It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We put our tree up over the weekend. I realize that for some people getting the tree up on the 11th of December is early, but for a girl who grew up getting the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving (yes, some years we even had it decorated before December 1), the 11th feels terribly late. I don't feel Christmassy until the tree is up, and since it's one of my favorite seasons, I like getting the tree up sooner rather than later!

It's a far cry from last year's flat tree, don't you think?!

Both boys seem to feel the need to get up close and personal with the tree...
Bear wanted to open a present right away, and was a bit bewildered when we explained that "Christmastime" is not the same as "Christmas Day."
Wolf said that now that the tree is up he is having a much harder time waiting for Christmas.

I mentioned last year that we have a tradition surrounding our ornaments--we each have a personalized ornament, and then we have (or are collecting) ornaments from each country where our ancestors are from. So this year, since I am actually in the same state with my ornaments, I thought I'd share some pictures (did you know that it's really hard to get a decent photo of a christmas tree ornament? They sway too much to use the slow-shutter that is on the light-filter setting, but the coloring comes out very yellow with the rapid-shutter setting...)

"Our First Christmas" (there's a little metal tag on the top that says "2003") Waterford Crystal from Ireland (a gift when we were engaged--our wedding was just a few days before Christmas).

Wolf (angel) and Bear (bear). They look funny cuz I used the paint program to cover their names to post the photos here... both ornaments were purchased when the boy was a baby. No, we don't have one for Eagle yet. I'm inclined to go out after Christmas and find one on sale--is that bad of me?!

I got angel ornaments for my angel babies--the bear for Thomas, the ball for Kjersti (it has l.e.d. lights so the angel changes color...)

Mine (my parents got it for me when I was little) and Hubby's--no, his doesn't have his name on it, but his ornament also happens to double as our Norway ornament...

wood shaving star ~ Germany
straw goat ~ Finland
(wooden) heart basket ~ Denmark

Eight Days of Hanukkah

(read the NYT article first, it makes it all make sense)

A Senator’s Gift to the Jews, Nonreturnable
By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: December 8, 2009

WASHINGTON — The canon of Hanukkah songs written by Mormon senators from Utah just got a little bigger.
Senator Orrin G. Hatch, a solemn-faced Republican with a soft spot for Jews and a love of Barbra Streisand, has penned a catchy holiday tune, “Eight Days of Hanukkah.”
The video was posted Tuesday night on Tablet, an online magazine of Jewish lifestyle and culture, just in time for Hanukkah.
Known around the Senate as a prolific writer of Christian hymns and patriotic melodies, Mr. Hatch, 75, said this was his first venture into Jewish music. It will not be his last.
“Anything I can do for the Jewish people, I will do,” Mr. Hatch said in an interview before heading to the Senate floor to debate an abortion amendment. “Mormons believe the Jewish people are the chosen people, just like the Old Testament says.”
In short, he loves the Jews. And based on an early sampling of listeners, the feeling could be mutual.
“Watching Orrin Hatch in the studio, I said to myself that nothing this great will ever happen to me again,” said Alana Newhouse, the editor-in-chief of Tablet.
Set against a bouncy synthesizer beat, the song begins:
“Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah,
The festival of light/
In Jerusalem,
The oil burned bright.”
Adding to the project’s only-in-America mishmash is that the song is performed by Rasheeda Azar, a Syrian-American vocalist from Indiana. But Mr. Hatch is the song’s unquestioned prime mover, or macher. He is featured in the video, sitting stoic in the studio, head bobbing slightly, donning earphones and contributing backup vocals.
The song’s contagious refrain goes:
“Eight days of Hanukkah,
Come let’s celebrate.
Eight days of Hanukkah,
Let’s celebrate tonight, Hey!”
At one point, Mr. Hatch unbuttons his white dress shirt to expose the golden mezuzah necklace he wears every day. Mezuzahs also adorn the doorways of his homes in Washington and Utah. Mr. Hatch keeps a Torah in his Senate office.
“Not a real Torah, but sort of a mock Torah,” he said. “I feel sorry I’m not Jewish sometimes.”
The genesis of “Eight Days of Hanukkah” came a decade ago. Mr. Hatch was considering a run for the presidency in the campaign eventually won by George W. Bush (Mr. Hatch wound up writing a song for Mr. Bush’s second inaugural, titled “Heal Our Land”). He was discussing his love of songwriting with the writer Jeffrey Goldberg, a well-known mensch-about-town in Washington with a longtime grievance against “the general lameness of Hanukkah music.” (As a columnist for The Jerusalem Post years earlier, Mr. Goldberg had organized a “write-a-new-song-for-Hanukkah contest” that attracted 200 entries, most of them — in his estimation — “dreck.”)
He asked Mr. Hatch if he would write a Hanukkah song. The senator said he would, but never did.
Mr. Goldberg, who now writes for The Atlantic, mentioned the decade-old promise in his blog last year a few days before Christmas. A day later, Mr. Hatch sent him an apologetic e-mail message that included the first five stanzas of “Eight Days of Hanukkah.”
“I am willing to serve as a Semitic song muse for any United States senator,” Mr. Goldberg said. “God forbid any of the Jewish senators write a Hanukkah song.”
Mr. Hatch enlisted his collaborator, Madeline Stone, a Jewish songwriter from the Upper West Side of Manhattan who specializes in Christian music. “I’m a pretty liberal Democrat,” Ms. Stone said. “But it became more about the music and the friendship for me and Orrin.”
The song was recorded in October at a studio in Manhattan.
Mr. Hatch speaks of “Eight Days of Hanukkah” as a gift to the Jewish people. “This song means more to me than most of the songs I have ever written,” he said. “People need to know the story of Hanukkah. It was a miracle.”
He said his ultimate goal would be for his idol, Ms. Streisand, to perform one of his songs. “It would be good for her and good for me,” Mr. Hatch said, while acknowledging that given her outspoken liberalism, that union might require another miracle.

And it came to pass...

1. ... that on the twelfth day of the eleventh month the woman did bring forth a son.
2. And she did bring him to her breast, and he did suckle.
3. On the third day her milk did come in, and she was full unto leaking, and the child did nurse and was glad.
4. And the mother was full, and did pump, and leak, and nurse, and leak, and nurse, and leak again.
5. And the child did grow ten ounces in eleven days.
6. And the mother was glad for good bras and washable nursing pads and olive oil and water bottles and the smell of the baby's milk breath.
7. And at four weeks of age the child was found to weigh two pounds and one ounce more than at the time of his birth.
8. And thus we see that mama milk is not nearly so thin as it appeareth!

(yeah, still got that hand by his head...all the time!)

Facebook Friday

Sunday 12/6
Jenni is makin sweet pumpkin pie, and having friends over for pizza night!

Monday 12/7
...made three etsy sales over the weekend. YAY!!!!! Now I can finish the christmas shopping :D

Wednesday 12/9
Jenni 's sister is in town. Yay for somebody to play with kids so I can attempt to finish knitting Wolf's sweater before Christmas!!
... is cookin cardamom bread. Mmmm, smells like Christmastime!

Thursday 12/10
...just bought the flannel for the kids' christmas jammy pants...instead of all of them matching, this year I found fabrics with wolves, bears and eagles for my Wolf, Bear, and Eagle respectively!
...just discovered that the envelopes that came with the photo cards are 8 inches wide...and of course the Christmas letter is 8.5 inches wide...but I had already addressed most of the envelopes, so I'm trimming letters. *sigh* Thank heaven we left wide margins!!

(the family christmas photo...in last year's matching jammy pants...
yeah, I used the last little scraps to make a matching diaper for Eagle ☺)

Friday 12/11
...is finally wrapping some presents. I've had a growing pile of boxes holding (unwrapped) presents in my room, but we didn't have a tree to put them under yet...well, Hubby has promised to take the (bigger) boys tomorrow and go into the wilderness and bring me home a tree.

Babies (the movie)

I just saw this posted over at Stand and Deliver, and I definitely want to see it. It's a documentary (coming this spring) which follows four babies through their first year of life: Ponijao (in Namibia), Mari (in Tokyo), Bayer (in Mongolia), and Hattie (in San Francisco). The site says that the film "joyfully captures on film the earliest stages of the journey of humanity that are at once unique and universal to us all."

(If the trailer doesn't work for you, you can see it at the movie site)

Based on the trailer I think it will be interesting to note the different cultural habits (birth practices, breastfeeding, babywearing, etc) and their differing effects on the kids. After all, I've chosen some "non-mainstream" things (non-mainstream in the USA at least) because I believe they are the best things for my kids and family. However I'm curious to observe those behaviors in cultures where they are mainstream (for example extended breastfeeding is standard in Mongolia).

The Greatest Gift I Ever Got

This summer my dad's family had a big reunion. My dad had put together an activity that involved asking questions (and collecting answers) from his parents and all his siblings, and then putting the unlabeled answers on a page and everyone trying to guess who had given which answer.
One of the questions was "What was the best gift you ever received from a family member?" Answers were varied of course, but of 9 responses, only two or three were purchased items. All the others were handmade or were actions instead of things, including "the letter I got from the kids on fathers day," "green needle-point diaper bag," "visits to my home," and "my better half." Great gifts are just not about the money.
They never have been.

When one of my brothers was about 6 or 7 he was given a little plastic marble run. It had about 20 pieces of track and a few connectors and a half dozen marbles. I'm sure it was not terribly expensive, but he enjoyed it. As the years passed, of course, he outgrew it. It sat on his shelf collecting dust until one year he decided to give it to our younger brother--who was then 6 or 7 himself. The younger brother also got several years of enjoyment out of it before it ended up on a back shelf. Two years ago my oldest son (age 7!) had expressed interest in a marble run, but we had been unable to find one we could afford. I happened to mention it to my then-teenage brother, and he said "I have one, it's getting old, but I would love to give it to him if you think he would like it..." So my brother passed the marble run along to my son, and yet another little boy found hours of amusement in this simple toy. Now Wolf is more interested in other things, and while he has not formally given the marble run to Bear, it is Bear who now plays with it almost daily. Some of the pieces are cracking, but the marbles run down the tracks as well as they ever did (and as loudly as they ever did too). ☺

Often we get caught up with the notion that a gift must be something purchased, something new, something fancy or hot-off-the-presses. The truth is that the best gifts are often things that are tried and true and yes, often used. When Wolf turned 7 we had gone to the trouble to get a somewhat expensive but (we thought) very exciting birthday gift for him. He was thrilled with it...until two minutes later when he opened something that Hubby had decided to wrap up at the last minute: a big baggie full of his 20-year-old plastic army men. Guess which toy has seen the most playtime?!

I remember one year when I was in my early teens and my little brother was 2 or 3. He was just learning about giving, and in the excitement of the holiday, as we watched the pile of gifts under the tree grow, he started asking for help wrapping up this or that to give to other family members. By the time Christmas Day rolled around he had a virtually empty toy box because he had wrapped almost every one of his toys (certainly all his favorites) to give to all of us. Of course none of us particularly wanted little teddy bears or trucks, but when we tried to sneak them back into his toy box he would get them out and bring them back to us "I gave this to you!" he'd announce. He missed his toys, but he really wanted to give to the people he loved. This is the kind of attitude that we hope to cultivate with our children. (Luckily for this little brother, his birthday was less than a month after Christmas, and we were able to wrap up all his toys and give them all back to him. He was very happy to have his favorite things back. ☺)

Since we've established our new Christmas gifting plan, I have been talking with the boys about what they want to give to the other family members (daddy will help them figure out things for me, but I tend to head up the gifts for everyone else--writing the wish lists and coordinating with grandmas--so I'm helping them with most gifts). I was talking with Bear one night, asking him what kinds of things he liked to play with, and he mentioned that he really liked "the blue lego motorcycle" (it's Wolf's, but Bear plays with it a lot). From the other side of the room I heard "ooooooo!" from Wolf...later, when I was talking with Wolf, he said "I think I will give Bear that blue motorcycle, and a guy to go on it."
I asked Wolf if he'd prefer to buy something for Bear (I'm subsidizing, so he certainly could). He said he'd rather give the blue motorcycle. That blue motorcycle is missing one of the handlebars, and it's nothing like new. In fact, it was my blue motorcycle loooong ago (I passed my bucket of legos along to Wolf a couple of years ago). The mainstream world would probably look upon that blue motorcycle as a poor gift indeed...but I think that Bear is going to love it.

What is the greatest gift I ever got? I'm not sure, but I don't think it was something off my wish list. Of course I appreciate getting things I need or want, but it's usually the things that weren't on my list that are the most touching. It might be the co-sleeper that Hubby built for me (since we couldn't afford to buy one and couldn't fit the crib beside the bed in our small bedroom). It might be the framed, hand-written note from my then-teenage sister "sisters by nature ~ friends by choice." Perhaps the plug-in l.e.d. nightlight of praying hands that my brother gave to me in college, and which now lights my children's bedroom, or my favorite candy bar (from that same brother) when we were both too little to afford anything bigger. Maybe it's the phrase my husband had engraved on the inside of my wedding ring (which was free at the store where we bought the rings). Maybe it's my mother's ring, which admittedly did cost some money, but has far more value in sentiment than in dollars. I still think the greatest gift I've ever given was the group gift my siblings gave to my parents two years ago. It also involved money, but was more about sentiment than funds.
I'm not saying that great gifts cannot be purchased items, just that the greatness of a gift is not correlated to its cost.

What are some great gifts you have gotten? Or given?

Facebook Friday

Saturday 11/28
1:03pm
Jenni had a crying baby but needed to finish getting the laundry into the drier before getting him, so the toddler offered to nurse the baby!
[I chuckled at his suggestion and said "you're gonna nurse the baby for me huh? That's very nice of you!" And he cuddled up next to the baby for a few moments, then announced that they were done, and he ran off again. *shrug*]
4:33pm
Jenni made the world's cutest diaper (yet again...I've done that so many times), and put it on the baby...and he promptly pooped in it. Way to break it in kiddo. -------->
[It's an all-in-one with velour inner and two rows of snaps to make the rise adjustable...]

Monday 11/30
9:05am
Jenni wishes that the two little ones would take turns needing me rather than wanting me at the same times in the middle of the night...I'd really like to sleep of course, but if they'd take turns then at least I could attend to them both, rather than having to ignore one and winding up with crying that wakes the whole house.
11:43am
Jenni loves looking at the snow...but upon going to the pediatrician's this morning she remembers how much she hates driving in it.
6:01pm
Jenni will not be online on Tuesdays. Must sew and knit more. Must stare at screen less. If you ever catch me online on a Tuesday then chew me out, ok?! (Peer pressure at its finest!!)

Tuesday 12/1 I sewed and knitted and played with my kids. ☺

Wednesday 12/2
9:52am
Jenni is thankful for gripe water.
1:43pm
Jenni is so blessed: healthy kids, generous friends, a break in the clouds, a season of giving, and the most beautiful place on earth to call home.


Friday 12/4
9:22am
Jenni's sister is coming to visit!
10:13am
Jenni WILL BE COMPLETELY HONEST... you can ask me ONE question. Any question, no matter how crazy. I WILL answer no matter what. You have my FULL honesty, but I DARE you to put this as your status and see what questions you get...
[no questions yet...I'll answer you in the comments here too though. I find it fascinating what people think to ask!]
10:20am
Jenni wishes the baby would stay latched on without needing my help so much. I got spoiled nursing a toddler and forgot how much work it can be with an infant!!

Welcome to the World

Even before he came, I had a feeling that Eagle would be born in the nighttime or early morning. When he arrived near sunrise (actually just before it) this song came to mind, and I knew I wanted to make this montage.
As I listen to the words of the song again and again, I am struck by how applicable they are to the birth of a sweet little soul, straight from Heaven.
The sunrise photo at the beginning is not one we took, BUT it was taken in wintertime about 30 miles from where we live.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

As Sung by Cat Stevens

lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day

Reconsidering Christmas Gifts

Last year I did daily posts throughout the month prior to Christmas, and while that was really fun for me (and hopefully for you!) I have a newborn this year and don't have that kind of energy! Furthermore, I've said a lot of the profound things I wanted to say!! BUT, I do still have a few topics for thoughtful posts this season, so every week or so I'll be waxing philosophical again.
Enjoy my (holiday) monday musings!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

In the past, Hubby and I have typically set a dollar budget for Christmas (and then typically tried to get as many items as possible within that budget). On the one hand it meant we kept Christmas 'modest' in a monetary sense, which I think is good for moving away from the greed and more toward the giving and Christ-centered holiday that we want to teach our children...on the other hand the whole stress over how much stuff can we get for how little money kinda defeated the point of it all.

So this year we were talking about it and I brought up the idea of only having 3 gifts per person (since the Wise Men brought the Christ Child three gifts). Some people make it more specific where "The gold gift is something they want. The frankincense gift is something they need, like socks. And the myrrh gift is something to nurture their souls." (I've also heard the idea of giving 4 gifts: "something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read.") These ideas felt closer to where we wanted to be, and yet neither was quite what we wanted, because one of the biggest issues is that we want our kids to care about the giving side of Christmas, so we want to encourage/help them to give to the other family members. Then Hubby came up with a brilliant idea!
We have concluded that from here on out each person in the family will get just one gift from each other family member. While the kids are young we will help them pick out gifts for each other person (and we'll subsidize) but as they get older we'll encourage them to think of gifts themselves (we'll still subsidize--within reason!). So for example Bear will get one gift each from dad, mom, Wolf, Santa, and each set of grandparents (not sure if we're gonna have gifts 'from' the baby brother this year, since he'll only be a few weeks old!). BUT, I'll also be helping Bear choose/give gifts to each other family member as well.
In the long run, we figure we'll be spending about the same amount of money, because there will only be one gift from mom, and one from dad (rather than several from us)...things will just have different 'from' labels, and be thought of/chosen by different people rather than all from mom and dad. (Hubby likes to do the Santa thing, so that will still happen...but I'm currently trying to negotiate for Santa gifts to be things that fit inside the stocking, so they will be small...keep the fun and 'magic' of the idea of Santa, but stay away from the greedy side of it. )

Anyway, I'm really excited because it will still keep Christmas spending/greed/stress to a real minimum, but this idea feels like we're going at it from the other direction--it's not about the dollar amount or the number of gifts, but since we each get to pick out just one gift for each other person, each of us is going to end up making it more personal and meaningful, you know? Especially as the kids get older I'm hoping to encourage homemade things or passing along things (like books or toys that they've outgrown). It feels so much better than if we were just trying to pack in the maximum possible bang for our buck.

Pregnant in America

Recently I watched the film "Pregnant in America." I have to agree with all the netflix reviewers who said that it was somewhat of a B-grade movie, and in many ways inferior to "The Business of Being Born." With that said though, I still recommend it for a couple of reasons:
1--it is clean (no language, no nudity...BoBB has quite a bit of both, and while they are in context, they are still bothersome for many viewers).
2--the film features interviews with a broader range of people, ranging from experts to random people on the street.

One quote (played during the credits, so I don't know who said it) was particularly memorable:

We can only change things in two ways: either with litigation, or with education.

Obviously, I'm a proponent of the latter.
While this movie does have its flaws (it gets pretty dramatic--in melodramatic way--at the end; and they don't provide references for most of their statistics, so I don't know how precisely factual they are), it's still an effort at education, and for that I must applaud them...at least a little bit.