Christmas at Gunga's

First of all, have we discussed the fact that all her grandchildren call my mother Gunga? I am already thinking of options for my grandkids to call me. Cute options. Options that will not embarrass anyone when we are out in public. Like Grammy. Mimi. Nana. Or Kooky. I'll probably end up with the last one. It fits.

Christmas with our "big family" at Gunga's involves many beloved traditions...

cousins!!!

There are 23 children and adults living under one roof. It's pure insanity. And we love it. My mother-in-law joins us, which is really special for us to have both sides of the family celebrate together.
With this many people, there are A LOT of presents...

This year we finally broke down and had the cousins draw names. And the adults did a nice white elephant exchange. I was a little nervous about the white elephant exchange since my love language is gifts. Why did I have to get the most shallow love language? To alleviate my stress, we brought two gifts I knew I wanted so that we could try to get those if everyone else brought duds. In the end, it turned out well for most everyone. Except for my brother-in-law who ended up taking home a froofie scarf and a home decorating book. Sorry Jeff. The good news for my little gift-loving self is that Bill and I both gave each other TOMS. He got my "subtle" hint! And also gave me a pair of socks that reads "I love gifts!". It's true, I can't help myself.

Gunga always does something special for the family while we are all together. In the past it has been renting a trolley for us all to go around and look at Christmas lights. This year it was an indoor water park. We used to ring the bells for the Salvation Army. Look how far we've fallen. Instead of freezing our tushies outside of Wal-mart to serve others, we were doing this...

The final tradition I will share is our Christmas Eve tradition. We all go to a Christmas Eve service. We come home and the kids open one gift. Every year it is jammies. And every year we try to pretend that they aren't getting jammies. But the real tradition starts after the kids are in bed. My sisters and I (and sometimes a husband or two, NEVER my own) stay up until 5am getting everything ready for Christmas Day. Every year I swear I will have my act together and we won't stay up that late. But guess what happens the next year? It's crazy, but I cherish those late night fudge-eating, last minute wrapping, toy-twistie-wire removing memories. This is how my brother-in-law felt about it...

That's just about how each of my sisters and I looked on Christmas night after our whopping 3 hours of sleep. I don't have any pictures of that, of course.

How about this New Year's resolution? Next year we will only stay up until 4am.

Great expectations

Our family has two Christmas celebrations.
One at home just for us.

And another with our "big family" (as my kids call it)
at my mom's house.
I had envisioned our Christmas at home with great expectations.
You know where this is going right?
Every time I have great expectations of an incredible blog post
prepare for something to tank.
This year it was my vision for the kids stockings...


they might look kind of cute, but wait for it...


We don't stuff them at home,
but I had ordered a special gift to have in a
fourth unmarked stocking for our little baby to come.
I am in love with this little blabla doll called Coco.
I knew she would look so cute peeking out over the stocking
and that my kids would think it was a really fun surprise.
The problem is I ordered the medium sized doll
instead of the small one.
(Measurements are math. And I don't do math.)
So this Amazon-like doll, crammed into the stocking
wasn't "peeking out" at all.

Instead she was creepily looming large which robbed her
of all potential cuteness.
And robbed me of my potential warm fuzzy.
Along with my fabulous blog post.
Though it did provide me with a little chuckle.
Not to be confused with Chuckie, an even more creepy doll.
I still love her, but I think she may
need to be exchanged for the smaller size.

Joy to the world!

I'm officially wishing you a Merry Christmas
at 12:03am on the December 26th.
Oops. I'm running late, as usual.
Hope your Christmas was filled with joy
and the wonders of His love!

These are a few of my favorite things...

I'm not quite sure how this song came to be known as a Christmas song. They show the movie "The Sound of Music" every Christmas day. Am I missing something? Is it a Christmas movie? I thought it was a WWII movie. Well, in any case, I will take advantage of the song in writing this post on a few of MY favorite things. (If Oprah can do it, so can I.)

1) My Seven jeans. I could live in them. Actually I do live in them. As I write this I am on day 4 without being washed ( a little perfume goes a long way). They are SO comfie! And for me, Miss Pear Shaped USA, to find jeans she loves is quite a feat indeed. And to find them at TJ Maxx is the icing on the cake!

2) The song "Single Ladies (Put a ring on it)" by Beyonce. I can't relate to the lyrics, but the beat is irresistible and I promise the song, once in your head, will not soon depart. It's the second song on my playlist if you want to partake (enjoy, Jocelyn!).

3) TOMS shoes. I don't actually own a pair yet, but hopefully my own personal Santa got my subtle hint. The subtle hint was an email that read, "Hey babe, I want these for Christmas" with a link. Even though my post bunion surgery directives prohibit such shoes, I don't care because TOMS are going to Ethiopia with shoes this year and I want to be a part of it!

4) Heated seats in the car. We've been having frigid temperatures and a warm booty does my heart good. I turned it on for my friend Amy once without her knowing and she said "Wait a minute, did I just pee my pants?". Yep, it feels that good.

5) The Office. Enough said.

6) My Yankee Candle SoHo Living candle in cinnamon sparkle. I love scented candles, but it is hard for me to find the right scent. I like sweet and spicy. Too spicy and I feel repelled. Too sweet and I feel hungry. This one is just right.

7) Of course, these are a few of my favorite favorite things...

What are a few of your favorite things?

Snow days and Sick days

We've been walking in a winter wonderland for the past several days. I don't mind the bitter cold as much when it's pretty out. I took the older kids sledding on Tuesday. I use the word "took" loosely here. Here's how it came about:
Tate: Mom, will you take us sledding?
Me: Umm, uh...
Tate: You can just drive us to that hill on 20th and then sit in the car and watch us.
Me: Okay, then. Sure.
He knows me. I love to look at the snow. I don't want to make contact.

There hasn't been an official snow day yet, though it may get bad enough this week to warrant one on Friday. I love snow days because that means my kids are H-O-M-E and I am in my jammies.

You know what other days I like? Sick days. I know I'm sick to enjoy my kids being sick, but I miss them while they are at school. And as long as the sick doesn't involve anything life-threatening or with chunks in it, I'm cool with that. Tate had a "sick" day on Monday. You may have guessed by the quotation marks that the true nature of the sickness was questionable. He had a headache and was lethargic. Last week I had a headache and was lethargic, so I thought maybe there was some virus on the loose. By noon, I was pretty sure the technical name for this "sickness" was a little word called tired. He had stayed up until 1:13am finishing a book two nights before and it took a toll on him.

Was I upset with him for staying up so late to read? Nope. I do the same thing when I read a novel. That's why I am only allowed to read 2 novels a year, tops. I feel compelled to finish it within 48 hours of starting it. I may be a wee bit obsessive. So I cut the boy some slack.

And the other thing is HE IS READING A BOOK!! AND LOVING IT!! We've tried everything to try to encourage a love for reading, including resorting to paying him (his love language) a penny per page. Even that tactic didn't have staying power. But he has found the "Warrior" series and suddenly he's a bookworm.

Like mother, like son?

O, come let us adore him?

Our students had a Christmas party for which the theme was to come dressed as your favorite Christmas character, like from a movie. We decided to go, along with our staff interns, as a rather unconventional nativity scene. Beware: the following pictures are not for the faint of heart...

In case you are having trouble understanding what you are seeing, let me define roles. Daley and Becky (interns) along with Tate are the three wise men. Matt (intern) is an angel. Jack and I are Mary and Joseph. And, yes, Bill is the baby Jesus.

Pause for dramatic effect.

I realize that he and I look more like a couple at a toga party. That was not intentional. I also realize that this could seem sacreligous. But let me say in my defense that it was my husband's idea. Everyone knows that I would do almost anything for a laugh, but not my Bill. He is the most unsacreligous person on the planet, right? So I'm banking on Bill's piety and sense of judgment on this one. That and God having a sense of humor.

Below is a second shot of our dysfunctional manger scene including Miss Em in her costume. She really wanted to be Santa. Forcing her to be a christian character didn't seem very Christ-like, so Santa she was. I figured we were already pretty "out there" in our depiction, so why not let Santa in on the action?

I want our Christmas to be meaningful and memorable. This experience definitely fell in the memorable category. Meaningful? Not so much.

A Tale of Two Jacks

One of my favorite parenting moments happened in the summer. We had a dear friends 10 year old son over and I was asking him what his favorite thing was. I kind of meant like toys or hobbies, but he answered "I'm going to have to say...Christianity."

As I was still lost in the sweetness of the moment, my little Jack asked, "Christianity? What's that?" Then shrugging said "Never heard of it." I had to laugh.

But the little guy redeemed himself at school yesterday. Mind you, my kids go to public school. A little school we love. As I was walking into the school to volunteer Jack's class was out for recess. His sweet teacher called me over to relay an interaction they had just had.

She told the class that after recess they would be getting ready to go to the school Chorus Concert. I think one of the kids asked what it was going to be about. And my Jackie said "Well, it better be about Jesus because that's what Christmas is really about!" Rock on buddy, rock on!

I may not want to waste money, but I guess I have no problems wasting time

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What I did with 3 kids in school...

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More wasting time...

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I can't help myself...

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the most wonderful time of the year?

Every year I want advent to be a special time for our family of preparing to celebrate the coming of Christ into the world. And every year it's more like a frenzied whirlwind of yuletide chaos. But this year, I found a fun Advent wreath at Target to assist our family in a nightly time of focusing our hearts and minds on Jesus.

My plan was to not only have a little treat in each day, but a verse or activity or prayer. I was so excited about the idea as I began brainstorming ideas to include. I even imagined the post I would do about our family's delightful advent season. Then I actually, consciously thought, "Wait. Maybe I better not do a post about it, but save it instead to publish as a book someday." Seriously? As if there aren't 116 books out there on advent devotions for kids? But such was my frame of mind. But wait, there's more. As I considered both my book and my post, I thought (again consciously), "Well, I'll have to be careful because I want to be sure not to put anyone under the pile with my ideas."

Well I need not have worried about that. Not only would no one be put under the pile by the way these advent devotions have been going in my family, any book I would write would be a pile of doggie doo! The book I would be qualified to write would be titled "How Advent Devotions Can Cause You to Declare Temporary Insanity". I was forlorn by the lack of appreciation my children had for my pearls of wisdom. How did I turn a family time intended to focus on Christ into something that was all about me???? Believe me, I'm an expert. I was distraught by the fact that they were far more interested in the jelly bellies than the discussion about preparing our hearts for Christmas. Imagine that: children loving candy!

But most of all, I am saddened by the ugliness in my own heart. Thank you Jesus that you came to rescue me. I know I need it. Maybe that is the best way for me to prepare for celebrating his birth: to recognize my need for a Savior and thank Him lavishly for His mercy toward me. The one who plans the family devotions for her kids, but fails to realize while doing so that she needs it more than anyone.

"But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy..." Titus 3:4,5

My husband keeps sending me Dave Ramsey emails and videos as a not-so-subtle hint. Apparently there is some kind of economic crisis going on. I try not to think about it because I like happy thoughts . But I do get that regardless of the country's financial situation, we are in full-time Christian work and though it is incredibly satisfying, it's not a get-rich scheme. At least, it better not be. So, I will attempt to make my man (and Dave Ramsey) proud this holiday season.

First, I started "saving money" by going shopping on Black Friday. The honest truth is that I do this as much for the adventure of it as for the bargains. Funny how any other day of the year I have to practically be dragged out of bed, but the day after Thanksgiving I hop out of bed at 4am with no trouble at all. It's such a fun time to be with my sisters. Now my older nieces have joined in on the action. We appreciate having them help to "box out" when needed. Actually, all the shoppers I encountered were very pleasant this year. I guess everyone was enjoying the bond of consumerism and the patriotism of trying to stimulate the economy. Below is a picture of my kids in their $4 track suits I scored from Wal-Mart. It's a good thing they were so cheap since they attract dog hair like crazy.

Second I promise, in the name of good stewardship, not to beg for a new Christmas tree. Our hand-me-down tree is rather pathetic. Let's use the euphemism "quirky". It's crooked and only some of the pre-lit lights actually live up to their name. It would be perfect in a home in "Who-ville". But I'm sure Dave Ramsey doesn't think I need a new tree. And I know my husband doesn't. So I will be content and remember that a quirky tree is probably the best tree for this crazy family.

Third, I will refuse to listen to the voice that tells me to buy more for my kids. Sometimes it is just a whisper and other times it is a strong, convincing voice not dissimilar to the guy who does the ShamWow commercials. My love language is gifts. I love giving them almost as much as I love getting them. Just being honest. This reality makes it hard for me at gift-giving occasions to ignore the desire to shower my kids with gifts and revel in the joy that brings them. I'm not saying I'm going to become a scrooge. I'm just attempting to tame the beast. If I succeed, I don't think it will only be my husband who thanks me. Maybe someday my kids will as well. I hope they grow to treasure Jesus more than anything. That's what I want for myself too!

Now if I could just stop wasting money by washing loads twice because I've let them sit and mold in the washing machine for days on end.