Post Tryptophan Ramblings

Well, Thanksgiving Day is but a memory with only tight pants to show for it!

I hope that everyone had a very great day. We spent it at my grandparent's house. My grandma is a hostess to rival all others....the original Martha! She has fancy serving dishes and goblets, plus her food is amazing! We had the standard Thanksgiving dinner, but there is something about it that makes you want to just keep on eating!

This year I am just really in the Christmas mood. Not because we have tons of money to buy everyone the latest and greatest gifts. It's just something different this year. I've been in a baking mood for the last couple of weeks, bread mostly, but I can't wait to start all of the Holiday baking: Christmas cookies, cranberry swirl bread, brownie biscotti...if I weren't so full I'd be hungry!

It amazes me the craziness that goes on with all of the sales today. Does that 60 inch plasma tv really make all the difference on Christmas morning? How have we gotten so off track? Even if you don't celebrate Christmas as the birth of our Savior, shouldn't the holidays be about helping others or at least spending quality time with family and friends? I really want to try and find some sort of community service activity to do with the boys as a family.

The constant barrage of "I NEEEED this!" is driving me crazy! What exactly is it that we NEEEEEED? Material things fade away and by January no one can remember who got them what or why they even wanted it in the first place. That's our society though isn't it?!? Microwaveable Mac and Cheese because we can't wait 10 min. to make the "slow" method from the box. Drive thru lanes because we are too busy or lazy to get out of the car and have some actual human contact. Disposable everything (from plates to diapers to marriages). We have lost all meaning of actually working at something and in that everything has lost its value. As a child what was your favorite Christmas memory? I could maybe tell you 3 or 4 presents that I received growing up that really stood out through the test of time. But the thing that is burned into my memory is the time we spent together. Even now I can taste my favorite cookie, or laugh about some silly game we played, but the best part was just the Being. We are created for relationship. It's an internal wiring that we can't undo no matter how hard we try. People are missing that and they don't even realize it. Instead they try filling it with stuff, the bigger the better, except it's never enough to fill that hole.

I'll be posting about our little service experiment with the boys this month....maybe you'll be inspired to look past your latte or over your knitting to see a need!