Christmas

Christmas / Columns / Latest Newspaper Column / Uncategorized — 5 Comments
23
Dec 11

Musing on The Tale of the Not-So-Wise Wiseman

I’ve quit looking for him.

I’ve been around long enough to know when someone doesn’t want to be found. And with those types, I’m not going to bother.

A few weeks ago, we pulled out the Christmas decorations. This included our nativity. Mary, Joseph – the baby. Shepherds, sheep and camels. Then there were the Wisemen.

I suspected a problem with them.

We have a renegade and he’s AWOL this Christmas. I assume he’s hiding out in the attic amongst boxes containing ancient school books, baby clothes and one size 10, puffy-sleeved, gargantuan-skirted, Princess Diana era wedding dress.

I tried to fix him but I guess my mend wasn’t cosmetic enough to suit his highfalutin’ tastes — so he took off. Continue reading →

Christmas / Uncategorized — 3 Comments
21
Dec 11

Musing on the Fourth Day before Christmas. Thumpity, Thump, Thump.

Frosty the Snowman.

The snowman who came to life and danced around town with the children.

During Advent tonight, we watched Frosty the Snowman.

I figured 35 years was enough time.

Those of you of a certain age, remember when Frosty, Rudolph, the Grinch and the like would be on television? Back when television consisted of three channels and the other  channel that had ZOOM and Sesame Street.

I didn’t care to watch Frosty for it was sad.

And I forgot why until tonight.

That d*mned magician.

He didn’t want his hat.

He didn’t want his hat until he learned that it brought a snowman to life. Then he was determined to steal it back.

The big old MEANIE.

I saw him tonight for the first time in 35 years and remembered hating him. And it was hard to get a preteen me to hate anything.

Granted looking at him tonight, he was just a washed up guy. A person who never got the breaks or never worked hard enough for the breaks, kind of feel-sorry-for-pathetic.

But back then I hated him with a righteous anger.

Is this the saddest thing ever?

That scene of little Karen crying by the pool of water that was Frosty in the hot house — it made me cry tonight. (Well, get a lump.)

I asked my kids.

Did you cry when Frosty melted?

They looked at me like I was crazy.

“He was a snowman,” my daughter said.

No tears, no thinking it was sad.

My daughter later admitted, “Well, I cried the first time before I knew that he was going to be okay.”

It would be like someone leaving SpongeBob on an island letting him dry out.

I don’t know. At least I worked through my Frosty issues or understand them better.

That leaves Rudolph. Don’t get me started on how he was treated.

Am I the only one who feels for a 40 year old celluloid Snowman?

 

 

 

Christmas / Life in Madison — No Comments
20
Dec 11

Musing on the Fifth Day Before Christmas. Let’s put on a show!

 

Jingle Bell Rock.

Around here, if you take dance whether tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, hip hop or lyrical you probably go to Pointe of Grace Dance Academy.  

That means every Christmas, there will be a Christmas performance.

Which is really fun…it gets me in the holiday mood with all the music. And this year, it wasn’t on the morning of the Madison Christmas Rush which made for a slightly more relaxing day.

The dancers sit out in the audience. And I sat right behind one of mine.

Nice.

 

 

My child -- bothered not that I or Santa might be watching.

 

I marveled at Katie calmly talking to her charges. The thought of wrapping 10 Christmas packages freaks me out.

 

Friend Emily and John. Happier times early in the day before Emily's youngest broke his leg. And before I made John endure a couples workout at the hands of Beverly. He still hurts BTW.

The performance excitement reaches a slight sonic boom level.

 

The show begins.

 

Santa Claus is coming to town.

 

The boys did great. Though I had attended their class so often the last month or so — I could have been up there doing the dance. I told my son that if he finished this fall, he could stop hip hop. Now after the smell of the grease paint and the roar of the crowd, he’s reconsidering. Hmm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then my daughter's hip hop group took the stage.

 

Things got a little crazy.

 

And Santa arrived.

 

Thanks to Katie and Carol for taking a big part of their holiday season preparing for this Christmas Recital. Now in it’s sixth year.

It really puts me in the Christmas Spirit.

Okay — I really have to go start wrapping. Since I am convinced that rule number one of Christmas on a budget and faking it is to wrap everything. Like the individual crayons in a box of 64.

Have you wrapped anything? Ha. I know you.

Children / Christmas / Life in Madison — 2 Comments
11
Dec 11

Musing on Finding the Gingerbread Artist Within.

Creativity.

The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns,relationships and the like.

My youngest and I went to the Madison Artist’s Guild Gingerbread Workshop to transcend reality with gumdrops, cardboard boxes, frosting and every great candy you can think of.

Meet the artist.

 

I decided I’d let him do what he wanted to do…

Our table mates. The Palmers.

We sat there…we sat there we two (families) and fashioned our gingerbread creations.

Or Jennifer and I created while the kids ran around.

(Kind of.)

Never underestimate the power of a name tag on the head for a laugh.

The base for our Gingerbread train.

And the Palmers worked on their turn-of-the-century Gingerbread Victorian.

Our train with a sprinkle of powdered sugar snow.

It was a great evening…

There were a lot of great creativity flying around.

The Cook's house.

As hokey as it sounds, with the endless chocolate chips, marshmallows, peppermints, pretzels to nosh on — the best part was just hanging out with my Joe.

Do you attempt Gingerbread people, trains or house this time of year?

Christmas / Life in Madison — 4 Comments
10
Dec 11

Madison, Georgia 2011 HOLIDAY PARADE. Video musing…

Wow. Christmas is taking a toll on my blogging but today was a SUPER day in Madison, G Aay.

First, was the Christmas Rush Road Race and then the Christmas Parade.

When we found our spots on the Square, my eight year old asked for the camera.

I gave it to him.

What follows is his interpretation of the parade. (He did super.)

My only addition were photos of former running partner Kim Sitzmann plugging a promised run date with me on her smartphone. After I hurt my knee (which Praise God has recovered) she moved on to younger, prettier running partners.

I WANT HER BACK.

Sit back and enjoy — small town at its best.

Waves, smiles and horse manure.

Merry Christmas, ya’ll.

Children / Christmas / Uncategorized — 2 Comments
5
Dec 11

Musing on Church Christmas Plays.

Last night, our church held its annual, much expected, much anticipated Christmas play.

 

If I had a scanner (that sounds terribly like some folk song meets digital), I would put in a picture of my senior in his first play.

He was in kindergarten and Joseph. A very solemn looking father of our Lord, watching over a young Mary, played by Annie Speyer.

Jake and Annie are now driving and thinking about college.

And last night, I realized my parent-watching-the-Christmas-pageant days are numbered.

My daughter played Nightime Nicole, a sarcastic radio DJ ready for Christmas to be over.

Through the wisdom of Caller Two, played by Lucia Hodges and the play heralding Jesus’ birth  – Nicole sees new meaning behind the red and green hype.

Nicole taking her calls. Bah hum bug.

 

Caller Two trying to persuade Nicole into looking at things a little differently. (That's tough. Believe me -- it's an every day battle.)

 

 

My niece, Maddie sings a killer "O Holy Night."

 

 

A final bow.

 

Of course it was great.

How couldn’t it be with those sweet faces.

Little faces that don’t stay little for long.

Are you still doing the parent-watching-the-Christmas-play thing?

 

 

 

Christmas / Uncategorized — 5 Comments
4
Dec 11

Musing on tinsel.

Tinsel. 

Metallic, shiny threads that are draped on Christmas trees.

Did you have tinsel on your trees growing up?

We never did.

And so begins another chapter in the I never did this as a child but feel compelled to do it as an adult to find meaning in life file.

As a child of the 60s and 70s, tinsel was king.

There were trees where you couldn’t even see the tree for all the tinsel. They were rather like the Addams Family’s It of Christmas trees.

Trees with tinsel were magical. Everyone had tinsel. My best friends, my cousins.

But not our tree.

In fact in all my lifetime of Christmas trees, I never had a tree with tinsel, until today.

POSSIBLY THE BEST DAY IN MY LIFE EVER!

Funny, about tinsel. For someone that never had a tradition of tinseling seems I have an innate ability to know the exact amount of tinsel that should grace a bough.

Who did this????

 

Each strand needs to be delicately and exactly placed.

Not glommed on, hurriedly, haphazardly, not appreciating the sacred nature of the task.

After almost 23 years of marriage, I learned something about my husband today.

HE NEVER HAD TINSEL ON HIS TREE EITHER!

No wonder he was glomming on the tinsel. Poor guy was so excited that he got a little over-enthusiastic about it.

Tinsel reflects.

It mirrors the light.

Tinsel only enhances. Somedays, a little artificial reflection helps spice up the mundane.

All I know is tonight, for the first time ever — I have a tree with tinsel.

My eight-year-old self finds it most beautiful.  (My 10-year-old daughter is not so sure.)

Did you have tinsel growing up?

 

Christmas / Life in Madison / Uncategorized — 3 Comments
3
Dec 11

Musing on little entrepreneurs, big business.

I never have any cash….

 

 

I have had my share of Swisher Sweets -- but never have had this much cash.

 

This weekend was the Madison Christmas Tour of Homes. Once again the time for entrepreneurs young and old to try to make a buck.

Meet Tom and Will Eskew, my shrewd businessmen neighbors, masquerading as Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.

 

 

They sell silmax, mistletoe, quince and chinaberry limbs for profit. Greenery for suckers (er folks) to deck their walls and halls.

 

 

What the heck is smilax you say?

 

Smilax is what people around here use for garland to drape over their door.

 

 

Lovely smilax.

 

The Hall - Eskew pad with smilax....

 

The girls were across the street selling hot chocolate.

Tom spotted some potential customers walking their way.

 

Walked right by the hot chocolate.

 

 

Tom looking over the spreadsheet of today's sales. (Complete truth.)

 

The smilax stand on the other hand was hopping.

 

Tom explaining the correct way to root smilax to Sarah.

 

 

This nice lady bought some mistletoe.

 

 

Then walked across the road and got some hot chocolate.

Okay….I finally had to get some chinaberries myself.

They were three dollars a branch but Will said they weren’t moving so he let me have a few more.

 

Good grief. If I'd been thinking, I'd had my daughter grab the Swisher box while the Eskew boys were occupied.

 

All in all, subtracting the advertisement they placed in the paper, they had already cleared about $90. (And I think they were the best patrons of the hot chocolate stand across the street.)

So what to do with my chinaberries?

 

This is what I came up with.

 

If you are around Madison tomorrow — the Eskews will be manning their greenery stand.

How do you decorate your halls? Fresh or artificial greens?

Children / Christmas — 3 Comments
1
Dec 11

Musing on how nothing says Christmas like cash.

It’s been a long day. Fun – but long.

Got home from football banquet tonight to help my son finish decorating a paper wreath to hand in tomorrow.

Each first grader was given a piece of green construction paper with the shape of a wreath on it — to decorate to hang in the halls.

I got the bright idea to “pomp it.” I think that’s what we called scrunching up tissue paper, dipping it in glue and putting it on an object to stand up. Larger pomps were crammed into chicken wire for decorating high school and college parade floats.

In high school, I could pomp with the best of them.

Here’s my son’s wreath.

See glue and tissue paper.

 

I thought it was turning out okay.

There was only one object he insisted stay on the wreath (even after I suggested we cover it up with pomps).

“No. It’s cool.”

So instead of a red bow at the bottom of our pomp wreath here’s what my first grader wanted.

Yep. That’s what’s going to be gracing the halls of school.

I really can’t think of a question to leave you with.

Maybe….ever use paper cash in your Christmas decorations?

Christmas / Running — 7 Comments
30
Nov 11

A Sparkling Party. Musing on friendships — again.

Friendship.

It doesn’t know distance or time.

Back in August when school started, I started running (literally) with a younger crowd.

Having children in the high school, elementary school and primary school, I have a wonderful group of friends.

But this running group introduced me to an even younger group. Women with babies and preschoolers.

Just writing “preschooler” exhausts me.

Last night a bunch of these women, I didn’t know four months ago got together for a dinner and cheapo-sparkly jewelry swap.

We all brought a piece of jewelry and then proceeded to swap the boxes around. Then we did the old pick-a-number-and-steal-a-gift-if-you-want-to game.

Since I only play these things once a year, I forget how it goes. I drew number 20 which was the best I could do – other than number one.

Jill was number one and this was the coveted bracelet she traded last minute for.

 

My prize. (Just to be clear it was the ring on the right. The one on the left was my grandmother's.)

 

We had a great night.

Even if you lived in the same spot for over a decade, there are tons of nice folks to get to know. And I’ve grown quite fond of these younger women Tebow and I run with each morning.

Yep — even after partying hard last night — we showed up in the parking lot for a run this morning.

Okay.  We didn’t party hard.

What does mean anymore? If  I knew I’d probably be terrified.

It was cold this morning….and we still showed.

The younger gals, Tebow and I. And that made me happy.

Do you have friends of all different ages? Real friends — not just acquaintances.

(Not that intergenerational acquaintances are to be discouraged.)

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