Quiet day

It's been a peaceful day for a holiday weekend.  Maybe because it's not REALLY a holiday weekend yet.  It's strange having Christmas on a Friday.  Our church doesn't have a Christmas Eve service which means that this morning was the Christmas service.  Somehow it really didn't feel right, it was just too early, Christmas is days away.

Both kids had their own things going on so Greg and I went out for lunch after the service.  It occurred to me that this might be a foreshadowing of our Sundays in the future.  After lunch we went home, picked up the dogs and headed over to Red Rocks.  It's a real challenge to walk the steps at Red Rocks with the dogs.  They just don't understand going back and forth over and over.  If we separate them it's really hard because they pull to be together.  So today we walked and ran side by side on the steps.  It took a few rows but they finally got the hang of it and we had a good workout.

The rest of the afternoon was quiet.  Caleb came home and watched some TV.  We have a whole new selection of shows playing now that Caleb is home.  I don't know where he got his weird sense of humor!  When Lydia got home the three of them, Greg, Caleb and Lydia all headed out together to see a movie.  I passed.  Sometimes I just like to be alone for awhile... make the introvert in me happy.

So nothing big happening today, which is pretty nice for a Sunday.  

Parades and Parties

This morning we went to the Christmas parade in downtown Golden.  I love this parade.  They do it three Saturdays in a row in December, which means you have a chance to pick which weekend to go, but every time I've gone the town has been full... but not too full.  It's just a nice old fashion small town parade.  I will say though, if I had small kids I would have a hard time explaining why there was more than one Santa in the parade.  I'm not sure what that was about, you would think only one Santa per parade would be allowed.  Nonetheless it was a lovely parade.

We took the dogs along with us.  It's the Colorado thing to do.  Also, it's good for MacGyver.  He would just as soon stay holed up in the house and not be around people.  So every now and then we like to take him out in crowds to let him see it's okay.  He did great.  After the parade we crabbed sandwiches at D'Deli and ate on a picnic table on the bridge over Clear Creek.  Right now it's completely frozen over and very cool looking.

This evening Greg and I headed out to one last Christmas party.  I didn't know a single person there, but still had some great conversations.  I wonder why this is... in groups like this evening I can walk in not knowing anyone and have conversations with several people and walk out feeling like I've made some friends.  But...  I have this one particular group of people that I get together with once a month, every month for a year now and each month I walk away feeling like I haven't connected with anyone.  Why is that?  If I could nail down what the difference is... I would do something to change it.  ...I have no conclusions yet, just a thought.

snowboarding

Today we continued a tradition that Greg would love to be a big part of our holiday activities... a day on the slopes.  Greg and both kids are amazing snowboarders.  They've been at it for years.  I began learning last season.  I'm not exactly a natural, but I'm getting a little better all the time.  Today was the second time we've been on the slopes this season and I'm thrilled that I can remember the basics...  standing up, not falling and I can even still remember how to connect my turns.  Hopefully before the season is over I'll feel comfortable calling myself a snowboarder, but not yet.

This evening our friend Rich came over to spend some time playing guitar.  It's been awhile since Greg and the kids jammed together and I really miss it.  Tonight Greg, Caleb and Rich played guitar while Lydia broke out her fiddle and Uke.  It was nice.  And frankly, after a day of snowboarding, it just about lulled me to sleep.  I'm beat.

A Creative Day

Well, creativity was my goal today anyway.  We have an unfinished room in the basement that a few months ago I claimed as my studio.  My dream was to set the room up as a classroom to teach art classes.  Not long after that Caleb took two of the tables I planned to use, cleared them off of the art supplies and set himself up a place to wax his snowboards.  Hmmm....  I held my tongue since I hadn't made a clear plan for the art lessons yet.  Then, next thing I knew he claimed a third table.  That's when I drew the line, sort of.  I insisted he clear off the third table anyway. 

This morning I took him downstairs and worked out a compromise.  I gave him a better table but moved his operations into the furnace room, behind closed doors.  THEN I started to work on setting up the room.  In the end I didn't get too far.  It needs a lot of work to be an inviting and creative space.  Probably some serious paint on the walls, and maybe the floor too.  I did begin a painting.  I haven't painted with anything but watercolor for a long time.  All I had to work with was acrylic, but it felt good.  I do miss oils. 

The last time I painted with oils was several years ago in Maryland for Easter.  I got together with three other ladies who are artists in the church and we each did a separate piece to be place in the four corners of the church on Easter Sunday.  Alison did a drawing of the crown of thorns, Christy did an oil (I believe) of Christ's feet on the cross, Stella did a collage of one hand and I did the other in oil, both on the cross.  They turned out great and looked amazing walking into the service that morning... if I do say so myself. 

But so far I'm just playing with the paint and colors on this piece.  We'll see where it goes.  It was just fun to start creating again.  I also did a little ink drawing.  Not near as much time as I should have spent, but it was something.

As for Christmas, Lydia and I watched "Christmas in Connecticut".  Trying to get out of one predicament by lying about being married, having a baby, being able to cook and living in the country and then getting caught... and it's a comedy with a happy ending.  Gotta love those old movies.  They're such high fantasy.  ;-) 

What I learned this year

I decided to start making a list of things I've learned this year.  Here's what I've got so far...

Things I Learned This Year

How to do a Tim Tam slam, thanks to Two Guys Around the World and Target for selling Tim Tams.

I want to grow old like my Grandmother,

but I already knew that, it was just reinforced with her 90th birthday.

How to love a frightened rescue dog through his fears.

How to tweet...even from my phone!

That it's okay for people to cry at my funeral. 

Grieving is necessary for the living and it's not about me - I won't be there!

How to snowboard!

Paramount Theater is a beautiful, if not comfortable place to watch the Banff Film Festival.

How to get to the top of South Table Mountain to the old dance hall.

How to make it to the top of a 14er.

That Colorado has incredibly beautiful wildflowers and how to identify some of them.

Being a Trail Angel is as much fun as receiving Trail Magic.

It's tough when your parents get older, but admittedly it would be tougher if they didn't.

I can be right at the wrong time.

Waiting on God, a recurring lesson that I think I might be getting better at with age.

It's fun to watch my children grow and step out on their own.

The San Juan Mountains might be my favorite... at least this year.

Focusing on the Who

I remember some time ago learning a lesson about focus... the hard way.  Both kids were still in high school and running on the homeschool cross country team.  Greg was usually their coach but he was going to be out of town the week before a big meet.  He left me with detailed instructions which, to be honest, I didn't plan to follow through on since running's just not my thing.

However, as the meet approached my conscious got the best of me and I decided to work with the kids on running.  Greg had suggested that I ride a bike along with them on a trail and proposed two trails for training.  When we finally got the bike loaded in the car and everyone dressed and ready to run it was getting close to dusk.  We decided to go with the closer option... and the one Caleb and Lydia assured me had no hills.  Seeing as how I hadn't been on a bike in a long time the elevation gain and loss of the trail was very important to me.  We headed to the Base to ride the trail around the golf course.

After pulling into the parking lot the kids got out of the car and immediately began their warm up and stretching routine.  I pulled out the bike (okay, not quite that simply, but I did finally get it out) and put on my helmet.  When Caleb pointed out that I had the helmet on backward I laughed and acted like I did that on purpose.  I had no clue.  He took off running pretty quickly after that, I believe afraid that someone would see him with me.

With the kids off and running I hopped on the bike and took off, just a little wobbly at first.  Immediately, and I mean IMMEDIATELY the trail headed UP hill.  What?!  I thought this was a flat trail.  I could see Caleb just going around a curve at the top of the mountain, I mean hill, and yelled "I thought this was a flat trail?!"  Over his shoulder he yelled back "It's flatter than the other trail!"  and disappeared not to be seen again until we were back at the car.  "Seriously!?"  I began to suspect my children were Liars.

One hill was followed by another hill.  Trying to recall how to ride a bike while going up and down hills and thinking up good punishments at the same time is some feat.  But then I discovered the problem of focus.  Leveling off at the top of the first hill was a log just on the right side of the trail.  In my effort to concentrate on not hitting it I found I couldn't take my eyes off of it.  And even though my mind was saying "don't go that way!"  My body went straight for the log!  Luckily I was going slow enough not to go head over heels.  Next was a groundhog on the side of the trail.  ...straight for him!  He ran fast.  Soon I a met a runner coming from the other direction.  By this time I had learned my lesson and I stopped, smiled and said a friendly hello as if I was taking a break, not concerned that I might run him over.

My lesson from that day, besides my kids lie...  Whatever I focus my eyes on, I go toward.  And not just on a bike, it's true about, well, everything.  I've been very distracted this week and I've known it was happening, I just let my focus stray.  I've been so busy with the Christmas 'stuff', the parties, food, shopping, cards...  not bad stuff, but it draws my attention away from the direction I really want to be going.  I love all the activities and traditions that go with this time of year.  Even those things that are meant to keep my attention on the true meaning of Christmas can become busy work distracting my attention from the Who Christmas is about.

Now to refocus my sights back on the Who of CHRISTmas.

sleeping in and catching up

I can't say how blessed I feel when I get to sleep in on a Monday morning after a hectic weekend.  I would have slept later if I didn't have a pushy Golden Retriever jump on me in bed this morning.  Then a quiet day of catching up on my Bible Study that I got behind on over the past few days.  Sitting by the fireplace, sipping tea and reading.  Then an evening spent with a group of ladies at The Well, our churches woman's ministry.  

Yep, blessed.

  Tomorrow I'll have to get back on that To Do list and get some things accomplished, but this was a good day. 

Sweaters and Pictures

Third Sunday of Advent and I'm still on schedule.  How weird is that!

Tonight was our last Christmas Party for the weekend.  The third annual Sweaterfest at church.  The idea is to wear your ugliest Christmas sweater, tho some folks take the definition of sweater pretty far.  It was a good time.  A few from our Life Group got together at a table and it was nice to spend time visiting.  We all braved the dance floor and the electric slide together... that was fun since none of us knew the steps when we started.  If your going to look silly on the dance floor it's always more fun with a group!
One of our own, Gale, was in the final three of the competition for best worst sweater.
We cheered for her as hard as we could!

This afternoon we finally made an acceptable family picture for the Christmas letter.  We've done this for so many years I'm running out of creative ideas.  Last year our friends the Breen-Franklins had their picture taken with individual creamer cups stuck in their eyes.... so that idea has been taken!  But we did get it done, copies made and stuck in the cards.  Tomorrow they will be mailed.  Hopefully soon we will start getting some from friends.  I LOVE getting Christmas cards... but I think I've said that already.

Christmas ornaments

Last night at the Life Group party we did another White Elephant exchange.  This time of year these types of gift exchanges can get so old, expensive and really hard to figure out what to bring.  But for this exchange we stole an idea from our friends back in Maryland.  While living there for several years our church leadership would have a Christmas party with a White Elephant ornament exchange.  It got to be quite an event over the years.  The more we did it the more interesting and sometimes even crazy the ornaments became.  Everyone looked forward to it.   Last night we introduced our Life Group to the idea.  At first the game started off with only presents being opened, then someone broke the ice and started stealing.  Some very funny ornaments popped up and the game began to warm up.  It was fun, but I think next year, as we get to know each other better that the game will get a little more heated... and fun.  

I love our time decorating the tree.  Well, after the lights are on.  Lights are just frustrating.  But then... come the ornaments.  Every Christmas it's like opening a box of memories.  We have one giant plastic storage box just with ornaments for the tree, each one carefully wrapped and packed away after the last holiday season.  I pull off the lid and begin taking out the treasures.  There are so many I like to lay them out on the coffee table before arranging on the tree.  About half of them aren't even mine.  Greg's Aunt Nell started giving the kids a special Hallmark year ornament when they were born.  So they each have a 1st to 5th year childhood ornament.  Then, my parents began several years ago giving each of their grandkids an ornament for Christmas.  Caleb and Lydia have several from them, including a beautiful one from Mom's mission trip to Russia.

By the time I have sorted out all the kids ornaments, we're about half way through the box.  But I have several special pieces as well.  There are all the ones from the exchange in Maryland, gifts from friends, a few reminding of us pets we've had and we saved one of each of the angel ornaments the kids and I made for several years.  Some remind me a special people.  I have a white yarn angel a friend in Hawaii gave me.  I lost contact with her and haven't seen her in years, but every time I look at that angel I'm reminded of her smile.  I have a little clay figure of Castro that the chaplain's wives made at Guantanamo Bay back in 1987 encouraging us to pray for the Cuban people.  (who would have thought this many years later Castro would still be around!)  And I have a couple ornaments from homeschool friends who were such an encouragement to me. 

I've seen stunningly decorated Christmas trees with matching ornaments, bows, ribbons and lights.  Last year I watched a video of a very creative method for decorating a tree that I thought was fascinating.  But I don't know, it just wouldn't be the same.  I could do something artsy and creative but it just wouldn't have the same feeling that I get when I look at my tree.  You can have the glitter and glitz, I'll keep my memories.

Party Day!

I should have written earlier in the day because now I'm just tired, but I made the committment and I'm sticking to it.  ....oh, wait, I had no time earlier in the day, so I'll do what I can.

It was a great day.  Got up early and put together a few final touches getting ready for the party this evening.  Then I headed across town to meet Greg for his work party.  Last year the party was held at a nice restaurant but the set up was terrible for a party, cramped together, but still mixed in with other lunch guests.  This time we met at Joe's Crab Shack and had most of the place to ourselves.  There were over a hundred people there, so we pretty much packed it out.

I spent the meal visiting with a work associate of Greg's who is visiting from Brittan.  Very nice lady and it's always fun to chat with someone speaking with a British accent, makes me miss my friend Stella.  =0)  They had the usual white elephant exchange and I came away with the Cadbury chocolates... thanks to the Brits. 

After the party we rushed home to put the final touches on our Life Group party.  We've had the Life Group going for almost a year now.  For the first nine months it was just us and a couple other people.  We had fun together but really hoped it would grow.  In the last couple of months we've finally began to add numbers and most importantly we are gradually building relationships.  We're finally beginning to talk of ideas of getting together outside of our scheduled Life Group times.  It's very exciting, I see a potential for some great things coming.  Tonight we had a Christmas Party, tons of food, exchanged Christmas ornaments, sang some carols and shared our favorite Christmas traditions.  Building relationships... this is good. 

It's late.  In the morning I'll reread this and it probably won't make sense and I'll have to edit the whole thing, but for now I'm done and heading to bed.