Dance Recital

"It was an unmitigated disaster."

That's how I described the rehearsal the night before Kiera's dance recital on December 12th. The description was very, very accurate.

The dance studio asked us to have our kids there at 6:30 p.m. for the rehearsal. They were supposed to be done by 7:30. Yeah right!

I had Kiera there on time, but they got started very late. They still told the parents to return at 7:30, which I did. I got there just in time to witness Kiera and her class run through their routine--and that was only half way through the rehearsal! It wasn't pretty.

Imagine 10 three and four year olds who are nearing or past their bedtimes. Not good. Not good at all. Kiera was one of the worst. She left her place in line twice, running to her teacher once and trying to grab the microphone the second time. "Oh my God!" I thought to myself. "Tomorrow's going to be a fun day."

Well, it was a fun day. Dawna got Kiera's make up and everything on her early.



I got her to the auditorium and waited for everyone else to arrive. Grandma, Grandpa, Nona, Uncle Bubba, Dawna, Kaylee, Kevin, Jr., and I took up nearly a whole row of seats. The show started, and Kaylee was absolutely enraptured by the whole ordeal. Finally, it came time for the pre-K ballet class. Things started off a little rocky. Kiera took some time to try and locate everyone.



She settled down though, and toward the end, she was actually doing some ballet moves when she was supposed to be doing them.



The recital itself was far from the unmitigated disaster of the night before. In fact, all things considering, they did a great job.



The neat part of the whole ordeal is that after the recital, things finally clicked for Kiera. Up until that point, she had been very reluctant to do any of her ballet moves around the house. After the recital, she knew what it was all about, and she was only too happy to dance around the house. We'll be enrolling her again next summer for more dance, and we look forward to see what surprises are in store later.

Yes, I know...

That it has been quite some time since updating this blog. Sue me. It's not like we pastors have anything to do during the Christmas season anyway, right?

Well, I do have quite a bit to catch folks up on, especially dance recitals, Christmas program, holiday visits, and birthday parties. So, I'll begin tackling them one by one.

I'm going to start with the Christmas program that our church did on December 21st simply because I have those pictures on this computer.

The program was a pretty cool one entitled "Life 101" where Jesus has to go through school to be taught everything he needs to know to live on earth. I got to play the adult Jesus who didn't want to go back to school. Unfortunately, the angel Gabriel had a thing or two to say about that.



Kiera had a part this year in the program. She was a "tiger"-at least according to her. The costume we had made for her looked much more like a leopard, but she doesn't know the difference or didn't say anything about it.



Her part consisted of walking in with Noah's wife at one portion and then being a "lion" with Daniel in the lion's den. You should have heard the congregation crack up when Kiera ROARED! She did a great job and was far and away the loudest roarer of the group.

She also helped all the other kids sing "Away in a Manger" and "Silent Night". We had been working on "Away in a Manger", and she did very well, especially on the first verse.



Of course, not to be outdone, we had to put Kaylee in her little leopard outfit. She didn't have a part in the play, but she wanted to at least feel like she did.



Afterward, the girls enjoyed the traditional candy and fruit bags afterward. It should be interesting in a few years when all three kids have a part in the play.

Holy Snow!

Last night as I was putting the girls to bed, Kiera said, "Daddy, ask Jesus for snow."

Daddy did what any daddy would do at that moment. I prayed for snow. After finishing, I told Kiera, "Now, we'll see if Jesus says, 'Yes.'" Little did I know...

The news had been saying that we had a chance for rain with a wintery mix, but since the temperature wasn't expected to be below freezing when this occurred, I wasn't too optomistic that we'd see any snow. And if we did, I didn't think we'd see any accumulation. Well...

About 2:30, I heard a strange sound at the church. I could tell it wasn't rain, so I came out of the office, and it was a wintery mix--sleet and snow. Believing that this would be the only chance we'd get to see snow, I raced home and got Kiera up from her nap. (Kaylee was dead asleep at the time.) I wrapped Kiera up in a blanket and took her outside to see the snow.



After checking out the snow for a few minutes, I took Kiera back inside and laid her back down. She was still pretty tired. I went back to work, called my parents and told them it was snowing. While talking, Dawna buzzed the office and said that Kaylee was up and wanted to see the snow too. Well, I raced back home and took them outside to see this rare occurrance. About 3:30, the snow stopped, and I thought we were through. Well...

We had a wonderful supper. I made chicken and dumplings that were absolutely hot and delicious. They really warmed you up! While eating, we had the news on, and, of course, the main story was the snowfall in Houston. They showed the radar, and it indicated that there was heavy snowfall right in Cat Spring! I went outside just to check things out. Well...



THE SNOW WAS ACCUMULATING!!!! I almost couldn't believe it. I raced inside and got Kiera and Kaylee to show them. All day they had talked about making a snowman, but there was very, very little on the ground. So, where would the snow accumulate so that they could build a (little) snowman?



THE TRAMPOLINE!! Of course. Dawna and I wrapped the girls up in their heavy sweaters, and I took them into the backyard. I rigged a halogen light that I bought a year ago, and they had plenty of light to work and play by.



The girls wanted a snowman, so Daddy put on his gloves to keep his hands from getting too cold. Needless to say, this is a South Texas snowman. Such snowmen are much, much smaller than their kin up north.



And what would snow on the ground (trampoline) be without a snowball fight?



You know, it's quite interesting that even though I am a pastor and someone who has faith, I really didn't believe Jesus would make it snow. I've got too much adult in me, but I know a little girl who really and truly believed that if she asked Jesus for snow, He would deliver. Consider it a lessoned learned. Thank God for Holy Snow!

Damn!-My Book-Debt Free-Decorating Round Two

It's been a very eventful few days for the Haug household. We'll kick it off with an interesting episode that occurred this past Thursday.

Damn!

I was sitting at the kitchen table shortly after supper when Kiera came up to me and asked me if she could do something. I can't remember exactly what she asked, but I do remember that my answer was, "No." I also really remember what she did next.

Kiera hung her head, and in perfect context, emphasis, and form said, "Damn!"

It was one of those moments where you wanted to laugh and be furious at the same time. It's no mystery where she learned the word. I've said it enough. She's been around other adults who have said it, but now we have to teach her why some folks can say it and others can't. She's right in the middle of the "Why?" stage right now, so things could prove interesting.

My Book



Yep. I've written a book and gotten it published. Now, lest you think this is some great deal, please know that I had to pay for the publishing myself. It's quite difficult to get a publishing company to even look at what you've written. They have a limited amount of books that they publish, their own regular authors, and a strict limitation on how many transcripts that they will accept. All this leads up to rejection after rejection after rejection for most new authors. It was the same for me.

However, I'm fortunate enough to have the ability to pay for my own (limited) publishing, and now I'm trying to sell the book. You can see the title: What is God Calling Us to Do and Be: Discerning God's Will for Your Life. It stems from a sermon series/Bible study that I had at St. John. We'll see how things go with selling and whether or not folks actually get anything out of it.

Debt Free

We took a moment to thank Nanaw this Friday. She left us a tidy sum of money as part of Dawna's inheritance, and so we payed off our Yukon XL. Taking a nearly $20,000 cashier's check to Security Service Federal Credit union was quite a unique experience considering we are now are in a position we have never been in our entire married life: debt free.

However, as my brother-in-law said, "You've got three kids. You'll never be debt free." There is a lot of truth in that statement; but the fact of the matter is we do not owe the banks anything. I guess in the middle of the current economic situation that's a good thing. Who knows what the next big purchase will be? But, in the mean time, we will enjoy not having to write any checks for monthly notes.

Decorating Part Two

Friday evening, we took the kids to Dawna's Granny's house for dinner. Granny's not doing so hot right now, and at Thanksgiving, she remarked more than once that she wanted to see our kids. Since we were in San Antonio, we thought it wise to head over. Dawna's mom picked up one of Granny's favorite things to ead: Arbys, and as we finished eating, Uncle Emery and Aunt Barbara showed up with a new Christmas tree and lights. It was time to decorate once again.



The girls knew exactly what to do, and they jumped in without hesitation. We had to be very discerning in what we allowed the girls to hang because Granny has some antique ornaments that shouldn't be handled by those who are too young or too old.



Granny got the thrill of the evening when Kevin, Jr. fell asleep and she got to hold him. It was a very special evening to have helped Granny decorate for Christmas: one that we will hold onto for quite a while.

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.