It's a Good Thing It's Wooden! (and Other Christmas Tidbits)

Christmas arrived, was glorious (pictures of the celebration coming, but not tonight), and departed.

Less than two hours later, Tobin threw up.

Welcome to reality.

Jeff woke me up about 1:45 this morning by saying something about hearing someone throw up.  "Nah," I groggily thought to myself (and maybe even said to Jeff) as I tried to recall the exact nature of the sound I had heard seconds previously, "it's just Tobin passing gas."  Why I would ever think that Tobin's flatulence in the night would be enough to wake Jeff and I out of a sound sleep, I'll never know.  But that was my explanation because I did not want to consider the fact that VOMIT MIGHT BE INVOLVED.  When Tobin's piercing "Mommy!" cry rang out in the night, I knew something was wrong; and one whiff of the air in his room confirmed Jeff's guess.  Even I knew that smell didn't come from gas!  ;-)

* As an aside, let me hereby confess that I am not good at believing what Jeff tells me in the middle of the night.  For example, when we were newlyweds in California, Jeff once woke me up to tell me that we were having an earthquake (and to profess his undying love for me in case a tsunami swept us away as we slept and we never got to see each other again).  ;-)  My response was something like this:  "Nah, it's not an earthquake.  It's just the military planes going overhead and making the vertical blinds in our house shake."  Why I would ever think that me, a native Virginian who had never experienced an earthquake before would know better than Jeff, a born-and-raised Californian who had gone through numerous earthquakes, is beyond me.  Good grief.  What is wrong with me?  :) Here's another example of my prideful I-know-better-than-you thinking:  when our doorbell rang in the pre-dawn hours of December 12, 2006, Jeff immediately knew that something was dreadfully wrong and that we were in danger.  "Nah," I thought and probably said, "It's just one of Dad's patients looking for him, not knowing that Dad moved down the hill and we live here now."  As it turned out, an armed robber stood at the door holding our neighbor hostage (more detail here).  Jeff was right, and I was so wrong.  I hope I've learned my lesson so that the next time Jeff wakes me up to tell me something, I'll actually believe him!!  :)

I got Tobin cleaned up and ready to resume sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor of our room so I could keep an eye on him, then stripped his bed of sheets and carted them down to the laundry room.  It's a good thing I decided to keep Tobin nearby, since he continued to throw up periodically during the night.  It's a VERY good thing that he is almost four, however, because he is now old enough to be aware of his body impulses and know when he's getting ready to heave...and what's more, hang his head over a trash can rather than aiming wildly around the room.  I was celebrating that accomplishment last night, that's for sure!  :)

Jeff and I weren't absolutely sure whether Tobin had come down with a bug or whether it might be from food poisoning (Tobin had eaten some vanilla yogurt yesterday that none of the rest of us had eaten); but when Shav stood in the middle of the kitchen and emptied the contents of his stomach right before dinner tonight, we knew it must be some kind of infectious disease.  Rats.  That means that more than likely, both David and Josiah will come down with it, too; and there's even the possibility that Jeff and I will be afflicted.  Double rats.

On the bright side, I'm so glad this waited until after Christmas to strike!  On the gloomy side, I'm so sad that we might have exposed our Christmas guests (including twins who are about ten months of age) to these germs.  

On the bright side, Tobin recovered fairly quickly; what I suspected might be a 24-hour virus seems more like a 12-hour one!  On the gloomy side, it's still no fun to be sick...or to see the people I love be sick.

On the bright side, sick days provide extra time and opportunities for cuddling!  On the gloomy side, I and at least some of the boys will likely miss Jeff's work Christmas party tomorrow evening.

On the bright side, this sickness doesn't appear to be anything serious...and there is no gloomy side to that.  I continue to thank God for the great health and protection He has blessed us with!

My plan for today, before sickness altered the equation, was to spend time going through my pictures from Christmas and getting a post ready to share about all of that fun stuff.  But for now, I'll hold off on that, and simply finish up this post that I had started some time ago.  It may not be THE Christmas post, but it's still Christmas-y.  ;-)  Here then are lots of Christmas tidbits that have crossed my mind during the past few weeks.

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The characters in our nativity set are carved from olive wood and were purchased for me by my mother in Bethlehem when she visited me during the semester I studied in Jerusalem.  The stable was a much later addition, probably found on the sale rack at Walmart after Christmas one year, although I can't remember for sure.  Although I treasure our set for the memories it contains and for the fact that I was with my mother when she bought it in a shop not far from where Jesus was actually born(!), I'll admit to having admired other sets through the years, mostly for aesthetic reasons.  For example, the Willow Tree set--wouldn't that be nice to have?  And so forth.  Looking and admiring but never buying.

However, it is very clear to me that our set is the best one for us to have because of one simple reason:  the boys can play with it.  You'd think a wooden set would be unbreakable, but inexplicably Jesus lost a hand one year.  That doesn't stop us from enjoying these pieces, and my boys continue to interact with them in all sorts of ways.  Here are some that I've noticed this year:

One morning while Josiah, David, and I memorized James 1:12 and I gave them a spelling lesson, Tobin and Shav played cheerfully together with the manger scene.  Well, not just the manger scene.  It seems they thought adding another cow to the mix would be a good idea.  Makes sense, right?

Maybe it's a special breed of cow that they grew in Bethlehem; but for some reason, this cow towers over the rest of the figures.  The camel was so overwhelmed that he fell down at the feet of the cow.  It's a wonder the other figures didn't keel over from fright, too!  :)  But what are they all doing out of the stable?

 Ah, here's the answer.  The stable must have sustained some structural damage, so the construction crew was called in and this big orange truck went to work.

 No wonder all the people and animals had to evacuate while the truck did its job!

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I am not an elaborate decorator--at Christmas or at any other time.  I don't have the talent for it, and I don't choose to spend the money for it.  My home will never be featured in any magazine.  And I'm OK with that.  

I've learned to decorate with what I like, regardless of what the experts say.  I had to learn that lesson the hard way, after a consultation with a professional interior decorator that left me thinking, "I don't like ANYTHING that you've suggested," and, "Will you please just leave my house???"  :)  But now that I know it, I relax and have more fun with and in our home.  

Case in point:  the Christmas balls in this window.

I had no desire to spend a significant amount of money on anything new in the way of Christmas decorations this year...

...but one night in the dollar store, I saw these shiny orbs...

...and decided that they would fit in the budget.  :)

Jeff agreed, and it was a done deal.

I selected five, we brought them home, and Jeff helped me hang them in this previously unadorned window.

Call me a sucker for Christmas things that sparkle, but I have really enjoyed seeing these new additions to our decorations this year.  The pleasure I've received has been well worth the low price tag.  :)

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Two years ago, we decided to make Advent more memorable and meaningful, so we got Jotham's Journey (which I had heard SO much good stuff about) and Jeff read that to the boys every night.  It was a huge hit; everybody loved it; definitely two thumbs up.  Last year we did the same with Bartholomew's Passage, which was also highly enjoyed.  This year we continued with the trilogy and read Tabitha's Travels--a little reluctantly, since I had heard such mixed reviews about it.  To tell you the truth, I'm still not quite sure what I think of it.  It is HEAVY on the "girls can do everything boys can do" issue because the question of her identity as a girl in a male-dominated society seems to be the burning issue for Tabitha, so of course the author would have to deal with that.  But that's not my burning issue, nor is it my sons' burning issue.  :)  I honestly found it a little distracting to have that theme pop up so much.  I suppose in the end, she makes peace with who she is as a girl, and maybe that's the point of it all.  But still...  Well, anyway, we read it (Jeff read it to the boys, to be exact) and gleaned not only family togetherness and enjoyment from it, but also some good insights about what Christmas is all about.  Beyond that, I'm not sure what to say about it.

However, I'm at a loss as to what to read next year.  Start over again with Jotham's Journey?  Find another book?  The Jesse Tree has caught my eye (although I haven't read it or seen it in person), but is it meaty enough to be meaningful for Josiah who will be ten years old, as well as for our younger children?

I guess it's a good thing I have almost a year to figure it out.  I'll try not to lose sleep over it tonight.  ;-)

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I hear a lot about a quest for a peaceful Christmas, and I agree that it is so important.  Without wanting to sound smug at all, I'll simply say that I'm grateful that we seem to have found it.  Here are some of the things that we did (or didn't do, as the case may be) that helped the pace of this season lead to peace.

First of all, I've given up on sending Christmas cards.  Although I LOVE to receive them (especially when they include a family picture, a year-in-review letter, or a brief personal note), I have decided to not send any Christmas cards--at least, during this season of life.  I always have a pang of regret when the first envelopes start appearing in our mailbox--envelopes that are clearly not bills or junk mail--and I wish that I could be giving someone else the pleasure of personal mail showing up in their box, too.  But it only takes a few seconds for me to remember what a huge project (AKA hassle/headache) it was for me to get Christmas cards sent, and then I'm perfectly content to not participate in that right now.  Here is how it used to go for me:

1. get the "perfect" family picture taken

2. get reprints of the picture made

3. write a Christmas letter 

4. make copies of the Christmas letter (on special stationary that we had to remember to buy)

5. go through our address list to count how many letters we would be sending

6. update addresses (that, by itself, is a headache and a half!)

7. buy stamps

8. buy envelopes

9. address envelopes

10. stuff them

11. mail them

Not everything went in that order, but believe me, it was s-t-r-e-s-s-f-u-l.  Maybe at some point in the future, I'll get into this habit again; but for now, no thanks.  Between my blogging and Jeff's Facebooking, most of the people we would be sending cards to have access to our life.  If they care to, they can easily see a picture of our family and read about what we've been up to--not just at Christmas, but at any time of the year.  However, I do enjoy very much the letters and pictures that have been sent to us, and I happily put those pictures up on our refrigerator and am reminded often of those dear friends and family members who have taken the time and effort to go through all of the above steps.  :)

Second, we don't give gifts to our extended family.  It used to be that, in my side of the family, we would draw names, so all the brothers-in-law and nieces and everyone else would be involved in the gift exchange.  This simplified things in terms of only having to buy a gift for one person in the larger family, and that was good; but it got to the point where we really didn't know each other's tastes so we would fall back on the old stand-by:  gift certificates.  Our gift exchanges became a procession of handing each other envelopes.  "Oh, thank you for the gift certificate to American Eagle."  "You're welcome!  And thank you for the gift certificate to B. Dalton Books!"  Not very personal or meaningful.  We decided that it would be best to eliminate that from our Christmas, and I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when that decision was made.  :)  It's a joy to buy for our children and parents, but also a joy to not have the stress of buying beyond that level in the family tree.  :)

Third, some of the traditions that are held dearly in other families have not made their way into ours.  For example, gingerbread houses.  I have a lot of fun reading other bloggers' posts about their gingerbread-house-making festivities.  They make some really cute creations, and even more, they seem to have fun doing it. (Imagine that!)  But I know myself well enough to know that if I tried to do that project with my children, I would probably want to pull all my hair out by the end of our "fun."  Gingerbread walls falling down?  No thanks.  Frustrated children because they can't get their house to look just so?  I'll pass.  Bowls of candy just waiting to be dug into?  Probably not a good idea for us.  Icing dripping where it's not supposed to?  Not appealing in the least.  Crumbs everywhere?  I have enough crumbs under my kitchen table without adding to the mess.   This is not to say that we'll never ever do gingerbread houses (and of course, I'm not saying that others who do them are somehow wrong...actually, by your creativity and patience, you're proving how far ahead of me you really are!!), but not participating in the gingerbread house tradition certainly does wonders as far as keeping Christmas peaceful--at least, for me.  :)

Fourth, along the same lines, we've never had a tradition of a Christmas cookie baking day with icing, crumbs, sprinkles, sugar-highs, and the works.  Because Dad was a doctor, he was showered with food gifts when December rolled around, so our counters were full of homemade cookies, maybe a fruitcake or two, a box of Whitman's Sampler chocolates from the drug rep Mike, and probably a fruit basket thrown into the mix.  It was great, and we were grateful for the generosity of his patients toward their much-loved country doctor.  We had plenty of sweets around during December, even if we didn't make them!  

Now as a wife and mother and homemaker, I am completely lacking the internal button that says, "It's December; I must make cookies."  I watch incredible bakers like Bonnie and admire the fruit of their labors, but I lack the drive to duplicate it.  Don't get me wrong:  I like to make cookies.  If there is an event that needs cookies, I'm more than happy to help out.  When I feel like eating cookies, I make them.  I'm not anti-cookie, by any stretch of the imagination.  ;-)  But you know what would happen if I made dozens and dozens of various kinds of cookies?  I'll tell you.  I would eat them.  And the last time I checked, neither I nor any of the other people who find their sustenance around my kitchen table really need to be eating dozens of cookies. ;-)  So, that eliminates what is still for me a potentially stressful situation: trying to bake a bunch of cookies while my boys are around.  I'm sure we'll grow out of this stage; but now, if I were to try to make a wonderful cookie-baking-and-decorating day happen, I'm certain that after breaking up a few dozen disagreements about whose turn it was to add the baking soda and who mixed the dough a minute longer than the others, I'd be ready to throw the whole project out the window, mixing bowl and all!

Now that I've confessed how I really feel about Christmas baking, I will say this:  Bonnie's recipe for Macaroon Kisses caught my eye, and I did make them a couple of weeks ago.  It was actually a very relaxed and stress-free project, because I managed to mix up the dough while all the boys were happily occupied elsewhere; and then when they drifted into the kitchen, I assigned Josiah to roll the balls of dough in coconut, and the other boys to unwrap the Hershey Kisses.  Who wouldn't want a job like that?  The only downside is that I caught Shav stuffing quite a few Kisses into his squeezable little chipmunk cheeks, but that wasn't totally unexpected.  :)  I was delighted with how peacefully the process of making those cookies was, and I was equally as delighted with the taste.  The family members who aren't terribly fond of coconut didn't appreciate the cookies as much as I did; but that's OK.  It meant that those of us who love coconut got to have more cookies!  :)  Before they all got eaten, I had fun taking pictures of them on a wooden plate from Russia that was given to me by a dear friend in Israel.  

All in all, making these cookies was a very good experience, but that doesn't mean I want to host a cookie-decorating day any time soon or have a goal of making eight dozen cookies for next Christmas or get out the icing and sprinkles for my sons to go hog-wild with!  ;-)

I suppose the last way we keep Christmas peaceful is by guarding our schedule.  We're fortunate in that the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir finishes up its semester early in December which frees up the rest of the month.  Although there are a multitude of wonderful, worthwhile Christmas concerts and activities that we could participate in throughout the remainder of December, we actually do very little; and you know, it brings such freedom!  This year was unique in that Christmas fell on a Sunday, but we experienced the peace that comes from eliminating activities by deciding to participate in a Christmas Eve service, rather than a Christmas morning one.  It felt a little strange to not be "going to church" (a whole other rant I could write sometime) on Sunday morning, but it made the day so stress-less and simplified.  It was beautiful.

From Jeff I have learned that a "no" to even good activities is often a "yes" to something even better.  And when December rolls around and I say "no" to Christmas cards, messy cookie baking and gingerbread house making, gift-buying for 25 relatives, and an outside activity every other night of the week, I've found that an automatic "yes" rolls back to me.  Yes to relaxed time with our family.  Yes to memories made right here at home.  Yes to cozy evenings by the woodstove.  Yes to low blood pressures without "we've got to get on the road in 5 minutes or we'll be late!" hysteria.  Yes to reasonable budgets with no overspending.  Yes to simple pleasures.

Yes to peace!