In the Bleak Midwinter

By the time I was done baking yesterday, I felt like I'd made a cookie for each person at Boeing! These went to work with John this morning for their annual holiday lunch. At 5:30 from bed, I heard him making several trips to the truck because (of course) it's raining hard.

Amanda and Nova will be here today, with Tom joining them later in the week. That's sweeter than a ton of cookies...

Portrait of Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
by her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

How about a Christmas poem? Christina Rossetti was an English writer known for romantic, religious and children's poetry. Her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an influential pre-Raphelite painter, and if you're familiar with his paintings you will recognize the lines of her face since she sat for some of them.

Here's one of her most famous poems:

In the Bleak Midwinter

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter,
Long ago.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am,
If I were a shepard
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what can I give Him,
Give my heart.