A Wild Night at the Lovefeast

We attended Wake Forest's 43rd annual Lovefeast and thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, the name set off my mental jukebox, and I sashayed up to Wait Chapel humming a rendition of the B-52's mid-1990's hit "Love Shack".

In 1747, the Moravians who founded Winston-Salem introduced the end-of-year Lovefeast, a special evening service combining two things anyone can appreciate: music and food. Now, we're not talking about a meal. It's been trimmed down to some sweet bread and coffee. Which meant for us, of course, further trimming to sweet bread. It wasn't that sweet either: it was more like a hamburger bun with a hint of orange. They were running out, so we got half a bun. But we made up for the missing sugar and calories with toffee. More on that later.

the music was wonderful. There was a choir, a flute ensemble, a hand bell group, and a magnificent organist. The reflection (read sermon) was offered by a former university president. It was good. It would have been twice as good if it had been half as short. And then we all lit candles, which made us glad we weren't on the upper deck, because we were getting hot on the lower deck within minutes.

We were a little worried that Cora might fuss, but she slept through the whole thing. Organ playing, people singing, candles lighting, coffee slurping, hand bell choir handbelling: no problem. Completely unperturbed, unruffled, unaware. She was an absolute angel, which was confirmed by everyone sitting around us.

Also, tonight we made my first batch of toffee. Who would have thought that melting 2 cups of butter and 2 cups of sugar together, and covering them with chocolate would turn out so well? Whoever it was, I'm sure they have a special spot reserved for them in heaven. I'd offer to bring it to San Antonio for Christmas, but let's be real here. It will be gone by week's end.