3,2,1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Another year, come and gone. Why is it that as we get older, time goes by so much more quickly? More commitments to eat away at our time, I suppose. The days just click by, one after another and before you know it, we're sending our kids off to college and drawing our social security. When I was pregnant the first time in 2001 (about 3 months so I hadn't even found out if I was having a boy or girl yet) it was August and the back to school ads were running on TV. My husband came in and I was sobbing in front of the television so when asked why, I said that because "before we know it, our baby will be going to school...boohoohoo". Now, when I cry...I cry like Lucy, so this was a big deal to me and it really kind of freaked him out. My baby was, in my head at least, already wearing a back pack at the imaginary bus stop, barely giving a half wave as he or she drove away starting his or her new life with all of his or her new friends. I also craved the smell of lawn mower tires at Sears so I guess comparatively speaking, it wasn't that odd and will chalk it up to hormones. Yet, here I sit, with my not so little one in first grade and although the scenario wasn't quite as grim as I had envisioned it, I can still taste the tears. Two babies followed and try as I might not to look too far ahead, it's hard not to notice how quickly time passes and how things change, often unnoticed. My resolutions of years past have been frivolous and even non-existant, but this year I feel a sense of urgency. A need to remember, to notice. To live in the moment. My greatest desire in this earthly life is to enjoy, nurture and experience my greatest blessing: my family. And as I have a first grader looking over my shoulder, it's time to go because he wants to cuddle with his mommy. Enjoy them while you can, they say. So I intend to do just that. Happy New Year!! Here's to you enjoying what you have been blessed with, whatever or whomever that may be.

The fat lady sings at 9am

If I only had a nickle for every time I heard myself say, "Christmas is over people...TAKE DOWN THE DECORATIONS!!!" I guess I should mention though that I usually start saying that on the 26th and I always say it out loud. I can't help it!! If it were up to me, there would be no tree in my den right now and it's still officially Christmas day...or, night. But, in keeping with tradition, one of the first (and I mean very first) things I'll do in the morning is take down the tree, drag that sucker out back and remove any signs of Christmas from the house. I consider it my little birthday gift to myself. The only thing that will stay up is the rediculously huge blow up Santa in the yard so he can dry out before going back in the box and on the shelf in the garage. Now, any that stumble onto this that don't know me might think that I don't like Chrsitmas. Oh, but no!! I'm totally in LOVE with Christmas!! But when it's over...it's OVER!! I know some people leave their trees up til after the new year...some crazy nonsense about it being good luck...but I just don't get it. Snowman are ok because they're winter type folk people...whatever... but Santa's, Christmas lights and (please forgive me Jesus) manger scenes have gotta go!! I've tried to assess the reason behind my tree issues but come up empty every time. I guess it just boils down to not liking a tree with nothing under it. It's there to put presents under and when there are no more, then what's the point??? The annual trip to the tree farm is a big deal for our family (except this year as stated in the most recent 13) and the decorating is one of my favorite traditions. But let that last present be removed from underneath and I'm ready to toss it in the chipper. Well, that said, how bout another slideshow??? Just turn the music back up in case you got tired of listening to the same sont over and over.

Merry Christmas everybody and Happy Birthday Jesus. Thank You for grace, mercy and the opportunity to know and love You.

~

ps...The cedar tree being cut down in the pictures is one we found in the woods at Nana and Papa's when we went to visit. They have an artificial tree and I thought it would be a better memory for the kids if we drove up into the woods on the golf cart and cut one down instead of getting there and there being a fake one already up. It was a charlie brown tree but the boys and I made every ornament on it. It was probably one of the most special trees we've ever had. I've got to start keping tissues on my desk.

Thursday 13 : Christmas Edition

13 Things we did this Chrsitmas Season...

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Baked batch after batch of cookies and only burnt two.

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Made some of the coolest popsicle stick and glitter decorations ever!!

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Chose a Christmas Angel off the tree at B's school

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Lost a frozen lasagna in the car and found it under the stroller two days later.

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Explained to the boys why one of the four Santa's we saw had a fake beard.

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Spent two hours at Bass Pro Shops...Thanks for the tip J.O'C!!

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Made bubble bath for a friend and didn't give it because it stuuuuuuunk!!

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Bought stuff to make Christmas cards and didn't do it for the second year in a row.

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Said " CRAP !! " about 37,000 times.

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Bought a tree from a tree lot. Don't ask.

Ok, it was already Dec. 6th and we still didn't have a tree like we usually do as of Thanksgiving weekend...KB had to work and I had all three kids and wasn't gonna lay on the ground in cloudy, very windy, 30* weather to cut down a tree and then hang a baby on my hip while I dragged it back to the hayride wagon. Buying a pre-cut tree goes against everything I believe in and hear me when I say...It will NOT happen again next year. Whew, I feel better now!!

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Did not go to a single mall.

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Made us into elves at elfyourself.com

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Watched (against my better judgement) Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.

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Made a breakfast cassarole for the first time.

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Took the boys for a ride in the woods on Papa's golf cart.

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Got rained on at Back to Bethlehem and was glad I got to go home and didn't have to stay and walk around with a sheep on a leash.

Famous People

I was just reading John Mayers Blog. You know. The cute, curly haired kid that sings and dates that famous girl. I really enjoyed it and it also brings me to my point: Why do we care? I used to care. I don't really know why. Probably because I was living is Craphole, Alabama and loved the idea of something more glamorous than riding around with my friends and a 6-pack. But, now I've grown up, said bye-bye to Craphole and hello to big city. I traded the 6-pack for Aquafina and twenty years, a husband and three kids later, I finally figured out that there's no difference between me and aforementioned famous girl. Well, I can't fit into her jeans but I can live with that. It's all relevant. At the end of the day, the "famous" people are just people that probably make a little more money and know other "famous" people but, they still get sick, fight with their family, have dogs that die and cry at sad movies. They fall in and out of love, go to church (some/not enough of them) and many don't eat their vegetables like they should. They have hobbies, savings accounts and complained about gas when it was crazy expensive. Bad sushi does the same thing to them as it does to me so we'll just leave that one alone.

So, now when I see one of the gossip magazines spouting this and that I just shake my head and remember that there are still enough people that do care to keep those aweful magazines in buisness. Too bad, too. All the "famous" people want to do is act, make music, make us laugh and maybe sing a little. And I'll also bet that on some days, there are one or two of them that would trade where they are for Craphole, a friend and a 6-pack. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

Do I look Omish to you???

Few would argue that Jesus really is THE reason for the season. And the boys are well aware of the importance of said reason and also the importance of giving. But, for the older two, at 4 and 6, receiving is a dangerously close third. Sure I was smart and got the Wii back in the summer and had the restraint to leave it in the box in the pillow case on my closet shelf but I was at Wal-Mart at 7:00 this morning to buy Bakugan balls that I've been trying to get my hands on since August. I was about two visits away from a restraining order from the lady in the toy department when I decided that maybe calling was a better/safer alternative. That said, I was there at 7 because I called at 9 the night before to see if they were coming in and was told to call back inthe morning. I called at 6. Once I found out that they had a "few" I was out the door....not to the one by MY house but the one in the next town. The way they've been flying off the shelves, I was ready. Coffee in hand with a pretty good caffine buzz pushing me toward the toy department and I didn't even have my purse. I had my credit card in my back pocket, my keys nerveously twisting on my finger and was ready to go hand to hand with any crazy, buggy pushing moms I came up against. I had psyched myself up and convinced myself that I'd take on anybody that wasn't either pregnant or holding a baby but anybody else was fair game. Ok, maybe not old people, but anybody else!! And for once in my life there wasn't a kid strapped in the front of my cart to slow me down. I was determined, if necessary, to crawl on my hands and knees to get to the front of the pack and take somebody down to get what I wanted for my little boy!! I had visions of women wresteling on the floor like those crazy girls fighting over the last discount wedding dress in Feiline's basement. I passed the greeting cards, the linens, I was getting closer...I saw the bikes hanging from that big tall rack thing..."I wonder how many people will be gathered in the aisle???" I felt my heart begin to race...My steps were quick and I think I was even talking to myself...Then I rounded the corner, saw the Bakugan sign hanging in the aisle and spotted what I had been waiting for...Throngs of angry moms? Noooo...Two guys talking about football. I gotta tell ya...I was a little disappointed. No pushing or arguing about who had what first. No tugging back and forth over the last pack and shouting why one deserved it more than the other. Nothing. Just deciding which of the boys gets which colors. But wait...there was some excitement after all.....I bought a farm puzzle for the baby. Merry Christmas!!