A great night for Logan

Last night was DS-11 time to shine. First, he was invited to the school Reflections awards ceremony where he received an honorable mentioned medal for his entry.
The theme for the year was “I Wonder Why.”
He entered in both writing, as was required of all students, and photography. His prize was in the photography category.
He might have won, had he spent any time on the project, but basically he told me the morning the Reflections entries were due that he want to do something. So I handed him my work camera and sent him out to shoot some photographs. I believe I posted some of them on an earlier blog entry.
He came back in with some pretty good shots, I downloaded them and printed them out, and he hand wrote some thoughts under the photos.
The grand prize winner had a beautiful close-up shot of leaves. It was nicly detailed and I think it deserved the win.
But DS-11s, placing in the competition has convinced me that giving him a digital camera for Christmas is a wise move. I’m going to have to spend time with him teaching him how to tell stories with photographs. Maybe next year he’ll bring home a trophy, too!
Following the Reflections contest we went to his Christmas Concert. They sang the same songs we heard last year, and none of them mentioned mangers, Bethlehem or anything else remotely religious. But the kids had a great time. Their favorite is an Elvis song where they bust some moves.
After about two minutes of watching my son, my eyes wandered to the odd assortment of youngsters on the stage. As a result I came to a few conclusions.
(1) My boy really is very handsome.
But I may be prejudice.
The children, ages 10-12, are in that awkward stage when some parts are growing faster than other parts. I don’t want to be rude, but some of those kids were just, um, waiting to grow into their looks.
(2) Girls and boys are different.
I know, not much of a revelation. But it was funny to see how they dressed. DS told me he was supposed to wear a red or green shirt with black pants. He was wearing a simple pullover. But other boys were wearing black t-shirts with red lettering, red t-shirts with black lettering, etc. At least half of them looked like they hadn’t combed their hair in two days.
The girls, on the other hand, had pretty velvet tops, or layered sweaters, or stylin’ sweaters. Their hair was curled, and combed and tied with sparkly ribbon.
(3) There is no such thing as a quick run to Walmart after a Christmas concert in a smaller town.
We figured, hey, it’s 8 p.m. on a weeknight, who’s going to be there? Everyone who attended the concert, that’s who! And everyone who attended a concert at any of the other elementary schools, and band concert at the middle school, and the Chorus Concert at the High School. In other words, half the town.
But some of you will be happy to know I bought new wrapping paper!
Earlier today I was wrapping Christmas gifts and realized I had been putting the same unattractive wrap around my presents for six years. I’ve had the paper ever since my Mother bought the paper for me when I was in bed trying not to give birth to my DS who will be celebrating his seventh birthday in a few days. I didn’t much like the paper when she bought it for me at Costco. You know how much paper Costco puts on a roll, don’t you? 4,000,000 yards. After seven years of using it, the paper hasn’t grown on me.
I occurred to me I have been putting up with this unattractive paper, getting less and less happy with it every time I use it, because Mom bought it, and I don’t want to let good paper go to waste, and after all, it’s just wrapping paper.
I know it’s silly to be this obsessed about wrapping paper. My brother and his family wrap their gifts in newsprint and are perfectly happy with their thriftiness. And I don’t really care what people use to wrap packages they give to me.
But, I like to make my gifts look pretty. To me, putting extra time in the presentation is part of my gift to the recipient ~ even if they don’t notice it, even if they don’t care. I notice and I care how my gifts look.
So it has been a small irritation for many years to have to deal with paper I don’t like.
It dawned on me that I often put up with things that are easy to fix, but I don’t fix them simply because “that’s the way it’s always been,” or “if it works don’t fix it.”
So, one of my goals for 2006 is to look at all the things in my life that can be fixed without too much fuss, and fix them.
Maybe I can move the aluminum foil from above the stove. Right now whenever I reach up to get some foil half the contents of the cupboard fall on me. It’s a small, irritating, fixable situation.
My challenge to you, dear reader, is to access your life and see if there is something that bothers you and is easily fixable. Maybe you need another pair of scissors, because the old ones don’t really work. Or maybe you need new laundry baskets, but you just haven’t bothered getting them. Take some time for yourself sometime before the New Year and make your life a little easier.