peanuts n’ oranges

i love salted in the shell peanuts.  i don’t really eat them very often, but when i do get a chance to eat them, i love how they taste and i love how they take forever to eat so you don’t eat very many (at least, not as many as you might if they were already shelled).  eating shelled peanuts and oranges (or clementines) always reminds me of an old church tradition from my childhood.  my mother has a different memory of this, i’m sure, but i have vivid memories of getting together every year, right around thanksgiving with our church and another “sister” church from a nearby town.  we’d set up tables in long rows (or maybe it was in one big square?) and then set the tables with candles in glass star-shaped candle holders and scatter nuts in their shells and nutcrackers and nutpicks and apples and oranges (and maybe fancy hard candies too?) across all of the tables.  then, we’d all gather around the tables for a big hymn sing.  i loved to sing hymns in this big group of people who obviously knew and loved most of the songs.  i loved to goof off with the other kids at the table who invariably began seeing what they could burn in the candle flames or what interesting things they could do with the melted wax.  and i loved the smell of orange peels and the taste of salt on my fingers.

and has anyone ever showed you that santa claus is inside peanuts?  if you look closely, you can see his old-fashioned hat and beard.

congratulations to rebekah for correctly identifying the inspiration quilt from earlier this week!  i’ll try to post full photos of the (as yet unquilted) top sometime this weekend.