Just a quick update for those of you who are curious:
On Friday, June 26th, Nicola and I made our appearance on Breakfast television with another lovely couple (Josh & Misty). Though, at first, we all appeared quite nervous, the segment went well.... at least, we felt pretty good about it.
Actually, we did two segments; the first was a remote appearance on Breakfast TV in Edmonton which was really weird because we were sitting on a couch in a boardroom with ear buds in our ears staring into a camera talking to the hosts in Edmonton... kinda strange because you can't see who you're talking to. The second segment was live here in Calgary... many of you saw it and your encouragement / support since then has been much appreciated.
Following our appearance we were told by one of the producers that they would be selecting the TOP 5 couples over the weekend and if we hadn't heard from them by Saturday night, then it was the end of the road for us.
To our delight we didn't have to wait long (although it seemed like an eternity). Friday night at around 5:30pm we got the call... AND we were selected to the TOP 5 finalists.
TOP 5 meant that we would have a home visit early the following week (last Monday, June 29th). They came to our house with cameras and wanted to do a candid walk through our current home. They filmed everything... they even asked to look inside our fridge which was packed full of random stuff from Maggie's birthday party on the weekend.... it was also the only place in the house we didn't clean in advance of the visit. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice!!!
Following the tour, Nic, Maggie, Lyla and I all piled on the couch for a candid filmed inteview about our life. This wasn't the easiest thing to do with a 2 year old who wanted to have me read her books at the same time, jump on the couch and sing but we got through it. Maggie was a star!
The final "audition" was last Friday, July 3rd. For this audition we had to come with three 20" by 30" presentation boards which detailed what we think our floor plans would look like for a main floor, upstairs and finished basement. All we were given in advance was a picture of a square and told to design within the square. This was quite the task but fun at the same time and we were very excited about our finished product. ( I took pictures of the boards so I might post them later). So Friday morning we went down to the Delta Bow Valley downtown during the Stampede parade to do our presention and we left feeling like we rocked it.
It is now out of our hands and in the hands of the jury. The jury is made up of the producers of the show, executives for RONA and representatives from City TV. They will be making the official announcement who the final two couples will be on Breakfast Television on Monday, July 13th. Fortunately we won't have to wait that long to find out. They told us that whether we are selected or not they will call us sometime this week to give us the news.
So now we wait... what will the outcome be???
I'm not a guy who typically looks at horoscopes but I thought I would share what our horoscopes were in the Calgary Sun today:
CANCER: (James) "The actions of others will aid and support you greatly. Money will appear seemingly without effort. Let others take charge for a while. Reap rewards. Things have come full circle. Good luck."
AQUARIUS: (Nicola) "This is a wonderful time to make fun plans with brothers or sisters or another one of your favourite family members. Creative energies will flow freely. People will find you beautiful, witty, flirty, and charming."
I know one can interpret these things in many ways but I thought they were amusing anyway.
With our fingers crossed we hold our breath and hope we are what they're looking for. We'll let y'all know either way.
JRM 7/6/2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Is The Mooney Family Bound For Reality TV?
So Thursday, June 11th I'm driving home from another long day at the office and I'm flipping through radio stations as I sit in traffic. I catch the tail end of a promotion for some contest called My Rona Home. I think Hhhhmmm... that sounds cool and then quickly dismiss it; gotta keep my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds you know, I have a family to support.
I arrive home exited to see my girls. As I enter the living room, there is Nicola completely engrossed in something on the computer. Her face lights up, "...hey sweetie, do you want to hear about a really neat contest?" "Is it My Rona Home?" I replied to her surprise. "YES!!! I heard about it on Breakfast Television this morning. Come sit! I'll tell you all about it." So Nicola proceeds to read the details to me from the website (<--- Click to see site) and tells me that the online contestant registration closes on Sunday, June 14th.
After kicking the idea around for 2 days we finally decide to dress our family up (see picture above) and submit our online application. Saturday night, just before bed, we finally sent it in and proceeded to lay in bed daydreaming about all the "what if's".
Like any other raffle, contest, lottery or promotion we figured it was a complete longshot that we would even get a call but we still enjoyed the pillowtalk into the wee hours of Sunday morning.
To our surprise, the longshot became a reality on Sunday afternoon (June 14th). WE GOT THE CALL... and to make a long and crazy story short, a little over a week later we've been through two telephone interviews, one live interview and one live interview/presentation on camera. In an absolute whirlwind, we've gone from daydreaming applicants to Top-100 to Top-10. This Friday, June 26th (Maggie's 2nd birthday, by the way) sometime between 9:00am and 10:00am, Nicola and I will be on City TV's Breakfast Television, here in Calgary, to conclude a week long introduction of each of the the Top-10 families to the viewing public.
Naturally, we are both excited and nervous. By the end of this upcoming Saturday we will know whether or not we've been selected to the Top-5 from which they will ultimately select their two families for the show. I don't even want to talk about the steps that will follow this next selection. One step at a time.
Keep your fingers crossed for us. We'll let you know if we make it past Saturday. Does anybody know what color makes you look....ohhhh say, 60 pounds lighter on television? I'm just a little worried about looking like Shrek next to all these tiny TV people. :)
JRM 6/22/2009
PS: Sorry we haven't provided an update in over a month on Lyla. She is doing excellent... eating, growing, sleeping and full of smiles. Maggie is so sweet with her... it melts our hearts. Pictures to come... JRM
Monday, May 18, 2009
More Pictures !!!
We have now been home a month with our little Lyla. There is much to share but time is at a premium these days. I will eventually share some of the stories of our first month together. In the meantime, I thought I would share a few more pictures of Lyla with y'all. Enjoy!!!
There's nothing more beautiful.
Momma, Maggie & Lyla.
Last picture at the hospital.
Welcome Home Lyla!
We're Home.
First family photo. Man we all look tired.
Lyla.... so peaceful. Doesn't she look like Maggie?
Open eyes.
Maggie is so sweet and gentle with Lyla.
She's going to be a good big sister.
Lyla
I'm Lyla.... Waaazzzzuuuuppp!
More to come. Thanks for checking in!
JRM
5/18/2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
It's a GIRL!!! It's a GIRL!!!
Hello friends and family...
We'll try to catch up with yáll soon. In the meantime, if you would like to share a thought with Nicola, please leave a comment here or you can send her an e-mail to my blackberry at:
I am brimming with pure joy to announce that our little Maggie is now a sister. This will come as a bit of a surprise to most; it certainly was to us. Our latest addition wasn't set to arrive until the end of the month. There is a long story to be told that I'll save for another post.
Let me start by saying that Nicola and I are sorry that we haven't made any phone calls yet. This isn't the most personal venue for our dear friends and family to get the news but here it is:
Lyla Claire Mooney was born today, Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 3:49pm. She weighed 3.434KG or around 7lbs 9oz and was 50 cm / 20 inches long.
Both Mommy and baby are resting and doing very well. It is expected that they will both spend the next few days in the hospital.
Here are a few pictures from today:
We'll try to catch up with yáll soon. In the meantime, if you would like to share a thought with Nicola, please leave a comment here or you can send her an e-mail to my blackberry at:JRM 4/16/2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Dumb...dumb...dumb & very lucky!
“Seven Posts in Seven Days” 6 of 7
Written back in January 2009
What does a terrible father do on a Saturday when it’s 10 degrees in January? Ohh, I don’t know, how about take your 6 month pregnant wife and 1 ½ year old daughter tobogganing (sledding for our American readers) down a 300 foot, slick, wintry slope on a plastic inflatable sled? Brilliant idea!?!
Then came the, “…it seemed like a good idea at the time…” lapse in judgment. “Hey, Nic,” I said, out of breath, as I got back up to the top of the hill to see her, “…you wanna try? Why don’t you, me and Maggie all go together?” When we spoke about this very important moment of decision after the fact, even Nicki admitted that she really didn’t have any hesitation before hopping on a saying giddy-up!
Given that our current combined body weight is loosely comparable to that of a foreign compact, while also taking into consideration Newton’s 3 law’s of motion; factor in the laws of gravity and momentum and the coefficient of friction of us on a plastic sled on iced-over snow, not to mention the lack of steering control over this particular form of transportation, RED FLAGS should have been going off left, right and center as we loaded ourselves onto the seemingly harmless plastic missile. Nope… I guess something about tobogganing turns even the most responsible Canadian parent into a mindless, grinning, 8-year-old Evil Knievel.
Written back in January 2009
What does a terrible father do on a Saturday when it’s 10 degrees in January? Ohh, I don’t know, how about take your 6 month pregnant wife and 1 ½ year old daughter tobogganing (sledding for our American readers) down a 300 foot, slick, wintry slope on a plastic inflatable sled? Brilliant idea!?!
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a complete moron… (Just a part-time moron…thank-you very much)! The ORIGINAL plan, this past Saturday, was for Nic., Maggie and I to join Jordan, Kari and Peyton to go tobogganing. It was a beautiful day and we thought it would be a fun outing as a family. The ORIGINAL intention was for Jordan, Kari and I to have some fun with Peyton. Nicola would watch from the top of the hill and Maggie would just run around and play in the snow. 
Inevitably, Maggie was climbing on the sleds so I took her down a couple times to see if she would enjoy it. Of course she loved it which was quite evident by her giggles all the way down the hill. The little monkey even walked all the way up the hill on her own just as happy as could be. (You can imagine how long of a walk that would be when your footprints are 4 to 5 inches long and your stride is pretty much heal-toe-heal-toe all the way up). Nevertheless, she was a trooper.
Inevitably, Maggie was climbing on the sleds so I took her down a couple times to see if she would enjoy it. Of course she loved it which was quite evident by her giggles all the way down the hill. The little monkey even walked all the way up the hill on her own just as happy as could be. (You can imagine how long of a walk that would be when your footprints are 4 to 5 inches long and your stride is pretty much heal-toe-heal-toe all the way up). Nevertheless, she was a trooper. Then came the, “…it seemed like a good idea at the time…” lapse in judgment. “Hey, Nic,” I said, out of breath, as I got back up to the top of the hill to see her, “…you wanna try? Why don’t you, me and Maggie all go together?” When we spoke about this very important moment of decision after the fact, even Nicki admitted that she really didn’t have any hesitation before hopping on a saying giddy-up!Given that our current combined body weight is loosely comparable to that of a foreign compact, while also taking into consideration Newton’s 3 law’s of motion; factor in the laws of gravity and momentum and the coefficient of friction of us on a plastic sled on iced-over snow, not to mention the lack of steering control over this particular form of transportation, RED FLAGS should have been going off left, right and center as we loaded ourselves onto the seemingly harmless plastic missile. Nope… I guess something about tobogganing turns even the most responsible Canadian parent into a mindless, grinning, 8-year-old Evil Knievel.
(for a refresher on Newton’s 3 laws, feel free to follow the link to a fun, kid-friendly, education site http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/louviere/Newton/index.html)
So there we were, all loaded up. Nicki was in the back holding on to me in the middle and I was holding on to the all too innocent, naïve and trusting Maggie in the front. We were all smiles as we began our descent. Like a train pulling out of the station, we slowly began to move over the edge, “…Weeeeeeeeeeeeee,” squealed Nicki gleefully around 30 feet down the hill, “this is fun!”
Now I’m not sure whether it was the boom as we passed through the sound barrier (remember Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation), or if it was when we suddenly found ourselves traveling down the hill backwards, or if it was when Nicki’s squeeze on me caused my legs to start tingling, but I do remember thinking, “Ohhhhhhh Boy...this is not good!"
Dragging my heals I tried, in vain, to slow our super-sonic excursion as images of the “Crash of ’82” when I wrapped my brother Justin’s neck around a barbed-wire fence during another ill-fated crazy-carpet ride, flashed through my mind. And then it happened... In a Matrix-like, slow motion, frame by frame, endless bending of the space-time continuum, we began to roll into our inevitable crash.
The crash itself is still kind of foggy (I think I closed my eyes). All I know is both Nicola and Maggie disappeared in a plume of snow. I guess some form of instinct, in this particular situation, forced me to actually let go of Maggie in the early stages of the crash to avoid landing on top of her.
Nicola and I each plowed into the snow and came to the end of our respective tumbles quite quickly. Immediately we scanned around us for our Maggie who, to our nauseating horror, continued a NASCAR-like crash, tumble, barrel role right past us down the hill. “Ohhh…what have we done…” I scampered over to her, Nicola at my heals, “we’ve killed our precious little girl!!!”
Motionless and silent, Maggie came to rest on her back…face covered in snow, eyes closed, mouth wide open waiting for somebody to push the “un-pause” button to let the sounds of her screams out. Isn’t it funny how, in moments like these, all you, as a parent, want to hear is your child scream and cry.
Howl she did as we wiped the snow from her face and carefully checked out every inch of her before picking her up. Amazingly, she was unscathed by the crash and within a minute wanted to be put down so she could climb back up the hill.
With Maggie well on her way back to the summit and the two of us still somewhat in a daze, our thoughts immediately turned to our other child; the unknowing participant in this ill-fated ride who got to experience it all in the dark; kind-of like Disney’s Space Mountain roller coaster ride.
I would imagine the baby’s view of the whole experience as follows:
There’s baby… just chillin’ out in his/her room, sippin’ on Momma’s morning orange juice, feet crossed, hands back behind it’s head, listening to the Enya-like, slow soothing rhythm of Momma’s heart beat…about to call room service to order an early lunch… then… suddenly, the beat starts to quicken to a hard rock climactic anthem as the room starts to shake… there are muffled screams…and then…. BOOM… BANG… SQUISH… QUIRT… THUD… THUD… THUD… EEEEEAAAKKKK… “What the heck… where am I ??? What’s going on out th… Well would you look at that… I had my very first poop. Yeahhhhh me !!!”
Quite worried, all Nicki wanted was to feel the baby move so we packed Maggie up and went straight home. Upon entering the house, Nicki went straight to the kitchen and… well… basically started eating sugar.
Let’s just say…baby was completely fine with the exception of a massive hyper-active sugar induced hang-over.
Dumb…dumb…dumb & very lucky we are indeed. Everyone is fine and now I have yet another storey to exaggerate to Maggie and Baby 2 when we’re all sitting around the living room in 2029.
JRM 3/25/2009
P.S. Well this was post 6 of 7 on my "7 posts in 7 days"objective. Nicola's last day of work is just over a week away so I'll have to finish number 7 before then so she can pick up where she left off last summer. Thanks for stickin' with me.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
All I want for Christmas is a thong banana hammock!
“Seven Posts in Seven Days” 5 of 7
There has been some debate amongst my family and friends as to whether or not I am still “on track” with my mission to do 7 posts in 7 days. Now I haven’t gone back to confirm it yet, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t say 7 post in 7 consecutive days; a technicality, I know, but this rationalization lets me feel a little better about not having yet fulfilled my commitment. Nicola often says I should have been a lawyer. ; )
A little over a month has passed since my last entry. Now, with Christmas just around the corner, we, like everyone else, are getting busy with the activities of the season. Blah.
It’s intriguing how the whole Christmas-time experience has changed as I have gotten older. When I was a kid, I looked forward to Christmas with eager anticipation. Each year on December 1st I would begin counting down the days. I would start thinking about and looking forward to vacation from school and time together with the whole family, all the while not-so-quietly wondering what Santa might leave me under the tree that year. I loved playing outside in the snow or playing street hockey during the day and then warming up with hot chocolate and enjoying casual evenings playing games and watching movies.
I am now beginning to realize that much of the joy I experienced this time of year came from being a naïve, care free, default participant in someone else’s Christmas. That someone else was my Mom.
Each year, throughout the month of December, Christmas lights and decorations would just magically appear throughout the house; so too would the Christmas tree and stockings. The fridge and pantry would miraculously fill with an assortment of beverages, snacks and treats. Little bowls containing endless supplies of candies and nuts would materialize out of thin air on every table in the house and candy canes and eggnog were available anytime, anywhere, any place.
Christmas Day we would wake up to the smell of Egg McMooney’s (Dad’s specialty) and stumble down to the living room to feast our eyes on the bounty of perfectly wrapped treasures billowing out from beneath the tree. Our private photographer (Dad) would document the occasion as we kids ravaged the pretty paper to reveal what Santa had brought us. There was always that one package we could tell contained socks and underwear that we would leave to last ‘cause what kid wants new socks and underwear for Christmas? (I’ll never forget the one Christmas my brothers Justin and Josh got thong banana hammocks in their stockings…I know…that is just wrong on so many different levels). Eventually, we kids would retreat to our bunkers with our presents in tow and would return, when called, to enjoy a feast at the dining room table complete with festive serviettes, candles and holiday tunes playing in the background.
What happened?
Now as December 1st hits, so too does the pressure. What’s the budget for Christmas this year? What are we going to get for the people we love who really have all they need? Maybe we can get something for everyone if we don’t get anything for each other. When are we going to your parent’s house? When are we going to my parent’s house? When am I going to finish my book report for Papa Clark? When are we going to go get all this shopping done?
For the past week, as each day begins, either Nicola or I say, “let’s put up the tree tonight.” This, of course, involves me going into storage to find it and all its accompanying decorations, hauling it up to the living room, moving furniture and figuring out how it all goes together again. Something inevitably comes up and still it remains on the list of things to do.
It seems as though there is some “Christmas Party” or event going on every other night for either my work, Nicola’s work, our Church or with friends. I dread the traffic and battling ruthless mini-van driving moms in mall parking lots. (There is nothing sexier than a kid-toting momma giving you the finger as she cuts you off to grab that parking spot you’ve been waiting 15 minutes for) I loath long line-ups that lead to overworked, under trained and under paid teenagers at cash registers. “…uhhh…can I get a manger to till 3 please…and please bring security… I think this guy is about to lose it.” Wrapping paper??? What a waste of money. I have an idea. Those neighborhood newspapers that get shoved in our mailboxes every week before going directly to the trash would make great wrapping paper. There!!! I’ve reduced my carbon footprint tree huggers. And really… do we really know so little about each other that we have to cop out by buying obligatory gift-cards to box stores?
I digress. Please forgive my self-pitying rant. I guess I feel like Dorothy and her three wanting sidekicks seeing behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz.
Christmas, like Love, involves work. I realize now that, as a kid, I was very blessed, even spoiled during this time of year. Putting up the tree, stockings and decorations involved time and effort. This didn’t just happen. Somebody did it. There was nothing magical or miraculous about the fridge and pantry being stocked with holiday goodies. Somebody went shopping and somebody did the baking. Somebody had to keep refilling the candy & nut bowls and replenish the eggnog & candy cane inventories. Somebody had to wage war in mall parking lots to buy all the presents and stay up half the night on Christmas Eve to wrap each one with love knowing that we wouldn’t marvel at the wrapping but rather thoughtlessly destroy it to get to our prize. Somebody had to plan and prepare the holiday feast while we were out playing in the snow and somebody had to clean up the mess while we curled up with our hot chocolate watching our late-night movies.
I mourn the innocent naivety of my youth and the care-free Christmas experience. At the same time, I thank my Mom & Dad for making our Christmas time as a family so wonderful and memorable for as long as they did. As a parent, I now realize and accept that Christmas time is no longer about me and, as I take my place behind the curtain, I hope I can do as great a job as my parents did and make the experience of Christmas joyous and amazing for Maggie and her future siblings.
I would be remiss not to point out, in all this self indulgent rambling, how important it is, during this time of year, to consider how many people out there would love to have my “troubles”. As Nicola and I evaluate the modeling of our faith to Maggie, we really want to focus more on those in need and sharing our limited prosperity with a community full of lonely and suffering people. I firmly believe this is where we will rediscover the true spirit of Christmas.
Well that’s it. If you managed to get all the way through this, you must be bored or you took your Ridilyn this morning. Please leave a quick comment to say you’ve visited our site.
By the way, you want to know the most ironic thing I’ve come to discover in this dissection of the Christmas experience? At the age of 34, I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I would love nothing more than to get some nice new underwear and comfy socks for Christmas. Please Grandma… no thong banana hammocks…they make me look like a pirate.
JRM 12/09/2008
There has been some debate amongst my family and friends as to whether or not I am still “on track” with my mission to do 7 posts in 7 days. Now I haven’t gone back to confirm it yet, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t say 7 post in 7 consecutive days; a technicality, I know, but this rationalization lets me feel a little better about not having yet fulfilled my commitment. Nicola often says I should have been a lawyer. ; )
A little over a month has passed since my last entry. Now, with Christmas just around the corner, we, like everyone else, are getting busy with the activities of the season. Blah.
It’s intriguing how the whole Christmas-time experience has changed as I have gotten older. When I was a kid, I looked forward to Christmas with eager anticipation. Each year on December 1st I would begin counting down the days. I would start thinking about and looking forward to vacation from school and time together with the whole family, all the while not-so-quietly wondering what Santa might leave me under the tree that year. I loved playing outside in the snow or playing street hockey during the day and then warming up with hot chocolate and enjoying casual evenings playing games and watching movies.
I am now beginning to realize that much of the joy I experienced this time of year came from being a naïve, care free, default participant in someone else’s Christmas. That someone else was my Mom.
Each year, throughout the month of December, Christmas lights and decorations would just magically appear throughout the house; so too would the Christmas tree and stockings. The fridge and pantry would miraculously fill with an assortment of beverages, snacks and treats. Little bowls containing endless supplies of candies and nuts would materialize out of thin air on every table in the house and candy canes and eggnog were available anytime, anywhere, any place.
Christmas Day we would wake up to the smell of Egg McMooney’s (Dad’s specialty) and stumble down to the living room to feast our eyes on the bounty of perfectly wrapped treasures billowing out from beneath the tree. Our private photographer (Dad) would document the occasion as we kids ravaged the pretty paper to reveal what Santa had brought us. There was always that one package we could tell contained socks and underwear that we would leave to last ‘cause what kid wants new socks and underwear for Christmas? (I’ll never forget the one Christmas my brothers Justin and Josh got thong banana hammocks in their stockings…I know…that is just wrong on so many different levels). Eventually, we kids would retreat to our bunkers with our presents in tow and would return, when called, to enjoy a feast at the dining room table complete with festive serviettes, candles and holiday tunes playing in the background.
What happened?
Now as December 1st hits, so too does the pressure. What’s the budget for Christmas this year? What are we going to get for the people we love who really have all they need? Maybe we can get something for everyone if we don’t get anything for each other. When are we going to your parent’s house? When are we going to my parent’s house? When am I going to finish my book report for Papa Clark? When are we going to go get all this shopping done?
For the past week, as each day begins, either Nicola or I say, “let’s put up the tree tonight.” This, of course, involves me going into storage to find it and all its accompanying decorations, hauling it up to the living room, moving furniture and figuring out how it all goes together again. Something inevitably comes up and still it remains on the list of things to do.
It seems as though there is some “Christmas Party” or event going on every other night for either my work, Nicola’s work, our Church or with friends. I dread the traffic and battling ruthless mini-van driving moms in mall parking lots. (There is nothing sexier than a kid-toting momma giving you the finger as she cuts you off to grab that parking spot you’ve been waiting 15 minutes for) I loath long line-ups that lead to overworked, under trained and under paid teenagers at cash registers. “…uhhh…can I get a manger to till 3 please…and please bring security… I think this guy is about to lose it.” Wrapping paper??? What a waste of money. I have an idea. Those neighborhood newspapers that get shoved in our mailboxes every week before going directly to the trash would make great wrapping paper. There!!! I’ve reduced my carbon footprint tree huggers. And really… do we really know so little about each other that we have to cop out by buying obligatory gift-cards to box stores?
I digress. Please forgive my self-pitying rant. I guess I feel like Dorothy and her three wanting sidekicks seeing behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz.
Christmas, like Love, involves work. I realize now that, as a kid, I was very blessed, even spoiled during this time of year. Putting up the tree, stockings and decorations involved time and effort. This didn’t just happen. Somebody did it. There was nothing magical or miraculous about the fridge and pantry being stocked with holiday goodies. Somebody went shopping and somebody did the baking. Somebody had to keep refilling the candy & nut bowls and replenish the eggnog & candy cane inventories. Somebody had to wage war in mall parking lots to buy all the presents and stay up half the night on Christmas Eve to wrap each one with love knowing that we wouldn’t marvel at the wrapping but rather thoughtlessly destroy it to get to our prize. Somebody had to plan and prepare the holiday feast while we were out playing in the snow and somebody had to clean up the mess while we curled up with our hot chocolate watching our late-night movies.
I mourn the innocent naivety of my youth and the care-free Christmas experience. At the same time, I thank my Mom & Dad for making our Christmas time as a family so wonderful and memorable for as long as they did. As a parent, I now realize and accept that Christmas time is no longer about me and, as I take my place behind the curtain, I hope I can do as great a job as my parents did and make the experience of Christmas joyous and amazing for Maggie and her future siblings.
I would be remiss not to point out, in all this self indulgent rambling, how important it is, during this time of year, to consider how many people out there would love to have my “troubles”. As Nicola and I evaluate the modeling of our faith to Maggie, we really want to focus more on those in need and sharing our limited prosperity with a community full of lonely and suffering people. I firmly believe this is where we will rediscover the true spirit of Christmas.
Well that’s it. If you managed to get all the way through this, you must be bored or you took your Ridilyn this morning. Please leave a quick comment to say you’ve visited our site.
By the way, you want to know the most ironic thing I’ve come to discover in this dissection of the Christmas experience? At the age of 34, I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I would love nothing more than to get some nice new underwear and comfy socks for Christmas. Please Grandma… no thong banana hammocks…they make me look like a pirate.
JRM 12/09/2008
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