grace grits and gardening - ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

The Scary Side of Christmas

December 21, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

As a child, Christmas was my favorite time of the year. Homemade stockings hung by the chimney with extra-care. Daddy was in a semi-decent mood. Yummy food spread on the kitchen countertop morning, noon and night. School was out for weeks. Sometimes knee high snow fell while I slept. Plus, Christmas was Jesus’ birthday which included certain church perks like singing Christmas hymns instead of regular hymns and receiving tangerines at the end of the Christmas program.

Brinkley Chapel Choir. (l-r Monica, Staci, Lesa, Mitzi, Me, Kim, Karen, Jamie)

But.

In my young mind, there was a scary side of Christmas, too. A dark side that adults glossed over or ignored altogether. Two worrisome things in particular kept me awake at night during the most wonderful time of the year.

Number 1 Scary Christmas Thing: Jesus was born to a very young virgin mother. Although the specific details of being an unspoiled virgin versus “one of those girls” were fuzzy, I had a vague idea of what it meant.

WHAT IF THAT HAPPENED TO ME?

I wanted no part of it.

When the angel Gabriel said, fear not for behold I bring you tidings of great joy, Mary and her whole family went right along with everything. Mary was so wonderful and worthy she even sang a song about it.

If Gabriel visited me in the night, such tidings would not be well received by Thomas Tate.

Daddy (Thomas Tate)

Not at all.

I also believed the more I stewed on something, the more likely a self-fulfilling prophecy would occur. So I tried to focus on other things—anything other than being a pregnant virgin child like Mary. Like trying to be extra good and not pouting because Santa Claus watched my every move.

Number 2 Scary Christmas Thing. The Naughty or Nice List that controlled Christmas. I knew Santa made a list and checked it twice, but that’s all I knew about his curious list.

When did he make the list?

What were the list guidelines?

Exactly how bad did I have to be to find myself knocked off the good list and onto the bad list?

I had lots and lots of questions that no one seemed qualified to answer.

Each year, I felt certain I had NOT been good enough. All throughout Christmas Eve night, I worried that I would wake on Christmas morning to no toys, no new Barbies, no clothes even. Nothing at all. After all, I wasn’t nearly as agreeable as Mary (see Number 1 Scary Thing above).

Worry-wart much?

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]The scary side of #Christmas…Yikes! #VirginMary #BetterNotPout[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

Mindy Gledhill – Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Farm Art Friday: Historic Barn

December 19, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Inside an old barn, a special world exists. A world encased beneath a sky of dusty rafters and a floor of hay. Slivers of sunlight stream through cracks illuminating buckets hanging from rusty nails, forgotten tools, lengths of scratchy rope. Beyond the barn walls a busy world rushes by, but inside, time passes unhurriedly with amazing grace.

Edward Samuel Wildy Barn, Etowah, Arkansas

In 2004, this wonderful old barn was added to the National Register of Historical Places for agricultural significance based on architecture and engineering. Last year it was damaged during straight line winds (tornado?). The Wildy barn (Mississippi County, Ar) may or may not be standing today—I’m not certain— but I’m glad to have taken this picture when I had the chance.

Such a slice of Americana.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Inside a barn, time passes unhurriedly with amazing grace. #VintageArkansas #oldbarn #historic[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

Walking Plow – Joe Pancersewski

I miss Dallas at Christmas

December 17, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Yes, there are a few things I miss about Dallas. Especially at Christmas. Not that I don’t lovelovelove Fayetteville, because I do. But I miss Chester and his people, Harold and Gale, and other Munger Place friends too numerous to mention.

Chester and Annabelle. Best buddies.

Munger Place porch parties, impromptu get togethers and holiday parties are unique and special.

Especially at Christmas.

I missed my nephew march in his first ever Christmas parade. I’m all about a Christmas parade. Shout out to Zach!

I don’t think Zach is in this picture, but he’s somewhere in this group. Jasper Band (Plano, Tx) is HUGE.

I miss Pei Wei. I do. And Scalini’s. And Tex-Mex in general. Tex-Mex is hard to come by in Fayetteville (or at least I haven’t found it yet).

I miss my rosemary plant. For the first time in at least twelve years, I had to buy rosemary at Thanksgiving. Craziness. I’ll be planting rosemary soon, but I’m not confident it will survive Northwest Arkansas winters.