Well, it seems that this year is coming to a close. In so many ways, I am thankful that 2011 is over and hoping that 2012 will be much kinder to our family.
We've had a lot of major medical issues this year - and all the heartache that goes along with it. I've written about some of them, but others will just have to play out in the future. But again, I feel so blessed that I have decided to list my top ten things I am thankful for in this year of 2011.
1. I am deeply blessed to have two loving kids and their spouses who accept me with all my peculiarities and weirdness. They have proven to me time and time again, that NOTHING in this world beats out family. Nothing!
2. When so many, many people are out of work, or are struggling to pay even the minimum of bills, I am thankful to have a good job that I love. I don't make a zillion dollars, but between my salary and my husband's retirement, we get along pretty good. Medical bills - phooey! As I told a friend of mine awhile ago - they can't repossess people!
3. I am beyond blessed to work with the greatest bunch of teachers, aides and support staff in the world. That includes my principal who stands up for us teachers and bucks the system many times so we can teach the way we know we should be teaching! I've been in a job where I was not valued and where I had to watch my back every day. I love working with my Hoover people. They are there no matter what!
4. Our house is not fancy, it is not large, and it only has one bathroom. But when I think of the homeless people we saw in New York City who were living in boxes, our home is a mansion compared to that. When I come in, my home welcomes me, says to sit down, relax and rest.
5. Even with arthritis and asthma issues, I am a very healthy person. I can exercise, swim, walk, teach and work 13 hour days. So I am very blessed to be healthy enough to still ride roller coasters with my kids and grandkids!!! :) And I intend to continue doing that until they refuse to let me on the rides because I am too old and rickety!
6. Having come very close to losing my husband many times over the last 13 years, I am very lucky to still have him by my side. For years, I worried about him being shot on duty, and not coming home to us. Yet what we experienced after he had retired from being a police officer, was way worse in many ways. But we still go on, we still travel as much as we can, we make casino runs frequently, and get to spoil our granddaughters as much as possible. He is the other half of me that keeps me going.
7. I am so blessed to have special friends. Some I have been friends with for 40 some years, some half that, and others a few years. They are all precious to me. We may not always get to see each other a lot, or go to lunch or just visit, but when we do, the year and months roll back and it is like yesterday.
8. My next blessing is that I still have my sister and my brother and their spouses in my life. Time spent with them is precious. I will be blogging more about them in the future - so for now, I am so thankful that I get to spend as much time with them as I do.
9. For whatever reason, I am blessed to have a stubborn streak a mile wide, that makes me strong enough to handle whatever life throws at me. My kids think I stood in line twice when God gave out stubborness - and they could be right. But being stubborn and unwilling to give in has kept me going when I thought I couldn't take one more step in any direction. Life tests us and we never know for sure how strong we are until life smacks us in the face!
10. Last, but not least, I am so glad I live in America. I have been reading a LOT of hate posts on FB lately, about our current president, and our government et al. The posts really bother me - not because they disagree with Washington, but because of the hate and the warped reasoning behind that hate. We may not be perfect, we may have flawed health care, flawed banking, flawed thinking in our Congress, but we still live in the most free, best nation on earth. Why do you think so many millions of people want to live here, and sneak across our borders to be in America???? It may not be perfect, but it beats most other countries by miles.
Peace and love to all of you in 2012.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Promises to keep
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
- Robert Frost -
Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. Pinky swear. Swear on a stack of Bibles. Swear on my mother's grave.
I have heard these types of promises for years from my students, and I get tickled knowing that they fully intend to keep that promise - until wham, something happens they didn't plan on and that poor promise is bashed into tiny pieces! My students have called me on promises I made in a hurry, with the pouty face, and whining voice, "But Mrs. B., you promised!" Trust me - they keep me on my toes and I think twice before I make a promise to them, cause they will REMEMBER forever!
Promises may be world shaking, or it may be just a tiny bump in the road of life. I've been thinking a lot about promises lately - having been on the receiving end of broken promises that nearly cut my heart in pieces. I have also made promises that I have done my best to keep.
The first very important promise that popped into my head is the one when loving, dreamy eyed couples make promises to each other on their wedding day. I love both the traditional promise ceremony, but I also really enjoy hearing promises/vows that the couple has written themselves. I expect that during that first glow of wedded life with the person who is your soul mate, those promises made that wedding day are easy to keep.
Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect her/him, forsaking all others and holding only unto her/him?" ("I do")
The promise to love one another till death is made so easily in the early rosy glow of marriage, when most couples have no real idea of how that love will be tested over the years. Honor him/her - respect your loved one, treat them with dignity, and make your life one that they can look upon with pride. Cherish him/her - that promise is not necessarily to treat your spouse like a china figurine that could be broken in an instant, but to always stand by them because they are special to you. Protect him/her - that promise might be a tad easier for the male species who deem it their nature to "protect" their wife (insert image of gorilla beating his chest). Protection can be physical - keeping them from getting physically hurt, but it could be emotional such as being there to protect their loved one from being emotionally beaten up by family members, so called friends and even employers. But I am here to tell you that you don't ever want to get in the way of a woman and someone that she promised to protect. It makes a gorilla look like a lady bug. When we promise to protect someone we love, that is it - no ifs, ands, or buts.
In sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, until death do us part.
I promised this during our wedding ceremony as did my husband. Little did we know that a promise made that day would someday hit us head on - particularly the one about health. Who knew that someday, my husband would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life (in sickness and in health); who knew that MANY, MANY times we would be scrounging for money to pay medical bills, or buy the kids some clothes or put food on the table, only to go through it all over again a few years down the road. (for richer, for poorer). And yet that most important promise made on their wedding day is one of the first to be broken. Financial hardships come, spouse runs, breaks promise. Sickness comes, spouse leaves and breaks promise. Mental disability comes, people run as fast as they can, rather than honor that promise. And in those instances, that promise is broken so badly, it can never, ever be repaired exactly like it was before. Sometimes you can't fix what has already been broken so badly.
So what drives us to make such promises in the first place? We can't see into the future (not sure I'd want to anyway). So if we don't know what is coming, why in the world do we make such HUGE and broad promises that you have no earthly idea if you can keep? We all are sincere when we make a promise - either at a wedding to our spouse, or in our day to day life. There are big promises and little bitty promises, to others, to friends, to family and to self. And in spite of the fact that the odds are about 1,000,000 to one that we will keep every single promise we make, people keep right on making promises because that is what makes us human. We don't want bad and hurtful things to happen to the people we love - so we make a promise.
I've heard it said that promises are meant to be broken. Maybe, maybe not. I think that a person who makes a promise does so with every sincere intention on following through with that promise. Sometimes, life just flat gets in the way of fulfilling that promise. I am sure that the promise that was made to me and broken was given with a sincere heart - but that didn't make it any less painful when that promise was beaten to a pulp!
To end, I will reveal the promise that has been broken so many times, it is sawdust! I promise to love, honor and obey. Whatever! I have loved him, and I have honored him, but in no way, whatsoever did I say I would obey him. Of course my loving spouse says that I did just that, and we have tossed that back and forth for 41 years causing both of us to be hysterical with laughter over and over!
Make your promises with love in your heart, do the best you can to keep those promises, but understand, some will be broken into pieces, some will be kept, and some will break a little and be repaired. That is just how life is.
Song from George Strait:
Our love is unconditional, we knew it from the start.
I see it in your eyes, you can feel it from my heart.
From here on after let's stay the way we are right now,
And share all the love and laughter
That a lifetime will allow.
I cross my heart and promise to
Give all I've got to give to make all your dreams come true.
In all the world you'll never find a love as true as mine.
You will always be the miracle that makes my life complete,
And as long as there's a breath in me, I'll make yours just as sweet.
As we look into the future, it's as far as we can see,
So let's make each tomorrow be the best that it can be.
I cross my heart and promise to
Give all I've got to give to make all your dreams come true.
In all the world you'll never find a love as true as mine.
And if along the way we find a day it starts to storm,
You've got the promise of my love to keep you warm.
In all the world you'll never find a love as true as mine,
A love as true as mine.
Thanks George, couldn't have said it better!
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
- Robert Frost -
Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. Pinky swear. Swear on a stack of Bibles. Swear on my mother's grave.
I have heard these types of promises for years from my students, and I get tickled knowing that they fully intend to keep that promise - until wham, something happens they didn't plan on and that poor promise is bashed into tiny pieces! My students have called me on promises I made in a hurry, with the pouty face, and whining voice, "But Mrs. B., you promised!" Trust me - they keep me on my toes and I think twice before I make a promise to them, cause they will REMEMBER forever!
Promises may be world shaking, or it may be just a tiny bump in the road of life. I've been thinking a lot about promises lately - having been on the receiving end of broken promises that nearly cut my heart in pieces. I have also made promises that I have done my best to keep.
The first very important promise that popped into my head is the one when loving, dreamy eyed couples make promises to each other on their wedding day. I love both the traditional promise ceremony, but I also really enjoy hearing promises/vows that the couple has written themselves. I expect that during that first glow of wedded life with the person who is your soul mate, those promises made that wedding day are easy to keep.
Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect her/him, forsaking all others and holding only unto her/him?" ("I do")
The promise to love one another till death is made so easily in the early rosy glow of marriage, when most couples have no real idea of how that love will be tested over the years. Honor him/her - respect your loved one, treat them with dignity, and make your life one that they can look upon with pride. Cherish him/her - that promise is not necessarily to treat your spouse like a china figurine that could be broken in an instant, but to always stand by them because they are special to you. Protect him/her - that promise might be a tad easier for the male species who deem it their nature to "protect" their wife (insert image of gorilla beating his chest). Protection can be physical - keeping them from getting physically hurt, but it could be emotional such as being there to protect their loved one from being emotionally beaten up by family members, so called friends and even employers. But I am here to tell you that you don't ever want to get in the way of a woman and someone that she promised to protect. It makes a gorilla look like a lady bug. When we promise to protect someone we love, that is it - no ifs, ands, or buts.
In sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, until death do us part.
I promised this during our wedding ceremony as did my husband. Little did we know that a promise made that day would someday hit us head on - particularly the one about health. Who knew that someday, my husband would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life (in sickness and in health); who knew that MANY, MANY times we would be scrounging for money to pay medical bills, or buy the kids some clothes or put food on the table, only to go through it all over again a few years down the road. (for richer, for poorer). And yet that most important promise made on their wedding day is one of the first to be broken. Financial hardships come, spouse runs, breaks promise. Sickness comes, spouse leaves and breaks promise. Mental disability comes, people run as fast as they can, rather than honor that promise. And in those instances, that promise is broken so badly, it can never, ever be repaired exactly like it was before. Sometimes you can't fix what has already been broken so badly.
So what drives us to make such promises in the first place? We can't see into the future (not sure I'd want to anyway). So if we don't know what is coming, why in the world do we make such HUGE and broad promises that you have no earthly idea if you can keep? We all are sincere when we make a promise - either at a wedding to our spouse, or in our day to day life. There are big promises and little bitty promises, to others, to friends, to family and to self. And in spite of the fact that the odds are about 1,000,000 to one that we will keep every single promise we make, people keep right on making promises because that is what makes us human. We don't want bad and hurtful things to happen to the people we love - so we make a promise.
I've heard it said that promises are meant to be broken. Maybe, maybe not. I think that a person who makes a promise does so with every sincere intention on following through with that promise. Sometimes, life just flat gets in the way of fulfilling that promise. I am sure that the promise that was made to me and broken was given with a sincere heart - but that didn't make it any less painful when that promise was beaten to a pulp!
To end, I will reveal the promise that has been broken so many times, it is sawdust! I promise to love, honor and obey. Whatever! I have loved him, and I have honored him, but in no way, whatsoever did I say I would obey him. Of course my loving spouse says that I did just that, and we have tossed that back and forth for 41 years causing both of us to be hysterical with laughter over and over!
Make your promises with love in your heart, do the best you can to keep those promises, but understand, some will be broken into pieces, some will be kept, and some will break a little and be repaired. That is just how life is.
Song from George Strait:
Our love is unconditional, we knew it from the start.
I see it in your eyes, you can feel it from my heart.
From here on after let's stay the way we are right now,
And share all the love and laughter
That a lifetime will allow.
I cross my heart and promise to
Give all I've got to give to make all your dreams come true.
In all the world you'll never find a love as true as mine.
You will always be the miracle that makes my life complete,
And as long as there's a breath in me, I'll make yours just as sweet.
As we look into the future, it's as far as we can see,
So let's make each tomorrow be the best that it can be.
I cross my heart and promise to
Give all I've got to give to make all your dreams come true.
In all the world you'll never find a love as true as mine.
And if along the way we find a day it starts to storm,
You've got the promise of my love to keep you warm.
In all the world you'll never find a love as true as mine,
A love as true as mine.
Thanks George, couldn't have said it better!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Traditions and gags - the sequal
I guess I am a prankster at heart and I thoroughly enjoy pulling jokes on my family and my students. Students get a kick out of it and sometimes they retaliate. I remember one year I was trying desperately not to drink so much Dr. Pepper - because I knew it wasn't good for me. But every day, I'd go get one and have it sitting around the classroom. My kids knew I was trying to get off it, so sometime during the day, my Dr. Pepper would mysteriously disappear. I'd come in, notice it was gone and start laughing and hunting! They would be in hysterics by the time I found it. One time, I didn't find it until after school was out. They were very much pleased with themselves that time!
The first prank that I can remember playing on my son in law was when they still lived in Ponca City. Their Wal-mart at Christmas would put out these tiny bottles of IBC rootbeer- about 8 ounces I thnk. I loved IBC rootbeer so when we would visit, I'd help myself to Danny's tiny bottles. He used to harrass me unmercifully about how when I came, he didn't have anymore rootbeer because I drank it all. So one time when we went over to eat with them, I bought a pack of IBC little bottles. I slipped into his room, and hid them in his pillowcase of his pillow, pulled the covers up all nice and neat and left. The next day April called and was laughing so hard she could hardly talk. She said Danny usually got in bed, and just flopped his head down on his pillow. For some reason, he decided to pat his pillow into place that night and discovered the IBC bottles. He laughed until he fell out of bed. BUT like April said, it is a good thing he didn't just hop in bed and flop onto his pillow like he usually did or I'd have been guilty of causing my son in law a concussion!
Danny was hard to buy for - not because he was picky, but because he was content with what he had and didn't ask for much. I started giving him money to spend on lunches etc. I bought this really cool puzzle made out of plastic that holds money. You slip the money into the puzzle, and the receiver has to figure out how to get the money out. That man took exactly 10 seconds to get that money out of that puzzle. The funniest part of that gag was the look on my face when he did it so fast.
Two other times involved toilet paper. I unrolled a whole roll of toilet paper, and taped dollar bills end to end to the roll, and then rolled it all up neatly and wrapped it. He loved it! I saw a lady at a craft show that somehow embroidered a Christmas scene and a personalized name on the first sheet or two of the toilet paper roll. They were beautiful, and he loved that one. As far as I know, he still has that one.
I remember doing something to his socks, but that memory is kind of fuzzy. But my greatest prank of all time involved their swimming pool and money. In AZ, it actually does get cold during the winter and the swimming pool water is freezing! So I got an empty baby wipe box, wrapped a clue in a zip lock bag (like a treasure hunt) and put it in the box. I poured plaster of paris over it and let it harden. I wrapped it up so pretty! When he opened it, he laughed and laughed, and proceeded to break tiny pieces of the plaster off with a tiny hammer. When he saw all of us laughing hysterically, he realized that the present wasn't in the plaster, took a huge hammer, whammed it into a million pieces and got the clue.
This involved the girls because they were learning to read. So daddy had to answer their trivia questions they read to him before they would read him the next clue. This clue took him to the swimming pool. Now flashback to April and I preparing this part of the gag. I wrapped his money in several zip lock bags so it wouldn't get wet. Then I put that in a cottage cheese container with a couple of rocks, put that in a ziplock bag and tossed it into the deep in of the pool. April and I stood there with our mouths open, not believing it - that stupid carton FLOATED! We were laughing so hard we could barely talk- but we got their pool net, pulled the carton out and filled that it to the top with rocks, sealed it and tossed it into the pool. This time it sank to the bottom of the deep end just like I planned. Danny read the clue, went flying into the pool area, saw the carton and stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't figure out if he wanted to dive into the freezing water and get his package or what. Finally, he got the pool net and started fishing for his present! By this time, we are all laughing hysterically because the package kept scooting away across the bottom of the pool. He'd go to one side, try it, and it would scoot. He'd run back to the other side, and try it again. Finally, he got it out, and had to sit down on the side of the pool to open it. It was so much fun, and so hysterically funny!
Of course, that called for major retaliation - and let's just say that one of his gag gifts to me was an item of female clothing that I swore on a stack of Bibles that I would never, ever, ever have on my body. When I opened the gift and realized what it was, I stuck it behind my back, and my face was as red as a tomato. I think by this time both Danny and April were on the floor laughing! I laughed and laughed and laughed but I did not wear that item of clothing. Nuff said!
So Merry Christmas again, and may your Christmas be filled with laughter. That is what makes our life here on earth bearable in times that nothing seems to be going right. Laughter, love and joy to you.
The first prank that I can remember playing on my son in law was when they still lived in Ponca City. Their Wal-mart at Christmas would put out these tiny bottles of IBC rootbeer- about 8 ounces I thnk. I loved IBC rootbeer so when we would visit, I'd help myself to Danny's tiny bottles. He used to harrass me unmercifully about how when I came, he didn't have anymore rootbeer because I drank it all. So one time when we went over to eat with them, I bought a pack of IBC little bottles. I slipped into his room, and hid them in his pillowcase of his pillow, pulled the covers up all nice and neat and left. The next day April called and was laughing so hard she could hardly talk. She said Danny usually got in bed, and just flopped his head down on his pillow. For some reason, he decided to pat his pillow into place that night and discovered the IBC bottles. He laughed until he fell out of bed. BUT like April said, it is a good thing he didn't just hop in bed and flop onto his pillow like he usually did or I'd have been guilty of causing my son in law a concussion!
Danny was hard to buy for - not because he was picky, but because he was content with what he had and didn't ask for much. I started giving him money to spend on lunches etc. I bought this really cool puzzle made out of plastic that holds money. You slip the money into the puzzle, and the receiver has to figure out how to get the money out. That man took exactly 10 seconds to get that money out of that puzzle. The funniest part of that gag was the look on my face when he did it so fast.
Two other times involved toilet paper. I unrolled a whole roll of toilet paper, and taped dollar bills end to end to the roll, and then rolled it all up neatly and wrapped it. He loved it! I saw a lady at a craft show that somehow embroidered a Christmas scene and a personalized name on the first sheet or two of the toilet paper roll. They were beautiful, and he loved that one. As far as I know, he still has that one.
I remember doing something to his socks, but that memory is kind of fuzzy. But my greatest prank of all time involved their swimming pool and money. In AZ, it actually does get cold during the winter and the swimming pool water is freezing! So I got an empty baby wipe box, wrapped a clue in a zip lock bag (like a treasure hunt) and put it in the box. I poured plaster of paris over it and let it harden. I wrapped it up so pretty! When he opened it, he laughed and laughed, and proceeded to break tiny pieces of the plaster off with a tiny hammer. When he saw all of us laughing hysterically, he realized that the present wasn't in the plaster, took a huge hammer, whammed it into a million pieces and got the clue.
This involved the girls because they were learning to read. So daddy had to answer their trivia questions they read to him before they would read him the next clue. This clue took him to the swimming pool. Now flashback to April and I preparing this part of the gag. I wrapped his money in several zip lock bags so it wouldn't get wet. Then I put that in a cottage cheese container with a couple of rocks, put that in a ziplock bag and tossed it into the deep in of the pool. April and I stood there with our mouths open, not believing it - that stupid carton FLOATED! We were laughing so hard we could barely talk- but we got their pool net, pulled the carton out and filled that it to the top with rocks, sealed it and tossed it into the pool. This time it sank to the bottom of the deep end just like I planned. Danny read the clue, went flying into the pool area, saw the carton and stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't figure out if he wanted to dive into the freezing water and get his package or what. Finally, he got the pool net and started fishing for his present! By this time, we are all laughing hysterically because the package kept scooting away across the bottom of the pool. He'd go to one side, try it, and it would scoot. He'd run back to the other side, and try it again. Finally, he got it out, and had to sit down on the side of the pool to open it. It was so much fun, and so hysterically funny!
Of course, that called for major retaliation - and let's just say that one of his gag gifts to me was an item of female clothing that I swore on a stack of Bibles that I would never, ever, ever have on my body. When I opened the gift and realized what it was, I stuck it behind my back, and my face was as red as a tomato. I think by this time both Danny and April were on the floor laughing! I laughed and laughed and laughed but I did not wear that item of clothing. Nuff said!
So Merry Christmas again, and may your Christmas be filled with laughter. That is what makes our life here on earth bearable in times that nothing seems to be going right. Laughter, love and joy to you.
Cherished Christmas Traditions
Traditions, Traditions, Traditions. - cue Fiddler on the Roof Music. It is Christmas season, when a whole lot of people have a whole lot of traditions. Old ones that families cherish and repeat every year, and the opportunity to create new traditions to hand down to later generations.
One of the things we (my teaching partner and I) like to have our students write about is their Christmas traditions in their family. Both my teaching partner and I thought that would be an excellent writing prompt, and would be easy. We no longer have students write on that prompt! Our reason? The students would look at us with totally blank faces when we talked about traditions. We would teach and teach and brainstorm, but we would still get half a class of blank faces. We finally quit using that prompt because for whatever reason, families don't seem to have a lot of traditions anymore - at least where I teach. It really saddened me because traditions in our family are precious. I'm not sure why families aren't creating those traditions like I grew up with - could be the economy, maybe because families are rushed to get the basics done and survive. Maybe because our students are only 10 and 11 and haven't lived enough years to have many traditions with their family. It made me wonder what traditions other families have with their families. I'd love to hear some comments and traditions from others, as I share a few of our traditions with you.
Our family is scattered all over the US. Some in Washington State, some in Kansas, Arizona, Nebraska, and other states. It was really difficult to get us all together at one time to celebrate Christmas. So one of the traditions stems from that difficulty - wanting our family to be with us in spirit, if not in body. So on Christmas eve, the four of us (hubby, me, daughter and son) would open a bottle of sparkling apple cider to make toasts. We used the very best stemware crystal we had (even tho most of them came from Arbys!) and we all got a glass of cider. Then we would take turns toasting our family scattered around the US with a Christmas/New Year wish for them. After each wish or toast, we would clink glasses and take a sip. It was a very special Christmas tradition that brought our family closer in spirit on Christmas eve.
Another Christmas tradition is kids opening one present on Christmas eve. It could be stuffed animals, pajamas, a toy or something small - just to ease the agony of waiting to open those presents on Christmas morning. Of course, opening that one present sent them into orbit, so getting them to bed after that was gorilla warfare!
When we open our presents on Christmas morning, we take turns. One person at a time opens a present so we can all see and hear their reaction. That made it double special - for the giver as well as the receiver. Sometimes it took a LONG time to get them all opened, but we got to enjoy the surprise and happiness of every single person as they opened their gift. And prank gifts were the very best - with the giver holding their breath, knowing what was coming, waiting for the belly laughs they knew they'd get!
The next tradition I mention, is sort of odd! I HATE, HATE, HATE wrapping presents! I don't/didn't/ will never like buying all that expensive paper, spending hours wrapping presents and putting on bows - to have it all ripped to shreds in minutes on Christmas day. So I decided enough was enough around 1980ish. I waited until Christmas material went on sale at 75% off, then I bought yards of all different colors and designs. As I had time over that winter, I would sew up Christmas gift bags. Big ones, little ones, skinny ones, tiny ones, and couple of HUMONGOUS ones! I made a hem (like in a curtain) that I could put a ribbon through, draw it up, and tie the present shut. Kids loved them, I loved them, husband loved that he didn't have bags of trash to take to the curb. We have used those cloth bags for years and years and now the grandkids are getting their presents in those very same cloth bags. We have recycled them for 30 some years. It is a tradition that makes perfect environmental sense today!
Another weird tradition started when the kids were about 8 and 9. After the presents were opened and played with, there was always kind of a let down. We all kind of wandered around the house in a daze. One year, Popeye was showing at the local theater, and we knew the kids were dying to see it. So we bought tickets and went to the movies on Christmas day. Not very many people there and we had an absolute ball! We continued that tradition for years with a different movie each year.
I also didn't want to spend my entire day cooking Christmas dinner and then the rest of the day washing and cleaning up the mess. We always got lots of goodies from friends and neighbors during the Christmas season that never seemed to get eaten. So our Christmas dinner evolved into putting all the goodies out we had gotten, and adding our favorite junk food snacks - Rotel Cheese dip, sausage balls, all kinds of cookies and candy, chips, nachoes - you name it! I always made a huge raw veggie tray with dip so we could sort of balance the junk stuff! The kids absolutely loved it - they could nibble all day. There was hardly any cooking to do, very little clean up, and calories didn't count that day - so I loved it. Add an adult beverage, a football game and my hubby thought he was in heaven!
Several years ago, my son in law and I got into a Christmas contest to get a prank/gag gift for each other. I had started pulling tricks on him years before that, and I guess that evolved into Christmas gags. Some of the things he has come up with for me were so hysterically funny, I laughed until I had tears streaming down my face. Having heard him complain and whine about the fact that with 4 females in the house, he was always going to the store for toilet paper, I knew what that year's gift would be. I bought him the biggest package of toilet paper I could find and put a bow on it. I think it had 40 rolls in it or something like that. He almost fell off the couch laughing. I had other ones that were even better, but that will have to be a whole other blog!
I could write pages and pages about Christmas traditions from the time I was a little girl to the present. But I would rather close now, and hopefully, hear about traditions from others who read this blog. Merry Christmas to all, and may the next year be filled with joy, peace and love.
One of the things we (my teaching partner and I) like to have our students write about is their Christmas traditions in their family. Both my teaching partner and I thought that would be an excellent writing prompt, and would be easy. We no longer have students write on that prompt! Our reason? The students would look at us with totally blank faces when we talked about traditions. We would teach and teach and brainstorm, but we would still get half a class of blank faces. We finally quit using that prompt because for whatever reason, families don't seem to have a lot of traditions anymore - at least where I teach. It really saddened me because traditions in our family are precious. I'm not sure why families aren't creating those traditions like I grew up with - could be the economy, maybe because families are rushed to get the basics done and survive. Maybe because our students are only 10 and 11 and haven't lived enough years to have many traditions with their family. It made me wonder what traditions other families have with their families. I'd love to hear some comments and traditions from others, as I share a few of our traditions with you.
Our family is scattered all over the US. Some in Washington State, some in Kansas, Arizona, Nebraska, and other states. It was really difficult to get us all together at one time to celebrate Christmas. So one of the traditions stems from that difficulty - wanting our family to be with us in spirit, if not in body. So on Christmas eve, the four of us (hubby, me, daughter and son) would open a bottle of sparkling apple cider to make toasts. We used the very best stemware crystal we had (even tho most of them came from Arbys!) and we all got a glass of cider. Then we would take turns toasting our family scattered around the US with a Christmas/New Year wish for them. After each wish or toast, we would clink glasses and take a sip. It was a very special Christmas tradition that brought our family closer in spirit on Christmas eve.
Another Christmas tradition is kids opening one present on Christmas eve. It could be stuffed animals, pajamas, a toy or something small - just to ease the agony of waiting to open those presents on Christmas morning. Of course, opening that one present sent them into orbit, so getting them to bed after that was gorilla warfare!
When we open our presents on Christmas morning, we take turns. One person at a time opens a present so we can all see and hear their reaction. That made it double special - for the giver as well as the receiver. Sometimes it took a LONG time to get them all opened, but we got to enjoy the surprise and happiness of every single person as they opened their gift. And prank gifts were the very best - with the giver holding their breath, knowing what was coming, waiting for the belly laughs they knew they'd get!
The next tradition I mention, is sort of odd! I HATE, HATE, HATE wrapping presents! I don't/didn't/ will never like buying all that expensive paper, spending hours wrapping presents and putting on bows - to have it all ripped to shreds in minutes on Christmas day. So I decided enough was enough around 1980ish. I waited until Christmas material went on sale at 75% off, then I bought yards of all different colors and designs. As I had time over that winter, I would sew up Christmas gift bags. Big ones, little ones, skinny ones, tiny ones, and couple of HUMONGOUS ones! I made a hem (like in a curtain) that I could put a ribbon through, draw it up, and tie the present shut. Kids loved them, I loved them, husband loved that he didn't have bags of trash to take to the curb. We have used those cloth bags for years and years and now the grandkids are getting their presents in those very same cloth bags. We have recycled them for 30 some years. It is a tradition that makes perfect environmental sense today!
Another weird tradition started when the kids were about 8 and 9. After the presents were opened and played with, there was always kind of a let down. We all kind of wandered around the house in a daze. One year, Popeye was showing at the local theater, and we knew the kids were dying to see it. So we bought tickets and went to the movies on Christmas day. Not very many people there and we had an absolute ball! We continued that tradition for years with a different movie each year.
I also didn't want to spend my entire day cooking Christmas dinner and then the rest of the day washing and cleaning up the mess. We always got lots of goodies from friends and neighbors during the Christmas season that never seemed to get eaten. So our Christmas dinner evolved into putting all the goodies out we had gotten, and adding our favorite junk food snacks - Rotel Cheese dip, sausage balls, all kinds of cookies and candy, chips, nachoes - you name it! I always made a huge raw veggie tray with dip so we could sort of balance the junk stuff! The kids absolutely loved it - they could nibble all day. There was hardly any cooking to do, very little clean up, and calories didn't count that day - so I loved it. Add an adult beverage, a football game and my hubby thought he was in heaven!
Several years ago, my son in law and I got into a Christmas contest to get a prank/gag gift for each other. I had started pulling tricks on him years before that, and I guess that evolved into Christmas gags. Some of the things he has come up with for me were so hysterically funny, I laughed until I had tears streaming down my face. Having heard him complain and whine about the fact that with 4 females in the house, he was always going to the store for toilet paper, I knew what that year's gift would be. I bought him the biggest package of toilet paper I could find and put a bow on it. I think it had 40 rolls in it or something like that. He almost fell off the couch laughing. I had other ones that were even better, but that will have to be a whole other blog!
I could write pages and pages about Christmas traditions from the time I was a little girl to the present. But I would rather close now, and hopefully, hear about traditions from others who read this blog. Merry Christmas to all, and may the next year be filled with joy, peace and love.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Decisions and their effect
Today must be a good day for decisions. Before I even got out of bed this morning, I had made a couple of decisions that I had been putting off. One made me a little leery, one made my husband extremely happy (he gets a Christmas present he wanted). For us, there are many decisions looming on the horizon that will affect us in many ways. Even though you make the decision, and you THINK you know what will happen - life often laughs in your face - and you get a totally unexpected result.
One of the things I was thinking about this morning was retirement. I want so very much to retire after another year of teaching. Physically, I am not sure my body can take many more years of 13 hour days, and the energy it takes to actively teach for 7 hours straight. But immediately upon that thought was the absolute certainty that if I do retire, we will starve! Watching the prices of every single thing in the US go sky high gives me the willies! I don't expect inflation to stop anytime soon, and retirement would mean almost 1/2 of our income being cut - so probably won't get to retire when I want to. I kid my fellow teachers that they will be wheeling me in on a gurney when I'm 80 to teach!
I started into teaching late after my family was raised. Went to collge, got my degree and got a teaching job. Sometimes the thought flows through my head when I think of retirement, and I wish I had done this years and years earlier. Probably, my retirement salary would have been enough by now to retire. But within seconds of that wishful thinking, comes a strong sense of what I would have missed had I made that decision when I was 19 to finish college and get a degree.
First off, I can almost guarantee I would not be a teacher. I was a typical 19 year old, not really sure what I wanted to do with my life. I went to college for one year at Alva, OK, met the love of my life, got married, moved and proceeded to live my life. I got good grades, but I had no real direction that I was aiming for. I may have gotten a degree that would have been worthless. It was only after having my family, and seeing some of the fabulous teachers my children had growing up, that the urge to teach began to haunt me. It is truly in my soul, and although it is back breaking, and sometime heartbreaking work, I am blessed for having made the right decision that led me to getting a teaching degree at 43 years old.
Then I got to thinking about what that decision I made to marry at 19 led me to. My first job after marriage was at DHS. Lots of typing, and lots of seeing the poverty that many families lived in. It made me extremely grateful on a daily basis for what I had.
Other jobs that came my way seemed to fit whatever circumstances we were in. When the kids were little and I didn't want them to have to be in daycare, I babysat, made crafts at home and sold them, and sold tupperware when my husband was on the right shift to babysit. All of those jobs gave me a little more knowledge in many different ways. Finances, more experience with children, learning I did have some craftiness in my body :) and learning to juggle raising children and my job - but without having to haul the kids to daycare every day. I worked as an inspector at the elections - and that worked when my kids were older because the elections weren't very often. I got a job cleaning trash at a drivein theater. Lots of knowledge there - and the kids got to earn their very first job money helping me in the mornings. I learned that regardless of the job, you do your best. I cleaned the inside of the concession stand and learned a LOT about getting popcorn grease off the floor, and cleaning restrooms (YUCK). The funny thing about that job, is that recycling paid really, really good then. We couldn't afford a bicycle for our son, but thanks to picking up cans and bottles that people brought and threw out at the drivein - we made enough money one summer by recycling to pay for a bicycle for him. Not bad! I even learned about nature - because Kildare birds would make their nests in the gravel. The kids were always hunting to find their nests, because they were really camouflouged. We looked up information about Kildeer, and the kids got a nature lesson.
Then a brand new program was implemented in the Juvenile Department. I was hired as secretary to the Restitution Program - where teens who have done damage pay off the bill. We helped them get hired by companies, etc. I was only secretary for a few months, and then the Restitution Officer quit, and they moved me into the position. All of a sudden, I was meeting with perspective employers (and I was about as shy as they come in those days), learning how to business talk correctly, and match kids with jobs. I had to apply for the grant every year, and manage every bit of money - including figuring out how much social security money, state withholding and federal withholding to keep out of my check. I did hire a secretary for a month or so, and she moved. So I did it all. To get the grant each year, because the total grant money was smaller each year, I had to present my program to a board, tell them WHY I should be the program that got the money that year, instead of someplace else in OK. To say I was terrified is the understatement of the year. Talking in front of a group was something I was beyond terrified to do. But I did it, I learned and I truly think that experience helped me when I became a teacher.
Eventually, the grant was empty, and I was hired to become an Assistant Juvenile Officer. I learned all about court stuff, even had to testify on occasion. I was dropped into the darker side of child abuse and molestation - and took away the innocence that I had. I KNEW things like that happened, but until you have witnessed the aftereffects, and typed the details for court - you really don't know. I learned pages after pages of laws as to what we could charge kids with. I learned to work under a deadline - or an abused child would go back to their abusive family. 24 hours is a really tight deadline, and sometimes I would be typing the petition up hours before the child would have gone back to that horrible family.
Sounds like I wrote a resume! But the decision to marry, have children, and move 200 miles away from my little hometown, shaped my life. It got me to where I am today. So although I would love to have a bigger retirement from teaching more years, those experience in between shaped me and made me who I am today - for better or worse!
AND my last word on this - I would never, ever have changed those experineces and the chance to spend more time with my kids, including the last few years of high school when I didn't have a job at all due to my health. I treasure the lunch times when they came flying in the door, I fed them, we chattered and they went flying back out to school. I never knew who they would bring home for lunch, so I always made plenty. I got to meet an exchange student from the Netherlands and one from Turkey - as well as see their close friends on a regular basis.
Decisions don't always turn out how we expect. But years later, those decisions are what shapes our life and make us who we are.
Peace and love to all.
One of the things I was thinking about this morning was retirement. I want so very much to retire after another year of teaching. Physically, I am not sure my body can take many more years of 13 hour days, and the energy it takes to actively teach for 7 hours straight. But immediately upon that thought was the absolute certainty that if I do retire, we will starve! Watching the prices of every single thing in the US go sky high gives me the willies! I don't expect inflation to stop anytime soon, and retirement would mean almost 1/2 of our income being cut - so probably won't get to retire when I want to. I kid my fellow teachers that they will be wheeling me in on a gurney when I'm 80 to teach!
I started into teaching late after my family was raised. Went to collge, got my degree and got a teaching job. Sometimes the thought flows through my head when I think of retirement, and I wish I had done this years and years earlier. Probably, my retirement salary would have been enough by now to retire. But within seconds of that wishful thinking, comes a strong sense of what I would have missed had I made that decision when I was 19 to finish college and get a degree.
First off, I can almost guarantee I would not be a teacher. I was a typical 19 year old, not really sure what I wanted to do with my life. I went to college for one year at Alva, OK, met the love of my life, got married, moved and proceeded to live my life. I got good grades, but I had no real direction that I was aiming for. I may have gotten a degree that would have been worthless. It was only after having my family, and seeing some of the fabulous teachers my children had growing up, that the urge to teach began to haunt me. It is truly in my soul, and although it is back breaking, and sometime heartbreaking work, I am blessed for having made the right decision that led me to getting a teaching degree at 43 years old.
Then I got to thinking about what that decision I made to marry at 19 led me to. My first job after marriage was at DHS. Lots of typing, and lots of seeing the poverty that many families lived in. It made me extremely grateful on a daily basis for what I had.
Other jobs that came my way seemed to fit whatever circumstances we were in. When the kids were little and I didn't want them to have to be in daycare, I babysat, made crafts at home and sold them, and sold tupperware when my husband was on the right shift to babysit. All of those jobs gave me a little more knowledge in many different ways. Finances, more experience with children, learning I did have some craftiness in my body :) and learning to juggle raising children and my job - but without having to haul the kids to daycare every day. I worked as an inspector at the elections - and that worked when my kids were older because the elections weren't very often. I got a job cleaning trash at a drivein theater. Lots of knowledge there - and the kids got to earn their very first job money helping me in the mornings. I learned that regardless of the job, you do your best. I cleaned the inside of the concession stand and learned a LOT about getting popcorn grease off the floor, and cleaning restrooms (YUCK). The funny thing about that job, is that recycling paid really, really good then. We couldn't afford a bicycle for our son, but thanks to picking up cans and bottles that people brought and threw out at the drivein - we made enough money one summer by recycling to pay for a bicycle for him. Not bad! I even learned about nature - because Kildare birds would make their nests in the gravel. The kids were always hunting to find their nests, because they were really camouflouged. We looked up information about Kildeer, and the kids got a nature lesson.
Then a brand new program was implemented in the Juvenile Department. I was hired as secretary to the Restitution Program - where teens who have done damage pay off the bill. We helped them get hired by companies, etc. I was only secretary for a few months, and then the Restitution Officer quit, and they moved me into the position. All of a sudden, I was meeting with perspective employers (and I was about as shy as they come in those days), learning how to business talk correctly, and match kids with jobs. I had to apply for the grant every year, and manage every bit of money - including figuring out how much social security money, state withholding and federal withholding to keep out of my check. I did hire a secretary for a month or so, and she moved. So I did it all. To get the grant each year, because the total grant money was smaller each year, I had to present my program to a board, tell them WHY I should be the program that got the money that year, instead of someplace else in OK. To say I was terrified is the understatement of the year. Talking in front of a group was something I was beyond terrified to do. But I did it, I learned and I truly think that experience helped me when I became a teacher.
Eventually, the grant was empty, and I was hired to become an Assistant Juvenile Officer. I learned all about court stuff, even had to testify on occasion. I was dropped into the darker side of child abuse and molestation - and took away the innocence that I had. I KNEW things like that happened, but until you have witnessed the aftereffects, and typed the details for court - you really don't know. I learned pages after pages of laws as to what we could charge kids with. I learned to work under a deadline - or an abused child would go back to their abusive family. 24 hours is a really tight deadline, and sometimes I would be typing the petition up hours before the child would have gone back to that horrible family.
Sounds like I wrote a resume! But the decision to marry, have children, and move 200 miles away from my little hometown, shaped my life. It got me to where I am today. So although I would love to have a bigger retirement from teaching more years, those experience in between shaped me and made me who I am today - for better or worse!
AND my last word on this - I would never, ever have changed those experineces and the chance to spend more time with my kids, including the last few years of high school when I didn't have a job at all due to my health. I treasure the lunch times when they came flying in the door, I fed them, we chattered and they went flying back out to school. I never knew who they would bring home for lunch, so I always made plenty. I got to meet an exchange student from the Netherlands and one from Turkey - as well as see their close friends on a regular basis.
Decisions don't always turn out how we expect. But years later, those decisions are what shapes our life and make us who we are.
Peace and love to all.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Dear Santa
Dear Santa,
I am 60 years old but yet I feel the urge to give you my Christmas list. When I had my students write about having three wishes, I told them they needed to have 2 that helped the world or their family, and one could be completely selfish. Since I intend to give you WAY more than 3 things on my list, I'm doing the selfish ones first, and there will MORE than 1, trust me!
I would REALLY like a Mitsubishi 3000 GT, Candy Apple Red. See Santa, they don't make that model anymore, so you will have to find one somewhere that can be restored. And Santa, I want a stereo sound system that will blow those punks out of the water that sit at the stop light and all you can hear is "boom, boom, boom, boom" that shakes your car and makes your teeth ache!
Could you please make our house bigger. That would sure help Mr. B. get around it in his wheelchair better. Particularly could you make our bedroom bigger so I don't have to squeeze between the wall and wheelchair to take care of him. Thanks - that would be great!
AND Santa, could you arrange a world trip for my sister and I? We would both like to travel the world before we get too old, but that takes WAY more money than either of us will have in a lifetime. Let's see ..... France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Scotland, Ireland, England, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, and pretty please, a safari to Africa! Hmmm - better add in there the South American Rainforest and the ruins of the Atzec Nation and Inca Nation. When we get through with all that, we are going to be pooped, so how about a trip to Tahiti so we can just sit on the sand and veg!
Now since I got that out of my system, I can focus on family and world. For both my kids, would you please pay off all their debts, their house, cars, medical bills and any remaining student loans. Mr. B. and I just couldn't pay for their college outright, so both sets of families have loans to pay off. Besides, I'd kind of like them to get those paid for before their children get in college and they have to start paying on those! :)
Would you also please bring peace to our world? I am so tired of hearing which militant group who has more guns and is more depraved, having the upper hand over civilians that just want to live their life. Please bring war to an end. Let the children go to school without worrying about getting blown up on their way. Bring a stop to the depraved raping and killing of women that goes on in many countries of the world. Let men in other countries see the value of women, and let them be a first class citizen instead of someone to control and hurt when they feel like it.
Now Santa, I know my list is getting long, but I do have one last request, that would not only make our family happy, but would make a LOT of people happy who have invested prayers, emotions, money and food in this particular problem. Could you please, pretty please, bring my granddaughter a new liver. I don't want to have someone die so she can live, so this will require a HUGE miracle Santa. If that is not possible, then could you please take away her 24/7 pain so she can function as normally as she can with this disease. Give her sisters some extra attention because they need it so badly. Bring extra strength to their parents who are exhausted and emotionally drained.
Really and truly Santa, skip all the wishes except the liver. That would make a ton of people happy.
Thank you Santa,
Marty Bittle
I am 60 years old but yet I feel the urge to give you my Christmas list. When I had my students write about having three wishes, I told them they needed to have 2 that helped the world or their family, and one could be completely selfish. Since I intend to give you WAY more than 3 things on my list, I'm doing the selfish ones first, and there will MORE than 1, trust me!
I would REALLY like a Mitsubishi 3000 GT, Candy Apple Red. See Santa, they don't make that model anymore, so you will have to find one somewhere that can be restored. And Santa, I want a stereo sound system that will blow those punks out of the water that sit at the stop light and all you can hear is "boom, boom, boom, boom" that shakes your car and makes your teeth ache!
Could you please make our house bigger. That would sure help Mr. B. get around it in his wheelchair better. Particularly could you make our bedroom bigger so I don't have to squeeze between the wall and wheelchair to take care of him. Thanks - that would be great!
AND Santa, could you arrange a world trip for my sister and I? We would both like to travel the world before we get too old, but that takes WAY more money than either of us will have in a lifetime. Let's see ..... France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Scotland, Ireland, England, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, and pretty please, a safari to Africa! Hmmm - better add in there the South American Rainforest and the ruins of the Atzec Nation and Inca Nation. When we get through with all that, we are going to be pooped, so how about a trip to Tahiti so we can just sit on the sand and veg!
Now since I got that out of my system, I can focus on family and world. For both my kids, would you please pay off all their debts, their house, cars, medical bills and any remaining student loans. Mr. B. and I just couldn't pay for their college outright, so both sets of families have loans to pay off. Besides, I'd kind of like them to get those paid for before their children get in college and they have to start paying on those! :)
Would you also please bring peace to our world? I am so tired of hearing which militant group who has more guns and is more depraved, having the upper hand over civilians that just want to live their life. Please bring war to an end. Let the children go to school without worrying about getting blown up on their way. Bring a stop to the depraved raping and killing of women that goes on in many countries of the world. Let men in other countries see the value of women, and let them be a first class citizen instead of someone to control and hurt when they feel like it.
Now Santa, I know my list is getting long, but I do have one last request, that would not only make our family happy, but would make a LOT of people happy who have invested prayers, emotions, money and food in this particular problem. Could you please, pretty please, bring my granddaughter a new liver. I don't want to have someone die so she can live, so this will require a HUGE miracle Santa. If that is not possible, then could you please take away her 24/7 pain so she can function as normally as she can with this disease. Give her sisters some extra attention because they need it so badly. Bring extra strength to their parents who are exhausted and emotionally drained.
Really and truly Santa, skip all the wishes except the liver. That would make a ton of people happy.
Thank you Santa,
Marty Bittle
Thursday, December 1, 2011
There Can Be Miracles - to DJ
D.J., my brave granddaughter - this is dedicated to you. Hang in there. Thousands of people are praying for a miracle for you. You are so loved. from your mimi
Many nights we prayed
With no proof anyone could hear
In our hearts a hope for a song
We barely understood
Now we are not afraid
Although we know there's much to fear
We were moving mountains
Long before we knew we could, whoa, yes
There can be miracles
When you believe
Though hope is frail
It's hard to kill
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve
When you believe somehow you will
You will when you believe
[Mmmmmmmmmyeah]
Mmmyeah
In this time of fear
When prayer so often proves in vain
Hope seems like the summer bird
Too swiftly flown away
Yet now I'm standing here
My hearts so full, I can't explain
Seeking faith and speaking words
I never thought I'd say
There can be miracles
When you believe (When you believe)
Though hope is frail
It's hard to kill (Mmm)
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve (You can achieve)
When you believe somehow you will
You will when you believe
[Hey]
[Ooh]
They don't always happen when you ask
And it's easy to give in to your fears
But when you're blinded by your pain
Can't see the way, get through the rain
A small but still, resilient voice
Says love is very near, oh [Oh]
There can be miracles (Miracles)
When you believe (Boy, when you believe, yeah) [Though hope is frail]
Though hope is frail [Its hard]
It's hard to kill (Hard to kill, oh, yeah)
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve (You can achieve, oh)
When you believe somehow you will (Somehow, somehow, somehow)
Somehow you will (I know, I know, know)
You will when you believe [When you]
(Ohoh)
[You will when you]
(You will when you believe)
[Oohoohooh]
[Oh... oh]
[When you believe]
[When you believe]
- written by Stephen Schwartz -
My favorite version is sung by the Celtic Women. Magnificent, incredible performance. If you get to watch their DVD where they perform at dusk in front of a castle in Ireland - the beauty is breathtaking and actually helps you believe that miracles can happen. That's what I want for Christmas - a miracle for my family.
Many nights we prayed
With no proof anyone could hear
In our hearts a hope for a song
We barely understood
Now we are not afraid
Although we know there's much to fear
We were moving mountains
Long before we knew we could, whoa, yes
There can be miracles
When you believe
Though hope is frail
It's hard to kill
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve
When you believe somehow you will
You will when you believe
[Mmmmmmmmmyeah]
Mmmyeah
In this time of fear
When prayer so often proves in vain
Hope seems like the summer bird
Too swiftly flown away
Yet now I'm standing here
My hearts so full, I can't explain
Seeking faith and speaking words
I never thought I'd say
There can be miracles
When you believe (When you believe)
Though hope is frail
It's hard to kill (Mmm)
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve (You can achieve)
When you believe somehow you will
You will when you believe
[Hey]
[Ooh]
They don't always happen when you ask
And it's easy to give in to your fears
But when you're blinded by your pain
Can't see the way, get through the rain
A small but still, resilient voice
Says love is very near, oh [Oh]
There can be miracles (Miracles)
When you believe (Boy, when you believe, yeah) [Though hope is frail]
Though hope is frail [Its hard]
It's hard to kill (Hard to kill, oh, yeah)
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve (You can achieve, oh)
When you believe somehow you will (Somehow, somehow, somehow)
Somehow you will (I know, I know, know)
You will when you believe [When you]
(Ohoh)
[You will when you]
(You will when you believe)
[Oohoohooh]
[Oh... oh]
[When you believe]
[When you believe]
- written by Stephen Schwartz -
My favorite version is sung by the Celtic Women. Magnificent, incredible performance. If you get to watch their DVD where they perform at dusk in front of a castle in Ireland - the beauty is breathtaking and actually helps you believe that miracles can happen. That's what I want for Christmas - a miracle for my family.
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