You may remember that a couple of weeks ago, I posted this picture of Steve carrying the world on his shoulders.
Today is the day you get to find out what he did with the world.
Can you even stand the excitement? If you need to, take a deep breath before reading on . . .
I can’t even begin to explain the glove-related engineering that he did. The object was to get the globe to ride on a Christmas parade float and slowly rotate as it went along. Steve cobbled all manner of things together–the mechanism from my wooden lazy Susan, a borrowed battery from a borrowed riding lawn more, a variable speed controller, and all manner of modified doohickeys and whatchamacalits.
Throughout the process, the globe even made an appearance on my kitchen counter, complemented in its festive presentation by artfully placed bricks. Because if there is one thing that I appreciate in life, it is an artfully placed brick–or two.
Thankfully, the globe mostly reposed in the garage beside the workbench while Steve did his mysterious work.
Finally, it was time to take it over to the church and start getting it on the float. Since it had been uninflated, it took a while and a big air compressor to reinflate it. We all got a kick out of the instructions on the packaging that said it should only be inflated by mouth, not with a machine.
Ha. If you had 4 weeks of your life to donate and a massive set of lungs, that might actually be a possibility!
The good news? The globe got inflated in time and efficiently mounted on its globe-holder thingie.
The bad news? After turning an exhilarating half a dozen times on Steve’s briliantly designed hardware, it lost its enthusiasm and sort of went listing off to the side, refusing in no uncertain terms to ever twirl again. The combination of the weight of the globe and the higher than expected wind sort of did it in.
However, its valiant but futile struggle provided Steve and a couple of other fellas a good chuckle as they stepped aside to make room for the other folks to finish out the rest of the float. It turned out to be a simple and beautiful presentation.
Here’s Steve watching his creation go by along with our drummer, David, who goes by the name Stickman.
If you could take apart the brains of those two 60-something guys who have playing music since they were teenagers, you would doubtless find a million or two songs scattered throughout those brains. During our worship team rehearsals, one of them will play a few measures of something random on his instrument and the other one will yell out the name of the song and jump in playing along. It doesn’t even matter if they haven’t played the song in 45 years.
As we older folks know, useless knowledge like the words of a pop song from the 60’s stay with us forever. On the other hand, helpful info, like our PIN number, tends to float away without a backward glance.
Oh well.
We gave out hot chocolate and over 800 cookies; we also provided public restrooms which people were so appreciative of.
My contribution to the event (in addition to hosting a deflated globe and 2 bricks in my kitchen) was to design and print invite cards, letting our Manteo neighbors know about the Carols and Candles service we were having.
After spending several hours designing and redesigning (I started with the wrong dimensions so had to start from scratch), I entered into the stressful world of getting 10 business-sized cards laid out on in a way where they could be cut without looking too wonky. After a couple of hours fighting with that I finally drove 40 minutes round trip to get business card templates and fought for another hour to get them to print without getting caught in the machine.
You can see how successful I was with that.
This was all being done Friday night after I had already been away from the house since 7:30 a.m. and it was coming up on 7:30 at the opposite end of the day.
My usual equanimity was fast departing.
And then it occurred to me that were 800 Christmas cookies just outside my door!
Don’t tell anyone, but I tiptoed out there and flat out stole 3 cookies to flag up my wearying self.
I don’t know it was the cookies or not, but within another hour, I had 500 cards printed and (mostly) cut.
Front . . .
and back.
Today I am fighting a horrible cold which always makes me nervous because I worry about stuff getting into my lungs. But I’ll keep an eye on things and head to the doctor at the first sign of anything lung-y.
Happily, my view out the window this morning showed me this lovely sight.
Sarah got in about it midnight to help us put all the Thanksgiving stuff away and get all the Christmas stuff up. She definitely did not want to miss decorating the tree since she has done that with us every single year of her life.
This Thursday I am hosting a ladies’ Christmas party and am a little nervous about it since I’ve never done anything that. It seems like a big part of a seasonal party is having lovely decor and we have never done a lot of Christmas decorating in the past. However, I told Steve I want to turn over a new leaf and start doing a lot more of it.
So I’ve been hitting some thrift stores and discount places for decorations and we’ll see what we can put together.
Wish me luck! Happy day! Have a good week!
(See? My equanimity has been restored.) 🙂
What about you? Where are you in your decorating process? Are you a big decorator or a minimalist decorator?
I’m getting caught up on all my backlogged emails, which include a few notices of blog posts from my favorite “WordSmith”. It was interesting to read about Steve’s struggle with the globe – but regardless of if it spun, it looked great. I can so relate to both your comment about how easily we can recall “useless” information while important stuff hides in the recesses of our brains; and about struggling with a computer getting it to do what I want it to. I glad you were able to get your cards printed – they turned out very nice!
Sue Ellen,
The older we get, the more our brains befuddle us with what info they choose to remember. 🙂
Becky, The more I learn about you and Pastor Steve, the more impressed l am… and it’s time for me to get a new Impress-O-Meter for you kids, because the needle on the current one is stuck on “Geniuses.” My favorite photo in this blog was the view of Sarah’s car out of the window. That picture went straight to my heart and was worth far more than a thousand words, especially to the parent of a son who lives in California. (sigh) And… please tell Pastor Steve that I would gladly pay for a tour of his workshop!! =) Finally, as I ALWAYS say, this was your best blog yet! Merry Christmas to all!
PS – Thanks to Les for pointing out that “Christmas decorations really can’t be done wrong.” I always look forward to your readers’ comments and your replies.
Fred,
You leave the nicest comments; I think we need to award you a commenting star. I mean, who else would come up with the “Impress-O-Meter” line except for you?
I loved the car picture too. Sarah usually parks in the driveway and not the front lawn; I think Steve and I had parked funny and she couldn’t get in. I was actually kind of pleasantly surprised to see that dear silver car parked in an unexpected place.
And I agree that comments on this blog are the highlight. I LOVE getting to hear from my readers and getting to know them better. We’re all family here!
I put my tree up and put put a nativity set out and that is all for me. My Mom used to really decorate and I loved it. So festive. I guess I like the minimalist look; although I may try the inflated globe and bricks look =)
I love that your church does so many fun things. And gets the whole town involved.
Have a blessed week!
Krista,
I think we could start a new decorating trend with globes and bricks!
Nothing at all wrong with a minimalist approach. You get to enjoy some loveliness without getting so exhausted getting tons of stuff put up.
Enjoy celebrating; Christmas is always so much fun celebrated with a child.
I’m always impressed by the creative ways your church reaches into the community–wonderful job!
And how about you two and your endless well of creativity! Steve’s globe was amazing, turning or not and I loved the cards you made. How things look is so important and you guys excel at puttin’ on the polish and making it shine!
I know your party will be a smash! I look forward to the report.
My house is decorated cause I had to get it done for the ladies’ party I hosted last week, but presents? Nope. I always end up taking it right to Christmas Eve with final shopping and wrapping. Procrastination is my main life skill. ?
Take care of yourself and try to grab rest breaks in the midst of the craziness.
Love, Deb
Deb,
Yes, the party is certainly a great incentive for getting things done, isn’t it?
And I’m right there with you on being a gift-procrastinator. Every year I say I am going to do better and every year . . . I don’t.
Thanks for the very sweet compliments.
Good luck on Thursday! You have such a creative knack for pulling it all together and Christmas decorations really can’t be done wrong. I’m sure it will be lovely, especially once things get rolling and you are able to relax. Looking forward to pictures!
I used to be a minimalist, just couldnt feel the joy of the season, but as I’ve gotten older I really enjoy it. My Sarah has led the way, she loves the lights, the music and the feeling. It’s contagious. My second son was born Christmas Night which adds to the celebration. I am all decorated with gifts wrapped. So happy to hear you will have the Smith clan from Florida this year. What joy! What chaos! Very exciting. All the more reason to go all out on the decorating 🙂
Les,
That is very comforting to think about your line, “Christmas decorations really can’t be done wrong.” I should print that out as a reminder.
I agree that having younger ones in our lives makes the season more exciting and makes us tend toward more decorating than we might do otherwise. You are one of the few people that I know who can say their gifts are not just bought but also wrapped. Impressive.
Wishing a joyful season to you and sweet Sarah!
Have finished with decorating, although I do have items I used last year that are still sitting – well, they might just have to sit this one out. It’s too bad that the world didn’t spin after all that work, but, that globe looked wonderful and I’m sure was a big hit on the float and folks could enjoy it even if it didn’t spin. How wonderful to have cookies and hot chocolate. Your church’s light definitely does shine in your community.
Sharyn,
Congrats on being finished with the decorating and bigger congrats on deciding that the remaining decorations could “just sit there.” Good job! 🙂
I have finished decorating. I have a tree, 2 nativities, some pillows, several flameless candles, lights around my fireplace and a few other knickknacks. I would probably say I’m a moderate decorator, certainly not a big decorator. Saturday I’m going to an open house at the home of our music director and his wife who is in my SS class. They have 19 trees!
Phyllis,
I can NOT imagine having 19 trees. That would definitely worth a visit just to see them all!
Sounds like your amount of decorating is just right; enough to be lovely but not so much as to be overwhelming.
I have trouble printing business cards, too. Half will print right and the other half (side) will be off center. Glad Sarah will help with the decorating. I just put things up one day at a time. Not set theme just whatever I want to use that I have. Special ornaments go on the tree and I sometimes trade them around. Not elegant but I like it and that’s what matters to me. Waiting for pictures.
Ann,
You are wise to put things up one day at a time. We tend to do our projects in big clumps and it can get overwhelming sometimes. We’ve got a couple of hours of work left before the party Thursday night and I’ve been home sick all day. And unfortunately, my Sarah Assistant had to get back to Edenton. But we’ll make it!
I have enjoyed seeing your decorations on FB.
My husband and I decorated for Christmas over the weekend. I thought we’d finished, but I continue to find different decorations throughout the house. I guess my husband wasn’t done decorating. Enjoy hosting your ladies Christmas luncheon. I am sure you will all enjoy it. By the way I would have needed more than three Christmas cookies to help me finish that job you were involved in.
Catherine,
Isn’t it amazing how Christmas decorations sort of multiply and appear at odd times and in odd places? I keep telling myself that someday I will be organized but this year is not looking too good for organization. 🙂
I always get uptight about hosting events like you are having on Thursday, so I take a deep breath and remember these words of wisdom from my dad: “When you are having company, don’t worry too much about how your house looks. Serve something good to eat, have plenty of it, and be relaxed yourself. If you do those things, any company worth having will have a good time.” He’s been proven right pretty often!
Angela,
Your dad had a lot of wisdom! The bottom line of it all–as he said–is just to relax. That makes everyone else relax, too.
Thanks for passing on his good advice.
Well, we got the tree up and decorated last night. On Saturday, we ran the electrical for the outdoor lights and also did the interior decorating. I didn’t put out as much as I usually do, only because Christmas is so close already and it seemed unwise to get out a whole lot of stuff only to just have to put it away in a couple of weeks. So. We’re definitely taking the easy road this year!
Lee Anne,
It’s wonderful to have an easy road option occasionally, especially since you’re starting the decorating process a little later than usual. At least we got our tree up last night; that’s the biggie.