Wednesday, December 5, 2007










SNOW!!!!We got SNOW!!!!!

Ok. We got a light dusting, less than an inch really, but it's still pretty and it's snow. Being on the coast and situated where we are in New Jersey, we don't often get snow of any appreciable amount. We get excited by even just a little. There was one year that we got a blizzard and 3 feet of snow fell in 24 hours. That was something. It snowed a lot that year. I seem to remember having more snow when I was little. Now it makes me feel like a kid. Here is the holly tree in our yard. It's a male tree and therefore doesn't get berries. It looks pretty in the snow. We have to enjoy what little we get because we aren't predicted to have much snow this winter.

I didn't know it was snowing all morning because I was teaching a crisis management class. I teach mental health professionals how to de-escalate a situation and how to restrain someone safely should it become necessary. Hopefully, the verbal techniques we teach make the restraint unnecessary. We also teach defensive moves in case someone feels that he/she just has to put their hands on your neck to get your attention. What this means is that after two days, I am sore! I have bruises (it is not gentle) and sore muscles from doing the moves over and over. It felt good at the end of the morning to have someone say, "this is the best class like this that I have ever taken." All the work of the past few months was worth it. I have 4 more classes of mental health clinicians to teach in the next week and a half. Then in January we will train our administrative staff.

In the Christmas traditions that are important to me catagory, today I want to share our Christmas book with you. Called, Christmas at Our House, this book was started on Dec. 26, 1981. We bought it our first Christmas together. We had this crazy idea that we would record each holiday so we would remember them years later. And 26 years later, we still look forward to reading about holidays past. It helps me remember what we did, like the year we had the tree we nicknamed "Boomerang Bob" because it was kind of crooked, or the year the tree fell over on Christmas Day, or the year we all had the flu and were sick as all get out. These are the small details that I know I would have forgotten and it makes me smile and brings me great joy (and many tears, I'm just like that) to read and reread them each year. This is the final year for this particular book. There aren't but a few pages left in the end. Now I have to find a new one to add to the collection. It will be Christmas at Our House, vol. 2.

I finished my waving laces socks. They are beautiful and very soft and warm. I would love to show you a photo but my cat, Calvin, just wouldn't leave them alone. Every time I moved him away, he jumped back onto the socks before I could get a photo. I cast on for the Embossed leaves socks from 25 Favorite Socks. I have finished 2 pattern repeats and I am enjoying watching the pattern come into being. Simple things amuse simple minds. I also finished my one row scarf and have been wearing it this week. It is a little itchy against my bare neck but it is so warm that I put up with it.
I hope you are all in good health and making headway on the holiday plans!

18 comments:

Nancy @ the Jersey Shore said...

it snowed here too ;-) just a dusting as well. I'm waiting for a blizzard this winter!

Georgie said...

Snow coming to christmas? Who woulda thunk it?? Around here we decorate the windows with fake snow spray and cotton wool and fake holly in 30oC ++ heat!

I love the idea of your Christmas book, such a beautiful tradition. I agree its too easy to get hung up on the fake snow and the gift-buying that you forget about the litle things that make it a special holiday.

Sheepish Annie said...

Oh, you know how much I feel your pain on the Crisis Training. I only just got my neck back to a state where it can use the full range of motion after last month's training!!!

Yay for snow! We got about 8 inches in the last one. So pretty. For now anyway. Ask me again in two months how I feel about it. Not so much with the "yay."

The Christmas book is a wonderful idea!!!

amy said...

Congratulations on the successful training. It is so satisfying when hard work comes to a successful outcome.

We haven't gotten much beyond flurries yet. Sometimes being by the coast helps, but it doesn't always prevent snow. My boys would like some this year, since last year was practically snowless. I bundle up and do my Mom Duty of playing in the snow and try not to mention a gazillion times how cold I am!

Olivia said...

I love that you know crisis management and defensive moves. Excellent skills to have just in case, even outside of the mental health field.

The snow photo is really pretty.

Anonymous said...

yeah! we got snow too! i was driving home from school in it and it looked amazing. it also snowed last night and it was beautiful against the dark sky!

who knows, maybe this christmas we'll actually have snow!

Bezzie said...

Light dusting here too. Hm, I never thought about the whole coast-no snow thing. Ah well, it's still better than being in Texas! ;-)

Love that Christmas tradition! Very cool!

Deborah said...

I think my children could have used some of your techniques this morning because after I saw the ice and snow I totally lost control! I'm not ready for such an early winter....

roxie said...

Enjoy your snow! Hooray for your class. Good on you! Calvin understands that everything is better with a kitty. Your photos now have a piquant charm they were otherwise lacking.

And hooray for the Christmas Book. You have a real family heirloom there!

Kate said...

That poor holly tree has withstood so much over the years. I remember playing under it. I wonder if there are still bricks there from when we were kids and used to pretend it was a house. Jeeze, I can remember being so short that I couldn't reach one of the branches, and so skinny that I could swing on them until I was ten. I love that tree. Can I take it with me when I leave?

Anonymous said...

How fun that book must be to read each year!

Em said...

The Christmas book is just awesome! One could even say it's the Best Ever! I will start my own when I start a family. Not this year, I think, because, well, there's too much else going on.

Here's hoping crisis management training continues to go well. If it doesn't, just turn the malcontents into volunteers. They'll learn to shut up and listen pretty quick.

Amy Lane said...

Okay--the Christmas book idea is AWESOME... (unfortunately it's 20 years too late!) And the socks are beautiful.

Oh--and I want your class!

MadMad said...

That class of yours sounds very neat! I'd love to take something like that - I bet your students are thrilled. Love the idea, too, of an Xmas book - because you really do forget all those things you say you're going to remember forever, but don't. And also, I love the socks, too.

Michele said...

it's it nice when the students say it was the best class ever. sounds like you really earned the praise. have a good weekend. hope you get to rest those sore muscles.

Donna said...

I read all the comments and not one mentioned your cute kitty sitting next to you lovely socks...I think it is a great picture. I live at the shore in Jersey too. We haven't gotten much snow lately but heres hoping!

P.S. I just saw the best sticker in a window- "Jersey girls don't pump gas".
You got that right!

Bells said...

Snow on holly leaves! Could anything more perfectly capture what a northern hemisphere christmas is supposed to be like?

The christmas book is a gorgeous idea. All those little details.

And great waving lace socks! I'm yet to successfully cast them on. I try and try and they don't come out right!

Denise said...

Oooh snow! Now I'm totally jealous - I've had about 8 cold Christmases in my life, and I LOVE them!

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