Terrapin Station

Christmas 2005 Meme

Ms. Pink Shoes asks, I tell:

1. What is the best gift you received this year? (Tangible gifts only, please!)  Besides the puppy and his returning health?  A George Foreman grill! 

2. What is the best gift you gave this year?  I got Ken IPOD accessories so he can charge his IPOD in the car and listen to it there, too (via the radio).  He is stoked! 

3. When did you do most of your shopping/creating?  In October and November.  Thanks to Flylady, I learned that my life is much happier if I do not wait for the PERFECT gift to appear before me, but just go ahead and get the really good one I see now. 

4. Did you go shopping the day after Thanksgiving (U.S.)? The day after Christmas?  Absolutely NOT!  and absolutely NOT!  There's nothing I want badly enough to get out in that. 

5. What stands out already about Christmas 2005?  It's the year of Buddyroe, and of learning that each new little one is different from the one before.  Also, when I was feeling upset in church on Christmas Eve, of Meg asking if I was okay.  We have been at this church just a year now, and the community there has been the biggest gift of all. 

"Christmas Gift!"

Gotcha!

(Did you play that game as a child?  Do you still?  The game is to be the first one (on waking up or greeting someone for the first time on Christmas day) to say (or YELL), "Christmas gift!"  I have no idea where it originated.)

We had our Christmas a day early, so on Friday it was "Christmas Eve."  Ken, Brandon and I drove about 2 hours to the east and met a couple with our new puppy.  He's a 9-week-old Maltese and just as cute as can be. 

He's in my lap as I type, licking my arm.  I have to be careful not to let Josie see this...she is very jealous of him and I am distressed about it.  I'm sure she'll get over it eventually, but it hurts me to see her feelings hurt. 

On our "Christmas morning," we did our usual thing and tried to make sure the puppy didn't eat random objects off of the floor.  Bran went to his mom's in the afternoon, and I sang at the 7:00 pm Christmas Eve service.  Ken was sick, so I didn't stay for 11:00 but went home to be with him. 

I went to church feeling stormy.  No need to go into the whole thing here; suffice it to say that I have a teenager.  Sigh.  :)  I needed very much to hear Fr. David's sermon, in which he said "Christmas is mostly about the unexpected, and so is Jesus Christ."  Hmm.  So, you mean, it won't be like I expect it to be, necessarily?  One of my DOK sisters noticed that I was looking upset (and Ithought I was hiding it so well!)  It's great to be where people know me and care. 

Church this morning, and this afternoon has been long and blissfully quiet.  Ken's been asleep for a long time (and he needs it).  I'm re-installing Norton Antivirus on all the computers (finally broke down and bought a 5-user small office pack) and trying to clean up the house, 15 minutes at a time. 

It was a gorgeous day and I took Josie for a long walk - also took the puppy outside many times to "go potty."  We are a four-member family! with a baby, again!

A Native of the Very World He Made

Where is this stupendous stranger?
Prophets, shepherds, kings, advise.
Lead me to my Master's manger,
show me where my Savior lies.
O Most Mighty! O Most Holy!
Far beyond the seraph's thought:
art thou then so weak and lowly
as unheeded prophets taught?

O the magnitude of meekness!
Worth from worth immortal sprung;
O the strength of infant weakness,
if eternal is so young!
God all-bounteous, all-creative,
whom no ills from good dissuade,
is incarnate, and a native
of the very world he made.

Words: Christopher Smart (1722-1771)

Friday Five: Christmas Music

1) If you had to choose CDs as a soundtrack for the Christmas season, what would they be? "The Nutcracker Suite," and a record (really! a record!) of the "Robert Rheims Organ and Bells Christmas."  The record album itself is clear and deep red.  It must be from the 1950's or 60's and I have loved it all my life. 

2) How do you feel about singing all the verses of "The First Noel?" (Six in our hymnal, but apparently there are nine.)  Well, I'm a stickler for singing all the verses of a hymn, but that might really be a little much.  (Remember that we Episcopalians stand up to sing...!)

3) "O, Come All Ye Faithful" has a lot of verses, too. Which is your favorite? 

"God from God, Light from Light eternal,
lo! he abhors not the Virgin's womb;
only-begotten Son of the Father..."

Why?  Because I have a vivid memory of being about 14, singing with the adult choir for Christmas Eve service.  The baby choir led the procession, and they got to process while singing this verse.  No one had told them that "womb" is not pronounced to rhyme with "bomb."  Their singing was louder than it was tuneful, so a good portion of the church got in on that giggle. 

I also think abhor is a really interesting word.

4) What music do you play while opening presents?  Usually whatever CD someone just opened.  And it's not usually Christmas music!  This year there's going to be some Coldplay...!

5) Which carols do you consider to be Christmas Eve essentials?  "In the Bleak Midwinter," "Away in the Manger" (my daddy used to sing it to me), of course "Silent Night."

and a Bonus Question:

6) What, if any, is your favorite secular Christmas song?  "Christmas, Don't Be Late," by Alvin and the Chipmunks.  Had this record in my childhood collection, too.  :) 

God said Ha! and gave me a gift...

In my previous post I noted that my plans had abruptly changed so that suddenly tomorrow night (Friday) is our Christmas Eve...instead of Sunday.  I was a little bummed, since I was supposed to work all day Friday.

Just got an e-mail that the entire University will close at noon on Friday.  So I get half of  Christmas Eve free!  :) 

I suppose it was really the University administration that gave me (and everyone else) this gift, but I think God is probably smiling. 

O, Christmas Trees!

Ken and I have been married for 6 1/2 years now.  I love him more every day and I truly believe our marriage gets stronger all the time. 

This sometimes leads me to believe I know all about him.  Um, no; not. 

I have always decorated the Christmas tree in the way that I thought was nicest, which is how my childhood trees looked.  That is, every single ornament you have, all sorts of lights, nothing matching.  He never said anything about it until last year, when he asked if I could make our tree look "shiny."  So I hung tinsel all over it.  :) 

Turns out, he meant something different!  He likes chasing lights and only shiny ornaments on the tree.  I had no idea....duhhh.....

So this year, the big tree is decorated the way he likes: 

and I bought a little bitty tree to decorate the way I like:

and we all are happy. 

Friday Five: Christmas Decor!

Here's what Songbird wants to know.  I assume some other inquiring minds around here do, too! 
For this Friday morning, then, a few decorating questions:

1) Do you display a nativity scene, and if so, where?  Yes!  My sister Sarah gave us a FABULOUS nativity scene.  It takes up our entire 5 1/2 -foot x 1foot mantelpiece, and came with everything...Baby Jesus & Co, of course; creche, animals, humans, water bucket, bundle of sticks, feed sacks.  It's AMAZING! 

2) Do you put a skirt under the Christmas tree? If so, what does it look like? I have a plaid taffeta one I got at K-Mart a few years ago.   I always mourn for the red and green felt one that my Gramma Beth made and used for many years - it came to me after her house was cleaned out.  It had a big (8" tall) gold-colored "B" sewn on it.  For Butler, I guess.  But the first year I lived in Denton, the cat peed on it, and it was not cleanable.  Believe me, I tried!  I guess sometimes you have to let go. 

3) Do you hang lights on the house or put them in your windows?  We usually hang them on the house.  I do, that is.  So it depends on how much I get done this year!  White icicle looking lights.  Note that we very rarely have REAL icicles here!

4) White lights or colored lights on the tree? Big bulbs or the small, pretty ones? (I'm not biased...much.)  This year I am doing the big tree in the way that KEN wants it.  Small white lights, and all shiny ornaments (just the colored glass balls).  AND,

I bought myself a little 2-foot tree to display the super wonderful special ornaments I love - like the dough ones that Nancy and Mom and I made 37 years ago in the back yard!!)

5) Do you have a tree topper? What sort? Who puts it on top of the tree?  We have a shiny glass spiky-looking thing for the big tree.  On my tree, I will put the little five-pointed star made of twigs I collected in Lynn and Dexter's College Station yard one December afternoon -- we made cookies, did crafts, and watched "A Christmas Story."  I had never seen it before. 

I generally do all the decorating, unless Brandon happens to be home the day I do it.  If he is, I make him in charge of all the "hard" things, like the tree topper and the lights.  He likes to do "hard" things.