OK, I understand that talking about the weather is mundane, but OMG it’s been so freaking cold here lately that I barely want to get out of bed let alone leave the house! The entire eastern seaboard and parts of the mid-west have been under the influence of an Alberta Clipper, which has brought frigid temperatures to us, and oddly enough it was warmer in Anchorage Alaska yesterday than it was here in Washington, D.C. I’ve got nothing against Alberta, but pleeease keep your cold weather to yourself!

Now with just four days to go ’til the inaugural, D.C. residents are bracing themselves for the onslaught of visitors to our city. We’re used to the summer tourist crowds at the monuments, but there are forecast to be will be more people attending this inaugural than any other one in history. I do not like crowds because I get a bit claustrophobic. Just being on a crowded Metro train at rush hour sends my blood pressure soaring and an increasing sense of panic begins to build inside of me. So, my first instinct is to stay at home where it’s warm and safe and watch from the comfort of my couch. However, because this is such an historic moment, and because for goodness sakes it’s going on a few blocks from here, I’m going to get up off of my rusty-dusty and head down to the mall and wade into the crowd and witness history in person. Pray for me, ya’ll because I really don’t want to get down there and get stuck in a mob of people and have an anxiety attack. I’m visualizing an uneventful experience when all goes well and I don’t freeze my hind parts off or get mixed up in a crazed mob.

I am sending my girls to stay with their father because good heavens it will be difficult enough to keep track of myself let alone keep up with two curious children with bottomless pits for stomach and bladders the size of ping-pong balls. I will carry small snacks in my pockets and I hope to be able to find some hand and foot warmers this weekend to put into my mittens and my boots. I will dress in layers as the forecast is for the low 30′s. I think it will be lots of fun and although I don’t have a ticket to the swearing-in–or any other event for that matter, I am going to join that crowd of my fellow Americans on the National Mall and celebrate the peaceful transfer of power of the highest office in our country, and the historic moment of inaugurating the first Black president in the history of the United States.

If I can get close enough to anything to take pictures, I will do so and post them here. I told my dad that I’d send him a video clip live from the mall. I will post that here as well. So, for those of you who are also attending I’ll see you there. Please save me a spot near one of those jumbo-trons so that I’ll be able to see Mr. Obama make history.

I had signed up weeks ago as a volunteer for the Presidential Inaugural events, and I finally got a call last week scheduling me to start this week. Both yesterday and today I showed up at the PIC and worked a few hours in the call center. It was really lots of fun because the people who work and volunteer there are very cool. It’s a bit of a chaotic environment, but full of really good, vibrant energy that comes from people working together towards a common goal. It reminded me of working on the campaign. Anyway, They are doing a great job or organizing the thousands of volunteers that will be needed to pull off the most-attended inaugural in history.

So, for the most up-dated information about the inaugural balls and festivities in D.C. take a look at: www.pic2009.org

It also felt good to get out of the house and to break up my regular routine a bit. It felt like I was becoming a bit of a reclusive hermit because I have been spending most of my days at home alone in front of the computer. As much as I have enjoyed the flexibility of working from home, I have not enjoyed the isolation. When the weather was warmer, I used to take my laptop to the cafe and sit out and work in the sun. Now that winter is here, I’ve just not been leaving the house much. So, I intend to change that in the weeks ahead. I will get out and take my laptop to the library because I can get free wi-fi.

The excitement about the upcoming inaugural festivities is really growing in town. I’m looking forward to being able to witness history, but not looking forward to the crazy crowds and all of the other disruptions that will happen during those few days. It will be an adventure, and I’ll share it with you as we go.

It’s the second day of the new year and here I am again reflecting on the past. Today’s musing is courtesy of having been found on Facebook by an old pen pal. We met online in a pen-pal forum in 2002, and we started exchanging long, chatty letters about our lives. In those days I was newly married, expecting my third baby girl and trying my hand at being a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom). When baby girl was about nine month old, and I had become I was crazed with boredom from staying home, I started working again. I no longer had as much leisure time, so my letters became fewer and farther between until I just could not find a quiet moment to sit and write any more and Liz and I lost touch. Years passed and my life was being completely transformed. But when I look back on those days and all of the time that I invested in learning how to be a good wife, when I had been a single mom for the previous twelve years I have to laugh to keep from crying. I invested so much energy and devotion in being a ‘good wife.’ I had to learn the hard way how devastating it is to discover that you have been leaning your ladder against the wrong wall.

Getting out of that marriage and resurrecting my life has been a huge accomplishment for me. Forgiving myself for having married the wrong person and for having wasted so much of myself on someone who did not deserve me will take some time. But God is good and His mercy endures forever. There is always grace, and the lessons learned were hard won and they continue to inform my life as I move forward.

So, on the last day of the year as I was tying up the loose ends I sat down and penned a letter to my old pen pal. I felt as though I was writing with the shadow of my old self peering over my shoulder. That young woman was amazed at how much I would experience and grow from in the following six years. I sensed as she read what I was writing that she was proud of me for having gotten out of a bad marriage, for taking care of myself and my girls, and for being brave enough to find love again. As the year wound down I wrote about the things in my life that had changed and about all that I was looking forward to in the new year. I look forward to reading Liz’s reply and hearing about what she’s been up to since we lost touch with each other.

As I end my work day early to celebrate the new year, I wanted to take a quick moment to wish everyone a safe, abundant, blessed and joyous new year. The start of a new year always feels a bit magical. I feel blessed to have my family and good friends around me as we say good-bye to 2008 and usher in 2009.

Thank you to all of my readers–those who have left comments and those who have stayed in touch over the ten plus years that I have kept a blog. Your encouragement and support mean more to me than I could ever express. The new year will bring new challenges, but when you are surrounded by love it seems like anything is possible.

I want to take a moment and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. As I write happy holidays, it feels a bit bland and incredibly PC, which I am not. I was raised in the Christian tradition, and all of my life at this time of year I have said Merry Christmas because to my mind this is the time of year that we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But not everyone in this world shares my beliefs. People of the Jewish faith celebrate Hanukkah, and then there is Kwanzaa, a celebration that was invented in the late sixties in an attempt to give Black people a holiday that allowed them to embrace their African roots. But in the end, each of these are just ideas that large groups of people have decided to embrace. Those of us that share a certain set of beliefs gather around our trees, our kinaras, our menorahs and reinforce those shared beliefs and pass them on to the next generation.

As I teach the Christian traditions to my children, I also strive to teach them to keep their minds open to the possibility that there are other ideas and ways of thinking out there. I try to teach them that just because a large group of people believe something it does not necessarily make it true.

For me the most important part of the Christmas season is being together as a family. Because I’m now divorced, I must split this holiday with my girls. They wake up at home with me, open presents and have a big Christmas breakfast and then they hang around playing with their toys until its time to get dressed to go to daddy’s house. I drop them off with him and usually spend the rest of the day alone. Co-parenting is not easy, and as I pull away from his house I get a pang of regret that we are no longer a big, happy, intact family. But then I am reminded of why I divorced him and the regret is washed away with relief.

My wish is for everyone to be happy–to make good choices that make you happy. Make sure that those you love know how you feel about them, and embrace the simple joy of this blessed season.

Today it was a whopping 17 degrees outside, so we decided to hunker down and stay inside where its warm. It was the first day of the girl’s Christmas vacation, and we spent the majority of the day in my bed. I was working away on my laptop, Leila was knitting a cowl/neckwarmer for herself, and Jordan was creating handmade Christmas cards. Every now and then she would ask me how to spell something that she was writing on her little cards that were created by folding a piece of 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper folded into quarters. She has recently learned how to make ‘bubble letters,’ so she is having fun drawing the letters and then coloring them in.

Leila is having trouble sticking with the Knit 4, Purl 2 rib pattern, so she occasionally hands her knitting over to me to show her how to fix her errors like when she drops a stitch or knits where she should have purled. When Jordan sees Leila getting all of this attention with her knitting, she decided that she wants to learn how to knit. So, I pulled out a blue ball of wool and cast on 20 stitches. First I demonstrated how to o the knit stitch, and then I let her try it. She lacks Leila’s dexterity, but she’ll catch on knitting is really not that hard.

I was able to get a little bit of writing done while refereeing the squabble about not enough space on mommy’s bed. I’m enjoying having my girls all together in one place, but I’m not sure that I will survive two weeks of all of this togetherness.

I’m off to make a big pot of chili and some biscuits for dinner.

Today I had the honor of attending my little one’s first grade “Holiday Extravaganza.” The faculty of the school tried really hard to keep things very PC, but the teachers were able to inject their own Christmas flavor into the event. It was delightful to see how hard the kids worked to learn their lines and remember the lyrics. They all performed with such enthusiasm and joy. Jordan’s class sang, “The Chipmunk Song,” and they did a fabulous job. I wished that I had remembered to bring my video camera to record it. There were lots of songs and poetry recitations. First graders are just awesome.

I brought my knitting along and I managed to finish one of the tiny hats that I am making for the Save the Children’s, “Knit One Save One” project. I am going to try to organize an impromptu group at my local knitting shop to make some of these and send them in. Here’s a picture:

After the performance, we went back up to the classroom and had a lovely pot-luck brunch prepared by all of the parents. We all ate together and then the parents went back to work.

When I got back home to my office, I got a lovely email from Sheena of mommy daddy blog fame, and guess what? Yep, you guessed it. I won the contest for a gift card for OBLI Organics. They carry lots of screen printed cotton tees and dresses for babies and little children. I will use it to get a sweet little top for my first grader.

Sheena, who is the mommy part of the mommy daddy
blog, does my graphics for me. I was visiting her blog today and found that they are doing a giveaway to help kids in need this Christmas. It ends on Dec. 14th, so get right on it. Here’s the info:

MommyDaddyBlog.com is giving away a $20 gift certificate to OBLI Organics as part of their Three Gs For The Holidays event! Click on over right now to get in on fun giveaways, get shopping ideas from their Gift Guide, and learn how you can help children in need this holiday season!

One of the cool things about participating in social media is that you can find lots of cool resources from the friends that you make online. I’ve been using utterli.com, a social media/networking site that’s sort of like twitter, but with audio. Through that site I met the fabulous domesticdiva, who uses viddler.com to do a vlog, or video blog. I signed up and posted my first video there. It’s about Thanksgiving being my favorite holiday. Please enjoy and have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.