Recapturing Christmas

Have you ever been just a little bit cynical about Christmas? I mean after hearing about people trampling one another and even killing a Wal-Mart employee in the rush to get to the after Thanksgiving sales; after hearing about the culture wars over Christmas, like the university in Florida that was outlawing Christmas decorations in common areas until a huge outcry went up; after folks focusing on trying to make this Christmas the "perfect" Christmas and getting caught up in all the rig-a-ma-roe that they forget what the season is all about; don't you in just a little way feel cynical about the whole ordeal?



I'll admit that not too long ago, I had one of the worst cases of "Christmas Cynacism" that a person could get. A whole lot of it had to do with the first congregation that I served at. The senior pastor was very much a "Stick to the Liturgical Book" pastor. Advent was to be celebrated, and Christmas was to be put off until the Liturgical calendar said it was appropriate to celebrate Christmas. (For my non-liturgical readers, Advent is the preparation time before Christmas, four weeks to be exact. It's part of a larger church calendar that is broken down into many "seasons.")



My cynacism also had a lot to do with the fact that Christmas just plum wore me out. I served at a large congregation that had four Christmas Eve/Christmas Day worship services. Our first service kicked off at 2 in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. It was followed by a 7 p.m. service geared toward younger families with children. After that we had a traditional midnight candlelight service. When all was said and done, we had a 9:30 a.m. service on Christmas morning. After doing all that, I was wiped out, and that made it extremely difficult to enjoy being with family in the afternoon. All I wanted to do was sleep.



All of these things left a bad taste in my mouth when it came to the Christmas holidays. I hated it when stores began putting out Christmas decorations the day after Halloween. I abhorred hearing Christmas carols during Advent. Stories like the ones I told to begin this blog gave me even further evidence that Christmas was a commercialized bastardization of what it should be, and I felt righteous in my indignation.



But a lot has happened to me in the past four years to change my attitude. Probably the biggest is the addition to my family of three wonderful children. Watching their excitement as Christmas approaches is infectious to say the least. When Christmas decorations started going up after Halloween, the girls excitedly pointed out every lit Christmas tree in Wal-Mart or any other store we were in. Seeing Santa Claus in the mall made them grin and jump for joy. Hoping Santa comes to their house has them plum giddy. Kiera gets every circular from Toys R Us or Wal-Mart and excitely circles the gifts she wants Santa to bring her. When something neat pops up on a commercial on t.v. she asks, "Santa Claus bring me that?"

The kids loved it when I put the Christmas lights on the house, but they adored decorating the tree. They picked out ornaments and hung them all over the tree. Unlike last year when the tree had 50 ornaments within a small space, they took the time to distribute them all over. When they had trouble getting one on or if they thought the ornament was too fragile, they would come to me and say, "Daddy, help me." I'd gladly take the ornament and place it on the tree.

Most of the ornaments on our tree were hand made by Dawna's Granny, and each time my children hung one, I imagined my wife hanging them in a like manner when she was a child. I thought of the times I hung ornaments and my parents helped me. I remembered the magical nature of the season and how it made me soooo excited that Santa would come see me. Priceless memories.

As these memories infected my mind and heart, I got to recapture the wonder of Christmas. Through my children's excitement, I have been re-given a gift that I had allowed to be taken from me. I know it's early, but what the hell: Merry Christmas.

Fall in Cat Spring

O.K. Cat Spring does not have the brilliance of fall colors that my sister has in North Carolina, but we still have some fall color around here.





The playground next to the church is a catch-all for many of the pecan and ash leaves that surround our house. Every year, I rake them up and use them as mulch in my garden.

This year, I thought it would be fun to let the girls play in the leaf pile. I actually started a pile yesterday afternoon while Dawna still wasn't able to get out or do much. I have decided that the Lord gave us two arms to rake leaves for a reason. Holding Junior and raking leaves at the same time was a tremendous workout for each arm for different reasons. I was able to get a decent pile going for the girls to begin with. However, since Dawna was really up and about today, I was able to go outside while the girls napped and put together a really big leaf pile. The girls had a blast with it.



Afterwards, we had all sorts of fun playing different games with the leaves including raining leaves, obstacle course, and bear in a cave. To play the last game, I took an old U-Haul box out from the time we moved to Cat Spring, opened it up, and raked the leaves all over it and around it. It was a pretty cool cave. Here's the raining leaves video:



One thing I did learn in this process: it's much less work raking leaves when you know your kids are going to be jumping in them and having fun with it.

Feedsack Clothes

I was a little bummed out that I missed our Women's meeting this evening. The presenter did a presentation on the material that feed used to come in and the clothing that folks used to make out of it.

I had heard on numerous occasions from my parents and grandparents how they used to make clothes out of feed sacks. I somewhat found this hard to believe because the only thing I could picture was the burlap and paper bags that they use now. Boy, was the picture in my mind completely wrong.

I ended up taking the three kids over to the church for about 15 minutes of the meeting when the ladies were eating. The presenter was gracious enough to show me some of the materials, dresses, and shirts that her mother had made her and her brothers. The material was cool. It looked like it was picked up at a material shop, Hobby Lobby, or Wal-Mart. The clothes were nice. The only thing that separated them from clothing that you could buy in the store was the lack of a brand name tag.

I wish I were able to stay for the presentation when she talked about the history of the feedsacks as well, but I had to get home to feed Kevin, Jr. At least I can now connect the stories that my parents and grandparents told to actual clothes. It was kind of cool.

The Crap's Not as Deep.

Thankfully, Dawna has progressed very well in the last day. Her back still pains a little bit, especially when she stands up. However, she is walking a little faster and is much more mobile than before. She still has a ways to go, but everything is looking very positive right now. We might be able to avoid the doctor altogether.

The kids have been pretty good for their father. No major dust ups. Kiera was a little freaked because mommy had an "ow ow" and couldn't get out of bed. I have a little theory that she was worried that mommy was kind of like Nanaw, so I have worked diligently to assure her that mommy is going to be o.k. She's gotten better as the day's gone on.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be even better than today, especially since I need to write a sermon for tomorrow evening.

Oh Crap!

This morning, at about 9:30, Dawna called the church and said, "Kevin, I think I threw out my back. I've got shooting pains, and I can't stand up."

My secretary, Sandy, has training in equine touch, and she has also gotten certified to work on homo sapiens as well. She came over with me and worked on Dawna's back a little. Through Sandy's work, Dawna's back relaxed a little, but was nowhere near being even 30%. Therefore, it was off to bed for Dawna, and my work day was done.

Luckily, Dawna is not completely incapacitated. She can now actually stand up and walk around SLOWLY. Her pain has steadily lessened and her ability to do things has increased as well. Time is going to tell how long it will take her to fully recover.

Unfortunately, this episode couldn't have occurred at a worse time. Most of our family has commitments for Thanksgiving, and I have a worship service on Thanksgiving Eve as well as our regular service on Sunday. I am hoping that she recovers enough for me to get a couple of sermons done.

Until she recovers enough, I'm doing mom and dad duty. That was very interesting today since Kiera had dance class. Normally, I take Kiera to class alone. Kiera and Kaylee sleep in different rooms so that when it's time to leave Kaylee isn't woken up and doesn't cry when she sees her sister leave. Kevin usually is asleep on Dawna at that time or still in bed as well. But not today. All three kids piled in the Yukon with Daddy as we headed to Bellville. What a trip that was. I feel for parents who have to do this all the time, especially with kids as close in age and as young as my three.

I was actually able to get Kiera to dance class, take Kaylee and Kevin to the park, get Kevin a short nap, pick Kiera up, and return home without too much trouble. The only hitch was Kevin getting hungry on the way home and crying for about 1/2 the trip. That's no big deal in the scheme of things because he has certainly cried for longer periods of time in the car. The girls were great trying to get him to calm down, so that was nice.

If Dawna doesn't progress much overnight or tomorrow, I guess a trip to the doctor will be in order. Thankfully (there's always a reason to give thanks.) our deductible is already paid because of Junior's birth earlier. So, if there is anything that needs to be done, I'll be pushing for this year.

Christmas Lights

One of my fondest memories of Christmastime growing up is when Mom, Dad, my sister and I would load up in the car and go look at Christmas lights. As kids, I think my sister and I drove our parents nuts by saying, "Ooooh Neato!" at every single house that had lights out.

I remember wanting my parents to put lights up on their house, but there was only one year that I can remember that they did this. The light show wasn't extravagent, but dad managed to hang some wires and create a Christmas tree out of lights. I thought it was pretty cool that we finally had lights out.

One of the things that I realize now is that Christmas lights were pretty expensive when I was a kid. My parents couldn't necessarily afford lights to put outside, so they did the next best thing and took us out to look. I treasure the time they put in to do this with us.

Fast forward to now. Kiera has been anxiously awaiting Christmas season. If we were driving after dusk, she would always ask to see Christmas lights. Dawna and I constantly had to tell her that it wasn't time yet. She'd pout for a moment, but get over it eventually.

I guess the price of Christmas lights has finally come down to the point where regular people can afford them (especially if you buy the AFTER Christmas) because we are actually able to put lights out at our house.



Kiera especially was thrilled that I put out the lights. She even came out and "helped" me by handing me some plastic holders. When we finally lit the place up, she couldn't hide her excitement. I let her and Kaylee stay outside well after the time we would normally have them inside, but they were enjoying the lights so much I was enjoying their enjoyment.



It won't be too long, and we'll load up the Yukon and go look at Christmas lights. We'll hear the kids come up with their own little sayings to describe what they see, and Dawna and I will smile knowing one day they will probably do the same with our grandchildren.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the traditions and the memories. Hopefully we'll do a decent job of passing them on.

Christmas Shopping Already?

Yep.

Today, we started the process. My parents spent the night here last night and decided to stay most of the day. Mom had the great idea that while they were here, it would be easier to do Christmas shopping for the kids. Dawna and I agreed, so we headed to Katy. First, we dropped the kids off with Grandma and Grandpa at Katy Mills Mall. They've got a great indoor playscape there that the girls could play at and keep themselves entertained while Dawna and I could head to Toys R Us and Wal-Mart.

After a successful trip to these two stores, we called Grandma and Grandpa and told them we were headed back to the mall and we'd have lunch there at the food court. That's when the real entertainment started. I took Kiera and Kaylee with me to order their lunch when Kiera needed to go potty. She ran to Grandma for assistance. Grandma took her potty and returned with these words: "We'll need to ride the cars, see Santa, and go on the carousel." Apparently, Kiera has Grandma's number (love you Mom!). Needless to say, all three things took place. Here's the best photo of the bunch taken by the photograher:



Here's why that was the "best" picture. The others have considerably more "character".



Junior wasn't too happy with Santa, but that was to be expected. Kaylee didn't care for jolly, old Saint Nick either which is why she sat on the stool between Santa's legs. Oh well, every Christmas has been an adventure when it comes to sitting on Santa's lap. This year was no exception.

After finishing up at Katy Mills, we headed to Target and then to Kohls. In the process we have finished 95% of the shopping for the kids. Still have all the other relatives to go. (Had to throw that last statement in there to make sure all of you continue to behave yourselves.)

Kohls had the best deals of the day. Quite a bit of their kids clothing was 55% off, so we stocked up on the winter stuff that we needed for the kiddoes. Quite a bit of it will be early Christmas presents--without the fun of opening. Don't worry, we'll save a couple of clothing items for wrapping. We're not totally Scrooges around this house.

Kevin is progressing well in his development. He can now scoot around on the floor; however, he doesn't have the forward thing down yet. Dawna tried to get him scooting around the living room backward, but he wasn't very cooperative. Her commentary is pretty funny.

King Sized Bed, Seven Months, Dance Costume

One of the great blessings and curses of parenting is when the kids learn to climb out of their beds and climb into yours. The blessing is that there is nothing better than your kids wanting to be with you because they feel safe, secure, and warm. The curse is that they always wake up before you do!!!!!!

It is not unusual to have Kevin, Jr. wake up about 6:00 a.m. and refuse to go back to sleep unless brought into our room. When this happens, we can rest assured that within a few moments, we will be joined by the other two as well. No big deal, unless your bed it too small. We quickly discovered that even our queen sized bed was just that. Kiera even remarked one morning unprompted, "Mommy, Daddy, you need a bigger bed!" We readily agreed. The problem was we didn't think we could afford a new bedroom suite with a king sized bed.

Enter Dawna's brother. Nanaw had given Justin a bedroom suite with a king sized bed, and he wanted no part of it. It was simply too large for his one bedroom apartment. Discovering that we had need of it, he moved very quickly to ensure that we could get it. In fact, this past weekend, we spent Saturday moving it from San Antonio to Cat Spring. We had to mess with the arrangement in our bedroom, but we think it looks very good.





It just so happened that the day we moved everything to Cat Spring was also Kevin, Jr.'s seven month birthday. He's growing rapidly and eating everything in sight. There hasn't been a single thing that we've given him that he's spit back at us. He's scooting and rolling all over the place. He'd probably crawl if he had more motivation to get things. Unfortunately, he seems to have a taste for technology--like Daddy's cell phone and digital camera. We can't keep that stuff down on the floor too much because bad things could happen. Hopefully he'll find some other motivation quickly and start crawling before too long.

Dawna captured this shot of him yesterday before church:



Of course, Kaylee had to ham it up and get her picture taken too. See the leopard growl!!



Today, Kiera's recital costume came in for dance class. We had to try it on once we got home to ensure everything fit. We kept trying to get a really good picture of her smiling and being cute. Instead, we got this:



Three going on 16. Are we in trouble, or what?

Halloween

Lord how time can get away from you. Hard to believe that I haven't blogged since just before Halloween, so I've got a bit to catch up on.

For everyone expecting photos of the kids in costume this year, sorry. We didn't do Halloween this year. Normally, we have a church hayride around Cat Spring and trick or treat around town that way. However, this year, one of our friends Karen Krupicka was getting married the same evening of the hayride. We couldn't be both places at the same time, so we saved the expense of costumes this year. Probably won't be able to say that for another couple of years.

But, I couldn't let Halloween go by without having a little bit of fun. We did carve a pumpkin.



Kaylee stayed entertained as long as we were taking out pumpkin "guts"--even though she touched the stuff and quickly decided that part wasn't for her. Once we got to the carving process, Kaylee was off to her tricycle. Kiera stuck it through to the bitter end.

You can tell from the video that she liked her pumpkin.



Later that evening, I decided we'd make some cookies. The girls helped put sugar in the butter, stir a little bit, and then put flour into the mixture. The pay off came after daddy finished mixing everything together.





The girls loved eating the dough, and they also enjoyed the freshly baked cookies. It was quite comical watching Kaylee climb up on her chair and grab another cookie even after daddy said they had enough. The temptation was simply too great!!! The next day, we traveled to College Station for Karen's wedding. Before the wedding, we visited with an old friend of mine (not in the aged sense, but in the since that I've known her from high school) Carrie and her husband Rusty.

They live in the country and next to a family who has a couple of little children. The kids had all sorts of neat toys that they allowed Kiera and Kaylee to play with including a wonderful electric jeep that you could drive around the yard. Kiera had a blast on that one. (Note to anyone even thinking about it--if you buy one of those things for my girls for Christmas or any other time, I'll extract my revenge in a very nasty fashion.)