Holiday Prose

Let’s hear it for twenty thirteen,

One of the finest years seen,

The year we were wed,

And graduated,

Has made it to us endearing.

The year itself started off fast,

Wedding plans and school not yet past,

A dress for the bride,

After many ones tried,

One task down, the remainder so vast.

Jobs for these youth to be found,

Caused them to look all around,

In this they were blessed,

Though not quite unstressed,

Their jobs make the future unbound.

And so the wed started a home,

Still exploring, they wonder and roam,

Astounded by love,

God’s gifts from above,

They’ve found joy, grace, and shalom.

So as this year comes to a close,

Enjoy the sweet Christmas repose,

A happy new year,

We wish, quite sincere,

As we end this holiday prose.

 A big shout out to Arthur who sat down and wrote this poem in 20 minutes- not bad for an engineer- and for wearing a very goofy hat at the request of his wife.

Bingo and Bells

This afternoon I have been watching it snow out the kitchen window.  I really enjoy watching how snow transforms the landscape from blah to a winter wonderland.  Especially if it is on the weekend so Arthur and I don't have to tackle our commute in it.  I have been cooking up my own storm in the kitchen and listening to Christmas music.  The past few weeks has been full of Christmas activities.  We have watched a few Christmas movies and had an impromptu Christmas carol sing.  Each morning we have been singing a Christmas carol during our hymn and devotional time.  Let's just say that a lot of these traditional Christmas tunes have about 5 more verses than anyone ever sings.

Here is our festive center piece on the kitchen table

Our church's youth Christmas program was a few weeks ago.  Nothing like watching 3 and 4 year old preschoolers beat on an oatmeal can for Little Drummer Boy.  Also the program involved glow sticks and party poppers with lots of confetti during Joy to the World.  Not too shabby but the mark of a truly great Christmas program is live animals (which are even more unpredictable than preschoolers).

Wednesday night at church we helped pack Christmas meal food boxes.  Arthur and I had quite the system down.  It was decided that I would wrap the boxes.  Arthur attempted one and an executive decision was made that his skills were more suited for hauling the bags of potatoes we would put in each box.   As a general guideline, I am in charge of crafty and artsy tasks while Arthur has brute, manual labor covered.  We also decided that even though it was only the two of us we were much more efficient and productive compared to the families around us with a gaggle of kids under the age of 9.

That evening we decided to take a walk to enjoy the Christmas lights.  We thought we better take advantage of the warm temperatures at night and really enjoyed partaking in the lighted splendor of town.

On Friday at work in the middle of the afternoon a group of about 10 ladies wandered in wearing Santa hats.  They were part of the bell choir from the church my boss attends so there was a wonderful 10 minute hand bell concert in the middle of our therapy gym.  Have I mentioned I have one of the best jobs ever?

 We also helped with Jesus' birthday party.  The director of children's ministries put us in charge of Christmas bingo "because we would just make the cutest bingo calling couple".  Who knew cuteness was a prerequisite?  Arthur was the official caller and I was crowd control.  I didn't know Arthur had such good bingo calling skills when I married him-- definitely a great catch.  I also cracked up when a group of 10 year old girls told him that the "blue ornament" space he had called was actually green.  This then resulted in a discussion that it was more of a teal.  He just can't get away from women telling him about the importance of color in decorating.  Of course Jesus showed up to his birthday party, not sure what connections the director of children's ministries has but that is impressive.  And after singing Happy Birthday the kids got to get their pictures taken with Jesus at the photo booth-- quite the birthday party.

So neither of us have actually started Christmas shopping yet.  We still have a few days left, right? 

I found these skates at a garage sale for a dollar a few summers ago and my sister-in-law helped me decorate them

 I think both Arthur and I have enjoyed getting to share the season's festivities with one another this year.  We have introduced each other to different Christmas traditions we grew up to and maybe even started some new traditions for our new family together.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

As I finished writing this Arthur is down in the basement riding our indoor bike belting out the chorus from Angels We Have Heard on High. (I'm not quite sure how he can sing, breathe, and ride at the same time.)  "After all the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loudly for all to hear."

O Christmas Tree

Our last blog post was about our faulty, fake Christmas tree that crashed to the floor taking with it all of our heirloom ornaments.  This post will extol the virtues of real, live Christmas trees.  Real Christmas trees are something that I (Alex) am very passionate about and also almost ruined my relationship with Arthur before it began.  (In case you have been worried, our Christmas tree has not toppled again yet so Arthur’s books are doing the job.)

Throughout high school and college I worked at a Christmas tree farm during the summer.  My job on the summer trimming crew was carefully shaping the top of each tree with an artistic touch to give it the pointed top and ensure there was a branch (a leader) growing upwards to place the angel or star on.  Pine trees do not naturally grow to look like a slender Christmas tree, especially Scotch pines which are grown in Kansas.  Working in the summer was hot and muggy among the pine trees—through this experience I decided that 7 years of school was worth it to get out of manual labor and working outside.  I usually smelled of bug spray, sun screen, sweat, Zep (the non-stick spray we use on the shears), and pine sap.  During the Christmas season I would help out in the office as a sales clerk and making sure everyone got hot apple cider and candy canes.

 In my public speaking class during college I submitted an outline for my final speech about the benefits of real Christmas trees over artificial trees.  I had a ton of good information and thought the topic was timely since it was December.  My instructor did not think the speech was relevant for my audience and had me redo the outline and my speech.  I ended up doing my speech on polio (how relevant is a disease that has been eradicated in our country for decades?) and did fairly well.  I still might be slightly bitter about not getting to spread my knowledge about real Christmas trees to the masses, especially when a classmate had a speech was about the Dixie Chicks-- talk about relevancy to real life.  It was also slightly ironic that of the 20 people in my class I knew one girl since her family came to the Christmas tree farm every year to pick out a tree.  Every summer while trimming trees there are classic stories that are retold over and over-- we have to keep ourselves entertained somehow-- so it is usually requested that I tell the story of the lame speech instructor who hates Christmas and the whole crew gets riled up.

A few years later Arthur and I were both accepted into an honorary group during college.  This was really the first time we had meet and about 2 years before we started dating.  At the induction ceremony the icebreaker for the introduction was to share something interesting about yourself.  I shared that my summer job is working at a Christmas tree farm which I thought was rather unique and interesting.  In the row behind me some smart aleck guy made a comment that business is probably pretty bad at a Christmas tree farm in July.  This wise-guy was obviously ignorant about the Christmas tree farming industry and all the work throughout the year it takes to produce a single Christmas tree in December.  (Yet another college student who would have benefited from my speech.)  They say first impressions are important.  Let’s just say that Arthur’s comment didn’t make a good first impression when he insulted my livelihood.  Maybe that’s why I wouldn’t date him for another two years.  I suppose it is good that I don’t hold grudges (it is okay if you laughed at that) and he has charm and good looks or we probably wouldn’t be married today.  Omnia Vincit Amor. 

Angels on high take flight

Christmas time is officially here.  I only had to get after Arthur a few times for jumping the gun on singing Christmas music before Thanksgiving. This past weekend I pulled out our plethora of Christmas decorations.  This year it was fun to see the "new" ornaments Arthur brought to our marriage. (So actually Arthur didn't bring the ornaments- his mother did.  He saw them hanging on the tree and had no idea how they got into our house.)  We both have little rocking horse ornaments from our first Christmases back in 1987- rocking horses must have been really popular then.  I was also really excited to unwrap Arthur's nativity set to find it had 3 camels-- I'm not sure why camels are so thrilling but they are. 

There were also several decorations I made over the years in 4-H crafts.  4-H arts and crafts projects have provided quite a bit of the decor in our home.  

Since we had such a collection of ornaments we were going to need a tree.  I stopped by a second hand store a few weeks ago and was able to pick one up that someone had dropped off just hours before.  It as the perfect size for our living room.  I would like to pause briefly to make a point.  True Christmas trees are real, live, grown happily on a tree farm trees are raised with tender loving care.  As an alumnus of the summer Christmas tree trimming crew for several years this is important.  It almost ruined my relationship with Arthur. But that might be a story for another blog.  Anyway, this year we have a fake Christmas tree which means we will have a little less Christmas joy in our home without the scent of pine or fir permeating the air.  I set up the tree, put on the strings of lights, (a good rule of thumb is whenever you think you have enough twinkly lights, add 1 more strand) and hung the ornaments.  Arthur had several ornaments he had received over the years from his grandparents.  I have several snowman ornaments from my grandma and my parents always seem to get us quirky ornaments that have some significance to the activities of the past year.  I also have a collection of angel ornaments that I have gotten each year.  The series started the year I was born.  It's always exciting to see the new design for the ornaments each year.  

I carefully finished decorating the tree.  Next I moved onto to setting up the Nativity scene with the great camels.  While I was distracted with the awesome camels, the tree behind me toppled to the floor.  Angels were catapulted across the room.  Reindeer and Santas were scattered to and fro.  There was one causality that was fixed with some super glue- the handy gal's secret weapon.  The tree was returned to the upright position and then secured it with several volumes of Arthur's boring textbooks-- at least they are good for something.  I then redecorated the tree after I crawled all over the floor trying to find angels that had landed under furniture around the room.   After finishing a few other finishing touches our Christmas decorating was finally complete.  Now we can kick back, relax, drink hot chocolate while enjoying the lights on the tree. Omnia Vincit Amor.

Working with people

As a physical therapist, one of the blessings and curses of my job is dealing with a wide variety of people.  I have never been much of a people person and frankly before choosing this profession I never considered the fact I would have to interact with some many people on a daily basis.  By the time I figured out that I would have to work with real, live people, it was a little late.  That being said, the people are what make the job interesting.  I never know who I will meet the next day and I also get the opportunity of working closely with my patients for a few times a week for a month or two.  Here are a few funny experiences I have had with patients.

I had an elderly lady with a great British accent.  It was just fun to listen to her speak.  Of course she had trouble hearing so I would have to almost yell back (I have a heard time speaking loudly.)  She has three little dogs named Whiskey, Scotch, and Tequila.  (I will refrain from getting on my soap box about small dogs being a fall risk for older patients with balance problems). 

One patient asked me if we have a woodshed out back where we send the patients who just don't have much of a chance of recovery to put them out of their misery like horses with bum legs.

I had another patient with a shoulder injury do an exercise where he was to toss a ball at a trampoline and catch it again.  I failed to consider that this patient was left handed and it was his right shoulder that was injured.  Trustingly, he tossed the weighted ball at the trampoline with his right hand and when it came right back at him he couldn't catch it with his non-dominate hand and it almost smacked him right in the face.  We didn't do that exercise again but I got a good laugh out of it.

I am working with a patient who is having knee pain.  He served in the military for several years all over the world, but primarily in Asia.  To express his pain when we are working on bending his knee or something else that is fairly uncomfortable he start uttering phrases in Japanese, Korean, or Chinese.  He doesn't really realize he is doing this and isn't sure what the phrases are-- just bits and pieces he picked up over the years- but it always catches me by surprise.

It's always interesting to hear how patients try to relieve their pain themselves.  One patient who recently had shoulder surgery uses a heating pad to help with soreness.  He decided it would be even more relaxing for his sore muscles if he laid in a tanning bed awhile.  I don't know if it helped his shoulder that much but he increased his pain with getting a sunburn all over his body. 

I get the opportunity to work with some "interesting" people.  For the most part I get a kick out of the people I work with and most days it is pretty entertaining.  Working in a service industry  where I interact with a diverse crowd everyday it is good to always remember that everyone I meet was made in God's image.  I'm glad God was had a sense of creativity.  Omnia Vincit Amor.