Family Christmas Past

Through the Years...

Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given–when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes.~ Joan Winmill Brown

What is Christmas?  It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.  It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.  ~Agnes M. Pahro

When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness.  ~Bob Hope

Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance - each beautiful, unique and too soon gone.  ~Deborah Whipp

Christmas – that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance – a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved. ~ Augusta E. Rundel

Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most. ~ Ruth Carter Stapleton

Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don’t quite know how to put our love into words. ~ Harlan Miller

Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts. ~ Janice Maeditere

Christmas is the day that holds all time together.  ~Alexander Smith

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  Don't clean it up too quickly.  ~Andy Rooney

At Christmas, all roads lead home.  ~Marjorie Holmes

*Linking to Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday's Letter F!

Outsmarted by a Dachshund...

Dracen is asking for a little brother again.  He's always been the little one trying to keep up with his big brother and cousin and older friends and while yes, he can be a little rambunctious at times, he does have a very nurturing nature and has always been drawn to babies. I've always said he missed his calling on being a big brother because I know he'd make a great one.  


This is not the first time we've had this conversation and he knows that I can't have any more babies so last night he tried to find a way around this by saying, "I know you can't have another baby but couldn't we adopt one?  Because I never got the chance to be a big brother."  


Ouch.  I almost cried.


I also began suspecting that many a third or fourth child was had for this very reason because talk about tugging on your heartstrings... This tugs on mine in a fierce way.  


And I would probably have tried to oblige him by promising him another Dachshund but Brisco Darling has been a very bad little wiener this week in regards to hole digging, knocking over trash cans and doing his business in the house.  Let's just say he's lucky  that I'm a tenderhearted, animal loving, tree hugging Dachshund freak who tends to forget the unacceptable act he committed just as soon he rolls over on his back and pats his cute li'l freckled face with his paws.

Charlie wonders if getting a well-trained big dog would help him to learn right from wrong. But I know a thing or two about how Dachshunds operate and it's not that they don't know right from wrong, rather they just want to do things their way.  And who can't relate to that?  
Dachshunds are smart and here's one example of how I know this...


I give the Darlings one Greenie each every day.  There are few things in this world Charlene (Li'l Bit) loves more than her daily Greenie. Brisco, on the other hand, could usually take it or leave it though usually he takes it and lays it down somewhere he can see it.  


It took me awhile to catch on to what Li'l Bit was doing.  She immediately takes her Greenie into the living room where she devours it in seconds.  Brisco takes his into the sunroom, places it on the floor, gives it the nose tap on each end, breathes on it, leaves it on the floor, then jumps up in the chair to watch over it.  


Li'l Bit knows this.  She also knows that if she goes in to nab his Greenie, that he will jump down off his perch to stake claim over it if she even thinks about going near it.  So here's the plan she concocted...


She scratches on the door to go outside knowing that Brisco can rarely resist the urge to go outside himself and that he will come running to go out too.  And he does.  But as soon as he gets out the door, she says, "Psych!" and instead of going outside, high tails it to the sunroom where she snatches the abandoned Greenie and begins consuming it at record speed.  


Poor Brisco realizes what's happened before he ever gets off the deck and proceeds to bark loudly and angrily to get back in only to discover that it is too late.  So what does the sucker (a.k.a. me) do?  I give him another Greenie that he wastes no time chomping down this time.  


I finally caught on to what was going on so this doesn't happen anymore.  The sad thing is, she pulled it off several times before I realized what was going on... 


Which is just one good reason why I should probably stick to the two kid, two dog rule for now. 


Plus, Charlie's oldest son is getting married next year and we all know that babies come next... I'll have to point out to Dracen how fun it can be to be an uncle. 


But wait?  Wouldn't that kinda make me a gra... 


Shut the front door!  

Friday Fragments

~Dracen said he wanted a pair of cowboy boots for Christmas.  I said, "I wonder what size you'd need in cowboy boots"?  He replied, "Santa will know...If he's really magic." 


~He also wanted to know why the foster child I picked the angel off the angel tree to buy a gift for didn't get stuff from Santa. I tried to think of a good answer but I mostly stumbled around my words.  


~I bought the big size jar of Nutella yesterday at the grocery store.  Seriously?  I need an intervention!  


~We are going to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra tomorrow in Greenville, SC.  I'm excited since I've never seen them before!  


~Does anyone know where I can buy a trash can for my kitchen that is Dachshund proof?  Because Brisco Darling can't seem to keep his nose out of the one I've got!  He knocked it over again twice yesterday.  I also caught him digging at the end of the house after he pawed the plastic drain pipe apart from the gutters.  He apparently doesn't believe the elves are watching.


~Devin had somehow managed to break his big binder for school in half and had been carrying it around like that, with no cover.  I finally remembered to buy him a new one this week and he didn't want it.  I had to force him to put his stuff in it.  Then a girl at school  took a pink paint maker and wrote his name in ginormous letters across the front with the little breast cancer awareness ribbon at the bottom (which I thought was a nice touch).  He said, "I need a new binder!  I cannot carry this thing around like this! "   I told him to either get over it or get creative and cover it up somehow.


~Dracen made a little drawing at school of these little houses with faces on them and called it "The People House Town."  Charlie and I thought it was really creative and said he should take it further and submit it to Disney or Nickelodeon because it's a lot better than some of that stuff they put on t.v.  Charlie continued to encourage him, telling him how if it was a hit, he could eventually sell it to them for big bucks.  He said he would never do that.  Spoken like a true artist!  "Never sell out out to the man!"  


~I'm getting my "hair did" at 8:30 this morning so I must sign off!


Happy Friday, Y'all!  :) 


**Linking to Friday Fragments at Half-Past Kissin' Time.

    

Weekend Highlights...

Friday night we watched the new Arthur.  I didn't expect it to be as good as the first one with Dudley Moore and in my opinion it was not, but it was entertaining enough.  I was just confused about Hobson being a female nanny because seems I recall he was a male butler in the original.  And as I was typing that I suddenly recalled some sort of dream I had last night about the Batmobile that Arthur kept drunk driving around town in.  I'm just thankful Russell Brand was not in the dream because that would disturb me greatly.  


Saturday afternoon I met my longtime best friend, Michelle, for lunch and shopping and we both agreed that we need to get our act together and plan to do that sort of thing more often since we only live an hour's drive from each other.  Because at the rate we've been going, you'd think there was an ocean between us.   


Don't you just love the comfort of being in the presence of an old friend though?  We've been friends for twenty five years now and although we've been a couple of slackers about getting together for the past couple of years, it's always as if no time has passed at all when we do. There are never any awkward getting reacquainted moments or uncomfortable silences.   


One minute we are talking about our kids and the next minute we are somehow on the subject of the double date we went on with the likes of Beavis and Butt-head back when we were fifteen, which was way before those characters ever showed up on our t.v. screens. And since I try to keep this blog here PG, I won't go into any details but let's just say that it could not have gone any worse had we gone on a double date with the actual Beavis and Butt-head. The memory never ceases to make me laugh all these years later so it wasn't a total waste of our fifteen year old time and energy.  

Which reminds me of the leaf-blowing Charlie said he allowed Dracen to do Saturday.  He proclaimed it Leaf Getting-Up Day for the three of them and although they weren't exactly thrilled about the idea, their ears perked up when they found out they could get paid for the sincerity of their efforts.  


Dracen weighs all of 60 pounds soaking wet yet he insisted he be allowed to work the leaf blower too and according to Charlie he stuck his lip out, turned his palm over and up in his but...but.. life is so unfair! pose, proclaimed that he was just as capable as his big brother, then crossed his arms over his chest and plopped his butt down until he was allowed to prove himself worthy.  


I just wish Charlie had gotten a picture because the description he gave of him blowing the same ten leaves around the driveway for twenty minutes with that big leaf blower strapped on his back and hanging down past his knees is a sight I truly hate I missed.  Being the little brother does have its advantages because if there's one thing that boy is, it's determined. He believes there is nothing in this world his big brother can do that he can't.  


Yesterday morning at church he finally got the opportunity to take over a duty that his brother recently let go of by being an acolyte for the very first time.  I think Charlie said it best when he said, "He actually got the chance to play with fire without someone telling him  No."  

And I guess when you think about it, life just doesn't get much better than that.  

Where the Green Grass Grows...

Since his cell phone and iPad privileges have been temporarily suspended for the past couple of days for his behavior in Language Arts, we've been seeing a lot more of Devin.  It's like I have my other son back!  I watched from the sunroom windows yesterday afternoon as he and and his little brother wrestled on the trampoline, fully expecting a fight to break out any minute when someone was accidentally hurt. 


But it never happened. 


They just kept wrestling, laughing, and being boys until they finally came inside where Dracen tried to convince me he had frost bite.  And I tried to convince him that while I didn't doubt his feet were really cold, he did not have frost bite because it was 48 degrees outside. Which by the way, is entirely too cold for these parts this time of year.  And it is in the 20s this morning! Brr.


After supper last night we all played a game of Yahtzee.  That I won.  Woot! But just for the record, I would never actually say "Woot" out loud. And later, when Charlie and I were watching t.v. in the living room, we were ambushed by a couple of ninjas who both could benefit from a lesson in stealthiness, especially the little one. 


It reminded us of the good ol' days, back when it was a pretty common thing to see two boys whiz by you in full costume.


Then Devin "hid" under the bed as I read to Dracen at bedtime.  As if I didn't know he was under there. Will they ever learn to stop underestimating my super intuitive mom powers? After the battle of getting the Idea Man (Charlie's new nickname for Dracen) tucked cozily into his bed for the night, Devin actually sat with us in the living room until his bedtime.  I swear I may never give his stuff back!


Because it is really nice to have him back.  


I've been feeling lately like it's all just happening too fast...like time is getting by me and there's nothing I can do to stop it.  I catch myself thinking about how Devin will have his driver's license in just four years and how Dracen (my baby!) will be in middle school when that happens and I just want to shout to the heavens, "Slow Down! Pleeease! Just Slow Down!"  


But that is the one thing none of us have ever figured out how to do, isn't it? To slow down time. 


When we're younger we just can't seem to get it to go by fast enough as we continually anticipate and count down the days until we can get our license, graduate high school, finish college, land our dream job, get married, have kids, struggle as we try to figure out how to get through the cruelties and storms that life deals us and to just.be.happy.  


I used to be one of those people who always saw the grass as being so much greener on the other side of that fence but I know now that I wouldn't want any other grass than that which God has so graciously given me. 


Because it's my grass. 


And while I sometimes wish I could keep it just the way it is right now, before the changing seasons alter it once again, I know that I can't do that. Not even with my super intuitive mom powers. So instead I'm going to keep nurturing it, appreciating it and loving it for what it is right now because I know that it will change again tomorrow.  


But I also know that no matter what, it will always be the greenest grass I know.  

My Biggest Parenting Challenge

I was always the shy, quiet girl who went out of my way to avoid drawing attention to myself in school.  I was bewildered by the class clown type, even when I secretly found their antics hysterical,  because that personality was so very different from my own. I just could not fathom possessing that kind of carefree gumption.   


And really, I am still that way.  I go out of my way to avoid uncomfortable situations and confrontations.  I recently read an article in which someone referred to herself as "conversationally challenged" and the words leapt off the page at me. Because that?  Is so me.  


Conversationally challenged is exactly what I am.  I stumble over my words, if I can find them at all, and end up walking away or hanging up the phone shaking my head and feeling completely frustrated because I know I did not say what I felt, thought and intended to say.  

And I had one of those moments this afternoon when I got a call from a teacher (the third time I have heard from this teacher this year) informing me, yet again, that my son is still being unruly and  disruptive in her class. That she finds it disrespectful. And that she wants it to stop.


It felt like an attack on me and my parenting skills and I wanted to shout, "You and me both, girlfriend!  You and me, both!"  But of course I didn't.  Instead I asked her what exactly he was doing to which she replied "just constantly giggling, cutting up and talking amongst his friends." I apologized three times and told her we had talked and talked to him about this and thought we had the problem solved and that we will deal with it.  


Then I hung up the phone, threw a few four letter words around and sent Charlie a message pretty much stating that I was at my wit's end and did not know what else to do aside from going to the darn (only this wasn't the exact adjective I used) school and sitting right beside him in that class every day. And we agreed to crack down harder.   Take away ALL the privileges this time!  


I have to say that above all the challenges parenting has brought me thus far (even the constant bickering between them and the endless lobbying to wear shorts in the dead of winter) THIS is the hardest.  


The direct reflection I feel that my children are of myself.


Although they are each their own persons with their own wills and personalities, I feel personally responsible for each and every move they make and action they take even when I am not with them.  Especially when I am not with them.


And although I am a little ashamed to admit this, the bottom line is that when they act bad...I look bad.  Or at least it feels that way. And who likes to look bad?  Not me! 


I did not expect to feel this way before I became a parent.  Nobody wrote that down as advice at my baby shower, not a one of those "what to expect" parenting books devoted a chapter to it and my mother didn't warn me about it.  


I expected the sleepless nights, the messes, the occasional defiance, and even the worry. But the one challenge I never saw coming was this one...The unsuspecting way I could be right in the middle of an otherwise perfectly fine day and have someone jerk a knot in my tail, pee in my corn flakes, or eat my bowl of sunshine all up with one little phone call, note or email informing me that my kid...mine...was being anything less than perfect.   


And the fact that the quietest of quiet girls in the class grew up to be the mother of the class clown is just further proof that God?  Has a wicked sense of humor!  


**This post inspired by Mama Kat's writing prompt, "Your biggest parenting challenge and/or joy" and Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday's Letter C.

We Made Pumpkin Bread! And it's edible, if you don't mind cloves.

Today is a teacher workday so I slept until 10:30.  Yes, 10:30!  And still woke up feeling like a cup of death warmed over.  We were awoken around 3:30 am to a loud thunk followed by pitiful cries.  Dracen had fallen out of the bed and was sitting on the floor crying while sound asleep. I asked him this morning if he remembered and he looked at me like I had lost my ever loving mind because he had no recollection of it whatsoever.  


Both my boys have histories of night terrors and sleep walking/ talking but thank the good Lord most of that seems to be behind us. Because there is nothing more stressful than being woken up in the dead of dark by an inconsolable child who is screaming like a banshee while sound asleep. Devin actually used to get up and walk peg-legged like a zombie with his arms stuck straight out around and around the kitchen island.  Somewhere I have a video of that but he would disown me as his mother if I ever dared to post it here or anywhere else. 


Dracen actually let me take his picture yesterday afternoon without cringing and hiding his face. We were making pumpkin bread from a recipe he brought home from school.  It was my first attempt at pumpkin bread and aside from the cloves thing and the fact that it crumbled a bit when I took it out of the pans, I think it turned out pretty good.  

It called for cloves.  It just said a teaspoon of "cloves".  Well, I've never cooked with cloves.  Unless you count that time I stuck them in the Easter ham.  


We got ready to put in the cloves, that were whole, and I said, "Dracen, I think maybe these things need to be chopped up good" and began tearing through the cabinets in search of my Pampered Chef chopper but while I was looking he informed me that his teacher had put them in like that in the video.  "Are you sure?"  I asked.  He assured me he was sure.  And though my gut was telling me not to put those whole cloves in there, I went and did it anyway which turned out to be a mistake.  


Because have you ever tried to eat a whole clove?  I don't recommend it.  But still...the bread is delicious. You just have to watch for cloves and spit them out if you get one. Kinda like eating watermelon.  


Now you are probably understanding why it is I have never, ever posted a recipe on this blog but hold onto your seats because I am about to do so.  Just don't put whole cloves in it.  I since found out that they actually sell crushed cloves. Who knew? Probably everyone in the world but me.  And Dracen. Too bad I didn't spot those first at the grocery store.  Oh well, you live and you learn.  


So here it is...

Pumpkin Bread!

2/3 cup butter                                                 

2 and 2/3 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 (1 lb) can pumpkin

2/3 cup water

3  and 1/3 cup flour

2 tsp. baking soda 

1 and 1/2 tsp. salt (which I am just realizing we did not put in....oops again!)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cloves (Ground!)

2/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

2/3 cup raisins

Grease 2 (9x5x3) inch loaf pans.  (I had to improvise here since I only had one pan that size...I put half in a square casserole Pyrex dish and it worked)  Cream butter and sugar together.  Add eggs, pumpkin and water.  Blend in dry ingredients except nuts and raisins.  When well blended, stir in nuts and raisins. Pour into pans and bake 65-75 minutes in 350 degree oven. (I ended up taking it out three times after 60 minutes and putting it back in 5 more minutes each time because it still seemed gooey inside.)  

Now I realize that you are probably highly doubting that this taste even halfway decent but I promise, it really is yummy! Even with the accidental omission of salt and the fact that you may or may not have to spit a clove when you eat a piece.  

Happy Friday, Y'all!

Pajama Drama

pa·ja·ma dra·ma   [puh-jah-muh  drah-muh]Situation that develops when a strong-willed child wants to wear his pajamas to school because he's under the impression it's pajama day but his parents tell him he cannot because there is nothing in his agenda nor is there any mention on the school's website that such shenanigans will be taking place today

eat·ing 

crow   [ee-ting  kroh]  
The humbling act of acknowledging that one has indeed been proven wrong


A good example would be when a mother of a strong-willed child, who is in the midst of a pajama drama induced fit, picks up the phone in order to call the school office to prove to said child that he must be confused about today being pajama day since there was no note, memo, message or otherwise anywhere to speak of about such shenanigans taking place today only to be told that yes, today is indeed pajama day and that for some odd reason unknown to any of them, nothing was placed in the teachers' mailboxes as it should have been so the teachers were told to inform the children of it yesterday at the end of the day and then having to hang up the phone and tell the strong-willed child that he was indeed correct and could proceed to wear his pajamas to school after all.  




So how was your morning?  

Fancy Friday...Brr!

Last week I told y'all it was picture day at the elementary school.  I managed to talk Dracen into moving one step up from a t-shirt to a polo for the big day.  Something I don't think I've been able to get his brother to do since preschool.  


And speaking of his brother... Since he is in middle school this year they are on completely different schedules with everything, including picture day.  I interrogated him about it last week and he informed me that his was coming up and he already had the form in his locker at school.  You have to pay up front.  And whether they smile, frown, or stick their tongues out I am going to have me a  picture to document every year of their  K through 12 public school educations.  


Wednesday morning I just happened to see on facebook that picture day was the next day so I went straight to the refrigerator and made a note with my big arse mom Sharpie so I would not forget.  And I did not forget.  


"Devin, I saw on facebook (he always cringes when he hears those words come out of my mouth) that picture day is tomorrow.  Where is your form?"  


"In my binder", he replied.  "Well, where exactly is your binder?" I snapped back.  


And he gives me the saucer eyes and the Ohhh crap, I'm in deep horse doo doo now! look and says, ever so sheepishly, "In my locker.  At school."  


I threatened to revoke his electronic privileges if he did not phone, text, or facebook a friend to find out some information about who was taking those pictures.  I had to then remind him two more times to do this but what with all my other mom duties around here, I completely forgot to question him a third time until after he was in bed.


Yesterday morning I questioned him a final time and of course he had not found out anything at all about the pictures.  "Nobody else is buying any!"  was the answer I got. "Since when do I care what everybody else is doing?!" I shot back.  "I WANT A PICTURE...AN 8 BY 10 TO GO ON THE WALL TO REPLACE THE ONE FROM LAST YEAR!"  


So I did what any good mother would do.  I put on my best house shoes, rolled my hair up tight in rollers, drove to the school and walked with him to his locker (talking and waving to everyone we passed along the way) to get that form filled out.  


And if you believe that,  then you don't know me at all.  


Oh how I wish I had that kind of gumption and lack of shame in my game.


No.  Instead I gave him the same amount of money I paid for Dracen's package (assuming it was most likely the same company) and told him that if he did not fill out that form, put that money in it and hand it to that photographer then he could kiss his modern day technological conveniences goodbye.  So he did it. But not without informing me that he was the only one in two classes with picture money.  


Their parents probably didn't get the memo. Facebook stalking does has its advantages.


And no, he did not wear anything special. I learned a long time ago that we have to choose our battles when it comes to parenting a stubborn child (26 hours of labor followed by a c-section because he just refused to come out).  I noticed as I was handing him the money and laying down the law that he was wearing an almost identical American Eagle t-shirt to the one he wore in his picture last year. The biggest difference was the letters.  The ones last year were flat and these were embroidered. Or something kinda like it.  


Anyway, I did not mean to get off on a mom rant this morning.  I really came here to talk about fashion and such.  And while I would not wear a shirt with giant letters spelling AMERICAN EAGLE across the front, I would wear this cabled sweater  with "American Eagle" on the label inside that is looking very cozy to me this morning since it is a chilly 37 degrees here.  Brr!

So is this...


Faux shearling coat by Coldwater Creek.

Turquoise Mosaic Ring
Every once in awhile I'll stumble upon a ring that I think I could fully get on board and commit to wearing on a regular basis on my right hand.  And this is one of those rings.  

Cooperative Suede Cap Toe Skimmer
I really have no idea what is meant by a "cooperative" shoe but I just thought these were too cute for words. Not that I go around saying things like "too cute for words" but you know...  

Asymmetrical Cashmere Sweater
I love this, especially in camel...

TOKYOBay Century Cuff Watch
Garnet Hill says this watch was made for the "urbanite at heart".  Well, I can assure you I am not one of those but I still love this watch.  

Tropical Sunset Earrings
I just thought these looked happy.

Winnie Satchel by Imoshion
I saw this in a magazine (can't remember which one) and think I could see myself getting really attached to it. Comes in three colors.

Journey's End Beige Purse Melie Bianco
I'm really feeling the vibe this one is throwing off too.

Falling Leaves Pendant Necklace Set
How very fallish!

Cowl Neck Top by Mystree
I love everything about this.

Talgarth Pencil Skirt
I see this with some tights and a pair of chunky heels.

And speaking of heels...


Strappy Mary Jane
There is just something about a mary jane that sucks me in every time and this pair is no exception.  They also come in brown.

AEO IKAT Loop Scarf
I think this scarf is just as equally happy as those tropical sunset earrings up there.  

Hope y'all have a Happy Friday!  I think we're gonna head up the mountain sometime this weekend to see if there are any leaves still on the trees up there.  Our big oaks in the yard are still mostly green!