Reid's Favorites

Way to go everyone on the comments! Reading the numerous contributions Thursday stirred up a lot more memories for me. I appreciate those who took the challenge and highly recommend everyone click on "comments" at the end of the December 18th post to hear what others chimed in. I had totally forgotten the faux green crocodile bedspreads at my grandmother's house! Good times. Wish we were all together in one room--singing carols!

Reid and I sat down before dinner and he offered these answers very directly. Glad I asked! He is so easy to please.

1. Favorite ornament: the golden star

2. Favorite tradition: snow in Ohio

3. Favorite gift: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory video

4. Favorite Christmas meal: bean and cheese burritos

5. Favorite Christmas cookie: the gingerbread man

6. Favorite place to be: the family room watching whatever new DVD I get

7. Favorite memory: singing at Borders

got comments?

We must confess, in our zeal to re-invent the Christmas card, we have inadvertently created what Jim is now calling, the Christmas newsletter on steroids! That was not our intent; but it's where we are.....and it's only December 18th. So, at this point, I will take it over the top and give you an assignment. Today's post begs a reply from you.

Beth Moore is my current favorite Bible teacher. She and her daughters posted this Christmas questionnaire and I thought it bore repeating. My mom is infamous for posing a "profound question" at the dinner table which everyone must go around and answer in turn. Since they often fall in the same category as the following, Jim and my jeering response is, "We'll decide whether it's profound or not."

To relieve any pressure, I would simply call these fun for the whole family. You decide how profound you want your answer to be! As Reid often says, "Come on, don't be shy." And as Allie recently told a friend who is fed up with their militaristic soccer coach, "I don't quit." I figure if I can get Jim, Allie, and Reid to reply, that's four more day's posts! Benny would make five. And Christmas is just 7 days away.

Here are mine. Will you give us yours in a comment? Just click on "comments" and share your 7 answers.

1. Favorite ornament

many, but this angel that I've re-glued multiple times because it reminds me of the Neopolitan tree at The Met in New York
2. Favorite tradition

waiting at the top of the stairs at Nana's in Sandusky; my aunts and uncles required all the cousins to do this when we were children so they could turn lights on, put batteries in, start the coffee and get the obligatory photo before we all descended to unwrap presents. The multiple photos capturing it make it all worthwhile in retrospect. (Where are those, anyway?)

3. Favorite gift ever received

cross country skis from Jim because I was NOT expecting them at all and he stretched me to new limits believing my potential for the future; coffee table art books from my mom because they broke from her normally practical nature in a streak of decadence and appreciation of beauty

4. Favorite Christmas meal

turkey with nouveau gourmet variations on the traditional, like brussel sprouts with orange glaze or mashed sweet potatoes and rutabagas or cornbread/sausage/chestnut dressing or pumpkin cheesecake with ginger snap crust

5. Favorite Christmas cookie

powdered pistachio mexican wedding cookies to eat; gingerbread men to look at

6. Favorite place to be

home in our living room Christmas Eve around the fireplace with salade Nicoise each opening one gift

7. Favorite memory

waking up to heavy snow falling outside the windows at the Moriarty's in Chagrin Falls and the exuberant sledding that ensues afterward down their hill

Anticipation is half the fun of any celebration. The other half may be memory.

The Gift of Song

Someone, who shall remain nameless, made us a priceless gift one year of a spiral bound book titled, Celebrate With Song. In it, were 50+ pages of Christmas carol lyrics. She spent hours poring over lyrics online to create a book of favorites for us. Each season, the kids initiate a session of singing through that book, a capella usually. It was a very thoughtful, useful and touching handmade gift that has kept on giving.

My favorite Christmas songs are the ones that tell the story of the first Christmas and are obscure enough to not have been overplayed and become cliche. I was able to find a few, like Ding Dong Merrily on High, and I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In, to put on the green cassette in the sidebar. Have you figured out how to turn that on? (Click the > icon. You can advance it >> and pause it too, as you wish.)

Other favorites are The Little Drummer Boy and The Friendly Beasts for the same reason. They not only bring the nativity story to my mind but also dramatize it for children. I never tire of watching this version of The Little Drummer Boy video, which would explain why our VHS literally wore out.




Music is the language of our souls. With it we express things that won't come out any other way. "It is not necessary that you understand," as the magi tells heartbroken little Aaron.

Another New York City memory indelibly marked on my mind is the Messiah Sing-In we attended at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center. I have looked and looked for one in every city since to no avail. An usher handed us the entire score of Handel's music as we took our seats. Then, with the utmost respect and expectation of excellence, the conductor directed the audience of paying patrons to sing that magnum opus with a full orchestra and professional soloists. It was incredible and remains one of the ways I picture heaven: unceasing praise and worship with choirs of angels.

God inhabits the praises of His people. If you want to feel His presence, praise Him and He'll take up residence.

Handcrafted Christmas Gifts

When Allie asks me what I want for my birthday or Christmas I almost always answer the same way, "make me something, paint me a picture." I think I inherited my own dad's practical nature and DNA that values personal creativity/expression above most other things.

When Al was six years old she drew me the picture to the left as a gift. It was her version of what was probably on my mind constantly...I love it. I love the fact that the waves are patterned and about to crush the surfer on the crude box-shaped board. What is cooler than an interpretation of something close to you by one of your kidlets? How much more valuable is this to me than something she would have purchased? Infinitely.

We've gotten away from making things and that's not good. I'll be so bold as to say, it's bad.

A handmade gift has a quantum leap of value over anything you can buy. My Nana Tighe made us mittens when we were kids. I always adored them...we all did. When my brother broke his back I was about 13. I made him a card out of balsa wood that said "Pull string if feeling poorly." When you pulled the string, a message on another piece of wood lifted up from behind (like a pop-up card) to say, "Get well soon." I'll remember his reaction forever. It touched him like nothing I could have bought would have.

You may not be a great artist. No, you're probably not a seamstress or a woodworker (I'm just guessing). That's not the point. The point is that you can make something for someone else. It will mean something to a person because it's a piece of you. My mom draws little faces on her cards. She's not the best illustrator in the world but you know what...I love them. They mean more than the card itself (because she usually sends store bought cards).

I'll share one such card (and risk setting the bar too high). At the right is the birthday card my brother David sent me this year. Now... he is an artist so, it's quite good. The "Elongated Seamus" is a mashup on my Celtic family nickname (Seamus) and a flower he must have come across in his travels. This was the best gift I received for my birthday.

Create something this season. If you put your heart into it, it's value will rise above every other gift given.

Advent Conspiracy

Powerful isn't it? Our church, Solana Beach Presbyterian, has joined others worldwide in the Advent Conspiracy to collectively espouse more worship, less spending this Christmas. Their website explains more and links you to a group forum for sharing practical ideas and stories of Rethinking Christmas.

Funny, last summer I had picked up Bill McKibben's Hundred Dollar Holiday written in 1998. Who among us has not yearned for simplicity in years past? It's the basic conflict and motivator for skipping Christmas in Grisham's book and the subsequent movie, Christmas with the Kranks? When I was a kid, several years blur together that my mom made a similar declaration that she (and we) would be giving (and getting) just one gift from each other. "One BIG gift, then, right?" we'd clarify in our immaturity. Nothing new under the sun. Actually doing it, though, does set a precedent. What [AC] is doing very effectively is to spread a compelling message to motivate a groundswell of response and a movement from the recurrent idea and longing within many of us. They're also linking it to current world needs and Jesus' raison d'etre.

I find it yet another amazing example of God's timing and His promise to "bring all things together for good." This call to action is gaining momentum due to the circumstances of our national economy. Only a Sovereign God could have timed it so well. Just last week, Jim and I noted practically a sigh of relief that the bubble has finally popped. The malls are subdued. The nation seems silently appreciative to have a good reason, even a necessity, to scale back, adjust priorities, and stay home. Like children who need their parents to set boundaries, we have become attentive to the new instruction.

The [AC] suggestion is to reduce spending by one gift. For us, that seemed insignificant and the $100 Christmas too stringent (recall the tree was not free). Perhaps, I am still jilted from my mom's single gift decree too. So, we have landed on this solution. We will give three gifts to each other, symbolic of the three wise men who came bearing gifts to the newborn Savior. Mine will be categorized (because I love themes); one book, one treat, and one handmade gift. There's only been a little bawking in the ranks. Allie says all three of hers might be handmade. Reid is on the prowl for a three-disc DVD set!

The magi acted on a compelling hunch. They set out following a star (that ancient form of GPS) with heavy laden saddlebags. Likely they chose a gift that would fit unobtrusively in the luggage and represent the best their country had to offer.