Caroling Spectacular

It's dark outside when hark: what light through yonder window breaks? It is the flashing of red lights and it is close. Like other onlookers in times of emergency, I step out the front door only to discover a firetruck going very slowly in front of my house. I know there's no fire here -- or none that I'm aware of. I look next door for smoke and listen in the neighborhood for cries of fear or loss. All is calm. The truck is bright. No siren, just the bright red lights as it meanders at about 5 mph down the street, down my street. And then I hear it . . . Christmas carols and the jingling of bells. The volunteer fire department is going down every street in its precinct and bringing a little joy to our world. What a special way to spread some Christmas cheer. I just hope there are no emergencies tonight.

And so this is Christmas . . .

The temperature is above 80. The girls and I went down to the Lake yesterday and sat in the sun on the beach. We had a picnic of blueberries and tangerines and some coldcuts. They were dressed in shorts and tank tops. When the church kids come for their "fun club" this afternoon, they are all going to want to play outside on the playground. A woman doing community service at our church almost passed out this morning from heat exhaustion after working on the playground, raking pine needles. I'm wearing a very thin 3/4 sleeve shirt and am sweating here in the office. The golf courses are full. I'm wondering if I shouldn't go turn the A/C on. I've got it running at my house so it will be cool when I return. The ladies around here are dressed in short-sleeved snowflake printed shirts. And the lights are glowing each night around the palm trees. And so this is Christmas.

The E-mail I Did Not Receive

Today I went to the "tea room" with the fellowship committee at my church. The fellowship committee is basically responsible for finding people to make and serve all of the food we eat at the church for whatever cause. Typically they are responsible for cookies after church and we've really improved since I got here 4ish year ago. It used to be people would bring storebought cookies and now people are starting to bake again. There is SUCH a difference! (speaking of which, I still need to get you the coconut recipe, Dixie! Sorry!) Anyway, every year they go out to lunch to celebrate the Christmas season. Everyone dons their Merries and heads over to a girly-ish kind of place (spouses come along and sit at their own table). They always invite the pastor (a nice gesture) and pay for my food (a really nice gesture). Then they exchange gifts. In the past they've each brought a gift for everyone at the table (exhausting) but in the last year everyone has brought one $5 gift and we've drawn numbers to see who gets which gift. With the other money they would normally spend they donate it to a needy family in the community. I'm proud of them -- for enjoying each other and celebrating while also recognizing that it's not all about them. And the cool thing is, I received some pretty cool Santa mixing bowls and got to eat spinach quiche (my favorite!), cheesy potatoes, raspberry jello salad, a cinnamin muffin, and peach tea. MMMMM! Yummy!

But by the title of this thing you can see that the lunch is not the topic du jour. I was asked by the 93 year old woman on the committee (people serve a long time on committees in FL) if I received her e-mail (people are also quite technologically savvy at older ages in FL). I didn't even realize that this woman HAD an e-mail address. Further, she has macular degeneration so I didn't know she would even be able to read on the computer. (Come to think about it, she also drove to the tea room and I didn't realize she could do that either. She always requests a large print bulletin on Sunday morning. Hmmm) But the thing is, I HAVEN'T received an e-mail from her. I don't know if she even sent it to the right e-mail address, but I have a thing about avoiding confrontations with people over 90. I just don't like to upset them in any way. And so I told her I would double check, knowing that I never received her e-mail. Now I'm wondering how to ask her to try to resend an e-mail and I'm wondering how many other people have tried to send an e-mail and it hasn't gone through but they think I'm ignoring them because I'm not replying. She assures me she ALWAYS gets a returned e-mail if it doesn't go through, but what if it was sent to the wrong address? OK, I know I'm overreacting here, but I'm having way too much fun with it. There's just something about old people doing younger people things that just makes me smile -- like the 76 year old woman who was tellling me tonight how annoyed she was getting at the man down the street who walks by her house daily to tell her how LONELY he is. She finally told him to get a dog! What a riot!

Well, I'm letting the girls paint each others' toenails for the first time. I'd better go see what color the floor is.

Small Town Christmas

The first year I attended the Sebring Christmas parade, having spent the previous 10-15 years in Nashville, TN, I was appalled and slightly embarrassed by all of the rigamarole. Sure, it was cool that the kids got to march with their dance class or ride on a "float" but I had never envisioned "float" to be synonymous with SUV pulling hay trailor with some tinsel stapled to the side and hand-written signs announcing the company that was being advertised. This, however, is my 4th Christmas parade here and I absolutely love it. Last night my friend pulled up a lawn chair for me right in front of the police station and I sat, waiting expectantly for the small town extravaganza. I was not disappointed. Led by a screaming police car siren and the colorguard I stood reverently (thanks to the prompting of my friend who was raised in an era where not standing before the flag was taboo) and then sat back down to watch hometown creativity coming to life. The middle school DARE group shouted their motto to stay off drugs while grouping together in cliquish marching groups. The county commissioners waved from the back of convertibles donated for the occasion by the largest car salesman in town. The radio station (there's only one local station) float blew bubbles into the air (FL snow, I believe they were trying to simulate) and the local paper was led by 6 alpacas with reindeer antlers attached. The 4-H groups led well-brushed dogs and a wagon with bunnies in cages followed by a float with pigs. And, of course, every schools marching band was represented with dance teams and a couple of churches. The community church sported an amped up (in many ways?) music director singing carols with an electric guitar though I didn't see the church I saw last year with the giant white cross AND nativity on the trailer bed. A man dressed up quite elf-ishly with a guitar and amp on his back as he roller bladed the streets of downtown. All in all, it was wonderful. I can't imagine anything drawing community together more than homemade floats. Oh, and I forgot the many golf carts with strings of Christmas lights on them. It wouldn't be Christmas in FL without them. Where was my church? Well, as much as we're growing, we still haven't caught the "community spirit" that sets Sebring apart. We're kinda removed from the culture given our distance, and so we'll await another year to join in the festivities. So I just sat in my lawn chair with my sparkling Christmas vest on and watched my kids marching with their cheer team just as proud as pie (because that's what you say in small town parades). And then, in the dark, I walked two blocks by myself in the downtown to the post-parade party at the girls' gym. What a wonderful night!

A Good Wholesome Christmas

For Christmas, my mom and I pooled together some money and gave me and my family a clean house -- a woman came to clean my house last Saturday and Sunday and did more than just mop and dust and vacuum. She also cleaned out closets, threw out accumulated trash, washed the backlog of laundry, and organized here and there. My house feels so joyful right now and I had no idea how HUGE the master bedroom was. She got rid of so much stuff that it echoes!

Because things are clean (and still clean 3 days later -- I am continuing to clean before it gets backed up) I am thinking of hosting a Christmas open house. I've never been able to do that before and I think it would be fun to plan with my children. But I want it to have a "spin" to it -- something that takes the emphasis off of the stress of the holiday and focuses on enjoying friends and family and/or giving to those in need, etc. I'm posting this because I would love your ideas to make this open house special. I'd invite the church members, the girls' friends and families, and others in the community we've just come to enjoy. Help me know how to word the invitations. ;o)