Semester Wrap-Up

This morning began early with goodbyes just as the sky was lightening from black to dark grey to light grey.

Laurel and Hunter popped in late last night. Randy, Duncan, and I had found the perfect Christmas tree (full but not fat) and put up the lights a few nights ago, waiting for sister to come home so that we could put the ornaments on together. She was so surprised and delighted; she thought she would miss out on decorating this year. Her smile was totally worth the week of trying to figure out when, exactly, we three were free at the same time so we could get the tree and have it up and ready on Thursday night.

I listened and watched from my perch on the couch. Laurel sat beneath the tree, opened the ornament box, and pulled them out one by one. Because she is an organizer, she put them in specific stacks: Dad's outdoorsy ornaments, Mom's kid-picture ornaments, travel, homemade, artisan, etc. Predictably, Randy says, "Where are the icicles? Did Mom throw them all away yet?" and Duncan made a beeline for the Energizer bunny and the bacon. The plastic icicles, the plastic Energizer bunny, the bacon: the ornaments that torture Laurel and me each year, colliding with our vision of white lights and matching decorations. Truthfully, I wouldn't want our tree any other way. I love the mishmash of exquisite and ordinary, of artisan-made and child-made, of the big orange UT Santa and the delicate heart from Austria.

But back to this morning. Laurel and Hunter left early. They had over 3 hours to drive this morning to get to Appalachian State University by noon. Next year  is a big question mark for all three of our kids: Jesse to law school, Duncan to college, and Laurel to graduate school. This is the first of her graduate school tours. Jesse should get his LSAT scores any day now, and those will help determine where he is headed in the fall. Duncan has narrowed down his choices to two of the three colleges to which he applied and was accepted. So we're all just waiting, watching, and weighing pros and cons.

It's an exciting time!!

I should be melancholy, I know. And I could be, if I let myself get wrapped in memories of mornings spent snuggled under blanket reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas with kids in pajamas drinking hot chocolate, or even when early mornings meant milk dripped on the table, Legos on the floor, and shrieks of "GIVE IT BACK!" rattling the windows.

I could really get melancholy when I look at these.

Just a few of Duncan's senior pictures. You know. My baby. Thank you to my dear friend, Donna, for these amazing photos. We've been in this together for a long, long time.

But I'm not melancholy, even though we are just wrapping up Duncan's next-to-last semester of high school. My next-to-last semester of homeschooling, which I've been doing for 19 years now.

Nineteen years.

But I'm not melancholy this morning. It's business as usual. A half an hour of "WAKE UP, DUNCAN!" He'll wake up, work on his German for awhile, work on his essay (an analysis of horror films), and then head off to work at Kroger.

No Christmas crafts around here any more, and I'm okay with that. No Charlie Brown's Christmas, no Rudolph, no Frosty the Snowman. I'm okay with that. I'm even okay with not reading any of the Christmas books that make me cry, because once I get started, I may not stop.

 Linked up with the Weekly Wrap-Up

The Days of In-Between

I love these days of in-between, the slice of quiet between the Christmas bustle and the coming buzz of New Year's guests. It's a quiet, gray, drizzly morning, but the Christmas tree in the corner and the fire make everything cozy, make one just want to linger. Forget the counters that need cleaned and the carpets that need vacuumed in anticipation of company. This morning is all about the in-between.

In the in-between time, the decorations stay up but the boxes and bags get carried away. Dinners are mostly leftovers, or in the case of a family with birthdays on the 25th and 26th, dinner out at the restaurant of one's choosing.

Duncan, who turned 13 on Christmas day, chose Flaherty's Irish Pub. He loves their fish and chips. The server spilled tartar sauce on Laurel's boots and gave us a free dessert. We brought our leftovers home to eat the next day, again avoiding having to cook an actual meal.

Dinner on another in-between day was funnel cakes and kettle corn at Dollywood. It was a chilly, sunny day, and thousands of other people thought it was the right day to get the last out of their season passes, too. I sat on benches and re-read The Book Thief while Randy and the kids waited in lines. It is strange to be in Nazi Germany one minute and then to look up and  watch passersby who are so happy they bounce and swing. I did ride the carousel and the bumper cars, and I thought about how much nicer it is to go to Dollywood with teenagers instead of toddlers.

We anchor ourselves, Randy and I, on these in-between days.

"Today," he announces, "is December 27, 2013."
"Is it Friday?" I ask.
"It is," he assures me. "I took the trash out this morning."

These days feel like luxury. We linger over breakfast together, reading random bits of internet news to each other. We put whipped cream in our coffee and justify having apple or pumpkin pie for breakfast.

We revel in having our oldest home in this in-between time, home not just from college but from a semester in Italy. He mostly hangs out with his friends but they check in a few times each day, playing a few video games with Duncan or coercing Laurel into a round of Just Dance. And they'll come for supper if it's something other than leftovers.

They came last night for fettucine alfredo and artichokes. We won these nifty butter warmers in a white elephant exchange. Someone's junk, our treasure.

In the in-between time I grow sluggish. Showering and putting on real clothes seems superfluous. What is there to do, really, but read and watch the birds at their new feeder? In between spells of utter laziness, I iron a few shirts, put away wrapping paper, water the crinkling poinsettias. I think about how this year, for the first time in 20 years, there are no new toys to pick up, no Legos to step upon at night. We are a house filled with teenagers and young adults. We are in between ourselves.

After a few days of in between, to be honest, I am ready for what's next. I love the anticipation of company, of good conversation and meals cooked together. I am ready to find a cute outfit and put on boots, wipe down the counters and vacuum the floors. Family and friends will be here tomorrow and for the rest of this week, and I'm ready. In less than a week we'll be hauling the tree to the curb and packing up ornaments; I'll be forcing myself into lesson-plan mode and thinking about what to cook for supper. But I'll be ready.

This in-between time is good for the soul, good for anchoring oneself and reveling in the beauty of simplicity, the luxury of unconstructed days. In between.

Christmas Books That Make Me Cry {Repost}

{A repost from 2009 that still holds true today.}

 

The mark of a good Christmas book, for me, is that it makes me cry. We have a good number of children's books for Christmas, and I try to add a new book each year. We have some of the essential ones like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, popular ones like The Polar Express and some silly but sentimental ones like Mercer Mayer's Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad, starring Little Critter. Some of the books we give the obligatory seasonal read and then put back on the rack.

But I have my favorites. These are the books that, without fail, make me cry at some point. My voice catches, a child's head pops up and looks at me and says, "Mama! Are you crying again?" I can't help it.


1. The Tale of the Three Trees (retold by Angela Elwell Hunt): This book ties it all together—Jesus' birth, life, and death—in a simple but eloquent story. I get choked up on almost every page.


2. The Story of Holly and Ivy (by Rumer Godden): This one takes us a couple of reading periods to get through, but it is so well worth it. This is the story of an orphan who wants a grandmother, a doll who wants a home, and a woman who wants a family. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.


3. The House Without a Christmas Tree (by Gail Rock): I loved this TV special when I was a kid, but I'm not sure I'd ever read the book until a few years ago when I picked it up at a yard sale. Now my daughter and I read this story annually of a girl who begs her father for a Christmas tree, and I always cry at the end.

4. A Wish for Wings That Work (by Berkeley Breathed): Is it weird to get weepy over a book about a penguin named Opus? I can't help it; there's something about Santa saying, "Ho, ho, ho, go!" to a penguin whose wings don't work that brings tears every time. Also, this was one of the books we bought for our oldest for his first Christmas, so it's extra sentimental.

5. The First Night (by B.G. Hennessy): This short book starts off with one of my favorite Bible verses: "And the World became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14) and proceeds to tell the birth of Christ in simple but poetic text. I especially love the rustic look of the paintings, done on butternut wood and shaped with a jigsaw. It's the simplicity of a birth—of a new life—that gets me every time.

And so those are my Top 5 favorite Christmas books. I have to add another one that takes awhile to read but is so well worth it: The Christmas Doll by Elvira Woodruff. This one isn't for the youngest readers, but 9 and up will love it.

Do you have one that makes you cry? If so, leave a comment and I'll check it out! Here are a few collected from comments:

The Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant
The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston (I can't wait to check this one out!!)
Jotham's Journey (This one's been on my to-read list for years!)
Bagels from Benny by Aubrey Davis

Christmas Decor: Bits and Pieces

I added some "new" Christmas decor this year that I want to remember for next year. "New" has nothing to do with purchasing and everything to do with found items and a bit of creativity.

Shutter card display.
So this came about because we finally had our broken shutters replaced, and this was the one unbroken shutter. So obviously I thought I should save it and do something with it. I imagined sticking Christmas cards in the slats; however, the slats on this shutter are connected and cards wouldn't stay. So, twine and tiny clothespins worked perfectly.

This was incredibly adorable. Eventually, the whole shutter was filled with strings of cards, and I love it. But there were two problems. First, I couldn't figure out a spot that could accommodate a 5' shutter that was very visible, so this work of art ended up tucked in a rarely seen corner. I'll have to work on that for next year. Second, the kitty discovered that she could torture me by playing with the twine and knocking the cards off. Hopefully she'll be a lazy cat next year.

Burlap poinsettia covers. 
I love poinsettias but I hate those shiny foil bottoms they are packaged in. I took some squares of burlap and a red ribbon and just covered up the shiny foil. I have no patience for measuring or cutting straight, and this was a very forgiving project. LOVE this one.

White lights and ivy.
We had our living room painted right before Thanksgiving, and I never got around to figuring out the window treatments. They were taken down during the painting and were so old and bedraggled that I knew I couldn't put them back up. So... I was inspired to just twist white lights and ivy (we have plenty of that growing in our yard) around the curtain rod. I love the way this looks! In fact, I'd gladly keep this look all year 'round, except that the ivy is now getting rather crispy and, well, dead. I guess I'll have to ponder window treatments again now.

The backdoor wreath.
My mom used to cut grapevine and make actual wreaths, but I don't have the patience for that. When we did the Christmas in the Smokies hike in early December, this was one of the crafts people were doing. Basically, you just go out in your yard and gather any greenery or other foliage and tie it up with ribbon. I love this, and 4 weeks after I made it, it still looks great. (The red berries are from the nandina shrubs we have all around the yard.)

Four projects that cost absolutely nothing and looked fantastic. These will definitely appear next year at our house!

Linked up on Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom

Wordless Wednesday: Dad

I love this picture of my Dad and Mom that I snapped on Christmas Day. My Dad smiles a lot, but he never smiles for pictures. I'm so proud of my Dad—for Christmas he gave my mom that pretty scarf she is wearing. As long as I can remember, he's said to me a few weeks before Christmas: "I am stumped. I don't know what to get your mother." I remember the year we lived in Germany when he waiting until the very last minute to go shopping. What we didn't realize was that the stores closed much earlier there than they do here on Christmas Eve. He barely made it, but he did get my mom an adorable chimney sweep for her Hümmel collection.

Speaking of presents and my Dad, I did something that I'm quite proud of for my Dad this year. In my writers' workshop at my church, I learned about this awesome site called Create Space, a division of Amazon. It's an incredibly easy and totally free way to self-publish. As soon as I was introduced to it, I knew what I needed to do.

My Dad is a storyteller. Over the past 20 years, he's been writing down slices of life, memories, and poems from his life. One afternoon when he was gone, I went on a stealth mission, logged onto his computer, and emailed myself all his stories. (Fortunately, he has them on word docs.) I realized that I could not possibly get all his stories into one collection before Christmas, so I decided just to do his childhood stories. My third brother sent me a bunch of pictures, and just a few days before Christmas, Boy at Dix arrived.

How cool is that? I got a copy for all my brothers, nieces, and nephews, and a bunch of copies for my Dad. Needless to say, it was pretty much the gift of the year.

That's Dad, with his great-grandson Justus looking on, as he opens his book. What I really loved is that my Dad right away sent one to his cousin Bob, who is featured quite prominently in these childhood stories. Dad has not seen nor spoken with Bob in—ready for this?—50 years! I am excited to hear Bob's reaction.

The most precious part to me, though, is that we have this book. My kids, my brothers, nieces, nephews—we have this part of my Dad. I am so incredibly grateful to my Dad for writing down these stories and memories so that we can have a piece of our family history, so that we can keep passing these stories down through the generations.

My message: get those stories on paper. If your parents or grandparents don't like to write, get them talking and record those stories.

Linked up on Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom

Very Merry

Family. We are abundantly blessed with it. Two days before Christmas, 29 of us gathered together at our house for our first family portrait in 14 years. We've added a lot of people since then. Only our oldest brother, James, was missing. He is always missing.

Cousins, cousins, cousins

A room filled with family

Oma with the oldest and youngest of her grandchildren

Everyone reading the book of my Dad's stories that I had published for him. More on that later.

Christmas Eve was quiet and perfect with just my parents here with us. As always, we feast on shrimp and cheese and cookies and punch. Dad reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and Randy reads the birth of Jesus from Luke.

And Christmas Day, we celebrate doubly. We celebrate that baby in the manger who saved the world, and we celebrate our own precious youngest child.

May you have peace, joy, and merriment that can't be contained in one day!

Seizing the Holidays

It started in November with the kids' production at their performing arts co-op…

 

And moved quickly to packing boxes for Operation Christmas Child (I think our troop packed 35)

Packing boxes for OCC

And then Duncan was in a local Christmas parade at the request of a little girl who adores him…

Duncan and his admirer, Zee

There was the nearly 2 hours Christmas program, where I giggled uncontrollably and inappropriately and in which Duncan lip synched to "Silent Night" in German…

Duncan not even pretending to sing at this moment.

 And the Mother/Daughter/Grandmother Christmas Tea, which was as beautiful as ever, even though we did not have a proper coordinator for it this year, so Caroline and I threw it together. It was our last tea as coordinators, and the troop surprised us each with a cabin getaway weekend to use whenever we wish!

Laurel and Mom

Somewhere in the midst of all that, Laurel was in the play "The Mystery at Shady Acres" put on by her drama class at co-op…

And Randy and Duncan went on the Boy Scouts' annual winter camping trip…

One Saturday we took in Christmas in the Smokies, which was not a cheesy Pigeon Forge-type thing but a living history walk through the woods, with reenactors talking about what Christmas-time would have been like in the early 1900s.

"Granny" explaining the medicinal herbs in her basket.

Laurel went to a Christmas dance, two tacky sweater parties, and had a Christmas sleepover, but I only have pictures of the dance…

 

A small group of our AHG troop went caroling at the airport…

Somewhere in all of that, we got our tree at the local tree farm and decorated it…

And Jesse came home from college (straight As!) and yes, he still can't seem to stop reading…

This past week we have had the tremendous joy of Koll Henry visiting from New York (he's my fourth brother's baby)… 

And now we are heading into pure family time, decorating cookies and having the Christmas sing at my second brother's house.

This afternoon is going to be fabulous. For the first time ever, every single one of my parents' offspring (except, of course, our oldest brother James, who never comes to anything ever) will be here at my house. That's 29, from my 87-year-old father to his youngest grandson, Koll Henry, 9 months old. That also includes 5 great-grandchildren, who are all older than Kollman. We are spread out from New York to TN to Texas, so it is quite a feat to have everyone here at the same time. My friend and wonderful photographer, Donna, is coming over to take real family pictures for us.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be relatively quiet, with all the extended family gone.  Besides Christmas, we'll celebrate Duncan's birthday on the 25th and Randy's on the 26th—and then Randy's family will start arriving on the 27th.

I probably should feel overwhelmed with all these goings-on. I don't—well, most of the time. I feel incredibly blessed. Mixed in with all the activities, we've had quiet evenings at home with homemade Chex mix and movies, with candy-cane Hershey's kisses and Scattergories. We've had our house filled with our children and their friends, sitting around in the living room chatting for hours. We've shared food and laughter with new friends and old friends.

And almost every single morning, the love of my life and I sit in the living room drinking our coffee, while our three sleep and the cats and dog frolic. It's a good place to be.

From the Archives: Christmas Books, Advent Traditions, and Favorite Cookies

 
I am finally getting into Christmas this week, even though we've already been to half a dozen holiday events already. Yesterday, we started our advent readings. Yes, I know yesterday was Day 12. Today I am going to get out our Christmas books and make the first batch of cookies.

These are good posts, full of books and traditions and food. Check them out if you have a few minutes! And if you don't have a few minutes, just go to #3 and make jam diagonals. Your family will love you even more than they do now.

1. Christmas Books That Make Me Cry

2. Advent Traditions

3.  Favorite Christmas Cookies

Next up: Christmas shopping. Why do I feel so late, even though Christmas is still 2 weeks away? Is everyone but me finished already?