Riddle: More popular Christmas carols reworded:
Twelve o'clock on a cloudless night witnessed its arrival. A small
municipality in Jordan southeast of Jerusalem. Sterling carillons.
Most of the recent road trip was great, some a little less so.
The Embroiderers Guild of America party in La Crosse was super. Big
crowd of stitchers, a pot luck dinner (great food, far above the
standard), enthusiastic reception of my talk, and they bought lots of
books. On the other hand, Beaverdale Books, a really nice
independent bookstore in Des Moines, despite all efforts, produced an
audience of one. Seriously, one person came. I was amused to hear
my little GPS mangle the name of the city: Dess MOY-nez. On yet
another hand, at Village Needlework in Marion (a quaint suburb of
Cedar Rapids), there was standing room only. So you never know what
you're going to find. In Marion I blew the budget on punch needle
materials, including a clever little lap stand that is actually two
embroidery hoops, larger and smaller, connected by six-inch pegs. I have some embroidery
hoops, but none of them holds the thin fabric of punch needle very
firmly. This is advertised to be different. We'll see. We had
lovely weather the whole trip, until the drive home from Omaha, when
we ran into rain that turned to sleet that turned to snow that
disguised the road surface so thoroughly it was only by running
occasionally into the rumble strip that marked the shoulder we stayed
out of the ditch. It took more than three hours longer than
predicted to get home very late Saturday night. I'm still tired.
But it was worth it, it's exciting and rewarding to meet people who
like my books.
The problem with a December road trip is that it messes
up preparations for Christmas. Here it is less than a week away and
I haven't sent Christmas cards or baked Vanocka - a Christmas yeast
bread that has orange zest, two colors of raisins and blanched almond
slivers in it. The smell of it baking has come to mean Christmas. I haven't even
put my tree up yet, though that is supposed to happen later today.
I
hope your holiday schedule is progressing serenely.
Answers: It Came Upon A Midnight Clear. O Little Town
of Bethlehem. Silver Bells.
2 comments:
Sounds like a fun trip, Monica, except for the snow at the end. And even having one fan at an event is better than none! Plus, it sounds as if your other parties made up for that.
Your trip sounds great, Monica. I love Iowa. I took classes at the University of Iowa's Summer Writing Festival for a number of years.
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