Post #88

New Year; new website. You can find me on WordPress from now on! WordPress is apparently the place to be if you're a blogger, so... you can find me here. Keep reading!

Book Worms

I love books. I couldn't live without books. If there was one thing in my life that I knew wouldn't change when I had a baby, it was my reading habits. Sure, for a while there I couldn't read as much, but I think I would have gotten a lot more sleep when Walt was a newborn if I hadn't read (or been OCD about cleaning the house). I think my love of books is why I majored in history - certainly wasn't the job opportunities!

One of many things I love about my baby boy is that when I read to him, he sits in my lap, stares at the pages, and when I read the words and look at him, he smiles and giggles back at me. I swear he has already inherited my love of reading (Dave is a reader as well). And it's not just the words. It's the actual pages, something you can seriously dig into, a world you can literally hold in your hand. The feel of the book changes the reading experience.

In my house, my two favorite things to look at are my pictures and my library. 

This year I have read 28 books (23 novels and 5 non-fiction). I am currently re-reading Doomsday Book for a book club and Fall of Giants (a Ken Follett novel) is sitting on my nightstand started but unfinished. I started writing down the books I read in the middle of 2005. I also save my favorite quotes from each book in a file on my computer. On my past two Christmas cards (my only two Christmas cards!) I included a favorites list so those near and dear can know where Dave's and my book life has taken us. I keep trying to start a book club with friends, and I think 2013 is the year to accomplish that.

I hope the New Year brings us all many glad tidings of joy.

“‘Dear God,’ she prayed, ‘let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry…have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere – be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost’” (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 421). 

Christmas Presence

Christmas is a time filled with such good feelings that I'm always a little sad when it's over. It won't be back for another year!

I didn't watch most of my favorite Christmas movies this year before Christmas. Therefore I've been cramming them in the past few days. The other night I put on The Family Man and left the den for a minute to get some work done on my computer. When I came back in, Dave said, "You're really funny putting on your Christmas movies and then leaving the room. Last night in bed you put on Miracle on 34th Street and promptly fell asleep. When I finally turned off the movie about an hour later, you woke up and said, 'I'm so excited.'"

Dave: What about?
Me: What? What did I say?
Dave: You said you were excited. What are you excited about?
Me: January 7th
Dave: What? January 7th? Why are you excited about January 7th?
Me: Downton Abbey returns
Dave: You are funny
Me: I think I should go back to sleep

A friend of my mother's gave us this beautiful, homemade raspberry jam (yum!) and a plant for Christmas. Now, I normally kill plants. Or at least I did until Dave showed me how to properly plant them outside so they'll live. But this one is an indoor plant. It needs warmth, sunlight, and just the right amount of water. A recipe for disaster. Well, this plant must have come from the Little Shop of Horrors. Despite my lack of watering skills (I've killed a cactus before) this thing has exploded in the last week or so. I think I can see it growing before my very eyes. There was no flower bud when we got it, now there is one 2 feet tall that bends in whatever direction the sunlight is, then at night straightens up again. I'm pretty sure in a couple days we'll hear a small "Feed me!" and the cat will be missing.

Happy Boxing Day

I sure loved giving out our presents this year! And Santa was good to us too!

Walt's first Christmas: couldn't even stay awake long enough to open all his gifts!

 

One happy family. 

If a party falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it...

It is a crazy foggy night in Atlanta this Christmas Eve. Difficult to drive around, and after some holiday egg nog you better watch out. It's kinda awesome though driving by the lit up houses... you can't see anything and then boom all of a sudden there are Christmas decorations! Some more tasteful than others of course.

The Christmas Eve candlelit service at Morningside Presbyterian was gorgeous as usual. Moving, beautiful, well put together, and it really got me into the spirit of the holiday. It truly is a day about Jesus being born, and what he was about to do to the world, the peace he would inspire in everyone, rather than gifts and gifts and gifts... I guess they symbolize the gift that was given to us when Jesus came to be, but that might be stretching it. A prophecy, a birth... and after having given birth myself it makes it that much more meaningful. I can imagine Mary, instead of in a hospital, in a cold barn laboring...

It is chaos not only on the streets but in stores this past week. I go to do some regular shopping at Kroger or Target and wow what is everyone else in the neighborhood, and several adjoining ones, doing there at the same time as me? I ran out of light brown sugar making my pecan pie today and I run to the store for some last minute items and I see People Magazine featuring the 26 faces of Newtown and then I'm holding back tears in the checkout line on Christmas Eve, and... we aren't just isolated humanoid collections of atoms. We are so much more than that, and no one man will make or break us. I think even Jesus would agree with that.

Merry Christmas. Share some joy and love in this beautiful and fragile world. You never know how many chances you'll get.

Mama vs. The Laundry

There must be some laundry demon living in my washing machine. Or the dryer. Maybe he likes it hot; I've heard some do. In all my favorite shirts I get tiny holes on the bottom of the front. I never understood why this was. Once I asked my grandmother and she suggested that it is because I lean against the counter. I considered that to be an intuitive proposal. I have yet to come up with an experiment to test her theory, but I do like leaning against counters. However, I want to and will continue to blame the laundry demon. He's the one who also steals one out of a pair of socks. Or makes me forget to take my cute wool sweaters out of the load to lay them flat to dry. I even think he makes the baby throw up on all our clothes so our newly cleaned things are constantly dirty. His worst trick is when I take the laundry all warm and dry out of the dryer and then he makes it cold and damp when I'm ready to fold everything.

Can't blame him for all the cat hair on everything though.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve! Let the festivities begin!

Apocalypse Revisited

The wind whips through the bare winter trees. The morning light and shadows play through the window shades. The wooden Christmas wreath bangs against the our living room window. The baby smiles.

"Is today the apocalypse? But it doesn't feel like the apocalypse." - David

Most of us don't believe the world will end in a blaze of glory (at least not today), but maybe these theories get popular because we're a doomsday type of people. It's not hard to believe given the mayhem we see in the news every day. For the people who die, is it not an apocalypse of one, at least?