The First Christmas: What It Has Become

From the JFC Show (beware, BuelahLady was offended):

more about “The First Christmas“, posted with vodpod

Jen’s Update: Christmas Reflection

Christmas Reflection, Jen Update

Entry by TRH from TN

Greetings JEN NATION!

I spent all of yesterday with my sister, enabling my Mom & Dad to go shopping in Murfreesboro and Matthew to run some errands.

Sis’s social worker Kristene stopped by late morning for a private visit with my sister. Kristene works with Lazarus House Home Hospice, bringing years of experience relating to those God is drawing home to Himself. She is adept at having the deep, probing conversations with my sister that are hard for us, pinpointing where she is spiritually and her remaining aspirations in this life.

Then Nurse Kim came by in the afternoon, documenting Sis’s extreme headache from Sunday and checking her vitals. Kim and Matthew discussed contingencies if another such headache occurred. We have a good cache of hospital strength painkillers, and nurses are on call 24/7 if that proves insufficient.

I often try to accentuate the positive on this site, because my sister still gives us so much to feel good about. The reality though is unmistakable — this will almost certainly be her last Christmas, with us anyway. Both Kim & Kristene agree Sis is down to month(s).

But we can’t be selfish, because can you imagine Christmas in heaven???? No long lines, no mall traffic (ha), being reunited with all your loved ones, in all your health and glory, and Jesus and Mary themselves? Sis would be the lucky one in 2009, though we’d miss her terribly.

I think I’ve said it before, but I almost can’t remember her pre-cancer. For so many years, she bore it bravely. I’d tell people, “You wouldn’t know by seeing her or talking to her.” But this year has been hard. She has lost so many freedoms she worked so hard to maintain.

So many of you may not get the chance to personally say goodbye, and I apologize for that. If we walked into her living room right now, it might strike you as a holy place where you don’t raise your voice. You might just sit down across from her in silence, reflecting on where she is and what we’re supposed to take away from it. She might stir from her reclined position and Titans stadium blanket, seeing who you were or asking for a cookie.

She cannot stand up on her own anymore; Matthew and I are the only two people on the planet she trusts to lend her a hand. She cannot go to the bathroom without a wheelchair and the same assistance … or bathe herself. Her left fist is permanently clenched with cramping pain she has learned to tolerate. In recent weeks her right eye has closed. Her vision is not very good, and she’s bloated from inactivity and the cocktail of drugs that keeps her comfortable. She needs to be fed anything that requires utensils.

But we try not to dwell on all that. You’d recognize her because her personality still comes shining through. She asks all visitors how they’re doing and makes them feel welcome. Such courage and grace.

So many good people in the world have lost loved ones this year, and some will yet today. Given that we are humbly blessed. In the vast scheme of eternity, even those of us who will live to a ripe old age are only here for a little while. We enter this world with nothing, and leave with nothing except the difference we’ve made in others’ lives.

Maybe that’s why I’ve struggled this year to visit shopping malls and merrily shred wrapping paper like years past, and no doubt future — because God is giving me a keen sense of what it’s about.

Shocking as it may be (ha), I hope to start a family, and some year down the road we’ll be buried in all the trappings of the season, my parents lavishing their grandkids with gifts. Then we’ll think back to Christmas 2008, as my sister’s memory permeates the room, and all will be put in perspective.

Cherish your loved ones this week — may God be with you all. — Love, TRH

B’Man’s Christmas Wishes: Santa Boot Camp

Click The Picture

I told BuelahLady that I wanted to go to Santa School so I could supplement our income every year. The older I get, the more my beard goes gray, the more I sort of look like Santa. But then I found out what Santa Boot Camp is all about and I am having second thoughts.

more about “Santa Boot Camp and other videos on S…“, posted with vodpod

B’Man’s Christmas Wishes: Gaseous Gorilla Gift Giving

Chessington World of Adventures recently had to deal with a King Pong of a smelly situation I linked to and wrote about last week here. Apparently Brussels sprouts cause gorillas to fart horrendously noxious gas bombs that were driving away customers, so they decided stop feeding them during open hours.

Now, since I love sprouts so much, I find this repulsive on its face, so I immediately felt something needed to be done. Before I freaked the monkey shit out on them, I read this:

Zoo keepers will now give the usual diet of vegetables, fruits, nuts and leaves during opening hours but will add the sprouts in the evenings and let them trumpet to their hearts content.

Thank goodness. At least they are going to feed them sprouts after closing hours. (Did anyone else notice the reference to a trumpet in there? Are these farts obnoxiously LOUD, as well?)

I also noted that they are going to forgo the new rules and give these gorillas a special Christmas gift.

You see, miracles DO happen at Christmas time.

Smell my finger

What would I do without my “News you cannot possible use“?

B’Man’s Christmas Wishes: Gifts In The Mail

A Different Kind Of Little Bird

My buddy D-Cup at PoliTits has a great post called Little Bird up today (trying to determine the mathematical probability that two Jews would be shopping at the same Publix in rural Georgia looking for the same customary candles… her hubby, MathMan is the perfect solutions-provider for that**See Note).

The other part was sharing about gifts that she and her family received in the mail… which is the perfect entrée into sharing about the Christmas gifts that we have received in the mail this year (especially since a couple of them came from regular visitors to this blog).

So here’s the deal: I sell equipment for various companies and a couple send me a Christmas gift every year.

This is a regular gift from the same company the last three or four years and is probably the best peanut brittle I ever ate. I am torn, because they used to send a gift package that included different chocolate covered delights (pretzels that were divine) from a Sarris Candies in Pennsylvania (that link takes you to the old gift package and you see the new below… I’m just sayin’. Agreed, that is some good peanut brittle, but compared to the Sarris stuff… let’s just say that the economy is apparently hurting many of us).

LOL

Below are two gifts from the same company (Italian that has a sales office in the US). The first is a can of flat biscotti (which is truly excellent and, no, I don’t read Italian) and the second is a bottle of fine extra virgin olive oil blogged about here. Perhaps someone (like my friend, Kelso’s Nuts) may have some recipe suggestions. The most exquisite cooking oil I ever used was peanut oil to fry catfish in (and I make some of the best you will ever eat, as a matter of fact). So, any help is appreciated.

As you all know, I am a redneck and the people who sent the Italian stuff knows this.

So, I responded with an email that said:

Thanks for the gift package, but I think the wine is ruined. BuelahLady and I drank the whole thing last night (it tasted awful) and I have the runs real bad this morning. Oh yeah, I never did get a buzz.

On another note, the frisbees you sent break very easily, so we can’t use them as you intended.

But it’s the thought that counts…

** I’m jealous that I cannot get my better half to blog (either here or her own place)

WTF Thursday: Glitter-covered reindeer poo in your stocking this Christmas

$5 a Pellet? Hell, I’ll purty up one of my turds for far less than that.

via Glitter-covered reindeer poo in your stocking this Christmas | Life and style | guardian.co.uk

Reindeer at the Miller Park Zoo in Illinois, US, are doing more to deliver presents this Christmas than pulling Santa’s sleigh.

The zoo’s two reindeer, Ealu and Rika, are helping to “manufacture” ornaments on sale in the gift shop – by providing staff with a regular supply of droppings to decorate.

The droppings, on sale at $5 (£3.26) each, are dried before being clear-coated and either painted or rolled in glitter.

The zoo’s marketing director Susie Ohley has named the gifts “magical reindeer gem ornaments”, and each comes with a label of authenticity.

Some shoppers are surprised at the size of the “gems,” which are only about as big as marbles.

“Reindeer are so big,” said zoo maintenance worker Sheldon Williams. But the droppings are “just a big pile of small.”