Day 25: The Word

Happy Holidays!

In addition to being dragged to the Episcopal church every Sunday since I was born,  I went to a Southern Baptist college and was required to take religion courses.   I am most comfortable in the Episcopal church, but I can worship anywhere.  I even went to a Bahai faith center once...long story. I know my Nativity stories-my children know the stories.  They know there is more to it than Santa Coming down the chimney and leaving presents under a tree covered in glass orbs.

This year I went to three different Christmas services and heard three completely different men give three completely different sermons. Awesome work done by all three, but next year I need to work a "Woman preacher" in there somewhere....

Until this Christmas I had always known of two Nativity gospel stories: Luke's Shepherds and Matthew's Wise men (or Kings, or Magi, whatever you are comfortable with). I had never thought of John as having a Christmas story-but he does. And now it is my favorite.

It isn't Christmas Pageant worthy, but it gets to the point which is perfect for people that don't need a lot of fluff:


And the Word became flesh and lived among us...

Wow- I grew up in the church and not until this year did I know that was the birth of Jesus...that makes it Christmas and Nativity worthy.


Because I grew up Southern, when I hear "THE WORD!"  I think of preachers in courtyards screaming. I also remember making the mistake of trying to discuss the Bible with a friend-I said that the story of Cain and Abel was written for a shepherding community so of course God wanted a lamb sacrifice. That friend said, "No, it is just THE WORD."  OK then....stick to what you are wearing to the dance for topics of conversation with her from now on.

On this Christmas day, I think that maybe the word can just be the word.....

Now when I think of words among us, I think about how quickly and instantly we can give and receive them.   Every mother of  a child that doesn't hear a word or two by the time the child is eighteen months better freak out.  We put words in our status updates, tweets, and blogs. People read these and can even comment back-words were given to us and we are supposed to SHARE.  That is why so many people are drawn to writing and reading.

Maybe?

Words and the word really are one of our most powerful gifts. What we say to our family, friends, colleagues, children...it's how we live and interact together. A week ago tomorrow I spent time with a very old and good friend who always told us what her vision was and she got where she wanted to be.  She told me the other night, "No Ma'am, we don't behave that way.  At the end of the day, you need to know you have always spoken and acted like a lady."  I wish she had had that talk with me a year ago...or twenty years ago....oh well, I'm past Advent, so from now on...

I'll keep blogging and using my gift for words.  I'll keep telling you about my life as I live and lived it. There are hundreds of thousands of other blogs and bloggers out there and if my words aren't the ones for you- you will find others.

But today the word became flesh and lived among us....

So you can tell your stories on the mountain...

Day 24: Arrivals...

As my little Sister says, "Wowsa!"

I created 24 Advent posts again.  I only cheated twice and they were technically Advent posts-I didn't say I'd write a novel a day. :0)


This year I was a little deeper than I was last year about the whole thing.  Weird, because I just write what I'm thinking.  I don't consider myself a writer, my friends laugh that reading my blog isn't any different than hearing my voice.  So blogging to me is just more talking.

At the top of my Advent blog I put a few definitions I found for Advent.  The one jumping out at me right now is arrival. This may be obvious, but in order to arrive, you have to have been somewhere else. 

I could take this a hundred and one different ways.


I was in high school and went to college?
I was a quiet little freshman that studied abroad in South America and found a loud voice?
I had one baby girl and now I have her and her two brothers?
I heard about this Facebook thing when I left North Carolina for Pittsburgh...joined it because I was afraid I wouldn't make new friends....now I am blogging and have quite a few friends all over the world?
I grew up in North Carolina and now I consider myself a small town New Englander?


 So yes, in this lifetime, I have arrived a couple of times and I'm going to arrive again and again. You can always arrive... YOU WILL ALWAYS ARRIVE....


We are always on the Advent of something....the right things to do and say come to you, as do the right people.


Think about this arrival tonight:

And know what tomorrow brings!

Christmas in Old Salem.....

Day 23: A day with my Grandparents

On August 4th I took all three of my children to visit my grandparents.  They rode in a wagon up and down the halls and sang songs and quoted Bible verses and showed off very well...:0)  That was the day I got my sanity back and I'll never forget it.

But today, I went to my grandparent's nursing home without my children.  I had never been there without them and my grandmother has early stages of Alzheimer's.  I was terrified she would ask for the children over and over again.

I got there and my grandparents were happy to see me, and they showed me things that I had seen a hundred times before, in this condo and in their home. We went through all the pictures on my iPhone-thank goodness I snap all kinds of pictures on that thing. They saw dance recitals and soccer camps. They saw all the snap shots of the Christmas pageant and the videos of every time Frances sang in the choir.  They saw the Halloween costumes and still don't believe that the Gozzi Turkey farm turkeys exist.

My grandparents took me to their dining room-very much like a country club, and I was able to eat a wonderful lunch.  I didn't have to worry about my three children not minding their manners or running down hallways or bumping into people on walkers.  My grandfather is hell on wheels on his scooter-it reminded me of racing him on the shore of Emerald Isle when I was five.


This might be the very last "Christmas Present" that I get with my grandparents.  I was where I needed to be.  I needed to have an uninterrupted conversation with both of them.  This Christmas was a gift and I will embrace it. I could talk freely without worrying about my children stepping on an oxygen tank tube or throwing a baseball out the front window.

They may be here this summer to race my children down the hallways and if they are I will praise God and the universe for that gift for my babies.

Today, I had a small gift of time with my grandparents, just for me.

Day 22: The Santaland Diaries

Well, I went to the theater tonight-any guesses on what I saw?

The Nutcracker?  A Christmas Carol?  A  re-telling of the Nativity put on by a Mega church?

Oh hell, why keep you guys in suspense....

I saw The Santaland Diaries by the brilliant, witty David Sedaris.

David Sedaris is one of those writers you can use to divide your friends into categories.  If you say "David Sedaris" and someone smiles, they are on the good list.  If you say "David Sedaris" and get a blank look, either tell that friend you are busy or loan them a copy of Naked.

The play is a one man show with no intermission. Anyone who can keep an audience going by themselves deserves a nice little shout out no matter what season of the liturgical calendar: Lent, Epiphany, Easter, whatever.  This actor in this play has to wear an elf suit, smoke pot, make a bloody Mary during his break, simulate a child peeing on the audience, and pretend to be Billy Holiday singing Away in a Manger.  So yeah, I'd say he did a great job.

It starts with a man looking for an acting job during the holiday season.  When he doesn't land a role on a soap opera he takes a position as an elf at Macy's in Santaland. His Elf name is "Crumpet."  From there we see the life of a department elf in New York city for the Christmas season.

 A couple of reflections:

1) I am so glad I moved up there, or I don't know if I would have gotten the New Jersey jokes.

2) The elves all have different jobs within the land.  The "OMG!" elf is in charge of the line. The parents freak when they see how long it is.  The Photo elf has to help the kids smile and pose, etc.  The exit elf gets them the hell out of there-his words, not mine.

3) Each Santa has a different personality.  My favorite was the one who takes his character to the next level and really, really thinks they are Santa.  Of course Jerome, the Santa of color, is my second favorite.

4) It's all about the parents-if you wait in line for an hour and your kid refuses to see Santa, um, yeah...you get a little irritated. I never had a problem the years I had newborns sleeping in Santa's lap. I would give anything to go back in time and buy the photo of Frances and Kenneth, ages two and five weeks, screaming bloody murder on the big guy's lap.  This year their father took them, and I was given a picture of Santa with two children all smiles-the only problem is I have three kids instead of two..no worries....one day their little brother will join in, I'm sure. Shout out to their dad for not forcing the issue.

5) I once worked as an elf helper at the Friendly Shopping Center-the next day the Santa was going to be arrested for shop lifting....no kidding.


The coolest thing about the Santaland Diaries is that the play started as an essay on NPR-how many essays spring into plays?  Maybe one of my grocery store diaries will hit Broadway...I won't hold my breath.

Day 21: Hogwarts Year 3

Every time I read the Christmas chapters in book three, I can see the little village covered in snow at Christmas time.  I want to join the crowd at the pub with a warm butter beer or have a snow ball fight on the Hogwarts grounds. I think that living in Guilford and wandering around the town green decorated for the holidays is as close as I am going to get to Hogsmede...

This is my favorite book and movie for several reasons. I love Alfonso Cuaron, the director.  I love the idea of a Patronus-a spell that protects you from complete sadness.  (Mine is a Chow dog).  I love that the trio is now old enough to pick "electives" for their classes.  I love that they are old enough to visit Hogsmede, the all wizarding village.  I love the time turner, I love Aunt Marge blowing up, I love divination, I love the Knight Bus, I love Lupin being a werewolf, I love the Marauder's Map....I love....I love... I love...


I love that Harry has a Godfather!


I didn't pick any of the Godparents for my children lightly.  Not that anyone should do it the Page way, but I asked myself-who would I want to be my family? And I made them God Parents to my children.

Christmas morning Harry wakes up to the Firebolt broomstick gift.  It was an incredible gift for a couple of reasons- 1) It meant a lot to him as a Quidditch player and 2) It was very expensive and very few people spend that kind of money on someone randomly.

It was given without a note and checked for jinxes, but we later find out that good Sirius Black, his Godfather, had done it for him.

Other than your parents, only a Godparent would do something like that.  How do I know?  I know because Frances' Godmother finds ways to send her gifts from all of her travels-London, Greece, Italy. And Kenneth's Godparents drove eleven hours to get here for Thanksgiving. Lowell's Godfather, one of my favorite cousins,  shares my taste in music and movies, because I gave it to him when he was ten...

That Firebolt was Harry's first real "commercial" gift.  He had been given crap by the Dursleys and loving hand made gifts from Mrs. Weasley, but this time someone that loved him very much gave him a gift he knew that Harry would love very much. There are times when we spend money on the right things and they are loved and appreciated by the right people. When that extra special gift arrives, it makes the season and the Advent wait that much more powerful.  How long did Harry have to wait for someone that close to arrive in his life?

Everything in book three points toward love, compassion, and help when it's needed...that includes a Godfather's Christmas gift...

When I have to buy an extra special gift for an extra special person, I remember Sirius giving Harry the Firebolt...what a happy thought to produce a beautiful patronus!

Day 20: Time for an old friend...

The other day, I took some time to spend with a very good friend from growing up in Greensboro, NC. Kristen is one of the few that has known me since elementary school, and knowing me in elementary wasn't an easy thing to do....

She is a business owner in Manhattan and I am the mother of three on the Connecticut shoreline.  A few years ago, she called me and said, "I'm coming to Connecticut to get a new kitten, can I spend the day with you and your kids after that?  You guys are hilarious!"  She got to my house around one and didn't head back to the city until well after midnight. During that day she helped me give all three of them dinner and baths, she saw all of my daughter's stuffed animal collections and favorite dresses, and the kids performed their "Tom and Jerry Play" for Mommy's friend Kristen. 

Don't ask-you don't really want to know.

That was March of 2010. Finally, almost two years later,  I was able to find a time to come to her and spend a day in New York!

First, we hit Barneys- I had never been there before!  I promised my daughter I would go to the Lady Gaga workshop. I hope she appreciates that I did.  I did NOT buy my eight year old the fake eye lashes or press on nails.  I also passed on the Lady Gaga Christmas stocking boot. I hope I don't lose cool mommy points over that. I found something appropriate for her, don't worry-she'll be surprised!

As we were leaving we got in an elevator with Mary Tyler Moore!  No kidding-she heard I was going to make it after all........

After that we went to the Museum of Modern Art-despite the fact that I am less than a two hour train ride away, this was my first time there since 1991.  The bad news is I had forgotten how many famous paintings were there, but the good news is:

1) I got to see all the goodies of the art world without chasing children around an art museum and getting dirty looks from other visitors. No brilliantly irreplaceable pieces were smashed that day.  Actually, my children know a lot about artists from their preschool in Pittsburgh-Frances has been using Jackson Pollock as an excuse to throw applesauce in the kitchen for years...


2) The children have not fried my brain so badly I have forgotten who painted a starry night with thick strokes, who melted clocks out of fear of time, and who spent hours and hours painting waterlilies.  I knew the titles, I knew the artists...I still have my cultural literacy...sort of....it just got blended in with the cast of High School Musical.


3) In 1991, Frida Kahlo was not as important to me as she is now. I hadn't lived in Pittsburgh and known the importance of Andy Warhol, I wonder, did he own a Steeler's Jersey?  So like everything else in your life, when you go back and re-visit something, even briefly, you can get something new out of it.


Next up was hot chocolate at the Maison du Chocolat-oh my I can never microwave hot water and mix in Swiss Miss with powder clumps and dehydrated marshmallows as long as I live again!  Yum!!!  It was wonderful to sip sin in a cup while looking up at a stunningly gorgeous Christmas tree.

The rest of the evening was spent as two old friends eating dinner and catching up on Life, The Universe, and Everything.  She introduced me to the root vegetable known as the sunchoke.   When she came to Guilford we had Subway sandwiches....

The best thing about doing New York with a real New Yorker: 1) I know how to aggressively hail my cabs now and 2) Always put your shopping bags inside a neutral colored shopping bag if you are out late at night. 


What a great day....a wonderful gift during the Advent season!