the christmas story

as told by autumn, age 7

[enter autumn with towel and headband as Mary]

this is the story of why we celebrate christmas. one day an angel came to mary and said that she will have a baby and its name is jesus and mary did not know what to do but she was so happy and then one day she found out what to do and they moved all away to bethlehem on a donkey.

[exit autumn; reenter autumn with towel and tiara and gold belt as the Angel]

the angel said "don't fear, i'm the angel, god sent me here, i'm telling you the good news: it is that you are having a baby and its name will be jesus," and mary did not hear another sound.

[exit autumn; reenter autumn with towel and headband as Mary and Baby Alive as Jesus]

on friday she had her baby named jesus. they were all so happy. they saw him and they knew that they would call the birth christmas and jesus christ the lord.

[exit autumn; reenter as First Wise Man]

there were three wise men. the first one brought him a rock bracelet and one cool rock that standed for hope and goodness. there was an arrowhead from whenever someone shot an animal on the day that jesus was born, and there was a rock that represented christmas. jesus, i give you this.

[exit autumn; reenter as Second Wise Man]

the second wise man brought all kinds of stuff. he brought this [a key chain] which represented for christmas and for jesus. he brought a bunch of gold for jesus, too [celebration station coins], and he brought this that was really important (a woven doll shirt) that was his favorite kind of silk, and a rock that was important, and a shell from whenever his mother found it on the ground in her stable and she decided to keep it. and a marble that is a stone from the beach. and then this is shaped like a shark tooth if you hold it this way, and his mother decided to keep it because it looks like a stable, too. and another shell. i give you this, jesus christ the lord.

[exit autumn; reenter as Third Wise Man]

the third wise man brought an eye patch from long ago when pirates came. and then he brought a rock that was shaped like a heart. jesus, i present this for you. jesus christ the lord.

[exit autumn; reenter as the a Shepherd with a stick from the back yard]

there were also shepherds, they took care of sheep. and joseph helped whenever mary was taking care of jesus. but then there was other times whenever the shepherds had to do it by theirselfs because joseph didn't just herd the sheeps, he wanted to spend time with his son, too.

[exit autumn; reenter as the Angel]

that is what christmas is all about, my friend. and if you just think it's about that then it is, you're right. christmas is to celebrate giving and when jesus was born and that he was born. but soon whenever his parents were gone, they passed away. and when jesus was old, then he died. and other people started to get new. they made new stuff. and then soon indians came, and white people came. then someone else came to help them. that is what christmas is all about, my friend.

for grandma pat

the little brown school desk has been dusted, oiled, nailed and repaired and is ready for another generation of children. i thought you'd like to see it in situ at its new home:

this little child-sized roll-top desk originally came from my tahlequah grandparents. i have no idea where they got it, but it made the rounds between my sister and cousins and i during our childhoods, and then my cousin's kids had a go at it. it's a miracle it's held up so well - that's the same coat of paint it had when erin and i were banging it around circa 1989.

now it sits in autumn's room, and in a few years it will move to aislinn's room, and then...

please take note that the ellipses at the end of the previous sentence are not an invitation to conjecture upon the possibility of future offspring, which are at this time not imminently forthcoming, but i'll keep you posted.

i forgot to post the halloween outfit pictures, too

so pretend this post is dated october 31. happy halloween!

i forgot to post the raking the leaves pictures

so pretend this post is dated, like, november 4.

christmas traditions: part 3 of a 1 part series

i seriously didn't intend to start writing this much about christmas, but maybe a topical assignment was just the thing i needed to jump-start me back into this blog.

one of the most important christmas traditions in our house is not one of my favorites--but it's still one of the most important.

as most of you know, we have a split household. princess lives with us half the time, and with her mom half the time. the three of us (me, J, and princess's mom) work very, very hard to ensure that princess has a seamless transition between households. we share duties with regard to her activities, we communicate, we modify the visitation schedule liberally to accommodate each other's activities, family functions, and princess's needs. which is not to say that there aren't times that we argue, but we try to never let princess see it. ever.

even though they split up when princess was only 2 years old, she has a hard time with her parents being divorced. her 1st grade teacher actually brought this up a few months ago at parent/teacher conferences, and we were all astonished since the three of us are the MODEL of a successful co-parenting situation. but when you think about it, it makes sense that because she sees us all getting along so well that it would make perfect sense that Mommy and Daddy and Stepmommy and Princess and Kitten should all just live in one house together. i think if she saw J and her mom actually fighting, it would ironically be easier for her to grasp.

at any rate, as with any divorced household, holidays have to be split. with princess, every year one parent has her for christmas eve and morning, and the other parent gets her on christmas morning and has her christmas day.

ever since my first christmas with J, we've had a tradition where Princess's mom comes over on Christmas morning after we've exchanged gifts, either to pick up or drop off Princess, and has breakfast with us.

i'm not gonna kid you. do i want to have breakfast on christmas morning with my husband's ex-wife every year? yeah, not really. i mean, i like the woman, but christmas morning is a very intimate family time. but you should see the joy that princess gets from being able to share her excitement over this or that gift from Santa with both her parents for an hour or so on Christmas morning.

and that is what i feel is really the spirit of Christmas. setting everything else aside and giving your loved ones joy. not stuff, but joy.

and with that, i will step down from my tinsel-trimmed soapbox.

more traditions

thinking more about christmas traditions, another one of my favorites that lingers from childhood is my mom's party mix. you know, good ol' chex mix. my mom makes a crazy mean batch of party mix and everyone always wants a bag. she's famous for it in our family, and it disappears fast. you have to get there early and hide a bag of it in your purse.

i remember the party-mix-making-night when i was a kid. a few days before christmas, usually on a friday or saturday night, mom and dad would set up shop in the kitchen and make a massive batch of party mix. we're talking 5 or 6 boxes of cereal, plus tons of pretzels and nuts, many many baking sheets. mom would melt an obscene amount of butter in the microwave and she and dad stood at the bar, adding dashes of worchestershire, seasoning salt, and tabasco until it was juuuuust right. then mom would bake batches all evening long. toward the end she'd spike up the rest of the butter with a bunch of extra tabasco and make spicy batches for my dad and uncle russell. by the time she was done, you couldn't walk past the oven without your eyes watering.

christmas memories are very sensory for me. when i think about the things that really mean "christmas" to me, i think about karen carpenter on the stereo and spicy cereal on my tongue, the smell of beer in my dad's moustache as he kissed me goodnight and the feel of my mom's smooth, cool hands on my chapped cheeks.

it's influenced the way i celebrate christmas in my house, and the way i create traditions with the girls. i don't care about ornaments like jake does. he wants to keep every single little paper ornament the girls have ever come home from school with, and i'm not big on that. i can take them or leave them. jake is sentimental about those things, and that's fine, but after the fire i completely lost my ability to be attached to things--which is a point of contention in our household as i am constantly throwing things away.

but what you will find is a house full of the sounds and smells of christmas. instead of coming home from school and work and turning on the TV, i throw in christmas cds to listen to all evening long. cinnamon and vanilla scented candles burn virtually nonstop this time of year. i've been baking cinnamon rolls like crazy and i can't wait to start on gingerbread men.

these are thing, i feel, that the girls will be able to carry with them for the rest of their lives when christmas comes around, after i am gone. not the baubles and bows, but the tastes and the sounds.

traditions

my friend maria is hosting a contest on her blog this month, asking her readers to post their own blogs about their favorite christmas traditions.

i've been thinking this over for a few days, and i've come to one conclusion: my favorite christmas tradition is karen carpenter. more specifically:

i love christmas music, and i don't care how uncool that is. and when i was very small, my mom had this ONE christmas album, on tape. every december we'd unpack the christmas ornaments, and there the tape would be, year after year. at night, mom would turn the lights on the little ceramic christmas tree that always went on the dresser in the bedroom i shared with my sister. she'd put on that tape and let us fall asleep to it. i remember the feeling of barely being able to contain my excitement under the scratchy blue electric blanket with my pink care bear and strawberry shortcake sheets.

i bought the album on CD last christmas and i play it all the time around christmas. i'm sure jake wonders why i am so obsessed with a cheesy 1978 carpenter's album, but it is THE album that just screams CHRISTMASTIME!!!! to me and gives my heart back a little bit of that childhood feeling.