Thanksgiving!

We went to Barrington, IL for the Thanksgiving holiday to celebrate with Brad's mom, her husband, and their daughter. We flew out Thursday morning and returned home late last night. It was a pretty good trip. It was cold, and it was snowing a little bit when we arrived.

To entertain ourselves on the drive from the airport to Barrington, I put the language for the Hertz Never Lost GPS on French. On the way back to the airport yesterday, it was on German. I wonder what the next people who rent the car are going to think. :-P

I was without a camera for most of the trip simply because I was being too lazy to carry it around with me. I missed a few good photo opportunities, such as the hundred or so geese all congregating around a sign that read, "Beware of dog."

We went to a mall on Friday afternoon. It actually wasn't very crowded at all, but then, this particular mall doesn't even have a Starbucks (I was sorely disappointed, as I have an addiction to the soy chai latte these days). The six of us posed for a photo with Santa. He was a pretty creepy Santa and looks none too pleased with our little group in the photo (that I will share later when I get to the disc that it's on).

Inside this mall there was a candy store called "Fannie May Candies." Are the mortgage industry and housing market in THAT much trouble?!

'Tis the season for Christmas carols. It's pretty sad that Thanksgiving weekend isn't even over yet and already I have grown weary of, "Let it Snow." I swear, if I hear it one more time, I may scream. *note to self, check iPod Christmas play list!

"Do You Hear What I Hear" used to be one of my favorite Christmas carols. That is, it was a favorite until yesterday when I realized just how incredibly dumb the following line is:

"A child, a child, shivers in the cold.
Let us bring him silver and gold."

I don't know about you, but if I knew that a child was shivering in the cold, I'd be bringing warm blankets and a nice coat, hat, and set of mittens! Gold? Silver? Really, now?

I am really just poking fun at the lyrics of the song, not the actual visitation of the wise men. Notes about the wise men - 1) the Bible never says there were three wise men. There were three gifts (gold, francensense, and myrrh). 2) They did not arrive the night of the birth of Christ, so nativity sets that have the wise men as part of them aren't really accurate. 3) My uncle's favorite joke of all time is the following:

Q: Did you know the wise men were firemen?
A: Yep, they came from afar. (a fire, said with a prominent west Texas accent).

I always thought it would be neat for our family to make a little birthday cake on Christmas day since it's Jesus' birthday (well, the day we celebrate, anyway). However, with Nyssa's birthday being the day after, that's a lot of cake to have sitting around! So I am going to let go of the idea of baking a cake for Christmas day.

I am FINALLY ready to celebrate Christmas! There were several stores that started putting out their Christmas decor in October, before Halloween! I like to celebrate my holidays in order, so let me please get through Thanksgiving with fall leaves, pumpkins, turkeys and other orange decor before you start pushing red and green and ornaments and lighted garlands on me, please!

I am mindful every day of the gift of Christ, but love the month-long emphasis of Christmas. I do get overwhelmed with the commercialism of the holiday and frustrated at the attempt of so many to reduce October/November/December to "The Holiday Season" and not make any mention of CHRISTMAS DAY in an effort to be politically correct. I could go on and on, but I will stay off my soap box for this one. Suffice it to say, we are celebrating Christmas in this home - celebrating the birth of Christ!