'Tis the Season

It's been an interesting couple of weeks around here. We never did go back to school last week. I ran into our superintendent twice (once at Les Schwab's and once at the post office), and she said that they really wanted to have at least one day of school. So many things were planned for that last week--Christmas programs and gift donations and so on. Besides that, we got to the point that we now have to add days on to the end of the school year in June. But ... when the roads are slick and many off our kids live out in the hills, it's just not worth risking it. If this were Minnesota, sure! But Oregonians are (forgive me, fellow Oregonians, but I have to say it) numbskulls when it comes to snow and ice. So we ended up with an extra full week of vacation, which has been great for me because it has given me time to work up lesson plans, etc. (as I mentioned in my last post). I have finished (yey!) with Spanish 2B, including all the weekly tests, the PowerPoints, the warmups, everything. Monday I start in on 7th grade Spanish, which will be significantly easier since a) I've already taught it, and b) it doesn't involve the subjunctive!

Christmas was a bit different this year. Okay, a lot different! We weren't able to do anything that we had hoped to do on Christmas Eve (i.e. go to the Christmas Eve service, where Alex was supposed to play the chimes, or to my parents' place in Carlton for dessert and a gift exchange). Instead we stayed home and grouched at each other and watched _It's a Wonderful Life_, which DID help me put things into a better perspective.

The next day we got up and did our little family's gift exchange. It was hoot for me to see that most of the things I picked out for Mark and the kids were a success. I won't go (nearly) so far as to say that I don't enjoy receiving gifts. I do! But really, I think the greatest joy in Christmas comes in planning and scheming and hunting for just the right gifts--and then seeing their faces light up--or in Alex's case, hearing him cry "Hallelujah!" as he held his make-your-own-lightsaber kit aloft--is the best part of the season, for me.

In the afternoon, we decided to venture out, despite still iffy road, to the theater on the edge of McMinnville, since it's nearly a straight, flat shot (and a relatively short one) from here to there. We have gone to see a movie every year on Christmas afternoon for at least ten years now, and we really wanted to make it this year, as usual. Mark wasn't feeling well at all. (He had been in the hospital the night of Brendan's birthday (the 23rd). Oh, I forgot to tell you about the trip into town to pick him up! Well, I'll come back to that. Anyway ...) Mark rested for a few hours between opening gifts and going out at 2:30 to see Bedtime Stories. For any of you who have kids, that's a great movie! It's about as deep as a bottlecap, but ... hey, life doesn't ALWAYS have to be deep, does it? I laughed so hard at several points, and everyone else really enjoyed it, too. That what I consider a successful family movie--when everyone from the 7-year-old to the teenaged daughter to the mom and dad have a good time.

Then we came home and had a ham dinner and ... blah blah blah. None of that's really interesting, so let's skip ahead to ... today, when we got together at Mom and Dad's for brunch and a late Christmas/birthday celebration for Brendan and Joellen. We had Mom's yummy cinnamon rolls and egg ... something good! Don't know what you'd call them. And fruit salad and lots to drink. Good stuff! We, of course, exchanged gifts, with the theme of the year apparently being ... coffee! That's what I gave everyone--fair trade coffee and chocolates with mugs that I felt "matched" the couple. (I really feel more and more strongly about the way we say that slavery is so awful, how we would never be a part of that ... and yet we ARE a part of it when we benefit from the cheap prices that slavery brings to supermarket shelves. Just because we don't SEE the slaves doesn't mean they aren't just as real--and just as downtrodden and exploited--as any of those who used to work our own Southern plantations.)

But I digress ... many of us had the same idea, which was just fine by all, since we all love coffee (except for Mom and Dad, who can take it or leave it, and would usually rather leave it. And Becca, who doesn't like it at all unless it's been sweetened, beaten, and flavored beyond recognition. (Hi, Becca! Love ya!) I'm not sure how the rest of us developed out love of coffee. Maybe the French sort of leeched into our genes, somehow? (Although what we drink, our friend Philippe use to call "sock juice." American coffee is really NOTHING like the French stuff.)

Best of all, though, was the news that (brother) Mark and Joellen are having a new baby this September (late August). They are going to be BUSY, as Asher will only be 17 months old then. But those two have so much energy and enthusiasm for life. I'm sure they'll manage. It's so much FUN to have Asher and soon Mary's Analeigh and then a few months after, yet another wee one in the family, and I don't have to have a single contraction, back ache, or stretch mark! I can let other people (my dearly beloved sisters ...) go through all that, and I just get to sit back and enjoy the results. (Hey, stop glaring, Mary. I put in my time!)