Holidays 2011

Back at the beginning of December, we went to church and there was an announcement to bring the kids by on the following Saturday morning, to be a part of the next Church service. The Kids were all going to be able to hang an ornament during the ornament ceremony. I am not sure really what the special service was called, if there is something other than calling it the "Ornament Ceremony". Basically there was this tree shaped, wood frame to hang up ornaments on. During the church service the kids went up in pairs hanging up one of these special ornaments.The kids were all paired off as a young kid and an older (4th grade or so in age) kid to guide them up on stage and hang the specific ornament. In doing this, there was a special meaning behind each ornament, which was explained while the kids would hang the ornaments on the "tree".

I was so proud of Kara! She was one of the kids involved in the Ornament Ceremony! She was the first kid up with a little boy, and she hung the first ornament! This photo is of Kara, while we were waiting in the other room before church, to gather all the kids together, and go in for the Ornament Ceremony.

 This is the only photo (below) I got of Kara and the older boy, Scott, hanging up their ornament! So bummed. It turned out blurry. They were first two kids up on stage, and I didn't get a chance to have my camera ready! It was so quick when it happened and they sat back in the pews.If you blinked, you missed it!

 Here is the "tree" with all 24 ornaments hung up. (photo below)

After all 24 ornaments were hung by the kids, there was a small reenactment of The Nativity Scene or Christmas Story. Mary, Joseph, the Three Wise Men, and the King were all played by Kids from church and in cute costumes. There was even a Baby Jesus! The guy who plays the piano, and helped with coordinating this special service has a baby boy, who was used to play Jesus. And the young girl, who was playing Mary dressed in a simple robe, and macasons for shoes, she held the baby the whole time keeping him calm. The baby was so well behaved, and didn't cry, and just sat quietly in "Mary's" lap.

 

Who is Santa?

Going with the Christian religion of Christmas and how we are celebrating Jesus being born and it is his birthday...How does Santa Clause tie into this all? The presents, I can see as gifts to give one another in relation to this being a birthday celebration and rejoicing the miracle of Jesus being born. The Chirstmas tree is of a Pine tree vs. some other trees, like an Oak tree, because it is a tree that has kept its leaves/needles all season and the other trees have all fallen bare. The pine tree is what is still full of life and still green in the dead of Winter. So the Christmas tree makes sense too. This holiday gets mixed up a lot between the Santa Clause version and the Baby Jesus being born version. The Commercialized Santa version usually dominates, and gets out of hand. It's so fitting that Santa Clause is in the Mall, as we are all starving for Christmas shopping and listening to the Christmas music for two months long, and drinking the Eggnog.

We took our daughter to the Mall to see Santa Clause and get the photo opp done. We are not eliminating the whole Santa Clause/Eggnog version at all. I love this part of the season. I just don't want to forget the importance of celebrating Jesus being born on Christmas Day as well.

The Nativity scene with Mary and Joeseph and a couple of farm animals all huddle around to see the baby Jesus. Their faces are lit up with pure joy and happiness of this miracle that they just witnessed. If a virgin girl, named Mary lived today in 2011 all of the sudden was pregnant and had a baby boy...people would not think of this as a miracle. People, today, would speculate that "Mary" drank a little too much one night, at a party, slept with some guy, and doesn't recall it. Then 9 months later is having the baby. BUT way back in BC times this other virgin, named Mary, becomes pregnant and it is called a miracle. I never really got that part of the story. But anyways, I DO believe that Jesus was born and that Mary IS his mother.

I also am curious with the stories of what Jesus was like growing up as a kid? Some how the Bible covers Jesus being born and then skips a couple of decades to when he is older as a young man and he then goes on the cross to die for our sins. I want to know the rest of the story and what he did between those two big moments... of being born and dieing on the cross...?

Back to Santa Clause, his name is Saint Nicolas and also Chris Kringle. There are many stories explaining his existence and the background is all covered in different movies from generation to generation. I enjoy the magical side to a child believing in Santa and all the fun times it will be watching our daughter grow up with that glimmer in her eye, and hopes to see reindeer in the sky on Christmas Eve.

I think I will continue to celebrate Christmas with both versions of Christmas intertwined to be able to celebrate it all. We can go to the church services on all 4 Sundays in December during the Advent calendar and learn of Jesus being born and at the same time we can decorate our pine tree and hang up stockings on the fire place. I will even do the photo opp at the mall and see Santa.

The funny part, is our daughter (she's 2 1/2) tells me that Santa lives in the mall, and goes to church too. That made perfect sense to me. Santa is always seen at the mall, why would we think he lived way up in the North Pole where it is snowing all year round and in some Mythical place? We never actually see this place, but the Mall we have seen him in countless times. Why couldn't Santa live at the mall, he is always there around this time of year. Of course he goes to church too. Why would he not go to church? Maybe this would tie Santa into the gift giving side of Christmas...in that the presents that he leaves for all the little girls and boys are birthday gifts in celebrating Jesus being born. This would then tie the two versions together. I guess I am just grasping for some answers to be able to celebrate both and believe in both to combine them together this way.

I am about to raise this little girl of ours, together with my husband. with many more Christmas times to go. I need to know how to celebrate with both Santa and Jesus in the mix, and how to pretend and be the parent. This has been going on for generations. I am doing what many before me have done... and it is scary that parenting doesn't really come with a manual. We (parents) have to just figure out Santa Clause and other kid traditions, as we come across it all. We'll take her to church and teach her the Biblical holidays as well as the imaginative commercialized holidays. She is going to have her own assumptions, like Santa living in the mall and going to church. And I am going to just roll with it and play along.

Out of Luck With This Pot Luck

I have not been to a Potluck in years! I love baking a dish to take to a potluck and bringing something along that is homemade. I also love eating what others brought for their homemade dishes. Potlucks are a fun gathering of people and their signature dishes. We are going tonight to a Potluck with our church that we just start attending recently, and it is at 6:30pm.

I have the perfect recipe in mind to make my Orange bowl, yams, topped with mini marshmallows! Only I work all day today till 5, and get home in time to basically grab our daughter and head over to the potluck. There isn't time to even try to make a side dish. It seems lazy or cheating, maybe both, to head to the local deli and buy a pound of something "homemade" instead. I have seen it done a dozen times where the person buys Potatoe Salad from the deli and throws it in a bowl with surran-wrap over it; like they made it themselves! Or some people, straight out, buy a deli dish and bring it to a potluck in the original container with the label on it and plop a spoon in it, to serve up and share!

I think those sorts of times are falling on me today. I am going to be "one of those" people. I am going to stop by the deli on my way home at 5:30 pm today, after work, and buy a side dish! Gasp! Question is thow, do I put it in a pretteir dish to present it? or Do I just stick a spoon in the container and have people serve themselves a dollop of deli bought food?

It's 3:56 A.M. in the morning...I am racking my brain, tossing and turning over this, dreaming about it. I'm doing too much thinking and not enough sleeping! This blog is my thought process and my "therapy" to get through the acceptance that I am going to buy a side dish to bring to this Church Potluck. I think if this was a friends house we were going to and they knew we both worked today and so on, I would easily just pick something up from the deli and bring it along. But this is our new Church! Are there expectations here? Are the people going to even notice that we brought the deli dish? Are other people there going to also bring deli dishes? Am I going to show up at this Potluck with the only deli dish and everyone else brings a "homemade" side dish? UGH!? The stress of being new and wanting to make the yams!

Then it is 4:02 in the @#!*ing morning...and I need to go back to sleep!... FINE! I am going to the deli and buying a nicely presented deli dish or platter, and I am sticking a spoon in it. People will bring baked goods and people will bring deli-baked goods. Food is food, and it will all be eaten and we will all be Merry.

Numbers! Crazy Amounts All Day Long!

Today has been a whirlwind of numbers! I can't believe all the crazy amounts and numbers of everything I came across today. Breaking this blog entry into 3 parts to my day of numbers.

Part I of the Numbers Whirlwind:

Starting off with a dental appointment, I wasn't going to be covered with insurance for my check up because it is not officially 6 months later, until the 23rd of December! It is 6 months after June, but not quite the time slot of getting the next checkup/cleaning. Technicality. I was already there for the appointment and what was covered was Xrays and not much else. So I get the Xrays done and a reading of my teeth with some doo-hicky blue light gizmo. (Photo of my actual teeth above) The readings tell the Dentist that I have 7 cavities!? WHAT!? I don't know about that! I decided I need to get a second opinion, and see how many of these 7 cavities are actually necessary for fillings... and which are just being counted as a number detected by the doo-hicky blue light gizmo? This is so hard to think that I have 7 cavities!? I have had one cavity in my entire 33 years... and now 7? So that was my first big, crazy number for my day.

Part II of the Numbers Whirlwind:

The next crazy number I came across today was the 2 bags of potatoes, I had to peel for a recipe I used for dinner. As I am peeling one pound of potatoes, I'm realizing that I could have substituted the bags of potatoes for pre-made Mashed Potatoes instead. Why was I making mashed potatoes from scratch? and WHYwas I just starting the process of all this peeling and so forth at 6:30p.m. ? This recipe was a meal for two people, and calls for ONE POUND of potatoes! I was up to my ears in mashed potatoes!

By the time I got to the step mixing with my electric mixer in the TWO bowls, my emotions were getting all mixed up as well! I was getting so upset while blending this all, and it already being 2 hours later, and to see that the amount of mashed potatoes I had just finished making was for a serving size of 12 people or so!

The recipe was to make Potatoes and Ground Beef Gravey. It was so gross, and way too much to eat in one meal. The plate was just Mashed Potatoes and gravy! I didn't understand how we could just eat Mashed Potatoes for dinner. Normally this is a side dish with an entree and a side of veggies, not to be eaten as a meal all of its own! This was absolutely ridiculous.

Courtesy of the Emealz plan I have been following for the past year now. A meal plan for TWO...not 12. All my other recipes that I have followed through Emealz has been fine and no big deal. Like the other day, I actually made a Quiche! It turned out great! The Quiche was actually from the same week that this meal is on. This recipe for the potatoes must have had a miss print in the number of potatoes? I can't get over how annoyed I was, making a pound of mashed potatoes! That ruined my whole appetite and my love for Mashed Potatoes. I don't want to see or hear the mention of Mashed Potatoes for a long while.

Part III to my crazy numbers day.

 I am shopping at the store to buy a few things, and the Toddler Pull-ups for Kara are on sale for $9.47 in size 3-4. Then the size of 4-5 is at the regular price of $15. These are the same exact training pants and about the same size. The 3-4 size comes as a 40 count package and the 4-5 size comes as a 33 count package. So I logically am going to buy the 3-4 size (Kara fits both size ranges) and pay $9.47, saving me $6 and getting 14 extra pullups!

I am now at the check out counter and the register rings these up at the $15 price. Uhh, NO! These are marked $9.47? The cashier and I go over to the shelf, and she saw the price for $9.47 and says she can price change that for me...So I grab a second package to be able to get two of the 40 counts at $9.47 each. In the end I got 14 extra pullups and saved $12! SCORE! I was so happy for their price mistake.

To wrap up my whirlwind day of numbers, that is 7 questionable cavities, 1 pound of potatoes made into 2 large bowls of Mashed Potatoes, for a meal for 2 people, and a $12 savings on Pull-ups, and 14 extra or free Pull-ups with that deal. Crazy day of numbers indeed. I am the only one who can count, apparently. The Dentist is counting a few too many cavities. The recipe provider at Emealz is counting way too many potatoes to feed two people. and The Pullups training pants is giving away pullups with the miss-marked price deal.