Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Haven't you always felt like Thanksgiving was kind of the red-headed stepchild of the holiday season? I mean, Halloween isn't even over yet and all the Christmas decorations start popping up. The only thing most people associate Thanksgiving with is eating to excess, football, and good sales. It's kind of sad. That being said, let's talk about Christmas!

I don't know about you, but I like starting Christmas right after Thanksgiving. Growing up, it was tradition to have the tree and all our decorations up by the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I've tried to adhere to that, although I am not as efficient as my mother and so it doesn't always happen. But it is going to this year. I am determined.

I also like listening to Christmas music early. This past week I was loading my CD player up with Christmas CDs, and I had to laugh at the eclectic collection I had. I have 20 Christmas CDs. I don't know if that is normal or a lot, but it seems kind of weird to me. They range from Kenny G Miracles to My Kind of Christmas by Christina Aguilera (yes, I am admitting that). I have classical, I have country, I have old school, I have acappella, I have church.... And I like them all!

What is funny is that my favorite ones are probably ones that you've never even heard of, much less own. Christmas at Our House by Barbara Mandrell anyone? I LOVE that CD. How about Christmas at Home by Donny Osmond? Some of the CDs I have are not my favorite, but I have favorite renditions of songs off of them and that's why I keep them around. But these two, as well as The Forgotten Carols by Michael McLean are my sentimental favorites.

My all-time favorite Christmas song is "O Holy Night" and, honestly, I don't care who sings it (well, except maybe Cartman off of South Park) because it will, without a doubt, bring tears to my eyes. I love that song. I think it is beautiful and the perfect embodiment of Christmas and all it represents. I also love the songs "Mary, Did You Know?" (the one by Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd is my favorite), "Breath of Heaven" (biased towards Amy Grant's version), and Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. Maybe not traditional picks, but those are my favorite Christmas songs.

I just recently purchased Josh Groban's Noel and I was caught off-guard by his "Silent Night". It really touched me, and even brought a few tears to my eyes. I don't even like that song that much (is that sacrilege?), but I have never heard anyone so able to relay the reverence and sacredness of Christ's birth as he did when he sang that song. It was awesome.

I will write more about Christmas and Christmas traditions closer to the big day, but for now, I will leave you with this (and, yes, I know all the words....):

'Poppy' Parts

*Disclaimer: Read at your own discretion. You may be offended by the following conversation. But I swear it happened.

Around here, you can go buy a hanging pair from Chux Trux to attach to your hitch.

I'm talking about "the family jewels."

Huevos.

Nads.

Nuts.

Balls.

Whatever you choose to call them, I bet you've never had a conversation about them quite like this before:

Little J (of course!) was taking a bath and started to explore "down there".

Little J: "Mama, I have these poppy things."

Me: "Um, yeah, Little J, let's not play with those."

Little J: "But they're poppy!"

Me: "What do you mean 'poppy'?"

Little J (demonstrating): "I can squish them between my fingers and they pop over to the other side!"

I sit a moment contemplating what direction this conversation should go. If any.

Me: "Yeah, let's not do that. And they are called testicles and you actually have two of them. So the one on the other side is a different one."

Little J (still demonstrating): "Oh! They feel like little round things and you can pop them around."

Me: "Yes. They are round like little balls. Let's stop doing that. You need to be careful not to hurt them."

Little J: "Why?"

Me: "Um...we'll talk about that when you get bigger. Let's just not be making them 'poppy' in the meantime."

Leaves are Falling all Around....

Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I like summer the best because of the easy going-ness in the air, but I love the beauty of fall. I love the anticipation of the holidays and the feeling of everyone getting ready to hunker down and be cozy. Fall brings some challenges with it, however. At least if you live in my house.

I have a big yard. A big yard with 10 large, full-grown trees around the perimeter in the back and 4 large trees in the front. I love my yard. There is more than enough space for the kids to play and have their adventures. We've hosted entire ward activities in our yard. We've had countless numbers of barbeques in our yard with friends. It's a good yard. In the fall, however, it changes from this wonderful, magical place into a large piece of land inundated with leaves.

As we speak, there are roughly 20 piles of leaves (each big enough to hide all of my children in) sitting in the back waiting to be bagged. This is only one side of the backyard. This is after already being raked once. This is with 5 of the trees still needing to lose their leaves. *sigh*

The front yard has already been raked and bagged 3 times. We still have 2 trees that have yet to lose their leaves. The first time I raked the front, none of our trees had even shed their leaves yet! We simply had leaves from all our surrounding neighbors' trees. And so the story goes...

Last year, since I had just had Little Man, we ended up paying a lot of kids to rake and bag our yard once it had gotten to the point of ridiculous. The front yard alone yielded 19 bags of mulched leaves. It's a tempting idea to do that again. But I can't justify it. I'm perfectly capable of raking my own leaves. And the boys like jumping in them, so watching them have so much fun makes it go a little faster.

I think the area we live in is beautiful in the fall. There are so many trees and the colors are so vivid. Here is a picture of my favorite tree:

It is in our front yard next to our driveway. It turns the most gorgeous red in the fall. The kids love climbing this tree. I {heart} this tree.

We have one almost as vivid in the back. It loses its leaves quickly after it changes, though, so we don't get to enjoy it as long. But it makes a very pretty carpet:

The trees lining the very back turn a flaming gold color. Except for the oak. All the leaves on it just kind of shrivel up and fall off. (That just made me think of a movie line...anyone?) Oak is probably my least favorite tree. It's good for furniture, but other than that, it drops acorns and has ugly leaves. And it's not even that pretty of a tree to look at when it has all its leaves.

Nonetheless, I am grateful for our trees. We are blessed to have them. If you ever feel the great urge to rake or jump in leaves, you'll know where to go.

Shot Through the Heart

This Ain't a Love Song, but there is a certain rock band that I have Always wanted to see in concert. Their songs made me want to be the one to lay down on a Bed of Roses and go out in a Blaze of Glory. I don't want to be Misunderstood, but hey, It's My Life, I can dream what I want! I am so glad I was willing to Keep the Faith because

GUESS WHO'S GOING TO BON JOVI IN APRIL!??!??!

That's right.

Oh yeah.

Thanks to Gretchen for Livin' on a Prayer and being a trooper to get the tickets!! You are my hero. And all you out in Blogland, don't be tempted to Lay Your Hands on Me even though I'm sure I am Wanted Dead or Alive now that you know I have them. Don't worry, I'll Be There For You if (You Want to) Make a Memory another time.

Have a Nice Day

More Little J-isms

For any of you seven people who read my blog, you know that I find Little J a source of amusement with his inquisitiveness and eccentric insights. Here are a few more Little J-isms for your reading enjoyment:

Sunday night for FHE we were talking about smiles and how smiling at people and choosing to be happy can be a great service. We drew pictures of different ways you can smile. Little J drew one that can best be described as the lopsided smile done by the guy that does the two-handed gun point while winking and clicking (clucking?). Do you know what I'm talking about? The cheesy guy who thinks he's cool does it in movies. Anyway, when I asked Little J why he chose to draw that kind of smile he answered, "Because that's the kind of face a cool guy makes that gets to kiss girls."

Whaa??

Today Little Man was wearing a Baby Gap button-down shirt. I don't know the right kind of "fashion terminology" but it is a yellowish/beige shirt with various shades of really thin blue lines that make a checkered pattern on it. Not a bad shirt. Little J hadn't seen Little Man dressed before he went down for his morning nap, and so when he woke up and saw him, he immediately made this disgusted face and goes, "Why is he wearing that shirt?!" I said, "Why? What's wrong with it?" Little J: "He doesn't even look like Little Man in it. Take it off and put a different shirt on him!"

Needless to say, I did NOT change Little Man's shirt, and when I picked Little J up from preschool later in the day, the first thing he said was, "Why didn't you change his shirt? I hate that shirt - it's sooooo ugly!"

He's so weird! In a really endearing way...

You So Lucky!

People say the darndest things. Especially to me, it seems. I have 3 small boys aged just-turned 7 to just-turned 1. We do not go anywhere quietly or unobserved. Just tonight, the older ones were in the middle of the shoe department at JCPenney re-inacting a Superman game they had played on the XBox . Complete with slow-motion punching, super-blowing and everything. This is not uncommon.

I keep them pretty reigned in, so hopefully we aren't too disruptive. Most of the time there are smiles and good-natured laughs from observers passing through our little storm path. People who interact with my kids always tell me what good kids they are. (Maybe that is going to change since I am now initiated into the Parents Who Have Notes Sent Home About Their Children Club). I have never had a negative comment, or a negative look for that matter, except once. And that was at an inside play place at a mall, of all places. Without rehashing too much of the details, here is a Cliff's Notes version of the incident. (This happened over a year ago, by the way).

Location: huge open play place at a mall

Time: spring 2006 - after 3 full days of rain and being stuck inside

Perpetrators: Big J and a friend

First incident: Big J and friend are on top of a play thing (I think it was a mushroom or something) that is meant for climbing on. They are playing "King of the Hill". Another little boy who can't even climb up on the thing goes crying to his mom because he can't get up. Mom comes over and starts telling Big J and friend off because Pansy Boy wants to get up there and apparently it is their fault he can't. She walks off and gives me a dirty look before I am able to do anything. Since I couldn't actually hear what she said to them, I could just tell from her body language it wasn't good, I asked Big J if they had pushed the boy or anything like that. He said no.

Second incident: Entire time Big J and friend are playing, Pansy Boy is sitting with his mom while she consoles him. She throws dirty looks my way ever so often. She loudly tells Pansy Boy, "Well, just go play over there away from the mean boys!"

Third incident: Big J and friend start running around playing boy stuff. I do tell them twice to take it down a notch, and they do. They are just playing like regular kids at a play place. They come over on a climbing thing about 10 feet away from Pansy Boy. Mom gets all huffy, gives me a dirty look, talks loudly to the friend with her, and packs Pansy Boy up in a stroller to leave. (As a side note, I'm guessing this kid was at least 4).

Fourth incident: Mom is leaving with Pansy Boy and stops to yell at me how my kids are MONSTERS and the worst kids she has ever been around and how I needed to call Super Nanny. I was so taken back that I merely responded, "You need to get a grip!" and turned back around. I was so embarassed! Further exchange ensued, but I didn't really say anything else. So disappointing.

I was so mad I was shaking, and now I am glad I didn't say the things I was thinking. After she huffed off, all the other moms sitting around in the near vicinity started bashing on her and reassuring me that my kids were not behaving in any unacceptable way. Later, on our way out of the mall, we had to walk right past them as they were loading up near where we were parked. I showed complete restraint and only stared in her direction begging for her to look me in the eye, but it didn't happen.

I am used to my testosterone-enriched world and don't think having 3 boys is that big of a deal. I have several friends who have had girls and then have a boy, call me in disbelief at the things their boys are doing. I reassure them it is just a normal boy thing. I am always asked if I wished I had a girl or if I am going to try for a girl. The answer is no. I am happy with my boys. I would be happy if I had another boy. I do not feel incomplete.

Apparently, if I lived in Asia I wouldn't be asked these questions on a regular basis. I say that because of the following experiences:

I was at a small business expo and an Asian man had a booth next to me. He made beautiful jade jewelry. We talked off and on during the few hours I was there. At the end, his wife showed up with a brand new baby. A girl. I offered my congratulations. He asked if I had any children. I said, "Yes, I have 3 boys." To which his eyes popped wide open and he responds, "OOhhh....yoo soh lucky!!!" I just said, "Thanks. You're pretty lucky, too, you have a beautiful baby girl."

Then this past week I was at Costco and I had Little J and Little Man with me. An older Asian woman smiled and commented on how cute they were. The conversation went something like this:

"You have two boys. Very cute."

"I actually have 3."

"The other one a girl?"

"No, I have an older boy."

Same big-eyed reaction followed by, "Three boys? Oh, you are rich!"

Yes. Yes, I am rich. I am blessed. I don't think I would be any less blessed if I had girls, though. Maybe a little saner, but no less rich. :-) Saner for now, that is. I won't have teenage girls...

Cleaning Out the Drawer

Of my mind, that is. I've had random thoughts bouncing around that I thought I'd write down. Nothing profound, just commenting....

Tomorrow is the first Saturday since sometime in August that we have NOTHING on the calendar. There's always things that need to be done, but it's nice to have an open day.

For their Halloween parade, a kid at Big J's school had on a George W. Bush mask embelished with a pair of devil horns. That really bugged me. Not because of the political nature of it, but because the parents were obviously the ones who suggested he wear it. No elementary-aged kid would wake up and say, "Hey, I think I want to be the President for Halloween. And I'll wear devil horns on top to make a statement!" It's Halloween, for heavens sake, let your kid be a kid!

Thursday I was initiated into the parents club I never wanted to be in. Both Big J and Little J had notes sent home from their teachers. On the same day! Nothing major, but still... Big J wouldn't turn in his homework because it turned out that he realized he did it wrong and so he was embarassed and didn't want to turn it in. Little J had some, let's say, "anger management" issues.

I can't help but continually be cracked up by Little J. He has the most fascinating mind to me. Earlier in the week the Toys R Us catalog came in our pile of junk mail and he was all over it. He scoured the pages and very carefully copied the names of things he wanted down on a list. Then, just to cover his bases, on another paper he drew arrows that he cut out and taped inside the catalog pointing at the things he wanted. Too funny!

I am going to be a work widow for an entire week, as JC will be in Seattle for a conference. I'm really excited about that. (I'm totally being sarcastic in case you can't tell.) I've never done the single mom thing with the 3 of them for this long before, so if you don't hear from me for a month or two, you'll just know that I am still recovering.

So until next time...