Christmas | The Organic Sister

Disconnecting to Reconnect

January 8, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 2 Comments

[P.S. My feed has changed, so visit my blog to get the new URL for Google Readers.]

Two and a half weeks of disconnection from the Big Wide World. No TV, no computer, very few video games. It was superb. Heavenly. Beautiful. (Now that my laptop is away and taking longer than anticipated to repair and it’s now a mandatory disconnection, I have a few other choice words to describe my current time offline. But I digress…)

We had such fun: reading Dickens’ A Christmas Carol every night, playing in the additional snow that fell throughout the first week, baking cookies, sledding down giant hills, laughing with friends. Oh, if only I hadn’t uploaded all my photos to the laptop right before I took it in. I have so many things to show you, so many wonderful things we did over the holiday and all that holiday cheer will be redundant to share come mid-January!

There are two things I can share that require no photos and had none to match anyway. That would be the “reconnect” part of the title. Here’s my story:

Two Brothers for Christmas (or The Best Christmas Gifts Ever)

Did I ever mention that I have two brothers, both named John? (That’s not to mention my dad, my uncle and a cousin who share the name.) What can I say; it was a popular name in the 70′s and I’m sure my parents had a good laugh about their first-born’s names when they met and married and later shared me. (Their favorite. HA)

I’ve been closest with my sister (probably cuz she understands that “favorite” joke) but never very close with my brothers. Not for any particular reasons, other than we have little in common and never see each other. The younger John lives here in Vegas, but we haven’t talked since shortly after our dad’s death in 2007. Probate, decisions, differences of opinion, heartache, a desire to hold on to our father in different ways: it ended badly for us the last we spoke. Well, probate is ending, decisions still needed to be made and I knew our Cold War must also end.

I was skerred. I knew I was the one avoiding communication and was the one responsible for the first move and I was worried how he’d respond. So – being the chicken shit I am – I sent him a text message. It said probate was ending, and we needed to find a way to come to an agreement. His text back was amazing. It said “Ok, let’s work this out. I love you. I’ve really missed you.” I know. My brother loves me? He misses me? I never would have thunk it. I’m still smiling about it. Since that day we’ve met and talked and agreed and are working together. We’re both amiable and forgiving and compromising. It’s so…so…amazing.

Later that day, awhile after the amazing text from the younger John, I saw the oldest John. The oldest John lives in Utah with his wife and three daughters. He came down to Vegas the weekend before Christmas for a pre-holiday celebration and we went to spend the evening with the whole family. But instead I ended up outside with my brother and our mutual sister talking with him. He’s in a tough place right now. And for the first time that I can remember, he opened up to us. He poured his heart out. And he listened. My sister and I shared our hearts with him. We brainstormed solutions. We shared what worked for us. We slapped a little sense into him once and awhile. We laughed. We cried. (Well, they cried cuz they’re sissies and my tear ducts were frozen from standing outside in the cold.) We hugged. I can’t remember the last time I hugged my brother. I can’t remember the last time – if ever – we had connected, emotionally or spiritually. And there we were, doing both.

As I was driving home that night I felt my heart melt as I thought over the day. I felt like I had somehow gained two brothers in one day. I felt the miracle of both situations and the miracle of the Christmas Spirit. How it warmed me. Slowed me down. Taught me to look around and listen and hope and trust. Forced me to disconnect from what was distracting me and reconnect with what I was missing. Asked me how it was I keep forgetting that lesson. Of everything else that happened this holiday season, none of it makes as big an impact as loving two brothers in one day.

In the two and a half weeks offline, I didn’t miss my computer or my blog (okay, my blog a little). I didn’t miss the 200+ emails waiting for me or the 250+ blogs to catch up on in my Reader.

In fact, I didn’t miss a thing. I caught each and every tender moment. Every snuggle under the quilt with carols on the radio. Every smile and laugh shared between us. Every flake of snow or carefully wrapped gift. And all those warm fuzzies that let you know that despite what’s going on in the world, we can still have a happy home. We can choose it.

Happiest New Year everyone.

With all our love,
TheCrazies

P.S. Stay tuned for a really awesome revelation we uncovered over our break and some really cool stuff coming in our future!

P.S.S. Our feed has changed. Visit my blog for the new feed!

Filed Under: Celebrations, People I Love, Things To Remember Tagged With: christmas, Connecting, family

It’s Snowing in Vegas!

December 15, 2008 By TheOrganicSister 10 Comments

Seriously! We woke up late this morning, looked outside, then looked a little harder. It was flippin’ snowing! We were outside in short sleeve shirts just yesterday! You’d think we’d never seen it the way we stood at the window and shivered admired it. We do occasionally get some flurries but rarely anything that sticks. And every few years we’ll get a bit that will cover the grass or bushes. But rarely does it ever snow during the day AND for several hours AND stick.

I spent the morning doing what I meant to do yesterday – covering our plywood and scraps (being saved for raised beds) with tarps, hiding our veggie beds under layers of leaves and covering them with anything I could find (plastic painter’s tarp discovered in our garage) – and started to realize something as I was traipsing thru the snow. *It didn’t feel that cold!* Only my fingers were chilled from scraping snow off some of the wood. Holy moly! I think I’ve acclimated!

And guess what! We haven’t turned on our heater yet! Did you hear that, Jennifer? I can see my breath and it’s still off. Who you calling a wuss now? Justin and I are wearing long john’s and many layers. We’re chilly but feeling okay. Zeb is acting like we’re crazy. He’s only wearing long johns to please his mama, otherwise he’d be running around barefoot without much more than a tshirt.

We did all our errands today, despite the constant snow. And I must say: I was lacking any Christmas Spirit until today. Climate change has a funny way of making me merry. (??) Up until now, we’ve had a half decorated tree and a partially decorated mantel (still lacking its stockings). Other than a homeschool co-op where Zeb made a graham cracker house and occasionally suffering through carols on the radio, we’d done nothing else.

But now I’m feeling like making up for lost time! We’ve been talking about doing another “unplug” week where we all take a break from computer, blog, email, video games and TV (unless it’s a family thing, like playing Wii or watching a movie together ). Now it’s decided: Starting tomorrow we’re all going to power down until after the New Year to allow us to focus on the holidays and each other.

To kick things off and in celebration of the snow, we made paper snowflakes after dinner. We did it around the candles, to test the warmth they give off. (Not enough to be worth it, Elizabeth.)

Over the next few days we have plans to make salt dough ornaments, watch Christmas movies, read stories (we may even light the gas fireplace for that one) and hopefully get some more decorations up. I also have some Christmas presents to sew and some other crafts to accomplish. Not to mention a little holiday shopping. Then there are get-togethers and Christmas parties with friends and family. For New Year’s, we’re going to write a time capsule letter for our future selves to read next December 31st. And sometime soon I’ll be building our raised beds and digging the holes for the trees.

So friends, this will be my last post of the year. I’ll be back very early in 2009 with lots of photos and probably some stories. And I’ll probably still update my Twitter (in the left sidebar) by text when I remember it, so you can follow me there.

Happy holidays, whichever you may happen to celebrate. And see ya next year!

Filed Under: Celebrations, Organic Living, Organic Parenting, Organic Tribes Tagged With: christmas, community, creativity, Playing, snow

Just for Fun

December 31, 2007 By TheOrganicSister Leave a Comment

Filed Under: People I Love Tagged With: christmas, Justin, Tara, Zeb

Where’s my escape Claus?

December 27, 2007 By TheOrganicSister 4 Comments

“Mom, tell me the truth. Is he real or not? I want the truth.”

He isn’t settling for the sidestep aversion type answers that are really questions that enable you to avoid being put on the spot. “Some people believe in Santa and some do not. What do you think?”

:angst:

So that you better understand my angst, let me give you a bit of history: I’m not a Santa person. I never have been. The extent of this yearly intruder in my childhood home was a porcelein statuette of the fat man kneeling by the manger. And at Z’s age I thought the idea cute but preposterous and didn’t understand how anyone could A) believe in such a thing or B) lie to their kids about such a thing.

A bit of an old soul, yes. I was the child who couldn’t wait for the food, playing games around a cleared table with a piece of pumpkin pie, falling asleep against my mom to the sound of her voice in her chest. I loved the decorations, driving around looking for ornately lit homes, drinking egg nog, making cookies.

Sure I loved the gifts, but I only remember one of them and that’s because of the tortuous lesson I learned from her. A doll with color-changing hair. Hot water in her brush turned her all blond. Cold water gave her punk-rock-ish colored stripes. The lesson learned? Sometimes all your hard work with a hot water brush can be ruined when you step out into the cold. She wasn’t played with much after that.

Z wasn’t introduced to S.C. until he was three, just after Justin and I got married. Justin grew up with the compulsive cookie eater and insisted that every child should know the “magicalness” of Santa. I was personally put off by the fact that Santa got the credit for the good gifts, so we compromised by giving him credit only for the 2nd best gifts. But I was also put off by the his ability to turn the holiday focus to gifts.

To me Christmas was about faith, love, family, tradition. And Santa came in and stole the show with his obligatory present giving, consumerism, commercialism. Hmph.

So on Christmas Eve when Z insisted on the “truth”, I was suddenly stuck. I could admit how I feel, how I lied against my better judgement, and burst his bubble the very night the tubby man was supposed to shimmy down our narrow flue. Or I could insist he is real and let him figure it out by some other means.

But he wanted the truth! And he expected it from me! So I blabbered about how truth is relative. Some people believe in things that others don’t and that doesn’t change the things they do or do not believe in; it only changes themselves. Yeah, he wasn’t going for that answer. I rebuttaled by saying all I could do was tell him what I thought – my truth. I said I believe in the real St. Nicholas from a long time ago and I believe in the spirit of Christmas that Santa is supposed to represent. But I did not believe in Santa as we know him today.

Nope, still not satisfied. He mulled it all over in the back seat of the truck for a minute. Then the unthinkable happened in which I did something I didn’t want to do. The kid made me pinkie-swear that I wouldn’t fill his stocking or put out presents! Then he would know if Santa were real by whether or not anything was put out!

Justin made me break my pinkie-swear. It wasn’t my fault, I take no responsibility for it and yet I feel horribly guilty. But what were my options? Kill the joy the night before Christmas or on Christmas morning? And “because we pinkie-swore and there were still presents”, he is now certain of the existence of Santa. He believes in Santa because he knows I wouldn’t lie to him or break a pinkie-swear!!!

So now I’m spinning in my office chair toying with the idea of writing Z a letter, explaining my actions and coming clean. Or just sweeping it under the rug and letting him come to it on his own next year. I see pros and cons to both; one big one is to model honesty and coming clean after you’ve told a whopper. But I don’t know if I have the guts.

I’m having nightmares of therapy sessions with a 30-year-old Z telling the shrink “It all started when my mom broke her pinkie-swear”. And then an Italian Santa and his “little friends” loom over my bed threatening to feed me to the fishes if I squeal.

So I’m turning to anyone who might read this. Should I tell or should I zip it for one more year? Please help me.

Filed Under: Celebrations, Organic Parenting Tagged With: christmas, honesty, santa, Zeb

Happy New ChristmaHanuKwanSolstice!

December 7, 2007 By TheOrganicSister 2 Comments

“Happy Holidays” is just too impersonal and “Merry Christmas” leaves a lot of people out. So there ya go.

It does not feel like anything close to Christmas-time! If it were not for Z insisting on the holiday music station and “gently” reminding us of our festive duties, we’d probably forget all together. Not to brag, but when it’s just starting to drop below 60 degrees, it’s hard to imagine Ol’ St. Nick poppin’ in anytime soon.

Between my niece, S, going home yesterday and all my exciting duties for Ron Paul, we haven’t had much time to do all the things we did last year (we celebrated or studied, to some extent, every freakin’ holiday possible last December, as well as baked, made snowflakes and other assorted crafts and G-d knows what else). But we have done something!

I read an article about buying fresh trees that can be composted as opposed to fake trees that will go in the landfill, so I think I’m convinced to keep the fake one in the attic from now on (we usually alternate years with fake/fresh trees).

Tree shopping (with a lil’ off camera tree-hugging):

Christmas tree decorating is always a bit sad for me. I’ve lost all but one of my childhood ornaments…but at least it’s the best one I still have, a spinning ballerina that I failed to get a pic of:

Ah, yes. This would be what happens when you ask your 8 year old to put the P-E-A-C-E stocking holders up for you:

I had to share this pic because I’m soooo proud of how yummy my Turkey Leftover Soup came out. I didn’t burn it or the pan!

I know these pics are kinda dark but I just thought my walls looked so prrrty! (Click on them for the full effect):

Hmm, what else is going on? I’m gettin’ crafty! I’m making just about all our Christmas gifts as well as holidayish pillow coverings for my anything-but-holiday-colored-pillows, dishcloths and other stuff I can’t reveal because recipients might be reading. I’ll be sure to share all my crafty glory after Xmas.

We’re also dedicating ourselves to a “green” Christmas…less consumerism, more handmade, homemade, recycled, gifts with less packaging and less wrapping. The only dilemma thus far is finding Z the perfect gift. He’s a hard kid to shop for when you’re trying to cut down on your consumerism. So he might be left out of our green resolution.

Hmm, this post makes it look like we had a lot of Christmasing going on around here. Well we haven’t. We’v been so busy campaigning for Ron Paul that our bins that did contain our decorations are still sitting in front of our fireplace and I keep putting off our Xmas pics and cards. Grr, crap. Christmas letters. I gotta go.