Here is what I've wanted to say but have kept, mostly, to myself. Until now.
What's the big deal? Tomorrow will be the same as today. (my original thought had profanity describing tomorrow...and today but I'm censoring myself) The only difference between 2011 & 2012 is the 2 I have to remember to write after the 201.
Tomorrow I'll try to have a better perspective but for today this is all I've got.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
I am not surprised...but...
We are all home from a couple of days spent with the Bakers in Tahoe. Usually our Tahoe trips at this time of year are full of snowy fun and winter wonderland pictures. Not this year. Mother Nature has not yet blessed the area with the white stuff. What I have realized - again - about my family is that none of us like to be out of our box. We like our own house, our own stuff, our own food, our own beds and, most importantly, our own space.
This is not news. You probably think that everyone likes their own stuff & their own space. That's true but I swear we take it to an unhealthy extreme. My kids love going to Tahoe. They love the cousins. They adore Auntie Dawn. I love Tahoe & the Cousins & Auntie Dawn. But MAN, we don't sleep well, our tummies get weird, we become snappish & irritable. We get disgruntled when the rhythm of our daily routines gets messed with. It didn't help that Jake, Chase, Kaleb, Tate and Tanner all have a cold at some level. But seriously, I worry about our ability to adapt.
Tate turned to the dark side today. Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. Attitude. More grumpiness. We referred to him as "that pouty faced one" when we told a waitress what he wanted for dinner. At that point Tate was pissed off that we were stopping to eat rather than bringing him straight home. Jake was stopping to eat because he could foresee sandwiches for dinner (or cold cereal) because that is what happens when I have reached my breaking point. No sooner than we entered our house, Chloe took a shower, got a DVD and fled to the safety and blessed aloneness of her room. Kaleb took the opportunity to flee the family completely and ran to his safety zone - the Rosengreen's house.
Hopefully everyone will be back to normal tomorrow. At least normal for us. The snappishness and attitude should be toned down & we all will get to eat our normal weird diets. We are a family that values routine and solitude. I just hope that none of us cross the line to crazy because I think that there are times when we are precariously close to it. If you start to notice that we refuse to leave the house even for fun stuff...intervention might be necessary.
For now, I'm going to enjoy the fact that I'm all alone in my living room, with my electronic devices, my weird food and my own pillow.
This is not news. You probably think that everyone likes their own stuff & their own space. That's true but I swear we take it to an unhealthy extreme. My kids love going to Tahoe. They love the cousins. They adore Auntie Dawn. I love Tahoe & the Cousins & Auntie Dawn. But MAN, we don't sleep well, our tummies get weird, we become snappish & irritable. We get disgruntled when the rhythm of our daily routines gets messed with. It didn't help that Jake, Chase, Kaleb, Tate and Tanner all have a cold at some level. But seriously, I worry about our ability to adapt.
Tate turned to the dark side today. Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. Attitude. More grumpiness. We referred to him as "that pouty faced one" when we told a waitress what he wanted for dinner. At that point Tate was pissed off that we were stopping to eat rather than bringing him straight home. Jake was stopping to eat because he could foresee sandwiches for dinner (or cold cereal) because that is what happens when I have reached my breaking point. No sooner than we entered our house, Chloe took a shower, got a DVD and fled to the safety and blessed aloneness of her room. Kaleb took the opportunity to flee the family completely and ran to his safety zone - the Rosengreen's house.
Hopefully everyone will be back to normal tomorrow. At least normal for us. The snappishness and attitude should be toned down & we all will get to eat our normal weird diets. We are a family that values routine and solitude. I just hope that none of us cross the line to crazy because I think that there are times when we are precariously close to it. If you start to notice that we refuse to leave the house even for fun stuff...intervention might be necessary.
For now, I'm going to enjoy the fact that I'm all alone in my living room, with my electronic devices, my weird food and my own pillow.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Christmas
Clearly, I am a horrible blogger. I have all of these things in my head that I want to say and then never quite seem to take the time to put them on "paper". I think that my answer will be the blogger ap on the iphone 4 that I now have but that's a discussion for another day. This post is about Christmas.
Our celebration of Christmas was a little bit dialed back this year. There was less craziness, fewer presents and maybe a little less stress. I actually hand made some gifts so it's a good thing that it is the thought that counts. While it was a bit of struggle to remember to keep the fun, magical part of Christmas alive for the 5 year old, it was also a blessing to have the lil to remind us of that magic. It was our first year with the Elf on the Shelf. Tate was so sad and confused that his friends at school had Elves and he didn't, it was a Must Do. Our Elf, Zip, was not a naughty Elf. Once or twice he knocked a couple of things over when landing but he didn't make messes or do crazy things in the night. He was a well behaved Elf who did his job. He kept watch on the kids to report back to Santa each night as to the Naughty or Nice status. He was a good behavior reinforcer. And Tate was amused daily by his landing spots and yelled more than once "Do NOT touch him! His Magic will wear off!" Along with his Christmas countdown chain, Christmas crafts and projects from school, his Holiday Concert at school, his daily revised Wish List, Zip the Elf and Tate brought the magic of Christmas in to a house full of teens.
Though the gift giving portion of Christmas was more mellow this year than in years past, I think that the kids got most of what they wished for and enjoyed the day. We also were able to gather some goodies and gifts for another family which is always more fun than getting gifts. The middles went and worked at the Auburn Christmas Basket which is a program for families in need. They had fun and, I hope gained a bit of perspective. Of course I had some moments leading up to the big day that were stressful and some times when I wanted to strangle them with my bare hands, but mostly they are great kids who understand that it is more fulfilling to give than to receive.
Christmas Eve was the usual gathering at my parent's house. Friends, family (and anyone who walks in the door) are welcomed and included in the games, laughter, food and gifting. My sister organized a musical number (Silent Night). She played piano, Tanner, Josh & my Dad played guitar, I played flute, Chase accompanied her on the piano, Chloe sang and Kaleb played some percussion. It was lovely and silly at the same time. A little unusual for the night was the fact that we didn't read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible and we didn't have the kids dressed up as the players in that story. There were sick kids and sleeping kids and kids that have gotten a bit big to be cute shepherds. Part of the reason, though, is because we are usually grasping to make sure that the spiritual is not lost in the celebration of the day. This year we did not worry about it because Christmas Day was on a Sunday and we would all be heading to church to celebrate and worship.
I enjoyed the fact that we had church in the middle of the day on Christmas. We were able to wake up and open presents and have breakfast together. Then we put on our church clothes and went to the church building to sit together as a family and be spiritually fed through word and song on the day that we set aside to celebrate the birth of our Saviour. There was no chance of "forgetting" Christ this Christmas because on Sunday we did what we do pretty much every Sunday. We went to church, learned about Him and renewed our covenants. It was a blessing to have Christmas on the Sabbath and I enjoyed it. After church many of us gathered at my house, ate and played games. At the end of the day, we watched The Nativity Story as another reminder of why we were celebrating at all.
"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
There are enough bad tidings of great sorrow. Thankfully, they are all overcome by the good tidings of which the angels spoke and the joy is for all people. I think that we capture a little bit of it on Christmas, glimpse just a teeny bit of the Love as we gather and serve and remember to keep Christ in Christmas. I certainly felt blessed to understand the magnitude of the Gift given to me. Many times over the course of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I also thought to myself how blessed I am in the people who are my friends and family. The trick is to keep feeling that as we head back to "real" life.
Our celebration of Christmas was a little bit dialed back this year. There was less craziness, fewer presents and maybe a little less stress. I actually hand made some gifts so it's a good thing that it is the thought that counts. While it was a bit of struggle to remember to keep the fun, magical part of Christmas alive for the 5 year old, it was also a blessing to have the lil to remind us of that magic. It was our first year with the Elf on the Shelf. Tate was so sad and confused that his friends at school had Elves and he didn't, it was a Must Do. Our Elf, Zip, was not a naughty Elf. Once or twice he knocked a couple of things over when landing but he didn't make messes or do crazy things in the night. He was a well behaved Elf who did his job. He kept watch on the kids to report back to Santa each night as to the Naughty or Nice status. He was a good behavior reinforcer. And Tate was amused daily by his landing spots and yelled more than once "Do NOT touch him! His Magic will wear off!" Along with his Christmas countdown chain, Christmas crafts and projects from school, his Holiday Concert at school, his daily revised Wish List, Zip the Elf and Tate brought the magic of Christmas in to a house full of teens.
Christmas Eve was the usual gathering at my parent's house. Friends, family (and anyone who walks in the door) are welcomed and included in the games, laughter, food and gifting. My sister organized a musical number (Silent Night). She played piano, Tanner, Josh & my Dad played guitar, I played flute, Chase accompanied her on the piano, Chloe sang and Kaleb played some percussion. It was lovely and silly at the same time. A little unusual for the night was the fact that we didn't read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible and we didn't have the kids dressed up as the players in that story. There were sick kids and sleeping kids and kids that have gotten a bit big to be cute shepherds. Part of the reason, though, is because we are usually grasping to make sure that the spiritual is not lost in the celebration of the day. This year we did not worry about it because Christmas Day was on a Sunday and we would all be heading to church to celebrate and worship.
I enjoyed the fact that we had church in the middle of the day on Christmas. We were able to wake up and open presents and have breakfast together. Then we put on our church clothes and went to the church building to sit together as a family and be spiritually fed through word and song on the day that we set aside to celebrate the birth of our Saviour. There was no chance of "forgetting" Christ this Christmas because on Sunday we did what we do pretty much every Sunday. We went to church, learned about Him and renewed our covenants. It was a blessing to have Christmas on the Sabbath and I enjoyed it. After church many of us gathered at my house, ate and played games. At the end of the day, we watched The Nativity Story as another reminder of why we were celebrating at all.
"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
There are enough bad tidings of great sorrow. Thankfully, they are all overcome by the good tidings of which the angels spoke and the joy is for all people. I think that we capture a little bit of it on Christmas, glimpse just a teeny bit of the Love as we gather and serve and remember to keep Christ in Christmas. I certainly felt blessed to understand the magnitude of the Gift given to me. Many times over the course of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I also thought to myself how blessed I am in the people who are my friends and family. The trick is to keep feeling that as we head back to "real" life.
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