Category: mi familia

Day 145/365 new light

Day 145 ~ 365 Days Project

Day 145 ~ 365 Days Project
Originally uploaded by Laurie B!


Laurie and I have been wanting this light for our kitchen for a while now – it’s been out of stock at the Frisco IKEA for at least a month.
On the way back from our cruise we stopped at IKEA in Houston and were able to grab the one we wanted.
Took some time tonight to hang it and Laurie took some great photos.
Not sure if it was the summers doing electrical work with my dad or the easy instructions IKEA provided, but its been fun getting my “hands dirty” fixing/installing these random things around the house.

The Santa clause

russian_icon_instaplanet_saint_nicholas

There’s an interesting discussion going on at emergent village about whether Christian parents should teach their children about Santa Claus or not.

As someone who believed in Santa growing up, I’ve always looked upon the idea and nostalgia of Santa with great fun memories. My granddad has always played up the hopes and dreams of Santa’s spirit and continues to even to this day. I’ve often given gifts addressed from Santa rather than my own name. And perhaps it’s that spirit of anonymous/mysterious giving that attracts me most.

I’ve feel like I’ve had a healthy understanding of Santa from my parents and I think that their teaching and upbringing have helped me to have a healthy understanding of “things” as well.

So, what’s the proper response and approach for future (or current) parents — (not that we’re expecting any children anytime soon)?

My kids (ages 3, 3, 1.5) are right on the precipice of imagination: scratchy monsters, dinosaurs, and talking wolves are all becoming characters in our everyday lives. That’s great, but what should I tell them about Santa?

It’s not just that if rearranged, the letters in his name spell Satan, though such a coincidence should give us all pause (just kidding). It’s more the race and class dimensions of Santa’s identity and his social role. Should we really encourage children to project their material aspirations onto an idealized white man? As a full-time working woman, I don’t want my own hard work, income generation, present-purchasing and gift-wrapping to not only be entirely discredited, but all attributed to a benevolent white man. And I also don’t want to encourage my children to associate material wealth, kindness and generosity, and feasting with whiteness and maleness.

Here are my comments ::

We’re not parents yet, but we’ve had discussions about what we might do about Santa Claus when that time comes. I don’t think we’ve come to a firm conclusion yet.

I heard some great stories this weekend on Travel with Rick Steves about how many other cultures celebrate Christmas and the holiday season (http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/streaming/program117a.asx).

What intrigued me most were the several countries who celebrate St. Nicholas Day on the 6th of December – and that’s when their children receive gifts. There are variations of this as well – and in Sicily, they receive gifts on All Saints Day (Nov 1) from dead relatives (creepy).

But it seemed like all cultures left the gifts to other dates and then celebrated Christmas on Dec 24-26 with church services and family. The gifts weren’t part of the picture.

So, what if we too celebrated St. Nicholas Day on Dec 6th and used it as a day to remember the saint (and other saints) who gave all they had. And we gave small gifts to our children on those days in remembrance of the saint. And then on Christmas morning, rather than rushing to open presents – we bundled up as a family and found ways to serve others – giving of our SELVES.

Another idea we’ve had is to take from the Jewish tradition of Hanukkah and give a small gift on each Sunday of Advent and then give a slightly larger one on Christmas morning.

What are some other creative ideas? What are you doing? What have you considered doing? Is it something to even be concerned with?

Google found my backyard

So, Google Maps still hasn’t updated my street on their site. Not sure why, perhaps the developers haven’t officially turned the roads over to the city yet. Who knows – but you can at least see our backyard now thanks to Google Street view (which covers most of the US now!! WOW!).


View Larger Map

UPDATE :: and here’s the house I grew up in…


View Larger Map
There used to be an amazing Cottonwood tree in the front (where all the grass is gone.) and the house used to be painted red and white.

and here’s the house my mom and her sister grew up in ::


View Larger Map
all the brick work is new and the front door used to be between the two windows. the trees over to the right of the house is where me and my friends used to build forts and such.

What kids really want this Christmas

christmas village
christmas village

The Simple Dollar shares several pointers on how to make Christmas much more meaningful this year.

First off they note, that the really meaningful Christmas gifts don’t come from MegaMart.

My wife and I take pleasure in creating homemade Christmas gifts, as do many of our friends. But even these are secondary to the time we spend “playing Santa”, driving around making holiday deliveries to the people we know. As we chat on porches or sit in living rooms, sipping hot cocoa and fawning over children, it’s the bonds of friendship that are important — not the gifts.

The post then shares several pointers from the book, Unplugging the Christmas Machine.

Robinson and Staeheli (the book’s authors) argue that children don’t really want clothes and toys and games. The four things they actually want are:

  • A relaxed and loving time with the family. Children need relaxed attention. During the holidays, normal family routines are temporarily set aside for parties, shopping, and special events. It’s important to slow down and spend quality time with your kids.
  • Realistic expectations about gifts. Kids enjoy looking forward to gifts and then having their expectations met. The key is to manage their expectations. By educating them about what “Santa” can afford, and is willing to give, it’s possible to prevent disappointment on Christmas morning.
  • An evenly-paced holiday season. The modern Christmas season starts months before December 25th, when the first store displays go up. Things end with a bang on Christmas day. The authors suggest beginning the season late in the year instead. Get out the Christmas music on December 15th. Pick out a tree on the following weekend. Schedule some low-key family events during Christmas week. Stretch the season to New Years Day.
  • Reliable family traditions. When I talk to my friends about what Christmas was like when we were Children, it’s not the gifts that we remember. We recall the things we did as a family. I remember sleeping next to the tree every Christmas eve, but never being able to catch Santa in the act. I remember seeing the cousins. I remember decorating the trailer house. Your kids will remember the traditions, not the gifts.

That last point is so important: it’s the traditions that make this season special, not the gifts.

I shared with our small group Saturday night that the idea of giving and receiving “material gifts” has become a lot more trivial to me in recent years. Maybe I’m ungrateful and expect everyone else to feel the same way — I dunno. I just feel like a gift card or a last minute gift says nothing about how you might really feel about that person.

Spending an hour over coffee at Starbucks, or a bowl of popcorn seems to say so much more.

What about you? What are you thinking, doing differently this year?

Almost late for the dance

I’ve heard/read about the National Novel Writing Month in the past. In fact I’ve seen several of the novels written during previous years on Amazon.

While I’m just hearing/seeing things about this years “competition” I think I’m going to join in this year. I’ve started two novels in the past and neither of them made it much further than 1 chapter. I think I got too caught up in the plot development to really write much of anything.

Either way, the goal for the NaNoWrMo is to write one 175-page novel (at least 50,000) words. There’s a Write-A-Thon on Nov 15th, but Laurie and I will be at a marriage retreat that weekend – so I guess I’ll have to schedule mine another time.

Hopefully this time around I can be spurred on to bring a novel to completion and see it published (self-published if nothing else). I’ll keep you all posted either here or on Twitter.

Now with 5 days before the competition begins – what in the world should I write about?! 🙂