Christmas Eve 2007

Merry Christmas from Virginia. Charity and I drove down to my parents' house to celebrate the holidays with some of the most important people in our lives. I knew this would be a good vacation the moment I decided not to take I-78 home. That "road" has been under construction for over two years now.

My family has a convoluted tradition on Christmas Eve. After we read Luke chapter 2 and share a few other short stories like normal people, one party proposes that we should open one of our presents that night. The opposing party counters by suggesting that such a tradition has never existed. Then, the proposing party is given the opportunity to present sufficient evidence to persuade the powers-that-be that indeed it is a tradition to open up one gift on Christmas Eve. Finally, an "exception" is granted to allow for the traditional non-traditional present unwrapping.

Let's see if you can guess who wanted to open their present one day early in the following picture:

That blue dragon is my brother, Ben.

Josie gets in on the fun. I think they liked their gifts.

My mom made ham with potato salad, cranberry jello, corn, and a tossed salad for Christmas Eve dinner. Josie is doing quality control in the background.

This is my favorite present, even though I got her around my birthday.

Here is the Winchester contingent of the Howell family. Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas Time

Here are some images to celebrate the wonderful season. We have felt so blessed this past year.

The other day we had this lovely scene out our nursery window. Our thermostat was set on cozy, making this a comfortable view.

This is our Christmas Tree. It stands towering at one foot tall and sits on top of the banister of our stair well. In all honesty, we don't want a larger tree- we would just need to pack it up when we move. Besides, a smaller tree makes the presents look larger.

Girl Scout Cookies

Girl Scout Leader at the Grocery Store: "Would you like to buy some girl scout cookies for a good cause? They are $3.50 a box."

Girl scouts look at Daniel with puppy dog eyes and giggle to themselves.

Charity looks pointedly at Daniel: "You have four dollars in your wallet."

Daniel: "I do?"

Charity pointing to Daniel's four dollar bills wedged tightly into his billfold: "Yes, you do."

Daniel responding with suspicion: "You know too much, dear."

Girl Scout Leader to Daniel: "Thank you so much. Which ones would you like?"

Charity: "You want the 'Samoan' ones"

Daniel: "Huh? What ones? Where? I don't see them."

Charity, pointing at the Caramel Delights: "There, see?"

Daniel, confused: "Why don't you hand me the ones I want?"

Charity with a bright innocent smile that matched those of all the girl scouts: "OK!"

Charity picks up said cookies.

Daniel and Charity walk away with cookies.

Charity says: "I love you."

Daniel, with a sense of accomplishment: "I love you too."

Listening to That Little Voice

Last night, Daniel and I decided to go for an exciting date to various locations, such as Fedex, Lowe's, and then Shop Rite. As we were about to leave, I remembered that we had forgotten my thumbdrive which had the file we needed to print at the Fedex shop. Feeling blessed for remembering, I had Daniel park, put his hazards on, and I summarily took his keys to get into the apartment.

The thumbdrive was in my purse on the couch and as I searched for it, I had the thought that maybe I should just take my purse. 'No' I thought, ' then I'll have to lug it around or leave it in the car.' I had the same thought come to mind again as I grabbed the thumbdrive but once again didn't listen. As a last ditch effort, another thought came saying that I should at least take my phone. This being much lighter than my purse, I agreed. Putting the phone in my pocket, I skipped out the door, which I of course locked behind me, thinking of nothing more than heading off on my exciting date.

Unfortunately, when I got to the car Daniel looked at me with a look that seemed to say, 'Okay, great, so can I have my keys so we can go now?' To my dumbfoundment, I realized that his keys were on the couch with my purse and my keys were in my purse. Someone was looking out for me though, because that very morning Daniel had put the emergency number out and I had put it in my phone.

We called the hotline and waited in the cold car, hazard lights blinking and illegally parked. As I got colder, I had him call again to apprise them of the urgency of the situation, as he had been very nice to them the first time and I wasn't sure if they understood the gravity of the situation. As you can imagine, I was praying for forgiveness for not listening to what I then recognized to be the Spirit, when I hear Daniel say 'So, it will cost $50 dollars just to get back into the apartment and that might not be for another hour?'. The horror. Not only had I risked my warmth level, stranded us in an illegally parked car, and made our date uncertain, but now my carefully planned budget would be trod on. To make matters worse, in my stupor I watched a UPS man walk back to his truck with a large white box. As he drove off, I wondered if it could be my much-awaited sewing machine.

It was. We found the note he had left on the door.

Daniel decided that he had about an hour to save us $50. I decided to brave the cold so that any passerby (or our neighbors, who have a habit of opening their door to see who it is when we are on the step) would have an obstructed view of Daniel's skulduggery. Daniel once again proved his manliness (or skills) by opening the door with only his AAA card. Once again, AAA saves the day and saves money! :)

All in all, I have learned to listen and pay more attention to that little voice. Call me crazy, but it just might help me from going crazy.

For all of those who were wondering, we still had a very nice date at Fedex, Lowe's, and Shop Rite. (Where Daniel deserved a very nice chocolate treat for being so good about everything.)

Windows of Heaven

We have been very blessed. Each week that we have paid our tithing the windows of heaven have opened for us. Whether we are intending to pay that week, had only just written the check or were just about to, some necessary part of Baby's infrastructure literally falls in our lap.

For example, we had just turned in our tithing when a sister in our ward asked if we needed a stroller and baby carrier. Her friend has finished having babies and was looking to give hers away. She even had two carrier seats to go with it that she gave us. (By some weird twist of fate, Daniel's company was the one to design this very stroller.) It is also interesting to note that although we did not know it then, we did need a blue stroller.:)


On another occasion, we intended to write our check and Daniel found an unassembled crib on the side of the road with a sign reading 'Free Crib'. It is a tribute to his manliness that he was able to put it together without any instructions. It is beautiful and now sits ready to welcome our son when he arrives.

Two Sundays ago, a brother in our ward asked Daniel if he wanted a bassinet. Daniel replied 'What's a bassinet?'. The brother came to me and made the same offer just to be sure we knew what we were getting. :) Daniel put it together yesterday and it is perfect. We have it set up next to the rocking chair that my grandfather left me. (A chair that was made for my grandfather's mother when he was born and which now his great-grandson will be rocked in.)

There must be someone very special coming for the Lord to help us prepare so well for his arrival. We are so excited and grateful. We know we aren't going to be able to do this alone.

Censored

I have been having some technical difficulties over the last few days with communication. First, my cell phone decided to go through an unscheduled "upgrade". Unfortunately, in exchange from the new ultra-slim form factor, I had to give up such frivolous amenities like the "seeing what number your dialing feature" or the "know if you phone is on or off feature." I figured that as long as I could use my ear bud, my phone would work fine. But then my ear bud started to not work. My phone is dead. Long live the phone! (No, I haven't been screening my calls, everybody).


So what did I do? Rather, what did Charity and I do? We decided to get knew phones. I got a Blackberry Curve and she got a Nokia N75 (not pictured), both for free. I thought my communication handicap was over.

Nevertheless, wouldn't you know it, the moons were still in misalignment, because the day the phones' package got here, I got a sore throat and lost my voice. I wasn't even able to call my carrier to set up the phone's account. I haven't been able to call anyone and tell them that I have a new number. And I still can't talk.

But I can write! Ha hah!

Actually, I have been reminded how much of an idle chatterbox I am. This became apparent when were out driving and dropping off cookies to our home-teachees last night. Since I couldn't talk (and ultimately stick my foot in my mouth), I was able to listen to Charity sing me some Christmas carols. I don't think she noticed the tear in my eye, but being with her made me really happy.

So, one would think that after a sweet experience like that, I would turn the corner and get my voice back. Apparently, there is some more lessons that I have to learn, because I still can't talk.