"…which shall be to ALL people…"

Hope. That's a funny word, isn't it? In our language, at least, we use it a lot:

"I HOPE it doesn't rain on Saturday…"

"I HOPE I get this job…"

(And especially at this time of year)

"I HOPE these pants still fit…"

According to the handy-dandy dictionary widget on my computer, hope has a couple of different meanings. It can mean "a feeling of expectation, a desire for something to happen." I think that's what most of us, as relatively secure Americans, think of when we use that word.

But…there is another meaning. And I think it's more than appropriate at this time of year to remember it.

"A person or thing that might help to save someone."

On Sunday, our Pastor started a series entitled "Hope for the Holidays." And boy, did it ever seem to resonate with the congregation in both services (which I attended, and paid much attention to, as it was my turn to run the media computer.)

The angels who appeared to the shepherds in Luke 2 said some very important things: You don't have to be afraid, I bring you good news, and it's for ALL people.

(Oh no. The waterworks are about to start in 3, 2, 1…)

All people. ALL of them. Not just us, in our comfortable chairs in our heated sanctuaries, waiting to get out so we can be the first in line at Qdoba after church.

The single mom, who is working three jobs to put food on the table. The middle-aged man, sitting in a bar drowning his sorrows in the bottom of the glass. The junkie about to shoot up one more time, who can't even put food on the table because his habit is so all-consuming.

ALL people.

The people in Haiti, who nearly a year after a devastating earthquake are still living in tent cities, afraid to drink the water for fear they will contract a deadly disease. The folks in war-ravaged African nations, afraid to vote because of the riots that will soon follow. The Muslim living in the Middle East, who feels a longing in his soul for something more.

ALL people.

The only, only hope any of these people have is Jesus. He fits that second definition up there, except He's THE person who will save someone. That's the Good News that the angels brought, to a world which wasn't much different than the one we live in now: wars, high taxes, social unrest. Good news. Hope. For all people.

That single mom? She can only do so much on her own. That junkie can get clean, but even secular treatment programs advise reliance on a "higher power." The poverty stricken in our country and around the world have no hope, in this world or the next, without Him.

Hope. It's resonating in my soul today.

Lord, let me spread your hope to those who need it most.

I really need to blog, but …

- The dishwasher needs loaded/unloaded/reloaded

- There is a pile of laundry as tall as my kid waiting on me.

- I have my big Christmas projects to do at work.

- FACEBOOK!

- The lights on the Christmas tree went out, AGAIN.

- The dogs are barking at the squirrels in the trees above them.

- The dogs are barking at the new dogs two doors down.

- The dogs are barking at the air.

- My sister just got a fabulous new job at a fabulously funky bakery and I NEED to go try one of those Pucker Up Cupcakes she posted pictures of on her blog.

(HAVE MERCY!)

- I still have to get a gift for my mother-in-law, who lives 500 miles away and is IMPOSSIBLE to buy for.

- Did I mention, FACEBOOK?

Yes, gentle readers, things are moving right along in Melz World. Thanks to two separate Turners (Anna Marie and ME) having not only Christmas musicals two weekends in a row, but stomach viruses the weekend of each respective musical performance, I feel like I've just lost half of December.

(Why do they call it the "24 hour" virus anyway? Because it took me about three days to fully recover from mine!)

I do, by the way, have a photo of the tree taken during the 24-hours when all the lights were working - but my parents borrowed my camera last weekend, and haven't returned it yet.

(My mom has this rather complicated system set up with one of her sisters, you see. The sister has a long list of health problems and an even longer Christmas list, so my mom does all her shopping/wrapping/shipping for her. The camera is to take pictures of the gifts before they're wrapped, so the aunt can see what she paid for without my mom having to load everything up and haul it to my aunt's first.)

Anna Marie's Christmas break is scheduled to start in about 20 minutes, and it's two weeks of sleeping later/no backpacks/no lunches to worry about! Yippee!

Haul out the holly, Y'all!

The recovery phase

As much as I've been dreading Christmas this year, I have to say, it was actually quite nice.

I left work at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, and spent a couple of hours doing some last-minute running around. Apparently, so did everyone else in town, because the stores were PACKED.

Anna Marie and I spent Wednesday afternoon putting together our gingerbread house, and I was elbow-deep in icing and gumdrops when Amanda sent me a text message saying she was about to leave to come get us.

(Whoops! I had forgotten that we were going to her church's Christmas Eve service. We had to leave at 5 p.m., and it was 4:45, and neither Anna Marie nor I was presentable. I still had icing on my arm when I got to the church bathroom to freshen my lipstick.)

Jason stayed home, which turned out to be a good thing - the church is an hour from here, and we didn't leave there until 7:30, so he had dinner waiting on us when we got home. Dad and Jeremy were here too, and they were watching - what else? - A Christmas Story.

We had such a good, Christ-centered Christmas Eve. After we opened our presents (and Anna Marie had her screaming fit at the sight of the Nintendo DS box) we finished our Advent candles. I'm actually starting to miss it already!

Yesterday morning we stayed at home until lunchtime, when we went to mom's and had smoked turkey. We watched Patch Adams, which I've never seen, if you can believe it.

And then last night - the grand finale - we went to my cousin's house. Our extended family hasn't gotten together in years, mostly because we can't get along well enough to be in the same house for any length of time. I don't know what was different about last night, but as far as I could tell, everyone had a good time. I think part of the solution was that it was a really big house, so pockets of folks could gather and talk. At my grandparents house growing up, we were all shoved together, and, as they say, familiarity breeds contempt.

(Or maybe the troublemakers didn't show up this year. Whatever.)

And now - well, I'm needing a major detox! I did nothing but eat yesterday, most of it stuff I had no business eating. My cousin who lives in California sent my mom a box of See's Candies, and oh my goodness - I told my mom that those were fancy chocolates, and I was not disappointed! Mom, Amanda, and I sat on the couch watching movies, cutting the chocolates in half to see what was inside, and almost making ourselves sick!

(In fact, I told Amanda that this was going to be remembered as the year we sat on the couch, cut mom's fancy chocolates open, watched movies, and just about made ourselves sick.)

I was fortunate enough to leave work at 2 p.m. today, and, miraculously, the house had recovered from the Christmas melee! Unbelievable!

Anna Marie has barely put that Nintendo down, but we have a slight problem. One of the games is playing some music that I find entirely inappropriate for a seven-year-old. We've promised to take her to a used game store so she can trade it in towards something better - something that doesn't ask the question Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?

(And it was rated "E" for everyone, or so the box would lead me to believe.)

I'm so glad I have another two weeks before Weight Watchers meets again, because I'm going to need it to recover from the feasting we did yesterday. I'm surprised I could zip my pants this morning.

I hope everyone out in Blogland had a good, blessed Christmas too - and that you could get your pants zipped today as well.

And so it begins…

(First and foremost, I have GOT to quit hitting the "RETURN" key instead of "TAB" on my keyboard. What is wrong with me?)

It's almost Christmas, y'all!

Know how I know?

1. We had our office Christmas breakfast yesterday. Breakfast casserole, sausage balls, banana nut muffins, and a fruit tray. And my general manager handed out presents, even though we've agreed for the past two years to not exchange presents, instead giving the money to charity.

(I scored a nice silver necklace with my initial on it, strung on strands of black ribbon and cords.)

2. My landlady has come by my office to bring me a Christmas card. And include a check! Who does that? My landlady, that's who!

(Jason says we'll be depositing it and writing it right back to her, in case you were wondering.)

3. It's raining. That's right, around here we don't have a white Christmas - we have a wet Christmas.

(And guess whose umbrella broke today? I TOLD Jason I needed a new one for Christmas, and now I really do.)

4. The stores are full of folks wandering around with a blank stare on their faces, eyes glazed over, trying desperately to finish their shopping.

(I know this primarily because at lunch today I was one of those glazed-over folks.)

5. I finally bought our gingerbread house kit! Yay!

6. We've been doing our Advent candles. We sort-of forgot to do them for the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, so we're doing them the four days before.

(Hey - we're Pentecostal - we're new to this whole Advent candle thing. Cut us a little slack!)

7. Random advertisers are bringing by trays of goodies. Today, it was one of our electrical companies, and there were brownies topped with buttercream frosting involved.

Don't ask if I ate one. I'd hate to lie to you this close to Jesus' birthday.

Do you get the same feeling I do at this time of year? Right before Christmas? It's kind of like some imaginary lever has turned, and we're heading full-steam into the holiday - no turning back!

Here come the holidays!

No, we're not ignoring you

Have you been anxiously awaiting your Turner Family Christmas Card, that pantheon of photographic greatness?

Yes? No? Maybe?

Well, you've been waiting in vain.

Sorry, folks, but there will be no Turner Family Christmas Card this year.

Heck, we haven't even managed to put up all of our Christmas decorations this year. There are no icicle lights gracing the front of my house - mainly because the edges of the roof are rotten, and Jason posits that when he goes to take the clips down, he'll have to go ahead and replace the whole bunch at once, or risk having another raccoon taking up residence in our attic.

I know this won't be a surprise to those who have read this blog - and my descriptions of the funk in various shades of blue which I've been experiencing. That is topped only by the extremely dark blue shade of funk being experienced by some of the people in my life, and with which I am being forced to grapple.

(Keeping everyone encouraged is hard work, y'all.)

Add to that the general business of the season - parties, practices, and work obligations - and you have a recipe for no card photo.

What's that you say? I can send a card without a photo? Poppycock! With a photographer like Amanda at my disposal? And a kid with no front teeth? That would be wasteful!

This year has been all about keeping it together and rolling with the punches. And a photo Christmas card is one punch with which I have not rolled.

Sorry, gentle readers. We'll have to make double-time on this next year.

Out of focus

Since I'll have no "Official Thursday Weigh-In" this week (Anna Marie has a school play and I can't make the meeting) you're getting a deeper, more philosophical post today.

You're welcome.

Is it just me, or is it more difficult to stay focused this Christmas season? And by focused, I mean on the real Reason we celebrate.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about being in a "blue funk" about Christmas. It got somewhat better, but this week it's back with a vengeance. Part of this is hormonal, I know - my "friend" came to visit yesterday. (For Christmas! And I forgot to get him anything! And I know it's a male, because only a man would make a woman feel this crappy!)

But part of it is situational. The same dynamics which normally cause turmoil in my family are still at play. The usual financial strains are there, but of course more pronounced because it is the holidays. And yet, there is so much more.

I won't go into detail, out of respect for those involved, but a member of my extended family passed away this past weekend. The sadness has been multiplied immeasurably by the manner of his death, and no one seems to know quite how to handle themselves. It has, quite literally, thrown the whole clan for a loop.

I've thought in the past few days what an odd mixture of emotions that grief truly is: anger, sadness, regret, loneliness, it's all there and more.

Tomorrow is the funeral, and I don't know how anyone is going to handle it.

His death has helped me put some things into perspective - for instance, we were in danger of bouncing a check over the weekend, because of an unexpected withdrawal, and I realized that really, while I didn't want it to happen (and apparently, it didn't) it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Inconvenient, yes, but we'd make it through.

I have so much to be thankful for! I have a roof over my head. I have plenty of food to eat. I have a healthy husband who treats me with respect and a beautiful, healthy, happy daughter. I have a job, and even though it gets stressful and frustrating, there are many these days who can't say that. I have a wonderful, Spirit-filled church with a true man of God as a pastor and people who care about me.

(Oh, and wonderful bloggy friends! Hello!)

But sometimes, all of that seems to not matter so much. We get out of focus.

We begin to focus on the wrong things - the economy, the cold weather, the infighting in our families.

I told Jason today that I wished sometimes that the holidays wouldn't come. It isn't because I don't have anything under the tree for my child - her new, candy-apple-red Nintendo DS Lite came in today! - it was more because the situations in my family are making the traditional Christmas celebration almost impossible.

(Oh lawd. Here come the tears.)

He looked at me, and told me that maybe I was focusing on the wrong part of the holidays.

And he was right.

Really, as much as family celebrations are a part of Christmas, that isn't really the most important thing. I have to remember that we celebrate Christ's birth, and I can do that in my very own heart, even without anyone around.

It saddens me to think that Christmas may just be the three of us, but if I have to pull away from others to be able to keep my heart focused on Christ, I just may have to do it. I have resolved that my home is going to be peaceful, in as much as I have control over that. And sometimes, that means keeping out the turmoil from without just as much as keeping the peace within.

I've got so many different thoughts and emotions swirling around in my heart right now - so many questions.

It's hard to keep focused on the most important things when you have the weight of the world on your shoulders. But if I don't keep that focus, this weight I carry might just pin me to the ground.

Christmas list - UPDATE

Let's take a look at where we are on Anna Marie's list, now that we're a week out from Christmas.

Let's also remember, that I don't encourage her to make this list. This is the first time (I think) for a list, and she made it out on the way to church. I'm not really interested in fulfilling everything on the list, but I thought it might be good for a few laughs.

That being said:

• Ben 10 watch - probably not going to get. She saw one again at Walgreens yesterday, and again, I'm just not that into the alien thing.

(Unless David Tennant is involved, which he is not, so no go.)

• Her two front teeth - one is already peeking through, so the other won't be far behind. I can't promise they'll be back within the week, though.

• A bike with trick pegs - um, no. She got this idea because the Children's Ministry at church is having a contest, and this is one of the prizes.

• Cough gone - done, except now she's got the sniffling/sneezing thing going on.

• Laser Tag - no. Not even really sure if they still make them.

• Nintendo DS - actually, thanks to several relatives pooling some change they'd been saving, this is on it's way here as we speak. It's RED!

• A crown - my mom has some of these lying around her house from a Women's Ministry thing she did, so I might be able to arrange this.

• A tablet - actually, thanks to Walgreens, I scored a tablet and a box of envelopes dirt cheap. I figured she could use them to write letters and leave our (good) stuff alone.

• A plant - again, huh?

• Lots and lots of friends - she has those, but I think the thing here is that none of them live in our neighborhood. We have mostly older retired folks on our street.

• A ball - does.not.need.another.one.

• A belt - OK, so I could stick one of those in her stocking, because who wants their daughter's pants to fall down on the playground? Not me.

• A robot - probably not, unless there's one coming from a relative that I don't know about. Besides, she'd probably just use it to take over the world or something.

Or shoot her eye out. Whatever.

• A remote controlled helicopter with a laser - ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YOU'D SHOOT YOUR EYE OUT, AND MINE TOO PROBABLY.

• A teddy bear - again, has she seen her room lately? Without all those stuffed animals it would be MUCH easier to keep clean.

At least she's covered - I'm having a bit of trouble focusing/getting motivated/finding time/finding money to do much other shopping. Nothing for my dad, or my brother, or sister-in-law, or step-niece - and nothing for my mother-in-law!

And Christmas Eve is a week away!

And I have lots of other things to do between now and then besides just shopping!

Guess I'd better get busy printing out those IOUs.

This is what a commitment to weight-loss looks like.

No, really.

I only ate one! See, that's commitment!

And this is what it looks like when your sister doesn't realize that there are a few more cookies to bake, and she turns off the oven, except she doesn't tell you, and you wonder why those cookies aren't baking, and then you turn the oven back on, and then you completely forget that the cookies are in there.



Nice.

Oh, well, we really didn't need those cookies anyway.

She's making a list…

So, apparently I already have a blog post by this title somewhere, because Firefox tried to auto-complete it, but I couldn't find it, so it's going to be the title of this post.

It's Christmas, and you know what that means to kids - especially my kid.

Christmas lists.

(Or, more specifically, "Chrystmas" lists. Yes, she knows how to spell it, but that's the way she wrote it on her list. I think it might have something to do with the fact that they just finished studying butterflies at school, and she's thinking it should be spelled like "chrysalis" because it sounds similar.)

Her list this year is pretty extensive.

"I want a Ben 10 watch for Chrystmas."

(Sorry, kid, you know I'm not a big fan of that show. Something about the aliens creeps me out a bit.)

"All I want for Chrystmas is my two front teeth."

(I am NOT making this up. Also, I have no control over this one.)

"I really, really, really want a new bike with trick pegs."

(I've explained to her that she can't ride the bike she has now without the training wheels, and that I didn't think they made super-cool stunt bikes with them. She's out of luck.)

"I at least want to get my cough gone."

(Done and done. Mostly. I think.)

"I want to get a Lasor Tag game."

(Hmm. Do they still make those?)

"I want a Nintendo DS."

(Well, I thought we had this taken care of, because Gramma ordered her one on Friday. But then the nice people at Radio Shack decided to cancel the order, rather arbitrarily we think. Haven't gotten an answer from the company as to why.)

"I want a crown."

(Well. We think a bit highly of ourselves, don't we?)

"I want a tablet for Chrystmas."

(I haven't figured out the reason behind this one yet. Is she trying to tell me she's out of paper at school?)

"I want a plant."

(What kind? You're being vague here, Little AM.)

"I want lots and lots of friends."

(Someone's been watching a bit too much High School Musical.)

You can see the rest of the list above, and I bet if you click on that picture, you'll get a bigger version.

She doesn't have the resource of the Big Book (isn't that what they used to call the Sears Christmas book?) as a reference. I used to pore over that thing, until it was dog-eared, wishing for the wonderful toys between its pages.

Somehow, I think staring at a computer screen just isn't the same!

Now that Christmas is about over

How about a tour of my Christmas decorations?


This is an ornament we got for our second year together - because we were too broke the first year - during a trip to Dollywood's craft fair. We have two more on the tree, another with just the two of us from the next year and one from the year Little AM got here.



Part of Jason's Christmas village, which sits atop the entertainment center. We had this up for a couple of years before we (meaning my ordained minister husband) realized our town had no church. Heathens!



Obligatory tree shot. Much the same as last year, but with gold and brown ornaments instead of silver and gold.

And yes, there's a star on top, you just can't see it in this shot.



Good thing I shot this when I did, because all the lights blew out simultaneously a couple of days ago on this garland. It's where all our "special" (read: not matching our tree) ornaments live.



Our nativity, which, for the sake of accuracy, has the Magi far away from the baby. Because there's every reason to believe he was a toddler when they finally got there, and we have to be BC (biblically correct) at my house.



My table - in a flash of inspiration (and trying to figure out what to do with all those silver ornaments that weren't going on the tree) I flipped my cake dome over and filled the resultant bowl with all sorts of silvery things.






My kitchen - the penguin stuff was a gift last year from my Aunt Debi. There are also cute little penguin-shaped pot holders, but I think they were dirty when I was shooting these.



Yes, I have a tree and an angel overlooking my toilet. Truth is, we used to get a new angel every year, so I use the old ones to decorate around the house.



And yes, I have a trifle bowl full of ornaments and some candles on the back of my toilet. I learned during a tour of homes a few years ago that the secret to "real" Christmas decorating is to put a little something in every room. Besides, I had to find a use for the green and burgandy balls I no longer use on the tree.



And finally, AM's room door. I made the wreath a couple of years ago using Dollar Tree materials and some spare ribbon I had hanging around. You can also see her affinity for stickers, High School Musical, and signs that tell folks to keep out.

Thanks for stopping by - I think I blew Blogger's mind with all these pictures!

Where have I been?

Good question.

First off, Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day and all that.

I hope everyone had a good holiday - we did pretty well, until the part where I got into a major fight with my brother, but at least we talked afterwards and did something my mom's family never does in all their fighting - dealt with the issues.

Anyway.

You'll never believe what I unwrapped Monday night at my mom's house.

Go on, guess.

Let me give you a hint: it came in a big box, and it's named after an insect I normally can't stand.

Give up?

I GOT MY CRICUT!

Yes, my husband bought it at the beginning of December, when it was still $119, and hid it at my mom's house.

Hid it. Because he knew that I'm nosy and if it had been around here I would've found it sure enough.

I've already used it to do a page! It's all very exciting.

Not exciting, however, has been my eating over the past few days. Boy, oh boy, do I ever dread weigh-in tomorrow night! But, I've done the crime (and eaten the brownie pie) so I have to be willing to do the time.

And next week is New Year's. Time for a fresh start.

I also got a panini press from my mother, so I guess I'd better figure out how to make some fancy flat sandwiches.

And I'm really thankful tonight, too, because our office manager Faye's son and daughter-in-law were in a terrible wreck Saturday night, wherein they flipped their SUV and were thrown - her out the window, and him into the back seat - because they weren't wearing their seatbelts.

They're OK - he has a black eye, and she has a broken nose and a fractured pelvis, but it could've been so, so much worse.

Just be in prayer for them, though - they're young (around my age) and physically resilient, but she's a hairdresser and is losing money every day she's not behind that chair.

Oh, yeah, they're converted seatbelt wearers now too. Pray that sticks!

She finally got to come home from the hospital today, because she was able to walk across the floor of her room. Now she'll need physical therapy, but I figure since they're both alive, they can pull together and work through that too.

And knowing they were going to be OK was the best Christmas present that Faye could get.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Here I sit - in my jammies, having just eaten a bowl of that amazing Quaker Simple Harvest oatmeal and sipped a cup of peach herbal tea (a gift from our wonderful office manager) and trying to figure out how to not leave the house until we go to my mother's tonight.

My mother's house, where major rennovations are now going on, and will hopefully be finished before tonight. It's like an episode of a reality show, except with less money and more complications.

Anyway.

Anna Marie had quite an adventure last week - my dad came and got her Wednesday afternoon from my job, and took her to McDonald's and to the movies to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. Then, she spent the night with my parents, and went to the auction Christmas party - where she left with Amanda. Who took her to the mall and put her on the carosel, and bought her Chick-fil-A for dinner.

And then my mom came to get her the next day, and took her back to the mall. And to Moe's to eat! And Jason and I went shopping after I got off work, and AM was still with mom, so, what the heck, she spent the night again.

(And Jason found $35 on the ground next to the car in the parking lot! Wohoo!)

Saturday afternoon AM and I put together a gingerbread tree (because that's all that was left in the stores, because I'm a big huge procrastonator and didn't get a house) and watched Elf. Pictures to come later, when I'm not too lazy to dig out the card reader.

We did that while Jason was at my mother's, helping with the aforementioned rennovations.

Anyway, Jason is about to head to the bank (and it closes at noon today) and I've asked him to take my car, because it needs gas. And to stop by the grocery store to get some fruit for the stockings.

Like I said - trying not to leave the house until tonight!

Here is the obligatory YouTube video of Linus explaining the Christmas story. Because I love it, and because, in a desperate grab for ratings, the network played it in NOVEMBER this year and I missed it.



Merry Christmas, y'all.

Oh no they didn't!

I almost broke down in tears in Walmart this morning.

(I know. Just the thought of going there can reduce one to tears, but I had forgotten to get AM's dance teachers a gift, and today was their Christmas party, so I had no choice. No where except the grocery store is open here before I go to work.)

I'd been eyeing one of these babies for about a month now:



Yes, that's a Cricut.

You may remember that they were on sale for $119 (normally $184) at WM the day after Thanksgiving. Much as I wanted one, I didn't have the funds. I figured they'd sell out in a jiffy.

I was wrong.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed some on a shelf in the ever-shrinking craft section at our Senatobia store. For $119. They weren't selling AT ALL.

Jason promised he'd buy one as soon as he got a check he was expecting for building a website.

(By the way - still waiting on that check. I think we'll have to send that we'll have to send in the "We gonna get your money" guys from SNL.)

Back to today - I was in there before work. They still have about a dozen of them, but they've jacked the price back up to $184!

Now, I know, that's still a good deal for a Cricut with two cartridges. But when they've been $119 for a month, and the only thing standing between one of them and a spot under my tree was a group of people in South Carolina, well, it's just the principal of the thing.

I've been pretty bummed about it all day. And wondering what I need to request for my consolation present.

Amanda suggested I boycott them, but that's really not an option. Unlike her, I don't live a few miles from an Aldi and a Super Target. I have no where else to turn!

Watch out, world's largest retailer. Payback is heck.

Some other stuff we did this weekend

No, the fun never stops at Melz World, my friends!

I told you in my last post that we went to the first birthday party of my cousin's daughter. I also told you how impossibly cute she is. See for yourself:



Posing for the camera! She's a natural!

And, with a red head of my own, I'm sorta partial to this Strawberry Shortcake cake.



Cheree (my cousin) had a really great idea for a craft. She found some foam picture frames, and sticky foam cut outs, and let the kids decorate. Brilliant!



And, of course, my kid zooms past the princess and undersea cutouts, and goes straight for the race car.



Even little James, who is only three, could do it - with mom Alison's help, of course.



Unfortunately, Amelia is still at the age where she's easily distracted and the grownups have to finish the present duties.



Of course, you know what we did after the party: Christmas pictures.

And that was just Saturday! On Sunday, I attended a bridal shower for my BFF Marcia at her sister-in-law Wendy's house. It was so beautiful - it looked like we'd stepped into an issue of Southern Living Magazine!



These were my gifts - a cake pan she'd registered for, plus a photo album. Because you can never have too many of those!









After the shower, I came home to get Little AM ready for her choir concert. As you may know, she's been riding the choir bus to the local First Baptist on Tuesdays after school. (The pastor's son is a friend of hers). They had their Christmas program last night, and, as you could expect, the adorableness was out of this world.



We were pretty far back, so getting a good picture was hard, but as you can tell my daughter is once again the center of attention. Literally. And, she's looking down because that's where the choir director was crouching. The pastor's son is behind her, and the mic was conveniently placed right over him. Wonder how that happened?

I'm kinda glad this weekend is over - we've been so dadblamed busy. And next weekend, it's more of the same - a waffle breakfast on Saturday morning, a wedding Saturday afternoon, a church Christmas dinner Saturday night, and another Christmas program on Sunday night.

Tis the season, I suppose.

Guess what we finally got around to doing?

Taking our Christmas card picture!

We've been so busy these past few weeks - I was afraid we wouldn't get it done at all, just like 2004. Complicating the matter was the fact that Amanda no longer resides a stones-throw from me, but has moved an hour away.

Yesterday, I woke up with a plan. Well, actually I'd been planning it for a few days, ever since I woke up last Sunday in a panic about the whole process.

I knew Amanda would be in Downtown Memphis feeding homeless people, because that's whas she does most every Saturday. I also knew we has a first birthday party for my cousin Cheree's exceedingly cute daughter Amelia, just across the river from Memphis in Arkansas.

I asked Amanda to meet us downtown after her homeless feeding duities were over. And she did!

I likewise knew that it would be 4 p.m. or after before any of us could get down there, so outdoor pictures would be out of the question. We parked in our favorite free-parking spot, and walked a couple of blocks to the Peabody Place Mall and their ginormous Christmas tree.

Someone in our group was being less-than-cooperative, and kept asking for pizza. And after she was threatened within an inch of her life to never ride the choir bus again, we finally got a usable shot.

I stayed up pretty late last night working on these, and they should be waiting on me at Wal Mart when church gets out.

Now, comes the fun part - finding the addresses, because neither my ultra-organized husband nor I appear smart enough to save them from year to year.