On the 1st Day of Christmas...a Family Christmas Newsletter

After a suggestion from Dear Friend Taffy, I figured, as many of you are locals and thereby probably didn't get a letter in the mail from us this year, here is our family Christmas photo and newsletter for your holiday merriment. Merry Christmas from your friends on Celestial Circle!

(This would be Me as Professor Trelawney at a Cub Scout Pack meeting 'magically' handing out awards, The Boy in full FB gear,

The Girl after her soccer championship game, and The Boy with Genius Golfer on the chair lift!)

Merry Christmas 2008!

I know some people think the annual Christmas newsletter is passé or maybe over-the-top. But I have loved to read them since I was a girl and my mom would write letters to everyone she knew to wish them a very Merry Christmas. I am happy to have that Christmas Newsletter gene and I’m pleased to share our year in review with you, like it or not. So here goes this year’s:

Here are THE BOY'S Favorites for 2008:
1) Football and Swimming—Our Boy is super sporty but he tried Tackle Football this year right, after his swim season. He did great in swimming (qualifying for the Countywide SILVER meet) but the best part of swimming was how well conditioned he was for football. His 6th grade team was the city’s “B” team, but they eventually beat the #1 team to play in the Super Bowl game. They lost there, but he had a great time! He is looking forward to FB again.
2) The Boy gets to work/volunteer at our elementary school’s Space Center. Groups of kids come from all over for field trips or birthday parties to do Space Missions. He loves to work with his friends and has been able to work all sorts of positions in the variety of missions they run here. He is learning how to be dependable and responsible as well as having a fun time.
3) In his 6th grade, he qualified for the pre-algebra advanced math class. Mr. Williamson (who also runs the Space Center) is his math teacher. He has had to work really hard to earn Bs in math now, but it is the best part of 6th grade, according to The Boy. He’ll be even more ready for the hard stuff that he’ll get next year at Junior High. He knows he can work hard, and that is it worth it.

This is GENIUS GOLFER'S list:
1) You knew GG loves golf, but this year he finally tried out to qualify for the State Amateur golf tournament & the UT Mid-Am/Masters Tournament. The State Am is for anyone, while the Mid-Am is for 25+ years or older and the Masters is for 40+ group (so he could be in BOTH of these). He just missed the cut for the State Am by two strokes, and he did get a shot at the Mid-Am/Masters tourney. He learned a lot, even though he was no where near the leader board.
2) Quitting his job on the 1st of October was a planned surprise. We knew that a change was needed, and we could feel it coming, but he finally had had it and came home on the first of October and told me he quit his job. He has been more relaxed and instantly could sleep better. It also helped his golf game—which he played for a week straight right after quitting. He is planning to head back to work next month, but this taste of “retirement” was very tempting.
3) With so much free time on his hands—when the weather did not cooperate for golf—GG put together a fantastic Christmas lights display (a la Clark Griswold), synced to music on the low frequency radio station in our basement. He and The Boy worked on it together. They made light arches, ran lights all over the house, filled artificial trees with lights and placed them all over the yard. If we get a video made he is planning on uploading it to his new website: http://www.camdebuck.com/

News from THE GIRL:
1) This was the last year she can play Recreation League soccer and her team did really well. They made it to the North County Championship game, but lost. The 15 girls became good friends and got along so well they talked of moving their outdoor team to the indoor league for the winter. It sounded good then school started. Oh well.
2) Swimming is always fun, and this year’s city swim team was no different. At the County Finals Gold Meet, she took two second places and had a total blast. One of the team dads drew fish “tattoos” on the kids’ shoulders with a sharpie, to make them look tough in the water and The Girl was thrilled to have her fish-tat be a “Jillyfish”. She says, “It even had a bow.” So much for tough.
3) This summer, The Girl tried something totally new and out of our comfort zone—she tried Ballroom Dance Lessons. She learned a little of the Samba, Jive, Paso Doble, Cha Cha and Rhumba. She felt like she was getting pretty good. Now she gets to continue at school during their “flex time” activities. She is hoping to get good enough that she can try out for the HS Ballroom Dance team when she gets there.

And finally, from ME:
1) Twice a week I get to go visit and serve my friend Tammy who is slowly dying of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). I go to chat, and do some laundry or clean bathrooms, or load the dishwasher or whatever looks like it needs to be done. Her husband is her full time care giver and I feel like I can come in and do a little bit to ease his load while I can catch up with Tammy and give her a different face to look at—if nothing else. I know it may not change her day, but it does mine.
2) http://lifeoncelestialcircle.blogspot.com/ is my project this year. It is a blog where I write just about every day. I feel like a newspaper columnist. It is my place to vent, to be grateful, to laugh, to wonder, or express myself. It has been a lot of fun and I find myself thinking throughout my day about what I want to write about. It is a great exercise for me. Check it out anytime you want.
3) A new Honda GX is our little natural gas burning, super cheap to drive, sassy about town car. We bought it in June from the original owner just before gas went to near $5 a gallon. I felt very smug driving it when our natural gas is about 75 cents for a gas gallon equivalent. The smugness does wear off as the price of gasoline comes down, but I still feel sassy getting almost 40 miles to the “gallon”. It is the first “foreign” car I’ve ever owned. I got past the guilt of growing up Chrysler when I filled the car for less than $5.

This is just a glimpse, but we had a great 2008. We feel blessed to have friends and family to share our news with this season, and most of all we are blessed to know that long ago, a baby was born that would change everything. We celebrate the birth of that Baby, our Savior Jesus Christ, with you this Christmas and wish you peace and love and joy as we begin 2009. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

With Love from the Family!

Two Way Street

I had a nice chat with my sister last night. She was waiting for my parents to show up for her graduation ceremony--she finished her masters degree! She was calling with the standard "did they tell YOU what their plan was?" stress. It is funny if you think about it. They are grown adults, fully capable of getting themselves there. We still worry. Must be genetic.

Part of her call though has caused me to think. She is divorced, has been for two plus years now. She has tried some random dating, set ups, online dating. There is not a deep pool from which to draw, apparently. There are a lot of serious weirdos out there. (Can I get an AMEN from the single girls?!)

Since the divorce, she has been very good friends with a former family friend who knew her ex husband. He is a good guy who, I think, just wanted to make sure she was all right as she has been going through all the changes that come with a change in marital status. He likes her boys and enjoys being around them.

He was raised LDS in Ogden. In HS he make some choices that put him out of favor with his ward. He has felt ostracized, shunned, and left out due to a bad choice. He dealt with the choice the best way he could, though it wasn't something that seems to have made him happy in the long run. He has since married and had three kids and divorced as well. Still, he has not been interested in "church people" because he felt they were judging him. That was one of his attractions to my sister, allegedly, was that she took him as he was and saw him as a good person, though not active at church. (She seems to think there is more to his testimony than he recognizes, but that will have to wait. She has not added any pressure in that arena.)

Well, Sister was looking forward to our parents meeting Mr. Man at her graduation. As it has gotten closer, Mr. Man has gotten a little skittish. His reason? He basically told her "Your family might look down on me...judge me...presuppose who I am or what I am...think less of me...won't think I am 'worthy' to date, blah, blah, blah."

Now, is that fair? Really?

My parents are some of the most open, welcoming people I know. They have, for as long as I can remember, taken everyone at face value and began to develop friendships from there. They have friends in all sorts of walks of life. Some are religious, some are not. Some are more than a little rough around the edges, others are very smooth--sometimes too smooth for my taste. But with my folks, they take you as you are. Strangers are just friends they haven't met yet. They activate the benefit of the doubt most of the time.

While they, themselves, are quite religious now, they weren't always. Things in their lives have shown them this Gospel is vitally important. They know living it makes them happy. But that doesn't disqualify others from being their friends. If anything, they have a lot to share, if someone is interested.

They have never lived in Utah, so the wacky, sometimes judgemental, standoffish tendencies some LDS members here might have toward inactives or non-LDS folks, doesn't even faze them. They don't presume everyone is LDS in the first place, so there is no assumption made.

I hope Mr. Man shakes off his self-doubt and steps up to meet them today. Otherwise, this will be a relationship shipwreck before the storms even begin. Wanting something from others you are unwilling to give in equal measure back; isn't that the definition of hypocrite?

I'll keep you posted.

What, Did You Want CHEESE with that Whine?

I had an interesting little chat with my Dear Friend Chris last night. Her company, for Christmas, gave every employee a ham in a box. This is a big national corporation and well, ham is nice--unless you are Jewish or Muslim--but the thought can be appreciated even if you don't eat the ham. But she isn't either Jewish or Muslim at the moment, so ham, for her, was a very nice gift.

She said the ham handouts began at 2 PM on Tuesday.

By 2:10 she could hear people complaining, as she walked back to her cube, that "she got a 10 pounder. Why didn't I get the ten pounder? What kind of *&%#@ is going on here?" She said she didn't realize her ham in a box had a poundage sticker on the front as she carried hers back to her cube.

By 2:30 or so complaints were rampant about how lame the ham gifts were and why couldn't "they" (meaning of course the powers that be and those whom decide what gifts to give) give them something really good.

She mentioned that the very devout Muslim man she knows at work, simply thanked the ham hander-outers and asked that his ham be donated to the Food Bank. Gracious and Generous. Easy.

Last year, after having received turkeys in the past, people complained enough that the gift of choice was that year a lovely box of nuts. She told me it was great, full of pistachios and cashews and other good things. Still, people complained over that.

She said last night, that the Human Resources people yesterday were getting barked at by these perpetual complainers. Really? What is this symptomatic of here? Are we so prideful, jealous, ungrateful, and rude that this behavior is acceptable in the workplace? Or ANYWHERE for that matter? Didn't these people's mothers teach them to "Just say 'thank you', dear" when someone gives you a present.

If I was the "big boss" at her work, I think I would seriously consider issuing gift certificates to a local psychologist (on our insurance plan, of course) for these people who constantly complain every year about their corporate gift.

That is the point, right? It is a GIFT! For crying out loud, just say thanks and donate it to the Food Bank if you don't want/like/prefer ham. What a bunch of whiny babies. Glad I don't hang out with whiny babies. So people who complain. Or who want something completely different from what I give them. I mean, than what they get.

Makes you want to cancel Christmas.

Why, Oh, Why....?

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are almost dead?
Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they already know there is not enough money?
Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars; but have to check when you say the paint is still wet?
Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?
Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?
Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
Whose idea was it to put an 'S' in the word 'lisp'?
If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?
Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?
Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?
Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?
Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?
Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?
How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?
When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, 'It's all right?' Well, it isn't all right, so why don't we say, 'That really hurt, why don't you watch where you're going?'
Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?
In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?
How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?
And my FAVORITE......The statistics on sanity is that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

Happy Wednesday!

God Blessed Us....Everyone.

For all the rotten things that you have to see or hear about every day, here is something that brings not only the Spirit to you, but that helps us put this crazy Christmas life in perspective again. And it will make you smile.

Check out the link http://www.joytoeveryone.com/ for more information on the performers and the story behind this song. It will just make you feel good today.

Family Respsonsibilities

Yesterday in our Sunday school class we had a lesson about family responsibilities. Of course, we talked about the duties of parents to their children and that of fathers and mothers and how, though different, were equal in value. We even brushed past the responsibilities children have to their family.

What we kept coming back to, though, was that all these are great, in an ideal world, but to reach "ideal" we have to each be accountable, take responsibility, basically grow up.

Here is where the theory seems to implode.

If humankind would do that, we'd all be looking for room on the Rapture Express--being translated and brought up into Heaven. The problem with it is there are so many who simply will not be accountable, take responsibility or just grow up. These are the few who make a lesson like this necessary in the first place.

I understand that everyone is raised differently and thereby has differing ideas about what might be their personal responsibility or accountability. But I think if we each took the initiative to be grown ups and look for the responsibility in our lives and our families, we could take on what it appropriate and make our families stronger and in turn, society as a whole.

But it is just so much easier to let someone else take care of it all. But then, guilt comes easy to me.

Let's Dance!

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