Peter's Home!!!

I can hardly tell you how exciting it is to have my brother home again! In many ways he's the same, and in other ways he's different. Take the above picture, he learned to play guitar while he was gone! We had fun listening to him this morning.

Last night we went and met him at the air port. The family, and two of his best friends were there. Then, one of his other best friends met us at the house. It was great! We heard lots of stories last night, and then I went back over there for awhile this morning for breakfast. We're headed back over there in a little bit for our "Christmas dinner." We postponed it until he was home.

His accent has changed! Still has a bit of a country twang too it, but there are definite differences. And he slips into Nepalese a lot - which is entertaining! He's taught us a few words. I don't know how to spell any of them so I won't try, but I learned the words for "what can you do?" "good morning" "hello/good-bye" in the traditional Christian manner, older brother, younger brother, and older sister! You know me - I love stuff like that!

Merry Christmas!

To you and yours Merry Christmas!

This has been one of my favorites for years now.

Enjoy!

Matchless by Gregory Maguire

Buy It Now!

Matchless: A Christmas Story

You learn something new every day. Something I didn't know until recently is that NPR (National Public Radio) asks a different author each year to write a Christmas story that is then read out over the airwaves. In 2008 that author was Gregory Maguire. He chose to write "Matchless," which is (as it says on the front of the book) "An Illumination of Hans Christian Andersen's' Classic, 'The Little Match Girl.'"

While I'm familiar with many of Hans Christian Andersen's works, the story of "The Little Match Girl" is not one of the ones that I know. Maguire's story is written in 4 small sections, and according to the author's note at the back off the book, section 2 is written very close to the original story, with only a few small modifications to fit the rest of the story he had written. The one he specifically points out is that the original story took place at New Years time and he moved the story to Christmas.

Maguire's story actually does not focus on the Matchstick Girl, although she plays an important roll. Instead we get to know a boy named Frederik who lives alone with his mother, who is a seamstress for the Queen. Despite the fact the Queen frequently ripped the hems of her dresses, Fredrik and his Mom were painfully poor, and they often found themselves short on food and warmth. Fredrik would go out and hunt for dead fish that had washed up on the shore, and they would make their meals from this poor offering. When there were no fish to be seen he would often look for little bits of pretty objects that he could use to create a little make believe town in his attic bedroom.

Through a twist of fate the lives of the Matchstick girl and Fredrik become intertwined. How that happens, and what the ending is, you'll have to read for yourself!

Treatment Starts

Mom and Dad came home from Seattle Saturday afternoon. It was time for Dad to get a break, and I think it was really good for him to have a little bit of time back home before he went back up north to be with his brothers and Granny. I went over to Mom and Dad's yesterday so I could see both of them. I've been talking a lot with Mom through all of this, but I'd only talked to Dad very briefly. I'm glad I went yesterday - because today he ended up heading back up!

It was good to get to talk to Mom and Dad face to face about everything. Getting things over the phone works, but face to face tends to work better over all, especially with Dad. The hard part though was when I finally asked if the doctors were talking time frames yet. They are still being pretty vague, but Mom finally asked "are we talking weeks, months, years?" and the doctor told her were talking months. That's hard to cope with, but at least its better than weeks!

Like I said, Dad headed back up today. Granny got her first of 10 radiation treatments today (no clue how it went) and then my Uncles were driving her from the Seattle hospital to a skilled nursing center back in her home area. I don't know how that went - I'm sure I'll hear more tomorrow though!

Right now we have no idea if Mom and Dad will be home for Christmas. There are soooo many variables! If Dad feels like he needs to be up there than Mom will go back up to join him. It doesn't really bother me because we weren't really planning on doing any big Christmas stuff until after Peter gets home on the 30th anyway.

I'm hoping to go up and see Granny next weekend. Leaving either Saturday or Sunday. It will probably be a two day trip. Since she's back close to her home it'll be a 4 or 5 hour drive, and I'm just not up to riding in a car that long both ways in one day! Right now it looks like the trip will be Gordon and I. He's not really close to Granny, but he likes road trips, and Mo really doesn't. So, since Gordon's willing, we figure it'll be a more entertaining trip if Gordon and I go :) I'll miss Mo, but that's ok.

Holiday Traditions

Today's post is for the Etsy Bloggers Carnival this week :) The theme is holiday traditions! So here are mine :)

One of the fun things about getting married is that you get to combine families and family traditions! Sometimes this blending is an easy process, sometimes it's a difficult thing to do, we've been blessed in that so far it's been an easy process! We're lucky though, our families get along great together, and so far we're the only one's married.

Christmas actually works out fantastic for us. My Mom's family on her Dad's side is from Cuba and in Cuba it's traditional to do the big celebration on Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day is spent at home as a more intimate time with the family. So what we've done since we've gotten married is we celebrate on Christmas Eve with my family, go back over there for breakfast on Christmas day so we actually see them on Christmas, and then spend the rest of the day with Mo's family. They usually have a great party at their house in the afternoon with the extended family.

It makes for a fun holiday and not too much pressure! Now when one of our brothers get married, things might get more complicated. For now though, all the holidays are easy! Doesn't hurt that we both have great families :)

We are doing things slightly different this year though. My brother has been over seas for the last two years and he comes home on the 30th! So we're skipping the party on Christmas Eve, we'll still do breakfast with my parents Christmas morning, and then our big Christmas celebration with our family will be when my brother is home to celebrate with us! I can hardly wait to see him!

Christmas Memories

To me, growing up, Christmas always meant one thing. Spending time with Grandma-Great! Every single year she hosted a huge Christmas party at her house. The cousins would gather, and we'd have at least four generations milling around the house. The house would be full of delicious smells, everyone having brought their favorite food, and us kids would be dying to be allowed to take our first bites! For some reason the food I remember the best is eating turkey, olives, mashed potatoes, and apple pie. I guess those were my Christmas foods :)

Grandma-great was always the center of the party. For that one day she pulled everyone together, and even those of the family who may not always be fun to be around, would be on their best behavior just for her. She always inspired people to be the best that they could be, because she believed in you so much you started to believe in yourself.

I was in High School when my Grandma died - it's been around 9 years now - but Christmas has never been the same for me. When you think of that perfect Christmas picture, I see her face and her house, and her party.  She was my hero, and I miss her.

I know this isn't a Christmas picture - but it's a cute one of the two of us. Sorry if there are typos in this - I started crying about half-way through...