days of nuwanda

My Christmas list

Santa, I don't ask for much. Really, I don't. Just maybe some actual sleep would be nice. Recuperative rest, maybe for 8 hours. The kind of sleep where you wake up like in the commercials, w/ great hair, flawless makeup, and no ginormous bags under my eyes, feeling like I actually slept. I would even take 6. 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. No children crying, no dog puking, no phone calls, no Hubby coming home insanely late from work at 3:30 am and waking me up, no paparazzi and their flash cameras. Just me and my body pillow.

Or in a pinch, Santa, I could go for this or even this. See, I'm easy to please. :)

Politically-correct Christmas Can-Can

Hubby, you're gonna love this song! (by Straight No Chaser)

01 - The Christmas Can-Can

There is an animated video as well. Enjoy!

 

How to save on Christmas decorations this year

 
Hat tip: Hubby. And no, this isn't our house, darn it. :)

Christmas at the OK Corral

Jacob's school Christmas program was cute and noisy and everything you'd expect from a bunch of 1st and 2nd graders singing and dancing in cowboy gear. (And I give a hearty thank you to Grandpa for the cowboy boots and am glad you were there to see him wear them on this one occasion I allowed him to. You know how much I *love* them! HA!)

 Hey look, it's Woody (from Toy Story)! (That's what his teacher said.)

 Pausing in the program to smile for Mom :)

 
 

 

 

Christmas surprise

I'm not very good at surprising people w/ things, so I'm proud of myself for pulling off Hubby's early Christmas surprise! He knew we had plans but didn't know specifics. So Saturday we took the kids to Grandma's house and headed to Indy. We hung out at Circle Center for a bit, made an essential stop at Auntie Anne's pretzel stand, and then headed over to Conseco Fieldhouse for...

  Star Wars in concert!

It was really cool! People keep asking how you have a SW concert. Well, if you are a John Williams fan, you understand. He is the composer of the Star Wars score, so this was a live orchestra with scenes playing from the movies, briefly telling the story, and some cool lights/laser show and flames thrown in occassionally. And it was narrated by Anthony Daniels, the man who played C3PO. Very well done! Hubby loves John Williams' music, who also wrote the scores for ET, Indiana Jones, Superman, Jurassic Park, and Harry Potter, to name a few. He is an amazing composer!

We had good seats and enjoyed the whole show. And this girl, who never watched anything sci-fi a decade ago and had most certainly never watched Star Wars before she met Hubby, has now become a fan. And it's a good thing, when you consider the on-going SW obsession in our house. (We spent 30 minutes in the SW toy aisle last night alone, with Jacob going over every piece and telling me all about them.)

  On the way home we drove the circle to see the Downtown Indy tree. Pretty!

Absurd Christmas lights

You need to watch this! Our friend Duncan put together this video tour of the town's Christmas lights display on the Courthouse lawn, and while the decor is absolutely absurd (a dinosaur, a whale, a man fishing, and the Loch Ness Monster--WHAT??? Where is the nativity, or at the very least, Santa Clause?) his commentary is great. Oh yes, everyone knows the story of the sea serpent of Bethlehem. Well done, Duncan! Making quite a name for yourself! My favorite was the maypole, just 5 months early. :)

BTW, the local newspaper did not fully appreciate his video, accusing this Brit of faking his accent. HA! And just to give credit, these unusual displays were made and donated by a local man, so I applaud his craftsmanship, but COME ON! Could they be any LESS Christmas-y?

Curly

My middle stooge really lives up to her name. She has these beautiful curls,and people ask me how long it takes to curl her hair, and I just smile. Not long at all--they are natural. Lucky girl!

 

Do you ever...

...feel like God is pushing your buttons? I do. Here is a fact: every single time I am scheduled to work extra, covering while my coworker is out, something happens that makes it a nightmare. Not kidding, every single time. Either one of the kids is puking (like last night) or the work servers crash and I have to call a bazillion people since email isn't working, or we lose power just on our block, or armageddon happens just as I log in for the day. Seriously. Whenever I get really busy at work and need to be at my best and have to work certain hours (instead of whenever I can fit it in) and have a bunch of deadlines, all of this *stuff* happens here at home that creates chaos.

And it is absolutely not an accident. You might think that God would see how busy my week is getting and might hold off on the little girl getting the stomach flu and might get rid of my insomnia so I can sleep when she is not puking, or he might lighten Hubby's workload so he can be here to help more. But did God do any of that when he saw my busy schedule? Nope. He saw it all and decided this pressure I'm feeling is good for me. And I get it. I really do. Intense pressure creates diamonds, the most precious gem on earth, but maybe I don't want to be a diamond, Lord? Maybe I like being just a lump of carbon...

I feel safer already

The other day Grace bought me a bowl filled w/ LEGOs. Now I am accustomed to receiving odd trinkets and strange gifts at the hands of my children, and usually Grace brings me bowls of soup that she's mixing up, but this was no ordinary soup. She set the bowl of tiny toys on my desk and informed me they were "my powers to keep aliens away" and then she ran off, as though this were a perfectly normal exercise. I did keep the bowl on my desk for the remainder of the day, and to her credit, you should know, I had zero alien attacks that day.

The coolest things that December brings

1. SNOW! (as I type we have flurries falling.)
2. Really cool seasonal coffee creamer flavors, including Eggnog, Pumpkin Spice, Peppermint Mocha, and Gingerbread. Hello!
3. An excuse to listen to Michael Bolton. I am a closet fan, afraid to come out into the light of day, except at Christmastime, when I pull out his Christmas CD and sing along at the top of my lungs. I know I'm not alone...and I forgive you for sitting there judging me. :)
4. Cards, letters, and photos from old friends
5. Sappy holiday movies. I love the original 1945 "Christmas in Connecticut". (I'm named after Barbara Stanwyck, didn't you know?) I even get sucked into the silly made-for-tv movies this time of year, and always end up w/ a tear or two in my eye. "The Christmas Card" was SO predictable and the acting was shameful at best, and ordinarily I would *hate* that about a movie, but it's a holiday movie, so I liked it. Call me crazy. And lame.
6. Peppermint candy canes, Mint M & M's and Edy's peppermint ice cream, the creamiest ice cream ever. Grace said only girls could eat it b/c it's pink, but we did share w/ the boys, just this once, in the spirit of Christmas giving...
7. Christmas lights. Nevermind the high electricity bills, festive lights put me in the Christmas spirit like nothing else. I remember as a child sitting in front of the tree and just being enamored by the lights.
8. Finding old albums that remind me of my childhood like this one by the Christy Minstrels. Mel, do you remember this album? We used to listen to this record (yes, a vinyl record) that my parents had from their college days. This isn't my type of music *at all* but it has that nostalgic quality. It's funny how things from childhood are comforting...
9. Colorful scarves, hats, and gloves.
10. 25 days of free music on Amazon. They have lots of other free music, too.
11. Charlie Brown Christmas!!!
12. Hubby mixing weird drinks--Kahlua! White Russians!
13. All of the Die Hard movies! Oh yah, Christmas classics. :)
14. Church window cookies for me and rum balls for Hubby
15. Establishing family traditions w/ our children, including opening our stockings on Christmas Eve and cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast. And maybe something new this year?

It's begun

Jacob's starting to figure things out, much to my dismay. As we sat having lunch at BK the other day, two teenage girls and their Grandma sat at a table behind us. I didn't even know Jacob had noticed them until he said, "Harrison, look--GIRLS!"

Oh. My. Word.

The one thing

I finished Miller's Searching For God Knows What last night (since I can't sleep, I might as well read, right?) and just sat there thinking about the theme running thru his books...that we are all broken, separated from God. We were made for fellowship w/ God, but sin destroyed that, broke that relationship, and now we're all left w/ a hole inside that we're desperately trying to fill. God loves us, and made his creation to love him, so it's no wonder we're all a wreck...b/c the one relationship we were made for has been messed up. Made me think of this Toby Mac song...

02 - Made To Love

And this understanding, this worldview should change how I look at everyone around me. Do I see other people as ugly sinners, or as people w/ a hole in their heart just like me? I have been reconciled w/ Christ, not by anything I've done but by his grace and mercy thru faith (Eph 2:8-9), and I should be so grateful for this redemption, so excited about this repaired relationship w/ my Creator, that I am overflowing w/ love for those still lost, who don't know that God loves them. Not pointing fingers at their sin (of which I have plenty of my own!) but desperately loving them and explaining God's love, the one thing everybody needs. It's not a new thought, just reformulated in my head and challenging me.

[BTW, Miller's section that challenges the conservative Christian American right really slapped me. And I don't agree w/ all that he wrote, but wow, he made me think and challenged the way I've viewed certain things all my life. Does Christianity really equal the American Dream? ]

Sproutin' a hawk

 
The little guy is getting some hair, and Daddy got creative w/ the hairbrush.

 
Jacob was unhappy. "How come Harrison gets a mohawk, and I don't?" Such drama! I used to think only girls had hair drama, but I stand corrected. I am now convinced little boys buzzcuts are the way to go.

The terrible ones-almost-twos

My kids are usually ahead of the development curve, and that is normally a good thing. But when it comes to terrible twos, I would just assume have them hold off and wait. Like maybe until they are 19 and moving out. But since when do my kids listen to me?...

This week Harrison has hit the terrible ones-almost-twos button full-throttle, and Mommy lies awake at night, shaking w/ fear of what terror the next day may hold. (Seriously, I'm having a bout of insomnia, and blaming the toddler seems reasonable enough.) He's in that destructive, throwing toys stage, and not only do lots of things get broken, but people get hurt. He threw a Thomas train and hit his sister in the nose, and the poor girl who is tough as any boy, cried for 5 minutes and kept asking Harrison why he was so mean. :( Is it any wonder that I'm afraid to take him to a nice restaurant w/ silverware? I have visions of him launching a fork and stabbing some poor elderly person. He's got a great arm, which I hope he uses in football someday, but for now, he destroys everything in his path, and I'm getting tired of chasing him around. And then there's the Christmas tree...

Dear Lord, give me patience as I train your little ones to be self-controlled!!! And help me not to wish the days away. Help me to enjoy them, even in the craziness...

Clearly this is on my Christmas list...

and maybe Hubby could hook me up w/ some flashing LED lights, too? I could be so cool sporting this t-shirt!