John Smulo is starting another meme (isn’t there a limit on these?). But this one is fun and is sort of like a (non)commercial break in the action. And you self-select your participation.
Here are the rules, but in grand pirate tradition … they’re more like guidelines.
Okay … so … rules (but they’re more like guidelines) established and all that. Here are my four or so favorite Christmas movies in (no particular) order.
1. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer … the 1964 edition and I’m partial to this for the Island of Mis-fit Toys.
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas … the 1966 edition – I love Cindy Lu Who and her great big heart.
3. Home Alone (the first one) … in the midst of the slap-stick hilarity there is a lot of really spiritual stuff going on that’s worth watching and thinking about, plus I really love Joe Pesci in this.
4. Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation … just fun and the scenes at dinner knock me over.
I don’t like drawing those much. But sometimes ya jus’ gotta. I did that today with my son. He asked me a question and I felt my stomach flop over in revulsion. So I drew a line. I made a boundary and set a new tradition.
He’s not happy with it. But I suspect he will live. I hope it will give us fodder for some conversation over time.
At the very least he will learn never to ask a question that you do not want the answer to.
He asked me if he could play a war game on the computer. I do not like war games at any time. At best I merely tolerate knowing that he plays them because he’s a boy and he loves them. Someday he will have to make his own decisions about peace, violence, love and war. I cannot make those decisions for him. Neither can I just remove all of those influences from him now, because that will just make them more tantalizing and appealing … it will also make him more bitter and resentful of me. So he plays them with some regularity.
He asked me this morning, morning number 2 of Advent, if he could play a war game on the computer. I felt my stomach turn over. It wanted to heave. My brain flashed with pictures of guns, cannons, death, mayhem and madness. I looked at him for a minute and said, No. No, you may not play war games on the computer during Advent. This is a time when we consider the coming of peace. So … no war.
So, he will have a 25-ish day fast from war games. I guess I’m going to think about how I will consider the coming of peace in my life in tangible ways too.
Sometimes a line in the sand cuts in more than one direction.
I know I should write something. Anything. Anything at all. Quite a bit happened this weekend and most of it was really wonderful. But my brain seems to have been sucked out my left ear and I am now a member of the walking undead. Well, the sitting undead. I am not even walking, just sitting. Staring. With the occasional drool.
I could write about how the family gathered together and there wasn’t ever a cross word. Well, there were cross words, but we spoke them to our children when they were beating each other about the head and neck, or had forgotten to brush their teeth. Heinous moments such as those.
I could write about how wonderful it was to sit and talk with my sister-in-law with whom I have had many fights and disagreements over the years. But now we can come together as friends and sisters. Grace truly reigned over this weekend. Without her presence and energy, I’m not certain I could have coped with all of the people who were here. It was good to know she had my back.
I could write about the joy it was to prepare meals with my “special” niece, who became my sous chef for the weekend. She has many delays and disorders, but the girl is a warhorse in the kitchen and my second set of hands.
I could write about the giggles and silliness from the children who we rarely saw. They were off playing hard almost all weekend. But the remains of the day are scattered all over the house. I have found bits and pieces of artwork from all of them here and there; artifacts and treasures from a stratification of family history.
I could write about the relationships that were rebuilt and strengthened. The sinews that were tried. The new bonds that were bridged. But first my own synapses must meet. And that seems to be a problem this morning! So, for at least a day or so more, I will be processing, tidying, reconnoitering and becoming again. I’ll be back again soon. In time for Advent with Brother Maynard and his wonderful new book, (which I still have to download), but soon. I promise.
Well then. I’m now keepin’ up with the Joneses and keepin’ on with getting ready for Thanksgiving.
Our first guests arrive today. The house is not ready. It will be. Sort of. Things will be fine and we’ll all have fun. It won’t go according to my original plan, but the necessary things will get done and the unnecessary things will drop away. Hopefully, I will remember to put the turkey in the oven on time.
It turns out that I do not have stress-induced eczema. I have a fungus that is causing the itching. Super! In what has become a standing pre-Thanksgiving tradition for LightHusband and I, we had matching doctors appointments yesterday afternoon. He has an upper respiratory infection and a sinus infection. I have fungus. Ewweth. Apparently we all have fungus on our skin, but if it gets underneath through a break in the skin then it becomes a problem. Bleh. Something I did not want to learn. It makes having 16 for dinner on Thanksgiving and hosting a party for 35 the next day just another hoop to jump through. Keeping up and keeping on.
In other news, the grandparents will stay an extra day. We’re going to a Washington Capitals game on Saturday evening. This came up as a surprise yesterday afternoon. LightGirl has been chosen to skate with 3 of her team mates to help clear the ice between periods of the game that night. So while the rest of the thousands of fans will be there to see the game, at least five of the fans will be watching the cleaning of the ice! It’s very important you know 😀
Last, I’ve finished The Shack, by William P. Young. It was all the rage several months ago. I read several reviews of it all around the blog-o-sphere (including this one). It looked intriguing. So I threw it in my shopping cart in Amazon. Then one day it arrived. Such a miracle.
I know many (most) folks who read it sat down and did so in one sitting. Certainly, that is possible. And I wish I could have done so. But that wasn’t bloodly likely given my schedule lately. So I grabbed odd moments and before bed-time to read it. It’s a very powerful book packed into a small space. There’s a lot there.
I found it made an excellent companion piece to the book I reviewed here recently, It’s A Dance, by Patrick Oden. Having recently read that book gave me texture to bring to The Shack that I would not have had had I read it earlier.
I’m not entirely certain that every last jot and tittle of the theology is correct. But then, I don’t know that anyone’s is. Every one of us are making educated guesses. Some guesses are more educated than others. But not one of us knows the whole of what God is up to. At best we see through a glass darkly; we see in part. This book’s vision of the whole is winsome, captivating and certainly worth considering. And certainly well worth the read.
So, after my whine yesterday, I find myself with a precious few moments this morning to write a quick post. It’s only because I’m up early with the family as they run out to hockey practice. After I get this out in the tubes, I’m off to put the very last (do you hear me?) coat of paint on the trim!! And painting will be DONE!
In any case, in the midst of all the planning and preparation for Thanksgiving, my sisters-in-law and I have been multi-tasking. We manage to do that well. We have also been having several other conversations on the side. One has been talk of color-coordinated family pictures to assuage my mother-in-law (a whole other story and don’t get me started). A second has had to do with Christmas gift giving.
For several years now, my husband’s siblings and spouses have joined funds and given animals through Heifer, International. Mostly we give goats. For some reason this makes me inordinately happy. Not the giving part (that makes me smile)… the goat part.
This year we have begun to discuss what changes we’d like to make to how and what we’ll give to nieces and nephews. We’ve all agreed that our children have too much (how can I say this kindly) “stuff” and we don’t want to pass around any more “stuff” just for the sake of it. So we’re talking about ways to reduce the “stuff” and increase the ways our children be in relationship with one another, even though they live so far away from each other (Vermont, Virginia and North Carolina). There have been several ideas floated around … I think my favorite is the secret cousin idea. We’re going to pick names while everyone is together over Thanksgiving. Then at some point during the year they send a gift (but not at Christmas). Now since the idea is to keep it a secret, they have to contact their other cousins (who’s names they didn’t draw) all during the year to muddy the waters until the reveal when they send their secret cousin gift. There are eight cousins total, so it should be fun. It will also be a lot of fun to see how the children play this out.
Now … for all those other gifts that need/want to be bought. I am increasingly grumpy at the idea of just buying things. I want to be an ethical shopper. I found this post by Maria and this one by Cindy talking about the same things and listing places to find Christmas gifts that also make a difference in the lives of the people from whom they are purchased. I thought I’d add my two cents … and place. I’ve been getting this catalog for a couple of years now. The products look lovely and are mostly made by women trying to support themselves. It’s called Heartbeats: Networking Women, Developing World and Minority Artists.
I’m trying to think outside the box this year. I want my gifts to be handmade or bought from places like Heartbeats. I think I’m just finished with commercialism. A homemade bookmark and nice used book are perfectly good gifts, if I’ve spent time and heart on them. Maybe I’ll make a batch of fudge for my dad … he likes fudge! Hey … is that low fat?
We have family coming to town for Thanksgiving. The first are scheduled to arrive next Tuesday (four days from now). I’m stressing a little big damn lot about that and you can read about it here. But the short story is that I probably won’t be posting too much between now and sometime after Thanksgiving. Don’t give up on me or anything … and if you would be so kind, please say a prayer for me and my family when you happen to think of it. We have big doings, and lots and lots of people going to be around. For little old introverted me, this means I’ll be working from my weak spots, so I’ll appreciate all the help I can get. Thanks …
