Meredith Carson... Across the Pond and Back Again...

Yesterday I sat between my daughter and a friend's daughter at our church's family Christmas eve service.  There were poinsettias and angels and candles everywhere.  The message was about love and life and Christmas, familiar stories told with language that moved me deeply.  We sang the hymn "Star Child" in the middle of the sermon, and I was done for.  I felt that wonderful, painful, upside down, happy and sad feeling that wells up in my rib cage and emerges through my tear ducts.  I almost went into the "ugly cry" there for a moment. After the service was over, the mother of a very dear friend who was seated nearby grabbed me forcefully and hugged me like only a mama can; just what I needed.  She spoke warmly in my ear, "Thank you for being my daughter's friend."  Of course I welled up again.  I felt overwhelmed as the reality of my blessings snapped into clear focus.  I felt euphoric and filled wi...

"Wake  up!  Wake up, everybody!!  It's time for fun Christmas today!!" And now a note from my ten year old: "Yes, you read that correctly.  CHRISTMAS IN JULY!  Around the Carson house things are... well, Christmasy!  You may see  holly by the door, a jolly Santa figure, and even a small, lit tree!  There may be snowmen lurking in the bathroom and all sorts of other small surprises.  There are literally candy canes hanging from the ceiling.  There will be cinnamon rolls and treats too.  Of course Santa is a little too busy to visit today, but there's still that good ole Christmas spirit!  Who would have guessed what a wonderful idea it is to have a fun Christmas day in mid-July to be precise?  Keep your Christmas spirit folks because Santa watches us all year long, even in July!" Today, for several reasons, we had a Christmas in July day.  My daughter Sophia's cooking camp was canceled at the last minut...

Christmas has come and gone in a blur of twinkly lights, carols, sugary concoctions, jingling bells, sticky kisses, whispered prayers, and yule tide cheer.  Here are a few of the highlights that I was able to catch with my camera. The night before Christmas eve, these jolly little elves worked diligently to construct this delightful-looking gingerbread house which served as a perfect centerpiece to our holiday table for the next few days.  Never mind the fact that my two-year-old ate 37 gumdrops and 24 M&m's for dinner that night. On the morning of Christmas eve, George managed to make festive pancakes even though we couldn't scare up any food coloring.  Sophia and her little sister were rather impressed... At four o'clock, we all went to church, dragging Pawpaw and Uncle David along with us.  Emma rang with the Prime Chimers, Sophia had a lovely reading during the sermon and George and I made it through the Minuet Noel before my voice completely fr...

I have been doing a bit (and hearing a bit) of Christmas griping lately.  I will admit that I was annoyed when the Christmas music was playing on the radio and in the stores well before Thanksgiving.  I have bristled at the Christmas-themed commercials on television telling me and my children that we need to go out and buy holiday-scented toilet paper, battery-operated, musical earmuffs, and the like.   I have rebelled against my own Christmas-loving nature since I do not like to have commercialized Christmas jammed down my throat before I've even had time to properly digest the Halloween candy that I stole from my kids' trick-or-treat bags. But today felt different since a somewhat unexpected winter storm converged upon us last night.  When we woke up, it looked like this in my front yard... School was delayed two hours, so there was extra time for morning chit-chat, hot breakfasts and crawling back into bed with our resident-little squirt to watch Blue'...

With Mimi here at Christmastime, we took advantage of her crafty, artistic skills and made some gingerbread sleighs complete with jelly St. Nicks. Mimi even knows how to make clean up fun. This is Lili's idea of helping.  "Another Kit-kat over here, please!!"  Gingerbread crafting brings out the little elf in all of us.  The finished product... a sweet masterpiece!

A baby and a blue spruce...   Lili's "Poochy Face" has been captured for your holiday pleasure.   Lili enjoys our traditional Christmas eve spaghetti... Silverware is COMPLETELY optional! "Lord help the Mister who comes between me and my sister!" Another one of our Christmas Eve traditions   Whoop!  Look out!  Miss Griswold is off to do some last minute Christmas shopping!! Snakes and snails and puppy dog's tails GOD BLESS US EVERY ONE! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT! SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE. Love, Meredith

  How cool is it that we live in a town that has its very own Santa House?  Midland, MI is where Santa likes to hang out from the end of November until Dec. 23rd.  He even has a house right on Main Street. Today we visited our bigger girls at school (where Lili allowed herself to be admired by a slew of first and third graders), then we took them out of school a few minutes early and headed down town to visit Santa at his house!  Lili was completely impressed.  There was so much to look at in Santa's house. "I want that!" Sophia had decided there were a few questions for which she needed answers:  1) Why do they call you "Santa"?  2) How many elves do you have? 3) How do reindeer fly?   By the time she actually got on his lap, however, she was so star struck, she forgot to ask any of her questions.  The big guy did most of the talking and Sophie asked for the usual: surprises.  Emma and Sophie both had a turn on Santa's lap and spent ...

This weekend involved all sorts of seasonal festiveness. On Friday evening, we (nearly) finished decorating our tree with well-loved ornaments from Christmases past and a few new ones.  We are unfortunately no longer feeling enamored with the blue spruce which bleeds sap, drops needles like crazy and has to be handled with gardening gloves unless one doesn't mind being stabbed bloody.  But Happy Christmas anyway.  The tree still looks pretty and provides endless temptation for little Lili. Last night we all went Christmas shopping and didn't get home until WAY past bedtime.  As I tucked a very sleepy Sophie into bed, she was half mumbling, half singing, "Mary had a baby. Yes, Lord.  Mary had a baby. Yes, my lord..." And this morning we all woke up (a little later than usual) and found a wonderfully sparkly blanket of snow covering the outside world.  This afternoon we are looking forward to the children's Christmas pageant at church.  The North Car...

Hey Y'all.  Winter is arriving in Michigan, and it is COLD!  I opened the door this morning at ten minutes to eight to send my little darlings out the door and down to the end of the driveway to wait for the bus, and it felt as I though I had opened the door to an enormous freezer.  "Goodbye, my babies!  I love you!!" I shouted and quickly closed the door to block out the arctic weather.  Sending my kids to school in snow pants and snow boots is new territory for me. I suppose all of this winter weather nicely accompanies our preparations for Christmas.  On Sunday evening after nursing my ruined "toddler back" all day, we decided to head out to a local tree farm and find the Carson family Christmas tree.  (Incidentally "toddler back" involves literally crippling back pain that results from hoisting on to one's hip and carrying a 20+ pound toddler all day every day.  It takes its toll after a while.  I had a brilliant case of it for at least...

I know it seems a tad early, but today was the day for the annual Midland Santa Parade, and Santa himself (along with Mrs. Claus and the reindeer) came to town at the very end of the parade.  After a week at home with a very sick Lili (yes, again!!), it was good to get everyone all bundled up and out in the fresh air.  The girls got to try out their long underwear, and I gave my new "ridiculously warm" coat a go. The kids came home with way more candy than they got on Halloween.  We chuckled as some of the parade participants passed.  "The Weed Man" drove past and threw out all sorts of candy.  Somehow Emma also ended up with a "Weed Man" sticker on her new winter coat.  The Midland Republicans sped by in a red SUV with snowflakes painted on the windows.  They didn't have any candy to share, but a middle aged woman wearing a fur coat did smile at us and wave a leather-gloved hand from behind the closed passenger side window.  Even the Midland Un...

Someone needs to tell my local super center and radio station that it was Halloween less than a week ago.  You all know that I love Christmas and Christmas music, but with the non-stop Christmas music already playing on the radio and Christmas products lining every inch of available store space, I will be downright sick of Christmas before December even gets here.  As D'andre Cole would say, "What Up With That?"  Be where you are, people, and right now we are in the midst of a beautiful autumn.  There is still Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie to look forward to before the fat man thinks about coming down your chimney or the plastic baby Jesus gets placed tenderly in the manger in your front yard. So here is a reminder: instead of hearing those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling too, THIS is what you should  be doing right about now...

Life will never be perfect again. I was fooling myself all along when I thought I could make things just right, but that is my nature. I tend to make lists and plan out how everything should go on special occasions... much like Will Ferrell's character in Elf: "First we'll make snow angels for two hours, then we'll go ice skating. Then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough as fast as we can, and then...we'll snuggle!" But this year with three children, I have officially had to let go of my inner perfectionist. I let go of the lists of things that are supposed to happen at Christmastime and just went with the flow. This year's gingerbread house (pictured above) was entirely kid-created, apart from a little help with the assembly from our resident engineer. Honestly, I think it's the happiest-looking gingerbread house we've ever had. Also, there just wasn't time to make the traditional Christmas cookies this year with every...