Happy 33rd Birthday, Mr. Seager!
Other than anonymously leaving a gift on
his desk and going in on the joint gift that Ethan and Ehlana got for him, I
didn’t have any involvement in his big day; but Mom, Dad, and the twins went to
his birthday dinner tonight while I was busy at Michael’s house. I could have gone along too, but had to make
one of those choices that seem to be happening regularly these days.
It’s a little funny that we’re done football
and cheerleading now; yet Michael and I were at least as busy as always – if not
busier. I should probably try to keep
this update in order, though; so let’s start with the news from this morning.
It was cold outside! Mother Nature must have a really good sense
of humor to dangle temperatures in the sixties in front of our eyes on the
Thanksgiving weekend and then plunge us into the freeze again in time for the
start of December. Tai Chi was indoors,
which is no surprise; but good morning hugs and kisses with Michael are not
quite as much fun when his hands and face are cold from the walk over to our
house. There is one good thing about
being indoors again for Tai Chi, though; and that’s mostly something that makes
Ethan and Ehlana happy – getting to practice whatever forms they want to
instead of playing at being normal three-year olds. Michael can do a bit more too; but nobody
really notices anything out of the ordinary if he does the same forms as Mom,
Dad, and I do when we’re outdoors – even though it would actually take years
longer for him to learn everything he knows now.
At school, the top news was obviously the
football championship that our team brought home with them on the weekend, and
that was fun too, but if I’m being honest; my favorite news of the day was that
the guys stopped wearing orange today. I
haven’t mentioned the ongoing fashion craze in my journal since it began back
in October, but orange has continued to be a glaring presence at the school
through to Thanksgiving; so it was almost shocking for that to be absent from
the scenery today. The Thanksgiving
decorations are gone now too; and Christmas is beginning to appear – though it’ll
take most of the week before everything is decorated – except for the boards
and displays that will fill up with crafts and pictures over the next few
weeks.
Getting back to the football for a minute,
some of the guys really enjoyed the attention today, but Michael was with Jeff
Morris, Caleb, and some of the other guys who kept their celebration low-key
and accepted the congratulations and comments with quiet, modest
gratitude. Tim was more fired up, but
then he’s living up to a family legacy – and has the distinction of pulling
that off as a high school freshman. Lee
and Kyle can’t lay claim to doing that, and while Kyle personally had a good
freshman season with his college team; they’re done for the season now and won’t
be playing in any championships or bowl games this year. Before moving on, the college football
weekend was big news with the guys today too, but there weren’t really a lot of
major upsets to chat about; so it didn’t really take long for them to re-hash that
part of the sports report.
While Michael was one of the school
football heroes today, he and I were quickly being immersed into Christmas mode
too. We’ve been recruited again to help
out with the music for the younger kids at the Christmas pageant; and booked
for another duet too. Getting out of a
class or two every day between now and then will be fun for us; but it’s also
more work to learn another batch of songs and do the practices with the kids. Adding that into the music mix with the
upcoming band parades and concerts and the teen praise team Christmas events;
and I’d say that we won’t need to worry about what we’ll do to fill up the free
time we were supposed to have after football season!
Not having practices after school meant
that we could do our homework after classes; so Tim, Rowen, and I went home
with Michael to do that at his house. I
loved getting to do that, and in addition to our homework from today; we did a
music practice to get ready for class tomorrow; and even picked out the duet
that Michael and I are going to do – thanks to some internet searching and
YouTube video watching. We’re going to
sing ‘It Could Happen Again’ by Collin Raye; and we picked it because it’s the
one-hundredth anniversary of the 1914, World War One Christmas Truce that the
song commemorates. What’s going to be
even better about our duet this year, though, is that Tim’s going to do the
narration at the beginning of the song; and Rowen’s going to make up a flute accompaniment
to go along with the guitar and keyboard arrangement that Michael and I have
already started working on.
Rowen and Tim went home to his house for
dinner, and I stayed with Michael. I
haven’t mentioned Rebecca yet, because she was at her basketball practice until
shortly before dinner was ready; so she didn’t get to do her homework while we
were doing ours. We exchanged school day
reports during dinner, and then Michael and I took care of the clean-up after
we ate so that his parents could relax and Rebecca could get started on her
work. We moved on to his room after that
to do our music practices for the new duet; band; and the teen praise
team. In order of priority, the band
practice was most important, since we have the Pinehurst parade coming up on
Friday night; but the duets were more fun – and that is duets – including the
music we’re doing at church this Christmas.
We only had time for a very minor make-out
session after our practice time; so we didn’t get teased about that too much
while having a chat with Miranda and Jacob for a half-hour or so before I
needed to get home for the night. That
was a fun way to end my evening with Michael and his family; but then it was
back to normal school night work and studies once I was home again.
My Magi lesson was first on the list; and
Mom did that with me while Ethan and Ehlana did some college work. That took an hour; there was another
half-hour and change of chat time so that we could exchange after-school and
dinner stories; and then I helped out with getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in
for the night before coming up to my room for the night. It’s been all work and studying since then –
and that was more than three and a half hours ago.
That’s made for a long, busy night for me,
but I’m not the only member of our families keeping busy. Our favorite collegians are all getting ready
for final exams this week; and I even had a computer chat with Violet and
Stephanie while they stayed up late and worked on assignments and exam
preparation. I didn’t have a chat with
them, but Grandma did send an email to let me know that she and Grandpa had
gotten back to their condo in Arizona safely.
I’d know that through our link; but it was nice to get their travel
report – even if Grandpa finds it funny to tease us by sending pictures along
of him or Grandma wearing tees, shorts, or swimsuits while we’re stuck wearing
winter coats, hats, and gloves to go outside here at home.
Does it mean that I’m getting old if we’re
just at the start of winter; and I’m wishing for a winter vacation down south
already?
I probably shouldn’t go there; and start wrapping
this up so that I can get started on my nap.
We’re going to have another busy day tomorrow – and a late night too;
but you’ll have to flip the digital page in my future to find out why; since
that’s part of the surprise Miranda and Jacob have set up for Rebecca’s
birthday.
Tomorrow is also the Mom’s Christmas
shopping trip, and while I’m not involved in that; I should mention that Mom
was busy with that today – as if she didn’t have enough of the go with work at
the lab; Ethan and Ehlana; and Mr. Seager’s birthday dinner. The final number for the shopping group
tomorrow is forty-eight women and they’ll be taking twelve vehicles – mostly to
have the space for their purchases. Mom
and Aunt Leanne are both driving; but Aunt Leanne has a back-up driver if she’s
feeling barfy and needs the help. If you
think organizing that is scary for Mom; wait until you find out how many kids,
teens, and adults will be going on the kids’ Christmas shopping trip on
Saturday!
Maybe I should be scared, since I’ll be a
junior kid-control helper this year, but since Michael and I will be doing that
with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden; I’m okay with having a shopping play day
with them – and with Rowen, Tim, and the rest of our group. We still have a lot of week to get through
between now and then, though; so let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
That’s pretty much all of the news for
today, but since Michael and I have been really getting into the Christmas
music swing of things both at school and home; I thought it would be nice to
add a little bit of contemporary Christmas music to my journal between now and
Christmas. Maybe some of them will even
still be favorites whenever you’re reading this in my future, but if they aren’t;
that should just make these little clips of Christmas history more interesting for
you. While we’re not going to be using
this song for any of our concerts or services at church this year, we ran
across it during our YouTube search and really loved it; so it’s my first pick
for my ‘twenty-five favorite Christmas videos of 2014’.
That’s it for tonight; so, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
