Twas the Freeze Before Christmas Letter 2007

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care… in hopes they would dry, so that we could wear.

 As you may know, as part of our pre-Christmas festivities the family took part in the 2007 Oklahoma Freeze and during our three days of forced power outage, we had abundant time to reflect on the blessings of the season. We discovered the blessings of natural gas fireplaces late in the first twelve hours but took another two hours to recognize the necessity of an open fireplace flue.





  While I in my kerchief and they in their caps all settled down for a long winters nap, we explore the benefits of authentic down comfort (King-sized is not big enough, nor are three layers thick.)


The moon on the breast of new fallen snow had nothing on the candelabra we had goin’ on inside. We will never again disparage Dave’s fetish for flashlights. We revisited family togetherness while reading classic literature by candlelight. (Dave Barry may be surprised to find himself in this category) and we renewed the joys of handicrafts by headlamp to stave off boredom. (Dia made hats, hats, and hats galore.)

  When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter… we marveled that in spite of the avalanche of tree limbs clamoring outside to abandon their trunks and cascade with a thump to the ground, we received no damage to rooftops or vehicles. However, fences were not withstanding.

Visions of sugarplums danced in our heads as we foraged from the freezer, struck up the gas stove and stacked the outdoor patio table with refrigerator stock. Camp food tastes ever so much better anyway.

Dressed all in fleece from our head to our foot, we like St. Nickolas, all wore the soot. After chopping branches down and hauling limbs away to uncover downed power lines (Yes, I realize now that the lines could have been live,) we learned to wear natural fibers that dry quickly and absorb some serious filth. The whole Christmas thing that started with stockings hung up to dry was once someone's daily life and I would rather not return to it. There is nothing quite like warm showers, hot food and outside contact. For us, we learned that desperate times result in … blessed measures.

You will hear us exclaim as we drive out of sight, but not in "Firebird--the Acura" because the day school resumes, Dia is t-boned by a Porche boxter on the way home from seminary.  So sad to have the car we bought when she was a baby gone.  

Yet amidst all, we are blessed by the wonder and beauty of our Saviors birth.  So, Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!

 Love, the Darceys

Juggling Christmas Fat and Happy 2006

December 16, 2006 at 5:50am Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays “She’s making a list, and checking it twice,” Oh no, she’s not. It’s a week before Christmas and all through the house everything’s still, just as still as a mouse. I get the feeling that my annual attempt to minimize the commercial Christmas is futile. This year, I’ve ignored it completely and I have an eerie foreboding that I’ve only succeeded in postponing the panic until the end. Stress seems to be a customary side-effect of Christmas and I worry that I’m only prolonging the inevitable. So, I’m sending holiday greetings… correction, I’m writing holiday greetings. If the words holiday greetings are marked out and changed to New Years Greetings, I’m sure you’ll understand. It’s probably time to get serious about reporting on the children since they are just about out of the house. Ian is fourteen and topping out at six feet. I’ve not yet become accustomed to yelling at him, neck kinked skyward. He is just as laid-back as ever and strolls around the house bellowing Christmas tunes in a bass that rattles the windows and I wonder at times if a hydrallic lowrider is rumbling by. He’s earned his double black belt in Taekwando and if I ever venture down a dark alley with him and his voice, I’ll feel so safe. My life is more sedentary since I left off being the primary driver, but the new job as family air traffic controller, is equally difficult. The eldest not only drives me nuts, but drives into nuts. How does one shatter a windshield driving under a walnut tree? Ian acts as co-pilot and reports back first-hand on the most recent hair-raising near-miss and the occasional fender-bender. Thus far, all four traffic incidents have been good learning experiences and non-insurance related, so we can’t complain. Dia. spends her every waking moment juggling. As a junior in high school she has so many balls in the air (we counted twenty the other day), that all she needs is the big red, plastic nose. It’s a daily toss-up with school, volunteering and boys, so any day now I expect her to fling the balls wildly and run away screaming to join the circus. Aidan, our little inventor has turned his attention to cub scouts and plans to pass off the entire book before the next pack meeting. We’re enjoying the good-turn daily thing and strangely enough, look forward to rejoining the pine-wood derby demographic. His passions mirror his intense focus on Ian. The two of them live for each other and war—weapons, battles and skirmishes of every kind. Any straight object is a sword and every rope, an integral part of some bludgeoning accoutrement. With all three of them in piano and choir, the cash we once flung out to entice them to practice we’re now flinging in an attempt to convince them to stop practicing—cease and desist and for heaven sake, "Leave me in peace!" I expect that in the not-too-distant years to come, my holiday letters will be themed more with regret and castigation. Dave and I are well, fat and happy and loving Tulsa. Oops, I take it back, David is not fat and now, not very happy and Tulsa … well, Tulsa is fine. We’re enjoying the capricious ambiance of a seventy-degree day today and the thirty-degree threat tomorrow. We actually had a lady-bug hatch flitting about today. Dave’s job is good, and it seems that he likes it enough to continue doing it for a while longer. We hope that you and your family are finding moments to enjoy the season and the blessings for remembering the reason for this sweet Holiday. I’m off to go somewhere and put something on a list. Terina, Dave, Dia, Ian and Aidan