Day 25: Unto us a child is born....

I feel like busting out with Dora's "We did it!" song.

Today is about children in so many ways.  Two are napping and one is building his third Lego set.  It is "fixing to" snow. Around here people still get excited about that.  I still do too but I'm bummed it won't be plowed as quickly as up north.  I have both the Thomas the Tank Engine and the Hannah Montana theme songs in my head going at once. All is not calm, but it is definitely bright.

I'm going back to my weekly blog post-but I am definitely planning twenty five more Advent posts next year!

If you stuck with me for the entire Advent Season, I really hope it helped with the "wait."

Thanks for reading!

-Page the Quack

Day 24: It gets done

Remember in college, before the internet or laptops? Those were the days when we were up all night typing papers on word processors that are in computer museums?  Those papers got done.  It gets done.

My husband and I went out for a little alone time and dared to stop at a Walgreens. It had the last thing our daughter asked for-Hannah Montana's microphone! It got done!

The lego kits are out and ready, along with a "Dinosaur dig" kit. It got done!

My children have been spending time with grandparents- they aren't sleeping and they are eating ice cream, and they are completely off their regular routine. I'm the one who will suffer when we get home. It got done!

Friends and family have been visited. Lots of laughs, lots of love. It got done!

I have continued to run four miles a day, despite the fact that I forgot how big trucks were on Piney-Grove Wilbon. It got done!

My sweet husband drove us down I-95 and all over NC without complaining.  It got done!

Tomorrow is the big event. Tomorrow the baby comes that brings hope, love, joy, and peace to the world. Little children will be waking up to cool toys not knowing that they were lucky drug stores were open on highway 401 at ten p.m. 

It will get done! 

I hope you got it done too!

Day 23: Visting the Grandparents

On her website, JK Rowling talked about how Harry and Dudley would remain close enough to visit each other during holidays and other times they were "in the neighborhood."  She also said Lily, James, and Albus would not look forward to these visits. I can only hope my kids don't see it that way.

How many movies have been made about holiday family visit fiascos?  My favorite is the House of Yes, but I don't think that was a holiday.  Another good one is The Family Stone. Affliction is pretty rough.  What would happen if Hollywood made a "We love each other and all get along movie?" Who would pay to see it? Who would buy into it?

We have had our share of family Christmas adventures.  I spent Christmas Eve in the emergency room with a toy top stuck to my finger once. I am sure we had the family screaming matches others have had over whether or not the lights should be white or multi-colored. You know who is going to do what before they walk in the door.  Someone might drink too much, someone might tell obnoxious stories about their kids.  Someone might talk about how wonderful their job is while another can't stand it and talks about how bad work is. Don't lie, you know it.  Despite all of this, we need time together. People need other people.

We loaded up the car today, picked up my mother, and headed to Winston-Salem, just like I have done every year since I was born.  It used to be a joke to see who could spot the Reynold's building first. But then we got confused about which building that was and we kept looking at the Wachovia building next to it.  The years my mother had to drive were actually the best, because my siblings and I would just wave at all the people passing us. At least no one tried to run us off the road or give us the finger. 

The NEXT time I go with my own kids, I will remember more activities for little hands when we go to a retirement community. Today Lowell managed to take all the ornaments off their little tree. Frances dragged out all of the beanie babies my grandmother had been collecting since the 90s, and then Kenneth chucked one at my 83 year old Grandmother's face.  I will say this, I got to hand it to her.  She said, "Now Kenneth, next time, let me know when I'm the catcher. I LOVE baseball!"  I don't know what she would have said thirty years ago if it had been me.

I also LOVE time with my cousins, because I am older than they are.  They were babies when I was a teenager. Unfortunately, they are all adults themselves and this makes me really old.  It is so cool to get to know them that way.  Moe's is our Christmas tradition.  Why try to do anything else?  Turkey?  Sweet potatoes?  Bring on the Joey Bag of Donuts!

Friends: Check
Family: Check

Never forget either!  Who else can you fight with so well????

Day 22: Cookie Time!

I'm not a very good cook, but baking makes sense to me. You measure out the ingredients, mix it together, pre-heat the oven, set the timer, and it's done!  Now I don't get too terribly complicated with my baking choices, but still, it is something I can handle with three little helpers.

This doesn't mean I don't have baking disasters. Last year my best friend and I attempted to make cupcakes for my son's birthday and the mixer caught on fire.  There was also the time Frances helped me crack eggs and according to China, we had a lot of good luck in that cookie batch.

All my buddies on Facebook have been having "baking" status updates. Between the ones that are baking and the ones that have everything wrapped, I feel way behind.  But I have to say, I have participated in a few baking projects this Advent season.

The first one was actually bake free, so it doesn't count but I'll mention it anyway: apple sauce cinnamon Christmas ornaments. Frances, Kenneth, and I mixed and mixed apple sauce into the cinnamon until it finally got thick enough. Then we rolled it out and made gingerbread men ornaments.  The only problem was how long it took to get them to dry.  My children lost patience. But they did end up being really cute and we put them on purple ribbons to hang on the tree!

Then we decorated sugar cookies.  The baby loved it and did a wonderful job with the gum drops.   I couldn't remember if we should  decorate them before or after we bake them. Again, we didn't leave quite enough space between the cookies and a few of them were bigger than they should have been. Either way, they were yummy!

I'm going to bake more next year. I'll even host a cookie swap!  Winner goes to the cookie that doesn't taste like a rock...

Day 21: Time with friends

What a very busy day!  One thing I love about coming back to Fuquay-Varina is remembering the adult life I left behind.  My children love the Bengals, the mascot of the high school I used to teach at.  We went by their old daycare center to say hi. No one can believe my kids are grown, not to mention the bonus child I had in Pittsburgh. Frances was especially excited to see Mrs. Betty, the cook.  I guess my cooking leaves little to be desired.

After that I took them to Crazy Glaze, a ceramic painting studio.  I had always wanted to do that when they were little and now that they were older we had the opportunity. Note to people with a toddler, they can paint a small ornament over and over again, then wet the the newspaper with paint brushes and be just as happy.

Later we spent the day with one of my best friends in the area, jumping on the trampoline and watching Frosty the Snowman.  It's hard to believe that she and I were pregnant with the first kids together-and now we have three a piece.

We ended the day at Chick Fila!  We met some friends from Guilford that now live here.  The girls were so excited to see each other! Guess who was there?  The Santa Cow!  I wonder if my son is the only person to realize that Santa is a boy and cows are always girls....

This is one piece of the holiday puzzle.  Coming back to a place you loved and to people that love you.

If I had time to write a novel of a blog every night, then I'm not doing it right!

Day 20: Jingle all the way....

There are tons of Christmas songs-both secular and Christian.  I think my favorite growing up in church was God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen-and then lo and behold in the Harry Potter world a version of it exists! (Sirius was singing it-Book five).

Jingle Bells lasts forever. It is the one everyone knows and it is very harmless. Anybody can sing it and it is very hard to screw up.  I know it in English, Spanish, and French.

Did you know that it was written for a Thanksgiving program?  It was so popular during the program that they played it again Christmas day.  My favorite version is Dolly Parton's. I mean she makes it sound so freaking happy.  You can be in the worst mood and start singing Jingle Bells her way and all is well again.

I already told you guys my favorite holiday movie is Miracle on 34th street. You have to love the opening scenes with the intoxicated Santa Claus.  Of course right before he passes out, he starts to sing "Jingle Bells."

Wally Schirra and Tom Stoffard played it on the moon, after they told mission control they saw a man in a red suit they didn't recognize.  December 15, 1965-of all the songs to play in space, Jingle Bells won! I have seen the harmonica and bells in the Air and Space museum, so I know it is true!

My Jingle Bell timeline:

•  1989-There is this new show on television and some kid named "Bart" whoever that is, starts singing "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg..." during his Christmas show. Ha! Like no one has ever done that before.  I'll bet that show doesn't last.
• 1991-I took an ASL class.  For our final project and party, we had to sign the Jingle Bells song.  Little did I know I was really going to need ASL for my daughter thirteen years later. (Sidenote: before that class, I didn't know that "Bells on bob tails." were bells on a horse. It makes sense, since they are dashing through the snow, on a one horse open sleigh.....)
• 1998-I am teaching Spanish to a behavioral issue class.  All five of the boys love to sing, although their song choices aren't what you would call appropriate for school.  I bring in the jingle bells and they are all singing away in Spanish.  In fact, one of them told me, "No, no, that is not the way you shake the bells.  You need more control."  Then he took the bells and rocked it out.
• 2006-Frances is in a daycare holiday program and her class sings it in Spanish (with my help). At this point we had no formal diagnosis, but she was dancing and shaking the bells while the rest of the class was singing.
• 2007-Kenneth is two and starts singing Jingle Bells in the backseat of the car.  He told me he learned it at school.  I told him no he didn't, because his daycare in Pittsburgh had a "No holiday" policy.  I asked his teacher about it and she said, "Well we do Jingle Bells, nothing is wrong with Jingle Bells."  Silly, silly me.

You can't go wrong with Jingle Bells. You can create world peace with Jingle Bells. I'm surprised Steven Spielberg didn't use it in Close Encounters of the Third Kind......

Day 19: The Nativity Scene

My son was baptized on the fourth Sunday of Advent.  How cool that it is the candle of joy that the baby has arrived!

With the fourth Sunday, all four candles are lit and ready for the big event.  Mary and Joseph are in Bethlehem.  The shepherds have been informed, the three kings are on their way, and next week, we light the white Christ candle!  It sounds a lot like a Nativity scene.

Speaking of Nativity scenes......

I grew up in a Nativity scene house.  We had one that was made out of plaster of paris and I always tried to have Mary ride a sheep instead of a donkey.  It had all the stars of the show in it: Joseph and Mary, the baby Jesus in a manger, The shepherds, the animals, the angels, and all three magi were there.  I loved playing with it.

St. Francis was the first to come up with this in Italy.  He wanted the emphasis to be more on the birth of Jesus and less on the gift giving.  Nice to know this was a problem in the 1200s and humans have always been human. We try to do right, forget why we are doing it, and need reminders. His was a live Nativity with people and animals.  I have never participated in one of these, but I have been to see them and they are impressive.

In my house, I have a Santon set from France my mom sent me. This year I did not put it out.  I remember playing with the one I had growing up in the 70s.  The magi were all painted technicolor pink, purple, and blue.  This one from Provence is very nice and I don't need nor want kids throwing it around.  It's bad enough when the two year old gets a hold of the elf on the shelf and the older two start crying he killed the magic. 

To solve the problem, my mom sent my children a stuffed Nativity scene.  They can throw that Baby Jesus all around the playroom as much as they want.  They can make the baby cry and the sheep say "Baaaaa."  They are learning the story now for later in life.

About the story, I have bad news for people who only go to church once a year (my apologies to anyone who already knew all of this).

• The Magi actually don't get there during the manger scene.  They show up when Jesus is around two.  And no one knows how many were there.  They presented three gifts.  There could have been twenty guys following the star.
• It wasn't necessarily a stable.  The bible says "manger."  The feeding trough could have been in a cave-I got this from my good friend Carrie, who is a Presbyterian minister.
• The angels were more of an army making an announcement, not a church choir.  I don't see them singing, I see them saying, "Go or else!"
• No animals were mentioned either-but the manger implies something was eating out of it.

I don't want to be the Grinch that stole the Nativity, but I used to threaten to my mother that I was going to create two: 1) one that was dark and had a poor little baby in a manger and 2) one with a toddler in the front yard and men show up with gifts he doesn't understand.  I haven't done it yet. 

So why do we put it out if the whole thing isn't true to the Gospels? For the same reason St. Francis did it in the first place. A lot of what is represented in the scene, no matter how and when,  is a reminder to us of all that happened-why we do what we do.  There is a lot of room for creativity and assumption. When I lived in Spain, at Christmas they didn't just put up the Nativity scene-most families I spent time with created the whole city of Bethlehem. 

My mom has branched out a bit since that technicolor 70s Nativity scene.  Now she collects them. She has the one from France, but she has one from Peru, one from Mexico, one I bought in Spain, and various others from other stores that I can't begin to list.  Sometimes I think she needs to be on an intervention show about it. As for my sets, I am going to keep the stuffed Nativity scene out for a while, and keep the French one safe from little hands a few Advents longer. Maybe next year I'll order the Little People one if Fisher Prices still makes it.

I can't wait to see Joseph and Mary go for a ride in a fire truck.....