The season kicks off with the decorating of the gingerbread houses. We do it in early or mid-December, and it is traditionally held with our cousins at Granny's little gingerbread house of her own. We love going over there, making memories for our kids, just like ones we have of growing up. Same house, same granny. Unfortunately, this year, Grandma I was out of power for EIGHT days. It didn't seem to get to her though. She said, after all, she didn't even enjoy the luxury of power until her third son was born. Good point. Anyway, Kim sweetly offered her house, and Granny came over to join us. It is definitely one of our favorite things. Friday, 28 December 2007
The season kicks off with the decorating of the gingerbread houses. We do it in early or mid-December, and it is traditionally held with our cousins at Granny's little gingerbread house of her own. We love going over there, making memories for our kids, just like ones we have of growing up. Same house, same granny. Unfortunately, this year, Grandma I was out of power for EIGHT days. It didn't seem to get to her though. She said, after all, she didn't even enjoy the luxury of power until her third son was born. Good point. Anyway, Kim sweetly offered her house, and Granny came over to join us. It is definitely one of our favorite things. 
Who doesn't love to party? With parties come friends, food and fun. Ellie is really our party girl. She loves to hang out with friends, probably the most social of our family. Luke runs a close second, but I think Ellie wins the prize for most friends. In fact, whenever there is a break from school, we hardly see the child. She contentedly lives like a hobo, bringing her pack from one home to another, turning a regular day into a party of her own. 
Well, back to Granny again. Words cannot accurately capture the amazing qualities of this woman. But I know you have all had someone in your life who is a warm electric blanket, a donut with sprinkles and a heart-warming movie all wrapped up into one. Comfort. She is comfort. She is love. She is happiness. She is the most with-it 96 year old on the planet. When I was a little girl , I just prayed God would let her live to be 88. I wanted my kids to know her. I wanted to cherish the years I had with her. And God has blessed us with her for longer than that. My kids are getting to know her. They are being covered by her prayers. And they got to spend another precious Christmas Eve at her house. As for me, I spent my 38th one there. 
It feels good to have some new traditions of our own too. This Christmas Eve at our house was a lot of fun. We came home from Granny's house and made cookies for Santa, and then had a family game of Twister. Pictured here is the championship game in which the most fiercely competitive members of our family went head-to-head (and leg-to-leg and buns-to-buns) to determine the winner. After that, we let the kids open their presents to each other and tracked Santa on the internet. (Who woulda thought?) Then, we said our prayers and went to bed.
This one probably seems kind of out of place, but if you are in our family and it is the month of December, you are going to be playing in or watching some kind of basketball game. On December 22nd, we traveled to OKC to watch ORU play OSU, and I'll tell you, it sure feels nice to go into Christmas with a win. We've experienced a few pre-Christmas losses, and it takes a bit of the tinsel off the tree when that happens. Here is our little point guard Kami dribbling down the court for her team, the Wildcats. Sorry about the blurry shot... I obviously haven't mastered action photography yet. Think I should try a faster shutter speed, eh?
I'd also be lying if I didn't admit that amid all the butthustling, we don't stop as often as we should to really soak in the magnificent focus of this holiday. When Luke said we were celebrating Santa's birthday (quickly followed by... oh no , not Santa's birthday, Jesus' birthday) my heart dropped into my feet. I prayed to God that we as parents would not let Christmas become just a shiny celebration of Santa. I had to remind myself that this year may be a little more difficult than others since we don't have a church to call home right now. Making the choice to leave First Baptist and look for a church closer to home was pretty hard, and we have put ourselves in a position where our kids are not getting their usual Christmas church focus on Jesus' birthday. It is so basic, so pure, and so important. The birth of Jesus. I happened to turn on the CBS "special" - "The Mystery of Christmas." A title intriguing enough for the Christian and sinister enough to draw in a non-Christian. As I made pumpkin rolls and took in this show, my heart again dropped as I watched basically an hour long campaign for people to doubt pretty much every aspect of the birth of Jesus. They even presented "evidence" that Jesus was probably not born in Bethlehem. It was probably Nazareth. And Mary a virgin? Ha! She was what one "expert" called "nothing more than an adultress." I can barely type the words. My point here is that by the grace of God, in my heart, I know that I know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was born of the virgin Mary to be the Savior of the world. I am so thankful that the program didn't sway me in the least... just swayed my anger. I pray that the spirit of God will give that peace and assurance to my children. That they will BELIEVE.
Monday, 24 December 2007
Finding time for friends is not easy in the stage of life we are in. It seems like months whiz by before we can get together. This Christmas, we got a date on the calendar, and all the stars aligned just right! We were able to spend the evening with the Sammons and the Streeters. The kids had a blast and the adults talked til we dropped. Sunday, 23 December 2007
Friday, 21 December 2007
Two years ago I had no idea what a blog was. I just had some foggy notion that it was something that technogeeks did in cyberspace. About the same time, I became overwhelmed with my beloved hobby of scrapbooking. Although I absolutely loved doing it, I was trying to slap together five different books for three different kids and running about 2 1/2 years behind. I would rush to a scrapbook night and sweat like a crazy woman trying to get as many layouts done as scrapbookingly possible.
Then, (cue the piano music) my friend Kelly introduced me to digital scrapbooking and blogging. It was like we had won a big game. I felt elated! I felt free! I felt released from the scrapbooking dungeon. Since then, blogging has become a near-daily treat. Like a yummy Merritt's cupcake, I look forward to my blogging time. I know some people think it's strange; after all, I don't live in Dubai or have parents who live in a different town than I do. I really don't care what they think though... because when it comes down to it... this is for me! Blogging is a way for me to record the daily fragments of life that would otherwise get lost in the grind. You know how when you try to recall a moment from the past, you find yourself remembering pictures that were taken of that time? (At least that's what I do...). I am steadfast in the belief that I am rescuing memories from the shuffle of time. I have the vision that years from now, 5 years, 10 years, more, that we will be consulting this blog as a way to recapture our past, not only looking at pictures, but reading my personal thoughts as well. It is precious to me and I can only hope that in the future it will be precious-precious to my kids. With scrapbooking, I was always trying to catch up and had to squint my eyes trying to remember the specifics of the particular scrapbooking moment, but with blogging, I take 10-15 minutes to record something that happened that week or even THAT DAY! One final benefit... like scrapbooking was a creative release for me, so is blogging something that I enjoy. I get my creative writing fix, I guess you could say. Finally, although h-is-4 is for me, I am happy to know I have my faithful readers out there. I love it when out of town (or in town) family and friends check in! And comments, well, comments are always appreciated! All this to say that I am proud a new baby blog has been born. It is so big and beautiful, you might not know it is a baby at all, but please check in on my friend Chere, who has recently begun her blog. Oh, and one more thing... I had to chuckle when I walked in on Kami, who was creating her own blog. She had it all set up herself and only needed me to help her with the images. My own little technogeek! Ha! Check out Kami's first post here.
Then, (cue the piano music) my friend Kelly introduced me to digital scrapbooking and blogging. It was like we had won a big game. I felt elated! I felt free! I felt released from the scrapbooking dungeon. Since then, blogging has become a near-daily treat. Like a yummy Merritt's cupcake, I look forward to my blogging time. I know some people think it's strange; after all, I don't live in Dubai or have parents who live in a different town than I do. I really don't care what they think though... because when it comes down to it... this is for me! Blogging is a way for me to record the daily fragments of life that would otherwise get lost in the grind. You know how when you try to recall a moment from the past, you find yourself remembering pictures that were taken of that time? (At least that's what I do...). I am steadfast in the belief that I am rescuing memories from the shuffle of time. I have the vision that years from now, 5 years, 10 years, more, that we will be consulting this blog as a way to recapture our past, not only looking at pictures, but reading my personal thoughts as well. It is precious to me and I can only hope that in the future it will be precious-precious to my kids. With scrapbooking, I was always trying to catch up and had to squint my eyes trying to remember the specifics of the particular scrapbooking moment, but with blogging, I take 10-15 minutes to record something that happened that week or even THAT DAY! One final benefit... like scrapbooking was a creative release for me, so is blogging something that I enjoy. I get my creative writing fix, I guess you could say. Finally, although h-is-4 is for me, I am happy to know I have my faithful readers out there. I love it when out of town (or in town) family and friends check in! And comments, well, comments are always appreciated! All this to say that I am proud a new baby blog has been born. It is so big and beautiful, you might not know it is a baby at all, but please check in on my friend Chere, who has recently begun her blog. Oh, and one more thing... I had to chuckle when I walked in on Kami, who was creating her own blog. She had it all set up herself and only needed me to help her with the images. My own little technogeek! Ha! Check out Kami's first post here.
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
He's already here. That according to Miss Tell-It-Like-It-Is, Ellie. She did enjoy sitting on his lap and telling him what she wanted for Christmas (an obnoxious Fur Real Parrot ), but when I asked her later what she thought of Santa, she off-handedly said in her low voice, "Well, I don't think Santa is going to get me what I really want." I questioned, "why, you told him what you wanted, didn't you?" She said, "I think he was just a Santa Clone." 
Monday, 17 December 2007
Mom often gets on to me about doing too much. "Slow down!" she squawks. Well, I wonder where I get it? Here is one of the many activities my mom is involved in. Over the past few years, my mom and her friends have developed an act called "The Dixie Chicks." This group dresses up like beautiful, fluffy, yellow chickens (no I am not kidding), practices faithfully, and puts on darn good shows for different groups around town. Here are pictures of their Christmas production where they sang (bawked) their rendition of "Deck the Halls" and performed a Polynesian Christmas luau. They brought down the house and Nana's granddaughters were very proud of her, showering her with flowers after the performance. 
Saturday, 15 December 2007
There's nothing like the POWER of nature. What can fell a 40 foot pine tree? It would take 3 men, $1000 and 2 days to chop it down. But a POWERful ice storm did it much quicker and easier than that. And the ice didn't only get one tree, but thousands. That's the kind of POWER that is humbling. POWER. We got ours back on Thursday. One hour without it will make you grouchy. Four days without POWER.... well, that's just torture! Actually, we had it easy compared to a lot of friends. We didn't have to endure sleeping in a cold house or being without technology. The worst of the ice storm for us is the neighbor's towering pine tree that fell over our fence and into our yard. This is just a minute inconvenience in comparison to lots of other people in the city. After driving through midtown, I was shocked at the damage. It's hard to describe how bad it is down that way. Plus, lots of people (including Grandma I) are still POWERless. We are praying everyone will stay safe and warm during this time. POWER. Ephesians 1:18-20- I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great POWER for us who believe. That POWER is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. POWER.Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Nearly everyone I know has lost their power. (The news reports that there are nearly 700,000 homes and businesses without electricity in Oklahoma-the most ever.) Several of our friends are sleeping under loads of blankets with a fire burning in the fire place. Kim and Scott were lucky enough to get a hotel room and Tom and I had a major stroke of luck... Tom's mom lives in a small pocket of homes (about 5 square blocks) that still has power! We have been staying here and will be here until the power comes back on. The estimate is that the power will be fully restored in 7-10 days. What's amazing is that here at the southern edge of our city, we didn't even get the worst of it. Here are some pictures of the farm that Dad took. The ice accumulation looks to me like it was twice as thick out north. These pictures show trees that were planted when I was born, and the second one is a tree that was planted by dad and his brothers in the 50's. Mom and Dad are sleeping in a room with a stove, and using candles and flashlights to get around the freezing house. There is no hot water, no TV, no phones (except cell phones) no computer... quite a change from the life we have all been living. It's been a chance to step back and look at the way things used to be... and say......... thank God I live in the 21st century!!!! The good news is that we are all ok. Getting the trees removed will be a pretty big expense for a lot of people. A couple of friends actually had trees crash through roofs or into windows. But we are all safe with family, and as they say, that's what's most important. For some pretty pictures of the ice, check Kelly's blog. 
Friday, 7 December 2007
Monday, 3 December 2007
For anyone out there who knows Hannah Montana songs by default, because they are a constant background music to your life, then you will surely know "The Best of Both Worlds" refers to a song that describes the fictional double life of Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus, both of whom we rocked out to in concert yesterday in OKC!!! I have to say that Billy Cyrus' little girl puts on a great show... even I found myself singing and dancing and joining in the adolescent hysteria. And do I mean hysteria!! The concert began late, but before it did, the smallest movement of the curtain would spark a dynamite explosion of high-pitched screams... you cannot imagine how loud it was. Like 10,000 mosquitoes on steroids. And then the music just about blasted us out of our second-row-from-the-top seats. But believe me, I am not complaining. If it were not for the luck of Papa, we'd be like lots of other disappointed people out there. Ticketless. I wish we could have taken our friends and family with us... but Papa got only 4 tickets by the skin of his teeth! This memory will go down in history for Kami, Ellie and Hallie as their first concert experience. After all, I never forgot sitting in the Mabee Center in 1977 listening to the Bee Gees perform "Stayin Alive." The first concert experience is a big one, and I am quite sure a great one for the girls! Our only regret is that Luke could not be there for the one Hannah Montana song that he likes. He cringes when he has to listen to most songs, but when it comes to "Nobody's Perfect," he belts out every line of the song:Everybody makes mistakes... Everybody has those days... 1 2 3 4!
Everybody makes mistakes... Everybody has those days... Everybody knows what what I'm talkin' 'bout... Everybody gets that way...
Sometimes I'm in a jam
I've gotta make a plan
It might be crazy
I do it anyway
No way to know for sure
I'll figure out a cure
I'm patchin' up the holes
But then it overflows
If I'm not doin' to well
Why be so hard on my self?
Nobody's Perfect!
I gotta work it!
Again and again 'til I get it right
Nobody's Perfect!
You live and you learn it!
And if I mess it up sometimes...
Nobody's perfect
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