Our first gathering of the year began late Friday afternoon when Stig arrived from Montana. After catching up, Bodvarr & Stig went to the Ve' to hang a small pair of antlers to give my bodhran drum a place to hang during ritual. Once that was done, Bodvarr went to finish plowing the driveway while Stig and Egil took turns shoveling a path to the Ve' to make it easier for the procession walk the next day. After many snowballs were thrown and a few wrestling matches won between both dogs and kin, they took a short break on their ice thrones to contemplate life.
Once the meaning of that became clearer, or their butts just got to cold & wet, they got back to work and finished the path.
After the work for the day was complete, we all retired into the house to visit until the rest of our kinsmen showed up. Sindri was the first to arrive with Anthony close behind, followed by Leif & Aurie. A small feast of Philly cheesesteak sloppy Joe's, tater tots and chips & salsa, filled our bellies and the kinship filled our hearts.
As soon as dinner was over and we got the kitchen cleaned up, We got down to the business of brewing a new batch of mead and bottling the previous one. You've got to wonder...how many times did Anthony fill up Stig's kindred mug during the bottling process?
After a brief instruction from our Gothi Bodvarr we all set off on the procession walk to the Ve'. About a quarter of the way there, we stopped and sent Sindri back to get the camera and thankfully he continued recording and even raised it up high to catch some of the procession. After another short walk, which brought us halfway to our destination we stopped again and had Sindri pass the camera up the line to where Leif and I were waiting. Leif & I then broke away from the group and went into the Ve' to setup this camera and hit record on another one so we could film the kindreds walk into our beloved Ve'. This gathering was the beginning of our vlogging/recording of our kindred for YouTube and other social media platforms. It was an interesting experience having to stop for cameras but everyone took it in good spirits and it became a small matter.
Once blot was opened on all four corners by Bodvarr and assisted by Sasha sounding the horn. Forsetti was invited to join us in blot and to help us settle a conflict that had popped up. This conflict seemed to be a direct result of what the runes warned us about only weeks before at our Yule gathering. After offerings of mead was received by Forsetti, Bodvarr asked for Forsetti to bless the additional mead so that he may share those blessing with the folks.
Bodvarr and I then went around the folk and shared Forsetti's blessings with them. We did this by Bodvarr sprinkling the external blessing on them and I poured in their horns the blessing that they would take internally. After much gratitude and heartfelt words were spoken by all the folk to Forsetti, it was time to conduct some special business before the closing of blot. Bodvarr then asked Leif, Anthony & Sindri to grab their newly acquired ritual gear so that it could be blessed in service to the gods.
Once the blessing of tools was completed and an invitation to stay for feast & kinship to Forsetti was extended, Bodvarr closed the blot and we finished off the ritual with a big kindred hug. Afterward we all grabbed our gear and made sure the fire was out and began the long trek back to the house.
Once inside we all went to work preparing our feast dishes and getting them in the final stages before feast later. In the meantime Stig whom is becoming famous for his charcurtie boards, did not disappoint. The board was piled high with summer sausage, dry coppa, pisutto, mozzarella cheese, bacon cheddar cheese and a jalapeno/habanero cheese that had a wonderful burn that would sneak up on you. In addition to that there was also a cajun crab dip, smoked salmon dip, stuffed green olives, assorted crackers and chips & salsa. While Stig was preparing the board, the rest of us would occasionally brave losing a finger to get a small sample of the goodies he was cutting up. After the board was finished and we all got ready to dig in, Stig placed it in the fridge to wait for our last kinsmen David to arrive so that he may enjoy it also. A short time later David drove up and we all rushed out to the driveway to attack him with hugs and help bring in his gear. After David got settled in and had a beer in hand like the rest of us, Stig pulled out his charcutie board with a flourish and we all attacked it like a pack of wolves.
Now that our appetites were satisfied for the moment, the deck of cards were brought back out and a few hands of euchre were played.
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