Day 10. Little bit of backstory

I am working on an entry for the 11^th but there is so much back story that it is going to take 2 entries.  So consider this back story and necessary to the advancement of the plot.  So this is COMPLETELY not the Phantom Menace of my blog. 

When I was in college my Mom was very involved with social justice causes in Tucson AZ, and one of the ones close to her heart was the plight of the homeless.  There were so many homeless people living on the streets in Tucson, some sent there from other states by city officials to clean up their cities homeless problems.  My Mom organized the parents of her school to provided food for the Casa Maria, she volunteered some nights when the church provided emergency shelter for the homeless when the temperatures dropped below freezing, and annually she camped out at the capital on Christmas eve as part of a big demonstration to remind those in power that Jesus was homeless himself when he was born.

In addition to these traditional ways of showing support for the homeless community my Mom also participated in a few civil disobedience protests that had to potential to get her arrested.  One year, December 1989, the Homeless Coalition broke into a vacant house that was in the university/downtown area and claimed it as a homeless shelter.  The home was owned by the city, had been vacant for years and had running utilities.  The point of the demonstration was to let the people of Tucson know that the city owned dozens of homes like this that were not being used for anything, so the argument that there was no funding to provide temporary housing for families in crisis, and nowhere to house them was something of a misrepresentation.  Since the protest was over Christmas break I was there with my Mom. 

Mostly the protest consisted of standing around outside in the cold listening to speeches and then later going in the house where it was warm and having a cup of warm apple cider and then going home.  All in all, it was a relatively minor event in my history.

In December 2000 I was back in Tucson with my Mom for a surgery that was supposed to be for an ovarian cyst but turned out to be cancer.  A few days before the surgery we were driving around town and happened to drive past that house where the protest was held.  I said to my Mom “Hey was that…” and before I could even really formulate the rest of the question she said “Yes it was”.  Then she said words that stick with me, even today.  She said “I know, remember that Jud, I know”.

The summer of 2001 when I was in Tucson after she passed away I’d drive by that house and I’d hear her say that “I Know”.  When I miss her and I want to call her and talk to her I hear her say “I Know”.  At Christmas when I sing the wrong Joy to the World like she did, I hear her say “I Know”.  Most of all when I want to show her how amazing my sons are and how proud of them she would be I hear her say “I Know”

Do me a favor? Love your Mama for me.

Day 9. A Christmas Hymn

Warning! Do Not Read if you go to church with me and are easily offended!  I am serious!

I mean it, I’ll wait, log in to pinterest or something, go on.

I am warning you, snarkiness ensues if you keep reading.

Ok, just those of you hoping for something scandalous are left?  Typical.

It isn’t so much a scandal as it just gave me the church giggles so bad.  We have a very poised and professional husband and wife music team leading the musical worship at my church.  Every Sunday we sing new and improved versions of the traditional hymns.  Lucky us.

On November 30^th, the first Sunday of advent our church had a big Christmas music program that evening.  Not only does this kick off the advent season in style it has the wholly unintended benefit of freeing up the schedule of the music staff so that they can attend to things much more important during the holiday season.  (A very funny sentence was here, hilarious really, but Kat edited it out.  I ironically used the word y’all and Texas in the same sentence, but Kat says the rest of it was too mean and I listened to her) 

ANYWAY, before I get sidetracked, now that the big music program is over they are not having choir practice again until January.  This basically says to me that they are winging it on Sunday mornings.  This Sunday morning after the choir opened the service with a Christmas hymn it was time to light the advent candles.  The professional pianist played the march of the sugarplum fairies as a church family ascended the stairs and lit the candles and then returned to their seats.  Someone sitting next to me leaned over and asked, “is that the oompa-loompa song?” Then the only thing I could see as this family lit the candle of peace was oompa-loompas climbing up stairs.  SO Wrong!

Then it was time for the congregation to sing.  This was a very special arrangement of a very familiar Christmas hymn.  This arrangement had excerpts from the nutcracker between each verse. (No! Do NOT engage me in a discussion of why the nutcracker music was included in a church service. Nooooooo!)  It could have been borne except the music leader brought the congregation back in to sing the second verse before the pianist, (who was using a keyboard to make it sound like a harpsichord) was finished with the special interlude.  The organist tried to come back in with the melody but the pianist kept going and we got halfway into the verse before the music leader had to stop everyone.

She started us over, from the beginning.  Really it was the only thing to do, except that it gave me the church giggles. Well, not really giggles, more like loud chuckles that I could not suppress.  Then my Paul got up from his seat in the balcony and walked over to me to whisper, ‘that was the BEST part of this morning’s church!’  Then I really couldn’t stop laughing.

I just managed to get composed when someone sitting in the balcony with us asked loudly, “Why can’t we just sing it the regular way?” That was it, I was done.

There really is a reason I sit in the balcony, and it just might be that I am not allowed to sit with the grownups yet.

Do me a favor? Sing a Christmas hymn for me!

Day 8. From My Paul

My Paul shared this sweet, sweet story with me tonight.

In the last few weeks since the play was over I have been walking myself home and stopping at the McDonalds to get a coke zero on the way home.  Since I have been in there a few times I have been noticing some of the same people are there too.

There is this one old man and old lady that come in together when I am there.  They are very old, and very sweet to each other.  I noticed that he always gets the food, one of everything and brings it back to the table where she waits, sitting next to the big Christmas tree they have there.  Then after they say a small prayer he sits with her while she eats.  He doesn’t even eat a french fry until she is done. Then he eats.

The last time I held the door for them as they were leaving and I told him I thought it was very nice how he always treated her so kindly.  I asked him why he always waited for her to finish eating before he eats.  He just laughed at me and said “I wait because they are her teeth we are using!”

Do me a favor? Floss really well tonight!

Day 7. Have yourself an Odd little Christmas...

Today I am featuring another guest blogger.  Today’s entry comes courtesy of Tony Terry.  I have known Tony for a while.  I met him at OBU when I was young and idealistic and naive, and Tony was a former HS wrestler from South Dakota.  Then he went to China, lost his hair and married someone who is probably too good for him and now they have a bunch of kids.  I thought they were still in China but as it turns out they have been back living in Oklahoma for a while.  What qualifies Tony to write a blog entry? He was one of those English major writerly types of people back in college, he was an avid reader of the OBU fashion question, even though he didn’t follow the rules (wrestling shoes worn as regular shoes and a weird leather hat).  Plus. Apparently he likes odd things, which might explain our friendship.

Guest Blogger with questionable music tastes

I have a liking for the odd.  Christmas kind of lends itself to that.  Angels sing to shepherds.  God gets born - in a barn.  There is just loads of odd stuff.

I started thinking about this when I was a senior in high school and chatting with a very pretty girl at the Dairy Queen.  She was on her way home from junior college and couldn’t miss Christmas Eve.  This was her favorite part of the Christmas season.  Her family would put the last touches of decoration on the tree and the house while making lasagna together.  Lasagna was a doubly-odd choice because she was Swedish!  Go figure.

People in Caracas roller-skate to Christmas Eve mass.  If I did that, I would need a priest for a whole other reason.  KFC did a bang-up job inserting a different bearded fellow into the Christmas tradition in Japan in the `70s.  Even now Tokyo crowds the colonel’s place on Christmas Eve.

I find it odd that people serve ham on Christmas.  That seems like a really strange way to celebrate the birth of a Jew.  I eat the ham.  I just think it’s odd.  I am also happy that I am not celebrating in Greenland as they will be eating fermented birds.  If you have to have a bird, go with the Japanese. 

Hope and love are out there in the odd.  Maybe we will start some weird tradition this year.  It would help us fit in better.

***Just a thought, Tony could bring his family to the Christmas party on the 20^th. I promise to come up with some odd food choices for him.~J

Day 6. Let it Go! Let it Go! Let it GO HO HO HO!

Christmas is the season for doing too much.  90% of the time I am ok with that.  Kat and I are certainly guilty of that.  In 1997 a pregnant Kathleen and I purchased our tree, brought it home and hung lights on it on a Monday night from midnight to 2am when we both had to work the next morning.  Why? Because Kat’s Tuesday night bingo group was coming to house after work.  Too Much?  A few years ago after we were living in Colorado and we decided to have our Christmas party back in Oklahoma not only did I decorate our home in Colorado, but I transported boxes, bins, and bags of decorations to decorate the hall where we were having our party.  I also transported a silver punch bowl.  When Kat expressed concern that not everything would fit, I volunteered to only take 2 pair shoes if that would help. TOO MUCH!

I have said before I am something of a mad genius at engineering these ‘perfect Christmas memories’.  They key is obsessive planning and the set up.  If you do that correctly, then when the actual moment arrives something will happen, and you just have to be there for it.  If you are lucky it is magical.  Or it is a disaster, in which case you have a hilarious holiday memory instead.  See? Mad Genius.

Tomorrow is our annual children’s ornament party.  I thought a great deal about it this year.  My boys are on the upper end of childhood, what if they and their friends are all eye rolling teenagers making jokes at my expense this year?  I am not sure I could handle that.  Lucky for me, when I asked Paul’s BFFL (Best Friend For Life) Katie about it she said we should definitely have it, because of course Hilda and Kyle are still kids and it’s usually fun even for the older kids.  Reason #1.  Now that we are back in Oklahoma I could invite my Niece Elisa Gail to come and bring her children Ella and Aiden. Reason #2 (Although her drill schedule interfered with this year).  Another benefit of being back in Oklahoma is my nephew Baby Scott (who just turned 25) could come with his wife and baby Seamus. Reason #3. 

How adorable and sweet and perfect would that be?  Scott came to the first ornament party and his child will be coming to this one.  I love that so much!

What does this have to do with letting go?  The plan for this year is gingerbread houses, and yes we are cheating and doing the graham cracker houses for the kids.  I also wanted to do 2 bigger houses and let the kids work together to decorate those.  I asked Kat if she could make the gingerbread houses for me.  And of course she agreed, because she is Kat and amazing.  So I borrowed a gingerbread house cutter kit and got the recipe for Kat.  Her plan has been to do it this week.  And then suddenly it was Friday.  Right after dinner Friday we went to the store for eggs so Kat could come home and make the gingerbread house pieces.  But then suddenly it was 10 pm and still no houses. So Kat made a plan to get up early today and make the gingerbread houses and the 9 batches of fudge she has orders for.

But of course things don’t go as planned, and the gingerbread houses didn’t get baked. Fudge yes, but houses no.  We had an event tonight and Kat said after the event she would make the gingerbread houses.  So when we stopped at the store for Diet Coke I purchased the pre-made kits.  Is it the same as homemade gingerbread houses? Of course not.  Will it smell as delightful and Christmassy? No probably not.  With either of those things interfere in any way with the fun that the children will have tomorrow or their memories of it? Absolutely not.  So that was me letting it go ho ho ho.

2013's Gingerbread House

Do me a favor? Bite the head off a gingerbread man for me!