Waiting...Waiting...Waiting...

FIRST OFF, let me just thank everyone who commented on my previous posts. I am so flattered that I have so many faithful followers :-)

Today is a blah day for sure. I am so jealous that Parker doesn't have school or tests or anything that I could just burst. I am watching the minutes until I can leave today...59 at this point. But, I have to stop and laugh at myself because I still have to come in to work tomorrow for another 8 hours. It is more or less a sure failure when I am watching the clock and it is only Thursday.

58 minutes now. Anyway, my brother and his wife and my adorable niece have arrived alive and well to Oregon. I am super jealous of them too. The paper chain here at my desk indicates that I have but 4 days left until I too will join my family in Oregon...but this days seem endless.

Alas, such is life I suppose. It has been fun to read what everyone is gearing up to do with their lives for this holiday season. I am so excited for all these people welcoming changes. I LOVE CHANGE. I think that is why my job gets me down so much sometimes. It is terribly monotonous, and usually any change that does come reflects an unfortunate circumstance...a mistake.

Anyway, as a finisher to this altogether moving and riveting post, I was thinking last night about how much I love that people in Shakespeare's time yelled "Fie, Fie..." It seems so much more a flattering expletive than many of those I hear from clients on a daily basis. I think one of my new year's resolutions this year will to bring "Fie, Fie..." back. To make it rad again.

What are your goals for the new year? Perhaps this small change, this ridiculous institution of verbiage will somehow lift my spirits and those I come into contact with, what are your thoughts about this new found resolution?

46 minutes to go :-)

Oatmeal

Ummmm, so, today is my second day in a row eating oatmeal for lunch. That's right, oatmeal folks.

Now, you may be wondering, Why? Why would Bekah it oatmeal two days in a row?

Perhaps you are thinking, Oatmeal? Are the Wightmans really poor? Do they need some money?

Or alternatively, is Bekah trying to slim down for Christmas?

You may be thinking, Bekah....oatmeal....pregnancy! She must be fighting off the nausea of that first trimester with OATMEAL, sneaky girl.

AND THE WINNING GUESS IS?

That I am lazy. You see, I can't seem to bring myself to get out of bed on these early, dark cold mornings and actually make something worth eating. I would rather snuggle up to my Parker or sleep or read a book or a million other things that do not involve leaving bed...so it's Oatmeal for me.

What is your oatmeal...hmmmm? What effect do cold winter mornings have on you?

Noel, Noel...Noel, NOEL

I hope I can do this story justice. I am always more confident that things will come off as funny if I am staring at you while I say them...because then you have to laugh, and I feel successful. It's rough in the blogging world, refreshing the page like a hundred times in the first minute to see if any positive affirmations have made their way into the comment section, but I think you will all appreciate this story. Some of you may have heard it, so I will try to make it even better this time.

RECENTLY, while at Target, I was standing in the wrapping paper/bow/Christmas card isle. A pair of shoppers joined me in the isle as I picked up various bows deciding just how many Benjamins I wanted to lay down at the store that day. The ladies that entered the isle were happily chattering, and before long, it was apparent that these two were a mother and daughter duo. The mother was likely 60-65 years old, leaving the daughter in the 40-45 year old range. The daughter needed to find a Christmas card, and the mother was trying to help.

The mother started, "This one is kind of cute."

The daughter replied, "No, no, I want one that says Happy Holidays, not Merry Christmas. I try to be politically correct. " (She was for serious when she said that too...so I bit my lip so that they wouldn't know I was a. listening, b. laughing, c. caring at all).

Then the mother said, " Oh okay, sorry I didn't realize that...(long pause)...Oh Noel, look at this one, it says Happy Holidays."

At this point, it was all I could do to hold back the laugh. My goodness, the daughter's name was NOEL, and she couldn't find it in her heart to get a Merry Christmas card, she was named after the holiday for goodness sake! But, I suppose we all have our particularities; the irony has stuck with me though.

And for this reason, I do not think I shall name my children after any holiday...ever.

My favorite things...

So, I am terrible at taking pictures of our life. Our children will just have to take it on faith that we didn't just shack it up one night when we had them...because there is almost no proof that we even do things together...but I promise we do.

I have a co-worker whose husband is from Mexico. They are having to go through the whole citizenship process right now. I have become oh so grateful that Parker is not foreign, the poor kid wouldn't stand a chance at proving his viable relationship with me, total lack of pictorial evidence for sure.

This is all a very long introduction to say that we celebrated what has got to be the coolest tradition in the Wightman family last night. I LOVE this tradition. Ever since I started dating Parker, even before I knew that I would marry him, I coveted this tradition. But, I have no pictures from this blessed event. Don't hate.

ARE YOU DYING TO KNOW WHAT THIS TRADITION IS?????????????????????????????????????

It's called Christmas Kick-off. Now before I explain it, I am fairly certain that someone out there will have this tradition in their family too. I am not claiming this to be unique to the Wightmans, but I am claiming that I never experienced and/or heard of it before I met Parker. It will change your life...so only proceed reading if you are ready to be changed...

FOREVER.

Christmas Kick-off ushers in the Christmas season, and I love it. Parker's parents are so wonderful and generous, they make it so fun for all of us. Let me set the scene...imagine the most glorious dinner you have ever tasted.

Ham

Funeral Potatoes

Glazed Carrots

Rolls

and soooooooo much of all of it.

K, fastforward a bit now....the lights grow dim. Christmas tunes from yesteryear play delightfully and low in the background. We sit at the table, except now we have beautiful Christmas plates laid in front of us. On each plate rests a Christmas striped, chocolate dipped Strawberry. Next to the Strawberry lies an individualized Christmas card for each member of the family. We begin by opening our cards and finding treasures inside and a sweet personalized note. THEN, the toasting begins. Next to each Christmas plate rests a Christmas glass, just the size for toasting. Sparkling cider is opened, each glass is filled, and there in the dim light, we each toast for the good things that have happened throughout the year. It is wonderful!

This year, there were a couple presents to open too, group presents...games :-) I am so excited about them. I love games, so this was especially exciting for me. We have recently gained a pretty serious love affair of trivial pursuit in the Wightman family; only, the game we had was made in the 80's, so all the questions were pretty dated. We are very much looking forward to having some awesomely updated questions!

THEN, the whole family gathered together and watched Charlie Brown Christmas and Mr. Krueger's Christmas. My goodness, I know that Mr. Krueger's Christmas is only like 20 minutes, but I am flooding the room with tears by like minute two. I don't know why I do this to myself year in and year out...but I do love that movie. Jimmy Stuart is awesome, and I just love the message of it all.

Anyway, that was our Christmas Kick-off. It may not sound like much to you, but oh my goodness, this always transforms the Christmas season for me, and helps me to be in the right perspective for the coming days and weeks until that wonderful day!

Reflections

Wow! I can't believe it has been three years since I came home from France. In 2007, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Paris, France for about three months. It's funny to think back on it now. That three months changed my life in more ways than I could adequately explain here. It's ironic too that I did not really want to go there in the first place. I feel like I could say that about nearly every meaningful thing that has happened in my life. Guess I am not a very savvy commander of my ship :-)

Anyway, I was just thinking about all the experiences I had there. I don't think I ever anticipated how difficult an experience it would be to live in another country. I had this idea of France clouded with romantic scenes and beautiful scenery. That was definitely there. No doubt about it...but it was harder to notice after walking past the same beggars on the street day after day and walking everywhere I went because the whole metro was on strike (three times) and worrying for my safety as a young independent woman in the middle of a huge metropolis and feeling stupid ALL THE TIME because I couldn't speak French.

IT WAS HARD. But it was WONDERFUL.

I grew so much in those short three months, and I have spent most of my time since returning home yearning for that time in my life again.

I will share just one classic Bekah moment!

About a month into my stay there in France, I was invited with all the other girls in my program, to a dance. Now, all the other girls there with me were from BYU, and we had all been in France for a good month, but we were still sort of in a tourist phase. We rarely spoke French to each other, we traveled in a pack mostly, and as a result, I was totally out of touch with French custom despite my time there and my training before leaving for my study abroad.

I had read about the "bisous, " a custom as common to them as our hug. In fact, perhaps even more common than our hug and in many cases similar to our hand shake. Well, let me just break down what the "bisous" entails. Two people come together kiss each other on both cheeks while perhaps having some kind of light embrace.

K. Flash forward to the dance. My very kind French teacher decided it would be nice to introduce a few of us girls to some of his guy friends. Just friendly introductions, no different than anything we would do here in the states. But I was not at all in the French mindset...I mean not even a little. So, as I was being introduced, I saw this guy, this foreign guy coming near me...near me like a kiss near me...and WHAT DID I DO? What NO ONE but I would do...I waited till he had extended fully his face for the kiss and then barrel rolled out of the way kind of army style, and left him kissing air.

BAD FORM doesn't even begin to describe it. Fortunately, I remembered half way through what was happening that I would have a second chance. PERFECT. So, bless this guy's heart he started into the second kiss.....and I just couldn't do it. Call it immature, call it uncultured, call it whatever you will...but it was definitely me. And unfortunately, right as he reached my cheek this time I burst into laughter and ran out of the room.

Just ran to the courtyard...we aren't talking a cute leisurely run either. This was more of a full on sprint. I hid in the darkest corner, in the furthest place I could, hoping no one would see me, but also hoping I was safe. I sat there for a long time. I was too frustrated to cry. I was just ridiculous. I more or less figured that I had offended the entire nation of France in just that moment.

But I was wrong...

A bit later, one of my friends in the program found me. She was so kind. She wanted to know what was wrong. She had been there when I had my catastrophic collapse of culture. And she assured me that it was okay. In fact, she was so kind as to allow me to practice the bisous with her so this wouldn't happen in the future.

K. So here we are, two American girls, trying to practice the Bisous. We have moved out of the dark, into the lighted part of the courtyard. I go in for the first cheek; unfortunately, she went for the same cheek. PROBLEM.

You probably have inferred what that means...we kissed not on the cheek my friends, oh no...not the cheek, but the lips, and to top it off, in just that moment, the nice young man that had tried to do the bisous with me earlier, walked by.

Then I knew, for real this time, that I had in fact offended the whole country. That poor guy...he must have really been wondering some things about our culture or at least about me.

So you see, I had a few rough patches while there in France, but I am so grateful for that experience. There are other much more personal experiences that I would love to discuss in person, but I suppose today, I just felt that I should jot down a little note about something that has heavily influenced who I am today. Hopefully my story even brought a small smile to your face.