Monday, December 6, 2021

And a good time was had by all

This month's event for the old fogies group (real name: Prime Timers) at our church turned out to be a Christmas brunch last Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the lovely home of Ed and Wynona. Mrs. RWP made a triple-recipe of her delicious corn casserole. The recipe is very, very simple:

1 15-oz. can whole corn, drained
l 14-oz. can creamed corn
1 cup sour cream
1 stick melted butter
1 8-oz. pkg Jiffy corn muffin mix

Mix all ingredients together, pour the mixture into a greased baking dish, and bake at 350°F for 45 to 60 minutes or until golden brown.

Mrs. RWP made a triple recipe, so she poured the mixture into two baking dishes.

I never heard of a "brunch" running from 2 to 4 p.m. but we had one.

Since Mrs. RWP and I get out so seldom nowadays, I wanted to share the occasion with you. All photographs are courtesy of our coordinator, Tammi, who appears in none of them.
After we ate, we sang some Christmas-y songs, including at one point two songs at the same time. Tammi divided the group into two groups and had one group sing "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer" while the other group sang "Away In A Manger." The confusion and cacophany that ensued seemed fitting for this possibly strangest of all possible years, which included the winding down of a pandemic, the gearing up of several vaccines, the shenanigans of Joseph Biden, Kamala Harris, Boris Johnson, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, capped off with Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise making his first actual trip into space.

Tammi then led us in a game of Nativity Trivia. Here are some of the questions:

How did Mary make the trip with Joseph to Bethlehem? (a) on a donkey, (b) on a camel, (c) on foot, or (d) the Bible doesn't say. The correct answer is (d) the Bible doesn't say.

What kind of animals were in the stable? (a) donkeys and sheep, (b) donkeys, cows, and sheep, (c) cows and sheep, or (d) the Bible doesn't say. The correct answer is (d) the Bible doesn't say.

What did the angels sing to the shepherds? (a) Peace on earth, good will to men, (b) Alleluia, (c) Glory to God in the highest, or (d) Gloria in excelsis Deo. The correct answer is NONE OF THE ABOVE. According to the Bible, "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and SAYING, not singing. This was a sort of trick question.

How many wise men came from the east? (a) 4, (b) 3, (c) 5, or (d) the Bible doesn't say. The correct answer is (d) the Bible doesn't say. Tradition (not the Bible) says there were three, probably because three gifts were mentioned specifically--gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Somewhere along the way,Tradition has given their names as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, but those are not in the Bible either.

Where did the wise men see Jesus? (a) in a manger, (b) in a stable, (c) in a house, or (d) the Bible doesn't say. The correct answer is--surprise!--(c) in a house.

In all the merriment and singing and feeding of our faces, I managed to miss the punch bowl altogether. I didn't even know there was a punch bowl until I saw Tammi's pictures. I missed what was reportedly some muy delicioso peppermint punch.

You have just spent another Saturday with the Rhymeswithplagues.

14 comments:

  1. I suspect there were five wise men and only three presents, two of them will have been socialists.
    Good to see the pictures of what looks like a great afternoon.

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    1. Adrian, that is an interesting premise you put forth. I think socislists would have taken the gold, frankincense, and myrrh from the wise men before they could give it to Jesus and distributed it to the shepherds, thus fulfilling Mary's song in Luke chapter 1, verse 53, "and the rich He hath sent empty away." I'm kidding.

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  2. Did you have to fight for the comfy dining chairs?

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    1. Tasker, look more closely. Mrs. RWP and I are not sitting in comfy dining chairs, we are in the last photo, sitting with our friend Johnny Rowe at on folding metal chairs at a card table.

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  3. The brunch looks lovely. So much food. I see several people involved in friendly conversation. I feel good just looking at the pictures.

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    1. Emma, it was lovely. I'm glad just looking at the pictures made you feel good. My work here is done.

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  4. Well, well well. I got the first three right (apparently) because I smelt a rat or two. By the time the last question came I thought "Well, I'm not falling for that one." and said "a manger in a stable". Now obviously I din't mean that he was born in a manger but born in a stable and laid in a manger. (King James version Luke 2 v7. I haven't checked my English Standard Version because I'm still living in the past. My view would have been that if the manger was not in a stable it would probably have been in a house like the 'peasant' ones here 100 years ago where the animals lived in part of the house and the people in another. The manger would, of course, be where the animals lived.

    Of course if it was a wealthy farmer then the animals could have been downstairs and the farmer upstairs. So the downstairs could have been classed as a stabling part of a house.

    Will we ever know? I just thought I'd let you know that sometimes I do put quite a bit of effort into your posts.

    By the way the veritable feast looked great and the girth of those present would seem to suggest that no one was starving.

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    1. Graham, I'm glad you participated in the Nativity trivia. The manger/stable/house question is not answered by Luke 2 v7 but by Matthew 2 v11 where it specifically says they entered the house. It is thought that the visitors from the east did not arrive on the same night the shepherds did (despite creche sets through the ages) but at a later time, since after visiting Herod in Jerusalem Herod decided to kill all male babies under two years of age. in Bethlehem. It is interesting also to note that God instructed Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt until Herod was dead, fulfilling a prophecy in the book of Hosea, "Out of Egypt have I called my son." Jewish people might argue with Christians that Hosea was talking about the deliverance of Israel under Moses centuries earlier, not = something in the future. And when the Holy Family returned, they went to Nazareth, where Joseph had lived before the trip to be counted in the census at Bethlehem (because he was of the house and lineage of David), and Jesus is called, as I'm sure you know, Jesus of Nazareth, not Jesus of Bethlehem.

      I appreciate you.

      Living and ever learning,
      Rhymes (Bob)

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  5. I enjoyed this post Bob; it made me smile which can't be bad.

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    1. Rachel, thank you! You and Emma are cut from the same cloth.

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  6. Robert,
    I keep coming here and commenting and the comments never seem to appear on the blog. I am vague enough to know that sometimes I probably don't click on "publish" but i'm not so vague as to NEVER click publish.
    It's silly of me to write this here as you probably won't receive it but here it is, just in case. I'm not ignoring you, just seemingly censored by blogger gremlins.

    I liked the trivia and got most questions right! What a lovely looking lunch, a fitting way to end the year.

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    1. kylie, this is the first comment I have received from you on this particular post (in other words, I wasn't being a mean moderator and refusing to publish your comment). The old adage "Into each life some rain must fall" is apparently active in your life. The Bible didn't say that, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow did in his poem "The Rainy Day". But the Bible does say that "it rains on the just and on the unjust" and the Rhymeswithplague Standard Version (RWPSV), which is based on the Mozzarella Text, adds "but it rains more on the just because the unjust steal the just's umbrellas (British, bumbershoots)." So there is that.

      I'm glad you finally got through to me and also that you played the Nativity Trivia game.

      Those internet gremlins are really aggravating.

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    2. The Mozzarella text? I'd like to make my acquaintance with that :)

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    3. kylie, it's a play on words. The Hebrow version of the Bible that is used by Jewish people and on which our KJV is based is called the Masoretic text. I was just having a little fun.

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