Christmas 08

Here's a quick review of our Christmas.

Christmas Eve
We traveled to New Hampshire to spend Christmas with our friends (and Ryan's Godparents) Vince and Kristin. We ate a lovely seafood stew for dinner with some really yummy herb bread. There was dessert, but I was so full I never tasted it. Ryan insisted on opening gifts. Kristin decided it would be good to let him open one. It was a sippy cup. Ryan said he didn't want it and was completely uninterested in opening gifts after that.

Christmas Day
Breakfast, church and present opening filled the morning. We played in the snow and with the kids in the basement until it was time to cook dinner. Dinner was yummy and we were all so sleepy we went to bed early. Ryan LOVED opening every one's gifts, including his gifts. Little did he know there were more to come. Ryan didn't want to leave his Uncle Vince. He thinks Vince is the most awesome person, which is great. We know we can leave him with them and he'll always be happy and fine.

Boxing Day
My friend and former high school maths teacher, Tom Barkley, came to visit. We had a nice time catching up. When he left Ryan was so excited to open the rest of the gifts under the tree. He opened every one's gifts again and didn't want to go to bed. He's particularly in love with his new road that Nana and Papa got him, his travel auto repair shop and his tool box. Tim got a new buddy (so he can leave Ryan's beloved Paws alone). He was picked out by Ryan at Build-a-Bear. He's black and his name is Duke. Tim thinks he's great. Ryan holds him sometimes for Tim. It's really cute.

And now for the ear update...
I saw the ENT today... he says the swelling in my ear will go away in one week if I just take some ibuprofen. I am not convinced, but will try it anyway. He says the pain I feel is from swelling from the last infection. He was nice and all, but I'm just not convinced. The pain is intense and ibuprofen doesn't do anything for it. Sigh.

And I tried to add photos, but blogger wasn't interested in letting me do that. They are on Facebook for those of you who have that. The rest of you will have to wait. Sorry!

Ready

I am so ready to see that ENT tomorrow. The pain in my ear is insane. It's like giving birth in my ear... not fun. I hate that I've been living off of pain killers since Tuesday... I've been sleeping a lot, but that doesn't seem to help. The pain is still there when I wake up. It's only dulled a little by the painkillers from the doc, but it's better than feeling like someone is stabbing me in my ear. Sigh.

I promise to post more happy Christmas stuff after this ear is feeling better. Promise.

A Christmas Good, Bad and Ugly post

The good: It didn't snow like this today. Yay!

The bad: The coconut fudge didn't quite come out right. It still tastes good, but I think it's a keep at home dessert.

The ugly: I went to my second home again today (that's the doctor's office). My ear is not better. It's still all swollen and has "goop" all stuck to the eardrum. I get to see an Ear, Nose and Throat doc on Monday. It's frustrating... it's like having a fairly new car that you take care of and it just keeps breaking down and costing you money. Grr! For now I take some super pain meds and some steroids. Just what I always wanted for Christmas.

The First Noel

We missed church this morning. Thanks to another snowstorm and yet another earache we stayed home. There were pretty much whiteout conditions all day (more about that tomorrow) so we were playing it safe by staying home. I was really sad to miss this Sunday. I like the Sunday before Christmas. I like the Christmas Eve service too.

Adam was probably breathing a sigh of relief. After all, he had no tears to wipe up with his scarf this morning during the singing of certain Christmas carols.

Since Adam and I have been married we’ve spent all six Christmas holidays with his family. I have longed to be with my family and spend a Christmas showing him our Bahamian traditions. I’d love to take him to Junkanoo, to see the Police Band play, to a Christmas Cantata and to the Live Manger scene at church. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult, yea, impossible, to get time off at this time of the year when you work for a certain company. We’ve never been able to spend that Christmas in the Bahamas.

The first year of our marriage we went to church on Christmas Eve just like we always do now. I love Christmas carols. I could sing them with the best of the best. I can sing the harmony and all the special do da’s that go with them. We started to sing Joy to the World at the end of the service and I cried my little eyes out. Of course, Adam wanted to know what was wrong. He understood missing my family and was very gentle and comforting about the whole situation.

I figured that each year being away from my family at Christmastime would get easier. Each year we’d build on our own traditions and our Christmas holidays in our family would become special and the norm.

But I think each year gets harder. I long to be with my family more. I keep wishing that I had just that one more Christmas with my parents (they wont’ be around forever). Now that we have children, I want the boys to see what Christmas is like in the Bahamas. I don’t want Junaknoo, the police band and other items to just be stories that I tell them.

This Christmas Eve will be a bit different. Ryan’s Godparents have asked us to spend Christmas with them. Instead of being at church we will be on the road (provided the forecast is correct). On Christmas morning we will be in church. I will be prepared. Not only will I have Adam’s scarf to wipe my tears into, I will also have a package of tissues, used especially for the carol The First Noel.

Why The First Noel? Well, the year we were married I started working on a family history book. It was about my dad’s family and what their life was like for them growing up. My Aunt Gloria wrote to me about memories she had of her father (my Pa Ernest, whom I never met) while growing up. In it she wrote, “He also enjoyed a drink occasionally, and I remember once during a midnight Christmas Eve carol service at the Anglican church he staggered in and sat down. He wasn't the only man who had had one drink too many, and the man behind him leaned forward during a lull in the singing of The First Noel and said to him in a voice all the church could hear, ‘You hear that ol' Ern, no hell, no hell.’"

I can easily make it through the first verse and maybe the first “Noel, noel” before choking up. I know it’s a silly thing to choke up on, but it’s a memory, one connected to my family who I miss dearly during the Christmas season.

There are other Christmas carols that make me tear up, all for different reasons. They are all associated with different stories that remind me of my childhood. Like I can hear my brother singing “While Shepherds washed their socks at night…” Once we were singing O Holy Night and I was wearing socks with many holes in them. Silent Night is the first song I learned all the signs to in sign language. Once in Royal David’s City is a super favorite of mine. While working at the Christian Book Shop, we sang Christmas carols before devotions and we could really mess some up like Angles from the Realms of Glory.

Christmas carols are a big part of my Christmas. I love to sing these songs that tell of the birth of Christ.

While I anticipate celebrating that First Noel with my children, husband and dear friends, I will be missing my family. I’ll be missing those good old times with friends and co-workers too.

Maybe next year we’ll spend Christmas together. And without tears I’ll be able to sing that final verse of this beautiful carol (which I think sums up why we celebrate Christmas).

“Then let us all with one accord, sing praises to our Heavenly Lord
Who hath made Heaven and earth of naught and with his blood mankind has bough.

“Noel, noel, noel, noel. Born is the King of Israel!”

Polar Express

It snowed yesterday, but thankfully, that didn't stop us from going on the Polar Express. It took us over an hour to get to Portland in the snow on Wednesday morning. It's a drive that normally takes a half hour. The roads weren't so nice in town, but the Turnpike was okay. First, Ryan had a final check of his fingers at a doctor in Portland. He'll have some scaring, but is fine. Yay! We then spent the afternoon at my brother-in-law's house just to prevent a million trips to Portland on the snowy roads.

At 3:30, we left Tim with his uncle and cousin and made our way into town for our trip on the train. Ryan was VERY excited.

Here's the train. We waited in a heated tent until it was time to board. The trip took us through a wintery wonderland. Seeing the ocean was really nice too because the tracks run along the coast. We had cookies and hot chocolate, too.... just like in the movie.

It was SOOOO cold when we first got on the train. My feet, though clad in winter boots were frozen. Ryan refused to put his gloves on and was using his buddy Paws as a hand warmer. He had to borrow my hat because his was "too cold." Once the train got going it did get a little more warm, but I think I would have liked a blanket. I felt really bad for the little babies on the train. They had on snow suits and still looked cold.

At the end of our trip we got to sing Christmas carols. Ryan tried his best at Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman. He did pretty good. He tries to sing more now, but is usually a few words behind because he's repeating what he's already heard. We had our photo taken with Santa and purchased a train as a souvenir. I was glad to get into the truck and put the heat on just my feet.

I was exhausted at the end of the day. I suppose shoveling snow in the driveway, driving white knuckled to Portland and spending the day with three kids is a lot, but it was worth it because Ryan had fun and is still saying "Went on a train and it went fast, fast, fast." (which. by the way, it didn't go so fast, but he can think that it was fast.)

Ice Storm

We were lucky only to lose power for a few hours in the early morning of this weekend's ice storm. We've been warm and comfortable. I think it stinks that so many people have not been these things. Some people are still without electricity.

While the ice caused lots of damage, I think it was pretty. It was like one of those scenes from a postcard or something. Really wintery.

I missed work. They had no electricity. I was acutally a bit sad. It was going to be my first full eight hour shift since I had Timothy. I was really looking forward to it. To earning that extra money. Adam's Wal-Mart opened at 10 after turning customers away earlier in the morning.

We enjoyed the day together as a family. We watched some movies, played a few games... Adam did ABO certification stuff and I got to do some Bahamian Word Finds (Thanks Dad!).

We were crazy enough to actually venture out on Friday night. Ryan was out of milk and we thought we'd pick that up and do our grocery shopping. How silly of us. Everyone and their mother was out at Wal-Mart and the gas stations. Restaurants were PACKED. It was worse than the height of Tourists Season here in Maine (that's summer for all of you people who are "from away" like me).

It should have been no surprise to us what WM was like. Thinking back on it, we were really lucky to be able to purchase the milk we wanted. There's something about winter storms and Mainers buying milk. Next to water, snow shovels and ice scrapers it is one of the hot items during a storm. It's kind of weird. Maybe there are lots of people out there with kids like Ryan who are addicted to milk. I suppose it can be kept cold outdoors.

Anyway, here are a few of my photos. I don't think they do the beautiful scenery justice.

Winter is fun

I like winter. I like the first snowfall. I like hot chocolate. I like soup. I like the things that go with winter like jackets and scarves. I like cookies and anything chocolate, especially hot chocolate. I like snowballs and snowball fights. I like snowmen.

But I hate driving in the snow. While I think I've gotten better at it over the years, I still don't enjoy it.

This morning I had an appointment at my second home... the doctor's office. It was a Post Partum Depression follow up. We'll do meds through the winter and then attempt to get off of them. I'm ready to be done with them now that I am feeling much better. It was also a visit for my poor ear which is killing me again. My ear infection is back... sigh.

Anyway, it was snowing when we were leaving. Ryan thinks this is awesome. Mom does not think it is awesome. Tim just hates the car seat and would rather be playing on the floor or in the exer-saucer. It wasn't too bad on the way there because it had just started snowing.

But then I had to go pick up another prescription, which may cause me an allergic reaction since it's made from penicillin, but will get rid of whatever has been bothering my ear for three months now (off and on, not continuous). So I debate weather to go to WM or to pick it up at the local Rite Aide. I decide to go to WM... I need a few things to finish this craft Ryan and I are working on anyway.

By the time they fill the prescription it's really snowing and I'm white knuckled driving home. The roads are slippery and people are fish-tailing like no other. We make it home in one piece and Ryan asks if we can go to the library. "Uh, not today kiddo. Maybe tomorrow."

We eat a warm, yummy lunch and put Tim down for a nap. We bundle up and go to play outside in the snow. We had lots of fun building a snowman and having a snowball fight.

And now for some hot chocolate.

Meeting Mr. & Mrs. Claus

Ryan was much better at meeting Santa than he was at meeting the Easter Bunny. He was even smiling before the photo was taken. Ryan told Santa he wants a big fire truck and a fire hat (we already have four of them...the trucks that is). The photo was taken for free at Kittery Trading Post. Yay for free, instant photos!