Christmas 2009

This Christmas things didn't go exactly as planned, however I think it will forever remain one of our best Christmases ever!

 Christmas Eve it started to sleet a bit in the morning.  My hubby's sister and her kids came in from Austin, TX and we had planned to go over to his mom's house where they were all staying. We saw that the weather was getting pretty rough and we thought it would be best to head over to my MIL's house before it got too bad.  We left home around 10:30am and drove over to her house in MWC.  It was sleeting all the way over.  About an hour after we arrived the snow hit.

We knew that there was going to be snow, but there was conflicting information on just HOW MUCH snow.  At first they said "flurries" then later in the week they said "1-2 inches", then they were reporting 4-7 inches.  We ended up getting a total of 14.1 inches (an all time record) and it was a blizzard!

We made some soup for lunch and I baked some sugar cookies to later decorate with the kids.  The snow continued to fall and conditions outside got worse and worse.  We decided it would be best to stay for the night there rather than try and make it home.  My husbands uncle even ended up staying because he was one of the cars in a 50 car pile up on I-40!  Thankfully he was able to make it to my MIL's house.  Also my husbands brother and his wife and kid ended up staying also.  So, there were 17 of us in my MIL's two bedroom house!

Christmas eve we have a tradition to have pizza, and well, there was no place open to get pizza due to the blizzard, so the men decided to walk in the blizzard up to Target to get some frozen pizza.  The guys got all bundled up in layers upon layers and covered their faces and eyes to avoid getting their face completely wind chapped.  Here you can see what they looked like when they were ready to leave.  It took them well over an hour to get there and back even though it was only a few blocks away.  I heard my nephew lost a shoe in a snow drift on the way there.  Thankfully he found it!

So, the kids began to get cabin fever so it was time to decorate the cookies.  We had a blast doing that.  The kids seemed to really like it.  My hubby started filtering pizzas in and out of the oven.  We had our pizza, then my MIL baked a cake. We have a tradition to bake a cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus after we read the story of His birth out of the bible.  This year I got to read the story from the bible.  Each one of the children holds a piece of the nativity set and moves it into the manger as we get to their part of the story.  They love this and look forward to it every year.  

After that we ate cake, had hot cider and my MIL made snow ice cream (we stayed clear from any yellow snow!)  We were all pretty exhausted and headed off to our various corners of the house to go to sleep.

The next day it was sunny out and we woke up to a gorgeous blanket of snow on everything.  My first white Christmas!  It was beautiful.  The kids opened up their gifts (well the ones from Grandma at least...my kids gifts were at home).  The great thing was is that my kids didn't even CARE that there were gifts there.  They were nice to have and all, but this Christmas was about so much more than presents.  It was about family, and time together.  It was amazing.

After breakfast we decided to venture home.  The roads were scary, but with my husbands excellent driving and his 4WD truck, we made it just fine.  The kids opened their presents  and we started to prepare dinner for family.  The family came over to our house for Christmas dinner.

The day after Christmas we went back to my MIL's house and we all went sledding.  Once every few years I decide to pull the stick out of my rear end and have fun.  I'm so thankful I did, because I felt like such a kid sledding and playing in the snow.  I can't remember the last time I had that much fun.  I laughed until my side hurt.

My hubby sledding!

My nephew and I in a snowball fight

Cookie Catastrophe

Christmas eve I always make sugar cookies and decorate them with the kids.  I've done this since I was a teenager and carried it on with my kiddos.  I love it.  This year I'm excited I get to do this with my niece and nephews also who will be visiting from Austin!  I also make white chocolate covered pretzels on Christmas eve and some other cookies (usually chocolate chip).  I am in the kitchen normally most of the day baking.  This year I decided to do it a bit early and get the baking done so I can relax more on Christmas eve and only do the decorating, also I thought it would be nice to take some cookies to family members tomorrow.  It kinda threw me for a loop and I wasn't prepared for this change of plans.  At around six o clock tonight I stared baking cookies.  Four double batches to be exact.  Yes, that's eight, EIGHT batches of cookies.

My poor hubby comes home starving, to a pitiful looking lasagna on the stove and a wife covered in flour surrounded by what appears to be a cookie explosion in my kitchen.  He is painfully aware that his plans for settling down for a movie and a relaxing evening just flew out the window, and he is going to have to come to the rescue of his disorganized crazy wife once again.

Thankfully we got the cookies finished and I owe my husband and children thanks for helping to bail me out of my cookie catastrophe I had going on in the kitchen.

I just seem to always bite off more (cookies) than I can chew.

Magical Evening

Tonight we took the two oldest children to the Oklahoma City Ballet to see "The Nutcracker.".  I had been looking forward to this for quite some time, since we had been planning this since last year.  (Last year we went but didn't take the kids because we assumed that they would get bored, we later regretted not taking them and planned all year to make sure that we took them this time).  I had no idea how much I would enjoy this evening with my kids though, it was so much better than I could have ever imagined!

We took a photo opportunity by the Christmas tree since we were dressed our best.  Brett looked so cute and handsome in his vest and tie, and Myah was looking so grown up and pretty in her red dress.  Brett thinks he is James Bond since he has a vest and tie on, and he tries to pose like him.  I told him that if he took one serious pose that I would let him pose like James Bond afterwards.  He agreed.

Next we were off to Pearls Oyster Bar for dinner.   Brett was so adorable.  On the way there he said, "since we are going to a fancy restaurant can we be nice people?"  Jamin and I laughed and replied "honey, we ARE nice people."  He said ,"no that's not what I mean."  I'm still not exactly sure what he meant about that.  The kids were on their best behavior and so well mannered at the restaurant.

After dinner we went to the civic center.  They were offering photos with a cast member.  The kids stood in front of the large Christmas tree in the civic center with the dancer who played Clara and took a photo (we had to pay for that one, we will be getting that later).  We found our seats and settled in.  Brett was on the edge of his seat the entire time.  The kids LOVED it.  I was afraid they would get bored.  Myah was mesmerized with the ballet dancers, and Brett didn't get antsy until the end.  He did look over at his dad and giggle and say, "Dad, I can see their weenier!"

Afterwards the kids wanted hot chocolate and dessert, so we took them to a small Italian restaurant across the street called "Trattoria".  When we got there they asked, "are you here with the party?" we told them no and didn't think much of it.  There was a large table set up behind our table.  Jamin looked over at me and said "they are having some kind of party coming in, must be people that went to the ballet."  We ordered dessert and hot cocoa.  They brought the kids each their own silver pot full of cocoa.  The kids were EXTREMELY impressed.  Here are some photos of the kids with their hot chocolate!

A few moments later a lady came over to our table.  She complimented our kids and how cute they looked and asked if we had just gone to the ballet.  She introduced herself as the chair of the patron committee for the ballet.  She said "we are having the patrons of the ballet come here for dinner and some of the cast will be here along with the artistic director for the Oklahoma City ballet!  Make sure you stay around so I can introduce you to them!"  She seriously was so sweet and nice I couldn't' believe it!

Moments later the dancers begin to file in.  The kids got to meet the dancer who played the Sugar Plum fairy and talk with her for a while.  She loved the kids, it was so cute!  Brett got to meet the Russian dancers from the second act (they were his favorite), the Caviller and we also got to meet Robert Mills the artistic director for the OKC ballet.

It was a magical evening with my kids, one none of us will ever forget!  I'm so glad we took them and got to spend this evening with them!

Logo Work

Ok, so I've been staying up until midnight or later this week, but I've been doing some logo work.  It's been WAY too long since I've done anything remotely creative, so the lack of sleep is worth the payoff in the long run.  Well, at least I'm HOPING it will pay off and I will get some business coming in!

I'm pretty hapy with what I've come up with this week.  I feel like I've been pretty productive (graphic wise, however the laundry is still a hopeless cause...)

I did a logo for my hubby's work.

Then I did my business cards...

Then I did a few logos for my friend who currently is making adorable bags, and is also a great photographer.  You should really check out her bags and photographs.

So, all in all not too bad of a week.  I'm back in business again!  Hopefully offers will start pouring in ;)

Sigh

Ok.  Take a deep breath.  Count to ten.

(From my daughters room) "I want to watch Max and RUBEEEEE!"

Stop crying.  Stop crying.  Stop crying.

She stopped!

Nope.  She's at it again.  I guess she was just taking a breath.

I believe she has gotten louder.

Can you tell it's been one of those days?  I know, I spend quite a bit of time on here venting.  Most people must take me for an angry person, and I guess I am to some degree.  It's not that I'm angry as much as I have a VERY short fuse.

I ventured to the dreaded Wal-Mart today to try and fix that pesky overcharge that I was speaking of in my previous blog.  I stood in line for 20 minutes at customer service, then it took them another 10 to try and figure out how to give me the return.  I finally get my $14 back (which I'm beginning to think was NOT worth the hassle) and get my items.  I then go to the "express" lane.  This takes 30 minutes, because the cashier at the register was handed a gift card that was worth $15.  The cashier thought the guy said to PUT $15 on it.  He did not say that.  I heard him loud and clear.  So then it takes another 40 employees to come over and figure out how to fix this faux pas.

I swear, one day I'm gonna snap and burn that place down.

So, I get home at 2:45 and my two year old has not had a nap.  She is in thermo-nuclear meltdown right now.  I just realized that I have to go pick up my kids from school in an hour (I normally don't pick them up, they ride the bus but I have to pick up cinnamon rolls for my daughters fundraiser).  So trying to get my two year old to nap is almost futile since I have to leave in less than 45 minutes.

I love my kids, and I do love Christmas, but I've had just about enough Holiday "cheer" this season.  I'm turing into the Grinch, and I'm ready for it to be over.  There are only so many lines, so many pine needles on my floor, only so much pushing, shoving, rudeness, and bad customer service that a human being can handle.

This is SO NOT what Christmas is about, and frankly, I'm tired of it.

Fear

For years in my life I have lived in a constant state of fear.  This is totally contrary to what I know in my mind that I should be doing, the problem is that it is a heart issue, and a issue of my constant wavering faith.

I feel that God has been so good to me and has continually blessed me.  However in this state of thankfulness there is an underlying fear that lives there, it is a fear that I'm afraid to speak of or admit that is there, because if I speak of it then it may happen.  If I begin to talk about it and acknowledge it then I have to deal with it, and that is not something that I've ever wanted to do.

It's the fear of "what if".

What if I loose one of my kids.  What if I get cancer like my mother, and leave my family as my mother left me.  What if something were to happens to my husband?  What if, what if, what if...

This fear goes so deep that I can't even talk about it without coming to tears.  If I hear stories of tragedies happening to others I dwell upon those tragedies to a point that is unhealthy, or I avoid the emotions all together.  If I avoid it then I can live in denial that the fear doesn't exist.  I've had such a tragedy happen to me with the loss of my mother when I was younger, and it's a pain that goes so deep I refuse to deal with it.  For me to even talk about it I have to dis-associate myself from the emotion, or it becomes too overwhelming to bear.

Friday I heard that pastor Matt Chandler of The Village Church (who's teachings have stirred many things inside of me) found out on Thanksgiving day that he had a brain tumor, and that he was going in on Friday to have it removed.  The fear started to set in. If it can happen to him, then it can happen to me.  That whole feeling of "you are just one phone call from your knees" sets in.

So, I have been following this all weekend long.  This morning I watched the following video from Matt Chandler.  What he said at the end thoroughly convicted me.

http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/blog/hvpastor/?p=363

At the end he says "for those of you who live in fear, and continue to live in fear and would try to use this as an excuse to continue in that fear, don't you dare use this to continue in your lies."

Wow.  That leaves me totally speechless.

I live in a constant state of fear.  So, why all of a sudden am I coming out and talking about it?  I have to.  I can't hold onto this anymore, because the fear of "what if" is leaving me in a such state of panic that I can't even enjoy the present. It is becoming clear to me that the time is drawing near to deal with some things, and by writing this I'm ripping off the band-aid and exposing the wound to the world, so I will be forced to deal with it.