There's Some Laughing Going On

And it isn't here on earth. Bionic Battery is stronger than ever. To catch yourself up, read Here and Here. I have to believe that my Mom and Al are laughing and laughing in Heaven right now. They were the ones who gave Eric that thing.

It Lives

As we pulled out the boxes of Christmas ornaments, Charlotte's eye fell on one in particular. She pulled it from it's box and sure enough, it still lives. Un-Be-Leivable.

If you want to know what I'm talking about, you'll have to bone up on your reading.

Where's The Tree?

Last year we had some Christmas tree woes. You can read about that here and here.

At the end of last year, Mike snipped off all the prelit lights and we threw them in the trash figuring we could salvage the tree and throw on some new lights. We happened to score 5 strands of those large ceramic bulb lights for $1.74 a box, and I figured we could use those. I think they look pretty cool, and since I was getting outvoted on the white lights, I could deal with those ceramic lights in color.

Fast forward to this year. I'm a few minutes into stringing those ceramic bulbs onto our tree and I'm beginning to worry about how hot they're getting. One quick look at the box crushed my plans since these lights can't be used on artificial trees. Who knew? OK, guess we'll put them on the tree outside. So on November 30th we went to the store to find those mini lights in color. We went to Menards, Walmart, and Target. None of them had the basic Christmas lights we were looking for. Seriously? On November 30th? We dragged our sad behinds home and then I remembered we had a couple strands of mini color lights that I'd used on the outside tree last year. So I started stringing those on, figuring we'd eventually find some Christmas lights for the rest of the tree and could finish the job of putting our tree up.

The Bionic Battery

I think every parent out there can relate to this. You know those annoyingly obnoxious toys that Just Won't Die? And it's nothing you've ever bought for your child. No. It comes disguised as a birthday present or a Christmas gift from some non-well-meaning relative or friend who thinks it's funny to get these things for your child. The louder and more annoying it is, the more your child loves it too. Can anyone relate?

About 4 years ago when Eric was at the height of his Thomas the Tank craze he received a musical Christmas tree ornament that was a train. You press the little red heart-shaped button and various ear-splitting-loud Christmas tunes play. It's amazing how loud this little thing plays. It's about 4" big, ya know?

Every year we pull this thing out of storage in our attic (which is freezing cold in the winter and boiling hot in the summer), and every freakin' year this train ornament still plays! And it doesn't play faintly......it's as loud as the first time Eric pressed that button. It's no wonder after the kids went to bed that I relocated the ornament to a very high branch. What kind of battery is in this thing, anyway? I had to laugh Sunday as I packed it away for another year, knowing full well that it probably won't die till my kids are teenagers.

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

I'm enjoying my family today, but scheduled this post in case you were able to grab a moment to yourself.

You know all the hoo-hah over the expression "Happy Holidays" in lieu of "Merry Christmas"? Personally, it's never bothered me either way. In this day and age, I consider it astonishing if a cashier wishes me a happy anything. So if it comes in the form of "Happy Holidays", I throw a greeting back at them and am on my way. When you think about it, there are a lot of events on the calendar this month. We live in a country that is a melting pot of ethnicity and traditions, so of course December isn't just about a Christian Christmas. For instance, there's the tradition of Santa, Kwanzaa, Omisoka, St. Lucia Day, Boxing Day, Al-Hijra,Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, and even occasionally Eid-al-Adha depending on the year.

I understand"Merry Christmas" is a Christian expression that a non-Christian may not feel at-home with (probably because it's a combination of Christ and Mass. Mass is a festival, so basically it's a festival honoring Christ.) But I think those people are the minority, at least according to polls stating that 80% of Americans identify themselves as Christian.

What I do believe is that most folks genuinely want to have a single, all-encompassing greeting during the month of December. However, I don't think "Happy Holidays" is the answer for the generic greeting. Why? Well, "Happy Holidays" doesn't mean what you may think it means.

"The word 'holiday' itself is a middle English derivative meaning 'holy day'. The word denotes a religious festival, a consecrated day called a 'holy day' – a day set apart. When people tell you 'Happy Holidays', they are, in effect, saying 'Happy Holy Days'. "

When I look to my trusty Webster dictionary, which I still haven't retired, it states that Holy means

"set apart to the service of God; characterized by perfection and transcendence, commanding absolute adoration and reverence, spiritually pure, Godly, evoking or meriting awe."


Further, when I look up in the dictionary the word holiday to see what it says, the first thing listed under the definition is holy day (the other meanings are a day off or vacation, which really doesn't apply to this discussion unless you're going skiing in Aspen, and if you were, I wouldn't say, "Happy Holidays", I'd say, "Have a nice holiday". Actually, I'd probably say, "Have a nice trip." Anyway, I don't think the cashier at Target is wishing me a nice vacation or a happy day off. I'm a stay at home mom. I never get a day off.)

So it seems to me that if someone is looking for a politically correct, non-religious, non-Christian, non-Jewish, non-Muslim, non-non way to wish everyone they meet a happy something or other, "Seasons Greetings" would probably be about the only safe bet I can think of. Just wait and see if it doesn't catch on.

Get 'Er Done

Looking at the calendar to see what was going on for the week of Christmas, I had to shake my head over the crazy schedule and all the things we needed to get done and the places we needed to go. I look forward to all the things associated with Christmas. I love going to church and celebrating God's amazing gift to us, visiting with friends and family, wrapping presents, all the goodies to eat, and watching all those Christmas movies!

What I don't particularly like, but always feel obligated to do, is take a few "formal" shots of my kids on Christmas Eve in all their finery. It never goes well; they're always cranky when I want to do this. I don't know why.

Christmas Eve 2007

Most people would give up, but I feel compelled to document every moment of my kids' lives, plus I feel like the "end of the year" photo is important. So this year I decided to try doing the photos before Christmas and see if I had any better luck.

Eric wasn't too keen on participating, but told me I could take two photos. No easy task since the kid has a fake smile plastered to his face every time the camera comes out. Talk about a little pressure to get them right the first time. After a bit of teasing and joking to loosen him up, one of those two photos was a good capture of Eric. I love the snaggle tooth out there front and center. It's real, ya know? And although Eric isn't in the nice sweater he'll wear on Christmas Eve, I find that I don't care what he's wearing since I got a natural and happy expression from my 'lil man! A bit of Photoshop here, a little Photoshop there.....and the cartoon character on the shirt is a goner!





Now Charlotte is a natural in front of the camera (most of the time)....a natural ham, that is. She was also very anxious to give the ole Christmas Eve clothes a trial run.

Oops, cut her toes off. It's still sort of a cute photo :-)

While I was shooting the photos, I paused to take a quick peek at some information on the camera and happened to see this photo below. Tears pricked my eyes as I stared at the image. Charlotte is such a loving, giving person, who is always thinking of others. She's silly and funny, sassy and smart. She loves Jesus, loves helping other people, and can light up a room with her brilliant smile. It's all of those wonderful qualities on the inside that makes her the most beautiful little girl I know.

Oh Look! Another Christmas Card!

I love to mail out our annual Christmas card, but this year I'm refraining from doing so in an effort to not spend money that we don't have anyway. This is the first year in over a decade that I haven't sent out Christmas cards. It feels unnatural. Okay, okay, I did send out just a few cards, but you can hardly fault me for sending cards to our out-of-state parents and siblings.

However, I figured I could at least post it on my blog. If you're someone who loves to decorate around your house with the cards you receive, and you want to pretend that you received my card in your actual mailbox, please feel free to print it off. No one will know.

Merry Christmas All!

click to view larger

A Woeful Tale of Slow Death

(Oh I can hear you saying, "And a Merry Christmas to you too. Geesh.")

So back to our pre-lit Christmas tree. I had discussed some problems we were having with it a couple weeks ago (see story here). After the cheap fix, things were looking good. That is, till Thursday. I was in Eric's bedroom hanging out with the kids after dinner. From his room you can partially see the tree in the living room. And that's when I noticed that the lights on the top 10-12" of the tree are unlit. I can only conclude that the 6th Christmas for our tree is it's undoing. Mike and I are just (sort of) laughing about it and holding our breath, quite unsure how our tree is going to look come Christmas Eve and morning. We're of the mind that the only lights on the thing that'll be working are the $2 strand we picked up at Menards a couple weeks ago.

A Few of My Favorite Ornaments

I'm not sure why you would be the least bit interested in our tree ornaments, but I feel like posting a few photos of some of them. So there you go.


An angel blowing a trumpet. My Mom gave this to me years and years ago. I love how it reflects the tree lights.


It's hard to see, but if you look on the photo, there's an itty bitty 10 mos old baby sitting on the floor in front of the tree (hard to believe Eric was ever that small!). At the time I worked about 30 hours a week, and our baby sitter took the photo and made the ornament.



Long before Keats and Milo were adopted into our family, I had two other cats - Alice and Trixie.Shortly after I got pregnant with Charlotte, Trixie died from cancer at 15 years of age. I bought this ornament the Christmas after she passed away. I still miss her persnickety ways.




Mike knows I love pretty ornaments. He picked this one out as a gift a few years ago. It's got spun glass all around the inside of the globe and reflects all the lights from the tree. Very pretty!



And here's the newest addition.....an ornament I picked up in Orlando. The year 2008 is on the reverse side.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

So we finally got the tree decorated. I really would like to know what happened to our tree skirt. It went missing last year, and I have no idea what happened to it. It didn't magically turn up this year either. I'm positively perplexed what happened to it. Is it lost in our attic somewhere? Why didn't it get packed up in 2006? Was it thrown away, and if so, why? Guess I'll have to drag out a sheet to throw under there to give it a more finished look. Anyway, here it is. We must have at least a 100 unique ornaments on there, which you probably can't see (unless you click on it to view larger). I've been adding to the collection each year (I buy one for myself/family, each kid gets one, plus we receive them as gifts too.) It's an eclectic tree!

And just in case you missed it, let me zoom in for you:

Our kitty boys, Keats and Milo, who thankfully only like to hunker down under the tree, rather than up in it.

How I Torture My Kids Part I

I don't actually have a Part II in mind, but I'm sure something will come along that I can share with you all.

As for Part I, this is how I did it (unintentionally, of course. I would never seek to torment my own children. ;-D) Traditionally we put up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. So Mike got down all the containers and boxes, including our pre-lit Christmas tree. Said tree is going on year 5 and has held up beautifully. But not this year, of course. Not the year Mike is laid off and we're pinching pennies more than usual. This year the pre-lit tree is only partially lit. The bottom row of branches is not lighting up. Mike tried changing the fuse, looking around for obvious problems, but nothing fixed these lights.

Of course the kids are jonesin' to decorate the tree. It's set up in the living room, it appears ready to go. But I told them they had to wait till I could do a "quick" (aka "cheap") fix for that bottom row of branches, which is blatantly unlit (to me. The kids didn't seem to notice or care). So for going on 3 days now they've been looking at this undecorated tree in our home knowing they have to wait to put their ornaments on there, although I see that there is one lonely ornament on the tree which Charlotte hung up there on Saturday night. She made an angel at church and came right home to hang it up. Each of the kids has their own little collection of ornaments going because every year I buy them an ornament, plus the ones they make, and they've also picked up a few more along the way from Grandparents. Each year they're responsible for putting their ornaments on the tree. It's been pure torture for them to wait when the tree is in plain view.

So Yesterday I had Mike pick up a $2 strand of 100 ct lights at Menards, and I finally got them strung onto the tree just moments ago (stuck them on top of all the dead lights.) The tree looks considerably better, in my humble opinion. And yes, Eric and Charlotte will get to put their ornaments on today after their lengthy wait.