Sunday, December 14, 2008

Observations on the Last Few Days . . .

. . . or, just another way to say "Random Ramblings!"

EDITED MONDAY MORNING: We are in the deep freeze here on the Front Range of Colorado - it's -13F this morning and my mind is conjuring up memories of my life as a kid in northern Minnesota - I feel a post or two coming on in the near future!

It has been quite a week - I am ashamed to say that I locked myself out of the car again - twice! And to top it all off, the magnetic key holder was NOT under my car any more. What in the world is wrong with me??? Why do I keep doing this?? My sweet hubby wants to know the answer to that question, too.

I was sitting at a stop light the other day when I saw a truck stopped in the middle of an intersection. I finally realized that he had lost a very large box, probably an empty refrigerator box, from his truck bed as he went through the green light. He jumped out, stopping traffic, as he threw it back in. The thought crossed my mind that it wasn't going to stay in there without weighing it down. He must have been new on this job or something, because a block later, there was the box in the road again - this time in my lane. He had pulled off the street this time and was hurrying back to pick it up. I felt like stopping and giving him so good advice! It was good for a bit of a chuckle.

I had my eye appointment this week, since I've decided not to have the Lasik procedure done after all, at least for now. I have been feeling like my vision has gotten worse over the last two years, and that I am having headaches for that reason. It turns out that my prescription has changed hardly at all - and that I don't even need new glasses. How can that be?? He thinks maybe dryness is causing the problems. I don't know, but I'll give it a try. Now one more thing to remember to do twice a day.

I still haven't had a chance to do much shopping. Well, I'm not planning to do much, but I haven't had a chance to do basically any. It's less than 2 weeks till Christmas. Yikes! I know what I'm going to do, it's just a matter of finding time to do it by myself. I can't put anything under the tree - not only because of the little munchkins rolling under there and ripping into the paper, but the bigger girls seem to think that they need to open anything that's under there.

Our plans for the family reunion are coming together. We have the privilege of borrowing our church's gym and other rooms for dinners each evening and some recreation. We'll have a different family group serving each meal and cleaning up. Each of us that live here will be keeping a family of 4 in our homes. It's going to be a very busy week, but should be great fun. Pictures to come!!

Feisty loves to help. See how she's feeding Katie? Remember how your mouth opens and closes when you're feeding a baby? She's doing the same thing. So cute!






Do you ever wish you were young again and of the opinion that tape can fix anthing? We have a chair that we've had repaired once, but the arm is loose again. So Feisty discovered the problem the other day and immediately ran for the tape.





One day this week Care Bear saw this picture of my sister and me, taken when we were probably 7 and 8 or so. (Sorry it's so crooked!)


I didn't realize what an impression it made on her until she posed for me several times that evening, as she was preparing for her school program (which, by the way, was adorable - and Grandma forgot the camera - HUH???!!)




Then tonight was the children's musical at church. I have written before about my years of directing the children's musicals. I started doing it so my kids wouldn't miss out on the fun that other, larger churches were doing for their children. It is so much work! And so worth it! The young woman who is doing the musicals now is absolutely amazing - she has people who help her do sets that are fabulous.


Care Bear is in first grade and a year ago, she was still in the throes of stage fright. This year she decided she wanted to do a solo in the musical. She realized on her own that she probably wasn't ready for that yet, but did want a speaking part. She was blessed to be picked for one, and looked so tiny in the group that had those parts.






She was so proud of the fact that she got to wear one of the wireless mikes - but she kept having to pull up her pants as the battery pack rather weighed them down in the back. It was priceless. Then she experienced a bit of technical difficulty as she had a terrible time attaching the mike to her angel costume.



These kids did a fabulous job tonight. The final song was "Take a candle, and light your world," as we each lit a candle and held them up to light the sanctuary. There were more than a few tears and sniffles at that point. I felt so blessed for being there. And so blessed to have my grandchildren carrying on the tradition.


I was listening to Focus on the Family the other day and heard about these buttons --



I ordered a few and plan to enjoy wearing one as I try to finish up that shopping this week!




This is getting too long, but I can't forget to thank Hootin' Anni for this special award.


Here are the rules for the Christmas award.~~~~~You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award. The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas. You must link back to the person who gave you the award. You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space! Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 50. It's up to you! But, you must pass it on to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going! Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment.

There are many things I love about Christmas, and have probably covered them all at one time or another, but here goes - -

  1. The "Reason for the Season" - Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour, who came to earth as a baby and lived here as a man so that He would know life as we know it.

  2. The lights and music.

  3. Giving gifts to those I love.

  4. Decorating my house and having company over.

  5. Singing in the cantata at church.

I am passing this award on to Kristen, Tammy, Linds, Louise, Diane, and Robin.

ONE MORE THING! DIL Sema has posted this week and has some very interesting thoughts - check her out if you remember her. It's been a long while since she wrote. She and Kev are leaving for Kenya in about 3 weeks. So exciting!


Have a wonderful week!

17 comments:

Diane@Diane's Place said...

We had our Christmas program tonight too! And they also did that song about carrying your candle out to light the world, while passing out those battery powered candle lights to various ones in the congregation. It was so touching, and Emmy was enthralled by the whole experience.

Hmm, and award with an attached meme, eh? I'll see what I can do, hopefully on Monday, but no promises. We're forecast to get a wintry mix and freezing rain so I'm praying we won't lose power. Our apartment is all electric, so we don't even have heat if the power goes off!

Thanks for the award, and I hope you get your shopping done and have a good week, Dawn.

Have a happy and joyous Christmas season, my friend.

Merry Christmas!

Love and hugs,

Diane

Unknown said...

Feisty is so cute feeding Katie and Care Bear looks so sweet posing just like you and your sister.

The musical set is awesome! I'm so glad the tradition is continuing. It sounds like Care Bear had a very special part this year and she did a great job. :-)

groovyoldlady said...

I love kiddie Christmas programs! Ours is coming up Sunday morning. Girly0Girl will be singing her heart out. Silly-head refuses to get on stage, but has been the roll taker and snack coordinator. She plans to dress up and sit on the front row to remind all the performers to SMILE. :D

Needled Mom said...

I saw that you were going to get that freezing blast of winter. It sounds like it will have an impact on so much of the country this week. I hope that it will let up a bit so you can get your shopping done.

That sounds like it was quite the production for the kids program. How wonderful to have such an energetic gal handling it! Good for Care Bear for stepping up to the plate with a speaking role. I'll bet you were proud of her.

I have seen bumper stickers that say "We say Merry Christmas" and thought they were wonderful. I am so sick of "Happy Holiday" greetings.

Congratulations on your meme. You do deserve the award.

Stay warm and have a good week.

Kristen said...

Well, I will try to get to that as soon as possible. Maybe once my tests are all done here in the next couple of hours.

I love watching my little Feisty feed the babies. She loves to do it at home, too. Very sweet.

And I am so thrilled that my Care Bear has overcome stage fright. Mama was so proud last night!! Wonder if I can figure out how to get some video on to the ole blog?!?!

Ms. Kathleen said...

Oh I miss those kids Christmas programs but in a few years Alexys will be in them...Fun!

I love your picture...Beautiful and so very cheerful and the babies and girls are so precious!


Be sure and take time for yourself! Hugs!

Barb said...

The tape on the chair just made me smile Dawn. She's pretty smart. :-)

Feisty feeding the baby is so sweet. And I do that when I'm feeding Avery - open and close my mouth. LOL

The children's program looks wonderful.

I totally understand about trying to find time to shop and get ready for Christmas. Time is very scarce around here too!

Linda said...

I really enjoyed reading this post Dawn. It's almost like sitting down and having a little chat!
I love the pictures. The girls are so sweet.
I can easily understand why you are locking yourself out of the car. You have so much on your plate right now. I just admire you so much for all you're doing.
Our Granddaughters will be in their little Christmas Program next sunday evening, and I'm really looking forward to it. They are precious times.
I miss the candle-lighting service we had in the small country church we were part of when we lived in NY. It would be an impossible thing to do in a church our size. It was a magical moment to me when we sat in the darkened church with only the candles for light and sang Christmas Carols.
I'm going to have to look for Faith Hill's CD. You're the second person who has mentioned her song as their favorite this year.
Have a good week Dawn. We're even freezing down here in South Texas. Gracious!!

Carole Burant said...

Now you know the kind of frigid temps we've had over here the past few weeks! lol The winds were horrible here today and we kept losing power...driving me crazy not being able to get online for a while!!!

The pictures of Feisty feeding one of the twins is so precious...I noticed the open mouth right away! hehe Seeing the way she "fixed" the chair had me smiling:-)

How cute is that, the way Care Bear posed like you had posed all those years ago!!

I wish I could have been there to watch the children's musical...I so miss attending stuff like that. Once Lily is old enough and doing things like that, then I'll be able to enjoy that again:-)

Those buttons are priceless! Isn't it getting ridiculous how some businesses are telling their employees not to say Merry Christmas? Nobody will ever stop me from saying it:-) xoxo

Unknown said...

I'm glad it's not that cold here! I hope you thaw out soon. :-)

Linds said...

I went to the babes' Christmas concert, and I cried. They were SO beautiful, and when Mims sang a solo, it finished me off completley.
Thank you so much for the award! I will have fun passing this one along!

Robin said...

Oh thank you Dawn - that's a sweet award. I'll get working on that!

Your Christmas program set looks delightful! The set is so charming!

Loved the picture of the tape! My dad was the same way about duct tape. He could fix anything with a little duct tape!

nancygrayce said...

-13???? Oh, that is so cold! My dad used duct tape for everything! We even made dolls with clothes pin and duct tape. Poor = creative! :)

Nancy said...

The Christmas program looks precious. It's such a good age for your grandkids. I love the photo of you when you were little and the grands doing the same thing... too cute!

I'm shocked with the cold weather you are having. It never gets that cold here. You have my sympathy! Do you have lots of snow?

Sharon Lynne said...

I loved the pictures. Especially the family shot on top of your blog. (I've been away and I'm catching up!)
It's very cold here too...for Southern Cal.

I'm behind on Christmas too! But it will all work out.

I just posted a small bit about our trip.., but will post pictures later.

Hootin Anni said...

Good happy Thursday to you dear Dawn!!!

I had to smile at your story about the guy in the intersection...too funny.

And yes, I thought about you too with the deep freeze. My nephew who lives near Windsor told me that the wind chill this past week was something like -29?!!! Whoa Nelly, I'm glad to be out of there. Then, my sister called who lives on the western slope and near the San Juan Mountains just below Ouray...she said it was too cold to snow much, but that the low was 1 degree and the high predicted was gonna be 9. BRRRRRRRR

Love the old photo you shared and then to have the same pose for today's time....cute, cute!!!

Oh and Feisty feeding the babe? Sweet!!!

A Hint of Home said...

My you guys are in a deep freeze. Try to stay warm and have fun shopping this week.
We had a great cantata and children's program at church recently. The kids are always so cute to watch.