Ups and Downs of December

We have had some ups and downs around here in December. 

My mom has developed heart problems since my Dad has passed.  She has had two surgeries in December getting them fixed.  I was able to fly up to be with her for the first one, but the second one was scheduled too quickly for me to be able to make it.

I was feeling down and a bit nervous about not being there with her, so, some good friends came over to help cheer us up and distract me.  They brought a few Christmas gifts with them.

The gift they got for A-girl, I had already gotten for her....but they didn't know that.  So, when A-girl opened it and was over the moon excited about it....I, of course, burst into tears....right there....in front of everyone.

I am a Minnesota girl.  Good, solid, sturdy stock.  Scandinavian blood flows through my veins.  We do not like to show people our emotions. We certainly do NOT like to cry in front of people.  Yet, there I was.....crying away.  My friend, felt horrible. 

Her daughter had picked out the gift AND spent her own money on it...knowing it was going to be the perfect gift.  It was.  I was happy for A-girl.  But, the selfish part of me wanted to be on the receiving end of all that joy over a well chosen gift.  You know?

I felt sorry for myself for two reasons....I didn't get that joy directed at me....and it meant I had to go shopping.  I hate shopping.  In fact, I did 99% of my shopping this year on-line.  That is definitely a Christmas tradition that will continue!

It all worked out fine in the end.  If I didn't know it already, I realized that we have great friends, who know us....and want to give us things that will, literally, make us jump with joy.  And, I ended up being  able to go shopping (without crowds or kids) to get her something else. (I hope she will love it just as much.)

What was the joy/tear inducing gift?

Voila!


A curling wand....have you heard of them?  They are actually pretty cool.  It really is just basically a hot....stick....or wand.  It comes with a glove you wear, so when you wrap your hair around and hold it there for a bit, you won't get burned.

Here is me after my curling wand makeover:

I think I am going to be "borrowing" her excellent Christmas present!  Thanks E. for being such a good friend to my girls.

Since I was feeling down, S-girl wanted to make me feel better, so she offered to paint my toenails.  She laid a napkin down on the floor and climbed under the kitchen table where I was teaching A-man.  She took her time and got my toes just right.....and I mean...she reeeaaaalllly took her time....

(Ignore that gook on the floor...I have since mopped)

I love them.  They make me happy.  Since I live in Georgia and it has been in the 60's and 70's, I have been wearing my sandals and showing off my pedicure.  In my head, I wonder if people notice them....and, if so, what they think.  But, everytime I look down at my toes, it makes me smile!

Onto more ups in our December....

My girls decided to host their own coffee clatch get together....with lots of cream and sugar....and Oreos.

We got V-girl to keep her hair in a ponytail for, oh......about 30 minutes....a new record.

(This looks like we pulled it a little too tight, doesn't it?)

Then later, she did this....

And even got her tongue....yuck!!!

We had breakfast for dinner.

And, thanks to my friend, Debbie, we got to go see a cool light display at the:

(They had the 12 days of Christmas....this is the ladies dancing)

We brought a thermos full of hot chocolate and some marshmallows...

We drove through a few neighborhoods on our way home looking at lights.  But, V-girl, every few minutes would announce, "I sad.  Lights done."  Apparently, none of the home displays held a candle to the ones at the Atlanta Motor Speedway!

Like I said, it has sort of been a hard month.  I am missing my Dad.  I want my Mom to be healthy and happy.  It is hard for me to be in Georgia and not in Minnesota with my family.  We have been thinking about trying to sell our house and move into something that would work better for our family, but the reality of the market is that our house is probably worth about 1/2 of what we paid for it two years ago.  Rainman is working all weekend, so our Christmas will be a quick lunch with him on Sunday before he heads to work.

Really though, overall, December has held mostly ups.  D-man turns 14 this month.  We get to celebrate Jesus's birth.  My kids are healthy, happy, and silly....that leads to a lot of "ups" for me.  Rainman is healthy and happy.  I am healthy, happy and a little crazy.....and my family loves me anyway.

I guess I don't have it so bad, do I?

The World's Greatest Stories

I love reading.  I read as much as real life allows.  I even panic a bit if I don't have a book "waiting" for me.  It is totally unheard of for me not to have some sort of reading material nearby.

I also have not yet gotten aboard the Nook/Kindle train.  I still like to feel my books and all the other stuff that goes with holding a book. 

But above all, I love a good story.  Although, if I am honest, sometimes any old story will do, if I am just trying to escape for a bit.

Do you remember how great it was when your mom or dad would read you a story?  I have a vivid memory of my mom reading me a Casper the Friendly Ghost book every time we would go to our dentist's (Dr. Lingle) office.

I also have very fond memories of story time with the library lady while I was growing up.  Sitting on the floor in front of her....jockeying with my classmates to see if I could get just a little bit closer....her reading the book upside down so we could see the pictures the whole time she was reading.

In high school, I competed in Speech, as a Storyteller.  I was even the Rum River Conference Champ in Storytelling one year.  Woot!  Woot!  (Or whatever the kids are saying these days...)

The point I am trying to make is that I appreciate a good, engaging story.  I understand how hard it can be to use voices....and remember what voice you used with which character.  Here, look at some of my notes....

I had sloppy cursive writing, but, note the part about "more definition in voices".  If you are going to have character voices, you have to make sure people can tell them apart....and that you do them the same every time.

So, when I got the chance to listen to The World's Greatest Stories by George W. Sarris as part of a TOS review, I was kind of excited.



First, let me say, that after listening to the first story, I decided that I sort of hate George Sarris.

Okay, I don't really hate him.

I am just really, really jealous of his gift. 


I know....I know......that is not really very Christian of me, is it? 

He is just soooooo talented.  Really, really talented.

I used to attempt to tell a great, engaging, entertaining story with this.....

Mr. Sarris uses this....

Totally trumps the Grimm Brothers, huh?

I got to listen  to Volume One: The Prophets.  We sat down as a family one night after supper and..... just.....listened.  Rainman and I were sort of mesmerized.  We could not believe that all the different voices came from the same guy.  He is that good.

His narrator voice is smooth, and manly and....I don't know....buttery....can that be used to describe a voice?

Here, don't just take my word for it....listen....see?????

Mr. Sarris has a lot of "voice" experience.  He has done work for companies like Burger King, Duracell, Pizza Hut, UPS, AT&T and American Express.....to name just name a few....seriously...that is just a few of them!  I am sure we probably have all heard his voice before. 

But, never like this.  I mean not to be a "bad" Christian or anything, but who knew that the Bible could be so interesting?

The kids sat still and listened.  Really listened.  It started out as "I am only here because Mom said I have to be" kind of listening...but morphed into shushing the little kids so they could hear what happened next.  Some of the bigger kids already knew some of the stories we listened to, but thought it was neat to have a more "alive" version of the stories.

Mr. Sarris uses his imagination to bring the characters to life with various accents and dramatics, but the text is taken word for word, from the Bible.  There are some sound effects and music thrown in that remind me of the old radio theater shows I used to listen to....or like a Garrison Keillor type radio drama.


My personal Bible is the New International Version (NIV) but I know some people who prefer the King James Version (KJV).  The beauty of The World's Greatest Stories is that you can order his CDs in either form.

He has a total of 6 CDs available:

Volume 1-  The Prophets (I have this one)
Volume 2 - The Life Of Christ
Volume 3 - Beginnings
Volume 4 - Joshua and Esther (this clip is a sample in King James Version)
Volume 5 - Joseph and His Brothers
Volume 6 - Defeating Giants (David and Goliath)

Each CD is about 1 hour long and costs $7.95 and can be ordered here.  Shipping is free if you order 6 CDs.

I am not really a "gushy" kind of person, but I really loved this CD.  It made me remember when my Mom and Dad would sit us down after dinner for family devotion and Bible reading time.  Nothing against my Dad, but after a long day of hitting the books or navigating through the rough waters of drama, and then one of my mom's dinners, sometimes (most of the time) I would struggle to stay awake as my Dad read from the Bible. 

I know I wouldn't have fallen asleep if I had been listening to one of these CDs...even after eating one of my mom's great dinners.  It makes listening to Bible stories fun....and you can't help but learn a few things along the way.  You know how I feel about sneaky school....love it!

If you have an older car or van that doesn't have a CD player....you can also get all of the volumes on cassette tape!  We have used the stories as we sit around after dinnertime.....before the T.V. gets turned on for the night.  But, these would be great to listen to when you are running errands or on road trips.  I am bringing ours on our next road trip up north.  I can almost guarantee that it will entertain the whole family!

Mr. Sarris also does speaking engagements.  So, give him a call if you have an event coming up that needs a dynamic, entertaining speaker.  Believe me, if you have the chance to see/hear him live....you won't want to miss it.  In the meantime, he offers a few of his talks on his website, although these are only available in CD form. 

The topics include:  Impacting the Culture: Changing the World; The Two Most Important Things a Father Can Do; Bringing Scripture to Life Through Storytelling; Homeschooling As A Team Effort - The Father's Role; and Waiting on the Lord for a Life Partner.  These CD's are $4.95 and if you want to hear an excerpt of them, just click here.

Don't just take my word for it, go take a look at what other TOS crew members thought of the World's Greatest Stories.


I received a copy of Volume One: The Prophets as well as a Sample CD with both NIV and KJV for free in exchange for an honest review of this product.

Christmas Our Way

I love beautiful Christmas decorations and even "themed" Christmas trees.  I have friends and family that have gorgeous trees that have evenly spaced lights and ornaments that all go together.  They are lovely.  Really, they are.

Our decorations are not "themed".....unless you count "kid" as a theme.

Here is our tree....

I know....it is sort of jumbled mess, isn't it?  I love it!

Our most important ornament....

....reminds us who and what the Christmas season is really all about!

Get a load of our outdoor decorations....

Yup, people come in from all over the state to drive by our place at night!  It is truly a sight to behold!

The closest thing we have to "nice" decorations are my village that I got at Sam's Club sometime in the early 1990's....I think....

And this Nativity set that I think I got as a gift from my sister-in-law (I think she got it at Sam's Club too)

In a Christmas miracle, the kids have only broken one wise man's head off....the one right behind the donkey!  (You can hardly tell, thanks to this mother's best friend, Super Glue!)

My mom made this for us....

I do have a kid friendly nativity since little hands can't seem to keep themselves from handling baby Jesus and (as noted above) the wise men!

Thanks to my friend, Sherri and her daughter, E, we rediscovered the joy of making paper snowflakes this year.  Which, since we live in Georgia, has the added bonus of being the only possible way we will see snowflakes at Christmas time.

So, from our "kid" Christmas house to yours....Merry Christmas and...

Peace on Earth....Goodwill Toward Men!