72 posts from 2007

Show us your holiday decorations.

So, we have this Santa dilemma…….Santa or no Santa?

Thomas and I both grew up with the belief of Santa. He recalls being devastated when he discovered it was not true. A price tag on a toy was the culprit for breaking his belief. My friend Tina told me. I remember responding to her, assuring Tina that he was real. With absolute certainty, she informed me her mom told her he was not real; that was the nail in the coffin. I knew her mom very well…..she was like my second mother, complete with permission to spank…….If Tina’s mom said there was not Santa, it had to be true. I, unlike Thomas, was not too heartbroken with the idea. Perhaps my circumstances made the impact small. I mean, discovering the incriminating sale sticker on Christmas morning is a bit stronger than a random conversation on the swing set the fall before Christmas.

 I have a friend, Jessica, who never believed in Santa. Her family never celebrated such or even hinted that he might actually deliver gifts on Christmas morn. Instead, her family conducted extravagant scavenger hunts, making each gift hard to find, complete with anticipation on what might be hidden somewhere in the house. She is adamant that her kids will not celebrate Santa Claus.

Thomas suggested that maybe we don’t “do” Santa, and I said it was ok with me. I was not of strong conviction otherwise. Jesus is the real focus of the season, so we could take or leave Santa. I thought that it was not a big deal, until talking with some friends recently. Sarah talked about leaving food for Santa’s hardworking reindeer and milk for the man in the red suit. My friend Tiffany, a 2^nd grade teacher, commented on how it is nice to say “Santa is watching!” in order to get her students to behave. I have to admit, I have fond memories of waking to an empty plate that held cookies only hours before, just wondering when Santa got to eat them, and of course the idea of a behavior modifier- “Santa will not come if you are not good”- might come in handy as Daniel grows! However, I’m not sure.

See, I want Daniel to have the splendor and anticipation of what Santa brings to the season. Yet, neither of us wants to have to keep adjusting the Santa story…..”Well Santa can’t get to all houses in one night, so he asks your mommy and daddy to help out” or “Santa sends out helpers to all the different malls to pose for pictures; he is too busy making your gifts at the North Pole.”

So we want to figure this out. Can we just do the fun festive things, like leaving out cookies and milk and taking cute pictures, without having a full fledge belief? Can we teach Daniel about the real St. Nick and remember all the goodness he stood for without perpetuating a false person and idea? And…..can we let our son know that all the current details of Santa are not true, but still keep him from perhaps crushing the beliefs of other kids? 

Whatever the choice, at least we have until next Christmas to truly decide, even though it will be our son’s 3rd holiday. The first one he was a little lump; this one, he just does not understand; but next year, he can/will know. We just have to decide what we will tell him.

Daniel decided to ham it up for the camera today............

Don't get me wrong, I totally love the holidays. Recently, however, I have noticed a major trend......FORGETTING THANKSGIVING! Seriously, this is a very valid holiday, and it should not be over looked simply because Christmas is right at a month away. My mom, who celebrates a birthday on the 25th of this month, always insists that no Christmas lights should be donned before she celebrates her birth. I use to think she was being a bit over-reactive to this fact, but now I will have to change my views. I concur: No Christmas lights before my mom's birthday. This decree is not due to hating Christmas, but it is a necessary fact due to people not paying any respect to a holiday of thankfulness. Here is what has spawned such thoughts:

So I am getting ready for Thanksgiving, knowing that I have foods to make and bags to pack. I am best at making sweets, hence this is the type of food I typically bring to the holiday meal (plus I enjoy licking the bowls). Knowing that I wanted to make some Oreo Balls (especailly being that I have some of the needed items left over from Daniel's party). I thought to myself: "It would be great to have a festive fall storage container for these yummy goddies." Alright, I may not have thought exactly that, but it was something of the sort. Anyway, this sounded to me like a simple request that could and should be remedied easily.

Off I go to Wal-Mart........no such luck. CVS........nope. Dollar General........not yet. Hobby Lobby--- for pete's sake---.........zilch.

Now, I am not being picky here. Granted, I did have a item in mind, but I would have taken anything fall-ish. The more I looked, the more I was just hoping for something that was not red with candy canes or green with Santa. The store employees all had the same response: "Sorry, but all of our Fall items are gone; we only have out Christams items."

Are we in such a hurry for Christmas that we have totally cleared out Thanksgiving? I know folks just stuff themselves full of Thanksgiving food, knowing that they can go shopping in less than 24 hours and start the Christmas shopping season, entering into stores filled with Christmas ornaments, playing Christmas music. In fact, I heard way too much Christmas music while in serach of my container. I know there are not exactly many Thanksgiving songs, but can't stores wait another 3 days to play it all......LET US CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING FIRST.

Dollar Tree.......I found something. Granted, it was not a fall item. It was only a golden Christmas container, but it had more of a bronze look to it, constituting it as a fall color in my book. It was surrounded by red tins with Frosty on them.

So rise up supporters of Thanksgiving! Refuse to set up your Christams tree yet. Do not display your lights or hang your stockings from the chimney with care! Celebrate the season of Thankfulness, giving time to reflect on all the blessing you have. Praise God for a healthy family, a job that pays, freedom of speech, E-bay, for goodness sake.......just find something to be thankful for! Then, in a few days, you can put big, blow-up, moving Santa displays in your front yard, causing my mind to think that Father Christams took a barf on your grass (you know the kind of homes I am referring to here).

OK, I am done with my rant.

Happy Thanksgiving to all......and to all a good night :o).

It is so hard to believe that just a year ago we were welcoming our new addition into our lives. Literally, I feel like we have blinked, and now we are celebrating his first birthday. Crazy!

Those of you that know me well, you  know that I love hosting parties and having company, so planning a party for Daniel was pleasure....seriously. I was so excited about it, that you might have thought it was my birthday. Anyway, we tried to keep it small, but then when you invite family, neighbors, and a few friends, it turns out to be a big crowd. There were about 25 bodies in our home, and not everyone made it! (Of course, some of those bodies were little bodies, but they were bodies none the less.) As my father-in-law honestly said while on a phone call "It is chaos in here." Although that might have been true, it did not mean that it was not fun :o).

We tried to go through the birthday process quickly, being that there were many people, some of which traveled a few hours for the party. Everyone was welcome to eat upon arrival.I had made pigs in a blanket, a vegetable tray, cupcakes, Oreo balls (a big hit), and chips and salsa.

Daniel opened up gifts first since we thought he might get messy from the cake. He received great presents--clothes and toys--and I was glad to say we

did not get any obnoxious gifts. Anything that made sound could be turned off and nothing was too big or crazy. Daniel's favorite gift had to be his activity table. Thomas and I had been looking for one for awhile. Every time we went to a friend's house with kids, they happened to have one, and Daniel simply loved playing with it. I price checked, and they were pretty expensive! However, being that my sister-in-law, Michelle, works at a child's consignment store, she managed to find one cheap, even before applying her store discount. She actually gave it to us early to transport home. We hid it in our closet because Thomas was pretty adamant about not letting Daniel play with it before his birthday. Daniel, however, had different plans. He found it in our closet one afternoon and began to play to his heart's content. I noticed that life was a little quite, and I knew that my son had to be into something. I hunted him down and took him away from the toy. He remembered where it was though! About three more times Daniel sneaked back into our closet to play. We even put a box in front of it, but I still caught him crawling around the box in search of the toy. Needless to say, he was pleased to get it at his party and it is the first toy he plays with when he wakes up and the last toy he plays with before bed. On the left side of the picture, you can see one of mommy and daddy's favorite gifts.....a car seat! Thomas's parents and grandparents got this gift for us, and we are very pleased. Soon, Daniel will be able to ride facing the front, which requires a new seat, and now that we have this gift, we do not have to buy one!

After gifts, we hit the cake. Guests were already eating cup cakes that I made, as well as some my mother baked. I made Daniel his own little cake, which turned out quite nicely, if I may say so myself. It was fun to hear everyone sing. It was funny though because one of Daniel's best buddies is named Daniel, and he is over 2 years old, so he is well aware of his name. Our friends' son got very excited when everyone said his name! He was a little confused though as to why. I actually had to blow out the candle for Daniel. Or nephew, Ryan, blew out his own candle at his first birthday. Our son might have been able to pull it off, but not without grabbing the flame, so we just took care of it for him.

Once the cake was his to eat, Daniel was a little confused as to how to get into it or if he should even eat it at all. I had to somewhat break the cake open and let Daniel taste the chocolate goodness.

Soon enough though, Daniel knew this was something he wanted more of, and he took matters into his own hand (literally). He was gabbing and shoving chocolate cake into his little mouth. We let him have some fun with it; he surely knew he was getting away with something that he would not get to do again. From the highchair, we took Daniel straight to the bath. (He looks like he has a goatee, albeit a chocolate goatee)
Overall, it was a wonderful day. I am so thankful for all our friends and family that came out to celebrate, as well as all those who could not make it but sent their love. It is great to know that we are so loved, but so is our son. He has grown so big in one year: from a little lump to a dancing and crawling maniac. Soon he will be walking and talking in sentences and asking Dad for money to take a girl out on a date! Yikes!!! I pray that we are able to celebrate many many many many more birthdays with out son.
 

How are you celebrating Halloween today?

Although Daniel only attends school on Tuesday/Thursday, he was invited to attend the "Spook Parade" today.

"Spook Parade"

His baby and toddler friends, along with teacher and parents, filed through campus collecting candy, along with other goodies. The little man racked up! From juice boxes to mini Oreos, his plastic bag was full. Being that he can't walk yet, Daniel took the trek in the buggy.The poor little guy had to participate in this event during what would normally be his nap time, so he was a little less than thrilled  (note the facial expression in the photo to the left). His ghost costume is compliments of my mom and her Cracker Barrel sales rack.

I suggested to my mom that she drive up and go to our Halloween outings

with us, and she took me up on the offer. She appeared at our house as a chef. The hat gave Daniel some good laughs. We--me, mom, baby, and husband--headed to "Trick-or-Trunk" on the college campus. Daniel enjoyed picking up a tiny piece of candy out of the big buckets and trunks of goodies. He would always pull one out, attempting to directly give it back to the people that just gave it to him. Of course, this made him even cuter. I like how Grandma and Grandson resemble one another in the picture to the right.

As if this did not contribute to enough for one day, we headed to our church's activities. Their events were based in a 50s theme, so we all decided to dress the part. The ghost costume came off and a greaser baby was revealed, complete with a "V" letter jacket! All of our clothing was already in our closets, so this provided for cheap costumes. It is amazing how you can pull something off on a whim and look so great :o)

The church provided all kinds of treats: moonpies, cokes, corn dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, cracker jacks, candy, snowcones, hot chocolate, and some other items that I can't recall at the moment. Needless to say, I feel the need to go for a run...or two....or three tomorrow.

We finally got home and got the baby in bed, told mom goodbye, and began to wind ourselves down for the night by going through Daniel's candy, separating out what we wanted to keep and what we wanted to give away. The plan was to take the unwanted candy to work tomorrow. I figured I would offer it to my students.....as they left my classroom, of course. We, however, had several Trick-or-Treaters, and they received the big pile of candy, instead of my students. Eventually we just turned off our front porch light, being that we were running really low on treats. I mean, you can't blame us for wanting to keep the few Kit-Kats that we had left :o)

Hopefully the day has been fun and safe for you all.

Thomas requested I post this commercial to the blog. We envision our little Daniel dancing like this one day with his little first grade buddies. Thomas thinks Daniel will resemble the third boy to enter the scene. I simply love the part at the end where the three boys dance away!

In keeping with my promise to blog more than once a month, I am deciding to post about this idea and help to get the word out about the project.

"Let's Say Thanks" is a project sponsored by Xerox in order to show support for our deployed soldiers. All you have to do is go to the website, select a card image, and choose or write some words of appreciation. Xerox will then print the card you create and send it to the US troops.

It is that simple. I have already sent one a few moments ago. I applied the pre-written encouragement, complete with the above design for my card.  I will, however, be sending another one, applying my own words and prayers. I will most likely choose the design below, being that it had a strong impact on me while viewing the other kiddie artwork.

If you've got a moment, send out a card of your own from the site. Seriously, it only takes a second, and I know that it will impact our brave soldiers.

I totally think about blogging all the time. As you can see from the big time span between posts, I actually blog much less frequently. Hmmm. I will try to be better about that. You see, I just keep busy. Baby aside, it is just that we are at that stage in our lives where people are getting married, having babies, and all that other type of stuff so frequently, every weekend is full of something. Often, we find ourselves "double booked" and we can't make it all. This weekend serves as a prime example. An old friend, Scholes, was getting married, but I was throwing a house warming party for another friend, Tiffany. I thought that making both might be possible, but upon reflection (totally forgot about a time zone change between the two events) I knew that I would have to miss the wedding. I would, however, choose busy over bored any day.

Keeping on the same line of thought, here are some things that I (we) have been doing lately to stay busy:

My cousin, Leitte, is getting married to Jason. The two had a Tailgate

Party/Shower which was really fun! I totally love when people have themes and the theme is everywhere. This party- from the very cute homemade invitations to the football field cake- was following the "game day" theme.

Being that the celebration was after the big UT win over GA, the guests were pumped. To the right

is a picture of me with some of my cousins. Yes, yes....I am the dork that wore USC clothing over UT apparel. However, at least my son was rooting for the Vols.To make up for his mommy and daddy's lack of orange, Daniel held a pom-pom most of the night, shaking it and chanting baby-ese to all the other guests. If I may say so myself.....my son is so darn cute!

We also took part in some homecoming activities from our alma mater. We watched a parade, socialized with old friends, ate free food, and had a good time. Daniel, as always, went with the flow and enjoyed the day as well. We are so blessed to have such an agreeable child. This is definitely his father's side of the family coming out in him! One of the highlights, for me at least, was the alumni speech breakfast. At the risk of making myself appear as a big dork,

I was the President of the alumni association of Pi Kappa Delta--the forensic team. I participated in college and really took a liking to it. Besides from providing me with scholarship money (big plus), it also augmented my speaking skills, built relationships, and helped me network with some intelligent people. I ended up being state champion in Impromptu! I have taken this ability to b.s. on the spot with me beyond college. Anyway, that was a bit of a side note, albeit a good one. Jonathan, Jeff, and I took a picture with Dr. Kash, our fearless leader. He is the one in the picture that looks like he might have a Ph.D. in folklore. I am  sure it was an easy task to pick him out. He is a larger than life type person and if I were to describe him to you, you would think I was making him up, that he was some character in a movie I saw; however, regardless of his idiosyncrasies, he is a person with a good heart--metaphorically of course. He may have a good heart literally, but I am not sure of such: :o)

Daniel's Tuesday Thursday school had some dress-up days, one of which was "Crazy Hair Day." With the help of some of my mousse, we spiked out the boy's hair and took him to school. They said that after his morning nap it fell flat, but at least he was able to be crazy for a little while.

Contrary to what you might think, I was not taking part in crazy hair day. My hair always looks this out of control :o). Matter of fact, this is a "good hair day," being that I was about to go and teach, I tried to look decent. We were worried about Daniel's hair before he was born. See, my hair is curly, and at one point, was really red as well. Thomas has a cow lick, a widow's peak, and two crowns on top of his head.This fighting crown scenario often erupts in an Alfalfa point. Imagine all those forces combining on one tiny little head--- red, curly, cow licked, Alfalfa point hair. Luckily, God was kind to our child and gave him the recessive genes.

Among other things, Daniel is becoming a regular mover and shaker. It is amazing to see a baby that was a little lump of life just under a year ago walking across the room with the help of a walking toy. He can get into most everything and he is very curious. He does, however, seem to be learning the concepts of "no." I am amazed to see him stop crawling towards something

that he is not suppose to play with when I tell him not to do so. He will sometimes cry about it, and I have to remind him that I am not mad at him. The teachers at school call him "sensitive." If babies around him cry, he will too; fortunately, things also work the other way. If the other kids are happy, Daniel becomes the happiest in the bunch. It is so great to see him interacting with the other babies two days a week. It makes him smile, as well as me. He also loves to play with his Daddy's guitar, and if Thomas is playing it, Daniel wants to be right in the midst. Thomas says he is a natural at muting :o)
 

Our son has finally cut 3 teeth, which have been a long time coming. He, at one point, ran a 102.9 while visiting my in-laws. This had us worried, but we were told just to wait until the next day; they were sure it would come down. The nurse on call was correct, but we stayed worried until the fever finally broke. After the weekend of high temps, his two top teeth were finally through the skin.

I tried to get a picture of these teeth, but the baby did not cooperate too well. Trust me though, they are there, along with little white nubs where more are making their way through the gum. Doesn't that sound lovely?

So, there you have it: an updated report of what we have been doing. There are many more items of interest, but as the title suggests, we are keeping busy, so there is not too much free time to compose the posts. Also, Daniel loves to touch the keyboard, so nap times are best blogging times, but they are also the best times to wash dishes, fold clothes, evaluate student papers, and other such things. I think you get my drift. I will try to be better though. Hopefully I can make a blog appearance more than just once a month! So, until I post again: Enjoy!