Twelve Random Christmas Things About Myself

We're back from Paradise. It has been a very hard re-entry! Today was the first day back at work - I managed to get through my e-mails, half my voice mails, and none of the volcanic-sized pile of snail mail on my desk. It probably wasn't the best time of the school year to be gone, but being gone was glorious!

PRAYER REQUEST: Kristen's doctor has ordered her on bed rest for at least two weeks. The babies aren't growing as much as he would like to see. She's had an incredibly stressful four days, because the powers that be at her place of employment were, shamefully, not sympathetic, empathetic, or even willing to do what the doctor said. It has been an unbelievably frustrating experience. The doctor wrote letters, and finally called her supervisor. Her attitude changed dramatically very quickly after that. At the end of two weeks, they'll re-evaluate the situation and decide whether or not she can go back to work - very part-time. She'll be on short-term disability, I guess. I'm not sure what that means financially. I'll continue to take the kids in the afternoon, or stay there and help her in whatever she needs.

Now - back to Christmas. Kristen tagged me for this "hoopla," named by one of her blog friends, who does not like the word "meme."

1. My sister and I are only 11 months and two weeks apart in age, so we always got the same things for Christmas from our relatives. We began sitting with our backs to each other and opened gifts from the same people at the same time so we wouldn't know what we were getting.
   
2. I talked about the Christmas I had mono in this post, and about how disappointed I was to miss out on playing piano for my 9th grade Christmas program.
   
3. Every four years our missionary cousins would come home from Africa and we had the best time at our Grandma and Grandpa's house. Both sets of grandparents lived a mile apart, so we had to divide our time between them.
   
4. I'll never forget the year my dad was on a leave of absence from the pastorate and selling for Sears (because of health problems). He was a top salesman and we had the biggest Christmas in terms of gifts that we had ever had. My sister and I each got a very large suitcase, full of clothes.
   
5. Then there was the year we came home from college (3 of us at the same college at the same time) and found that the folks had decided to use the aluminum tree with the colored wheel instead of a real one. We all nixed that the moment we walked in the door and went out to buy a tree.
   
6. DC and I got married 3 days after Christmas in 1972. That Christmas celebation was memorable, because it kind of took a back seat as we looked ahead to our wedding.
   
7. Our first Christmas together, we planned to drive to Colorado Springs to be with my parents. The weather was not good, but we headed out anyway. We got 20 miles down the road and stopped at a truck stop because it was so icy. A trucker told us we'd better not go any further because it was getting worse in the direction we were going. We took his advice and went back home, where we had nothing to eat because we'd planned to be gone all week-end. Of course, nothing was open either. We invited ourselves over to somebody's house and made the best of it. We went down for our anniversary instead and spent our first anniversary in a sleeping bag on my parents' living room floor.
   
8. I spent many years directing the children's Christmas musicals at our church. It was something I wanted my children to experience and nobody else was doing it. I think I did it for about 6 years. Every year I swore I'd never do it again, but it's kind of like the pain of childbirth - you forget how bad it was and do it all over again! There is nothing like the joy of watching the children come through with a wonderful performance.
   
9. I love the sights and sounds of Christmas. I love to sit in the family room, playing good music, with just the tree's lights on, and take off my glasses, letting my eyes go out of focus, causing the lights to blur together. Now is that weird or what??
   
10. My family of origin always opened gifts on Christmas Eve. We did the same with our kids. I was fortunate that my husband's family did the same, so we didn't have a lot of adjustment to make with Christmas traditions. Must be the Swedishness. Since all the kids in the family on both sides are grown and have other families to consider, the Carlson side meets on Christmas Eve, and they go to their in-laws' on Christmas Day. We're fortunate that everyone is close.
    
11. I love playing Christmas music at work, from the Monday after Thanksgiving until Christmas break. I love to decorate my little office to reflect the real Reason for this Season. I wear a pin every day to testify to that fact.
    
12. I haven't bought one thing yet - there is nothing under either of my trees. And I'm not stressed about that for some reason. I used to bake at least 15 kinds of goodies, but when I began working full time, I had to drop something, and baking was it. I wonder if I'll start again when I retire during this next year. I wonder.

May your celebration of Christ's coming be the most meaningful ever.