O Christmas Tree

I'm running a bit late this year on my holiday blogs. Actually, I pretty much just scrapped every thought I had in that direction about three weeks ago.

I put up my tree just after Thanksgiving, like a good girl. I had everything ready and did the Advent with the kids just like I planned. However, my Soldier wasn't home, so a lot of the day to day stuff got chucked out in favor of surviving long enough as a good mother until he walked off the plane.

My usual white/silver/clear tree decorations changed a bit this year. In the past several years, I have had a themed decoration on the tree. You can see previous years' trees here and here. For my theme this year, I made some assemble-yourself gingerbread people. They added a splash of color as well as a child-friendly element of unbreakable-ness.

The gingerbread people will be recycled next year as gift tags, because I'm crafty and earth-responsible that way.

The new mingled with the old. We still have some of the first ornaments we ever bought back when we were newly married. Some are looking a little worse for wear, but they all come together nicely. Most of them are glass or at least very delicate and I hold my breath every year for the tragic possibilities of irreparable destruction.

Many of or shaped or special ornaments are symbols of Christmas.

Santa brings us a new ornament every year. This year, straying from the traditional symbol, he commemorated our first Christmas as an Army Family.

We are slowly collecting nativities. We've been fortunate thus far that only one set is horribly breakable. The other two sets can be handled by the kids with little worry of broken glass or porcelain. 

At the top of the Christmas Advent House, Santa watches the whole scene.

I do have pictures of Christmas morning. Those will be coming soon.

I hope you had a wonderful, warm and safe Christmas surrounded by those you love.

Merry Christmas!

Flash Mob

Just about everyone I know has some idea of what a "flash mob" is... I've even known some people who have participated in one. For those of you who don't, a flash mob is when a group of people in a public setting will pretend not to know each other and will slowly, one by one, start singing a song as if they are in a musical. (Only in musicals do people spontaneously sing together and know all the words in spite of seemingly making it all up on the fly.)

I've seen a few good ones. I've seen a few not so good ones...

Mostly, I love the surrealism of spontaneous song in a place where it doesn't seem to fit.

A friend of mine posted the link to a flash mob that was performed at a wedding.

It gave me chills. It made me tear up.

Though I have never seen Le Miserables on the stage, I grew up with the music in the house because my parents had seen it and loved it. I'm looking forward to the movie coming out later this month.

So, really, more than anything, this is for my Mom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ziBJOi7cDY&feature=share

Enjoy.

30 of 30: 10 Things Remembered

Finally finished the last one... the real question now is: What should I blog about? :)

If you haven't been following along from the beginning, click here.

List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for.

In no particular order...

1. I want to be remembered for my writing. I believe I have some good stories to tell and I would hope those stories will stand the test of time.

2. I want to be remembered for being a loving and wise Mother. I want my children to one day look back and see that all I wanted was for them to grow up happy and well-equipped to deal with this life.

3. I also want to be remembered for being a faithful and supportive wife. Even if it's just my husband who remembers me for that, that would be enough for me. :)

4. I want to be remembered as someone who lived their beliefs. It's one thing to say what you believe in and quite another to actually do it.

5. I want to be remembered as having love for everyone. I try my best to accept everyone around me because I would like the same done for me.

6. K, so this one is kinda shallow, but I want to be remembered for being the best hostess, EVER. I want people to talk about my parties for YEARS! :) (Of course, I need to acquire my own abode first in order to accomplish this.)

7. I want to be remembered for my humor. That means that I have to meet some people who actually GET my sense of humor...

8. I'd like to be remembered for my wisdom. I'm not there yet, but I am gathering it up little by little. I figure I'll be considered wise in about ten thousand years.

9. I'd like to be remembered for being courageous. Again, this is something i'm still acquiring. But, eventually, I'd like to be capable of bravery no matter what the circumstances.

10. I'd like to be remembered for being a good cook. I'm a passable cook now, but I'd really like to learn to be a really great cook!

So that's it. The end. It took me a lot longer than I originally thought it would, but finishing feels GREAT! Why not do a 30 Things yourself? Your friends and family will learn a lot about you and, in the end, so will you. :)