Parenthetically Yours

Accidental Sabbath

I suppose I took a sabbatical.

I didn’t mean to, it just happened. First came Thanksgiving week. I knew I wouldn’t be able to contribute much to the blog that week but I figured I’d make up for it during December with my love of all things Christmas. I even was planning a 12-Days-of-Christmas theme where I’d write about that song over the dozen days leading up to the Big Day…but plans (and rules) were meant to be broken.

Break them, I did. Scrapped is more like it. I found myself enjoying the lazy mornings with coffee and conversation too much to even open the computer for writing purposes. Instead, I read and conversed. There’s something that happens when you let information come in rather than only go out. It does something for me, at least. Don’t get me wrong—I love giving my opinion and I usually feel pretty strongly about it. But if you want to see me inspired or contemplative, give me a good book or article or catch me after a conversation with Randy Elrod or Matt Gilder. Or a movie, a documentary.

I love information. I love analyzing it, reformatting it, and disseminating it again. I guess that’s why I got my degrees in Journalism and Education.  And I guess that’s why I took some time off from this site. Just needed to get inspired, watch some TV, listen to some music.

I did just that and now I’m back, inspired (again), and fattened from too many dense holiday meals. In the last 30 days I’ve probably had 15-20 carb-heavy meals, thanks to the Christmas tour I was on. I don’t want to see another potato or cheese or a dinner roll until next Thanksgiving.

Or maybe next Thursday.

(rw)

Favorite Things Friday!

My first fave this week is my wife. Today she got up early, scraped two inches of snow and ice off the car, drove in 4-wheel-drive to work, worked a full day, managed to get 200 cds copied, Christmas cards printed, and made it to the Opry House where she's meeting her friend Adie to watch the Rockettes. How this woman manages to get it all done is beyond me. And why she likes me is an even greater mystery. I miss you! 

My second favorite thing today is college towns. I'm in Lincoln, NE today and you can't beat a good college town for great food, great music, and great shops. Austin is my favorite college town but it's followed closely (and in no particular order) by Nashville, Oxford, MS, Athens, GA, Denton, TX, Columbia, MO, State College, PA, Fayetteville, AR, and Boulder, CO.  They're always a tad funkier than most cities and you can always find great coffee, weird people, and cheap food. 

And finally, there are few things I look forward to as much as my buddy Dave Barnes' Christmas (or Balumtime-th) YouTube greetings. I'm not even gonna set it up. All you need to know is that he's a wickedly great singer/songwriter with an equally sharp sense of humor. 

(rw)

Where am I?

What is this thing here? Oh…yeah. I have a blog. Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of the season, one can forget what really matters. Important things like peace on earth, goodwill to men, the Christ-child in the manger, and blogging. Not necessarily in that order.

Yeah, it’s been a little busy at the Williams homestead. We’re putting the finishing touches on two Christmas projects, both of which require a great deal of work. Nothing difficult, just time consuming…and no, I will not go into detail regarding the above-mentioned projects because they’re gifts and some of the recipients check this site out from time to time…so GET OUT! I’m trying to wrap presents in here.

To further complicate things, I left Tennessee last Wednesday to be the tour rep for Compassion International on the Point of Grace Winter Wonderland tour. I’ve done this all four years the girls have done this tour, so here I am again. In fact, I met Katie when I was on this tour in 2005. She was helping out when the tour came to Denton, TX and my heart jumped a little as if it recognized an old friend when I saw her. The rest is history, but not necessarily her-story.

Well, my friends, the morning is waning. We’re pulling into Wichita and I need to get back to work on one of the above-mentioned projects. It requires the use of a pretty intense photo-editing program that was designed to be used with newer computer technology. Let me just say that in computer years, a five-year old laptop is 118 in human years. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. But…we do what we can, we soldier on…but not before putting my head through a dozen walls waiting for photos to upload.

…it’s the most wonderful time…

(rw)

O Christmas Tree (stand)

I’m sitting here looking at a sad Christmas tree.  Actually, at this point, it’s only a small Fraser fir propped up against the wall. A tree doesn’t become a Christmas tree until the ornaments, lights, shiny balls, garland, popcorn-on-Trilene, etc, have all been flung upon the little bush.

Some plans fell through last night so Katie and I got all gung-ho to put up a tree. Through a series of stops and starts, we finally managed to get a tree into the house around 10 p.m. Yeah, kind of late to start trimming, but we managed to get completely off our normal schedule during the nine days we were away last week (which explains my lack of blogging lately). By the time we ended our week, we were staying up to nearly 2 a.m. and waking around 9 or later.  So, by the time we got the tree inside, we were still a good three hours from bedtime.

We found a great deal on trees from an independent farm in North Carolina at Kroger. We really wanted to support the local Boy Scouts but their lowest price was over twice what we paid at Kroger. I’m all about supporting the li’l troops, but they need to get a hint from their sister tribe and start selling cookies to raise money. Or gasoline.

We got things arranged in the house to make room by the front window because, well, you know, you gotta show off your Christmas spirit. We got spirit, yes we do! We got spirit…and here’s a shiny tree in our front window to prove it! Then I broke several mom-inspired rules by building an incredibly precarious ladder consisting of a chair, a toolbox, and a guitar amp to retrieve our decorations from the attic. It was precisely the right height and I didn’t fall. Success.

So, décor down, space secure, tree inside, coffee brewing, nativity scene in place, Ella Fitzgerald playing…the scene was idyllic. “Honey, where’s our tree stand?” called my beloved. “Uh…in the storage room?” “No it’s not.” We spent the next 30 minutes turning our 1,100 square feet upside down. How many places can a tree stand hide? Apparently there’s at least one really amazing hiding spot that it has found.

Do you know how difficult it is to decorate a tree as it’s leaning against the wall? Very. So I take off back to Kroger (it’s 10:50 at this point) and spent a good 15 minutes scouring the entire store for a simple stand. Do you know what? They don’t sell ‘em. Sure, they have ornaments, lights, shiny balls, garland, popcorn…they even have an animated Santa that wiggles around to a Brenda Lee song when you come near it. They have 200 trees out front and nary a stand to set them into (yeah, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition. Deal with it, grammar Nazi!).

So, here I sit donning my elf hat (with fake ears) waiting for the hardware store around the corner to open. I’m determined to not have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. This little fir is going to get the best high-performance stand money can buy.

As long as it’s under $15.

(rw)