Monthly Archives: December 2008

And So This Is Christmas

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I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas like we did. Lots of family time, a great Christmas Eve service at IBC, plenty of great food, fun presents given and received, and some time to reflect all made the past week a Christmas to remember.

John Lennon wrote an interesting song a while back called “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”. I never heard it until I got a Christmas album that included a recording by The King’s Singers. It’s a strange little song, very Lennon-esque – contemplative, anti-war, devoid of any religious content but spiritual in a different way. The main verse simply says:

And so this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
A new one just begun

It’s more of a New Year’s song than a Christmas one because it focuses on the new beginning that happens this time each year, the promise of a brighter tomorrow. It’s also about looking back on the previous year to see what has changed and where the road has led.

For me, as I look back on 2008, the most significant development is naturally the arrival of Brenden and all the changes that parenthood has brought us. It is difficult to explain how much a baby changes one’s life to someone who’s never had one. Daily activities such as meals, grocery shopping, dates, sleep, and showers all become more complicated. A profound sense of wonder, responsibility, gratitude, fear, and joy combine whenever I think about him. A tiny toothless grin truly can melt my heart.

The other significant development is completing our first year as a CARES team. This, too, has been both difficult and rewarding. Difficult because of the time/effort involved in planning, advertising, shopping for, cooking for, setting up, running, and tearing down each event. There’s always another event on the horizon to prepare for. Rewarding because of the dozens of new friends that we’ve gotten to meet. Some are only acquaintances, but many have become good friends, and we have greatly enjoyed getting to know and serve them.

What about you? When you look back at 2008, what changes, achievements, problems, or other things jump out as the most significant to you?

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Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Off to Work I Go

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This past week has been crazy, particularly at work. It’s been possibly the worst 7 days in the history of Southwest Airlines’ operations, with the obvious exception of Sept 11. Snow, ice, deicing delays, fog, and other issues have wreaked havoc on our flights in places you’d expect, like Chicago and the Northeast, and places you wouldn’t, such as Vegas and Portland. The majority of my inherited flights have run late for the last week. Tonight, Christmas Eve, I finally have a quiet night. I’m on a stretch of 16 straight shifts, which I normally wouldn’t do, but I picked up some overtime over Christmas and a traded shift at the beginning. I get some time off starting the morning of Jan 1. Halfway there!

Downshifting

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A few months after Jenny started staying home with Brenden and I was still working nights, we realized something: we could live comfortably with only one car. I take it to work while she and Brenden (we hope!) are sleeping. I come home in the morning to sleep, and Jenny has access to the car during the day. After thinking and praying about the situation for a while, we sold Jenny’s CR-V yesterday to CarMax. I must admit I was a little sad, which is silly, but I guess that happens when you name your cars. We kept the Fit since it’s newer and gets much better gas mileage. Selling the SUV will lead to occasional inconvenience but should work fine the vast majority of the time. It will save us a bit of money each year in registration and insurance. We also have some exciting plans for the proceeds.

The CarMax experience was pleasant. All the people treated me well. Step One was a free appraisal, which took 30-45 minutes. They gave me a written offer good for 7 days. Step Two was accepting their offer and transferring the title, which took about the same amount of time. My only disappointment was that they didn’t pay me nearly as much as I’d hoped for the car. I guess that’s the price we pay for the ability to walk into a store and sell a car on the spot. We probably could have gotten more on eBay, Craiglist, or a SWA bulletin board. But we wanted to get the job done quickly, and CarMax made that possible.

Update: I just checked the sale prices for used CR-Vs on the CarMax website. They got a really, really good deal. Don’t ever sell to CarMax unless you’re really, really in a hurry.

Stories of Christmas

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Jenny and I are celebrating our personal Christmastime on Saturday. Based largely on a recommendation from our cultured friends Chris and Demona, we bought tickets to see Stories of Christmas, a concert at the Meyerson by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. It’s been a long time since I went to a choir concert, and I’m REALLY excited because this one is supposed to be outstanding, one of the best in the country. The show runs through this weekend if you’d like to get tickets. Jenny’s parents plan to watch Brenden since he’s too little to join us. Afterward we’ll pick him up and then go have a nice dinner somewhere as a family.

Random facts about me, Jenny

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Andy always gets to do the fun random facts post, so I thought I’d use a few quiet moments to do my own:

1. I am pretty low maintenance most of the time, but I’m high maintenance when it comes to food. I’m extremely picky.
2. I have a weird attraction to kid’s movies, especially the Muppets.
3. We’ve started watching our niece Reagan two days a week. This seems to take more juggling and coordination than all of my Project Specialist events combined. But I love putting them both on a blanket on the floor and watching them stare at each other!
4. Somewhere along the line my cat, Jedda, got the nickname “shebba” – I don’t know what it means but that’s what I call her now.
5. I’m really not brand loyal to anything but Kraft mac and cheese and Strawberry Pop Tarts.
6. I haven’t worn heels in years. I’d probably fall over if I put a pair on.
7. Some of my favorite websites:
www.thepioneerwoman.com
www.cuteoverload.com
www.televisionwithoutpity.com
www.icanhascheezburger.com
www.pandora.com
8. I love video games, but I can’t play them well. At all. It’s sad. So I settle for watching Andy play very well and win. However, I do ok at Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
9. I have a very good sense of direction. My sister once called me her personal GPS system.
10. I don’t get upset or stressed easily, but I freak if I’m put in an unfamiliar big city and my internal GPS doesn’t work. That’s one of the few things that makes me crazy.
11. I’m one of those freaky people who actually enjoys shopping on Black Friday.
12. I hate hate HATE the phone. The only two people I’ll talk to for more than a few minutes is my mom and sister, because I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like. I think I get that from my dad – he hands the phone over to my mom the minute he answers it.
13. I have no sense of style. I can’t put a good outfit together unless I involve friends and family. Right now, that’s not a bad thing, since it would have spit up all over it anyway.
14. I’m having a really hard time remembering the words to nursery rhymes, so I’ve been singing Christmas songs to Brenden before his naps. That might be weird after Christmas.
15. Since we started CARES, I’ve tried out more new recipes and cooked more big meals than I’ve ever done before. Our poor residents have become my recipe guinea pigs.