BLAH-HUM-BUG...

I think I caught a bug this weekend. Not the cold bug that my husband got on Christmas eve, or the love-bug that my daughter seems to have caught recently. No, the bug I caught usually only comes around once a year, and always the same time too, it's the BLAH-HUM-BUG! I try to avoid it each year by eating healthy. I eat from all 4 food groups, by that I mean chocolate, carmels, nuts and toffee. I try to stay in shape by running around from store to store, I do aerobic wrapping and hiding before the kids get home. I try to supplement my 6 hours of sleep each night by sleeping in church, while waiting in long lines or while stuck in traffic. Symptoms are usually extreme fatigue, followed by crash and burn, extra hours in the day you don't know what to do with, followed with boredom and laziness. It usually comes after I've experienced a wonderful Christmas, a jam-packed December filled with work and church parties, choir performances by my daughter, school programs for my son, get togethers with family. Baking, candy-making, quilt making, gift making, and not enough time-taking! Seriously though, Christmas was great this year. I'm just grateful the snow storm held out long enough for us to travel to Bountiful for our traditional Christmas-eve party at Mom and Dad's. It snowed us in Christmas day, so our dinner party was small this year, just us and lot's of left-overs. What takes a full month to prepare for, within a few hours it's all over. Just empty boxes and torn wrapping paper left under the tree. The games have all been played, the movies have all been watched, the toys assembled and broken. The work day awaits, the laundry piles up, the storage room still needs organizing, and the family still needs to be fed dinner, everyday, for the rest of my life. Is it any wonder I love December so much? It's a light at the end of a dull-drum tunnel. It breaks the monotomy of everyday life. For one month we think less of ourselves and more of others. We create, we inspire, we share, we give, we dream, we hope. And if were lucky, we make it through the season without catching the BLAH-HUM-BUG...

My Favorite Things...

So as we've already established, I love Christmas Music. It's on every minute that I'm in the car or at home. But there are a few songs that just make me wonder why they're considered Christmas songs. Just because Dan Folgelberg meets his old lover in a grocery store when the snow was falling Christmas eve, doesn't make it Christmas song worthy. And do the words 'Snowflakes' and 'Sleighbells' sung once in the song carry enough weight to make "My Favorite Things" (sung by at least 3 different people I've heard thus far) also a christmas song? Well, who am I
to question why, it's a good song from a great movie that I just happen to not have and would perhaps love as a christmas gift, hint hint, and it's also caused me to pause and think about the things I love at Christmastime. So, put the tune in your head and sing along to "My Favorite Things"

Snowflakes on white trees and whiskers on Santa,

temple square lights, time with poppa and nanna,

bright christmas packages, smiles that they bring,

these are a few of my favorite things.

Cream colored fondants and crisp peanut brittle,

carmels and turtles, we snitched just a little.

Time spent with sisters, it makes my heart sing,

these are a few of my favorite things.

Gifts that are homemade and fun decorations,

music and choirs make for great celebrations,

Christmas Eve dinner, acting the na-tiv-i-ty,

these are a few of my favorite things.

When the snow blows, when the cash goes,

when I'm feeling stressed,

I simply remember my favorite things,

and then I will feeeeel....so BLESSED!

21 years ago...

I was in the hospital, having my first child. We didn't know what we were having, a baby of course, just didn't know what kind, and were pleasantly surprised when out popped a little girl! Our little Chelsea Breann. It's a good thing she was a girl, we didn't even have a boys name picked out, but ever since I was a young girl and saw "On Golden Pond" with Jane Fonda, her character's name was Chelsea and I fell in love with it, I knew I wanted to name my little girl Chelsea. Her middle name came from a song I liked from Fleetwood Mac. It wasn't until years later that my husband clued me in on the fact the song wasn't named "Brianna" it was "Rianna". Huh, not my fault you can't understand those dang rock singers half the time. Besides, Chelsea Riann doesn't sound as good.

Hard to believe it's been 21 years. Am I that old? Funny how I can remember that day like it was yesterday, but have a hard time remembering what she was like when she was little. Good thing for pictures to help us remember. I wish I had a picture of the day she decided to finger paint, with DESITIN ! Have you ever tried to wash Desitin out of carpet, clothes, toyboxes, the wall, her hair! It's waterproof people, it doesn't wash out! I also wish I had a picture of the day she decided she wanted to become a hairdresser, she practiced on herself, and boy was she proud! She cut her bangs all the way to her scalp! Rest assured, she's much better now.

So, listen up all you mothers out there with young girls...if they're driving you crazy cuz they change their clothes 5 times a day, or leave barbies all over the floor, or bobby pins, or spill make-up all over the floor, and they're moody and sulky, or giggly and silly, and you just can't wait for them to grow up! Well, they will, and they do. You'll wish you could go back and dress them in frilly dresses, cuz now it's t-shirts and flip flops. Instead of sponge curlers saturday nights, now it's flat irons and hot dates saturday nights. Instead of barbies and dolls, it's IPods and Guitar Hero. Instead of clothes and stuffed animals all over the floor, well, it's still clothes, and stuffed animals all over the floor (somethings will never change). If there's one thing I've learned in the last 21 years its this: Kids do grow up, faster than you ever expect them too. And one day you'll stop and realize, did I teach them everything they need to know to survive in the real world? Does she know how to make gravy from scratch or cook a roast (ok, still learning that one myself). You just hope that somehow along the journey, they watched, they paid attention, they will want to have a child of their own someday, and when they do, they'll finally realize how much they were loved by you...

I remember when you were my little girl,

as much a part of me as my right arm.

My every breath and step

held you in my mind.

Then suddenly, one morning, you were grown!

I was not finished with you.

But we must love our children

enough to let them go.

But in my heart, you'll always be...

...my little girl!

Happy Birthday Chelsea! I love you! Mom