Merry Christmas

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

Christmas Survey

I'm resorting to memes for content. : )

Christmas Survey

1.) Have you started your Christmas shopping?

Yes. We're about mid-stream in a very small stream around here.

2.) Tell me about one of your special traditions.
Stockings filled with small, useful-or-not things that bring great joy and delight. Nothing big allowed! Chapsticks and socks and once-a-year candies and matchbox cars and toothbrushes. They love all that more than anything, just like I did.

3.) When do you put up your Tree?
Ummm, usually, the first weekend or so of December, but this year and last (Florida) we have had no tree. We've got a hand-made tree cut out on the wall that serves as our Thanksgiving tree and our Jesse tree. Eric has plans to make a wooden one that the Jesse tree ornaments can hang on.

4.) Are you a Black Friday shopper?
Cyber Monday

5.) Do you Travel at Christmas or Stay home?
Travel. We're trying to be home on Christmas morning/day now, but will see how that goes. This is what we get for moving away from family. : )

6.) What is your funniest Christmas memory?
We had several years in a row where our perfectly healthy children would get to their grandma's house for Christmas and one or two or five would proceed to throw up throughout the visit. (One year we got her a steam cleaner as a gift.) I came to expect it, but was also thoroughly embarrassed. One year the family was gathered in the large room opening gifts and I saw one of the twins come to the door with this look on his face, searching for me or Eric. Everyone was facing away from him, so I hurried quietly to him and whisked him to the bedroom, where he showed me that he had woken from a nap and thrown up all over the floor. Nice. I had it and him cleaned up before the gifts were done! I really don't know why it strikes me as funny when I remember it, but it does. I think it's one of those "laugh about it or else" memories.

7.) What is your favorite Christmas Movie of All time?
White Christmas. I'm a sap.
Also pretty fond of Charlie Brown Christmas.

8.) Do you do your own Christmas Baking? What’s your favorite treat?
Not a big baker. We make something for neighbors each year (not always food), and sometimes that turns into holiday baking. My favorite treat is my sister-in-law's chex mix/m&m stuff covered with white chocolate.

9.) Fake or Real Tree?
Real.

10.) What day (as a Mom) does the actual panic set in to get it all done?
When one of the kids starts counting and says, "Hey, there's only 10 days until Christmas!"

11.) Are you still wrapping presents on Christmas Eve?
Is there any other time?

12.) What is your favorite family fun time at Christmas?
Playing board games with family.

13.) What Christmas craft do you like the best?
Ha!

14.) Christmas music? Yes or No. And if yes, What is your favorite song?

YES

Love all the Christmas carols. Joy to the World, O Holy Night, God Rest Ye merry are favs, but love so many. Non-traditional favorite is Barlow Girl's "Light Has Come"

15.) When do you plan to finish all your shopping?
It would be nice to be done by the 20th, but my planning has been so off this year, I've lowered all expectations.


Any blogger is welcome to participate in this meme, even if you haven’t been tagged yet. Just simply copy and paste the questions into your blog, and then answer them. Then tag 5 or more of your favorite blogs, and leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged.

When you post your blog, please spread some Christmas cheer, and leave a link back to Heather's Top Ten Christmas Blog, and the blog that you were tagged by (I wasn't tagged, but I found this at The Common Room)

On a warm fall day...

....you might head to the arboretum to view the beautiful colors and try to improve your tree identification.

...you might take your walking sticks but use them as anything but, especially when posing in front of mom's favorite tree.

...you might need a close-up to see the name of the tree.

...you might be inspired by big brother to see if you can make no noise while walking through the trees.

...you might get a little silly in all the fresh air.

...and you just might end up being thankful you took the time and went.

In which Levi demolishes a tried and true idiom

Me, eyeing the small-stomach-gets-full-fast-child get her second helping of spaghetti and meatballs: "Are you sure about that? I think your eyes are bigger than your stomach."

D: "What does that mean?"

Levi: "Oh, that means you see something and you think you should get a lot of it, but it's probably too much to eat. My eyes do that all the time...

[pause]

But, they're usually right."

Random Wednesday thoughts

*The non-intentional dropping of half of the large container of granola in the pantry this morning turned positive: 2 industrious 6-year-olds spent an hour completely cleaning out and re-organizing the pantry floor. They're good, too. They love having complete control over the vacuum wand.

*I joined a community choir (yes, just me!). I think I'm the only 30-something (or anywhere near). I love the breathing practice, and the vowel formation, and the being instructed in something again, and being around other people who sigh with pure delight at beautiful harmonies.

*Having children narrate back to you what you just read them never fails to entertain and enlighten.

*Even if the dishwasher is not being used because it just has a leak, and you're fine with hand-washing dishes all summer, you should still open it from time to time just to see if everything is the same inside. It might not be. It might have black, smelly water pooling up.

*Husbands get big bonus points when they spend their only sports-free evening working on the dishwasher.

*There's really not time to waste in this world with fake "I'm fine" 's. Speak up.

*Leah: "I can't kiss you because you're sick. And I don't want to get your sick. But I can hug you! And I do love hugs!" Hard to beat an enthusiastic-for-life 5-year-old. : )

In the mood for a picture...

...of what else? Elles ninos and ninas. (And marido.)

I am an ant

Can I self-analyze for 5 quick minutes? Because 5 minutes is about all I've got.

I am an ant. Not a grasshopper, not a snail, definitely not a spider, not a worm. Given the nature of the life circumstances in which I find myself, I have quite a bit to "do" each day. Every day. And while my list varies some with seasons and life, most of what I do each day is very similar to what I did yesterday and what I will do tomorrow.

Right now I'm in one of those seasons where I have my "every day" stuff, plus. (The word "plus" holds a lot, doesn't it?) I am doing much better at keeping up with my list in this season, as opposed to the previous season (summer) when I didn't have as much to do and I tried to be a snail. I tried to slow down and relax and make everything else slow down and relax. That didn't work.

I think I can revel in my "ant"-ness and still relax. Relax, as in, "live life resting in the peace of God and not stressing about my list". I do better when I stay on everyday tasks and short-term plan tasks and long-term planning tasks and pour myself out each day. He gives me the strength I need to "be the ant".