Twas the night before Christmas...

We are getting ready to go to Keri's Mom's house for Christmas Eve as we have always done. We have survived to this point and as I mentioned previously, we are planning a wonderful holiday. We have some decorations in place (and boxes of decorations left stored) and we are calming down from a hectic semester. Ian has wanted Keri's Snow Village and his train put up and reminded me frequently that I had promised (I had not). It took us all day Thursday but it is up (and pictured) and we are really enjoying it. When I see how much enjoyment he is getting out of it, it was worth every minute. Of course, if any of you come to visit any time before I die, it will probably still be set up so you can see it. It really turned out nicely.

We are thinking of you all and wishing you the best Christmas ever. I have always thought that the wonder of Christmas is the potential. That is what we so anticipate whether we are 9 or 39 (which is of course my age if you didn't read previous posts). May you each anticipate the wonders that God has in store for you, and if even a small measure is realized during this wonderful time of year, you will be truly blessed. So Merry Christmas dear ones, whether you are in Italy, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, Bolivia, France (forgive me if I left one out) or here in the States. As Tiny Tim said, "God bless us every one!"

Old and Crotchety!

We managed to sneak off for a day at Silver Dollar City in Branson. We always try to go during Christmas to see all the lights and get away for awhile. It really was a GREAT time together as a family, but Ian had an unfortunate encounter. Ian had saved some coins and found something he wanted to by at Dick's 5 & 10 in old Branson. He was waiting patiently in line when this older couple started trying to crowd him out of their way. I stood back and watched, and when Ian moved toward me for a moment, they crowded into his space. Being the innocent he is, he just gave them a big smile and moved back in front of them. When the clerk started to ring up Ian's item, the woman said that they were next in line and that Ian had broken in. I intervened, just as Ian offered to let them go before him if they were in a hurry. The woman then said that he had stepped out of line and should go to the back and make room for them since they had to hurry and catch a bus. The clerk had witnessed it all and told the couple the bus would wait for them but they were still directing anger at Ian. The next lady in line said to the couple "I certainly hope that when I'm your age I'm a lot less crotchety." Ian couldn't figure out what was happening and why the couple were attacking him, but everyone around assured him that he had done nothing wrong. He held on to my hand the rest of the afternoon. I was proud of how he had reacted and that he had offered to allow the couple to go before him. I just can't understand how someone could be so vindictive toward a nine year old. As they were leaving the store, I said that I hoped the rest of their day certainly improved.

Somebody please make sure you put duct-tape over my mouth before I get that old and crotchety!!

Merry Christmas!

Well, believe it or not, we are all still alive. Following my birthday and Thanksgiving, I jumped into finishing the semester and thought I was not going to survive. Not only am I teaching more classes this semester, but the smallest class has 30 or so students and several have 49 students. Of course, I assign writing projects (not that I like to grade them, but the students must learn to write). All projects, papers, exams, make-up work, etc. all came crashing down on me and I found myself working day and night to get my grades in. There were even two night where I worked all night, getting home in time for Keri to leave for work at 5:45 am. I am happy to say that I survived and got all my grades in by the deadline. I read every word of every paper, made appropriate comments, referred many to the Harding writing lab, counseled several students to seek other majors, advised many new majors (since it appears I have become the CSD advisor for this semester). This semester has not been the best example of my skill, but it demonstrates determination in that I made it in every day without a nervous breakdown. We truly have some great students in the pipeline.

The Russian Santa in the photo was painted by Ms. O. It was one of three (Australian and Norwegian are the other two) that she painted and left for all the families at Just Desserts, Keri's annual Christmas dessert party. We were able to pull it off, even though we had not started decorating at 10:00 on Friday morning. By Saturday night, we had everything in place and were ready to go. Of course, invitations were by word of mouth since that was one more thing we didn't get done. (Tammie, we realized that we hadn't called, but it is always the Saturday of graduation.) Ian had done an amazing job helping out and I am so proud of him. It was so hot, we had turned our air conditioner on in hopes of being able to build a fire (a Christmas tradition) but we had to turn on all the fans just to keep people cool. Certainly not Christmas weather. Unfortunately, the Weavers and Ms. O. were unable to be there since they were suffering through Christmas at the Villa in Scandicci. Ms. O's ornaments were the hit of the evening and we were sad she wasn't here. However, we are happy she is enjoying Italy.

I am frantically trying to get Christmas shopping done. We are planning a nice Christmas no matter what and intend to enjoy ourselves. We wish for all of you a most blessed Christmas. God has blessed us all so greatly and this is a good time to look around and acknowledge him for his mercy and love!