Franklin and I as a family of 2 don’t really do a whole lot for Christmas. Actually, to tell the truth, we don’t do a whole lot for any holiday (except the Feast of Tabernacles, but that’s a different story). This is surprising when you consider that Franklin and I come from different cultural backgrounds as far as holidays are concerned. My parents weren’t into ‘em, and just did what was necessary to please my brother and I. Franklin’s parents, on the other hand, went all out every year for every holiday. It seems like we’re too lazy to redecorate the house, rearrange our usual schedules, and make a big deal out of a few days a year. Or maybe we’re too busy - the holidays sneak up on us before we have time to prepare. Maybe it’s because we’ve never had to work to make holidays special: our parent’s did it for us, and now our friends do. So we don’t decorate a tree and put green and red stuff and nativity scenes around the house. We go down the street to the neighbor’s house and bask in their holiday cheer.

We talked about it some this year, and decided upon a few things that we’d like to turn into holiday traditions. Hooray - we’d start this year building family traditions that (God willing) would make our children feel warm and loved. We vowed to start this year. Then we both got sick - nasty sinus stuff that completely knocked me out. I spent 2 days on the couch with a raging fever and pounding headache. Needless to say, no holiday cheer at our house. Oh well, Pesach is coming up, maybe we’ll make a big deal out of that.

Anyway, we did help decorate the Christmas tree at the Embassy (the Embassy sports both a tree and a huge chanukkiah during the holiday season). We had fun and ate a lot of sufganiot (donuts that are somehow connected with channukah). Here we are, looking good.

My brother turned 40 yesterday. 40 used to be old, but Tom isn’t old, so that must have changed somewhere along the line. Happy birthday big brother!

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Though the last few weeks have been sunny, hot, and generally perfect weather-wise, autumn is scheduled for tomorrow, with a strong chance of winter on Friday.

It’s not so much that the seasons change extremely quickly around here as it is that they change back an forth randomly from October to May. Those of you who were here for the Feast of Tabernacles (October) will recall that we had early fall for a week at that time. Then the sun came out and we had some spring. After that it moved directly into winter with temperatures cold enough to produce snow (had there been any precipatation). It remained winter for a week or two, then became spring for a few days, and now we’re back to summer.

This chaotic weather makes it very difficult to know what to put on in the morning. On the streets you see everything from tank-tops and capris to fur lined army coats and ugg boots. I put my summer clothes away months ago, only to frantically pull them out again after a few days of serious sweat. Even the online weather services are confused. CNN weather says sunny and 75 degrees, Intellicast says rainy and 54. What’s a person to do?

On another note, my mother was recently proclaimed “Entrepreneur of the Year” for Union County. This is what the local paper had to say about her:

The 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year is Jeanne Corwin, owner of Coresco, Inc. Coresco was founded 26 years ago with one employee who did everything - Jeanne. After two years, there were seven employees, followed by 20 employees after 10 years. Current employment ranges between 50 and 150, depending on the season. Coresco is a fulfillment house with clients that include Michelin, Maidenform, Remington, SunCom and other recognizable names. It has grown from one client that generated 100,000 orders per year to one client that generated 100,000 orders per day. In the early years, the company struggled at times. On one occasion, Corwin sold her car to make payroll - but she always made payroll. Corwin has served on many nonprofit boards. She was one of the original board members of the Monroe Economic Development Council and served on that board for nine years. She currently serves on the board of the Literacy Council of Union County, Zion Center for the Worship Arts, and the Obed Project.

I am exceedingly proud of my mom. However, I would like to point out that I am entirely responsible for the fact the she’s on the UC Literacy Council. By the way Mom, how did Team Coresco do this year in the annual Union County spelling bee?

On yet another note, I got to help out with the local Anglican School’s Christmas play this morning. Unfortunately, right before the performance the lighting control board freaked out, and the lighting engineer was forced to do the lighting manually, so I really wasn’t that much help, but still I enjoyed the play and got a box of chocolates for helping out (hehe Joel, I just called you “the lighting engineer”). The kids were absolutely precious (I mean, “aaawwwwwwww” precious - lo stam), and the play had a strong message.

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A few notes on the last week.

Tal - the driver in the motorcycle accident mentioned below has come out of his coma, and is in rehab. He’s in pain, but in a good mood and all are relieved. Thanks to those of you who were praying.

I have become an opensource/freeware junky. Not that I’m raginglyl anti-microsoft, or think selling code is a crime, or have bankrupted myself on penguin t-shirts - but I’m enjoying what’s out there for free. My personal favorites: Firefox web browser, Thunderbird email, OpenOffice…office (folks, its does everything Microsoft Office does (sometimes better), it’s free, and it converts things to pdf). Yay!

My brother sent me this - he had to write about a christmas memory for a small group he is participating in. I think he’s the grooviest.

My Christmas memory

It was December 1973, I was seven, almost 8. My mother had the audacity to become pregnant 9 months previously, like they could ever duplicate the perfection they had found in their first child. Low and behold the devil spawn my sister was born on December 22nd. Well, not only was I going to have to share my parents with a sibling, but it turns out, I was not going to be allowed to open Christmas presents until SHE WHO RUINED MY LIFE and my Mom got home from the hospital. This was scheduled to happen some time Christmas day.

After much whining, cajoling, promising to be nice to the crying, screaming little bundle of dirty diapers, I was finally allowed to open ONE gift. After carefully weighing, examining, and shaking, I finally picked a gift to open. *RIP* *TEAR* *SHRED* and their before me stood THE GIFT. A set of Rock’em Sock’em robots!

All this setup is to tell you that my holiday memory is sitting for hours with my great grandmother playing rock’em sock’em robots waiting for my parents to get back from the hospital. Looking back on it, I see the love and patience displayed by my great grandmother in sitting there and entertaining me. Not many people get to meet their great grandparents, I not only got to meet mine, but have memories to remind me how much they cared.

And you know, something else I learned over the years, having a sister wasn’t nearly as horrible as I first thought. She was the first in our family to be saved, and has never failed to show me what a Christian should be like. Contrary to my first feel ‘lo those many years ago, I wouldn’t trade her for anything, including another set of rock’em sock’em robots!

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