Captured Moments

The boys and I headed to our favorite downtown barber shop this morning. New Year's Eve withstanding, they were both in desperate need of haircuts. Foggy, empty streets... I think we were some of the few in town who were out and about.

Tukes waited patiently... he is never eager for a haircut.

"Dose ewectric cwippers tickle me and I can't bweave {breathe}."

Each moment that we live is undoubtedly a gift from the Father. One of my goals for 2010 is to capture more of them... more of the simple, everyday life moments, the seemingly insignificant moments, the ones that ultimately construct a year on the calendar and a lifetime in our memories.

Pondering Rice Pudding

I've been thinking about dessert all day, and rightfully so I'd say, after choking down a serving of glucola and enduring an arm-bruising blood draw at the doctor's office this morning. {By the way, I did pass my glucose tolerance test. Phew!}

When we were bashing around New York a few weeks ago the professor and I happened upon a place one evening that totally intrigued us. By appearance we thought it was an ice cream parlor, but the name says it all. Y'all, Rice to Riches is a storefront that sells rice pudding... only rice pudding. This boggles my mind. Can a place in NYC really make it simply by selling different flavors of sweet, creamy rice? Apparently so. Is rice pudding really that good? I guess it is.

If we hadn't just stuffed ourselves with pizza at Lombardi's we would've stepped right in and sampled rice pudding, but alas we were full, very full. Believe it or not, I've never had rice pudding. Never. So, tomorrow I'm planning to stir some together for us to enjoy as we usher in the New Year.

Savoring Simplicity

I stood in my sunny kitchen this morning and savored a simple breakfast orange. After all the rich food we've had of late it was delicious and refreshing.


The day commenced with the slow, methodical tasks of cleaning up, cleaning out, and undecorating. It felt nice. After the busyness and bliss of Christmas and its delightful festivity I am savoring our return to a simpler life.

God With Us

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" -- which means, "God with us."

Matthew 1:22-23

The Merriest

From a dreamy trip to New York...

To their first electric train set, new die-cast trucks, and whoops of delight...

To an afternoon spent with loved ones {and good food}...

It was, indeed, the very merriest of Christmases!

And, the celebrating continues tomorrow with aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins!

My cup {and my heart} overflow.

The Savior is Born

Let the stable still astonish:
Straw—dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,
And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said, “Yes,
Let the God of all the heavens
And earth
Be born here, in this place?”
Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms
Of our hearts and says, “Yes, let the God
Of Heaven and Earth be born here—
In this place.”

~Leslie Leyland Fields

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor,

so that you through His poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:9

...and wonders of His love,

and wonders, wonders of His love!

Visions of Sugar-Plums

Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?

'Tis a marvel of great renown!

It blooms on the shore of the Lollypop Sea

In the garden of Shut-Eye Town;

The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet

{As those who have tasted it say}

That good little children have only to eat

Of that fruit to be happy next day...

There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes

With striping of scarlet and gold,

And you carry away of the treasure that rains,

As much as your apron can hold!

So come, little child, cuddle closer to me

In your dainty white nightcap and gown,

And I'll rock you away to the Sugar-Plum Tree

In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.

excerpts from The Sugar-Plum Tree

by Eugene Field

Happenings and Mistletoe

This is what my two blue-eyed wonders were doing in the front yard when our pastor and his wife stopped by with homemade cinnamon rolls. The boys, clad in wet jeans and a good coating of mud, eagerly showed off their operation to the innocent bystanders. Our pastor's wife, a mother of two sons and a grandmother of five grandsons, knowingly responded, "I'll bet your mother didn't know what you were doing."

Indeed.

Look, the professor brought home some fresh mistletoe! I think it's beautiful.

Christmas Jamming

Because I had a gallon of this summer's figs stowed in the freezer...

Because the boys were playing happily...

Because I was a few jars of jam short of what I needed...

I made some orange-y, cinnamon-y fig jam.

And then...

Because I had gained some jamming momentum...

Because the cranberries are so pretty and festive...

Because I was having fun...

I tried to make Christmas-y cranberry jam but it turned out more like relish, oh well.

Gift baskets are now being filled and delivered.

NYC: Ten Years... Two Months Early

The professor and I often dreamed {and planned} of celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary with a trip to New York City. For most of this year it was a trip that we were planning but then... we discovered there was a baby on the way {by late February 2010 I will definitely be "great with child"} and there was a costly double bathroom debacle on the heels of a major kitchen renovation. Suddenly timing and finances became big complicating factors to our travel plans dreams. We talked, we crunched the numbers, we looked at dates, and ultimately we decided that, considering the circumstances, a quiet {and relatively inexpensive} weekend on the gulf coast would be a more appropriate getaway for our tenth anniversary.

But...

The professor does not let go of dreams easily. He secretly made plans and did some financial juggling and, unbeknownst to me, planned a delightful, memorable, and generous trip to New York for the two of us. Knowing that I don't love surprises {especially big ones} he handed me a card one morning, exactly three weeks before we were to depart. It said:

your kiss.

ten years of bliss.

a stealaway not to miss...

December 13th-16th

New York.

Let's do it!

And so, we went to New York. It was four blissful days of celebrating ten happy, blessed years of marriage... two months early!

Truly, I should end this post here, but because this little place is the only semblance of a scrapbook that I keep be warned, there are many photos {all shot by the professor} to follow...

Radio City Music Hall in the night rain.

Our favorite breakfast spot, Ess-a-Bagel.

The Seagram Building, designed by Mies van der Rohe, 1958

The boys would absolutely love this place!

{Yes, Santa did a bit of Christmas shopping here!}

Central Park

Look, I'm in LOVE,

and I'm in-love!

LOVE by Robert Indiana, 1964

An afternoon spent at MoMA.

Jackson Pollack {and me} at MoMA.

The whole city sparkled.

New York at Christmas is truly wonderful.

A trip highlight, dinner at '21'.

Rockefeller Plaza

Times Square

Macy's, where the professor's favorite attraction...

was the vintage, wooden escalators!

The Empire State Building,

although we agree, the Chrysler Building is far more elegant.

The Empire State Building as seen from Bryant Park.

I cannot believe that no one ever told me to visit the New York Public Library.

We happened upon it quite by accident and were stunned.

It is gorgeous.

When and if you are ever in New York... visit the library!!!

The Rose Main Reading Room, New York Public Library, Third Floor

Look at all the people!

Park Avenue at night.

Little Italy dressed for Christmas.

The city from atop The Empire State Building.

The Chrysler Building

More Christmas shopping accomplished here.

Lever House, 1951

Grand Central Station

Our "stealaway" was nothing short of grand. I am overwhelmed and humbled by such a thoughtful, loving, and generous gift from my dear husband. This Christmas there will be no presents under the tree for the two of us and in February there will be no diamond anniversary bands, but the four days of blissful togetherness spent exploring a new place was worth every penny!

Jesus Christ, Humbled and Exalted

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

Today

The weather outside was frightful; being at home was so delightful;

And since we had no place to go, we built a candy house for show!

Hallelujah, school is {finally} out for Christmas break! We are a happy, happy crew.

After lunch today we got the carols spinning on the hi-fi. To celebrate this morning's official dismissal from academics I pulled out the gingerbread house kit that I bought on clearance at Ikea after last Christmas.

With all the goody bags the boys have brought home lately you can be sure I didn't buy any candy for the project. Of course, they ate some sweets while they worked but most of it they happily contributed to construction. I think our dentist would approve.