7-Quick Takes – The Holiday Edition

  Join Jen and the other Quicktakers over at the Conversion Diary.

1. When I was a little girl, we had these metal statues of deer around the house. I have no idea where they came from or whether they were gifts to my grandparents or if they bought them themselves.  I just know they were around as knickknacks all the time.  I lost track of them for years, but found them again after mom died.  They had been wrapped and boxed away.  They are now part of our Christmas scene – and yes I know there were no dear in Bethlehem, but I think they still look pretty nice there!

2. A few other odd characters have ended up in our creche seen too.  The fat cow on the left is an ornament that no longer has a hanger.  I couldn’t bear to toss him, so he now gets to hang around the manger scene.  The angel is an ornament that they passed out one year at the cemetery mass.  The kitty is one of three.  During one of the leaner years, when I couldn’t afford much, I bought the little cats for the nativity set because they were only around $10 or so. They’ve been hanging with us ever since!
 

3. This year I bought these little tea lights at Big Lots.  I turned them on at Christmas Eve and they have been going ever since.  We also put them out at Mom’s grave and the baby’s grave.  I just love the idea that all of this week of Christmas the lights have been flickering over there too.

4.  I am addicted to the Huffington Post- all debate, with people who are 180 degrees from me, all the time.  I don’t usually have a lot of time for it, but this week I indulged a little more.  I have been a member since December 2008, made over 2000 posts.  For the longest time I didn’t have any followers, but in the past six months I have 150 and have even a few of their participation badges. And I expect it to get even higher during an election year when more conservatives join the ranks to take on the bastion of progressive liberal thought – it’s going to be great!

 5.  So after a nice get-together with the music ministry folks at church, and then listening to the kid’s rock band perform, we had a night of mayhem. Little Rosie’s stomach was cramping and she had an accident in her bed. As I was up changing sheets and taking care of her I noticed that Sam was not in his room at 3:30 a.m. He couldn’t be reached on his cell phone either.

For the second time in the past month, he had left the house and gone over to his girlfriends to watch a movie. And I’m just flabbergasted. When it happened before we told him why this was a bad idea and asked him not to do it again. He said he understood and now he defied us. The sense of broken trust is just so jarring.

This time I’m going to work with her parents to see what we can do about this. But basically, he just earned the right to pay his own car insurance – I’m done with that.

 6. I remember when I thought handling little kids was tough – navigating the teen years is much tougher!

 7. From lessons and carols – the cherub (Rosie’s) choir singing, Sing Allelu!