Christmas Eve

Warning: Christmas Eve Mass with a wiggly 1.5 year old and a teething baby is not fun. At least everyone looked nice!

Merry Christmas (and sorry for my delinquencies)

Hello faithful readers! Most of you have probably long since stopped coming by to see if there is anything new because there hasn't been. It's been a busy, crazy month. And for possibly the first time ever, I am looking right past Christmas to the New Year because I am in great need of a fresh slate. This month has been a bear. A quick recap of things that have happened...

* traveled for work and took Allison with me to visit Nana & Papa
* spent 5 hours on a plane for a 2.5 hour flight (with Allison)
* got the flu (me)
* had surgery
* got some sinus thing (the whole family)

Add all of that to the usual holiday stuff and it's just been too crazy to get anything beyond the bare minimum done lately. Hopefully things will be back to normal after the first of the year.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Presidential Proclamation

I'm trying to find Thanksgiving inspiration so there might be a few random posts about it. This is the President's 2008 proclamation.


Thanksgiving Day Proclamation by President Bush

Thanksgiving is a time for families and friends to gather together and express gratitude for all that we have been given, the freedoms we enjoy, and the loved ones who enrich our lives. We recognize that all of these blessings, and life itself, come not from the hand of man but from Almighty God.
Every Thanksgiving, we remember the story of the Pilgrims who came to America in search of religious freedom and a better life. Having arrived in the New World, these early settlers gave thanks to the Author of Life for granting them safe passage to this abundant land and protecting them through a bitter winter. Our Nation's first President, George Washington, stated in the first Thanksgiving proclamation that "It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor." While in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln revived the tradition of proclaiming a day of thanksgiving, asking God to heal our wounds and restore our country.
Today, as we look back on the beginnings of our democracy, Americans recall that we live in a land of many blessings where every person has the right to live, work, and worship in freedom. Our Nation is especially thankful for the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who protect these rights while setting aside their own comfort and safety. Their courage keeps us free, their sacrifice makes us grateful, and their character makes us proud. Especially during the holidays, our whole country keeps them and their families in our thoughts and prayers.
Americans are also mindful of the need to share our gifts with others, and our Nation is moved to compassionate action. We pay tribute to all caring citizens who reach out a helping hand and serve a cause larger than themselves.
On this day, let us all give thanks to God who blessed our Nation's first days and who blesses us today. May He continue to guide and watch over our families and our country always.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 27, 2008, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather together in their homes and places of worship with family, friends, and loved ones to strengthen the ties that bind us and give thanks for the freedoms and many blessings we enjoy.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.
GEORGE W. BUSH

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is the day we have set aside to officially give thanks for all that we have. Honestly, I have so much to be thankful for. Our family has been incredibly blessed and any listing would be woefully inadequate.

I've been thinking about Thanksgiving. We observe it every year. And every year we seem to have the same things on our internal list of things to be thankful for - health, jobs, a home, our family, our friends. But those things are so generic. And OF COURSE, we're thankful for them. But I think it's hard to appreciate them because they haven't been in jeopardy. Sometimes I think that those of us with much appreciate it so much less than those with little. It's easy to say you are thankful for health. But until your health is in jeopardy it's hard to really understand how thankful you should be.

So how to we really give thanks without it feeling a bit, well, .... hollow?

I'm going to need to think about that a bit more.

Thanks to Kim for this gem in response to yesterday's post.

"I'm often asked to explain the mystique of Notre Dame. I reply, 'If you were there, no explanation is necessary. If you weren't, no explanation is satisfactory.'"

- Lou Holtz

Nostalgia

"Even if we are occupied with important things and even if we attain honor or fall into misfortune, still let us remember how good it once was here, when we were all together, united by a good and a kind feeling which made us perhaps better than we are.
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov

This has to be one of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen.

What do you say about a place that changed your life? What do you say about the people you met there who will forever be in your heart? What do you say about memories that are so vivid it feels like you never left?

Many people have a wonderful college experience. They learn and grow and change. They make friends and meet spouses. They get training for a future career. But this place is so much more than that. This place is special. You will often hear alumni say this. They will say it is a place of community. And if you are outside of the family you will think "yeah, right. It can't be that much different than my college experience." I can't say for sure because I don't know your experience. But I do know that I have never met anyone else from any other university that talks about their alma mater with such reverance, love and that misty look in their eyes.

*********

Okay, I've been sitting here for 30 minutes trying to figure out how to summarize my feelings about this place. But I can't do it. There aren't any right words. Instead I'm just going to give you a brain-dump of the things I remember most.

* meeting Katie at Freshman O
* seeing David bring his comforter to class because he didn't want it to get stolen from the laundry room
* introducing Katie & Joe one night when we had planned to hit a few parties and find SYR dates. Instead, Katie found her future husband.
* watching Kim fall down the steps of the CCMB
* studying until the wee hours of the morning in an empty classroom in Hayes-Healy with Bradshaw, Jen & Matt.
* studying in the old LaFortune outside the tiny convenience store.
* early morning breakfasts in the cafeteria with Katie and Todd
* studying in the rooms on the 2nd floor of the 'brare and taking a break at 11:55 to head over for quarter dogs
* watching in amazement as the boys managed to make a full meal out of a quarter dog
* wandering back from Senior Bar with Eric constantly talking about my hat (I miss you, dear hat and wish woe to the person who stole you)
* arriving alone at Senior Bar knowing there would be a plethora of friendly faces
* playing shuffle board
* dorm food sales
* forming the math club and seeing our MuAlphaTheta shirts on everyone on campus
* taking the shuttle over to St Mary's for an 8am communications class
* taking the city bus to the mall
* when the freshman dropped the case of (glass bottles) beer getting out of the green van
* driving through the night to go to the Kentucky Derby on a whim
* JPW
* the barbeque with Bradshaw, Erica, Katie, Joe and our families graduation weekend
* St Ed's Sunday night mass
* Witnessing a Holy Cross ordination - an amazingly powerful experience
* NDE
* My small group with people I never thought I would know or like who became some of my most trusted confidants
* late nights at the grotto
* Thanksgivings with the Bradshaws
* dinner parties in the dorm kitchens with Joe, Erica, Colleen, Tony & Lauren
* Joe McG having his dorm room completely stocked with Crate & Barrel dishes
* the 1st annual wine party
* Justin Brumbaugh's memorial mass
* Kim's phone calls every other day confirming lunch
* slicing open my hand on a can of lemonade and splattering blood so badly it looked like a murder occurred
* Rob helping me decorate for Christmas
* sitting in the window watching beach volleyball
* dorm parties
* SYRs
* formals
* the guys barbequeing on the quad on Lenten Fridays in protest of the cafeteria's meatless policy
* cafeteria nicknames
* the BFR
* Fall Break in New York
* Appalachia with the kids from Creighton
* letters from Clint
* Glee Club Hayride in Michigan........Michigan
* ice skating class
* physics lab with Patty
* Saturday night dinners with Katie after women's choir mass
* Football Saturday candlelight buffets
* Football Saturdays (can you believe there are so many memories that came to mind before football!)
* Sundays made for laundry & studying
* physics tests in that stupid fieldhouse
* walking to NDFCU
* Parking the green van in D2milliion
* Lauren & Janet driving all night to pick me up at O'Hare so I wouldn't be stranded (now that is real friendship)
* St Patrick's Day
* Tutoring at the FLRC
* Job interviews in the library basement
* how crowded the bookstore would get
* standing in line to return books at the end of the year
* trying really hard to remember how to get back to our dorm after a party on the other side of campus freshman year
* viewbook-blue spring skies
* movies in the engineering building
* freshman welcome mass
* senior farewell mass
* senior week

So you see, there's no way to summarize. There is no way to take all of these memories and boil them down into a few words of meaning. These memories shape me. These are memories I hope never to lose. Or if I do, I hope those who shared them with me will remind me. If I had to summarize, I don't think I could do it any better than Mr Dostoyevsky did.

Weekend Recap

Another weekend. They always seem to go by so fast! But this one was fun. The highlights...

Allison "helping" Peter learn to roll... on Friday night Peter was practicing his new rolling skill. He made it from his back onto his stomach. He was then struggling to keep going back to his back. Allison saw his struggle and decided she needed to help. So she got down next to him and rolled him over. It was hysterical!

Tumbling Class... Another Saturday morning tumbling class. Allison is doing well. But the instructor seemed a bit out of it this week. Miss Michelle is very nice and great with the kids. But this week she was half asleep. She could barely keep her eyes open. I assumed she was hung-over (she's college aged). One of the other moms asked if I thought she looked off. When I mentioned that she seemed hung-over the other mom said "I think she's still drunk." Michelle said it has been a late night dealing with family drama but I don't know. It was just very odd. Luckily the kids are so little they can't tell the difference.

Shopping & Christmas Trees... Saturday evening was the tree lighting at the outlet mall. The kids are both at a growth stage where they are ready to move up to the next sizes (Peter - 9 months, Allison - 18 months) so they needed lots of new clothes. We made an afternoon of it. The kids got everything they needed and Mr. Brown got a new pair of shoes.
We hit some of our favorite outlets:
http://www.childrensplace.com/
http://www.carters.com/
http://www.gymboree.com/
http://www.striderite.com/
http://www.gap.com/

I was not left out. I got a new meat tenderizer. Fun times.
Allison really liked the tree. She was very intrigued by it before it was lit. It was several stories high. And when they first lit it she just stared for probably a minute. Finally she uttered a single "whoa". It was the cutest thing.

Spa Day... My friend Katey has been dealing with a lot of family stress lately. She's been taking care of everyone. So I conspired with her husband to get her a day of relaxation. We surprised her and I took her to lunch and then for a day at the spa. It didn't take much arm twisting to convince me that it would be more fun for her if we did it together. So we got massages, manicures, pedicures and our hair done. It was wonderfully relaxing and a good chance to connect and learn to appreciate what we have.