Christmas Eve, 2013

On Christmas Eve we met up with my family to have lunch at my mom's.  Being with family was the best medicine for the holidays. I love them more than words can say.  

The trio had fun at the kids' table.  

And, of course, they received way too many presents. (Thanks! Y'all are much too generous!)

Afterward, we went to Skip's parents for dinner. We tried to capture the trio in front of the tree shot, but this was the best we could do.

We had a wonderful time, and the trio talked Gran and Poppa into opening one present as a preview.

We got home in time to launch into Santa preparations.  First, we decorated a gingerbread house.

Next, we left food for the reindeer.  The duo left oats and carrots, and William George brought out the extra Fruit Loops because who doesn't like Fruit Loops?

Finally, we quickly changed into pajamas, had a reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and turned in just before hearing the first twinkling of bells from Santa's sleigh.  Lauren is a stickler for the rules, and she makes sure our house isn't overlooked if anyone is still up when Santa arrives.

Daily Photo

True Meaning

"It is all most Chirstmas Day. Well it is december 22.  i have a counting chart. it counts all the way to 24. the 24 is Chirstmas Evv. the 25 is Chirstmas day. Chirstmas day is about Jesus getting born in bethan. So its important to pray and read the BiBle. God gave to us a spashal gift to us."

-from one of Lauren's many writings.

Christmas Cooking

The duo have a holiday tradition of helping make mashed potatoes. With some assistance from Skip, they lend some assistance adding buttermilk and butter.

William George, on the other hand, isn't one for tradition yet. He prefers to lounge while the kitchen is in use.

Our Christmas updates are quite late (even by my rather lax scheduling), but more to come soon.

Friday's Quote

...Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity.

-Martin Luther King Jr.

Daily Photo

This photo of Grace was taken back in the fall, when things were warmer and sunnier. Her cheery smile chases away any rainy-day-blah feelings.

Santa and His Elves

This year we were quite late getting around to the business of seeing Santa. I'm going to come clean  and confess that we finally made the trek to see Santa on the 22nd. Our favorite elf, Zippy, came to see us at about that time as well, after we remembered to try out our new Santa Stop ornament from Hallmark (thanks, Grammie!). Zippy appeared immediately after we utilized our magical lantern. 

Zippy's usual hijinks ensued. 

Finding Zippy in his many different hiding places became a morning ritual...

 

...along with cleaning up his mischief. 

We were sad to say goodbye to Zippy again this year, but will welcome him back again next December. 

Christmas Parties

As school was winding down prior to Christmas break, the first grade class had a Whoobilation.  Loosely translated, that means they had pajama day and watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Of course, William George insisted on a pajama day, too. We looked a little crazy running errands that day and found ourselves explaining to any interested parties that he was participating in his sisters' pajama day... thus the jammies at Target. 

In addition to the super fun Whoobilation, the trio also had school parties. We were one-for-three on the party situation. William George was a little feverish on the day of his party, and Lauren awoke on the day of her party with a red and swollen eye. She has recurrent eye infections resulting from an inability to stop scratching and touching her eyes. As a result, she has some recurrent irritation... so much so that I have a stash of eye drops from her pediatrician, one for pink eye and one for infection. Our protocol is to rule out pink eye first and then treat for infection.  So... she had to miss her party while we were ruling out pink eye.

Grace, on the other hand, happily attended her party.  She celebrated by having decadent treats (her class's room mom went all out!) and hot chocolate. 

Afterward, she checked out, and we kicked off our Christmas break!

The Christmas Arts

December was full of artistic activity. In addition to ballet, the duo had a choral performance at school...

and the elementary choir performed at church...

Grammie enjoyed the show...

...as did Poppa (Gran was sick and unable to attend)...

We also had a girls' afternoon out wherein we caught a showing of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" at our local Children's Theatre. 

 

The duo really enjoyed their many opportunities to sing and dance, but especially enjoyed watching the actors at the theatre. 

Friday's quote

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. 

--Benjamin Franklin

Ballet Exhibition

When our dance class concluded for the holiday break, parents were treated to a mini-recital, or as I have taken to calling it, a ballet exhibition. 

I was especially excited about this year's exhibition because a tap number would be involved.  Honestly, getting a group of 12 seven year old's out of ballet slippers and into tap shoes is an impressive feat in an of itself. 

But there was dancing as well! I should mention that we took the month of November off from dance class and had only gone through the routine once or twice prior to performing.  Still, they are cute as bugs. 



Ballet Exhibition 12-16-13 from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

The Sugar Bowl

William George is supporting his team and sending out a hearty "Roll Tide" to those who are watching the Sugar Bowl.... and even to those who are not. 

The North Pole

Back at the beginning of December, we took a quick trip to the North Pole. When we purchased our tickets in July, we had no idea the weather forecast would involve a 100% chance of rain on the night our travel was scheduled.  I suppose the North Pole is experiencing global warning because we were doused with rain instead of snow. 

To make things more interesting, the train had some mechanical issues, and we were given the option of accepting a refund or waiting an hour (in the rain) for repairs.  Needless to say, we were good and soaked by the time we boarded the magical train and embarked on our trip to see Santa. 

The duo have cute pajamas and cute raincoats, but they do not necessarily work together.  When facing a colossal downpour in the cold, we prioritized function over style.
 

As for me, I was glad to have Skip's raincoat with a hood (instead of my nicer, dressier one without a hood).

William George, who loves trains, was just happy to be aboard and in motion.  "Is it raining? Who cares?! We're on a train!!!"

No one can say travel to the North Pole is easy, but once we saw Santa, the trip was worth any inconvenience. 

12-27

Today is my birthday, and therefore, a fitting day to resurface.  There are lots of pictures to post from the month of December, but since today is my official lazy day, I have been indulging in all sorts of activities... like watching last year's Kennedy Center Honors and the various covers of Led Zeppelin songs.  The finale, "Stairway To Heaven," is a particularly moving rendition: 





At the 3:30 point, at the beginning of Page's legendary solo, Plant can be observed telling Page, "Not too bad." Watching the band's reaction is as good as the performance itself.

If you are also having a lazy day, you can watch the full set here.
 

Friday's Quote

Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. 

Psalm 112:4

Many Thanks

Please accept my note of thanks for the many kindnesses shown to our family over the last several weeks.  We are deeply humbled by the attendance at my father's memorial service, the cards, e-mails, flowers, offers of meals, so many kind and thoughtful words, and your many prayers. We cannot thank you enough, and you will never know how much strength has been drawn from those kind gestures. For our dear readers that we may not know as well personally, thank you for thinking of us.

Our faith provides significant comfort, and we believe Dad is in a better place. He has been relieved of his duties here and is now beginning a life of eternity, where he has no more pain, discomfort - no limitations of any kind. That last sentence cannot be overstated, and the magnitude of that concept could be discussed forever. I know these things on a cognitive level, and yet the loss is hard to accept. Last month, when Skip tracked me down to tell me the news in person, he said quickly but as gently as possible, "It's your Dad...he's passed away." In the three or four weeks since then, those two short sentences have played through my mind a dozen or more times each day, despite my best efforts to not hear them again. Acceptance is hard. Thanksgiving was hard. Christmas is hard. 

Gratitude helps to quiet those two sentences. I'm forever grateful to have parents who provided a loving home and had a successful marriage for 32 years. I'm grateful for summers spent playing outside and for winters spent playing board games. I am thankful for endless words of encouragement, motivation and reassurance. In recent years, my dad concluded many of our conversations with a recurrent message: Keep doing what you're doing.

I am thankful for pitch-perfect encouragement. 

Friday's Quote

While vanity clouds my eyes and burdens my heart, gratitude clears my vision and lightens my load.

-Dr. John White

Friday's Quote

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  

-The Apostle Paul

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

A Devastating Loss

I am deeply saddened to write about the passing of my father last week.

My Dad was a wonderful man. Above anything else, he was Christ-centered, humble, and wise. He had the wisdom one acquires from spending copious amounts of time studying the Bible.  He was also a great Dad. He coached little league sports for years, attended all of our activities, and I often joke that if I had entered a staring contest, he would have attended each and every single match - literally. He was there for everything.  No matter what the event.

While I would love to do a full obituary/memorial at some point, it's hard to come here to this page especially, because my Dad was my most loyal reader.  When I first started posting photos of the girls almost six years ago, he was the one who would ask for more. "When are you going to update?" he would ask. "I keep looking on there every day," he would say.  I went from posting once or twice a month to once or twice a week, and he would still ask about increased frequency.  He read every day, and during our visits he would tell us and the trio everything on the blog since the last interval. He asked about everything! I was initially surprised (Dad's online activities just barely extend  beyond e-mail), but I shouldn't have been because he had watched gymnastics, cheering and piano performances... If we participated, he was there. Naturally, out of love, he came here to my blog to see his grandchildren daily. He even visited this site during his last morning, on November 7th. This site has been our family scrapbook (with a huge dose of minutia thrown in for fun), and I always knew my Dad was "in the stands" reading, watching and looking for more. He probably could have done without the fashion and pop culture posts, but he devoured updates on our family. My dad has 8 grandchildren, and my stepmother has another 14, at times creating many demands and a very busy schedule. These posts were a way to keep him updated, and I loved that he read it all. Writing when I know he won't be reading is hard, lonely and heart-breaking.

His words are equally precious to me. I have re-read our e-mail communication over the past several years, thankful for every word and every opportunity taken to express love, pride and joy.  I have read every highlighted passage in his Bible and his handwritten notes. He was unassuming and sometimes quiet, and I am desperate for insight into his notes about spirituality, life and how to live.  Although he instilled his values in us, I know there is so much more to be learned.

Dad, we miss you, we love you, and we cannot wait to see you again.

Prolific Writers

We have entered the phase where the duo's reading and writing skills are taking off. That means anything and everything becomes a book-worthy prospect.

If they study flowers at school, we suddenly have books written about different types of flowers. Grace saw an eagle in flight this past weekend, and they have now written books about both eagles and birdwatching.  Gracie even wanted to add a bird whistle to her Christmas list until we told her there were apps she could use in lieu of an actual whistle. Whew. She was relieved not to use one of her toy requests for a necessity like a birdwatching tool.

William George, on the other hand, continues to specialize in demolition, although he will request a pen and paper to "do his homework" and trace your hand. Were you to visit, he would quickly say, "Put you hand down," as he taps his paper.

The trio work really well together until George attempts to add his own writings to their hand-crafted books, as the duo are not big on collaboration.  They prefer to work alone.

Enumerated Update

Happy Monday, friends.  (Note the lack of exclamation point.) We have had a long weekend, and the time change has kind of thrown us.  Although we were promised an extra hour, that type of thing never works out, meaning I stayed up late reading and then was really not surprised to hear the duo's feet hit the floor at 6:36am Sunday morning. 

Also, we had a major life fail Sunday afternoon at approximately 5:00pm. We have wonderful neighbors, and we recently caught up with them. They mentioned stopping by sometime, and we gave her my mobile number.  So yesterday after the duo had gotten out ALL of the arts and craft supplies and strewn them all over the kitchen and after George had gotten out all of his toys in the keeping room and after many of the toys spilled into the family room... basically after an explosion of toys and art supplies happened in the downstairs area, there was a knock at the door... So that happened. 

Other than that, here's where we are:

1) Personality Test: These tests always get me, and the test matching your personality to a state is no different.  This test was particularly interesting because it's the first time I haven't scored "off the charts" as an introvert.  Also, the test says I'm not as forgiving as I would have thought.  Huh.  In sum, my personality is that of a Coloradoan, although I'm still not sure what that means. 

Do you take these types of tests, or do they seem a little hippy-dippy-do to you?

2) The Beatles: This weekend we were listening to iTunes radio, and the Abbey Road album cover was on the screen. Lauren was looking at it, and when she asked about the group, Skip told her The Beatles are my favorite band.  I'm always hesitant to name an absolute favorite, but yes, I told her, "They are probably my favorite. They're the best." (Specifically, in order of favorites: John (of course), George, Ringo and..... as a distant fourth.... Paul.)  I'm not one of those fans who questioned their live abilities, having read some biographic material about them early on. They honed their craft as a live band, and the studio was simply secondary. In fact, their studio recordings are some lowest quality ever made so I'm not sure to what critics were referring when they claimed they employed studio trickery to capture their sound. This recent article supports their skill as a live act. 

3) Ray Bradbury: We all know Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was written in 9 days, but I didn't know it was written in the basement of the Lawrence Clark Powell Library at UCLA.  He heard typing sounds coming from the basement, went downstairs, and found machines that could be rented for $.10 per half hour. 

As the LA Times explains:

So he went to the bank and returned with a bag of dimes. He plugged a dime into the machine, typed fast for 30 minutes, and then dropped another. When he took breaks, he went upstairs to the library, soaking in a book-loving ambiance he was making forbidden in the fiction he was writing below. He took books off the shelves, finding quotes, then ran downstairs to write some more.  Nine days -- and $9.80 in dimes later -- he'd written "Fahrenheit 451."

4) Cast Iron: We love cooking with cast iron, but are always perplexed by the clean up process.  Here's how to do it properly (via DesignSponge):



5) New York subway sign experiment: "In New York City, subway conductors have to point at a black and white sign. At every hour of the day. At every stop. They do this to show that they've fully arrived on the platform. We decided to show our appreciation for their work." —Yosef Lerner."


6) PSA: Finally, as a public service announcement, Nordstrom's semi-annual sale starts November 6th. 

That's what is happening with us. What is going on with you on this beatific fall day?

All Hallows' Eve

We hope you had a wonderful Halloween, either trick-or-treating with family, going to parties, passing out candy to visitors or just relaxing and enjoying a night at home. Rain threatened to dampen (sorry) most of our Halloween plans, but social media evidences that we all persevered.  And for those who curled up at home? The rain probably made that experience seem even cozier.

As for us, our Plan A was to trick-or-treat the neighborhood.  Plan B, in the event of rain, was to attend our church's trunk-or-treat festivities which were being moved indoors due to the weather.  We love our church's Halloween activities, and so does the rest of the community.  Our church routinely has 3,000+ visitors for its Harvest Hoedown, making it a huge success.  William George, however, is not keen on the bounce house experience, particularly with 3,000 of his closest friends.   Also, we like to kick it old school.  Here's how the past few days went down:

 

Our Halloween 2013 featured Lalaloopsy (Grace), Snoopy (George, although not shown above) and Hello Kitty (Lauren).

Grace's costume might have been my favorite for her so far since it truly suited her personality. 

And this might have been Lauren's favorite as well.  She was really channeling some Hello Kitty. 

Aunt Melinda's church had a carnival Wednesday night and because we had a prior commitment at our church, we were unable to attend.  The duo talked Grammie into taking them (thanks, Grammie!), and they had a blast.  Yesterday, William George had his first school party. He was assigned a yellow shirt and was given a yellow monkey hat to wear, although he immediately discarded the hat.

Last night, of course, was the big trick-or-treat.  Everyone suited up, and we managed to get a quick photo or two before George refused to wear the Snoopy hat.  Who could blame him, really, what with the warm Halloween weather and high humidity. 

Funny story... William George's Snoopy costume was ordered months ago, but when the time came to locate the costume yesterday, it was nowhere to be found. It had been stashed in my closet for safekeeping, but could not be located.  Y'all know how I feel about losing things. After tearing my closet, George's closet and the playroom apart, Skip finally located the package in my closet behind a box. I tend to come unhinged when something is missing and yesterday was no different.  It wasn't pretty.

During my panic, Skip suggesting putting a football shirt on him and having him go as a football player. Huge props to him for trying to calmly address the situation and all, but how could a football player possibly compare with Snoopy?

Lauren detests chocolate. We have never understood it, but she will not eat chocolate. Therefore, we have to get really creative at Halloween. Gran put a smile on her face with Golden Oreos, while Grammie came through with Rice Krispy Treats. 

Gracie gladly falls on the chocolate grenade, coordinating trades for any chocolate Lauren rejects. 

We were able to have a quick trick-or-treat session in the neighborhood before the rain arrived. Fun surprises of the night included a school friend who stopped by and being rescued from the rain by our neighbor. 

How was your Halloween?