in the main area where people subsequent business. could enjoy purchases from the bake The good news was that ECW forward- sale. One possible solution to be dis- ed us the princely sum of $300 for our cussed for next year is possibly putting manly help with setup and teardown of the nut sale table in the narthex so that the annual nut and craft fair. Using that all vendors can be in one room . but and our existing funds, it was decided there is more room to move in the so- unanimously (after some discussion) to cial hall. forward $200 to Mobile Ministry and • Hayley reported that the lighted $200 to the Lewis County Gospel Mis- wreaths that were purchased by the sion. vestry for the Altar Guild have arrived. Our final 2018 meeting (Tuesday, De- She also reported that Janelle Longmire cember 11) will be a Christmas party at has volunteered to help sewing some my home in Centralia, starting one hour new items for Altar Guild, which will later than usual (6:00 p.m.). It will be an- save considerable money. other potluck gathering, with spouses and family members welcome. Come and • ECW calendars have arrived and are share the warmth of the holiday season! being sold for $7 each in the social hall. • 20 poinsettias from De Goede’s were ready for pickup and Coy Thompson was going to get them before Thanks- giving. These poinsettias are for parish- ioners who are homebound during the holidays. • More discussion was held on retreat lo- cations for 2019 and the discussion will continue in December. • The next meeting of the ECW will be 11:00 a.m. Dec. 18 at the church and will be the Christmas Potluck. All women ST. TIMOTHY’S THANKSGIVING DINNER saw about are invited to attend. Please bring a dish a dozen parishioners and friends gather at noon on to pass as well as white elephant gift and November 22. Many thanks to host Kristie Higger- son! The feasting was abundant, and no one com- a wrapped ornament for the gift ex- plained that there wasn’t any pumpkin pie. (Truly!) change (price not to exceed $12). December, 2018 Page 3 A Furry, Purr-y Blessing St. Timothy Takes In a Foundling N Wednesday, November 7, Julie Music Notes Bliss-Tyau arrived in the darkening O by JULIE BLISS-TYAU afternoon to prepare for bell and choir rehearsals. To her surprise, a pet carrier and a bag of food and other necessities was left on the steps of the parish hall en- CHRISTMAS WISH LIST trance. Choir: All positions open! We currently At first she thought the carrier was have 2 basses, 1 tenor, 2 altos, and 2 so- empty, but then heard tiny “meows.” In- pranos. It would be incredibly awesome if side was an adorable little tiger-striped we could have at least 3 of each part. Do kitten, by all appearances deliberately left you love to sing? We’d love to have you behind. Julie naturally brought the tiny come check out a choir practice: Wednes- creature inside. day evenings at 6:30 p.m. Please check Arriving musicians were treated to a with Julie to make sure the schedule has- chance to pet and hold the new orphan, n’t changed for the week. who proved quite agreeable (and was Handbells: We have been practicing agreeably free of fleas!). After not a lot of and plan to add some handbells to the pondering, Joyce Zenker decided to add a church service as we are ready. Our im- new member to her family, initially nam- mediate goal is to have a 2 octave choir ing it “Timmy.” After a gender-reveal, the (needing 8 ringers, or positions) with an name was changed to “Timmie.” Joyce’s eventual goal of 3 octave choir (10 posi- husband Jim applied his own pet name of tions). Currently we have 3 positions “Camo” (because he thinks she looks like open, with potentially 6 to make a full 3 camouflage). octave choir – so that I could conduct and Timmie was believed to be eight weeks not have to play. If we had more than 10 old when retrieved, and according to people, we would add additional bells! Joyce weighed 2.11 pounds. Timmie has Practice is Wednesday evenings at 5:30 proven to be quite energetic and curious, p.m. and has definitely found her place in a new household composed of three other felines (Bart, Barney and Ace) and one German Shorthair, Scooter. Of course, it’s an old tradition for hu- man infants to be left on the church doorstep in hopes that they might find a new (or better) home. All of us who’ve met Timmie personally can say that tak- ing her in isn’t a hardship at all – it’s a wonderful blessing! We hope that she’ll (L) A foundling kitty being left on our doorstep put in an appearance at our next Blessing (security camera footage); (R) Timmie at home with of the Animals. her new mommy, Joyce Zenker. Page 4 December, 2018 Holiday Memories and Morsels Christmas Recipes and Recollections from All Around the Parish 3 cups oatmeal by The Rev. KAY FLORES Cream butter and sugar. Mix in milk and My great aunt Celie sometimes visited us eggs. Add flour, baking powder, and bak- for Christmas in in Wyoming when I was ing soda. Mix the oatmeal in. a child. She lived in California, and al- Roll the dough out. Cut it into circles. ways brought a big wooden box full of Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes un- dates and a box of hand me down junk til light brown. (Sometimes it helps to re- jewelry to play with. I grew up in a big ex- frigerate the dough to make it easier to tended family, with grandparents and a roll out.) great grandma next door and aunts and Filling uncles and cousins around. My Grandma 3 cups chopped dates (1 pound – better to Kay made date cookies for us all – we still chop the dates yourself than to buy know it’s Christmas when the date cook- chopped dates because they add sugar to ies are ready! the chopped dates) Once when my sons were in high 1 ½ cup brown sugar school, they were making date cookies 1 ½ cup white sugar after school. They called at work to tell 1 ½ cup water me something was wrong – their cookies 1 cup chopped walnuts were coming out thin and crispy and mine were always thick and chewy. Mix filling ingredients in a saucepan. Theirs were the best . Cook over medium low heat until thick. And a few years ago, I bought dates in a Stir often! shop in Jericho, Palestinian Territories. When the filling has cooled, put some The sales clerk, a Muslim, told me about between two cookies. Eat for breakfast, the date cookies his wife makes for their lunch, or dinner, and leave some out for holidays, and I told him about our family Santa! tradition.