Keeping Current?

It has been absolutely forever since I haved blogged, though not journaled. I still write posts and just don't publish them and that has worked out well since Facebook can now fulfill the social aspect of blogging while allowing me to keep my journals private. But honestly, I don't know how the whole blogging thing "works" as far as whether storage will continue when the account is innactive for so long.

So this weekend seemed the perfect thing to "share," if only because it was so happy that I want to pass on that feeling.

I will be honest. I know that Christmas is the favorite time of year for probably the greatest majority of people, but for me it's not. It's not that I DON'T like Christmas, although there are DAYS around the time of Christmas that I can practically despise. For one thing, practically my entire family - my father, my brother, me, my son, my MIL, besides an aunt or cousin or two - all decided to make our grand entrances into this world during the week either before or after Christmas. And while that is joyous, it can be tiring - all that celebrating. Guess I'm really starting to show my age, which this birthday, entered a new decade. One that was celebrated with black as tradition demands.

Then there is the heavy commercialism and rediculous reaction to stress (ESPECIALLY THIS YEAR!) that seems to accompany the Ho Ho holiday. People get SO overwhelmed at finding that "perfect" present, then wondering how to pay for it. And don't even get me started about the road rage I experienced this year! Yikes!

Also this year, just three days after Christmas, we lost a great friend. His memorial was sweet in that it was well attended by almost all Christians who comforted one another in the shared belief that our friend is now well and forever whole in the very presence of Jesus. But he is missed.

(And just for the record, my favorite holiday of all time is Easter, followed by Thanksgiving. I LOVE the meaning and traditions and lack of unbridled commercialism. Fourth of July is a total BLAST too - pun intended.)

So....... all that to say that I enjoyed the holidays. Loved having my family home and curling up under warm blankets and playing games and all. But THIS weekend. This weekend was SWEET to me! After seeing many wonderful old friends while attending our friend's funeral at our former church, it was time to celebrate the New Year. At first I was bummed because our plans fell through when a dear friend whom I haven't seen in much too long had to cancel late in the day because her kids got sick. But our next door neighbors treated us to a small winter cookout and Wii and board games until midnight. Then we watched the ball drop. The East time zone ball! We are in the Central time zone! Sucker duped us by pausing the Tevo just 3 seconds shy of the "big moment!" He's such a jokester!

After sleeping WAY in (felt SO good) on Saturday morning, I cleaned the house up to prepare for the three boys coming over to celebrate my son's 14th birthday. I love older kids' birthdays! Again, the young ones are fun, but when they are older is it less about all the "have to" traditions and more about the life-long friends deciding to do whatever it is they truly enjoy.

So my son and his and buddies and I all went to play Lasertag! It. Was. A. Blast! And at the end I understood exactly why I have just celebrated my "black birthday." What a workout! Especially as they all ganged up on me, following me around in order to shoot me repeatedly without time to respond. I'm just so honored to have a son still willing to engage with his Momma and responsible enough to have friends as great as his are.

After Laser tag, we came home and watched the big bowl game - which our team won - ate pizza and hot wings, played games, and stayed up way too late (1 am for me, 3-6 am for the boys) !

Then this morning, I had the great peace and pleasure of looking down the pew at church to see my entire family plus all four boys and two others that met them there. And they were too tired to misbehave! Ha ha!

Besides that I met a couple who I believe are going to be lifelong friends. It started with a compliment on her cute outfit, which led to an hour long discussion of the early death of her infant son, buried December 4. She is an amazing woman with the sweetest spirit and an equally impressive husband. I'm in awe of God's goodness to me to reward my most feeble attempts at witnessing with friendships with the most amazing, strong Believer's!

Oh, and several other things I just thought of! This is all so random I know, but I just had too many blessing to remember all at once. Thursday it was 75 degrees outside (!) so we went to the mall, which I normally hate. But this time my girl is old enough that I didn't feel so overwhelmed at having to watch her whereabouts, cover her eyes from the smut posters in the windows or worry about money (we had a VERY generous gift card to pick out her new bedding for a soon-to-be remodel). We ran into many friends and just enjoyed the day "hanging out" together. We also met a spunky lady celebrating her 80th birthday!

Sunday after church we went out to eat and again, ran into old friends. (THAT is probably the best part of the weekend. Seeing SO MANY old friends!) And I had the BEST grilled Tilapia that I ever have. Yum!

And just because it's funny, and I want to remember it, and no one comes here to read now anyway.......

I was trying to "unlock" a Facebook answer where an anonymous person had answered that I was NOT attractive. I had to laugh when the picture popped up and it was one of my son's friends who was still over, in the same room. Ha ha! I teased him mercilessly, but he said "How am I supposed to answer that?! If I said yes, then it's like saying my best friend's mom is hot!" After a couple moments silence to think it over, all any of us could muster was complete agreement! He had a point.