Happy Little Christmas Eve

My grandparents always celebrated Little Christmas Eve. It was the day they would celebrate Christmas with their friends and neighbors, on December 23rd. Many of my cherished Christmas memories and traditions are ones that started or took place at my grandparent’s farm. Christmas Eve was the day for the Peter family to celebrate together, and every Christmas Eve at the farm was almost the same to the one before, even down to the menu. To this day I take so much comfort in just with the idea of clam chowder and fondue, and our traditional appetizers of ham dip, rumaki and other treats. The desert was a very important part of our Christmas Eve menu too, Jesus’ birthday cake.

I remember decorating Jesus’ birthday cake back to when I was almost too young to help. My mom and I would stand out in the mud room of the farm house where it was always freezing and decorate the cake together. My cousin Beth would help when she got a little older, and the younger cousins all had their chance as well. Now the birthday cake is a ice cream cake from Baskin and Robins, but still just as special. The celebration of Jesus’ birthday was always the central part of our Christmas Eve at the farm.

Jesus’ birthday party has been growing more and more popular. Many think it is silly and not the way to celebration Christmas, but I believe it is a way that we can celebrate something so wonderful in a way that everyone understands. For those that don’t understand the true meaning of Christmas, they can recognize a birthday party, the birth of Christ, and through a simple birthday party can show the greater meaning of Christmas, and what Jesus would grow up and do for us all.

None of us could really remember when we started the tradition of Jesus’ birthday cake. My aunt made a discovery though the other day when she found a hand written note of my grandmothers in one of her Bibles, that said every Christmas Eve they would celebrate Jesus’ birthday with the five of them sitting at the table around Jesus’ birthday cake. She wrote that on the cake would be a candle for every year they had been a family. What was a cherished childhood memory for me has now become even a greater tradition, something my family started 50 or 60 years ago.

Merry Christmas

Firearms Industry Launces Blog to Address Inaccuracies Surrounding Firearms

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry -- has launched a blog aimed at hunting down and correcting inaccuracies about firearms and the firearms industry. The blog, titled "Aiming for Accuracy," is updated regularly with news, links and other helpful resources designed to promote accurate communications about firearms issues in the media, among bloggers and with all firearms enthusiasts.

There is some excellent information available there on the differences between fully automatic and semi-automatic firearms that displaces many of the myths of "assault weapons," which is one of the most common questions Kris and I get from friends. If you are interested in learning more, go here for a short video and here.

Next Season of Dancing with the Stars

What I did with my summer vacation...

Funny thing about digital cameras...they hide all of these memories until months later and you think to yourself "where did I take these pictures?" I had several of those today, and I realized I never shared anything with you from my insane 2 week road trip with my mom. So here is a quick tour, and it won't put 4,000 miles on your car.

Pennsylvania

Our 2008 Woman's team. We won both National Team Championships and set 2 new national records as well. Reann from Montana, Cathy from Missouri, and Me. Reann's the only one that hasn't moved away from home yet.Paul with Mom sporting her new head wear we found on the 4th of July. And yes, she usually does go to bars dressed like this.

Another specialty head ware piece. She had been saving this one for quite a while. With her are our friends Dennis aka Strong Bow, and Matt.

From Pennsylvania, in a very full car, we drove back to Nashville, unloaded, and continued on our way to Brunswick, Georgia.

Nick and Shannon on the beach on St. Simmons Island. This is where my brother spent most of the summer and learned why we are always complaining about humidity. Definitely the highlight of the summer getting to be with Nick for his graduation into US Customs. During the ceremony, you can have whoever you like affix your badge. My nephew loves that his daddy has a badge and gets to carry handcuffs now.

P.S. If you are still with me, the really sad part about this is I started this post a month ago.

Gas Shortage

A week ago Nashville apparently had a surplus of gasoline. With the approaching hurricane Ike, Nashville gas shipments were routed to the gulf coast area. Since then gas prices have sky rocketed, and gas stationssupplies have been spotty. Late Thursday it started to happen. Gas stations all over the city started to look like this.

Luckily close to my work the gas stations still had gas today. One gas station near our house received a delivery today, but the supply only lasted about one hour. Kris was home early and rushed down there to fill up his truck. He had resorted to riding his motorcycle since the truck was running so low. He said it was pretty wild, he waited for a long time in line to get gas and then took about 20 minutes to fill the tank because the tanks were operating so slow. Once he was ready to leave the truck was blocked in; while waiting to be able to pull out he was chatting with some other lucky ones getting gas about what would happen if they ran out of gas again. Not two seconds later the pumps started to click and shut off. Kris was the second to last person lucky enough to fill their tanks there today.

After I got home today we went and did all the necessary errands (which included Kris having to get a new SIM card for his phone, not a happy story), got groceries, and are prepared to spend the rest of the weekend at home conserving the gas we were lucky enough to get.

Five Things

A) Five places that I go to over and over: Target, Starbucks, Aaron & Ashley's, Walmart Neighborhood Market (my grocery store, not a regular Walmart), Murfreesboro...

B) Five people who e-mail me (regularly) : Ashley, Leslie, Amy, my Dad, Aaron

C) Five favorite places to eat: Cinco De Mayo, Outback, Richard's Cajun Cafe, Pappa Deaux's, Burgerville

D) Five places I'd rather be right now: Vancouver, Alaska, South Africa, South of France, Australia

E) Five TV shows I watch all the time: Project Runway, Friends, Sex and the City, Design to Sell, Planet Earth

Lipstick