Our family is easily entertained. Old movies. Glee episodes. Old stories of high school pranks. Nana's turkey calls. Watching the "littles" be kids.
This falls into the final category: watching Emme adore Uncle Mike. "Uncle Mike, I love you. Uncle Mike, tickle my tummy. Hiiiiiiiieeeeee, Uncle Mike. Merrrrrrrryyyyy Christmas, Uncle Mike. Wanna snuggle, Uncle Mike?" It goes on, and on. Uncle Mike is the highly favored relative and Emme is all about giving him the adoration she feels he deserves.
More entertainment...
In church this morning, Ruby reading the "Holy Bible. In the beginning and once upon a time there was a Holy Bible named Scott" . (This particular pew Bible was dedicated to Scott.)
At lunch today, both girls saying "booga booga, AHHHHHHHHH!" in unison on the same pitch. Then falling over laughing at each other.
Emme declaring that cowgirls say "Cowboy!", rather than 'giddyup' when riding their stick horses around the room.
Ruby reading the cover of the Oprah magazine: How to get what you really want this year!
Both girls relating their favorite sights from the tour of Christmas lights around town.
Nannie, my Mother, says I got a little red wagon the first year we had a White Christmas in our town. I don't exactly remember the event--just the wagon. About two hours before Joy and Mike arrived from the airport in Dallas, it began to rain-thunder, lightning, wind, temperature dropping. It rained until sometime into the wee hours and then changed to ice and snow. So, Christmas Eve we woke up to this.
Aunt Kaki couldn't resist a snowball.
Roo was feeling poorly. A stomach bug chased her down and got the best of her for one day, but Emme played outside until her hands hurt too much from the cold, wet stuff.
Mo, the Snow Dog looks like she was sprinkled with powdered sugar. She had to monitor all her people. It's her sheep herding genes.
Before the snow stopped we had somewhere between 4 and 7 inches, depending on which report you believe. Anyway, it was 15 degrees at 8:15 this morning, and did not begin to melt until late afternoon. Pretty, if you were where you belonged and could enjoy the view. My heart ached for those whose plans were interrupted. We enjoyed a restful day with many blessings in the company of those we love. God is very good!
Every family has their traditions and memory making moments and ours is no exception. Usually we decorate for Christmas at Thanksgiving, but November 2008 found us very crowded with 13 of us staying in the same house, and three of us were having symptoms of upper respiratory illness, so I decided to postpone the fun.Problem is that Muffin had to work late and later for the following two weeks, so he helped with the Christmas tree and I left all the boxes of decorations in the garage and every evening after teaching would sort of run to the garage, gather an armful of decorations, run back inside and put those up.This continued for about two weeks.By the time the McGirls, husband, and Grandtwins arrived, I had decorated fully.For this year, anyway.
Since this would be our first Christmas without Dubbie, I was concerned about Nannie, my Mom, and her emotional well-being.December is their wedding anniversary, his birthday, and of course, Christmas Day.When Papaw, Muffin’s Dad, passed away, Christmas Day was difficult because that was their wedding anniversary also.It is still difficult.But, one of my dear music teacher friends whose husband died several years ago made a wonderful suggestion.Her daughter had sent her a little gift each day for 12 days before Christmas.It was something to anticipate joyfully=HOPE.I began the series of gifts with some baked goodies, and an electric throw.She was so excited about the throw that she cried.A bitter cold front arrived that morning and the temperature plunged about 50 degrees overnight.Her bones ached and she was depressed and cold, but when she opened the gift, everything brightened, and remained brighter for the following 12 days.
Muffin bought apricot-white chocolate bread at a bakery for Nannie.CB brought a very cute retro toilet brush cleaner, some homemade shortbread, and photos of the RG’s.Boo sent an order of photos of Jbear and Gracie to the local Walgreen’s and I picked it up and dropped it in her mailbox, also leaving a gift sack with hand cream inside the storm door.Aunt Kaki brought teas and honey, and Muffin also bought a new reusable grocery bag for her.Joy sent a pillow for her back, just pre-heat in the microwave for hours of pain relief. I think we will do these “12 days gifts” again next year, making a new tradition.
Our family is a cookie family.We love to bake, decorate, and eat cookies.I’ve already mentioned the shortbread, which we cut into Christmas bells, angels, balls, and holly leaves and dipped in white chocolate.I made a new recipe from Paula Deen’s cookie swap.They are peppermint pinwheel cookies—essentially a peppermint flavored dough divided in half, rolled into a red and a white rectangle, then chilled, rolled together into a log, chilled again, and cut into one inch cookies.I placed little skewer into them, then cooled them and tied them up with bows and placed them in a vase.Lots of work, but very cute and verrrrrrry tasty. Yummy tradition!
CB whipped up a batch of gingerbread and chilled it overnight.On Christmas Eve she, Kaki and I rolled it out and cut out men, boys, trees, stars, angels, and morphs.Morphs would be what you get when you have an art major in the family.We had a couple of kangaroo/holly leaf morphs. A Christmas tree with a pumpkin on top. A few men with slightly altered appendages—leaves for legs or arms, very creative hair, and tree limbs hanging about them.There were a couple of men with boys baked together into a sort of “stand in front of me for the photo” pose.Anyway, we dipped some of them in white chocolate and left some of them plain and both are tasty.I think we’ve made G men for Christmas every year for about 30 years now.Definitely a tradition.
Most Christmas Eves we eat a big breakfast—quite late. Muffin is usually finishing the selection of photos for the McFamily calendar which is printed and given to Nana and Nannie. The Photo Calendar is definitely a tradition! Then we scurry around wrapping the last of the gifts, cooking what can be pre-made for Christmas Day, and get ready for the early evening service at our church.For the past 24 years we have attended the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.This year our pastor read the Christmas story from the Bible, or told it, from a rocking chair, while holding a three year old in his lap and speaking to ten year old twins on the floor in front of him.The story was “interrupted” by songs and hymns illustrating the various events of Jesus’ birth.When he was finished our pastor said “That’s the entire story, but…” and before he could continue, little Roo pronounced with enough volume for several pews full of people to hear, “THE END”.
After the service one or more cars full of our family members tours around our small city to view Christmas light displays in window and yards.Some have continued traditions of animated exhibits and others are brand new, but all are delightful.(That was a pun. Christmas lights.Think about it.)
When we arrive at home we get the tamales, Spanish rice, guacamole, salsa and chips out on the table and eat.And eat.And….. eat.Then, some years, this one included, some of us are part of the music in late services in our city or others.So, we (I) drink Diet Coke to stay awake and be alert to play music for an 11:00 p.m. service.The foods are tradition.The music gigs, a peculiarity.
I would love for our family to have a new tradition of acting out the Christmas story while it is being read.As a child we did that very thing in drama and song every year before Christmas in our small church, and those “plays” are indelible memories.At first I was a small angel with coat hanger wings.Gradually I grew to be one of the choir angels, singing all the hymns with my Daddy who was also in the choir.“Away in a Manger”, “The First Noel”, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “We Three Kings” were regular hymns in the line-up.The lyrics of those hymns are so special to me.The theology in them is solid too.Teaching our grandchildren about God’s love is one of my greatest joys.As we held our candles above our heads and sang “Silent Night” I prayed that Em and Roo would understand the love poured out for them by Jesus, the gift of love from God, the continuous love we know from the Holy Spirit.That is not tradition or peculiarity, it is fact.
Here’s the way it goes—Muffin and I shop and gift everyone.I also do a major amount of Nannie’s stocking gift shopping for all who are with us on Christmas morning.
The McGirls/husbands pick a name and shop for that one person, or two people if that sister is married.
Everyone shops for the Jbear/Gracie/Rowdy Girls. It’s just too much fun to limit this option.
At Thanksgiving since the entire family was at our house, we also had gifts ready to send with the W’s and Joy & Mike.They brought gifts here as well.We all tried to be good and save the opening ceremonies for Christmas morning, but, opening ceremony is for the Olympics.So Jonah found his Texas Tech T shirt early and proclaimed loudly that “It fits!”And I burned a lovely vanilla soy candle, beginning on Thanksgiving night.One night when I had body aches and my head felt three sizes too big and I was coughing non-stop, I also stewed in the bath tub with a bath bomb, gifted to me by Joy.And, my main gift from the girls, a big ITunes gift card, arrived in the mail with no warning to delay opening a couple of days before Christmas.My ears are twitching in anticipation of new music on my iPod!
Many toys and hair jewelry and movies and guitar accessories and toddler clothing and geek toys and books were ordered.All arrived at their proper destinations in a reasonable shipping time and were wrapped in shiny or printed paper, topped with bows. Or, my favorite, presents bagged in a pretty gift sack and stuffed with printed tissue for really speedy opening on Christmas morning.As always our stocking were too full and were laid on the stairway with contents spilling onto the stairs.The twins were beside themselves with joy just with the stocking gifts, so the adults in the family took a break and had breakfast—sausage balls and blueberry oatmeal bread with coffee—while they played.
Then we got serious.Boxes, sacks, gift wrap and envelopes were all over the house, which delighted the twins and frightened and confused Maggie, the Border collie, and Scooter, the Sheltie.Both Maggie and Scooter received treats and new throw toys, so don’t feel sorry for them.Everyone was surprised, excited, pleased, touched, loved and happy.The surprise was a gift from Dubby.Nannie had an inspiration this Fall while going through his things, and decided to give each of us some of the treasures he kept in his old barber shop safe.It has been in their house since he closed the historic barber shop in what was once the DrakeHotel, and he was the last barber in that shop.Between the Coffee Shop and the Western Union, the Barber Shop was located downtown, just one block from the T& P train depot.Daddy spent most of my childhood working there and his last few years in that shop was its owner.The safe was inherited from the previous owner, who inherited it when he bought the shop, etc.As far as I know the shop was opened with the hotel in 1919, the year Daddy was born.Perhaps the safe was placed there that year.I know that two of the captain’s chairs in my house were bought second hand for the shop in 1919 and my violin students and their parents still sit in them.They are solid oak and creaky, but functional.The safe has a small chunk missing where someone attempted a robbery many years ago.Even an axe failed to break the lock.My Mom feels like her money and goods are secure there.
When she opened the safe after Dubbie died and found a bit of money in the form of silver dollars and old quarters, she decided to split it up among “the kids”.Imagine opening these packages of coins, some in mint condition, from the 1940’s, ‘50’s and 60’s.There were a few Sacajawea gold pieces as well.It was as if we had just opened the fish’s mouth and found coins, just as Jesus instructed his disciples to do.Each of us had yet another legacy from Dubbie, this one saved for Christmas Day. I was again reminded of what Muffin said at Dubbie's memorial service, "If you think you knew Dubbie, just wait a few minutes and you will learn something new about him."
For Christmas 2008 with the McFamily, travel played a major role.The W’s could not travel since Michael had shoulder surgery on December 3 and Becky had many gigs during the month, including midnight mass on Christmas Eve in AZ.Joy & Mike had an appointment with his family in the Midwest for the week, so they left home the 23rd. After more than 9 hours in a plane that was forbidden to land in Chicago, they finally landed in St. Louis, their ultimate Christmas Eve destination, but were not allowed to deplane.Instead, all on board were sent back to Chicago, many, many, many hours late.
On December 21st the Rowdy Girls and their parents arrived from the Hill Country, where the girls settled in, but their Daddy had to keep working until after 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve.That included many hours at the computer from the house, a trip to far West Texas to see some wind turbines up close and personal, and many hours reading contracts and talking on the phone.He was tired. In Texas, we call that “whupped”.
December 21st Muffin had to return to his apartment in the DFW area, work 20 hours in two days, and make the round trip home.He obediently and dutifully made a stop at our favorite market, buying tamales, quiche, and delicious chicken dinners so we at home could continue to bake cookies—delicious and nutritious and much more fun than making “real food” for dinner.About thirty minutes before he arrived, Fabulous Aunt Kaki got away from her job in the Hill Country, made a few shopping stops and arrived here for the week.Following them 30 minutes later, RG’s Dad drove in.While they were all driving to our home, we received text messages and phone calls updating us on the progress, or lack of it, on Joy and Mike’s flight.
So, many, many hours, and many hundreds of miles after the day began, everyone who traveled was exactly where they belonged.A very good reason to give thanks to God! His faithfulness is great, and His mercies are new every morning.
