Christmas Family Photos

Cousins, cousins and some more cousins!

Merry Christmas!

Joy to the world! The Lord is come!
I was large with child on two separate Christmas evenings not long ago. I was only six and seven months pregnant in '95 and '97, but remember empathizing with Mary in terms of physical comfort. She must have been anxious, but she had already told the angel, "Let it be done to me as you have said."

May you hold on to faith as Mary did - faith that God holds you in the very palm of his hand and that he has a plan for your life. We don't know what those plans are, but we know that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. My goal is to let him live through me today.

Merry Christmas!

When Life Gives You Lemons

Eat them. That's what Mr. Rellim did. Though, he actually thought it was the worst orange he'd ever eaten in his life. He even called me from work to ask if all the oranges in the fruit basket were as awful.

Peppermint Biscotti

I made biscotti (biscottis?). What is the plural form of that word? Anyway, this is a delicious recipe and the crunch is especially nice for those of us allergic to nuts. You should try it.

UPDATE: The most difficult part of this recipe is opening up and crushing the candy canes!

Fitness Update

The adult fitness program requires a fitness update every three months. During this update, a graduate student took my strength, flexibility and physical measurements. The ratio between hip and waist measurements is apparently a general indicator of heart disease. I learned that I lost 2 inches around my hips (hooray!). Unfortunately, this changes my ratio and increases my heart disease risk from "low" to "moderate."

I tried not to laugh, then told her I'd work on eating some more cookies this month.

Boys v. Girls

A friend's daughter was visiting today and she related the story of someone in her class who "got in big trouble for taking a bite of the teacher's sandwich!"

Quinn asked, "Why? Was it a big bite?"

Post-Concert Smiles

Loud Enough for You?

My car was vibrating to the beat of the bass from the music of a car next to me. As I sat at the stop light, I couldn't help watching the high school tassel hanging from the rearview mirror of that car. The sound waves were so intense, that the tassel was being buffeted as if in a small windstorm.

This may be the time to open a small audiology practice, specializing in noise-induced hearing loss. Doesn't anyone pay attention to the hearing conservation messages? Listen to your buds!

More Creativity

Quinn is thinking about how to make his empty bottle of Coke into a small smoke bomb in case he ever needs to make a (ready for this?) "tasty retreat."

Christ in a Mall Full of Christmas Shoppers?

My friend, Jamie really knows how to write. Check out her blog post on a flash mob singing the Hallelujah Chorus.

I'm Almost There

After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old
slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard
the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin.
Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room,
putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she
heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice,
"Who was THAT?"

It's Called Christmas

By the musical group Go Fish. A fun little song.

Secret Santa

Quinn is participating in a secret Santa gift exchange. In order to hide his identity, he told me that he is disguising his penmanship by writing with his non-dominant hand. The unintended consequence is that his gift recipient now wonders if her secret Santa has special needs.

Unexpected Christmas Gift

A re-furbished garage door system.

Apparently, an automatic garage door can withstand only so many rake handles in the track. And kids using it as a modified carnival ride doesn't help either.

How do they treat it as a ride? They used to grab hold of the handle at the bottom of the door and hang on until the door was fully opened.

Dear Santa

Smile

Quinn told me he's lucky he knows how to hold in his tears, because his chorus teacher is tormenting him about his "fake, scary doll-baby smile." I think my son has a beautiful smile (And we paid a lot of money in surgical and orthodontic work!). So I asked him to show me what his teacher is talking about.

Oh! That fake, scary doll-baby smile. Yeah, we will have to work on that one. We'll start by brushing your teeth.

PokeWalker

Quinn has this toy that is a type of pedometer, only the number of steps equates to watts and "experience points" for the pokemon in his video game. These points then transfer from the pokewalker back to the video game. The idea, I suppose, is to get the kid off the couch for a while.

Instead, I've observed my son to think of creative ways to get the pokewalker to register "steps" taken.

1. tape pokewalker to ceiling fan and turn on high
2. place pokewalker in salad spinner and spin
3. attatch pokewalker to neighbor's dog's collar
4. attach pokewalker to cat and entice it to chase laser light
(problem - we don't have a cat)
5. attach pokewalker to box fan and turn on high so that it vibrates

Never Say Never

I Black-Friday-ed. Well, it was more like late-Thursday-ed. Anyway, from 10pm until 12am, I scurried after my friend at the local outlet shops and found some deals. I was ushered back to reality while watching a young mother pick up her baby from her car seat and wake up her toddler and lug them into a line outside a popular store, where they waited in the windy 25-degree temps for the doors to open.

Enough. I drove home, pondering the materialistic scene, and counting my very many blessings.
Happy Thanksgiving!

So Many Tears

. . . during the Harry Potter movie, of all places!

when Hermione obliviated her parents' memories in order to protect them
when George was cursed
when Ron was splinched
when Harry & Hermione visited his parents' graves
when Ron was being tormented by the locket horcrux
when Hermione was being tortured by Bellatrix
when Dobby died


Mr. Rellim had to hold back tears when Harry's owl, Hedwig died trying to protect Harry. That one didn't make my list. I guess I'm just not an animal person.

Try This

During a recent lunch date with my dad, I was reminded of this funny thing he does with the wait staff. He calls them by name as soon as he reads their name tag. He especially enjoys calling them by name if they haven't yet introduced themselves. It really is particularly entertaining to watch the expressions on the faces of these servers while they try to figure out how this man knows them.