A Fresh Cup of Coffee

Sunday, December 21, 2025

Scripture and a Snapshot - Light and Glory (Advent IV - Love)

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and the glory of your people Israel."

~Luke 2:25-32~

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

~John 1:14~

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Thursday, December 18, 2025

Everyday Images #77

Welcome to another installment of my challenge and reminder to myself to take photos somewhat regularly. I'm not a photographer, but I enjoy taking everyday photos of things I find interesting or want to remember later, and I find that I notice interesting things when I'm intentionally watching for them. Having some prompts that are open to interpretation has helped me pay a little more attention to what's around me. Every two weeks I have a few words and phrases that I'm focusing on, and I try to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week.

December Prompts - Everyday Images #77

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at home (monthly)

collection

love

white

traditional

pine

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at home (monthly)

collection - I added to my collection of coffee-themed ornaments

love - I need to remember to smile when we all look down at the camera. LOL

white - lots and lots of white snow fell on the weekend!

traditional

pine - well, technically my wreath is made of Canaan Fir, but I tend to use "pine" as a generic term for evergreens, even though I know it's not correct.

And a few bonus photos:

I went to the Holiday Open House at the Ohio State House. The chorus performed some Christmas music, and I looked around at some of the beautiful (and huge!) trees and decor. And paused to enjoy some Nutcracker highlights.

The first Saturday in December was pretty nice weather. I went to Timbuk Farms first thing in the morning and looked around a bit, and picked out my wreath and porch pot. I thought this little guy in the petting zoo area was absolutely adorable.

In the afternoon, we went to Pataskala for the cookie walk. I think this might be the only photo I took though.

Part of our haul:

From Pataskala we headed over to the Dawes Arboretum for the Winter Wonders Walk. We thought this projected light display was really cool!

Strolled along the walk past the historic house and grounds, and enjoyed many great views of the lights. It was pretty chilly by then, and we were getting hungry, so we hustled along.

Last Thursday we met the kids at the mall and took in the holiday drone show and got hot cocoa.

This past weekend it got pretty cold and we got some more snow. In the morning, hubby and I went to help and an open house for a childrens center ministry. When we got back we visited Oakland Nurseries, mainly since I hadn't been there yet.

No photos of it, but on Sunday night when I was on my way home, my car died. Just gave up the ghost. Made for an interesting evening and a somewhat challenging week.

Tuesday night we had tickets to the Blue Jackets game, and I guess Santa did as well.

I am sharing my photos every other Thursday, along with my prompts for the next two weeks. You can use all or some of the prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. Simple rules: Your posts must be family-friendly; the photos must be your own; and the post must be mostly photos. If you do share I'd appreciate a mention and link to A Fresh Cup of Coffee on your post.

Everyday Images will continue in 2025, every other Thursday, and the link-up is open for two weeks. I'm planning to continue in 2026, and I hope you'll continue to join me!

Wrapping Up 2025 - Everyday Images #78

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Everyday Images #78 will be a wrap-up of 2025 photos. Share favorites from the year, collages of the monthly and quarterly collections, a highlight from each month, or whatever works for you. Thanks for playing along with me, and I look forward to Everyday Images 2026!

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Wednesday, December 17, 2025

A Wintery Wednesday Hodgepodge

A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!

Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. What's one thing on your to-do list that you want to get done, need to get done, or that must get done before the year ends?

As it turns out, we will need to get a new-used car and that was not on my 2025 Bingo card. Mine died on Sunday night and at this point we think it's time to get rid of it and get something else even though we still have payments. Not fun to be forced to that decision instead of car shopping with anticipation, y'know?

2. December 17th is National Maple Syrup Day . . . are you a fan? Do you like maple flavor in other food items such as candy, cookies, donuts, oatmeal, hot toddies, coffee?

Oh I love maple syrup and maple flavored things! I guess I have to say that, being a Canadian by birth, right? LOL But I do love genuine maple syrup for pancakes and waffles. A nice maple icing on cookies or donuts is delicious. Big yes to maple flavors in oatmeal and cereals. Maple syrup also is a nice add to savory dishes, as part of a marinade or sauce for meat and fish dishes. I do not add maple syrup to my coffee because I don't drink it sweetened anyway, but I do like maple flavored coffee and my sons have been known to add syrup to their coffee instead of sugar. Inspired by Buddy the Elf, of course!

I even put maple syrup on my Christmas tree!

3. Time magazine names a person of the year every year. The tradition started back in 1927 with a 'man of the year' but has since changed to recognize not only an individual, but also to consider the impact of a group, movement, or an idea that most influenced the year. The selection is not always someone or something good (I think Hitler in 1938 and Stalin twice).

This year they've named The AI Architects as their 'person of the year'. What say you? Is this a good choice, an obvious choice, a logical choice? Who do you think should have been named person of the year?

I don't care a whole lot about who Time magazine names each year, but AI Architects? I don't know if that's a great choice. I get it, it's in the news a lot and AI has the potential to make even bigger impacts in our world, but I can't get behind just a vague group or a non-human being the 'person of the year'. As to who it should have been? Possible obvious choices that I'm sure were considered would be President Trump and Elon Musk, or perhaps Charlie Kirk. I believe Trump has been named twice before? I really just think it should be an actual influential PERSON, not a movement or group or non-human.

4. What's a city, state, or country you've visited that you never care to visit again? Tell us why.

Well, I remember after we spent several days in Las Vegas right at New Years Eve many years ago, we joked a lot about it being one of the coolest places that we'd never wanted to visit. We had fun, but it wasn't our choice of destination and not really our vibe. So that's the first place I think of that I've never cared to return to, and still don't.

5. Next Sunday(December 21st) marks the first day of winter (or the opposite if you're living down under). What's one thing you love about this new season?

Other than the holidays, I do love snow and frost. (So long as I don't have to drive in dangerous winter weather!) Fresh snow is so pretty under a blue sky or at night, and just makes everything look kind of new and clean. I'm still open to catching snowflakes on my tongue and I like winter walks when there's been a fresh snow but it's not super cold. Snow is pretty magical.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

So I mentioned my car giving up on me. Thankfully it came to its ignominous end only a couple miles from home, so my husband could come get me; and thankfully it was in a place where I was safe. And it wasn't due to an accident, so no injuries. So while I'm grateful for that, I'm just so upset that we are basically going to be throwing money away with that car. Ugh. No final decisions have been made about it, so good thoughts and prayers are welcomed.

In other news, one of my aunts passed away on Monday. She had been failing for awhile so we knew it would be any moment. But still hard for my mom and her two remaining sisters. My uncle just passed just a couple of months ago.

In happier news, I'll hark back to my answer to #5 which gives me a chance to put in a plug for Wednesday Quotes because the current theme is "Winter Wonderland". The current link-up can be found here: WQ - Walking In a Winter Wonderland. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes! A new Everyday Images photo link-up drops tomorrow, and then I'll start working on a 2025 wrap-up of my Everyday Images photos. Both of these link parties will continue in 2026 and I hope you'll make plans to visit and join in!