True Confessions of Hannah Faith

December 2004
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and two weeks later…

Posted on December 29th, 2004 by hanfaith.
Categories: General.

It’s been an eventful last two weeks. Coming off of a busy weekend into a busy week, Phil and I prepared to go away on our Christmas trek two Saturdays ago. But, as often happens in the Traphagen clan, sponteneity ruled. I remembered on Friday afternoon that my cousin was graduating from college the next day in New York. So what’s a cousin to do? Pack up, clean up, and throw the kids into pajamas in the car for an all night drive to Groton, NY. We arrived there in the afternoon for a few hours of fun and catching-up. Then we left and drove down to Jersey Shore, PA, to spend the night with my in-laws. This was the first time they had seen SeÃ¡mus.

Then back in the car Sunday for the trip to the Poconos to meet up with my parents and sister’s family. Much food, outlet shopping, and playstation golf was had by all. Then back to my inlaws for Christmas Eve. I love celebrating Christmas with the Waldens. We stay up late stuffing stockings and anticipating presents. And when all are in bed, Nana and Poppa sneak all the presents under the tree. When we wake up, it’s a free-for-all with the stockings, then a nice breakfast, and then a slow gift opening session.

Stockings are always fun. You never really know what to expect. This year, from the LSW and my sister, I got lots of samples of kids medicine, socks, mini tape despenser, colored staples, and some other little things. Then from Phil’s family, I got a Gap shirt, Share the Well cd, peppermint patties, nerf blowgun (an all out gun war is a family tradition on Christmas afternoon), and facial mask stuff.

Christmas presents this year were fun too. I never really know what to expect from my inlaws, though they usually buy me clothes (and they have good taste too). I got another Gap shirt, and the biggie that I was sooooo excited about - ballet slippers (realy leather too!). Our big present was a set of luggage that was a complete suprise. It’s perfect and soooo nice (we arrived with all of our clothes in black trash bags). My Dad gave me Midsummer Night’s Dream on DVD, and Phil got a book on reformed theology (I can’t remember the name). I also got a new ESV Bible, since mine was lost last fall.

For Phil, I bought a SkilSaw, a toolbox, and a laser level. He got me a robe (this I knew about) and a sweater (this was a suprise). Unfortunately, I looked horrible in the colors of the sweater, so we returned it yesterday, and I got an electric blanket. Last night’s sleep was pure luxury. Phil is making a desk for Ã‰va.

But the most fun for me at Christmas is giving presents to other people. I loved that all of the clothes that I picked out for my brothers and sisters in-law were perfect and I even got the sizes and styles right. And I was really excited to give my sister the mosaiked table and chairs set for her kids. I gave Mom a Harry Potter in ancient greek book, and a mosaic, and my Dad got a bird’s eye maple pencil holder that Phil made.

And now, here we are back at home. Time to unpack and get settled. Ã‰va has a horrible cold that she developed over the trip, and is now hacking and wheezing away. Hopefully we can all take a nice nap this afternoon.

3 comments.

All Christmased Out

Posted on December 15th, 2004 by hanfaith.
Categories: General.

… and it isn’t even Christmas yet!

It seems like no matter how many times you remind yourself that Christmas isn’t about the presents, the parties, and the preparations, that’s always what you get caught up in - especially when you head up a youth group.

The weekend was really exhausting. We put on “Little Women” for our church on Sunday night. I was excited to save royalty and script costs a few months ago when I remembered that Little Women was public domain. So I wrote a version of the play that worked well for the cast I anticipated we would have. I cut it down to the first part of the book, which covers a year, from Christmas to Christmas. Friday night, Phil and I got to the church at 6:00 to start setting up, we had practice from 7-9, then we built the set until 1:00 AM. Then we were back at the church 6:00 Saturday night to get things ready again, practice 7:30-9:30, then get the church ready for Sunday morning service (we didn’t leave till after 10:30). Then Sunday was the actual play… and tear down afterwards. The reactions on Sunday night were really good. The best was Gramps (who was totally unprepared - he thought we were doing a nativity or something like that). He came up afterwards and said: “I’ve never seen such fine acting in a church”. The teens all did a wonderful job and had a lot of fun with it. It was rough on our family though - the kids are both exhausting from being hauled too and from church too much this week.

I guess the hardest thing comes from the reations of our pastor and elder. I don’t know if something was going on, because they didn’t talk to us at all or comment on the play at all, which was unusual, seeing as both of the pastor’s daughters were in the play. I really thrive on words of affirmation, so it was difficult to have none of that this year. Last year, after the play, the pastor called Phil and I up to the front and gave us encouragement for our work. This year, nothing, just silence after the play. It was kind of akward, and then after a moment of silence, people just started getting up. I know I shouldn’t look for affirmation and acceptance from people, but it is difficult when we’ve had such a tough fall with the church and worked so hard… just to have silence from the church leaders. At least most of the parents were really happy with the play.

Last night, was our annual Christmas party. The teens dressed up and we had a full turnout. Lots of fun was had by all. It took a good portion of the day to get ready for though, and today I’m so wiped.

I did get some cute pictures of the kids last night when they were all dressed up for the party though!

Now, I have to get the house cleaned before we leave on the weekend, but I’m really tired, so hopefully I’ll be able to get it all done. The Waldens are coming back with us after Christmas, so we need to be all ready. I’m a little stressed out about having the house a mess right now. We’ve been running from one thing to the next, both of us soooo tired.

2 comments.

Mommy & Daddy Time-Out

Posted on December 6th, 2004 by hanfaith.
Categories: General.

Phil and I finally got away for a day yesterday afternoon. The orignal plan was for Philip to go to Bangor to pick up wood for the set of our youth group play and get our wood stove door fixed (right now, it just has a screen on it and it definitely doesn’t burn as hot… brrrrr…). But on Saturday, I realised that there were a number of errands I needed to do too before we went away to Pennsylvania in two weeks. We thought about taking the kids, but then we realized that we needed to take the truck to load the wood into, and the kids couldn’t go in that.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know how hard it is for me to ask for help from anyone. We haven’t been out at all together since SeÃ¡mus was born. But I decided this was pretty important, so I gritted my teeth and made a phone call. I aksed one of our fellow youth workers who has a daughter in our youth group. Both of them love our kids and have said many, many times that they would love to watch our kids. And suprise - they said yes! It was such a relief.

So after church, we packed the kids into their SUV, and off they went for a day of fun in Rockwood. Phil and I left for Bangor and made pretty good time. Thankfully, the stores weren’t too busy, and even Walmart wasn’t that bad. The mall was probably the most crowded. We ate at Ruby Tuesdays at the mall - that was a realy treat. Before we left, our friend gave Phil money for dinner (now isn’t that a switch - usually you pay the babysitter, not the other way around ). I got Philip’s Christmas present (which he picked out - in the tool section of course), and I also got a nice outfit for our youth group Christmas party next week (which is formal). JCpenny was having outrageous sales, so I was able to get my clothes for a very decent price.

We didn’t get back home until 9:00 - a lot late than we had anticipated. Thankfully, it wasn’t a problem with the babysitter, and we made the great kid exchange halfway between here and Rockwood. Ã‰va had eaten some butter at their house by accident, and her face was swollen and our friend was really worried. We gave her some Benadryl right when we got home though, and she was fine.

We were so greatful and thankful to be able to get away for an afternoon! Even though it was a purposeful shopping trip, it still was nice to be able to go, just the two of us. (oh… and wouldn’t you know, the store for the woodstove was closed yesterday - for no apparent reason - so now we’ll probably have to wait until after Christmas to get it fixed… bbbbbbrrrrrrrrr….)

3 comments.