Every year I set goals on New Years. Every year by my birthday on January 5th, all if not most of them, are broken (more later on why I have the WORST BIRTHDAY EVER). Anyhow, this year I have decided that I will set realistic goals for 2009, and henceforth refer to it as the Year of Realism. Really.

Goal 1 – Obtain and wear cute pajamas

Okay, you know the t-shirt you got from the 10k run your friend did in high school and then you borrowed it and she moved away and you still have it? Yeah, I sleep in that t-shirt. The pants are an equally ill-advised Marshall’s find that never fit right in the first place 5 years ago when you got them and that is why they were only $4.99. My husband and my children deserve better than to see me put on clothes that homeless people would pass up every night at 7 p.m.  New pajamas for me in 2009! Who says you can’t go to bed cute?

Goal 2 – Reduce caffeine intake, slightly.

I am the girl who carries her giant Starbucks travel mug in to work every day and then chases it with a soy latte in the late afternoon. The caffeine addiction needs to stop but that isn’t realistic and remember this is the Year of Realism soooooo, I am going to commit to one caffeinated beverage a day. Period.

Goal 3 – Loose 5 pounds.

I need to loose 10 pounds so I am compromising by cutting it in half for now and saying that I will loose 5 pounds. I joined Weight Watchers (I promise a post on this very soon) and I am committed to loosing at least 5 pounds and then re-evaluating after that.

Goal 4 – Be quiet more often

I am a talker. Wow, is that an understatement. I realized lately when I was mad at someone that I get really quiet toward people when I am mad at them, subsequently I hear everything that they say. I need to do that more – more listening, not more being mad at people. I just talk too much, more silence would reduce my stress and the stress on those around me.

Goal 5 – Have more sex

Okay this one is tricky. Well not tricky but sensitive. Not really sensitive but embarrassing. Wow, awkward! I read this thing about the couple that had sex every day (NOT HAPPENING, SORRY HONEY) but anyway they said it was really good for their relationship and it reduced stress to incorporate the “act” more often in their daily routine. So, enough said.

So that is the Top 5 Realistic Goals of 2009 for Jenn. What are some of your realistic goals?

This weekend I made 100 sugar cookies. I am broken and tired but they are finished. Every year I make the same cookies and every year I swear I won’t do it again because they are so much work. However, sometime around the 20th of December I find myself knee deep in flour and sugar and home made icing.

The recipe I use is from Mrs. Fields cookie cook book, and it is very simple. I just quadruple the ingredients and then add some powdered sugar frosting. This year I used powdered sugar to roll the dough out, which was a GREAT new trick because the dough doesn’t get hard with added flour and the cookies are a little sweeter! Below is what they look like before frosting:

And here is the final product:

I bought Christmas themed Chinese food boxes and put about 6-8 cookies in each box and attached a bow. I then delivered my little goodies to my fellow employees. Yeah me!

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the boys Christmas pageant, whereby about 35 toddlers re-enact the nativity scene, complete with a fake baby Jesus. It was more hilarious than words can describe but the pictures will give you some idea of the fun had by all.

On the way to school the morning of the pageant, as Isaac was preparing for his role as one of the 3 Kings, he was more pensive than usual. I could tell he was really thinking about something so I asked him what was going on in his little noggin that had him so serious. He said he was thinking about babies. It took me a while but I realized that the whole nativity scene thing had him rather focused on baby Jesus, thus he was “thinking about babies.”

The following conversation ensued:

Me: What babies are you thinking about?
Isaac: I was thinking about where babies come from.
Me:Hmmm. (in my head, HOLY CRAP COME UP WITH SOMETHING CLEVER NOW!!!)
Isaac: Where do Mommies come from?
Me: Girls become mommies when they have babies.
Isaac: But how do they get the babies?
Me: They are in their bellies and then they come out.
Isaac: Oh I know what happens!
Me: (oh crap, here we go)
Isaac: The babies are in space and God catches them up and then throws them to earth and into the mommies bellies. Yeah! That’s it, that is how it happens.
Me: Wow Isaac, you are so smart because that is EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS!

Clearly this kid is going to outwit me very soon…actually who am I kidding? I think he is smarter than me now. I’ve decided he should have been delivered with an instruction manual and education requirements. His brother however, just needed a helmet and some boxing gloves.

This favorite holiday dish can be found lingering in the kitchens of thousands, if not millions of homes, around the world this time of year. I thought I would I share my personal recipe with you!

• Take 1 major commercial holiday, add economic recession and stir
• In a separate bowl, mix 2 parts family drama and 1 part personal career meltdown
• Add a pinch of weight gain and self-loathing to taste
• Finally, stir in a decision to move in the month of January to a new house because the one you are in doesn’t have central heat and you forgot what having toes feels like.
• Combine all ingredients in a large casserole dish and wait for the manic explosion

This holiday recipe will not disappoint!

Yes you heard me right, we are moving to a new house in January. The new house part is great. The packing and moving at this time of year, with two small children might actually kill me. I suppose the good news about my impending death is apparently God’s house has many rooms, I am sure all of which have central heating.

Mazel tov!

We sang Christmas carols in church yesterday. Normally I hate this. I know, Scrooge right? I also hate singing patriotic songs. Send me to Gitmo now and save our country the heartache. Anyhow, I guess I just don’t feel the emotion in those Christmas songs – like we might as well be singing Jingle Bells because Away in a Manager carries the same emotional significance for me. All of the Christmas songs are simply something I’ve memorized over the many years but don’t take to heart. I could file them under: things that take up space in my brain where important stuff could reside, like understanding cell mitosis or how to balance a checkbook.

Absentmindedly fumbling through the church bulletin, I was barely paying attention to the words of the song as I mouthed them from memory. Then it struck me. The similarity – how have I missed it all these years? You see, there is a moment, when a child enters this earth that is positively spiritual. There are no words to describe what it feels like to labor in so much pain, and then suddenly to be handed a wiggling, crying little baby – a baby that is part you and part your mate. You don’t even bother to breathe in that moment as this life is passed through you, into the world and then into your open arms. It is the perfect moment, different with each child but equally brilliant with light.

As a pregnant woman you spend 9 months wondering about that baby inside you, dreaming of his/her face and praying for 10 fingers and 10 toes. When you hold that child for the first time, the rush of love and expectation is so great it could knock you over if you weren’t already laying down. The weight of the moment overtakes your soul like a storm and you are defenseless in its’ wake.

Thus was my experience with an “ordinary” baby. A baby that will grow up to be a sinful human like the rest of us. So what, must it have been like when the only perfect baby was born? What hallowed ground must Mary and Joseph known they were on? How desperate in labor and how fulfilled in delivery must Mary have been? What must it have felt like to be handed the King of the Earth, swaddled and warm?

I can’t fathom the feel of the air that night, electric with Joy that earth’s only true King had been born amongst animals and sinners and hay. Every mother believes her baby is one of a kind, but imagine Mary’s jubilation as her faith was rewarded with a bundle of grace and spiritual royalty. Hallowed ground, indeed.

As this realization twinkled then grew bright as the sun on my mind’s horizon, I was suddenly filled with a new understanding for these old Christmas hymns. In fact it was a Silent Night, Holy Night. I do desire to Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels. There is Joy to the world because the Lord is come, let earth receive her King!

Thanks to my friend Danaly – I found myself on this website.

It made me think about how we use so many words and sometimes, only a few are needed. Hemingway thought this concept up and called it “micro-fiction”. I wonder though if we could tell our own stories in six words. So readers, tell me something about yourself in 6 words?

I’ll go first:

Five positive tests, two healthy babies.

Lost father, was given a Dad.

Love the politics, hate the practitioners.