HUNGARIAN CHRISTMAS

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CHRISTMAS EVE PRAYER FOR (IMPOSSIBLE?) PEACE

Recently I was with a group of people and one woman asked us all to pray for the survivors of Pearl Harbor.  She was of the generation - some call it "the Silent generation" and others "the Greatest generation" - in which her peers were involved in World War II.  World War II is not so long ago in history, but what is sure is that it remains a Hollywood film favorite subject, while other wars such as Korean - Viet Nam - and the whole big mess of the Middle East have comparatively few films made about them.  Unpopular wars, underreported wars, and wars that are no longer called wars, are going on all the time.


I spoke up and said, "Let's pray for peace instead."


Don't know that my blurt was appreciated, but to me all that was required was a moment of silence or a mental bookmark.  You see, I don't actually think there ever will be Peace of Earth, but in the West, at Christmas time, the notion of Peace of Earth is popular.  Consider that sometimes in war there are agreements that for that one day of the year, Christmas, there is a "peace fire."


And, I really do think that peace on earth has to begin with each individual, and in Christianity the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi is my favorite.  Yet, for all the empathy called for, in order to understand and forgive others, sometimes I've been considered naïve, a fool, and exploitable for all the give I have.  I've been at times sneered at for my hope, faith, belief, or innocence.  I have not been testy, suspicious.  I haven't asked enough questions.  (These days an exploiter will blame the victim, saying, "you didn't do your due diligence.")


So, while I don't think there will ever be peace of earth, and am making no claim to perfection and a straight ticket to heaven, the notion of heaven is very influential.  Heaven allows us to imagine a place that is peaceful and joyful, and where everyone else is good!


This is my open mind set for the holiday season.


A week ago I told myself I should start decorating.  I managed to get a string of lights up around the door.  I pulled out my small artificial Christmas tree, only to discover that a piece of plastic had broken off while it was in storage.  Three days later I got out my glue gun and tried to fix the leg on without that piece.  It sort of worked.


I went off to Trader Joes, were I planned to buy all the ingredients needed to manifest five different cupcake recipes which I wanted to make to gift.  It's been years since I made or gifted baked goods and I remembered the days when Christmas visiting meant indulging in baked goods from many different ethnic backgrounds.  Family and friends had married into Italians, Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Slovaks, Ruthenians, Irish, Germans -  we have a Persian - that whole mix that is United States of America - everyone making traditional cookies, cakes, pies, that their ancestors made.


As I made way to the location, I passed by an Armenian banquet hall.  Someone must have had a wedding, ordered in numerous floral ornaments for the tables, and when unboxing found one was broken.  Outside on the sidewalk was a beautiful gold sprayed branch that had blooming rose petals glue gunned to it!  One rose had fallen off and there was a glob of glue.  I took one look at it and grabbed it.  At home I decided not to use the artificial pine tree at all, but hang my small ornament collection off the branches of this bare limbed "tree."  I set it up and it's beautiful.  My dog lay in her swirl of blankets looking at the pretty lights.


Then I made the cupcakes.  Pumpkin oatmeal spice with no icing.  Walnut flax seed with vanilla powdered sugar,  dried cherries in the mix and topped with cherry jam,  and finally Ghirardelli Chocolate (from San Francisco) inside and melted atop plain white cake.  Improvising with cardboard shirt boxes, wrapping paper and tissue, I made up four boxes.  One delivered to a friend who lives in an assisted living.  I assured him, I used no milk, no butter, no corn, corn starch, or corn syrup.  (I used safflower oil, spring water, brown sugar, real sugar, flour, flax seed, oatmeal, real vanilla.)  Then off to the neighbor who a few weeks ago did me a huge favor even though he barely knows me.  (He came to the US as a refugee from Bosnia.)  This morning, I delivered another to a business that I frequently visit, me and the dog.  The people there have fed her endless treats.  And then I went to visit another friend who has leant me films this year, some of which I have to return, and learned he has moved!


Such is the state of art and science at this time in my life.


I wish all my readers, whatever your ethnic origins or religious beliefs, at least one day of complete and total peace, inside yourself and with the world.




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Magyar American Blogspot

MENNYBOL AZ ANGYAL - ANGEL FROM HEAVEN

SNOW MAN

I PLAY SAINT NICK and EVERYONE LOVED IT!

A few days ago I met with a group of people who I've know just a few months.  None of them are of Hungarian heritage and I had mentioned mine to them here and there, without much of a reaction.  I didn't know what to think.  Do some of them have secret prejudices against Hungarians or, perhaps, me for my heritage?

Today I took a load of clothes to a charity drop off and tonight I start working on decorating, since, by my way of thinking, the twelve days of Christmas has just about begun.

When I was growing up, we didn't bring the tree inside until Christmas Eve, and then left it up until Three Kings. We also bought live trees and then planted them when the snow thawed.

I'm not going to go "all out," with decorating or celebrating, but I do know that first the house has to be neat and clean.

While I was going through some things, I found some books that I'd bought and read, mostly somewhat spiritual, and decided that I would wrap these up, take them with me when I met with my new friends, and let them each choose.

"I think I've mentioned my Hungarian heritage,"  I said.  One woman looked at me, and I thought she was thinking, "Now what's she up to."

"Well, in Hungary, Christmas is all about Jesus, but then there is Saint Nick's day for presents, which is about now!  I admit these are books from my personal collection.  Each of you pick one!"

As it turned out, every person picked the book that turned out to be the most perfect for them!

The first person to pick, the most curious you might think, is a retired journalist!  The last, a book on spirituality and world peace, who had just come back from a religious retreat!

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SAINT NICHOLAS PUTS KRUMPUS IN HIS PLACE!

CRUSS VON KRAMPUS - COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD TONIGHT...

The Christmas Devil comes the day before

Saint Nick does, rounding up the "bad" kids.

One of my aunts told me that when her sons were young,

one Christmas she threatened that their toy gifts

were going to be taken back.

She hid them in a closet for a couple days.

The sons turned into responsible adults.

They don't seem to have been too traumatized by the experience.

A MALTESE POODLE CHRISTMAS

IS A WISH FOR PEACE JUST RIDICULOUS? THEN CALL ME THAT! THE STATE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

The recent Presidential election left many Americans, including me, embarrassed and exhausted.  The winner, Donald Trump, might just make America Great Again, one of many campaign promises he made, but he seems to be a mercurial person. 


Many people I've spoken with have told me that they expect campaigns to get nasty.  It was just so nasty, it left me wishing and hoping that we can all hit the restart button, and begin again, in brotherhood and peace, with not politicians but with leadership. 


AM I JUST RIDICULOUS?  Maybe so, but if there is any time of the year in the Christian world where we can have such hopes, I think that's the Christmas time.   It's become the most materialistic time of the year.  It should be the most idealistic.


It's coming up on us fast, and so is the swearing in of Donald Trump as the President of the United States. People I meet are not idealistic about his - regime.  They are afraid they will go without health insurance or housing and be out on the street.  It's enough to make me think MAYBE CALIFORNIA SHOULD BECOME ITS OWN COUNTRY... WE'RE ALREADY BIGGER THAN SOME!  THE MENTALITY HERE IS JUST - DIFFERENT.  Some people are suggesting we leave the Union - for four years or the end of Trumps regime, whatever comes first.


No, that's not likely to happen.


In particular to my state, California, there is a lot of fears about illegal immigration, that there will be "sweeps," and people will be taken away, like the Nazis taking away the Jews in the Holocaust.


One of my friends is a librarian for the city, of Mexican origin, her great grandfather walked into Arizona, worked full time there, and founded a family that has done well for itself.  On the library desk I found print outs that had been left there by immigration advocates, in both English and Spanish, intended for illegal residents to hand to any police officer that might start asking them questions, stating that they are going to stay silent.  I took one for my wallet, even though I'm legal, as a reminder that I don't necessarily have to answer the questions asked by an officer, though I don't think I'm headed for trouble with the law.  I told her that I did not think there would be sweeps.  Our mayor and police said they would not cooperate if ordered to.  However, if someone commits a violent crime or is dealing drugs, especially if that person has broken Federal law, then I would not be surprised if they were deported.


What is so difficult about becoming a citizen?  If you come legal, it's not!  I have a neighbor from Hungary getting his citizenship.  Another neighbor who got his a decade ago came as a refugee from Kosovo.  There is a Moslem family, peaceable, who are refugees from Pakistan, also in process.   Another neighbor, has just gotten dual citizenship - Great Britain and the U.S.  Yes, there was time involved, and money, and tests, but it worked out.  None of them ever felt their stay here was threatened because they were doing the right thing from the start.


I believe that if you do the right thing from the start, you will be honored.


Recent killing rampages by people of Moslem origin especially, have basically sanctified what Trump is talking about, and that is, that we have let in all sorts of people who do not deserve to be here.


Do we really need more immigrants?  We welcome the educated, but Blue Collar American Trump advocates want their jobs back here and now.  Here is the hitch.  Illegal immigrants are not protected by labor laws and can be hired for cash and less than minimum wage and they are not likely to complain about the worst conditions.  Some of them are afraid that becoming legal will mean no longer getting work.  They also break the Unions, simply because they are willing to be underpaid.  It's not hard to find them.  I suspect that every construction site has some.  Some dirty people take terrible advantage of them including dumping them off after a days hard labor without the promised pay, and the threat to call the INS on them.


It's kind of like the situation for background actors for film.  Everyone who does it wants to get into SAG, the union, because the pay and benefits are then decent, but everyone says that once they got into SAG, their bookings diminished, so they worked less, and made about the same money.


California decided that a person didn't need to be legal to have an ID or a drivers license, which means they have to be insured for accidents, they can have library cards, they can have medical care at County hospitals, and they can have education.  Why?  Because California decided that these benefits benefit everyone, not just the illegal person. 


Much is made of Mexican gangs.  They exist.  They shoot  and kill each other and innocent people.  However, there are gangs of Armenians and Russians, and other ethnic groups as well, and sometimes it seems like identity theft and more sophisticated frauds are committed by these more educated criminals 


So, will a wall actually keep people out - or in?  If you read around it, you'll learn that the wall has been an ongoing project in the Obama administration, and that it isn't always a physical wall. 


Our illegal immigrants are not all criminals and our criminals are not all Mexican.

I DOG SIT FOR MY NEIGHBOR and MY DOG IS ... A LITTLE BITCH!

The other day my neighbor asked me at the last minute if I would please watch her dog. 


We are aware that her dog and mine have a complicated relationship.  You see, when mine was five, theirs was a puppy who upon the sight of my dog did the wail for mommy.  He matured and tried to mount my dog who was not interested.  Pretty much, "been there done that," was her attitude.  I think he took it badly.  Ever since then the two of them have doggie hated each other so when they go past each other they rapidly bark as if they are sassing each other.  But recently when my dog got out this neighbor rescued her and held her for me till I got home.  I'm eternally grateful as it could have been a disaster otherwise.  I would never have said no to her request. 


She needed someone to watch her dog while she went off to college where she is studying for a Master's Degree in Child Development. Her landlord was finally sending in workmen in to repair the flooring of her kitchen which had been water damaged.  There was going to be a lot of noise, hammers and buzzsaws.  No place for a dog to be home alone with strange men.


She brought little Keaton over.  She brought his big cage, his dog bed, his bone, his ball, and his blanket, all of which I suggested just in case.  When my dog saw Keaton coming through the door she stared.  Oh No!  Not him again.


In an attempt to train Keaton and my dog in proper behavior when company, I tried to reinforce that my dog was not the leader of the pack, I was, but that she was second in command.  Keaton, being younger, male, and more energetic and strong than my dog, was skeptical.  He could see his house from our front door, so he knew he wasn't really away, and his person just went down the drive way.  She'd be back, wouldn't she?


And so, in short order, Keaton decided that he would be at the front door, watching and waiting.  So my dog got up on the sofa, leaning over it, and growling to let him know he was on her turf and watching him.


Then my dog started doing bitchy things to Keaton.  She sniffed around his things and she stole his bone, not once, but three times.  Each time I took the bone away from her, put it back near Keaton, and put her in the bedroom and closed the door for time out. 


She got into her second most favorite spot, the chair she likes to sleep on and has pillows and blankets on, again to intimidate Keaton, who was looking around my kitchen floor and sniffing, hoping he was going to get some real food that dropped.


I went to the treats can and pulled out a few different ones, from little sausages, to cheese and chicken flavored mini-bones, and some kibble that comes in little bags and is made of trout.  I put a couple of these down near Keaton's things but my dog was like an eagle coming out of the sun to blind its prey.  Keaton couldn't get one treat because, with incredibly bad manners, mine ate them all, right under his nose.


It all worked out in the end.  I never put Keaton in his cage and I never tied up the dogs inside the house to keep them apart. The noise and vibration across the way was intense and Keaton knew something was going on in his house and for a while he shook.  He let me hold him and sooth him.


However, what I had to remember was how insecure my dog is because she has been dumped and rescued three times in her life.  When she came to me she showed signs of having had to compete for food.  Even though there were no other dogs around, she would take some kibble and hide it, or eat away from her dish, as if she were ready to be attacked.  I believe she was born in a backyard and then was part of a breeding program.  Mine may be the first house she has lived in and it may be the first time she has no other dogs to compete with.  She came to me terrified to have her paws touched, fearful and uncooperative about baths, and generally seemed to have been, if not abused, roughly handled in the past and untrained.  We've gotten so over those fears of hers that she comes to me eagerly when I say "bath."  Like a person who did not have a good childhood, there are elements of her personality that are not companionable.  I love her as she is.


I walked the two dogs together and while my dog tried to keep pace with me, and it was Keaton who started huffing and puffing first, I realized that Keaton was simply not going to perform any command I asked of him.  He was not going to Come, Sit, or Stay, or Heel.  He looked at me as if to say, "I no understand Hungarian!"


Moving into the holidays, I've already bought my dog a new collar and leash, a new toy, and a new sweater.  I sent Keaton home with a new Christmas bow for his collar.


Here's to the days ahead!




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THANKSGIVING

HUNGARY RENAISSANCE MUSIC

SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY DAY

FLOATING LKE BOKODI FISHING VILLAGE ON STILTS NORTH of BUDAPEST

DAILY MAIL TRAVEL - HUNGARY's AMAZING FLOATING VILLAGE ON STILTS  beautiful pictures but it's cooold out there!

EXCERPT: This is Hungary's answer to the paradise islands in the Indian Ocean - a village on stilts northwest of the capital, Budapest, near Bokod, that's known as the 'floating village'.


(is this your great escape?)

VETERANS DAY