Good Job Rudolph

I had no idea that reindeer have a training season -- you know, kind of like the Cubs do their spring training at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona. Rudolph and his friends do their fall training at Rantoul, IL. We caught them on Christmas Eve just before they took off for the North Pole. After a brief (but warm and cordial) visit with the reindeer we sipped a delicious cup of hot chocolate at the Christmas Barn. Good job, Rudolph! Take a well-deserved break!

Thank you, Danke Schoen, Merci

We received so many thoughtful Christmas gifts this year. Today was the day I had set aside to write our thank you cards. A friend was describing a Christmas card they received and said it was such a cheap card it ripped in half when they opened it. Not wanting to be accused of being "cheap" I went to Hallmark and bought three packages of cards. Isn't that where you go "If you care enough to send the very best?" Believe it or not, when I opened the first card I realized that there is a good chance that if someone opens one of these cards without being very careful it could tear in half. What can you depend on these days?! If you receive one of these cards from us, please know that we cared enough to send what we thought was the very best.

I've had a few etiquette questions about thank you notes and so I did some research this year. Here's some random things I learned:

1. You are never wrong to send a written thank you card.

2. Should you send a thank you for a gift that was given to you as a thank you? Yes!

3. Should you acknowledge a written note sent in lieu of a gift? Yes!

4. Can you email a thank you? Only for a simple kindness by a very close friend.

5. Is it necessary to send a thank you if you thanked the person personally? Yes!

Everyone likes to know that something you did for or gave to someone was appreciated, but sometimes when I know someone well I like to tell them that part of the gift is that they don't need to send me a thank you. I tell them, "Just say thank you now. There, you're done."

A New Years Tradition

Happy New Year! Randy and I are proud to say that we watched the ball drop this year. We went to friends' home to play games and stayed until after midnight. It's been an unusual day. The temperature got up to about 58 degrees today (although it was raining most of the day). It will only get up to 26 tomorrow, so Randy decided when we got home that tonight (now, right this very minute) was the perfect time (or at least the warmest time)to take down the outside Christmas lights. Unfortunately, he's having a hard time raising much enthusiasm on my part to help out for two reasons -- I put them all up by myself and it took me a whole day. Now I don't want to spend a whole night taking them down. The other problem is that the most magical part of Christmas to me is the lights. I am going to miss them big time!

Anyway, I decided to blog instead. Randy's brother married Jennifer in 1981. I think their very first Christmas they had our family's name for the gift exchange. Lucky US! Jennifer must have still been worried about being accepted into the family because she actually took the time to make these adorable counted cross stitch stockings for each of our children. The children put out their big stockings for Santa to fill, but these gifts of love were always hung from cup hooks mounted underneath the fireplace mantle. Santa would put a small treat in them -- sometimes it was the gold chocolate coins that have been a Christmas tradition in Randy's family for five generations.

These little stockings became a part of a simple tradition. On New Year's Day we would have each of the children write down their goals (or New Year's Resolutions, if you will) for the coming year. Then they would fold the paper up and put it inside their little Christmas stocking, which would then be packed away until the next year. When we got the stockings out again, it was a perfect opportunity for each of them to take the paper out and evaluate how they had done in achieving their goals for the year.

Here are a few things to think about as we begin a new year:

Winners have lots of solutions.

Losers have lots of problems.

Winners plan to succeed.

Losers fail to plan.

Winners think in terms of rewards.

Losers think in terms of risks.

Winners believe the future is now and will get better.

Losers believe the good old days are gone forever.

Winners look forward to every new day.

Losers would rather stay in bed.

Winners put in 110% effort.

Losers are satisfied just to get by.

Winners say it may be difficult but it's possible.

Losers say it may be possible but it's too difficult.

Winners associate with winners who are disciplined, energetic and productive.

Losers spend time with losers, time wasters, talkers, and complainers.

Winners are willing to work for nothing in the short run knowing that reasonable compensation will come over the long term.

Losers expect their employers or government to support them.

Winners believe every day you waste is one that can never be made up.

Losers waste days and hope they do not have to be made up.

Winners inspire and lift you.

Losers leave you feeling low and drained.

Winners always find time for the important things.

Losers are always too busy.

Winners do things right the first time.

Losers never do things right.

Winners accept criticism and are always looking for ways to improve.

Losers avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and are nothing.

This year I want to be more of a WINNER!

The Bounty of our Lives

Does every family have a "junk drawer"? Randy and I have one in our armoire. It is mostly filled with old wrist watches, boxed cuff links, old wallets and coin purses, discarded cell phones, foreign coins, old buttons, safety pins, hotel sewing kits, peppermint candies picked up on the way out of restaurants, etc. But when I was a kid the "junk drawer" was a very important source (or resource) -- the first place you looked for things like scissors, string, a rubber band, scotch tape, a nail file, a pencil. Today we buy pens or pencils by the dozens or by the 100s, but if we couldn't find a pencil stub in the junk drawer (naturally the eraser had long since been used and we would bite on the metal band to try to get a tiny bit of eraser to poke out for one last erasure) we could spend an hour and never find a pencil. Today I keep a pair of scissors in almost every room of the house, including the bathrooms, TV room and garage, but if the one pair of scissors we owned didn't happen to be in the junk drawer you were pretty much out of luck.

Combs were another issue. We had two. One of them was always stuck in the sisal comb holder that hung next to the mirror in the bathroom. The other was on mother's dressing table. That's where we sat every morning while mother combed our hair and then either braided it or brushed it into wringlets. Removing either of those combs from their designated locations was a serious matter.

One of the things that Clarissa got for Christmas was a whole package of combs. Now I suppose that the combs were really for the benefit of her mother, as I don't know too many four-year-olds who write Santa for a package of combs. Lucky Tiffany. While my sister was raising her six children it seemed that "the comb" was always missing. Many a morning there was a minor crisis as the entire family searched high and low for the comb (which, of course, no one had seen or touched). A few weeks before Christmas on just such a morning my sister was fit to be tied by the time the children were out the door for school. When my brother-in-law said, "Sweetheart, what would you like for Christmas this year?" my sister replied, "Just a comb that I can find when I need it." That Christmas morning when she opened her gift she found a brand new comb. Harl had drilled a hole in it and attached a light-weight sixteen-foot chain which he then fastened around the leg of their king-sized bed. She got exactly what she wanted. Never had to look more than sixteen feet to find that comb!

Reverence

I think the funnest blogs to read are when people tell about the cute things their kids do or say, especially if it is one of my own grandchildren. I watch Randy like a hawk, but he seldom does anything really cute or funny. It makes blogging difficult. But, I was sitting next to Quinn and four-year-old Clarissa at Church on Sunday when this exchange took place during the sacrament.

Quinn: Clarissa, hold still!

Quinn: Clarissa, stop wiggling!

Quinn: Clarrisa, stop moving!

Clarissa (sitting very very still and statue-like): Dad!

Quinn: What?

Clarissa: Is it okay if I move my tongue inside my mouth?

When Joseph Went to Bethlehem

The Christmas Sweater

Didn’t Glenn Beck write a book called The Christmas Sweater? Well, this story won’t be nearly as dramatic, but it’s possible that it could have taken place the very same Christmas. I’m getting way ahead of myself.

When I was a Bluebird (in primary) one of our requirements was to learn how to knit and to complete a knitted project. Have you ever hear of baby soakers? Well, actually, neither had I, but that was one of the projects you could make, and it probably looked like the simplest project, so that’s the one I chose. This way WAY before disposable diapers, but we did use plastic pants over the baby’s cloth diaper, so baby soakers preceded the invention of plastic. They were intended to be worn over a cloth diaper to . . . .well, I’m not sure. But I did knit one and learned how to knit, purl, cast on, and cast off. Now I was certainly ready for sweaters. I started a pink one. I think I finished two sleeves and one side of the front. A few years later I started a brown pullover. I finished the front and half the back. Knitting is a long, slow process.

Randy and I married in August of 1967, and almost before we had the pots and pans arranged in the cupboard it was time to think about Christmas. What could I do for Randy? I would certainly not do something so “un-special” as buying him a shirt or a tie. I know, I could knit him a sweater. Perfect! Trip to the yarn shop – pattern book, knitting needles, skeins and skeins of yarn. I’m set! But wait, how am I going to make it without Randy knowing? Our apartment is as big as a postage stamp! Have you ever known anyone who knitted an entire sweater in the bathroom? Well now you do!

If you’ve ever made a gift you may have experienced what I did. During the hours and hours I sat on that toilet knitting that sweater I was envisioning how much Randy was going to love it. I pre-lived the opening of that gift so many times, and it was always an amazing event full of joy and surprise. I think I was so excited about it I may have even cried when he opened it. Randy? Well, he didn't cry. I think he may have been a little bit unsure what he would do with this gigantis sweater that was bigger than any drawer in our apartment. I’m glad I have this picture. I think it may have been the only time he wore it.