The Aftermath

We have had a great Christmas! It has been so good to have a break I haven’t even thought much about getting this edition of the newsletter out.

THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS, The kids actually woke up late on Christmas morning. I think the social schedule had worn them out. We were even wondering if we would have to wake Ben up to open presents. The largest gift they got was a race track. Boy, those little cars will move! You can’t go wide open or they’ll jump the track. One of the biggest hits was the whoopee cushions. If you come to visit, check your chair before sitting (and you may be asked to sit on one for them). The kids also got The Incredibles on DVD. I think Ben could probably recite the script by now. Of course, our two young Jedi apprentices are keeping themselves busy honing their light saber skills.

After our three tornados had made their way through the living room we had to start getting ready for church. Vicki was ironing our clothes when she noticed Jenna and Ben going from window to window. They told her they were looking to see if Santa had put up a basketball goal to go with the ball Jenna had gotten. This brought a smile to Vicki’s face. (Maybe they’ll get one next year!) Some of Jenna’s other gifts include a Princess Diaries 2 DVD, Legos, several books and clothes.

MY NEAT STOCKING STUFFER. I reported a few weeks ago that Nate had disabled the CD-ROM on the computer by sticking paper clips into it. After looking up the price of the part I decided I’d tear the computer down once more before considering replacement.

One of my stocking stuffers was a tiny pocket flashlight. This light has one of those LED bulbs so it is really bright for its size. I used this light when looking into the CD-ROM and spied a small spring that didn’t look like it belonged where I saw it. It turns out this was the “elbow” end of a safety pin. I missed that a few weeks ago when looking with a larger flashlight (it was too large for what I needed it to do). Thanks to my $5 light our CD-ROM is working and Nate’s name is not as high on my bad list.

THE CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE. Our schedule got rearranged a bit because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. Kenny and Lori had their annual Christmas party in their barn on Thursday evening. It was especially fun this year because all the kids are old enough to fend for themselves (but I think Morgan did help Nate with his plate). Saturday morning found us at Mrs. Connie’s house for breakfast. I ate way too much. That night we had our Christmas Eve service at church.

Christmas morning we opened our presents here at the house and then rushed to get to church. Brent’s back was feeling much better and the choir did a slightly condensed version of their musical. That night we all went to Pauline’s for supper.

SIGNS OF ABUNDANCE. To be perfectly honest, it really is quite embarrassing to look around the house and see just how blessed we are this holiday season. And this isn’t limited to the material things. We have really packed away the food! When we were clearing the table after supper at Pauline’s Vicki picked up a bowl and asked Aunt Mar if she wanted to lick the serving spoon. With the look of slight discomfort in her eyes Aunt Mar replied, “No thanks, my licker is full.”

PURE ENJOYMENT. The other morning Vicki and Nate were the only ones at home. Vicki was getting out of the shower when she heard Nate say, “Mmmm, that’s sooo good!” She could just see him sitting in the middle of a bunch of candy wrappers before she took a peek out the bathroom door but was relieved to find he was simply enjoying his second Pop Tart.

A PRAYER REQUEST. I have not reported this before. Aunt Mar is getting to where she falls more and more frequently. I have gone over there several times over the last few weeks to help her back on her feet. Last Wednesday afternoon she fell and sprained her wrist when she stuck her hand out to break the fall. It is getting to be very frustrating to her that she cannot trust her legs as she moves around her own house. Please keep her in your prayers as she deals with these limitations.

Joe

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Seasons Greetings! And with all the controversy over holiday greetings and the recent ruling regarding intelligent design and knowing we are politically incorrect -- We also wish you a Merry CHRISTmas!

LISTEN TO CHRISTMAS is the title of the musical our choir performed. As I said last week our schedule revolved around preparing for it. The tech crew met early in the week to get the sound, lights and set ready and then we had two nights of full rehearsal. We had our choir party Friday night and were scheduled to perform Saturday and Sunday evening.

We had a good time at the choir party. We usually play Dirty Santa. Mom stole a chicken that walks around, flaps its wings and does the Funky Chicken dance. She took it while saying the kids would really enjoy it. Vicki and I told her, much to Aunt Mar’s chagrin, that the kids would enjoy it at THEIR house.

Brent, our Minister of Music, didn’t make it to the choir party. He was in extreme pain from a muscle spasm in his back. He went to the ER and they drugged him up pretty good to get him through the weekend. He was no better by Saturday evening and we had to cancel that performance.

Brent was able to be up and about by Sunday evening so we went ahead with that performance and the choir did a great job. I’m glad they got one night in because the musical was one Brent and Cindy put together. One of the nicest touches was three personal testimonies scattered throughout the program.

CHRISTMAS BREAK for Robertson County students begins tomorrow. Jenna has been counting down and I must confess I have been too. I am ahead enough on my contract to take off the whole break and I am looking forward to it. We’ll be off until January 5!

JENNAISMS. Jenna got sick last week. There was a stomach virus going around. We had to get up in the middle of the night and clean up after her. She got up a couple of times after that but always had a bucket available. The last time there was nothing left to expel so she had the “bee hives” as she called it (dry heaves).

A few days later, when she was better, I went to pick her up at Mom and Aunt Mar’s where she gets off the bus after school. We had to go to the grocery store before going home. Our little super market recently changed ownership and is now a Piggly Wiggly or “Wiggly Piggly” as Jenna calls it.

PEBBLE POOP SCARE. So Pauline was changing Nate’s diaper the other day when he reached down, picked up a little brown ball and put it in his mouth while she was frantically trying to stop him. Her horror changed to laughter as she realized he was not spitting it out. He was in fact enjoying a chocolate chip that his kind brother had delivered to him after raiding the cupboard.

Joe

The Holiday Rush Has Begun

I feel like this past week has been the calm before the Christmas storm. Our church musical is this weekend and our schedule will be filled with rehearsals and such. Since I spent most of the evening at church preparing for our musical this will probably the shortest newsletter I’ve ever sent out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO VICKI! Vicki celebrated her 36th birthday on Saturday. I took her out to eat at The Depot which is right next to the railroad tracks on Main Street in Springfield. Their food is really good and the atmosphere is cool. We also caught the opening night of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

A MOVIE REVIEW. We really enjoyed Narnia. This series of books is a favorite of mine and Disney really captured the essence of the story. It was beautifully filmed and the special effects lived up to my imagination. I hope it does well enough for Disney to go ahead and put Prince Caspian into production. We highly recommend it to everyone!

A GREAT PERFORMANCE. Springfield Baptist put on the Broadway style musical The Christmas Post this year and we went to see it on Saturday night. My supervisor from work had one of the lead roles and he did a great job with his part as did everyone. We (Vicki, Jenna, Ben, Pauline, and Mom) all enjoyed it very much.

BOYS! Sometimes, even though I love my boys dearly, I could just scream. This time it was Nate. He crammed several paper clips into the CD-ROM on the computer and now it won’t work. Given that it is four years old it will cost more to fix it than the computer is worth. I just have to keep my focus on the future. One of these days they will have kids....

Joe

Decorating for Christmas

It feels like we just put the Christmas decorations away a few weeks ago. Here we are pulling them back out again. We spent last Sunday afternoon putting our Christmas tree up. Other decorations in the house went up throughout the week and the outdoor stuff went up Saturday. All we lack now is the tree at Aunt Mar’s house.

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY. Pauline’s niece (through marriage), Carolyn Markham, passed away this week. Carolyn and Pauline are about the same age and Pauline considered her a best friend. They maintained their close relationship with frequent phone calls after Pauline moved here in 2003. Carolyn’s health had been failing her. Vicki and Pauline drove to Camden for the funeral yesterday morning and got back in time for church last night. Among Carolyn’s survivors are her husband, Clifford, her mother, Corrine, 3 siblings as well as 3 sons and their families.

CHILDREN’S CHOIRS. Jenna and Ben are both in children’s choirs at church. They both had rehearsals yesterday afternoon and performances last night. The preschool choir dressed in costume as a singing nativity scene. Ben was a shepherd. He really sang out and, thanks to Pauline, looked great. The children’s choir didn’t do costumes but sang well. Jenna has practiced very hard here at home and I think she enjoys singing a lot. Nate didn’t let the fact that he is too young to be in choir stop him from singing where he sat (stood, twirled, climbed, wiggled, crawled. . .you get the idea!)

A CHRISTMAS PARADE. We went to Cross Plains for their annual Christmas parade on Saturday. It was cold and drizzling rain. Now there’s one thing you have to understand about a small town parade--there’s not much to put in the parade. To make up for this you get all the emergency equipment for all the surrounding small towns to come so it’s really loud. (I’ve always wondered who would be on call to fight a fire if one broke out in Orlinda.) And, to make up for the length you either have everyone drive by at 2 MPH or have the parade circle the block and run them back through a second time (as they did in Adams last week).

To get to my point, we stayed in the van until all the fire trucks and police cars went by. While in the van someone mentioned that we would need to get outside so that people riding in the parade would throw candy to us. That’s what made Nate go up to the window and shout, “Hey, fwo candies oveh here!”

If there is an adult present Nate is good about asking if he can have some candy. (It is another story entirely if he stumbles across some candy and no one is around.) What is interesting is how he asks permission to indulge. Rather than asking “Can I have it?” like most kids he holds up the candy and says, “I wanna put it in my mouth.”

AN EMBARRASSING MOMENT. I think I have mentioned before that all the kids at Jenna’s school get to take part in leading the morning announcements on the intercom. Each child gets to do a part like the pledge to the flag, the moment of silence, etc. As they come to the mic they introduce themselves first, giving their name and homeroom teacher. Jenna goes “on the air” tomorrow so Mrs. Phillips had her and the others involved rehearse in front of the class. That’s where Jenna messed up. She started her part by saying, “Hello, my name is Mrs. Phillips...” The good thing is that she had the grace to laugh at herself along with everyone else.

A TIRED THERAPIST. Tonight Ben came up and started scratching my back. I was really enjoying it but after a while he stopped and said, “Daddy, I’m stopping now. I’m worned out.”

Joe