stockings bonaza!!!!

so finally, today, on the last day of the year, i've managed to find what i've been so frantically looking for. i had gone to marshalls and ross, and was so certain i could find what i was looking for. and both locations turned up empty. i had almost given up, but remembered i got my tree skirt from target last year. so i mustered up whatever was left of my weary body to begin the foraging of clearance, which i so love, but also, so wears me out...

when i entered, i knew i had to make it to the back of the store. where all the seasonal stuff were stashed. i plowed down the lane, foolishly ignoring the carts (which i realized later, would have really been helpful), i blew pass all the ordinary lanes, makeup, cards, stationary, cleaning supplies, pet products, food, i was getting closer... i could see the red signs hanging above. sale! clearance! 75% off! woohoo! i have arrived... i thought.

you could almost hear my sigh of relief when i saw the christmas goodies section still overflowing with full shelves of delicious chocolate, lovely jars of hot cocoa, boxes of snacks pretty and ready for the maddened foraging clearance hunting beasts. but i wasn't there for that! i kept on going. pressing forward, fully aware of my target, my goal, my STOCKINGS!!!! to my horror as i approached the end of the christmas snack section, the two widest aisles, which usually contain all christmas decorations were completely cleaned out! i mean completely, there were only mangled shelves and stacks of ripped boxes, which once held all those beautiful christmas lights and ornaments. my heart sank! could it be i was too late? this was my last hope!!! but i steadied myself, i mustered up some courage to continue my charge down the "christmas section".

to my relief, there were a smattering of red and gold. chirstmas colors still flicked and dotted the aisle. i approached it bravely, for i knew, once things are marked 75% off, it means it's already gone through the brutal battle of 25% off and the rumbling rampage of 50% off. these items were usually not in their best shape. but i've always held out that there is often one or two items of whatever it is, that have managed to take shelter under its factory buddies to come out unscathed or unnoticably damaged.

after my first aisle, i found one bearly worthwhile candidate. thankful, slightly... but i held on to the hope that there might be more. that maybe someone grabbed it from it's original spot and sat it there after browsing a few other aisles. now i had to find that "original" spot and i'll be in "stocking section".

i went to the second aisle, bingo! there was a fifth of an aisle with stockings. but from the sights of it, it had been pilaged badly. now i had to get to work. i slowly began my methodical process of sorting. the good ones, i hold on to, the bad ones, i move from left to right, top to bottom (so i don't get too confused). i found a total of 4 out of the 80 or so i sorted through. they looked good, but still, they didn't match. yeah! that's important too, after all, they are all going to be hung up together. there had to be flow, compatibility, meaning to the color grouping... yes yes... you must be wondering, does she put that much thought into everything... are you nuts? no! at least i don't think i do... maybe i do... erm... whatever that's not the point! you don't understand, i was on a mission!!!

as i settled with the four, i noticed a little worker bee coming over to my section ever few seconds. she was moving stuff somewhere else. when i looked closer, i noticed she was a target employee. she was trying, bless her heart, to organize!!!! like that is ever successful with shoppers tangling all around you grabbing at hot buys!?!?! i asked where she was moving them, hoping it would be to another gold mine of stockings. she said, "to the next aisle, but there isn't much there". so after settling on my, now, five, mismatched stockings, i followed her around. she was right, there weren't that many on that side too, but there was a whole empty shelf that i decided to use to lay out all my stockings. hoping against all hope, i dove into the pile she had been stacking to find more stockings. i found a total of 7! that was the lucky number of stockings i had set out to look for. there were two sets of identical ones though. yeah, i told you they were slim pickings. as i layed them out on the shelf, i still agonized over the coordination, over who would choose which stocking. i still wasn't totally happy, but i resigned myself. i tried to cheer myself with the though that without a sale this would have been over a hundred dollars, and i was making out with under $30.

i thanked the saleslady for let me lay everything out (cos i was probably in her way) and moved to the next aisle. at that point i was looking for the icing on the cake, to find a new star - tree topper. i knew that was wishful thinking, but still, i had time, my son was napping with daddy, i finally have time to shop with leisure. i browsed the next aisle. nothing too impressive. then the next aisle... my heart skipped, there were a few more stockings, but upon closer inspection, they were the same as those i had already seen. i was ready to leave... but i had also noticed one last aisle before "automotive". so i thought, what the heck? might as well see if i could find a tree topper. and lo and behold!!! my mecca!!! the higher end stockings were there, hanging on little racks. tah-dah!!! i said higher end cos they had prettier labels. there was variety! ah ha!!! my patience had paid off! i started picking through the wares excitedly, loading more on my stiff left arm. but after 20 minutes, i noticed, i had too many.

now having too many can cause problems too. cos it often translates into "didn't meet budget". so i methodically lined all the stockings i picked out again. i had 15 now!!! yikes! i couldn't afford them all. even with a 75% sale. so i went through the colorization process of weeding out. after that, i went through the mathematical process once over. you know, just making sure i wasn't overspending. i had 10! okay... now i had to begin the process of justify this final count.

my justification:
next year, we are planning on chiyang's family possibly visiting. which means, we will have a total of 7 people (mom, dad, sister, brother and the three of us). however, what if, both brother and sister brought a "friend". we would need 9!!! and as for the justification for the 10th stocking, well, when they come, i would let them choose their own stocking, so, with ten stockings even the last person will get a choice... right?

so there you go... my harrowing, exciting and most of all rewarding trip to target for stockings. oh the final price $31.24!!!! woohoo!!!

oh! if you were wondering why stockings... every year, we read the christmas story from luke. but i was hoping to start a tradition of uncovering the origins of christmas traditions and practices. so i would like to do the origins of st nick. and if you know that story, the stocking features!!!!

christmas is over...

this year christmas was really low key.. but i'm glad for it. it gave me time to pause and think about what i would like to do for future christmases. as cody is growing so fast, i often wonder, how can i make this event more meaningful for him to understand next year? i dream about what i could do with him the following year. so far, i've decided that i'll hit the 50% off sales rack for christmas stockings for next year. i tried to find them today, but it looks like the shop i went to got pilaged, so i'll have to find others... i have my list. keep your fingers crossed for me. i would like to start telling cody about santa. and start it off right. that he isn't some jolly old tubby man that comes down our non-existent chimney to bring us gifts. i want to tell him how that story came about. i want to find a child's book, written at a 3-year-old level (he'll be three next christmas), telling the story of st nicholas. about how he gave dowry money to three sisters in their stockings. and appropriately start a family tradition of stuffing stockings.

okay, before you all start wondering, but this isn't really what chirstmas is about. hold your horses! since we moved to phoenix, we've already started a few family traditions. the most important one is reading the christmas story in luke. we do that every year before opening gifts. this year, chiyang read the NIV luke, and i read a boardbook version (for cody's sake). it worked. cody understood we were celebrating Jesus' birthday, cos we also sang happy birthday to Jesus, several times throughout the day. it helped that cody likes that song... actually he kind of added new verses to it, throwing in other people's names. but we had to stop him and remind him we were only celebrating Jesus' birthday on the 25th (we don't know anyone else with birthdays on that particular day - phew...).

we also went to a candle light service of a church who's purchased land close by our home. this church had purchased land, but hadn't built their building. that was all we knew of this church. but as we approached the grounds, we noticed an office trailer was parked on one side of the property, and close by was a big open-faced barn. freshly painted white stripes marked in the dirt indicated where we were to park out cars. pathways lit with luminaries were clearly marked. and at the end of the path stood a simple white barn (which by open-face, i mean one of the longer walls was knocked out), there was a screen for projection, a keyboard, maybe a guitar... as we got closer a greeter welcomed us telling us to settle in to some hot cocoa, and while we did that, the faint smells of cattle warfed through the air (did i mention, it was kind of an agricultural plot of land). there was a chill in the air for the sun had already set, but peppered through barn were both gas-powered and traditional wood-burning fire pits. we sang carols, 4 people gave testimonies of how this church community has been a blessing in their lives. it was wonderful to praise God in candlelight, in a humble barn and with sincerity.

yeah yeah... this sounds soooo beautiful... but wait... now, this wasn't too easy for me... i had really wanted to go to this service. i had found their ad in a local newspaper, made sure chiyang knew way ahead of time, and planned for it, made sure we had directions... however, right after we had settled down, cody started to fuss... so i decided to carry him, hold him close, hug him to keep him warm, then out of nowhere, a gut wretching sound came from our chests (actually his not mind, but he was so close to me), then warm vomit spewed out all over me!!! my coat, my sweater, my hair, my jeans, my hands, my body, everywhere! i put him down and instinctively called for chiyang, and a second and more powerful hurl came from my little baby... he had projectile vomitted all over the (thankfully simply) dirt floor. he had vomit running down his face, down his big giant winter coat, down his pants, on his shoes and his poor poor eyes looked up at me like, "what's happening?!?!" thankfully a few people noticed and quickly directed us to the trailer where there were two toilets. chiyang took one with cody and i took the other. we then proceeded to frantically scrubbing the puke out. i had given up on our outerwear which had taken the brunt of the horrifying incident. but we were left to wonder, do we stay? i remember chiyang looking at me while asking that question. i knew he felt sorry for me. i could see it in his eyes as he looked at me with puke in my hair and all. he had done a good job cleaning cody up, but i hadn't faired so well. i could still smell the puke in my hair. chiyang said he couldn't, but he's never had a good nose. he told me it was my choice. i paused... i was going to say yes, then i thought, we don't live that far away, we could get home quickly. and more importantly, i didn't want to miss celebrating christmas with people i've chosen to celebrate christmas with, even though i didn't know them, i secretly wanted to be there, with them. you know what i mean right? sometimes you have to spend christmas with people you don't prefer to. but this year, we got a choice... i really didn't want to ruin it. it wasn't that wanted to make new friends or join a new church. but, i wanted to silently support their presence in our community. i wanted to celebrate christmas with true believers, people who mean the words when they sing carols. not at some big church where maybe a quarter of the people there only come to church once or twice a year (easter?). honestly, i always felt i would take up space at a place like that. please, i don't mean to offend. i've done that too! i would never give up moody church's annual handel's messiah when we lived in chicago!!! but you know what i mean...

okay... i think i have to end right now... cody's calling... chiyang wants me off the computer... sorry... keep in touch... yup! that was my christmas... what was yours like?

6 weeks later...

so it's been a long six weeks and well, finally people have come out to help repair the home. yes FINALLY! as it turns out, the forman assigned to our home totally dropped the ball, but lied to his manager and super that all was going as planned. basically, he told them that everything was done except for the cabinets. the truth is, no one had come out to our home since the first week we discovered the break in. when the insurance company was finally clued in on this "miscommunication" the newly assigned closing agent (AAA insurance company) got on the phone and got things moving. i'm so thankful for her!

well, this has all not gone without any hiccups.

hiccup number one - the painters who came out helped select colours for our home. he recommended a colour which i was kind of hesitant about, but then thought since he's the expert, i'll go with his suggestion. turns out, our living room looks like shrek threw up on the walls!
hiccup number two - because we told the insurance company we were selling the house and was moving out, they are unable to compensate us for our "temporary housing" since we did already make arrangements. now, if we weren't moving, they would have put us up in a hotel and given us a food allowance!!!
hiccup number 3 - the biggest one of all! yesterday we went to meet with the cabinetry guy and to our horror the cabinets are custom-built and will take a month for them to be ready for installation!!! that means one more month of not being able to sell the house!!! yikes!

i know all the lord makes all things beautiful in his time, and obviously we are going through a whole lot of ugly. but i still have faith that things will turn around. but i have to confess, i am getting impatient.

do pray for us, that we will be able to float our mortgage and start paying my folks rent money. it's a stressful time...