Ringing in Christmas

Wow! I decided to fully celebrate the Christmas Season this year and not let day-to-day work get in the way. I'm off to a good start and hope that the festivities continue!

The past week has been a whirlwind of travel, parties, networking events, work, Christmas concerts and catching up with some friends.

First, I spent last week in New Jersey visiting my sister and family and watching her perform with her husband and some of the kids in an interfaith Christmas Concert.

I got to spend some quality time with the three youngest who went from dark velvets to winter white as they changed over from their church attired into their performance attire. They looked like little angels, but they actually played the parts of little lambs...though I neglected to get a picture of them with their hats.

It was a great concert and my sister got to sing a solo along with the choir. It sounded beautiful!

Before the performance

On Monday I had to return home to continue out the work week since we've got a ton of initiatives and projects in the final stages of completion.

Tuesday was a ward choir Christmas Party which was a great way to get to know a few more people in our congregation. I'm grateful to be getting to know people better. When you don't have kids and have a day job, it is tough to get to know people since play groups, mother excursion and the like aren't part of my life.

Wednesday we went to a networking event and had a great dinner with people we had never met, but got to learn a lot about. The first few minutes are always a bit shallow, but then people start talking and you find out you share the table with rocket scientists, famous (but, private) engineers, and big shots that like to remain anonymous. Soooo different from the likes of Hollywood, and a bit intimidating.

Thursday was work day and laundry day. Am I the only person who enjoys doing laundry on Thursday night? I feel more prepared for the weekend if I get a head start.

Friday was staying at home and work, work, work day...with a few walks in the nice weather.

Saturday was FULL!

We started off the day de-junking. The clothes that occupied these hangers are now sitting in a Goodwill bin. Yep, half a closet gone. Now our clothing fits neatly into our closets. It is such a relief to get rid of things. I find that half the battle is mental. When we finally let go of the "stuff," it is amazing how one day later it isn't missed and the existence is forgotten.

The closest Goodwill happens to be about 15 miles from here (can you believe it? - so far for such a populated area) and so we had some Peruvian chicken at a hole in the wall for lunch and then I remembered that I had a friend in town! Totally forgot, but just in time.

I got to spend a few minutes with my high school friend while she was in town for a local arts and crafts festival.

She designs and creates wooden flowers and vases. Very beautiful - http://www.dmwoodart.com/.

Afterwards, I took a jaunt down to DC and to Georgetown University where one of my office co-workers was participating in her dance troup concert. Belly dancing! Of all things! I think I'm the only person that was there specifically for her and so I'm glad that I went.

I've taken a couple of belly dancing classes from her at work as another form of exercise. It gave me a greater appreciation for how much work some of those seemingly basic moves are - a little harder than hula it seems. There were women from 20 to 75 years old of all shapes and sizes and races. Many took this class as a confidence building activity and it showed. They got quite the applause throughout the concert.

This evening we went to the Washington LDS Temple Festival of Lights to see the temple, the lights and Jennie Oakes Baker perform on the violin. She was recently nominated for a Grammy and so we figured it would be harder to see her now that she has reached a bit more fame.

As luck would have it, we ran into one of my cousins who is out here going to graduate school and so it was a nice little reunion. Ok, we saw her a couple of weeks ago, but still it was fun.

I'm invigorated by the festivities of this week, but know that going into a second week of parties, choir practices and networking events will be a little harder. Yet, that is what the next week holds.

The good thing is that no time has been spent shopping - except for toothpaste and food - and I am feeling like I'm focused on the right things this season.

Family and friends are dominating my time and that is the way that I want it. I haven't been too good about that in the past.

As a side note, I'm making a wall Christmas tree with cards, concert programs and family pictures that I get in the mail. Should be fun to see it take shape over the next few weeks. Right now it is a bit lacking, but it will grow.

Christmas Moments 2010

Though my parents now have 19 grand children and counting, there were none for Christmas...at least not by the time I got home.

Just a couple of brothers, my parents and my man. Very small for a family of our size.

But, it was fun to be with family for a few days.

Dad reading one of the MANY books given as gifts.

Brett LOVES Christmas and ensures we celebrate it moment by moment from 24th through 25th.

We played Boggle in honor of Scot since he wasn't there to celebrate.

Played whatever this game is for 10 rounds.

Wore Vicks filled vapor tissues to protect us from some family members that can't control their personal smells.

Admired the newly renovated kitchen - that still needs a bright area rug to add color!

Dad's head becomes an ornament holder, but he is apparently used to these antics because the game rolls on.

Great gifts - like this colorful laptop bag.



Rebecker attempts usage of someone elses gift. I've got a ways to go!

Craig, can't let a day go by without researching financials.

A bit tired and worn, but Mom and Rebecca capture a shot.

Documenting Christmas ornaments that have been around since I was a little girl.

Mom presenting her new kitchen.



Mom gets a gumpy uniform (er, Snuggle) to stay warm around their cold house.

Christmas Gift Suggestions - from a Facebook post

Saw this on Facebook and thought I'd post it here:

"Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness.To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect."

Oren Arnold

Memory Lane - Stubby Pringle

"He is Stubby Pringle, born with spurs on, nursed on tarantula juice, weaned on rawhide, at home in saddle of hurricane in shape of horse that can race to outer edge of eternity and back, heading now for high jinks two months overdue. He is ten feet tall, and the horse is gigantic, with wings, iron-boned and dynamite-fueled, soaring in forty-foot leaps down the flank of the whitened wonder of a winter world."

Every year at Christmas time we read all of the favorites - The Gift of the Magi, The Three Wise Men, Luke 2, and other Christmas favorites. But, we had a special favorite that a lot of people hadn't heard of - Stubby Pringle's Christmas. I'm not even sure how we were introduced to it, except that it was one of the stories in a big red Christmas book.

This story, of true giving, is about a farm hand that works really hard for a few months to earn enough money/time off to go to a Christmas dance on Christmas Eve. His one chance a year to mingle with the other young adults his age.

But, don't want to ruin the story for you if you haven't heard it, take a look at this site where a couple decided to post the entire short story.

Or, buy it in book form - it was written by Jack Schaefer - which seems to be a collectible since all copies on Amazon and Ebay are going for $550. I purchased it as part of a collection of other great Christmas stories.

Miracle on 34th Street - in November



Great storefront windows at Macys, including a few that had animated short stories playing.


Determined to see the Macys Thanksgiving Parade the night before, I met up with my sister and kids and took the train into the city. However, we realized because of timing and # of children (6), it was probably just best to go into Penn Station and see the Macys windows, a little of Times Square, and meet up with our brother Scot who lives in Manhattan.

As always, there is a bit of a "wow, we are in New York" feeling and also a bit of "eh, what is the big deal" as you walk around rubbernecking with all the other people.

The coolest thing about New York, in my opinion, is that it doesn't matter what you look like, how you are dressed and where you are from - you see all kinds and so you automatically fit into the masses of variegated people walking along.



Me and  my oldest niece - there is a bit of family resemblance, aye?

 Next time, I am going to go to the other end of the city on Thanksgiving Eve to see the balloons and parade prep the night before - slightly smaller crowds and easier to go from stop to stop on the subway and trains.


Inside the famed Macys store. We heard stories about it from my mom's parents who worked in NYC in the department stores during the Great Depression. That is an entire blog in and of itself.




My brother Scot holding my little niece - the one recovering from getting burned this summer. She LOVES Uncle Scot, but Aunt Rebecker - not so much. Hey, we win some, we lose some.



Musical Christmas Light House

So, you may have seen YouTube videos on this last Christmas, but one of my friends just posted this to her blog and I went to the site to find more videos because I've always loved what these people have done by combining music and Christmas light shows on their house. I had no idea it was a guy in Nashville...unless there are a few people out there that do this kind of thing.

Take a look at some of the videos:

2008 Songs

2009 Songs

I'm embedding one below for a sneak preview

Wizards in Winter - Liptonlights.com from Alan Sielbeck on Vimeo.

So, my further search shows that this is becoming more popular.



If you want to see other houses, go to Google and search with key words "christmas light house music youtube" and you'll find a variety of houses with Christmas, rock and whatever other kind of music.

Columbus - Part 2

Pics of Columbus

Merry Christmas

I think I may actually be nine minutes late, but I did want to make a Christmas post. Since I just arrived in Columbus and I'm way tired, this will be brief.

A few years ago one of my friends, Pammy-Girl, sent me a Christmas card. It had a poem that brought tears to my eyes. Perhaps simple speaks to me best, but here it is:

An Extra-Ordinary Night
by Max Lucado

An ordinary night with ordinary sheep
and ordinary shepherds.
And were it not for God
who loves to hook an "extra" on the front of ordinary,
the night would have gone unnoticed.
But God dances among the common
and that night he did a waltz.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve

http://tinyurl.com/9n2pzj

Memory Lane - Treat Plates

Growing up we always made treat plates to take around to families and friends at Christmas. They included all types of cookies and it seemed like we always received just as many plates as we gave.

This year I received some wonderful chocolate, a little cookie bag and some tasty homemade pumpkin bread with chocolate chips. Can you tell I ate the cookie bag before I got home from church? There is no way to re-create the picture.

Anyway, I dropped off some little Christmas bags (ok, so mine contained TickTacs and a picture CD) to my primary students last night and it was pretty funny to see a treat plate or two in some of the mailboxes. Since I'm single I have a feeling I'm not part of this holiday phenomena, but it's good to see that it is still going on amongst a lot of the families. Even up until I went to college it was always exciting to find that plate of goodies on the doorstep and pick out that one favorite before the entire family swarmed upon it.

It's just a reminder that sometimes it is those little things that create a secret happiness and ....sometimes we think we have to make such big sweeping gifts to let people know we love them. It's just plain not the case. For me, it's knowing that someone thought of me while I wasn't in their presence and wanted to do something. That's all it takes for most of us.

Merry Christmas!

My Christmas Tree 2008

This year I decided to put all the pictures and cards I receive on my tree. I also placed a few gifts on it as well - the beautiful orange scarf my friend Harrison picked up in India, a slinky from a co-worker, and the yellow square from Harrison, and a cut-out of a snowman made by one of my primary kids.

It's kind of nice having all of these reminders right in front of me every time I walk by it. Perhaps I've started a new family tradition for myself.

Perhaps I should start writing my own Christmas cards. Yikes! December has been a lot more hectic than I expected at work and so the real priorities went by the wayside. Shame on me, but thanks for your greetings, cards, and family photos.

Merry Christmas!

My Week

This week was absolutely exhausting from Sunday through tonight. I think other people can handle these things better, but I'm going through a very long phase of not being able to handle too many activities after work.

We went and visited our friend Holly on Monday night who landed in the hospital after passing out on her doorstep last week. Luckily, someone was right there picking her up for church and she was able to get rushed to the hospital. Her stomach had closed off for a few weeks (not sure how that works) and so her food wasn't going through her system properly. The body just hit the point of not being able to function. Unfortunately, once they started testing her they starting finding evidence of cancer. So, I still have to follow up to find out the latest results.

On Tuesday I came home from a terrible day at the office, bought way too expensive groceries and had a great conversation with Pam even though we had to cut it off too soon. Talking to great friends always makes my day.

On Wednesday I went over to help hold some little baby twins. It was nice to be over there for a few hours and just rock a baby for a while. It kind of provides some stress relief. It was funny, or sobering, for me to try to hold one baby and pick up the other. Wow. Such basic tasks become so difficult when there are two the same age to handle. I guess it's a good reality check for me since I'm always saying that I'd love to have twins someday - mostly for the efficiency of not having to be pregnant too many times.

On Thursday morning I was at work and stopped eating at 10:30 a.m. to prepare for a virtual colonoscopy and a body scan that I was to get on Saturday morning. I had a huge piece of fish and then started drinking liquids. Have you ever noticed that the minute you can't have any food you feel like you have to sample every type of food as if you are never going to be able to have it again? You would think I was moving to some remote place, but no.....just doing a food fast for almost 48 hours.

I had a special meeting in the afternoon that involved telling other people about my skillset and why I would be interested in utilizing a different part of my skills in another location. Nothing more on that, but hopefully it is obvious what that means. I kept getting offered stuff to eat during it and I finally explained the Christmas gift that I bought myself and it required only liquids for a few days. It at least broke the ice a bit.

After the special meeting, I drove up to Pentagon City and went with John over to the DC Harbour to get on one of those dinner boat cruises. He was invited to a company event and so it meant networking and talking to people that we didn't know. This kind of thing lost appeal to me back when I went to a few black tie affairs when I first moved to DC. I don't find joy in sitting around with people I don't know, don't care about and will never see again. I'm not trying to be rude because I honestly think the other people feel the same way. Unless I'm someone with power or with an autograph...it's a waste of both our energies. That being said, we sat and ate with a nice couple that found there way to us. Still not sure if that was planned or not since John is being recruited by this company, but either way it got me through the four hours. Let's just say this - go on dinner cruises with someone you enjoy and for a personal night out. Don't go with a networking event if you are someone that likes to leave parties whenever you have the urge. Once on the boat, there is no getting off the boat until it docks...and it was way to cold to jump out and swim, but I do always have the urge. Also, I deserve a certificate because I drank only water and Sprite despite the wonderful aromas floating around the room.

On Friday, I woke up to a splitting headache and took some medicine. Bad idea. All pills and liquids came back up and I spent quite a while worshipping the porcelain throne in a different way than I had expected to this weekend. So much for getting any work done. I slept and drank liquids the rest of the day until I got a phone call about my Mom being taken in an ambulance to the hospital. Since my parents work at the temple in Columbus...they were away from home and we weren't sure what hospital they were at. It was the second shocking health moment (first being Holly's experience) this week and it really made me want to get to my body scan to make sure I was taking care of myself. They released her today thank goodness after multiple tests and good results. Perhaps it was stress and being worn out from everything over the holidays. Either way, it was a wake up call for us all - a reminder to always stay in contact with those you love.

This morning I had my physical and colonoscopy. Whew! Let's just say the body scan was a breeze, but for the virtual colonoscopy they still have to pump some air into you to get a good picture. They had to try a couple of times to pump more air into me which is slightly uncomfortable. Ok, very uncomfortable! I was glad when that was over and I could get to a private place to get it out of me. Haaa. I will leave it at that!

I was able to sit down with the doctor onsite and he did a preliminary analysis. I've got some things I've got to check on which fit right into some of the symptoms I've been feeling. This will just give me more ammunition to take to the doctors because they rarely act as if I'm serious about these things.

It's been an exhausting week. It doesn't sound that way when I write it down, but it doesn't show all the early mornings at work, the meetings, the issues that had to be resolved, the personal anxieties, etc.

Tonight I've finally gotten to sending out some email cards and creating some JibJab videos for the kids I teach on Sunday. I haven't even started on Christmas cards, Christmas emails or half the Christmas gifts I intended to send. So, I will improvise when the time is right.

It sounds like I'm just another person trying to get through December - doing the work I get paid for, taking care of personal needs and somehow trying to help a few people along the way.

Maybe all of us should just sit back and think a little more about the season and stop creating so many expectations for ourselves, family and friends.

P.S. Maybe I should have put this entry in my journal. It's a little long and a travel log...with no travel.

Oh Christmas Tree!

I have a regular fake Christmas tree in my living room. However, twas not always so.

When I was little we lived in Thailand for a couple of years. It was a little hard, or perhaps impossible, to find Christmas trees. My parents created this paper tree and taped it to the wall. It doesn't look like a bad idea and perhaps I should use that method in my small condo.

The next year they got more creative and purchased rattan hoops and thousands of baggies. They tied the baggies close together on each of the hoops and then connected them with fish wire. It was a beautiful tree that we used most of my growing up years. Or, at least we thought it was beautiful. As it aged, we spray painted it green to cover up the fading color.

Once in a while we put up a traditional tree, but there were times where we would have one real tree displayed in one window and the old Thailand tree in another window. It caught a few people off guard because it does appear to float.

Though I've stuck with the worldly tradition of trees, part of me is tempted to create another version of the rattan and baggy tree. That is the tree that holds the most memories. Sometimes if we twirled it too much it would collapse down inside itself on the floor. That was usually fine...until we put on the bulbs. After that each collapse was usually followed with a few tree decoration casualties and a stern lecture.

Ah, good tree times.

Elf Yourself - 2008

So, not to link to my other blog, but.....

Jib Jab has upgraded it's ElfYourself.com site. My family had so much fun on this site last year. At work today someone put in some of the heads and it was hilarious.

Here's the link: http://bloggerpickles.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-pickles-elf-yourself-christmas-fun.html

Great gift for friends and family! You can pay $3.99 to download the flash animation too.

Ode to the Duck Dishes

Ok, so "ode" is probably not the correct word, but I did want to make an entry specifically devoted to my duck dishes.

I received these dishes from my parents in the Christmas of 1989. I was home for college (yes, I started college in the 80s) for Christmas and my gifts overwhelmed the lower layer of the Christmas tree. It turns out that most of my gifts were plates, cups, glasses, and bowls that formed a complete set. I think there was a set of silverware provided at the same time. I still have those too. Anyway, these are those dishes that you could earn by purchasing a lot of groceries over a few months or so. You would collect coupon points or something and get a discount. I think all "the girls" ended up getting a different set. Mine were the duck dishes. They aren't really my style (country). However, if one has to have a set of country dishes, this would be the best kind to have.

Anyway, my parents assumed I would get married in my early 2os and got these for me. I never used them through college, but I started to use them when I was in graduate school a few years ago and continued to do so when both my brothers (and sister-in-law) and roommates lived with me.

It is now time to move on and sell them on craigslist or donate to Goodwill, but they do deserve a place in my little online notes.

I guess this was an "ode."

Christmas Moments - 2008

Finally, I've downloaded all the videos and pictures from my excursions around the midwest and east over Christmas. I drove to all locations and so I'm still recovering. Although flying can be a great option, sometimes it's nice to travel with large bags, a personal pillow and blanket and a few extra computers. This way it really does feel like home away from my little home.

In Columbus Ohio I was able to stop at the temple and see my parents. I ended up having the rare opportunity of vacuming since the volunteers hadn't shown up. Here they are sneaking in...I mean...locking it up for the night.

They are still getting use to the interesting combination of leadership and cleaning responsibilities.

I spent Christmas with my parents and Brett. Very small, but enjoyable.

My parents bought a creche type of statue for the christmas holiday. It was quite beautiful, but then we dropped into a TJMAX, or similiar store, and they discovered multiple wise men hidden in the holiday aisles.

So, long story short...we walked out with three wise men and...the 4th wise man. You kind of had to be there to appreciate all this since my parents are typically practical, but somehow got caught up in a little flashy material.

In fact, driving through part of downtown Indianapolis I caught my mom glancing at a gold angel on some random front porch. Hopefully this is a temporary issue and they will soon recover.