Nineteen years ago tonight, I got married. 

If I could go back in time and whisper a word in the ear of that girl before the altar, it wouldn't be "don't do it!"  No, I'd say, "Buy MICROSOFT - TOMORROW!" 

Eleven years ago today - Tucker came into the world. 

I love you, Baby.  We'll get started on the next 11, just as soon as I can bring myself to wake you up.

okay, I started this thinking I would blog about resolution, but as I typed the title the words to an old hymn popped into my head ...

"I am resolved no longer to linger
Charmed by the world's delight"

Doesn't that sound like the hymnist was just a tad on the suicidal side?  It gets better ...

"Things that are higher
Things that are nobler
These have allured my sight
I will hasten to Him, Hasten to glad and free

See?  This guy isn't just checking out, he's in a hurry to do so!

Jesus, Greatest, Highest, I will come to Thee"

o_0

That's just a whole lot more depressing than I ever realized when I was kid concerned with the harmony line.

Tucker has been defeating Doom Monkeys.  Between the Doom Monkeys and the VooDoo Bunnies he's had a busy day, but the last I heard, he's winning the battle.  Anyone who's ever said that the problem with kids is that video games are turning them into couch potatoes has never seen Tucker play. 

He leaps to the side, he spins, he ducks ... completely unrelated to what the character on the screen is doing.  He says, "Moving around helps me focus better."

He's focused on ridding the world of Doom Monkeys.

I think there are lesser aspirations aplenty. 

Chris Baty of NaNoWriMo infamy sent an email challenging WriMos to a Big Fun Scary Adventure.  The challenge works like this.  You make a list of "things that we've long dreamed about doing, making, or being. These can
be hard-nosed acts of practical skill-acquisition, such as becoming a
ninja and learning to kill people with one's eyebrows. Or they can be
fantastical notions such as going back to school and getting a degree
in business administration."

I'd never considered death by eyebrow, but now that it's in my mind, I can't let it go.  Wouldn't that be a useful skill?  And what would the people on CSI say about it ... "Well, Greg, he appears to have suffered a fatal stroke after exposure to a ... LOOK."

I swing wildly between two extremes in my daydreaming.  I want the house, the fireplace, and the designer kitchen.  I mean I REALLY want it.  And at the same time I want the convertible with barely enough room in the trunk for a toothbrush and change of underwear from which I can wave and wave and wave as I drive and drive and drive to Iowa, where there is nothing much to see after you've seen the first hundred miles of cornfields, but then you arrive at the University of Exuberant Air-conditioning and you settle in to WRITE.

2007 was very good to me.  The first six months sucked as I (and Michael) dealt with the frustrations of the school, as I dealt with the frustration of a job where they gave me meaningful work but not meaningful pay, and I was lonely. 

Now, I'm in Albuquerque where the weather is better, the schools are phenomenal, I have real live honest to god friends, (AND Cool Mary has been here to visit TWICE) okay, I'm still dealing with the frustrating job but at least I have a job. 

So what kind of Big Fun Scary Adventure could I set off upon to make 2008 an even better year?  Maybe I should resolve to defeat as many Doom Monkeys as possible.  The job thing is leaping out at me as I review what I just wrote...

I am resolved no longer to linger
Charmed by the worlds' delight
Things that are higher,
Things that are nobler
These have allured my sight.

I opened the shiny boxes this morning.  Not quite as early as some would have liked (my sister called a little after 5 to see if I'd ripped into the paper yet.) 

Now I'm speechless.  At least about the contents, I probably could speechify on all kinds of other things. 

The pendant is made of interlocking gold squares with a band of diamonds. There were diamond earrings too, but I'm wearing them and my attempts at photographing my ear didn't turn out so well. 

The boys wanted to give me a ring.  They talked with me about it after I opened it and explained that the men of the house give the women of the house rings.  And since they are the men ...

How stinking cool is that?

Yeah, I've been crying. 

      In the quiet dark hours this morning as the lights glowed soft on my mantle and the cat sleeping by my feet purred in her dreams, I felt the arrival of Christmas Eve. I hope your day is Merry and Bright. And I hope your holiday brings you lovely memories.

There's a dusting of snow on the UPS truck

Tucker has carefully counted and can't decide if it's one or two more days til Christmas.  "I know it's on Tuesday, but do I have to count today since I'm already awake?  Or can I mark it off the calendar now?"

We're off to church and then a Christmas lunch with my mentor, Miss Eva. 

BIG HUGS to you all and a heart full of thanks. 

We have a busy day planned today.  Laundry and vacuuming this morning (I've already cleaned the kitchen).  Then we have board games, a trip over to the theater for National Treasure.  And I'm stopping by Lowe's to pick up fireplace tools.  It's finally not smelling quite so much like someone has been camping in my living room, so hey, we're ready to start burning stuff again ...

Tucker wakes up every morning and counts the packages.  Some mornings he even finds an extra one or two. 

We  are having dinner with my mentor friend from church, Miss Eva, tomorrow.  So we're making one more batch of Christmas cookies to take along.

And I'm playing the Christmas music. 

If you haven't discovered Flatpick yet, I'd highly recommend that you drop by his site, and give a listen to Randy playing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."  You can tell him Terri sent you.

Tucker is counting down the days until his birthday.  Which is on Sunday Dec. 30.  So yesterday we had this conversation ...

Mom:  About your birthday ...

Tucker: Yes?

Mom: I've decided to cancel it this year.  I don't want you to grow up.

Tucker: (giggles) Yeah, right, you already bought my present.

Mom: I could take it back.

Tucker:  You hate the crowds in the stores this time of year.  Face it, Mom, my birthday is happening.

Mom:  It's on a Sunday, we go to church on Sundays.

Tucker:  Hmmmmm, that is a problem.  Tell you what.  I can have my presents and my cake on Sunday.  And then on Monday, we can do my restaurant birthday special dinner out.  Yeah, that will work.  I'd rather go to Red Lobster on a Monday when it's not so crowded, and I can have TWO birthdays.  In fact ... maybe you guys can get me TWO presents! 

....

So how did the conversation go so quickly from no birthday to TWO birthdays?

I don't think I'm winning this one.

on the first day after Christmas, my true love and I had a fight
so I chopped the pear tree down and burned it just for spite
my true love, my true love, my true love gave to me ...

the second day after Christmas, I pulled on the old rubber gloves,
and very gently rung the necks of both the turtle doves
my true love, my true love, my true love gave to me ...

I'm bad, I'm very bad.  Both the boys have been teasing me today. 
My sister logged in and interpreted the "voices" of the shiny little boxes
"Terri, Terri, if you just lift the tape a little, no one will know ..."

I swear, I you'd think that after all this time, they would know me
oh, wait, they obviously do ...

Tucker says, "You know, with my birthday only five days after Christmas
you guys have a lot of pressure.  I'm gonna be pretty hard to buy for after
all my cool Christmas loot." 

on the third day after Christmas, my mother caught the croup
I had to use the three French hens to make some chicken soup
the four calling birds were a big mistake for their language was obscene
the five golden rings were completely fake, they turned my fingers green
my true love, my true love, my true love gave to me

It's less than a week now.
Presents have been purchased, made and wrapped
packages are in the mail - many of them already beneath the tree
except
I haven't a gift for my best friend.

I've thought of a hundred different things

But we're talking best friend here

It needs to be special!  It needs to say things
like, "Thank God for the way you make me laugh,"
or, "You have an uncanny ability to keep me sane,:
or, "I'm grateful to have you in my life, thank you for being my friend"
WITHOUT saying ... "I'm so insecure that I over spent,
or so secure that I under spent, or so self-absorbed that I
haven't noticed that you already have four of these ..."

The sixth day after Christmas, the six laying geese wouldn't lay
so I gave the whole darn gaggle to the A.S.P.C.A
on the seventh day what a mess I found all seven of the swimming swans had drowned ...
my true love, my true love, my true love gave to me.

You see my dilemma.  It's six days before Christmas and I have
a best friend.  I want to still have a best friend after Christmas.
Oh, I get it that it's not about the gift, it's the thought that counts.
I just don't want to hear, "What were you THINKING?!?"

Target.com had a sale on dvd boxed sets a couple weeks ago. I could get the entire first and second season of HOUSE for $13 each. I only discovered HOUSE recently, but I'm liking the series enough that I hopped on that sale like a duck on a June Bug and my package finally arrived on Monday.

So now when I'm awake in the middle of the night, I have medical mysteries and mayhem to keep me company.