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Gabe had his eighth birthday and I can still remember the cold and snowy day in New York when he was born. No cold and snow for his 8th however. We had a heat wave. He had his party on Saturday at Build A Bear, a shop that is conveniently located everywhere we’ve lived. We even found one in Melbourne at Chadstone. Chadstone also had a 3 story Borders Book Store with an escalator. If I got paid money for all the times I mention Borders in this blog, I’d be rich. Chadstone is as close as you get to an American mall in Australia. In fact, when our Aussie friend Martyn went to an American mall, he told his wife that it was just like Chadstone. Build a Bear parties involve being led around the shop by a cheery worker who helps you choose, stuff, and name a bear. The kids had to jump up and down, kiss a heart, hug their bears, and take a pledge of responsibility. Gabe wanted to buy his stuffed dog a football uniform to wear while watching the Super Bowl and Zeke wanted to buy his bear a High School Musical t-shirt. When we finally left the shop, Josiah declared that he could never get a job at Build A Bear. All that smiling and happy talk would be impossible. For Gabe’s birthday dinner, we went to Chuck E Cheese. On the drive there the kids did a sing along to Gabe’s new High School Musical CD thoughtfully given by his Aunt Marie. She sent the CD and a whoopie cushion. I’m not sure which one will eventually annoy me more. I had high hopes for a night at Chuck E Cheese that wasn’t full on. I thought, “it’s Tuesday night, hardly anyone will be there.” Silly me. A school had an event going on and it was it’s usual madhouse. The kids got busy spending their coins on the games. Abby loves to punch the ducks, Zeke loves to squish the spiders, Gabe declared moving magnets easy, and Josiah couldn’t figure out why some little kid can win millions of tickets on ski ball when he can only win two tickets every time. After we left the madness, I told Josiah that just as he could never work at Build A Bear, I could never work at Chuck E Cheese. Abby asked why not. Josiah said, “Because it’s loud and crowded and filled with obnoxious children.” There are somethings the boy does notice, but his giant baritone sitting in his classroom for him to take home today was not one of them. For dessert we went to Krispy Kreme in honor of Dale and conveniently arrived while the donuts were hot. When we were choosing the donuts, the donut guy said that if the kids brought in their report cards, they could get a free donut for every A. Too bad their father isn’t here to steal all the donuts they’ll soon be collecting. On the way home, Abby decided to ask everyone in the car if they were an optimist or a pessimist. Josiah’s reply was, “I am not the guy who would say the glass is half full and I am not the guy who would say the glass is half empty. I am the guy who would say, What glass?”

Yesterday, Josiah participated in the school wide spelling bee for seventh grade. Gabe is participating in the second grade bee on Friday. I was testing Josiah on his word list over the weekend in between football downs. He would periodically ask me, “Can you use the word in a sentence?” To which I’d reply either, “No. I can not,” or “I have no idea what verdure means.” I thought I had a fairly large vocabulary until I realized I didn’t know a quarter of the seventh grade spelling bee list. I was also no help when it came time to pronounce the words. The words are followed by phonetic symbols which would be helpful if I knew how an upside down e or an a with an umlout (Karl will have to give the proper German spelling of that word) sounds. So far, Josiah has been reading Gabe his words. I feel the boy has a better chance that way. At the Bee yesterday, Josiah came in 4th place and advanced to the next round. If he hopes to win, I think he would be wise to hire a new coach.

Since I was so upset about not getting to put up lights this year, I decided to decorate my wall for Christmas. The first time Mugs visited my family in Natchitoches during Christmas, she was utterly amazed that Mama had decorated the bureau instead of a Christmas tree. So in true Manry tradition, here’s my Christmas wall:

Last night, some of us got together for a white elephant gift exchange. Sarah had printed out mistletoe and taped it to the ceiling, so you had to be careful where you stood. I was able to give everyone that came a homemade Christmas card from Gabe’s second grade class at Fredericksburg Christian Schools. In the picture above, notice all of the cards on the white paper. Each kid in Gabe’s class made me a Christmas card. They also made extra cards addressed to “Friend”.
CDR Charles Kliewer joined us for the festivities. He is a US Navy Submariner assigned to the US Army Corps of Engineers for a 6-month deployment to Iraq. He is here on FOB Marez attached to the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) as the liaison officer (LNO) for USACE. He’s still looking for his submarine! Here’s a shot of Charles and Rick unaware that mistletoe is lurking above.

This morning, I slept in until about 0800. After making some coffee and checking email, I just lazed about most of the morning. I got to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” on AFN. For lunch today, we decided to go to town. So we drove over to the DFAC on FOB Diamondback. The display wasn’t quite as extravagant as Thanksgiving, but they did have a giant Frosty appropriately covered in frosting. Santa Claus was also at the DFAC, so we had one of the DFAC workers take our picture with Santa and Frosty.

The DFAC worker liked it so much, that he asked me to take a picture of him and his buddy with Santa. The he had his buddy take a picture of the two of us with Santa. Next it was a picture of just his buddy with Santa. Then it was a picture of me and his buddy with Santa. Finally, it was a picture of just him with Santa. Here is picture number 2, me and the first DFAC worker.

For Christmas this year, I got a deluxe care package from Richard, including homemade peanut brittle. No one is allowed to tell Howard that I got homemade peanut brittle.  He never reads this blog, right? From Abby, I received the Grumpy ornament, and from Gabe I got silly putty. Zeke gave me a Santa Pez dispenser, while Josiah sent a coffee cup where you can design your own decoration. Mugs gave me a desktop bowling game and a stress-relief football to squeeze. It feels like Stretch Armstrong, if you remember that toy. I guess it feels like Stretch Armstrong even if you don’t remember that toy!

Merry Christmas from Mosul!

I am a bad fan of the Chicago Bears or I am a fan of the bad Chicago Bears. Pick either statement, they both apply. However, my dear husband is an obnoxious fan of the Dallas Cowboys or a fan of the obnoxious Dallas Cowboys. Both of those statements apply as well. For all you Aussies who understand only footy (Rugby or Aussie Rules), I am talking about gridiron football. Why I let a football game and football team matter to me so much, I can not explain. When the game is on I am transformed into a mad yelling nutcase complete with chants, boos, jumping up and down, and yelling obnoxiousness. Zeke decided that this was a fun game that Mommy was playing and he would join in: “Watch da foobal Mommy?” Soon he was chanting “Defense…Defense”, jumping up and down and telling me, “Give me high five, Mommy!” When the game started to look dire, I ran upstairs to get a rally cap. A rally cap can be any hat worn inside out or backwards or both. Wearing this on your head helps your team to come back when behind in the game. I am a great believer in the rally cap, but my husband is not. Our current home had been sitting on the market for quite awhile with no action. When we put in an offer to buy the house, I had a peace that this was the house for us and that everything was going to go smoothly. Well, someone was lying in the weeds and put in an offer soon after ours. Both offers were being presented to the seller at the same time and our realtor was going to the negotiations on our behalf. We prayed and called my family to pray. The realtor called and it didn’t sound good. Dale and I were watching a baseball game and it was in the bottom of the 12th, 2 outs, with a runner on second. The tv cameras scanned the crowd and I saw a guy with a rally cap on. “That’s what we need to put us over the top,” I told Dale and stuck a rally cap on my head. 20 minutes later, the realtor called to say we got the house. If that didn’t get him to believe in the rally cap, I didn’t know what would. I was convinced he would accept the rally cap’s validity, but he didn’t. He likes dominating winning teams, he doesn’t want the game to be close. I, however, like to think that all is lost and be miraculously delivered from misery. The change in emotion is fantastic. However, my rally cap did not work during the Bears/Cowboys game partly because my eldest son was sitting across from me with Cowboys gear reminding me that I had failed to win him to my side and mostly because the Bears quarterback once again played awful. My gloating, obnoxious Cowboy fan husband called me after the game. The one time, so far, I was glad he was thousands of miles away and he has to call me to rub it in. But, today, good news: our quarterback is benched and my rally cap is back on my head. I’ll see you in the playoffs where payback will be sweet!