Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Tradition


The tips of my pointer fingers hurt from pushing cloves into oranges all day. I love the smell of cloves and oranges at Christmas time. My neck is killing me for some reason. I can't turn my head to the left. The kids are happy because when the whole family is piled in the car, I can't turn around and scream at them. There's no point in screaming at the windshield. My throat is revving up for the yearly sickness. Thankfully, I've been able to let go of my big plans to finish Sherman's quilt, which has been waiting for over a year to be finished. Each of the kids has a marvelous gift waiting for them. Jonathan and I are so excited to see them open their presents this year. We've been able to get them exactly what they've wanted. Fortunately, what they've wanted has not been in conflict with what we've wanted for them. I'm sure those times will come soon enough. Even Hector will be pleased with his assortment of prisms which I will hang in the kitchen window. Every day around 1 o'clock he'll be chasing those rainbows scittering around on the floor. Shhhh! Don't tell him what he's getting.

We think of our family often this time of year. One of these days we'll be back with them to celebrate the holidays. For now, we are enjoying our time together establishing our own Christmas traditions. Just a few days ago we said goodbye to my mother. She was with us in for over a month helping me out with the kids and getting some new material for her next romance novel "Dunes of Passion". She even found the face for the cover of the novel. Issa Al Kabisi, a popular Qatari singer and boy is he hot!!!! Anyway, she mentioned that one of the things her mother used to do during Christmas time was read The Little Match Girl to her three daughters. I'd never heard the story, and when she told it to me I was shocked! What a horrible story to read young children at Christmas time. But, hey, it was a tradition. So I encouraged Grandma to read it to my kids before she left. I don't think they got it. Another one of our traditions, well . . . actually we started it this year, is doing puzzles. Here's Jonathan with the train puzzle we finished. He wanted me to take a picture of him with it before we put it away. He thought we should have at least left it out for 24 hours, but I disagree. As you can see in the photo, there's a lot going on at that table. Lego's and paper crafts. Add to that a space hogging puzzle and that's way too much. It had to go.
Here's us atop the Burj Khalifa. Hector and the Burj are officially the same age, did you know? They were both presented to the world on January 4, 2010. If I had to choose between the two, I'd obviously choose Hector. He's a lot cuter. However, I think this competition deserves a post of its own. Either way, it was impressive to be on the tallest observation deck in the world.

Merry Christmas from the Tumbleweeds!











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