Ten on Tuesday

Questions for Tuesday, December 22, 2009.

1. When do you put up and take down your Christmas decorations?
This year we put up our Christmas decorations and tree on November 30th. We bought our first Christmas tree on black Friday and we were so excited to put it up! The tree has colored lights and 70% of the ornaments on the tree are related to Star Wars. Eric got all his ornaments from his mom when he moved to Austin and I still haven't collect all of mine.
2. What do you do to simplify the holiday season?
This year I tried to buy all of my Christmas presents on the first week of December so I could have the rest of the weeks to relax. The key word is I tried, I probably got done on the 15th.
3. What do you do to remind yourself and your family what the Christmas season is all about?
I have been studying the first couple chapters of Luke. Even though I have heard the story of the birth of Jesus many times, it never ceases to amaze me how God sent his son to save the world. What also helped me remember the true meaning of Christmas, was teaching my 4 year olds about the birth of Jesus. These past weeks I have been teaching them the story and then asking questions to see if they understood. Last week I decided to ask this question, "Why was baby Jesus so important?"
Here are some of the responses I got.
- He heals people with leprosy
- He makes you feel better when you are sad
- He protects you against lions
- He makes you happy
-He saves you from our sins (isn't that awesome!!)
- When your toy is broken, he will fix it
4. How do you spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?
This has been my second Christmas being a Brinkman. We spend Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with Eric's. For Christmas Eve we usually go to candlelight service at 6pm, head to China King and get take out. (best Chinese food I have ever eaten.) We sit around the table and eat our feast, watch "It's a Wonderful Life", open presents from the family and then hit the sack.
On Christmas Day we get woken up with jingle bells ( i love it!) run to the living room and open presents that Santa got us. We get ready and drive to St. Louis to be with our extended family. We have a aweosme meal, open presents and visit.
5. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? I have a few
1. Hearing the story of the birth of Jesus at Christmas Eve service.
2. Eating Chinese food on Christmas Eve with my family.
3. This tradition has just started, but it is hearing my 4 yr olds sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.
4. Making tamales with my grandma.
5. Kissing Eric under the mistletoe.
6. Getting to see my family and friends
6. Did you do the whole Santa thing growing up? What do you like/not like about continuing the tradition?
I did do the Santa thing growing up. I think I believed in him til I was about 9. I loved seeing the plate of cookies we would leave out for him and see that he only took one bite out of them. My mom would say, "He only took one bite because he had to make room for all the other cookies he would have to eat that night." I thing I didn't like growing up was hearing my mom and dad say, "Santa is watching you." I am a people pleaser so the thought of Santa putting me on the naughty list was horrible.
7. What is your favorite Christmas cookie?
My MIL (mother-in-law) and SIL makes about 6 different kinds of cookies for Christmas. They are all amazing, and I would have to say that their sugar cookies and snowballs are my faves.
8. How do you take your egg nog?
I like it poured in a glass Christmas cup. And all you Egg Nog haters...don't hate...appreciate the beverage of calories and holiday joy! :)
9. What is your favorite Christmas carol and why?
Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful
I love the repetition of, "Oh Come let us adore him."
10. When was the last time you had a white Christmas?
I have never had a white Christmas.
On Sunday we did get some snow here in IL. It wasn't a whole lot but I enjoyed seeing the yard covered in a blanket of white.

A Weekend of Games

Being married I realized that no matter what month, day, or time there will always be a game on that my husband HAS to watch. Saturday was no exception. We saw three games and only one game had a happy ending.

The morning started off with Eric watching his alma mater, University of Illinois. I have to admit that it was a good game, but at the end Fresno won with only 2 seconds left beating Illinois 53-52.

We still had some hope for our second game. We were going to go watch the San Antonio Spurs. We got two tickets to the game from our wonderful friends and we were so excited to watch a live NBA game. The beginning of the game looked promising. They were leading for awhile but after halftime things started to look down. They lost to Denver, 106-99. We still got to take some pictures!
Heading from the stadium to the car we were nervous to hear the score of the UT game, seeing that each game we saw ended with losses. We got in the car and turned on the radio. Through the AM static we could hearing cheering and Coach Brown congratulating his seniors. THEY WON!!! We were so excited to hear the awesome news and felt that the win of the Horns was worth the 2 losses...well maybe.
In this picture, you can tell I was excited to have my Saturday full of games! I am doing much better about enjoying one of Eric's favorite past times, and hope I will soon blog about Eric enjoying one of my hobbies.

Seven Quick Takes

My wonderful friend Chelsea is an amazing blogger and on Fridays she writes seven random things about herself and refers to this post as seven quick takes.
So...here are mine! Enjoy

1. Tomorrow (Friday, wrote this post last night.) the temperature will be from 25-36 degrees. I have been looking forward to this all week. I have planned my outfit since about Tuesday and have been daydreaming about how wonderful the snow showers will be. Knowing my awesome luck, there won't be any snow and I will be sweating all day from the obscene amount of layers I have on. Oh well...I am still excited!

2. On Tuesday I scheduled my dvr to record, Charlie Brown Christmas. Every year I miss it on tv, so I was determined to watch it. I even planned on my best friend to come over and enjoy hot chocolate and brownies while enjoying the movie. Tuesday afternoon I got the sad news that the show was getting postponed because of Obama's news conference. I was crushed.

3. For the past 3 weeks I have had puppy fever. Eric and I moved into our house in September and we now have room for a sweet little puppy. I realize my wonderful husband is extremely allergic to dander, and almost every dog makes him have an allergy attack. I made the word almost stick out because a few weeks ago we were over at a friends house and got to hang out with their maltese. Eric and I got to play with him for a little bit and to our surprise there was no runny noise, itchy eyes, and sneezes from Eric. I was in disbelief! Eric still thinks he is allergic to all dogs, but I know there is hope for the Brinkman family to one day be dog owners!

4. I am writing this post and it is 10:24pm. WAY past my bed time!! I try to go to bed between 9:45-10:10. I wake up at 5 and I am on my feet all day with my 4 yr olds...it's pretty exhausting.

5. Since it's December I got a new ringtone to celebrate the Christmas season. The song I choose was Last Christmas by Wham. Nothing says Christmas like a sad 80's singer who gave his heart to his girlfriend and then the very next day she gave it away.
The really sad part is that I hardly get to hear it play because my phone is always on silent when I'm at work. If you have my number, call me so I can hear my awesome ringtone. If you don't want to talk to me then let it ring for a bit and hang up. I would really love that...no really. I'm serious.

6. My new favorite website is lala.com. You can hear full length songs for free!
I have been using it to play Christmas songs while I am addressing my Christmas cards. You should check it out!

7. I really really hope I will be able to wake up tomorrow.

From October to December

The last time I updated the blog was at the end of October. I thought I was really going to keep up with writing every week but I soon failed. I made many attempts to make a new post but got intimidated by my fellow bloggers who post everyday.

I am done being intimidated and I stand in confidence that I will update regularly. (As much as I can...but more then once a month.

So here it goes...