The beautiful letdown

The day after...it's all over until next year. I don't even want to look at my tree anymore. All I can think of is the pain of taking it down! 364 days left.

We went to my Granny Welch's house last night. She is 99 years old. I have gone to her house on Christmas as many years as I can remember. Even when we were poor and lived in So. California, we all loaded up the car and came North. It would not have been Christmas without being at Granny's house.

The more time I live on earth and the more time I spend with my mom's family, the more grateful I am that the Lord gave me my mother as my mother. What a gift she is to me! She probably has no idea how much I love her and her life and wish I could emulate. I may seem independent, but it's only because I know she lives so close!

She cries with us when we are sad and gets mad at who we are mad at and her unwavering love of Jesus is what makes me want to seek his love more and more each day.

I am also grateful that her sister (my aunt) was not my mother. God in his wisdom knew this would never work! This was no more evident then when we dropped by there last night. Let's just say I have issues with my loving aunt, that I know I need to let go. She is a godly woman and loves Jesus.

We were all sitting around and someone picked up a book that was on the table and it was a biography of Shaun Alexander. She raved about how wonderful the book was and that one of her grandson's was reading it. Brent, who is always happy to be part of a conversation, said "I'm reading Tiger Woods' biography and it's really good." To this my aunt replies "oh, not as good as this one!"

I was just reminded once again that I LOVE my mother so much and thankful that she was there last night or my Genghis Khan aunt may have been missing a few teeth last night.

The Real Meaning of Christmas

Charlie Brown: "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about!?"

Linus: "Sure Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about...lights please"

"and there were in the same country, shepherds, abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock by night, when lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them and the Glory of the Lord shown round about them and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, FEAR NOT, for behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to ALL people. For UNTO YOU is born this day in the City of David, a SAVIOR, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God and saying 'Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men.'"

That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.

2 days to go

I really like December 23 - especially today. I have nothing to do (except wrap like 50 presents) and am watching all my TIVO shows since September.

It's a great day to do nothing. I do not have to run to the mall or even to the grocery store. I think it's all done and under control. Weird! I may venture out just to be in the hustle & bustle...or maybe not.

We saw "Night at the Museum" yesterday with Phil & Hill and my mom. It was really funny. Enjoy today - the ride starts tomorrow.

Let there be Light!

After four days without power, today, I finally have some heat, lights, and television! I am glad I did not live in the 1800's. This was a hard few days as I consider myself pretty independent and it was hard to not "make it" on my own.

I am so grateful to Mark, Christa, Will, Lora & Zoe for putting up with me the last three nights and four days. It is such a relief to know I can go there and not worry about feeling bad or imposing. It can be hard to live in community but not when you have such a great community to live in. I am SO thankful and am reminded daily that God does answer prayers when he sent you back into my life! I love you all so much and Santa will be good to you this year, I promise!

As corny as this analogy may sound, when I turned my lights on to see if they really did work and the darkness suddenly lit up, I was reminded of how the "light" of our world came to brighten our darkness. Jesus brings light to the darkness of any situation, any life choices, any marriage, friendship, relationship, work situation and any hopeless place we may find ourselves. He is light.

In small ways, I was reminded of that over this past four days and am grateful to the Everlasting Father for sending his Son.

Woe is Me....a Holiday tragedy in 3 parts

Tonight was supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be me and my very cute nephew spending the evening at the Seahawks game. This is where our holiday tragedy begins...

Part I
I pick up Brent at 4:00 pm. I thought that we would get to Quest about 5:30 with traffic. We begin our journey. We get to the off ramp on Michigan. It begins to squal...rain so hard all I can do it watch the car in front of me. So, needless to say, I miss my turn off to 1st Avenue and somehow end up on Marginal Way - going toward West Seattle. We turn right and there is a flood across the roadway and a Volvo stuck in the water. Cars are trying to back up and go the other way while SUV's are charging through like rhinos on the Serengeti. We go up the hill toward Bill and KayLynn's house and I try to get on Delridge so I can get back on the West Seattle Bridge and get to the game!! That was a mistake. We could not get from Delridge onto the bridge due to a dip in the road that was full of water.

It is probably about 5:30 at this point. We turn and go up and get to another route to the bridge. Again, there is a huge puddle and I tell Brent "hold my hand...we're going in". We made it and I thought we would be to the game by 6:00 easily. Well, we got off on 99 - North. BIG mistake. It was crawling. It took us about an hour to go two miles to Seneca. Then we get off and all the stop lights in downtown Seattle were out of order. I finally pulled into the Quest field parking lot at 6:45 only to be told that it was "permit parking" only!! The Safeco garage was full and the lot across from Safeco was charging $50.00!!

I apologized to Brent, looked one final time at the $150 in tickets I just ate and said "let's get outta here!" He agreed and we went to Hill & Phil's.

Part II
The Seahawks suck - enough said.

Part III
I get home (finally) after driving for about 4 hours and asking my brother in law to pick up Brent at my house, and he said no. So, happy to finally be home, I get out of my car and a dog had crapped right outside my car door and I stepped smack dab into it. Of course I didn't notice until I got inside my house and tracked it all over my carpet.

It's not all about me - but today I do belive in bad karma, Satan, or whatever "force" there may be against me. Sorry Katie, Lisa and Kyra...I don't think you'll want to come over tomorrow.

The bright side?? I apologized to my nephew for being a bad aunt...he said emphatically "WHATEVER!"

I'm done

I am done...done...done!! I just submitted my final paper to complete my M.A. At the last sentence of the paper, I shed a little tear. I do not "toot" my own horn very well, but I am proud of myself at this moment.

I should get my diploma in about 10 weeks - but let the celebrating begin!

Only three more days

Hillary and Phil come home in three days.
I'm very excited, but as the older and much wiser
sister I've had to come to grips with some realities that I would rather not...here they are:

1. I have expectations that may not be realistic-they are adults and may not want to spend every waking moment with me
2. I have to share them with my other sib and family members. Being the oldest, I've usually been able to weasel my way into Holly and Hillary's lives by mere use of age...this may not be so easy now.
3. Phil likes to eat at strange times. When I call to see "what's going on for dinner" I may be met with "we've already eaten and yes it's 2:00 p.m. (or a.m.!)." I just can't compete with Kuwait time
4. They may not want to come to church...this is the hardest one of all because why would you not? There's plenty to roll your eyes and laugh at...so to me it's worth it!
5. They like my parents best - enough said.
6. No, Hillary will not buy you that Coach purse...

I'm so excited for them to be here and whether or not I deal with my realities...it will be so fun to have them here!! Even if it is for a short time.

Degree Audit

I just submitted my Degree Application & Audit request for my Masters. I can't believe I'm one 12-page paper and 10 days away from an MA in Organizational Leadership...anyone have an organization I can lead?
Plus, they charged me $100.00!! I think I'll find my BA and this one and frame them...and post them here at work so there is no question who is the smartest! HA!

That's all for now...still praying for Lrae and his holidays...wish they were up here with me.