After the Wrapping Paper

I am happy to report that we have had a very nice Christmas. Not just the day, though it was beautiful, but the whole season.

REPORT ON AUNT MAR. Last time I wrote I told about Aunt Mar taking a tumble and having to get stitches in her forehead. While her head is healing nicely she didn't have the best week last week.

On Thursday morning (the 22nd) Mom called me at 4:00 am to say that Aunt Mar was complaining of chest pains. We called an ambulance and followed her to the hospital. After several hours of tests the doctor determined that her heart was in good shape. They did find fluid around her lungs but no sign of infection. In short, they could not determine the cause of her pains. They offered to admit her to the hospital for further testing or to release her to follow up later. By this time she was feeling a little better and wanting to go home so we opted for home.

Aunt Mar continued to be weak for another day or so but rebounded somewhat to enjoy Christmas. We were very glad to celebrate another holiday with her at home.

CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES. We enjoyed several holiday activities leading up to Christmas, some traditional, some new. Last Tuesday evening Vicki and Jenna went with a large group from church to help out with the Bridge Ministry in Nashville. We've heard guesstimates that 1000-1500 homeless/poor people were served meals that night. They also gave away a lot of things like clothes, coats, food, and other necessities. The bad thing is that they ran out of toys for the kids.

The next day the boys were invited to play with some friends from Cub Scouts. While they were there Vicki and I attended the church staff office party. Jenna had her first official babysitting engagement for another couple who are on our church staff.

Kenny and Lori's annual community Christmas party was Friday night. We went and enjoyed it, though neither Vicki nor I felt very festive because Aunt Mar wasn't feeling well.

Saturday evening held the Christmas Eve service. It was really nice, but I wound up being a casualty of it. At one point all the lights were out. Bro. Bill had a candle to represent the Light of Christ. Vicki and I were among those who were supposed to take that light and spread it to the folks in the congregation. I had a section going up to the balcony. The auditorium was so dark and my candle so bright in front of me that I missed the steps and fell down to one knee. My pride was what suffered the most. We ate supper at Aunt Mar's afterwards (and the next two evenings).

The weather on Christmas Day was beautiful. We headed to church after opening gifts at home. Then we went to Mrs. Connie's for brunch. It was so clear, sunny, and warm all the kids ate outside.

A CHRISTMAS STORY. One of our Christmas traditions is to watch A Christmas Story. It is a movie we all enjoy and will make jokes in reference to it around the Christmas season. This year we let the boys watch it. What was so funny this time was watching Ben and Nate have several ah-ha moments throughout the movie as many of our jokes are now making sense to them. The best one was when Ben realized why we put a leg lamp night light in the hall. When he’s asked me about it in the past I’ve simply said, “Because it’s Italian.”

CHRISTMAS GIFTS. We received a lot of nice gifts for Christmas, though to hear Nate tell it we may not have. Bro. Bill asked all the kids to come up on stage for a special Christmas story and he asked a few of them what they got for Christmas. Nate didn't know (he told Vicki later that he had stage fright). He should have been very excited because he and Ben got Skylanders, a Wii game they've been wanting for months. They also got a battle arena for their Beyblades. Another favorite is a talking parrot (like you see at Cracker Barrel). They have that hanging in their room and it's funny to listen to what all they have that thing say.

Jenna got an iPad. She's been saving her money for an electronic reader of some kind and since she's starting to have to type up a lot of papers for school we figured this was the next best thing to a laptop of her own.

ON THE ROAD. We left Tuesday to spend a little time with the Jones family. It's always fun to go to their house as we all enjoy being together. At one point we had two tables of games going, one for Scrabble and one for Settlers of Catan. Nate has turned out to be a good Catan player. He is sneaky and shrewd which impresses me for an eight year old.

We returned home today, stopping to eat brunch with the Yergler family. They introduced us to Mexican Train Dominoes which seems to be a really fun game. They gave us a copy of the game for our own and I'm looking forward to playing it this weekend.

Sarah and her new husband, Jason, were in from Texas and we enjoyed getting to meet him. I think Sarah made a great choice.

SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH THE WORLD! That's exactly what Jenna thought the other day when she was leaving the house. Turns out she had forgotten to put in her contacts and things were a little blurry.

I wish my eyes were that good. If I woke up and saw things anywhere close to being in focus I'd think something was wrong with the world.

LOCKED IN. Jenna had a close call the other day. She was closing the door to her room when the doorknob came off in her hand. Fortunately, she caught the door before it shut because the part left in her hand didn’t include the axle that turns the latch. That fell in the floor on the hall side of the door. I’m just glad we had an old door from the kitchen stored away because the hardware store doesn’t carry parts for 100 year old doorknobs.

TWO LITER BIRD FEEDER. Earlier this month Nate was responsible for a craft at Cub Scouts. He and I decided to make bird feeders from two liter bottles. He got really excited the other day watching the birds eat from his feeder. I’m not sure if he was proud of his feeder or proud that I made something that actually works.

Joe