The Great Christmas Card Extravaganza

Christmas Card Extravaganza has begun!

There are few things in life I love more than Christmas cards.  I love receiving them and I love sending them.  I have always loved this part of Christmas.  To me it's kind of what the Christmas spirit is all about.  Sharing special holiday greetings and wishes for the year to come with all the special people in your life.

I go all out with my Christmas cards.  Which is not to say I spend a lot of money on the cards themselves, but the whole thing is somewhat of a process.  There is a letter to be written.  That usually starts sometime in October and there are always several drafts before I get it to the point where I feel it is worthy of being sent.  I take pride in the fact that my letters are not your typical Christmas tell all.  I tell the good with the bad and try to sprinkle in a little humor with it all.  This year marks the 20th edition of my famous (or infamous, if you prefer) letter and it is definitely my favorite part of the process.

Then there is the picture.  I've never done studio pictures.  I just always dressed the kids in something cute and usually took it in front of the fireplace. A few pictures were family vacations.  When the kids were little the picture wasn't really an ordeal but over the years it became the hardest part of the whole process.  If any of you have ever tried to get three teenagers to all smile at the same time in a photo...you know what I mean.  And now with my family growing up and moving away...it's not an easy task to get everyone here for a picture.  So far I've managed, but I'm not sure how many more years I'm going to be able to get everyone together to do a picture.

Next is the choosing of the stationary and cards.  I like my cards to have a religious tone because, after all, Jesus IS the reason for the season.  I usually pick stationary that has a more secular feel because I love that part of Christmas also!  I love anything with a vintage look but whimsy is appreciated also.  I hand sign all my cards (about 80) because I don't hand sign the letter and I just think it makes it more personal that way.  I don't do personal salutations, hand address the envelopes or hand write on the back of the pictures either, because if I did that, they'd never get sent.  I think labels are my best friend at this time of year.

Before I start putting everything together I make sure I have enough ink for the printer for all those letters and labels. Update my address list and purchase stamps.  Not just any old regular stamp.  Of course they must be Christmas stamps.  Last year I asked my husband to pick up the stamps for me.  I just assumed he would know I wanted Christmas stamps for sending Christmas cards.  Wrong.  He came home with an entire roll of stamps with state flags on them.  So last years cards went out with state flags on the stamps and I'm sure I'm the only one who cared that they had nothing to do with Christmas.  I did learn a valuable lesson from that...when sending the husband for stamps...be specific...or get them yourself.

I try to have all this accomplished by Thanksgiving.  Some people shop on Black Friday....I sign Christmas cards.  I try to get the whole process done during the Thanksgiving weekend.  I like to send my cards out on December 1st.  I want to get them out early but sending them before December doesn't seem right so...the 1st it is.  I don't always accomplish my goal but if I shoot for this I always have them out during the first week of December.  Again, I'm sure that's not important to anyone but me.

So this weekend I began the assemblage of said Christmas cards.  I signed all my cards and labeled the envelopes yesterday.  The letters are printing as I'm writing this and once they are done I can start putting the cards together.  I think I'll reach my goal this year...cards out by the 1st...with Christmas stamps on them!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season filled with whatever it is you love best.

Quote for the Week:

At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year.

~Thomas Tusser~ 

 

End of an Era

This weekend my baby girl will play in her last softball game in the league she has been a member of since she was 5.  I think this is the last of the "milestone" lasts that I have to endure.  They've all been hard.  From my oldest daughters last day of college, all the way through to this weekend....now all the kid stuff is over.  It's a very melancholy feeling.  I'm not sure I'll really miss the games that much, but I will miss watching her, if that makes sense.  I get these little melancholy twinges every so often when something reminds me that my children are children no longer.  Like this morning when I walked into the lunch room at work.  The TV was on and some morning news show was at one of the local high schools doing a remote about the upcoming football playoffs.  As they were signing off, the marching band started playing their fight song.  That's all it took.  Two of my kids were in marching band.  I'm sure I've mentioned here before how much I loved the marching band.  Every time I hear a marching band I get that little melancholy feeling right in the center of my heart.  I guess you could call it a heartache. 

My T-Ball Baby

The funny thing about this is....I really love the life I have now.  I love having my own time and not having somewhere to go every night of the week.  I definitely do not sit around moping about this but I've thought a lot about this the last couple of years.  Wondering about why, if I love my life, do I miss the past so much?  I think I've finally figured out that it's not the past I miss, it's my kids.  I miss my kids being kids.  I miss the innocence, the fun, the lightheartedness.  I miss watching Sesame Street and Hey Dude!  I miss Dr. Seuss.  I miss bath time and storytime.  I miss Saturday morning cartoons.  I really miss all that stuff that having kids gets you.  I miss the simple pleasure of knowing that my kids have no worries. 

Coach Dad and Player/Coach 2008

I love my adult children.  They are fun to talk to and discuss issues with and sometimes I can even borrow money from them!  I love who they are and where they're going.  I love them more than I ever have.  But I still miss my kids...and I suppose I always will.

Dan & Beth - Coaches Extraordinare - Spring 2010

Quote for the Week:

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another!

~Gail Sheehy~

My Father's Gift

Wednesday was the 19th anniversary of my father's passing.  It's hard to believe that it's been almost 20 years.  There are very few days that go by that I don't think: WWAD or What Would Art Do?  My dad had very high expectations for all five of his children and he rarely let us "just get by".  He always used to say, "If you can't give 100%, don't do it at all".  My father was the oldest sibling in his family.  So am I.  I got my Type A, obsessive personality from him.  I've since passed that along to my oldest daughter.  I guess it's what we oldest siblings do.  Some of the things I love the most about my dad:  his crooked smile, his sense of humor, how he loved my mother, and that I always knew he cared about the kind of adult I would turn out to be.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my dad, Art. 

My father gave me many gifts.  The most important gifts were the lessons he taught me.  My dad taught me how to live a moral, civic minded, patriotic, compassionate and faith filled life.  I'm glad for those lessons.  But I think the lesson he taught me while he was dying is probably the one I cherish the most.

My father had colon cancer.  He lived for 18 months after his diagnosis, 6 months longer than doctors expected.  During that time he had some really good days, and he had some really bad days.  He always took the bad along with the good and never complained.  Near the end he suffered greatly, but never complained.  At the very end he was not conscious of his physical surroundings.  He was, however, conscious of our Blessed Mother, who I am convinced, appeared to him in his last hours.  I believe she came to show him the way to Our Father in heaven where his suffering was at last taken away, as we are all promised it will be.  I believe in the cleansing power of suffering because that is what my father on earth taught me by his actions and what my Father in heaven promises me through His Word. 

It troubles me when I hear people talk of end of life compassion, right-to-die, euthanasia, mercy-killing, whatever you want to call it.  Just because someone is suffering does not make it right to take their life away.  No one has that right except Our Father in heaven.  And we dishonor His suffering and dying for us when we diminish it by eliminating it.  And the suffering is part of living.  We need it just as much as we need the joy in life.  My father also taught me not to be afraid of the suffering but to embrace it as a soul cleansing opportunity that not all people are fortunate to have.  Yes, I said fortunate.  I believe my father felt fortunate in his suffering.  He was able to use it to cleanse himself of the earthly trials that have no place in our eternal life with God.  I'm so very grateful to my father for this gift.  I feel it was the greatest gift he gave me.

I miss you everyday Dad.  I love you.  Thank you for loving me.

************************************************************

There is a great book called Making Sense out of Suffering if you're interested in reading more about this topic.


Quote for the Week:

We are healed from suffering only by experiencing it to the full.

~Marcel Proust~
 (1871 - 1922)

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween everyone!  I love this holiday...definitely one of my favorites.  I miss getting little goblins dressed up and taking them out to Trick or Treat.  This was always a time of year I really looked forward to.  We don't get many little ghosties in our neighborhood anymore so it's kind of boring now.  But I live vicariously through those that do come to our door and through pictures of my little nieces and nephews. 

I never did get my Halloween decorations up.  I tried to get them out of the garage myself but fear of bodily harm stopped me.  Dan has been so busy with work and softball, he hasn't had time to dig them out.  I'm a little disappointed but I'm thinking I may stop on the way home from work tonight and see if I can find a pumpkin to carve.  I haven't done that in years....that should put me in the holiday spirit.

I've posted these pics in the past but I think they're worth a repost.  These were two of my very favorite costume years. 



 Halloween 1991---My little surgeons (l-r: Sarah - 6, Stephen - 5, Beth - 2 1/2)

Halloween 1992---Batman and the Witches (l-r: Beth - 3 1/2, Stephen - 6, Sarah - 7)

Hope you and all your ghosts and goblins have a wonderful time on Sunday.  I hope they collect enough candy so you can raid their stash....isn't that what the holiday is all about anyway?

Have a great weekend and an even better week!


Quote for the Week:

Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.
~Steve Almond~

What's In A Name?

This week I re-started a very old project.  It's been sitting in a plastic tub in my bedroom closet for the last 10 years.  I've thought often of this project and wished I could return to it.  I just knew it would be too time consuming for a working mom with three kids and no real time to devote to the project.  So, there it sat, waiting for me.  I bet you all think it's some gigantic afghan that I never finished crocheting.  It's not, but much like yarn becomes an afghan with patience and lots of hard work, the subject of my project evolved over centuries with love, dedication, and hard work.  This project is all about my family.  My father's family to be exact.  This week I re-opened my genealogy files.  I'm very excited to see what new information develops since my last quest.  Many things have changed over 10 years.  Not the least of which is the fact that I am no longer a busy mom.  That has been a much lamented theme of this blog.  Well, maybe now I've found that something extra to keep me busy.  Also, the internet has so much more to offer these days than it did 10 years ago.  So off I go in quest of the Dion ancestry.

I've always been fascinated by my French-Canadian heritage.  I don't know why exactly.  I'm really a Heinz 57 mixture of nationalities.  Some German, Irish, English and yes, even a little Polish (this explains a lot about me, doesn't it?).  But whenever someone asks what nationality I am, I always say French-Canadian.  Maybe because it has a more exotic and romantic sound to it than saying you're German.  Or maybe it's because those people to the north are just so darn nice, eh?  In all reality, it probably has a lot to do with the stories my grandmother told.  The ones where we are related to the famous Dionne quintuplets.  The first surviving quintuplets in history.  What little kid wouldn't be fascinated by that?  So, I grew up being fascinated with being French-Canadian and loving my last name.  I had a very hard time giving it up when I got married but I was too much of a traditionalist to keep it.  I'm so looking forward to finding all my Dion ancestors and finding out if they are as fascinating as I've always imagined they would be.

Here are a few pictures of my father and his family:

This is my dad, Art (right) and my Uncle Ted (left).  There are no dates on these pictures so I have to guess.  I'm thinking this one is probably around 1934.  There are pictures of my youngest brother John at around this same age...you'd think it was the same person.

This one I'm guessing is probably around 1939 or 1940.  Again my dad on the right and my uncle on the left.  They really were cute boys!

Here's one of the whole family.  Again my dad is on the right.  Was there some kind of picture rule back then that the oldest had to be on the right?  I wonder.  I'm going to guess this picture is somewhere between 1945 and 1947 give or take.  See that great wave in the front of my dad's hair....he gave that to me.  The wonders of DNA.

So there you have it.  The beginnings of my ancestry hunt.  I'll keep you posted from time to time on how it's going.  Wish me luck!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Quote for the Week:

We inhereit from our ancestors gifts so often taken for granted...Each of us contains within...this inheritance of soul.  We are links between the ages, containing past and present expectations, sacred memories and future promise.

~Edward Sellner~

It's Finally Here!!! And Other Randomness

So fall has finally decided to show her little head to all us desert dwellers.  I was starting to worry....it was 102 last Saturday...I had lost all hope.  Then we had a storm which dumped huge amounts (well, huge for this part of the world) of water and even some hail:

Ours was the size of a shooter marble...you remember those don't you?  Some area's of town had golf ball size hail and there was a lot of damage all around town, fortunately that part skipped us.  The storm really cooled down the temps and it was 64 when I went to work this morning.  It was heaven.  So, yeah, I'm looking forward to the weeks to come.

Something else that comes with fall.....hockey!!  The season starts this weekend.  I'm excited for the games to begin, and hopefully my Coyotes will fare better than my poor D-Backs.  The Coyotes seem to be our only hope this fall since the Cardinals look like they're going back to the pre-Kurt Warner days...lose, lose and lose again.  I sure wish Kurt hadn't given up his cleats for dancing shoes......

Last Saturday Dan and I had our anniversary party.  Lots of family and friends with us to share the evening...it was lovely and I feel very blessed indeed.  Everyone took lots of pics which still have not been downloaded or emailed to me....I'll share some of those when I get them.  I did take this picture with my phone, I wanted a picture of the kids to post on Facebook.  This picture proves that no matter how old they get, I still cannot get a decent picture of the three of them together without some kind of tomfoolery going on.  It's so frustrating....every year since they were little, trying to get a picture for the Christmas card went something like this:

Beth laughing...at nothing, Sarah dutifully trying not to laugh...at Beth, and Stephen being irritated with both of them and the whole picture taking in general.  I guess the more things change the more they stay the same...they're still cute...even when they irritate me :o)

As you can tell from my backround change, I'm really in the mood to decorate for Halloween.  I think that's going to be my project for this weekend.  I usually wait for Dan to pull stuff out of the garage which means that I never decorate because Mr. Procrastinator never gets the stuff out.   This year I'm going to take my life in my hands and get the stuff out myself.  One of two things is going to happen: I may injure myself trying to get the stuff out of the garage or my husband may injure me for daring to mess with his unorganized organization.  I'll let you know what happens.

OK, that's enough randomness for one day.  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Quote for the Week:

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
~Albert Camus (1913-1960)~

Everyone's Home

So, this is a very busy week and this post will be short and sweet.  I'm sure you're all happy about that ;-)    Preparations for the big anniversary party this weekend are in full swing.  The weather is not cooperating however, as it's suppose to be 103 on Saturday.  Did I mention we were having this thing in our backyard?  I'm glad everyone loves me...although after Saturday they may rethink.

Sarah came home yesterday so I am in Mom heaven having all my kids home with me.  Just to prove a point that kids never grow up, I give you this picture:

Sarah (25) and Stephen (24) playing Super Mario Bros. on the Wii.  You should have seen how excited she was when she found out he had the game.  They are still cute!

In other kid news I was able to totally embarrass my 21 year old daughter by rocking out to Katie Perry's "California Gurls" while we were in the car the other day.  It felt just like the old days and I loved it!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Quote for the Week:

Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.
~Bill Cosby~