Please turn to Apps 3:16

Our new family Christmas tradition (new as in this year) is to read the Nativity Story before we open our gifts. We thought it would be a good way to further the message to our offspring that Christmas is not about 5,609 presents under the tree...or even cookies, but the birth of our savior.

So anywhoo, it's time to bust out the story, and this is the conversation that ensued -- further proof that we are too reliant on technology:

ReRe: Daddy, you wanna look up the Nativity story so we can read it and then we'll do gifts.
James: Yeah, but i'll have to unplug my phone first (his phone was playing Christmas Pandora)
ReRe: Why do you need your phone?
James: So I can pull up the Bible app.
ReRe: Just get a regular Bible.
James: We have those? Like a hard copy, printed out one?
ReRe: Umm....???? YEAH! Like 3 or 4 of them.

I tell them where they are ....where we've kept them the last 7 years of marriage.

James (carrying the Bible in his hand): this is what we'll use if our app ever goes down and we need to upload a new copy!

Geesh!

Potluck Friday

Happy Potluck Friday and Christmas Eve Eve!

1. This is an exciting day! I will have 6 extra feet running around my kitchen today. My 3 nieces are coming to spend the night and we are going to be baking up a storm. Part of me thinks i'm crazy, but the other part is so freaking excited (ask me at 10 p.m. which part i should have listened too!) Riv is so excited. Right now he's showing his excitement by screaming on the kitchen floor. Oh wait, that's not excitement. He's ticked because i wouldn't let him play with steak knife he spotted on the cabinet. Mean mommy.
   
2. Christmas has br0ught on some hilarious conversations with my hubby. While watching "Mike and Molly" this week (love that show! Big girls represent!) We were laughing at Mike rushing around trying to find a gift for Molly, who was dropping tons of hints...that he didn't pick up on. This is soooo James. After 8 years, he still has no clue what to get me for birthdays or Christmas, whereas i listen to him gab all year and have plenty of ideas when occasions come upon us. This year we decided to do a couple's gift -- a new laptop. So that saved James hunting for a gift for me:
   ReRe: Are you glad we did a couple's gift so you don't have to be like Mike
   James: Oh yeah.
   ReRe: Why does picking a gift for me make you so stressed.
   James: Because it's a lot of pressure. I want you to know that i've been listening to you all year and know exactly what you want or need......but i don't listen to you.
   
   At least he's honest!
   
3. Another Christmas gem of a conversation happened last night when i was guilting him about not getting around to putting lights on our house 2 years in a row (last year we had a 2 month old so i gave him an out, but there's no excuse for this year!). So as we pull out of our driveway, i point to the neighbors house across the street and start the guilting:
   ReRe: See, they have lights on their house. Sure is pretty. I wish someone would put lights on my house.
   James: Yeah, they have lights on their house. But that's not what Christmas is about. It's not about giant blow up reindeer with lights. Nope. They may have lights on their house...but we have lights in our heart! That's what it's about.
   ReRe: Did you seriously just say "lights in our hearts"?!
   James: Yep. Lights in our hearts.
   
   So we spent the rest of the evening driving by houses that had huge light displays and saying "Their hearts are dim inside. No lights in their hearts!" hahahhaa
   
4. Epic fail of the week goes to the "great" governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin. Clearly Mary has never had a sick newborn, or uncomplicated birth. That's the only reason i can think of that would explain why she thinks signing a bill that allows an insurance company to deny coverage to a newborn. Thank goodness this wasn't in effect when I had River, who spent a week in NICU. I've never been more grateful for insurance or realized the importance of it. We are still paying off our portion of the NICU bill (counting down the days until May 15th ...my last payment), i can't imagine if we would have been responsible for the whole enchilada. Fail Mary Fallin. this is reason #4,839 why Jari Askins should have won. Boo!
   
5. What's ReRe jamming this week? "Good Feeling" by Flo Rida
   
   

I'm dreaming of a black christmas

I'm going to my first Ugly Christmas Sweater Party...and i don't have anything to wear.

I've been told i can find an ugly Christmas sweater at a thrift store. but i'm too cheap for that. Yes, i'm two cheap to throw down $2-$5 on a sweater! Why? Because i can't grasp the idea of buying something that i wont' wear again for another 30 years. I figure if it's taken me 30 years to get invited to one of these, it will probably take me another 30 years to find an occasion to wear my sweater to again.

I'd never even heard of Ugly Christmas Sweater parties until a few years ago when i stumbled across the blog Stuff White People Like (love that blog!). It talked about along with hummus and political bumper stickers, white folks love them some Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties. I don't know if this is true or not (I personally love me some hummus), but i can attest that i don't know any brothas or sistas who have ever attended or thrown one of these.

This got me to thinking what are some other holiday differences between black folks and white folks. Of course i can only based this off my life as little black ReRe during Christmas (and some of the other info i've gathered at the black folk meetings):

• Black folks don't put lights on their house. It's not because we don't have the christmas cheer, but it's just a lot of work and for what? to draw attention to your house "hey OG&E, we found a way to bootleg electricity." "Hey car repo man...we are over here!." No thanks!
  
• Black kids don't leave out cookies for Santa. I "believed" in Santa in the sense that i thought he was magical and special...but i also knew he didn't come to our house and we weren't going to let some perfectly good Hydrox cookies (generic oreos) sit out all night long.
  
• We don't stuff stockings. I remember just drooling over the big tacky stockings in the grocery stores. the ones filled with just crap and wrapped in that weird mesh stuff. I'd beg and beg for one. My mama made it very clear that that stocking was a gift in its self, so i could have that big stocking full of crap, or my gift under the tree...my choice. The stocking became less appealing.
  
• Black folks put up their tree right before Christmas (sometimes day of) and take it down right before the 4th of July (or leave it up all year long). Again, it's just a lot of work to drag the sucker out and then put it back up. I used to envy all my friends who would have their trees up right after turkey day...and then i'd be embarrassed that our tree was still up during spring break.

I bet if River could read, he'd be happy to know that only half of these things are going to apply to him!

Happy Holidays (Oh No She Didn't!)

You know how you can tell it's time for Christmas?
No, not lighted trees?
No, not the smell of gingerbread?
Nope, not even the cards that have started arriving in the mail.

It's the "Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays" debates that screams it's that time of the year.

I've never understood the drama between the two. I'm a Christian. Love me some God. But if someone said "Happy Holidays" to me as I left a store, i wouldn't be offended and yell, "Heathen, how dare you take Christ out of Christmas." Wanna know a secret? I've actually opted for Happy Holidays cards over Merry Christmas ones. No, i wasn't trying to enrage Rush Limbaugh, i just preferred the Happy Holidays design.

Did the folks who i sent it too get enraged? I doubt it. and seriously, have you ever actually met anyone who refers to their Christmas Tree as a "holiday tree", "holiday stick" or "holiday bush?" I didn't think so. Heck, most folk i know just call it "the tree." They say: "putting up the tree." "Just got up the tree." "gotta take the tree down." Where's the outrage at this!

I worked retail for 5 looooonnnngggg years. And never once was i told that i couldn't say Merry Christmas. Heck, as long as i got my quota of Target credit card apps they could care less what i was saying. For all they know i was wishing folks a Merry Hitler day. Honey Badger don't care, and either did Target.

I find it comical that folks think not saying Merry Christmas is ruining the holiday. I find it comical that folks think non-Christians shouldn't put a tree, or exchange gifts. I don't have the Holy Book memorized, but i don't recall in verses talking about Jesus and Paul heading out on black friday, macing some lady for a Tickle Me Elmo and then rushing home to wrap all their loot and put it under the tree.

Actually, the Jesus i know and love is less concerned about whether folks are saying "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" and more concerned with how we are treating each other.

Of course this battle will return next year, and the year after, and the year after. There will continue to be 1,000 Facebook posts talking about how i have a CHRISTmas tree and CHRISTmas gifts, yada yada. And that's ok. Because it gives me something to blog about...and something for God to laugh at. Because honestly, if those of us who believe in Christ truly think he's stressing over how cashiers are bidding us farewell during the winter months, we need to hit the Book again.