Merry Christmas and a Christmas Childhood Memory

Happy Christmas, Y'all!

Lately my kids have had me repeat over and over a Christmas story from my childhood. I thought I'd write it down here for them, so Megan can read it to them when I'm tired of saying it twenty times.

So here it goes.

My earliest Christmas memory was when I was very little, probably around six or seven. It was Christmas Eve night and I was asleep in my bed when I was awakened by a sound. Jingle, jingle, jingle! I jumped out of bed and tiptoed out of my room so I wouldn't wake my younger brother, Daniel.

I left the room and tiptoed to my parents' room. I placed my ear against their door and listened to see if the sound was maybe coming from their room. I heard it again, but not from their room. Jingle, jingle, jingle! I gasped. It was coming from down the hall in the living room.

Could it be Santa that was making the jingle sound? I crept down the hall and stopped just at the corner. I listened again. Jingle, jingle, jingle!

I froze to the spot. I couldn't move. What if it was Santa and I caught him while he was putting out my presents? Would he be nice about it? Upset? Would it be like in the movies where the kid gets to help Santa hand out the rest of the presents and ride in the sleigh? Would he disappear before giving me all my presents and then I wouldn't get everything I wanted?

I couldn't risk it. I ran back to my room, jumped in my bed, put the blankets over me, and went to sleep.

The end.

Book Giveaway!

So, my friend Nicole is giving away a "signed" copy of Mockingjay. I used quotes because Collins cheated and stamped it, but still, it's very cool. For your chance to win this awesome prize, go here. Or go and read her cool blog, but don't enter; that way I can win :)

Happy Birthday, Megan!

Megan turned 6 on Saturday. She wanted a fairytale birthday so we told everyone to come ready to share their favorite fairytale with us and dress up if they want. It was a lot of fun. We started off with a story I was pretty sure none of them were familiar with (except for Megan), Bubba the Cowboy Prince. It's a cowboy version of Cinderella set in Texas, so of course it is awesome.

Then we had a fairytale scavenger hunt. I'd placed random fairytale items around the house like Snow White's apple, Cinderella's broom, Bubba's cowboy hat, three stuffed bears to be the Three Bears from Goldilocks and the Three Bears, a bean from Jack and the Beanstalk, etc. and had the girls look for them. Then we played a game called Kiss the Frog. The girls sit in a circle, one girl is the princess and is blindfolded in the middle. Each girl picks an animal to be and I pick one girl to be the frog. They make their animal noises and the princess has to listen well enough to find the frog while blindfolded. When she thinks she's found the frog, she gives the frog a Hershey's Kiss.

Blowing out the Birthday candles. This cake was baking attempt #2. And yes, that is the dress I made Megan for her 3rd birthday. It apparently still fits.

This is Megan at three in the dress.

It was a fun party and I was impressed at how well Megan's friends knew her. She received almost all arts and crafts stuff; one girl even got her a create your own storybook set, which is basically a scrapbook with tons of paper, stickers, die cuts, and stuff so she could write her own book.

Those are ribbon wands in the vase on the table. They were our party favors along with some Pixie Sticks which we called Pixie Dust.

This is where the girls pretended to be captured by an evil witch.

So, since Megan is now six, I will share six wonderful things about Megan.

1. She always tries to do the right thing, even when it is hard.
2. She loves her siblings very much and always tries to include them in her playing.
3. She loves to help out around the house and with her siblings. She even read Jeremy and Emma their bedtime story for me the other night since I'd fallen asleep on the couch!
4. She is dang smart.
5. Megan has an interesting sense of humor. She likes to be silly and has fun coming up with silly sentences with Jeremy and Emma.
6. She loves her Heavenly Father and Savior. She shows amazing faith and is always willing to pray for others when she sees they are sad or in need. She is a wonderful example to me.



We love you, Megan and we are so grateful to have you in our family!!

The Policially Correct Winter Program

This is the only picture I could get. I was trying to control Emma and console Lincoln at the same time.

Can I tell you how much I hate political correctness? It is the spawn of Satan.

Jeremy had his school's Winter Arts Festival today. It is supposed to be the equivalent to old school Christmas singing programs--except today kids are supposed to stand there and sing songs about building snowmen because snowmen are generic and safe.

We live in a neighborhood full of diversity. There are high concentrations of Jewish people and black people. This is awesome in my opinion. I think it's cool that the kids get to make friends with children who are different from them. Of course it was necessary to alter what was traditionally a Christmas program when we were kids, to something that would represent all the children who would be singing. This however was not done.

Every single song was about winter, Kwanzaa (which is a made up holiday people, it's like secretary's day or grandparents day; I know if I still allowed anonymous comments I'd get hammered here, but it's true), or Hanukkah. There was one winter song that mentioned December being a time for "Ho, Ho, Ho" and that was the extent of Christmas. The only mention was a reference to the commercialization of one of the most sacred holidays.  Excuse me? Really? While the words Hanukkah and Kwanza were repeated and even shouted at times through the entire program, the word Christmas was used maybe twice. 

I'm sorry, but I have a problem with this. Are they worried that the Jewish population will get upset if a small group of kids (that doesn't even need to include their kids if they want) sing Silent Night or Angles We Have Heard on High? Stupidity!! Do people really not see that "political correctness" has made our society stupider? On so many levels people are dumber because of political correctness. I could go on here, but it's a different topic.

Jeremy has no idea what Kwanzaa or Hanukkah are. No clue. He doesn't realize that the songs he sang today were in honor of those holidays. You'd think that if they were trying to have the kids understand the diversity of the songs they would be singing, that they'd bother to teach them something about the holidays. By the way, his class didn't sing the winter song that mentioned "Ho, Ho, Ho." The whole group did sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, which I also thought was ridiculous.

So in my frustration I wrote a letter to the principal explaining my disappointment. I'm sure it won't change a thing, but at least I feel better and know that I didn't just sit on my hands and ho-hum about it. And next time there's a winter program, I'm going to get involved before the day of the program.