Christmas Day - Highlights

What a joy that we have a day to celebrate the birth of our Lord. All the rest...well, there's the good, bad and ugly!
Of course the bad is the consumerism (and one of the cats peeing on some Christmas presents) and the ugly is some of the horrible "Christmas" displays. The good, are those things that bring joy to God and remind us of WHY we celebrate Christmas.
Here are some highlights of our day:

- Christmas Eve at the Tumacacori Mission (see previous post)

- The kids wanted us to open the presents they got for us at the school's "santa store" before they opened theirs

- We shared what we are thankful for - none of it was stuff

- We spent time helping each other out, and I don't even think there was a fight

- Lots of family came over for a wonderful time of fellowship. What a gift it was to celebrate and spend time together. Everyone brought their dog along as well, so along with 16 people we had 6 cats and 6 dogs. There wasn't an alpha dog among them, so they enjoyed their party, too!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Tumacaccori Mission Front
Originally uploaded by kretyen

Once again we spent a beautiful Christmas Eve at the Luminaria Night at the Tumacacori Mission. It's very old and somewhat crumbling, but it shines in true beauty with all the candles lit in the darkness. Ken was busy taking pictures outside, while the rest of us walked into the church behind a group of carolers. They sang Christ child songs, and when we were inside the sanctuary, the voices echoed beautifully. I have to say it was a truly sacred moment for me. Seeing the gentle light of the candles, the beautiful voices singing of Jesus and being in such an old, old place brought tears to my eyes, and God close to my heart.
Nothing like the truly simple things that make Christmas a true joy.

Of a Certain Age

I'm quite belated in posting this....Yes, I am now of a "certain age"! I turned the big 4-0 this fall. Hard to believe that all those years have gone by. My birthday present was a Wii Fit, which has been a lot of fun. On the blurry t.v. screen is my Mii, all suited up for the ski jump. And there I am in a tank top - it was November, believe it or not. We had a warm autumn. I have to say the biggest surprise was how sore I get after playing tennis and doing yoga. I didn't realize how out of shape I am. Walking every day only does so much!
Turning 40 really wasn't that big of a deal, it just seemed unreal. Maybe it's because when my mom turned 40, she had an 18 year old, and my kids are still pretty young. They must help me feel young, although I can't help but wonder when all the stress will catch up with me physically with more wrinkles and gray hair!
My life crises happened at 30 when I was questioning my accomplishments in life and how I wasn't anywhere close to where I hoped and dreamed I'd be. That was before kids, and realizing that raising kids and making a loving home are accomplishments enough. Everything else is just icing.
And life goes on....

Battle of the Underwear

Carlos received a bill today. It was a bill for NOT wearing clean underwear. For some reason, both Carlos and Kervens don't seem to worry much about body odor. Nice for them, but it's one of those battles I'm not giving in on. However, I am wearying - I'm tired of hearing myself ask about clean underwear and deodorant, tired of hearing Karl get on them about their cleanliness, and tired of smelling the stink! I even bought cool looking new underwear last week to motivate him (?!?)
So, along with a couple of other laundry issues I'm getting tired of including sticky gum that gets everywhere and candy wrappers, Carlos is going to be charged an underwear fee. If nagging and reminding don't help, maybe hurting the pocketbook will. For each pair of underwear he is missing in the laundry he will be charged .50 cents. If he is missing underwear two weeks in a row, it will jump to $1.00 per missing pair. I won't ask, nag, or remind him to change his underwear daily. He'll just get a nice little bill each week after I've finished the laundry. Can you tell I'm at my wits end?
Of course if I told him I was writing this, I'm sure he'd be horrified. Hopefully this course of action works...if not, I'll have a weekly posting of daily underwear cleanliness for all to see. Nothing like airing our dirty laundry!

Update 12/23/2008

Carlos used 5 pair of underwear in the last 7 days....big improvement over 3 last week and 1 the week before!! :)