Multitudes on Mondays...#221-230

Thankful (for):

221.  A new Christmas Eve tradition started, that of Marty opening his birthday gift from me (nearing or close to midnight) while the babies are asleep and we can be alone.
222.  Eating like royalty on Christmas Day -- though next year I'm definitely backing off the mimosas in the morning, ha!
223.  Church service on Christmas Eve, closing with candlelight and singing of carols, everyone wearing red and green and white and just feeling the communal warmth and love and excitement.
224.  Getting to hear "The Hallelujah Chorus" in aforementioned church service.
225.  Lovely gifts from my husband -- robe, fuzzy socks, perfume, sweater (my first from Anthropologie, woot!!!), and Agatha Christie's autobiography.
226.  Reading today from aforementioned book this line of remembrance AC had about her mother (my hope is to be a mom like this!):

Something else came to me then, besides the joy of [my bird's] return, the strength of my mother's love and understanding when there was trouble.  In the black abyss of misery, holding tight to her hand had been the one comfort.  There was something magnetic and healing in her touch.  In illness there was no one like her.  She could give you her own strength and vitality.

227. A Starbucks gift card from my brother-in-law!
228.  The absolute, unmitigated delight my children experienced opening their presents.  Who needs gifts for yourself when there is a child's joy to partake in???
229.  The fact that the most popular present of the day was a $4 flashlight from Will's stocking.  The runner-up was a $14 play cell phone for Lucy.  Isn't this always true with kids?
230.  The quiet calm of the day after Christmas; getting the chance to start looking forward to a new year and new beginnings.

Holiday Menu

~Christmas Eve~
Dinner

Sausage Party Melts
(a long-ago favorite of my late mother-in-law's)

Spinach, Mushroom, and Red Pepper Strudel

~Christmas Day~
Brunch

French Toast Casserole with Praline Topping
Thick-Sliced Smoked Bacon

Mimosas

Dinner

Prime Rib Roast

Creamy Sea Scallop Bake
Au Gratin Potatoes

Crisp Green Salad

Dessert

Sugar Cookies with a toast of Bailey's for the grown-ups



Three Years of Santa Visits

Marty and I are *still* laughing about our visit with Santa today.  Check out the montage:

Year 1:  Happiness!  Santa is great!

Year 2:  Dodged a bullet with a sleeping Lucy, bribed Will with a sucker.  Decent shot.

Year 3:  The Santa visit which will live in infamy.

Now *that* is Christmas awesomeness, y'all! 

Multitudes on Mondays...#211-220

Thankful (for):

211.  Visits from my parents, even when they're too short. 
212.  Tylenol suppositories for little ones who are burning up with fever and can't keep oral medicine down.
213.  Big Christmas gifts for my kids from their Nana and PaPa -- a pink and white "tea" table for Lucy, an art easel/table for Will.
214.  The relationships that my kids have with their grandparents -- my poor Lucy was miserable most of the weekend but was clearly enjoying snuggle time with her PaPa; Will kept coming into the kitchen ("Nana, [where] are you?") for hugs and kisses from his Nana.
215.  A recipe for "Creamy Scallop Bake" that I copied out of Paula Deen's new Southern Cookbook Bible -- a present for my mom.  I adore sea scallops, so a Happy Christmas to me, to me!
216.  The quietness and calm of getting back into routine on Monday morning.
217.  Not one, but TWO coupons for Shutterfly.com -- thus a chance to get our Christmas cards ordered and shipped here in time to get them out and arrived at their destinations by Christmas Eve.  (I was totally flailing on this and was in serious doubt I'd get it done, but a couple things came together and I'm so glad I can send out cards!)
218.  TONS of new words from Will -- castle, umbrella, town(!) -- and a few *phrases* too -- "stand up," "big boy," "there you are!"
219.  Finding "The Polar Express" on sale at Target for $7.99 -- a beloved favorite in my family.
220.  Watching my children get caught up in the wonder and magic and beauty of Christmastime!

Series 35: About Blogs

Installment #2

20 things you'll never see me do on this blog:

1. Refer to my husband by his initials or in any contrived, hyper-cutesy, blog-lingo way.  His name is Marty.  I will call him Marty.
2. Behave as though my life, my words, my name, or my blog are on their way to becoming some sort of brand.  I'm just Becky, and this is just a blog.
3. Go from one single-digit size to a smaller single-digit size and talk about "my weight loss journey."
4. Speak as though my wedding was some kind of social event.  Two people got married and shared that day with their loved ones.  It was beautiful, happy, and intimate...and probably not worthy of a magazine spread.  Yet I still manage to go on with my life...
5. Post pictures of myself posing in front of my bathroom mirror to show you all the outfits I'm simply agonizing over.  Complete with smiley or pouty faces.
6. Discuss my Louis Vuitton bag collection.
7. Create an inspiration board for a 2-year-old's birthday party.
8. Sell you stuff.  I tried ads but they failed because I made them teeny-tiny and/or hid them at the very bottom of the page.  Turns out I hate ads on my own site just as much as I do on others' (although if you're raising money for a sick child or for an adoption, by all means...).
9. Encourage you to buy that $160 sound machine so your infant will sleep better. 
10. Talk endlessly about my life in great detail and then every so often, post about how you can't possibly know me at all.
11. Attempt to proselytize you to any kind of parenting "method."  Or sincerely consider that you should give up the cost of a month's worth of diapers to pay for a web seminar on nighttime parenting.  Because clearly nobody's been able to figure this out on their own in all the centuries of human history.
12. Share links to blogs that would make you feel inferior or inadequate in any way.
13. Use crossed-out words to make me sound funnier.  Because I suck I'm not good at it.  (Although I heartily admire those who are.)
14. Show you images of customized stationery I bought.  For my infant.
15. Pretend to be perfect.  Then deny my (pretense to) perfection by pointing out that I had a bad hair day.
16. Write an entire post about aforementioned hair.
17. Insult children's clothing that says "I love Mommy" or the like. 
18. Promote any kind of random standard about baby clothing; i.e., it's a blight on the innocence of a child if his mother puts him in a polo shirt at the age of 2. That kind of thing.
19. Deify my husband.  He's marvelous alright, but definitely not perfect.  It's never pleasant to be reading your blogs, sipping your coffee, and suddenly feel yourself gagging.
20. Speak as though your life is obviously incomplete because you, your home, or your child don't have x, y, or z. 

15 things you *will* find on this blog:

1. Pictures of my kids.  Not necessarily dressed up or at their best.  (Indeed, aren't those mutually exclusive?)
2. Gratitude.  Lots and lots of it.  I have more to be thankful for than time in the day to express my thanks adequately.
3. Unabashed admiration for my husband. 
4. Nerdiness galore -- recommendations on books, documentaries, historical places to visit.  Buckle up.
5. Sarcasm.  Because I'm good at it.
6. A sense of humor about (almost) everything.  Laughter is critical and it never hurts to lighten up a bit.
7. Links to blogs that I find important or meaningful or helpful or encouraging.
8. Confessions of struggle, loneliness, and failure.
9. Hope -- sweet, blessed hope -- for doing better tomorrow.
10. Amateur(!) theological thoughts and musings.
11. Tips on what has worked for me as a wife, mom, homemaker, friend, employee, Christian.  With a great big caveat that your life just might be different from mine, and your experiences unique.
12. Tips on how to save money.
13. Exultations at having saved some money!
14. Questions on parenting.  I actually don't know everything because I actually haven't done this before.
15. Boring anecdotes about my daily life.  Let's face it, this blog is for my parents, sisters, and a few very close friends who do me the favor of staying interested in my life despite how boring it truly is.

Introducing "Series 35"

Installment #1

In honor of my fast-approaching 35th birthday (I just choked a little typing that), I'm going to write 35 lists of 35 items each.  Some will be fun, and some will be serious, but all will be random, as I haven't the time to write anything altogether circumspect these days. 

In casting about for how to inaugurate "Series 35," I looked no further than my good friend, the Shabby Princess, for inspiration...her post today is a celebration of books (hello, kindred spirit, SP!).  Thus, here's my Series 35 on favorite books (fiction/literature; I might do another list on non-fiction) and favorite authors (if I couldn't narrow it down to just one offering from a particular author):

1. Gotta start with the cream of the crop:  Jane Eyre by the inimitable Charlotte Bronte
2. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
3. Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen)
4. Elizabeth Berg
5. Beowulf (uh, the Anglo-Saxons?)
6. Chris Bohjalian
7. The Secret Garden (Francis Hodgson Burnett)
8. Michael Crichton
9. Agatha Christie
10. Jennifer Donnelly
11. Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
12. Silas Marner (George Eliot)
13. Bridget Jones' Diary (Helen Fielding)
14. Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Philippa Gregory
17. Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson)
18. Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy)
19. The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
20. Ernest Hemingway
21. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
22. Barbara Kingsolver
23. Sophie Kinsella
24. Stephenie Meyer (that's right, I'm a Twi-hard and I don't mind admitting it!)
25. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
26. Love Comes Softly (series by Janette Oke -- the best books you can give an adolescent girl, in my opinion)
27. Nancy Pickard
28. Francine Rivers (I almost put Redeeming Love but her other books are really just as good)
29. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
30. Anita Shreve
31. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
32. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
33. The Hobbitt (J.R.R. Tolkein)
34. Jennifer Weiner
35. Little House on the Prairie (series by Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Note:  Some of these books I love so much I could cuddle them, while others I love because they really moved me (Tess) or changed my thinking in some way (Catcher).

So -- please leave a comment telling me what book(s)/authors I may have missed in a list of top 35!

Multitudes on Mondays...#201-210

Thankful (for):

201.  Living a mere block away from an emergency room of a major hospital.  Sometimes I'm not fond of it (the medical helicopters flying super-low over our house, the ambulances whizzing by at high speeds), but when you need help yourself, it feels like living next to heaven.
202.  Being seen in said ER almost immediately and being stitched up by a very sweet girl, who gave me three lidocaine injections so I wouldn't feel a thing, and who chatted with me to keep my mind off of her task.  (Who would ever have thought I'd be thankful for *shots* in this list???)
203.  A husband who fed and bathed the kids after he parked me on the couch with a cup of hot tea when I got home.
204.  Advil.  And a husband who watched the clock and gave it to me faithfully, every 4 hours, until the throbbing subsided some.  (I know Marty appears frequently in my lists but he is truly the greatest blessing of my life and the most present and accounted-for husband I can imagine!)
205.  That my dear friend had a successful surgery and is healing and feeling quite well.
206.  Our pastor and his sometimes brief but always thought-provoking sermons.  He must have had an off day on our first visit (I thought his message was too simple) because since then, he's been knocking them out of the ballpark.  Not a Sunday goes by that Marty and I don't talk about the sermon on the way home, and not out of some kind of spiritual obligation, either!
207.  Meaningful ornaments -- "Our First Christmas, 2008", "Baby Boy, 2009", "Baby Girl, 2010".  It is wonderful to see your blessings celebrated on a Christmas tree -- a unique way to be thankful!
208.  That Will is trying so many new words, even hard ones like "wreath."  He is really gaining some new ground and I hope we'll be having full-on conversations very soon!
209.  Upcoming visits -- my parents in just a couple days, a friend in mid-January.  We heart company in this house!!!
210.  Pandora.  Instead of having to buy the new Michael Buble holiday album, we just created a radio station and get to enjoy his music for free!