SuperWomen and Thanksgiving

Yes, yes, yes ... we all know it's Christmas.  The dinners.  The family gatherings.  The parties.  The gifts.  The church services in multiples.  More food.  More gifts.  Strange ... it's only Dec 23!

And of course, we know the real meaning behind the season, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ who would eventually give us the greatest gift we could ever receive.  And never have to take back to a store because it's the wrong size.  Because it's perfect.  No gift receipt needed.

But what I want to shed some light on is another aspect of Christmas for me.  It's the re-introduction to the fact that my wife is a superwoman.  No, a SuperWoman ... let's use caps for the correct magnitude.

When I am at home from work or on vacation for a holiday, particularly if the kids are still in school, I am exposed to an entirely new world.  One where often I'm a bit of an alien and a freak, because I don't know the system.  I have learned over the years that it's just best that I get up, shower, and ask, "What can I do?"

Sounds simple enough, but it gets tricky.  It's not quite enough to just carry out tasks.  See, there's a human element to it as well.  Veda and I are two different people.  Although we are one in marriage, we are still two separate brains.  Two different genders.  I have limited capacity ... generally only able to juggle one thing at a time.  And if that one thing isn't going so well, then forget the rest.  I'm cooked until I can get things back on track.  I'm linear.  I can be really good as a linear, but sometimes linear is not what's best.

Linear doesn't really work when you have three children, either.  Oh, the day when we'll have them in three different schools ... now won't that be fun?  I would need three lines to be linear on!

But I stray from the topic.  Being at home today is like having Thanksgiving a couple of days before Christmas.  Because I am so thankful for the woman who sticks by me and manages to juggle this thing we call life.  I'm confident that the "average" woman of this day and age would have thrown in the towel long ago ... claiming it was all just too hard and that she deserved much better, that she needed to focus on herself.

Remember what I said?  I'm not married to an average woman.

SuperWomen of today:
Cindi, Kelda, Connie, Susan and Veda

I saw a photo today of my SuperWoman having lunch with her group of other SuperWomen, while letting an extraordinary group of the next batch of SuperWomen get together for pizza.  And I pray that each one of those up-and-coming SuperWomen will find Godly men who will see how much of a blessing they are.

Yes, Christmas is a time when I'm reminded of how blessed we are.  But even more so, how blessed I am.  Are you mindful of how blessed you are?  Do you need to tell someone?

SuperWomen of tomorrow:
Laura, Gabby, Leah,
Bekah and Emily

It's a gift that doesn't need a box or a bow.  Just see it, recognize it, and let someone know how thankful you are for how they bless you.  Embrace a little Thanksgiving this Christmas and let your SuperWoman (or SuperMan) know how much you appreciate them!

Still Here, Stayin' Alive

Every now and then, you're reminded of something from your past. Something happens in the mundane day-to-day activities of our lives that jars our my aging memory, and makes us me think of something long forgotten.

Let's take a blog for instance.

[Look of horror.]

Wow ... my last entry was May of 2011.  "On behalf of myself, I'd like to accept this Lame Award ..."

OK ... let's put this back on all of us.  You neglect things, right?  It's not just me.

So, collective "we" ... when these events happen that reveal something that we've lost or forgotten, we find ourselves at a crossroad and we have a choice to make.  We ask ourselves, "Do I do something about it?  Change the course?  Acknowledge and embrace my forgetfulness/laziness and get cracking, or do I turn away and pretend I never saw it?"

I'm going to take the road less traveled today.  I'm going to write a post.  And that will make all the difference.  So there.  (Thanks to Ms. Norma Rae in middle school for making me memorize "The Road Not Taken."  I remember!  And remembering things is very important for someone my our age.)  Let's continue.

We decide to do something.  We're going to write.  Fine and dandy, but then you hit the wall.  The absence of thought.  The oblivion of nothing in the head.  The dry well ... empty of anything fun and snarky to talk about.

[Pause]

I could talk about a roasted turkey sandwich, because that's what is in my immediate future.

[Yawn]

Politics?  Certainly not a sleeper topic these days.  But I'll withhold my thoughts for a while perhaps.  Let's see if anybody reads my blog and decides I'm harassing them.  The boring and the prudish.  The ones who don't like to laugh.  The ones who prefer to read the Wall Street Journal or Moby Dick.  I won't feel guilty about taking up your precious time if I end up having to suspend my blog.  (But I'll continue accepting donations, thank you very much.)

[Think, think, think.]

A-ha ... I have something.  My love for Charlie Brown's Christmas.  It's one of the remaining vestiges of Christmas untouched.  Nobody has come in and edited Linus' child-like telling of the birth of our Savior to make it acceptable to all.  And it's still being played on national television.  Fancy that.

Not to mention ... who doesn't love Vince Guaraldi?  (Yes, I had to Google it so I'd spell it right.  Sheesh, the man's Italian.  I'm Southern.  Two different things.)

"Linus and Lucy" is one of my favorite tunes.  Not actually related to Christmas at all, but it's on the soundtrack.  Makes my head lop back and forth, like the kid in the front right of the dancing scene in the show.  I think I can do the dance of about three of them with some recognizable skill.  I know ... hidden talents.  We all have them.  This is so much better than disco.

One talent I do not possess is the gift of brevity when I speak or write.  As some of you can attest, I could actually go on and on with mindless drivel about this and that.  But perhaps if I'm smart, I can make something out of it for next year's annual blog post.

Besides ... I'm done with my sandwich.

Merry Christmas!  God Bless us all ... everyone!
Luke 2:10