12 Days of Christmas for My Missionary!

12 Days of Christmas for My Missionary!

On the first day of Christmas

Do you hear what I hear?

Joyous harmonies and melodies

Quite pleasing to the ear!


 This Christmas stocking

 Filled with goodies and toys

 To relive your childhood

 And then share with more boys.

Christmas Day Three

Something merry to wear

To add to your collection ~

You’ll have plenty to spare!

On the fourth day of Christmas

This will be something nice:

A box of cool presents

To leave you smelling like spice?

On this fifth day of Christmas

You’ll laugh when you spy

These favorite sea creatures 

I’m not gonna lie!

And on this sixth day of Christmas

You’ll have sweet dreams

As you get warm and cozy

With one of your favorite teams!

Today's gift, 
If you really do care

 Is something special
 You'll need for your hair.

 We know for this mission
 You've truly been called ~  

 But your greatest fear before returning,

Is that you'll start to go bald!

 This eighth Christmas present

 Is refreshing and blue

 Please don’t wear too much

 Just a small spray will do!


Today’s gift is one

That's sure to make you smile,

Too bad you can't enjoy it

For at least a little while.

 This tenth holiday gift

 Is something you’ll need

 Morning, noon and night

 As you ponder and read.

Now this bag full of goodies,

 Some of them sweet

 On Christmas day eleven

 You’ll eat, eat, eat, eat!

And Finally it’s here   -

 The Big Christmas day!

 I’ve so little room

 But so much to say!

 Today is the day

 To celebrate His birth

 There will be much rejoicing

 All over the Earth!

This Christmas present

 Is sure to make you smile

 As you see lots of faces

 You haven’t seen in a while

Remember all these people

 Miss and love you too!

  And wish many blessings

To always shine on you. 

Busy Days

The last couple of days have been pretty busy.  I am still decorating, little by little.   Yesterday mom came over and we wrapped presents for Mark.  In fact I still have a couple yet to wrap.  I'm planning on making some treats to send to him as well, maybe some Puppy Chow.   Not really puppy chow, of course, but a snack made with Chex cereal, chocolate and peanut butter - very yummy!  He has lots of presents coming - 12 in fact. The plan is that he will open one gift each day for 12 days before Christmas.  He promises that he won't open them all at once - but Greg did when I sent the 12 Days of Christmas to him.  I'll write a little verse to go with each day, such as . . . . . 

Today's gift, if you really do care

Is something special you'll need for your hair.

We know for this mission you've truly been called ~  

But your greatest fear before returning,

is that you'll start to go bald!

Can't reveal what it is though - not yet, anyway, just in case he has the opportunity to glance at my blog!  Well that verse only took a few minutes; so maybe after an hour I'll be done!  Hmmmm. . . 

And today, Mom came again.  If it weren't for her, the other Christmas tree would likely not be up.  But she came and encouraged me to lets get going with the other tree and so we did and here it stands.  I was then motivated to venture into my storage room to find the ornaments.  These are actually my favorite ones, because they're all the special ones the kids have created over the years, plus other memorable ones.  Okay, so it took literally half the day to get this little tree up!  I'm not even kidding.  After my joy in only 15 minutes  spent getting the pre-lit 9 footer up; this one was a major pain in the you know what.  First the branches were not all in the box, so that required me to go back to the storage area to find the missing ones.  If you'd ever seen this storage area, you would understand my frustration.   But I found them - Problem solved, right?  WRONG!!!  Parts of the stand were also missing; which I already knew, but I knew how to improvise!  WRONG again!  My plan was to put the tree in a tree stand that we had for real Christmas trees.  It had worked fine in the past, but this year, not so much.  We got it standing, lights strung - and then it started leaning.  Eventually it was no longer leaning, but closer to lying!  But after much rigging and muttering and threatened crying, we finally got it up.  And it's in the corner, where it belongs for causing so much commotion!  But it's pretty and so far behaving itself nicely.  As I have been writing, Angel, our Cocker Spaniel was attempting to lay down under it; that's one of her favorite corners.  "Don't you dare", I scolded.  She retreated, head hanging.  I don't understand what it is about the whole tree putting up thing that makes me feel so unChristmaslike; that is if it takes longer than 15 minutes!

Do You Know the Real Reason We Celebrate Christmas?

As I was fixing Garrett's bowl of cereal this morning, I overheard a conversation between him and Gracie, one of the little girls that comes over to catch the bus.  

He was showing off our Advent Calendar, one of my favorite Christmas decorations that we've had since Greg was a baby.  Unfortunately one of the Wise Men has long since disappeared.  

Anyway back to the conversation - "Gracie, do you know the real reason we celebrate Christmas?"  

"It's Jesus's birthday", she replied.

"Yep, you're right!"

Her twin sister Marissa comes over to see what they're doing.

"Marissa, do you know the real reason we celebrate Christmas?" 

. . . . . . . . .

I think he gets it! - Pretty smart for a 6 year old.

Follow the Star

Tonight for family night we viewed a short clip depicting the visitation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary.  It can be found at BibleVideos.org and was just long enough for my kids to sit through it.  There's a total of 6  short movies so we'll hopefully get through all of them by Christmas.  We sang Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  It was short and sweet which equals perfect for our family nights!  





Afterwards at bedtime, I started reading Garrett this favorite pillow book that we bring out each Christmas.  He wondered why the Angel appeared to Mary in the daytime during the movie, but it was nighttime in the storybook.  Well, all I can say is that I was glad he was at least paying attention.  Alas, it was short lived and we couldn't make it to the 3 Wise Men he got so fidgety, actually obnoxious was how I described it.  And off to bed he went - not happily, I'm afraid.  So we'll learn more about the 3 Kings tomorrow.  I promise, Garrett, really.

The First Ornament

I'm not stressing about getting everything done in a hurry this year. So as a result, my house is being decorated a little a time.  This weekend was productive.  I was able to finally convince three of my kiddos and a friend of theirs to haul up most of the Christmas boxes from our storage room.  There is still stuff down there in the basement, but I'm not stressing to get down there to find it. Anyway, most of the decorations are out; most of the ornaments  on the main tree.  The top is kind of bare, but the bottom branches are quite full, courtesy of short people with little hands.  I need to enlist the help of a taller individual to get it complete.  


This is a picture of the first decoration of this Christmas season, well not counting the Christmas tree!  


Yes, it's half snowman/half football.  And yes it's adorned in purple and gold instead of red and green.  Gregory had the honor of hanging this little guy on Saturday night, following the LSU win over Georgia in the SEC Championship game.

He's now surrounded by lots of red and green.  There's a little black and gold one hanging nearby too!  Imagine that!  They are new, purchased while home in Louisiana last January.  I was so excited when I bought them because they reminded me so much of Greg. And now he's home, ever-present and yelling and clapping when there's a team from Louisiana playing football!  And what a year to be an LSU or Saints fan!


So it was a good weekend.  Football aside, it's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas; now to start working on it sounding and feeling more like it too!
  

Praying for the Christmas Spirit

This is one of my favorite holiday pictures of my kids.  This was taken 5 years ago and Greg was just complaining the other day how he didn't like doing this.  I guess we kept taking pictures over and over to try to find the perfect one.  Well, I think this one is pretty close to perfect.


It leaves me wondering, however, what I'm going to do for our Christmas card this year.  Lindsay won't be home until the 19th and of course Mark won't be with us at all this year.  This will be the third year that our family is not ALL together for Christmas. That makes me kind of sad, plus it just frustrates the whole Christmas card thing. I guess, I'll have to do something with individual pictures yet again.  


Oh well, I'll have to contemplate this dilemma later.  By the end of the day my house and tree will be decorated!  I'm hoping the Christmas music will help to lighten my mood, because the kids are seriously depressing it right now.  Perhaps the music will lighten their moods as well - I'm praying!

The Real Reason

As I get ready to dash and make my sweet potatoes for the ward Christmas party, I remember a fun picture from the annual church celebration 6 years ago - the real reason for all the hooplah!

Yes, They're Pretty Special

Last night I had the pleasure of going to dinner at Red Robin with my special sister, Stephanie and her special friend, Scott.  And it was truly a PLEASURE!  They were just purely enjoyable to be around!  Nothing was more important to them than the fact that they were in each other's company.  Stephie was girlishly giddy at times which I thought was so refreshingly sweet!  We were celebrating her 38th birthday and I left thinking that I could have easily scrapped the wrapped present - one hour with her sweet and special suitor was all she wanted or needed!  Acceptance, love, friendship, pure delight - those are true gifts.  And it was a gift to me - to be able to watch them and enjoy their conversation.

A dear friend has often voiced the sentiment of what it must be like to be in their world; that is the world of special people like Stephanie and Scott.  I think it would probably be a joyous place to be!  That's the word that keeps coming to my mind - JOY!  The absolute PLEASURE of being with your best friend.  (Although I made the mistake of calling them best friends, and Scott quickly set me straight.  They're not just friends didn't I know that? )  But that unconditional ACCEPTANCE is true friendship, even though Scott may not realize it.

So even though it wasn't my birthday, I think I received the ultimate gift!  It was a lesson in kindness, acceptance, love!   I began to ponder how judgemental, selfish and unaccepting I am.  As we embark upon this Christmas season, my prayer is that I can be more like my special companions and simply accept others as they are, without condition.  And maybe go a step further and not only find acceptance, but find joy in our everday experiences and most importantly in our relationships with those we love!  It will likely take me a while to find my way into that special world they occupy, but I think it definitely worth trying.

So thanks to Stephanie and Scott for what I'll call an early Christmas present.  It was fun to smile and laugh for so long!  Especially when Scott said, "Steph, let me finish, can I talk now?" Definitely no such thing as a Silent Night around those two!

And again

Yes it is that time of the year again. Every year at this time I add a new post to this blog. Two years ago I was writing about the mall in Baton Rouge, last year about the hillbilly Christmas. They were both written on December 29th. So this year's posting is a day late. This is especially fitting. I seem unable to do much of anything on time. I do have an excuse for not writing though - I was working yesterday and came home still exhausted from work the day Before! Today was my recovery day which means essentially nothing got done - no dishes, no laundry, no home cooked meal. So yes, late has become the story of my life. I am still looking forward to our annual trip home. I am always exhausted this time of year, but this year is different. I am mentally and physicalLy drained. No this is not my usual funny, warm and fuzzy blog entry. I am not feeling especially warm, fuzzy or the least bit comical. I have become the epitome of the Grinch and Scrooge all balled up in one! Well that was a little bit funny. Maybe there is hope for me yet! I have no clue where this is all going- I am actually anxious to see what my point to all of this is.

Overall, life is good. The holidays were nice, Mike has a new job, I will working part time, Greg will be home in about 7 months, Mark will be serving a mission soon, the kids are healthy, Lindz is graduating this May. The Lord has blessed us all tremendously! I am very conscious of his tender mercies each and every day. I have come to a realization of just how much He knows and loves me. But despite all of this, somewhere, somehow, I have lost just a little bit of me. Would the real Gracie please appear? Is she the mom trying to keep up with the housework and homework assignments and schedules? Maybe she is there at the hospital trying to take care of the sick and the weary, becoming weary herself in the process. Sometimes the only thing that gets me through the day at work is the wonderful mission statement of our hospital-that through exceptional healthcare, we reveal the healing presence of God. I think of myself as being the Savior's hands, giving service to those in need. but in giving service to my patients, I feel that I am neglecting to serve those closest and dearest to me. I am drained. I am spent. And feel insignificant somehow - the consummate wallflower.

I have one day to get my house clean, clothes washed, and start packing and I don't really know where to begin. But it will get done, just wish I had not spent today in total veg mode. So my hope is that the new year brings some calm. I have some ideas and strategies for better time management and destressing (that don't include Xanax), some plans for finding the old "me". Now I know some friends will read this and think I've lost my mind. Really, it's all good; I am blessed and know where to turn. Writing is wonderful therapy and helps me focus my thoughts. The Good Lord will direct my path - He always does.

Same Time Last Year

Well today I spent a moment or two reading through my previous blogs. It really did only take a couple of moments as I haven't been as devoted to blogging as I would have liked. I'm working on getting better at that.

I scrolled down all the way to the bottom and read my blog entry dated December 29, 2008. And here we are ~ December 29, 2009. I remember that day very well. I recall vividly that day at the Mall of Louisiana and the assault to my senses. So it's a whole year later and things have changed, but much is the same.

The pre~Christmas hustle and bustle was the same, but things were much less hectic this year it seemed. The Christmas cards were out a whole week before the Blessed Day arrived. Garrett and Thomas got to see Santa without a whole lot of trouble. Okay we did have to wait in a line for a little while. Mike would say it was much l o n g e r of a line than he would have liked, but it really wasn't that bad. We took the kids to Santa's Magic Kingdom in Eureka, Missouri. It was basically a Jellystone Campground turned into a huge light display, complete with the Hannah~Barbera characters all around. They weren't like walking around or anything exciting like that~ just wooden likenesses of the Jetsons, the Flintstones, and of course Yogi Bear. Mike kept saying we were experiencing a Hillbilly Christmas. I asked him if we fit in with the hillbillies or did we stand out? He said we blended in just fine. I don't know, my kids and I didn't have matching camouflage jackets like the mom and her children behind us in line. Oh well, we saw Santa, took a picture and enjoyed the lights. Christmas lights are a joy to behold, hillbilly or not.

We missed Greg that night. It was probably one of the first outings we've been on as a whole family since he left. Other than church, but that's not really an "outing." Mark brought his girlfriend, Melissa. Different girlfriend than the one from last year's blog.

Last year I wrote from Louisiana. I'm not there now, but I will be in 5 days! I am longing for some down time for reading, hanging out with family and relaxing. Plus I'm craving some beignets and poboys. It's time. But I will not put on 5 pounds like I did last year. That will be different.

So while some things are different, it's mostly the same old same old as I say. and that's good. The same wonderful feeling that the holidays bring. The same trip to Louisiana, because that's HOME. And that will never change. And my kids are a little taller, hopefully a bit smarter, but still playing those same old same old video games that Santa brought. Well, not the exact same games as last year, but they're all the same to me. And yes there were only 7 of us home this Christmas, not 8 like last year, but the love I have for all of them is the same, only I think I actually love them more. And that's really all that matters.

The Irony of it All

Let's see, three weeks ago I was busy juggling family and studying fo my nursing final. When my final was over I began Christmas shopping and finished decorating the house. I started cleaning all the parts of the house that were neglected during my weeks of school and made a lame attempt to catch up with my never ending laundry. Then there was more shopping and then even more shopping as I would think of people that I had initially left off of my list. Then there was a hockey game here and another one there, and when was I going to take Garrett to see Santa? Lucky for me, Santa made a surprise appearance at his pre-school. Then there was all the wrapping of the aforementioned presents. I was also busy planning a party for Greg's 19th birthday and then Mark asked me to help him plan a surprise going away party for his girlfriend the night before Greg's party. And what about the Christmas cards??? I was much more organized this year and ordered them weeks ahead of time and picked them up as soon as they were ready. Then they sat on my desk and patiently waited while I collected stamps and lost addresses and toyed with the idea of a Christmas letter to accompany the picture card.

The parties were a lot of fun and two days later I was back at the mall for more shopping of course! Then there was the baking of the goodies and last minute preparations on Christmas Eve. We spent that evening at my mom's and enjoyed wonderful chicken gumbo and then the blessed day finally arrived. Most of the kids were happy. One child who shall remain nameless was quite upset that Santa had screwed up one of his presents. But all in all it was a pleasant laid back afternoon. Then came the mad dash to get 8 people ready for our trip to Louisiana. There was tons more laundry to tackle and suitcases to pack. My poor washer and dryer got a workout that night and into the wee hours of the morning, as the kids realized that they needed this shirt clean and these pants washed! We traveled the 12 hours in two cars with Michael and I in one car with a couple of kids and all the teens in another car. That made for a nice change!

Throughout these couple of weeks, I was tired and crabby and frustrated and overwhelmed by all the things that had to get accomplished in such a short time! I was so looking forward to some time away - a respite from the chaos of my hectic life!

We've been here for 3 days now. Michael's parents live in the country, about a 30 minute drive from Baton Rouge. It is quiet and warm enough to go outside. (Garrett and I spent some time the other day in a hammock under the gazebo). There was nothing pressing for me to do, no laundry to wash, no dishes piling in the sink. The kids spent most of the weekend on the computer and playing their video games. There can be no vacation from the video games!!! All three game systems made the trip with us! Greg's watching football, Lindsay's reading her latest in the Twilight series, Mark spends too much time on the cell phone talking to his girlfriend who is now moved away and Garrett totally plays with his presents from Santa ( What would we do without Batman?) There's little fighting overall. The rain falling on the tin roof is quite calming. I've caught up on all the lost sleep and had time to start reading Twilight ( I put it off till now because I knew I would never be able to read it while still in nursing school.) And lo and behold I have actually started writing on this blog, which I created like 5 months ago!

So with all this peace and serenity and almost boredom - how did I spend my day today? Why I took that 30 minute drive into Baton Rouge and found the Mall of Louisiana for more shopping of course! My addled brain cannot handle exess amounts of relaxation and sleep! So Lindsay and I set off and I paid the price, I am afraid. I was assaulted with tons of noise and Oh my gosh - the smells - candles and perfumes and Hollister. Need I say more? After four hours a full blown migraine had overcome me and I made haste to return to the tranquility of the country. And then there was the traffic- apparently I was not the only one wishing to get home. But here I sit typing away, grateful for the time to have started this post and wondering how long before I seek to challenge the peace and quiet - the irony of it all!