It's Christmas Eve! And I'm at work! And I still have things to buy!!!!

Now that I've gotten that out of my system I can continue with a wrap up of my past week. Jaime and I went to South Carolina to visit with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. I had woken up earlier than Jaime so I went in the dining room to drink some coffee while waking up. My mother passed by and said "It's so nice to see you sitting at my table". That statement reflected my feelings quite well. It was so nice to be able to spend enough time at home that I could just live there, not visit. I know in past posts I had talked about how growing up means leaving home, which it does and for good reason. But it was so nice to simply live with my parents for a few days, to have all of us live together. The only thing I would change (if I could.. and I have a feeling that it will never happen) would be to mute my friendly little fur children whenever a visitor came to the door. They are such good watch dogs but simply do not understand that we need our hearing.

We got to do the whole Swedish thing, the meatballs, the Swedish toast, the cookies. I'm so glad that my parents have kept this part of my heritage alive. And mostly I simply love the food, all of those foods are comfort foods for me. At one point I woke up (again before Jaime) and the only thought in my mind was how to reheat Swedish Meatballs without a microwave. Several times people said to me, "Why are you eating Meatballs for breakfast?" and I simply thought.. well, why not!? Mom, Dad, get a microwave.

I'm so blessed to have a friendship with my Mother that I thought I would never ever have. I suppose we were a little harsher than the typical Mother-Daughter relationship growing up. I guess you could say that we just didn't understand each other. But now that I'm older I treasure her friendship so much and I'm so blessed that I can talk with her. I think I spend the majority of my time with her venting my frustrations about people back in Birmingham. While on the one hand I was so hung up on certain things that frustrated me I felt like Mom hardly got a work in edge wise, but on the other hand she gave me very good advice and it was so nice to simply, vent, and get it all out in the open. We're both talkers, my Mother and me. My Dad, not so much :) His phone calls to me last 1-5 minutes max. I think he gets a little exasperated by us sometimes. I always teased my Mother about how she could find a way to state something 5 different times just to get her point across, and get her point across again, and if you didn't catch it that time how about I explain how to get her point across. But the more and more time passes the more and more Jaime says to me, "You're just as bad as your Mother". And he's right.

The dogs were such happy campers minus the ear piercing screams when ever someone came to the door. They received two new toys which were a big hit. One you can put food inside and when you roll it around it will make noises and drop a few pieces at a time. Huxley has learned this one backwards and forwards, Churchill on the other hand, just waits for it to drop food. Mom is always good about giving them treats. This year it was the ham hocks used to season the green beans. While we were packing up our things Tuesday afternoon the boys were in the back yard scarfing down the ham hocks. We were finally on our way and had made it all the way to Atlanta when I was talking to Jaime about the difference between dogs and babies (yes I'm comparing them and yes I think of my dogs as dog-people so what?). I brought up the point that babies and dogs aren't that different because you have to take babies everywhere you go just like you take dogs, only babies have to go EVERYWHERE you go because if you put a baby in a crate they could cry so loud your neighbors would call the police... something like that. We laughed at our cleverness and while we were laughing I heard the strangest noise coming from the back seat. Churchill decided while we were driving through 7 lanes of traffic in down town Atlanta that the ham hock he had eaten hours before did not appeal to his innards. He threw them up in what looked like a gallon sized heap of nastiness in our backseat. I did what any fur child mother would do, took off my seat belt and started cleaning it up with the extra towels we keep for just this purpose. Churchill looked sick, and Huxley looked frightened in the other corner of the backseat. Right at that moment, as God would have it, the radio started to play What a Wonderful World. Jaime and I caught eyes and laughed and laughed and laughed. And I figured, that when the time comes for us to have children, there is no way we will be unprepared.

We arrived back in Birmingham to a townhouse that was not robbed or burned down. My basil plant that I was given at Black Christmas has decided to sprout up which was a pleasant thing to find after 5 days of neglect. And I was very pleased with our decision to clean the place up before we left. How nice it is to come home to a clean house, all you have to do is unpack. Unpack and make dozens and dozens of cookies. :) Which I did. Oh goodness how I made cookies.

This morning while driving the short distance to work I happened to catch a little bit of the King's College 9 Lessons and Carols. It's quite moving to listen to a young boys choir, as talented as the King's College boys, singing the carols you hear every year. I'm always amazed that we do this routine once a year, every year yet everyone still looks forward to it just the same. I've also been very aware this year of the many different religions that practice holidays this same season. Some of you know that rumors have it Jesus was actually born in the Spring.. or was it the Fall? But the reason we celebrate on the 25th? From what I understand is simply because of the Winter Solstice. I watched a documentary a few weeks ago that was very interesting. It hit on some points of Christianity I never knew before (probably because they have nothing to do with Christ, gasp, horror!). This film basically was saying that Christ was simply a person set to a belief that has existed for hundreds of years before His birth. Pagan beliefs to be exact. That on the 23rd of December the sun is in it's lowest point in the sky but that three days later, on the 25th it begins to rise again. This was the pagans way of charting the seasons, and a promise that Spring would soon be on it's way. It's also a pretty unimaginative way to describe our Easter season. Believe it or not I prefer a bit of excitement in my religion, you know, the whole trial, crucifixion, raising from the dead thing and what not. But what I found very interesting that I had never thought of before was the idea of celebrating Christmas on this day in December a day which basically has a pagan origin. What's even more amazing than that is that business's close on Christmas day. That still, so many people celebrate this day in our country.
I've read far too many facebook posts and blogs emphasizing the reason for the season. That part of Christmas gets old to me, very fast. So often I see fellow believers hammer home the idea that Christmas is not about gifts or trees but it's about little baby Jesus. Sometimes I think they fail to see the forest for the trees. Look around! I've been working this afternoon at Ellis and every single customer that came in today told me Merry Christmas, and I returned it. NPR (that crazy leftest radio station) played Lessons and Carols this morning. Tonight, I'll be singing with the Catholics on EWTN. Christmas is all around us, everywhere you go. It is our choice to grasp it with both hands or to complain that it's not enough.

Ok enough of the religious talk! I need to spend some active awake time thinking about what to make for Christmas Eve dinner!