My mother has always loved Christmas. Ironically, I think she is more passionate about it BECAUSE she is Jewish not in spite of it. She never had Christmas trees, or Christmas presents or anything that went along with it. As a result Christmas growing up in my house was quite the affair. Often it included multiple trees, a plethora of Christmas cookies and matching, themed wrapping paper. When pressed if Santa Claus was “real” my parents would calmly explain that “when you stop believing in him, he stops coming and that is why grown-ups don’t get presents.” It was a simple, straight forward answer and one that she still sticks to today.

I know some people think that telling your children that Santa Claus is real is somehow undermining their trust in you. Personally, that feels like being the biggest party pooper on Earth. My mother is a painfully honest person. As a matter of fact, growing up she never hung our art on the fridge unless she felt it was really good. If she felt we didn’t put true effort into anything we were told so. My mother is still my harshest critic and when I need honest feedback about anything ranging from my clothes to something I wrote I know I can ask her. Her telling me that Santa Claus was real for approximately five years of my entire life in no way tainted that trust or out-weighted the 33 years of her being painfully honest about everything else in my life.

In addition, I think it is funny that people zero in on Santa Claus to be truthful about. How about the fact that Jesus wasn’t actually born on December 24th? That actually Christians borrowed heavily from pagan rituals when establishing the early Christmas tradition? If we are going to be honest about Santa Claus then why stop there? Why not tell your kids that Christmas actually has very little to do with Jesus Christ but is actually a borrowed Roman holiday? If you are going to be TRULY honest, then by golly be honest, otherwise don’t be such a party pooper.

My point is that as parents, we have THOUSANDS of opportunities to build trust with our children. We have countless opportunities to show them that when it comes to the TRULY important things they can count on us to be honest. Is crushing the magic of the Christmas holiday really an integral part of the path to building trust with your children? Personally, I don’t think so.

This is my third year teaching and I’ve realized that there are several factors that must come together to make a class successful. Student personalities must mesh with the teacher’s personality. Just like any other inter-personal relationship not every student is going to like every teacher and vice-versa. In addition, the students must feel comfortable with each other and the teacher must help make the students comfortable. It is very infrequent when all these factors come together, but when it does – well, it’s magical.

This semester I had a group of students in my world literature class that I doubt I will forget any time soon. The challenge with teaching literature is that if nobody reads what you are teaching the class can be VERY dull. I’ve had semesters that I wanted to gouge my OWN eyes out. However, this semester was golden. I started the semester with 16 students and I ended with 15 – an almost unbelievable phenomenon. Not to mention that EVERY student passed. Granted some worked harder than others and some did better quality work than others, but they all showed up, they all participated, and we had a lot of fun. And I mean we had A LOT OF FUN!! Oh yes, we talked about “Paradise Lost” and we talked about “The Aeneid”, but the fun part was getting to know all of them and watching them get to know each other.

Friendships were forged in that class. People made life decisions. Bonds were created, memories made and for three short months I got to watch it all unfold. It was flattering to have them invite me (their incredibly dorky, grown-up, English teacher) to birthday parties, dinners, lunches and this week to their Christmas party. I will miss all of you! Good luck; Amber, Melissa, Jeff, Jarred, Lindsey, Kat, Taryn, Luke, Cory, Nikki, Trey, Evan, Shanna, Yazmin, & Donna.

It is so easy to parent before you have your own kids. The rules are so black and white. As you navigate through stores and restaurants unencumbered you quickly pass judgment on those pathetic excuses for parents. You know THOSE parents. The ones who seemingly have no control over their children. You say things like, “that kid needs a spanking” or “She needs to discipline that child” or ” Why can’t parents control their children?” Much like an armchair quarterback we rattle off advice as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. Then we have our OWN kids.

The dirty secret is that at some point in every parents life they are “THOSE parents” or “THAT Mom”. Every woman has her turn at being “THAT Mom”. That Mom who’s kids were running and screaming in the library. That Mom who’s kid flung himself down on the ground in the middle of Target and started screaming. That Mom who bit/hit/scratched the other kid on the playground. That Mom who had to leave in the middle of dinner because their child wouldn’t stop screaming.

For those of us who have joined the ranks of motherhood we know this. We are all too aware of the fact that when we see one of these Moms that we all think “for the grace of God go I”. It will be our turn soon enough. We look at these mothers with compassion, grace, forgiveness and unspoken support. We know the hundred deaths she is dying inside. We know that her heart is beating so hard she can feel it in her feet. We know that she is doing the best she can and behind that tantrum is a reason. We know.

I frequently hear the accusation that there are no “seasons” in Dallas. Although Fall can sometimes be elusive it does visit periodically and this year we’ve had a spectacular Fall. I present the tree in our front yard as proof that Fall really does exist in Dallas.

I’ve been seeing billboards and advertisements all over Dallas for this website; I Am Second. Being the curious type I checked it out last night and well, it was pretty cool. It is a collection of video testimonials about Christ and God done by both famous and not famous people. Some of them talk about overcoming addiction or abuse, but several are just simple testimonials. It is sponsored by bible churches – so non-denominational. This one by Jason Castro (American Idol fame – and still an absolute cutie) is my favorite.

At 11:30 PM a small thunderstorm blew into Dallas as I snuggled into bed. If it wasn’t for the lightening, I probably wouldn’t have known that a thunderstorm was even going on it was so quiet and relaxed. I was the last one into bed and the soft sound of rain was peaceful as I drifted off to sleep. However, at 1:30 AM…

Me: (shaking David in bed) Babe! Babe! Is that the tornado sirens?
David: (mainly still asleep) Huh? Uh, I don’t know what that is
Me: Yeah, it totally sounds like the tornado sirens. That can’t be right, it barely even rained.
David: (getting shorts and t-shirt on) Hang on, I’ll go check.

I hear the door open, shut and then nothing. I sat in bed for a minute but the sirens stopped and I was sleepy so I fell back to sleep. At 2:30 AM David comes back to bed.

David: You awake?
Me: sort of
David: Um, we almost died.
Me: WHAT?!
David: Yeah a tornado was close by, but see how I keep us all safe?
Me: Yeah, totally. Good job!

Even in Dallas it gets cold. Now granted cold in Dallas means a brisk 35 degrees at the lowest. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t look forward to these precious cold months to break out my favorite things to keep me and my family warm. Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to feature a “Bit of Warmness”. Today it is soup. There is nothing like a good soup recipe during cold months. My favorite recipe is for Taco Soup. Trust me on this one – it sounded weird when I first moved here but has become a favorite. It is like a chili only better.

1 lb ground beef
1 small onion diced
2 cans of tomato sauce
1 can of diced tomatoes undrained (I use Rotel with onions and peppers but you don’t have to)
1 package of ranch dressing mix
1 package of taco seasoning mix
1 1/2 c water
1 can of corn undrained (you can use frozen if you prefer)
1 can of black beans drained and rinsed
1 can of pinto beans drained and rinsed

Saute onions in large soup pot. Add ground beef and brown. Add all remaining ingredients and simmer. (If you want the soup to be thicker like chili you can add some tomato paste – just keep alternating with water until you have the consistency you like).

I like to serve it with sour cream on top, shredded cheddar cheese, guacamole and some crumbled taco chips. Oh my goodness!! Even my kids will eat this one.

Please feel free to blame Jane from “What About Mom” for the following post. She is truly the one that started it all and therefore all critical comments can be addressed to her. See Jane MADE me go look at this site called Christmas Wrapped. It is a site sponsored by Target put together by Federated Media that highlights all the “top tier” mommy bloggers. I went to the site and I saw the glory of blogging, advertising and free market right there before my eyes. But is it wrong? Is it ethically improper? Are they sell outs? Or are we just jealous?

Why Do We Blog?
It has been my observation that female blogger fall into several different categories:

1.) The Purist: This is the blogger who is truly just documenting their day-to-day life for family and friends. They don’t expect anybody else to read and when it comes down to it they really don’t WANT anybody else to read it.

2.) The Writer: These are bloggers who have a novel inside of them. These are women who either wrote in college or have dreamed of writing professionally and have just never been given the chance. These women write for the art, for the beauty, for the dream of people actually reading something they wrote. They live for comments.

3.) The Specialist: These are women who have an interest, a talent, or a gift and they are quite skilled. These are the craft sites, cooking sites, shopping sites. These are women who have really developed an expertise that should be shared.

4.) The Successful: These are the precious few who have hit that magical combination of good writing, good timing, and good subject matter that propels them into a tier of blogging that allows them to call blogging a job. These women are asked to speak on panels, talk shows, contribute to books, local conversations, etc. They are considered experts.

The ones that are “successful” are usually some sort of combination of the Specialist and the Writer. The question then becomes do we all secretly aspire to be “successful”? Blogging is hard. Blogging well is even more difficult. Would we all grab the golden ring if presented? And what are we willing to sacrifice? Are we willing to change our voice, support products we don’t like? sacrifice our blog for other projects? If we are our own “brand” what would we be? What would it look like?