Oink Oink

F.A.T.

That's how I feel after a week and a half of nonstop eating. I've been traveling for the holidays and it seems whenever I'm away from home I can't control myself.

I am responsible for the consumption of two entire loaves of Swedish coffe bread as well as a whole bag of Lindt chocolate truffles and three maybe four pints of Brigham's vanilla ice cream. The sad thing about this is that I was not even remotely hungry when I ate any of this...none of it!

Lucikly I will be home tommorrow. and luckily it's the new year so I can get my eating back on track. I guess this little piggy will be starting 2008 with the resolution to loose weight...or at least to only eat when I'm hungry! Oink! Oink!

Happy New Year everyone!

Don't you hate it when....

you walk into the bathroom at Target to pee and all the stalls are full except for one. You then proceed into the one stall to do your business while trying not to breathe in because someone in one of the other stalls is really stinking up the joint. Then all the other people leave and you come out to wash your hands and a really old uptight lady walks in and looks at you in disgust because she thinks you are the one that caused the horrific smell?


I just hate it when that happens.

Pray for me people everywhere!

Forget praying for peace people, pray for me! I am at my in-laws house and they have... dial-up.

Gasp! The horrors!

I really consider myself lucky that they even have an Internet connection since they are in their late 80's. So I guess I shouldn't be complaining at all but, well, it's me, so I'm gonna complain...just a little.

I have forgotten how really, really, really s. l. o. w. a dial-up connection can be. There's no hopping around from blog to blog, site to site. And I definitely dare not open more than one Internet session at a time. Normally when I am blogging I can have as many as three or four open...but not with dial-up.

So, I am asking for a little patience over the next couple of days. I am still going to post but it's just going to take me


a

lot

long

er


to get the posts up so please bear with me. And while you are waiting, please say a tiny little prayer for me....patience is not my strong suit.

And I guess you can go ahead and pray for peace while you are at it.

I'm up to my eyeballs in...

wrapping paper and Christmas cookies and last minute trips to the store.


Just wanted to take a minute away from all of the holiday "fun" to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and to ask that you please remember why we go through all of this craziness every year. Because ultimately His arrival is all that should matter to us.


For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. -Luke 2:11

It's the little things that count.

A couple of evenings ago our doorbell rang. There was silence for a minute as the kids and I were shocked that someone might be at our door this late in the evening. (It was only 6:45 but it was dark and felt late.) After about two seconds the kids started screaming Is it Colton and Cheyanne? Are they here to play? and I started screaming Don't open the door! Remember, no one opens the door unless Mommy is standing there!

We all raced to the door. My heart started to pound a little because no one ever comes to our door in the evening. There has been a string of burglaries in our area and the perp's MO is that they ring the doorbell and if you are home they ask for directions and move on to the next house. If you aren't home, they proceed to break in and take all of your valuables. (Can you tell I like to watch CSI, Without a Trace and Cold Case? Where else would I learn terms such as perp and MO? O.k. maybe I picked those up on the Andy Griffith show and maybe they aren't as cool as I think.)

Anyway, I headed to the door with my heart pounding. I just knew I was going to find a big burly stranger there who wanted to know how to get to the highway. But what a sweet surprise I got. Standing on my front porch was "Miss Virginia".

Miss Virginia is a sweet little lady who attends the church I went to as a child. She is probably about 85 now, maybe older. She was dressed to the nines wearing tasteful earrings, lipstick, a dress and sensible heels. She was with her daughter who I could tell did not want to be standing there. Her daughter, I think, felt uncomfortable because they arrived unannounced.

I invited them in but they only came a few steps in the door. The house was a mess but I didn't care. I was just glad we all had our clothes on! Many times at this point in the evening, one or both of the kids are running around in various states of undress.

Miss Virginia wanted to thank me in person for sending her a Christmas card. The Christmas card we sent had our family photo on it and she wanted to let me know that she thought the card was lovely and that she truly appreciated the card. She even came bearing gifts! She brought four of the cutest cupcakes I've ever seen and a box of delicious oatmeal cookies.

What a sweet treat! And what a true southern belle, Miss Virginia is. The whole thing made me wonder about the little things we do. I sent her a Christmas card without thinking twice about it. She was on a long list of people we send cards to every year. But for Miss Virginia, receiving the card was special. Maybe it even made her day. I know her visit certainly made mine. She went to the store and purchased treats for my family to thank us for sending her a Christmas card.

I am going to try to be more mindful in the new year of doing more little things for people. I think that will be a better resolution than trying to loose those same old 5 pounds...that I never seem to loose anyway. And after all, don't they say It's the little things that count?

Here are my kids getting ready to enjoy one of the little things...

The Festival of Lights

Last night we went to Tanglewood to see the Festival of Lights. Tanglewood has been putting on this display of lights for 16 years now and they claim it is one of the "most spectacular light shows in the southeast". Having never been to a light show I think I would have to agree!

As I've mentioned before I have been trying to institute some new family traditions this year now that the kids are a little older and might actually enjoy them. So we decided we were going to take them. But my husband has been really busy at work lately and we kept having to put it off and put it off. (We didn't want to go on the weekend because we heard the lines get really long.) Last night was our last chance to go before our Christmas travels and we finally made it!

The kids were in awe looking at all the beautiful light displays. Peter would say, "Cool! That's awesome!" and then Sarah would pipe in with "Yeah! That's the most awesomest!" We like to call them "Pete and Repeat" because she loves to imitate her older brother!

Since we got a late start we weren't able to stop at the hot chocolate stand or roast marshmallows but next year we are going to leave early enough to do that. Peter declared this is the best place ever! He even said he wanted to come back next year. And so a tradition is born...


I tried to take pictures of some of the light displays but my camera just doesn't have what it takes...






So, here is a picture I took of me and the kids as we were driving through the park. (We let them sit on my lap so they could have a better view of the lights. They may have enjoyed that just as much as the lights.)

If you would like to see some good pictures of the light display go here and click on the link at the bottom of the page. Most of the lights were animated (guess that's the right word to use...anyway...they moved) so it's hard to get a good idea even from these pictures of how cool the displays really were.)

Works For Me Wednesday

Today is Wednesday so of course, Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer is hosting Works for Me Wednesday. She is asking for tips that make Christmas easier.

Every year at Christmas, since my son's birth in 2002, we have travelled by car 15 hours away to spend time with my in-laws. And with kids, that 15 hours easily turns into 19, but we do it any way because we don't have the money to fly and how would we have gotten the Pack N Play and the swing and all the other baby necessities kids need while they are away from home, there, had we flown?

So every Christmas we pack up the car and spend two days travelling. When my son was first born I started to mull over my options about what I was going to do about Christmas gifts. There wasn't going to be any extra room in our mid-sized SUV to pack a lot of gifts and now that the kids are older we don't want to risk them seeing their gifts from Santa. We also weren't going to have time to go to the mall once we made it to our destination. So I turned to...online shopping.

I buy almost all of our Christmas gifts online. To minimize my headaches and the shipping charges I try to get as many of the gifts as possible from as few stores as possible. This year I did almost all of our shopping from Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon.com.

I used to decide on a gift item, check 5 or 6 stores online to compare prices and then put the item I chose in my shopping cart. This took forever and many times I would go back to my shopping cart only to find it had been deleted. I have also realized that the cost of most things aren't going to vary that much by store so it's not worth the hassle. Also, if you maximize the amount of money you spend at one store you will minimize your shipping charges. In many cases, if you purchase enough from one store you will get free shipping.

Over the last 5 years, I have realized that I shopping online is so much easier and more peaceful that fighting the crowds at Christmastime. And all I have to do when I get to my in-laws is wrap the gifts. And we have found that getting the presents home is a lot easier than we thought as well...It's much easier to pack a toy that has already been removed from the box!

I know this seems like a no-brainer but it works for us! Now head over to Rocks in My Dryer for more Works For Me Wednesday tips!

The Random Christmas Hoopla!

Jennifer has tagged me to play . . .The Random Christmas Hoopla!Here goes:

1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas

2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word (which, for you bloggy newbies, is meme)

3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.

4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.


12 Random Christmas Things About Me...

1. I love Christmas and it really annoys me that everywhere I look I see Happy Holidays. I am a Christian and I will always proudly say Merry Christmas. According to a 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, 80% of Americans are Christians. If there are so many Christians in America then why are we all saying Seasons Greetings?

2. I must confess that I had to do something this Christmas that I am not proud of. We had to send out Christmas cards this year that said Seasons Greetings on them instead of Merry Christmas. Every year we use Portrait Innovations to get our Christmas picture taken and we have them print up our Christmas cards while we are there. There are about 25 backgrounds you can choose from for the cards and only TWO of them...TWO! said Merry Christmas. The two that said Merry Christmas were really ugly...one had a lime green background and the other was blue with a snowman (I think).



I know. I am a hypocrite. I caved and went with Season's Greetings because the background went really well with our picture. My husband was so distraught over this that we printed out stickers that said Merry Christmas and put those on the envelopes. Next year, I think we are just going to wear lime green so that our outfits will match the Merry Christmas background.

3. I was raised as a Moravian and one of my favorite memories as a little girl is the Christmas Eve Lovefeast and Candle Light service. It is a beautiful service and I highly recommend anyone living near a Moravian church to attend this year. I am a Catholic now and a little part of me will always miss the Moravian service.

4. When I was a preteen our church had a live outdoor Nativity pageant for maybe 4 years. It lasted for 5 nights each Christmas and we performed it 6 times each night. I loved participating in that. I was always an angel. I guess some things never change!


5. Opening the gifts in our stockings was always something that we did last in our house as a child. It was almost like an afterthought. My husband's family always opens them first and the presents in the stockings are almost as good as the "real" presents. His sister, especially, puts a lot of time and thought into picking out special little gifts for each stocking.


6. When I was little Santa always left our presents wrapped. I was horrified when I grew up and learned that in many households he leaves the unwrapped. My husband's gifts were always unwrapped and he is very annoyed when I insist on wrapping the kid's presents.

7. I love Christmas decorations. I love to look at them in the store and in magazines but I don't have a lot of them at home. We have a tree and the outside of our house is decorated but that's about it. It seems like sooooo much work and expense for just a few weeks out of the year to do much more than that. It 's because I'm so practical...or lazy....

8. I like to see snow on the ground on Christmas day but growing up in the south it never happened. But now that we visit my husband's family in Massachusetts there is always a good chance! Last year it actually snowed on Christmas day and right now they have at least a foot or more on the ground! I bought mittens and hats for the kids today because I know we will be playing in it!

9. I prefer gift wrapped presents to gift bags but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do. And I would never turn a down a Christmas gift because it was in a gift bag. I just think it is more fun to unwrap something than to pull it out of a bag.


10. I always put money in the Salvation Army bucket every time I see one at Christmas.

11. My husband and I both love the smell and look of a real tree but for practical purposes have had a fake one for the last 7 years. My husband has said, at least 100 times this year, Geez, I sure wish we had a live tree. I've got a feeling we may be getting a live tree next year.

12. My favorite Christmas song is The Little Drummer Boy. It gives me chills whenever I hear it.

I'm glad I'm at 12 because I can't think of another thing to say!

All right Honey , and Page you guys are next!

Be thankful they are there.

"Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way."

These words stopped me in my tracks and tears begin to form in my eyes. I was reading yet another poem I had received through email. I get them all the time. Usually I read them and delete them from my inbox as well as my mind. Their messages are always sweet but for me fleeting. Until this one.

This line comes right at a time when my daughter always seems to be under my feet. She always wants to help me and she always wants to be right by my side doing whatever I'm doing. Several times a day, it seems, I am turning around to get the laundry, prepare dinner, make a bed and she is underneath my feet causing me to stumble. And every time I curse silently and tell her to get out of the way. And every time I immediately feel sorry that I have just told her this and every time I silently pray to God to forgive me for being a bad mother and to please, please give me extra patience.

Since the day this line stopped me in my tracks, I have been trying to be more mindful of how lucky I am to have this little one underfoot. And every time I want to say get out of the way, instead I find myself reaching down to give her a hug and saying a prayer of thanks to God for her and asking him to please, please give me extra patience.





In case you are interested, here is the complete text of the poem. Maybe a line in it will touch you.

1 CORINTHIANS 13 - THE CHRISTMAS VERSION Author unknown

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls,
but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies,preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime,
but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity,
but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes,
attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata,
but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside decorating to kiss the husband.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love doesn't envy another ones home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.
Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who can't.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust.
But giving the gift of love will endure.