The Back Dor

In our church there is a body of people who help run the congregation; each with a responsibility over part of the congregation. One sister helps run the organization for the teenage girls. One sister runs the organization for the young children. One brother runs the organization for a group of men. I sit on this council over parties for our congregation. Now I haven't been in this congregation very long, just six months, but they asked me to do this so I'm trying my best.

One night while my husband and I were out to dinner I was asking him about ideas for parties for our congregation (we call them wards). I told him a few of the ideas I had on my list. He added a few more and we began talking about them. We had fun joking around with silly and goofy ideas. We then started talking about one of the hardest and most challenging part of the job: the Christmas party.

I told him my ideas and also the conversation we had just had at our council meeting. I wanted to do one type of party and during the meeting it was brought up that there would be no Santa at our party. I personally did not think there should be a Santa at our party, it was a party about the birth of the Savior not Santa Claus and eight tiny reindeer. They talked about how sad the children will be and disappointed the parents would be. I stiffened my backbone and said, "NO!" I would gladly do a breakfast with Santa if that was needed, but I didn't want to have Santa at the party I was planning.

My husband looked over the table and said, "You know Doreen, you can be intimidating." I asked where he got that idea from. (Of course living with me for the past 16 plus years might have had something to do with it.) But he had heard that in the council meetings I was a bit intimidating. I was flabbergasted! ME! Intimidating? You've got to be crazy.

Well, I guess I'm not all that stupid. I am intimidating. I have certain ideas and I want them done the way I want them done. No "if's, and's or but's" about it!

The Intimidator

PS: there was no Santa at my party!

The other day I came home from my early morning physical therapy session to a house full of wonder. My 8 year old son was enthusiastically playing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on the piano in the living room. I was hearing, "Mom's home" from my 5 year old daughter as she bounded down the stairs in her princess dress of choice for the day. I saw my 14 year old son at the breakfast table with his elbows firmly planted on the sports section of the newspaper, empty bowl pushed aside and glass half full of room temperature milk. His 12 year old brother was downstairs talking rather loud about how it was his turn for the washing machine and "someone needed to get his clothes moved over." My 6 year old son was on the family room floor with his eyes stuck to the comics asking his 10 year old brother to read them to him as he is just beginning to read and needs help with the big words. I heard a burst of laughter as the joke was read. My sweet little dog came rushing from his look out on the back of the living room couch begging to be petted and welcoming me back home. My dear sweet husband walked up from downstairs, planted a kiss on my lips and smiling said, "Good morning. They are all yours."

I stood in the front hallway with my purse still on my shoulder, little princess arms wrapped tightly around my legs with her rosy cheeks begging for a good morning kiss. I wanted to open the front door and yell, "IT IS A WONDERFUL LIFE! EAT YOUR HEART OUT GEORGE BAILEY!"

I truly live a wonderful life.
Six kids
One husband
One dog
One bird
Countless fish
One warm and safe house
Food on the table
and bells ringing continually telling me "It's a wonderful life."

Doreen

Thanks to the few people who have sent us their Christmas cards. It is so refreshing to know that the practice of sending Christmas cards is still alive and well in some parts of the world. I really do appreciate learning about all the wonderful things that have happened in your life. Because we live such busy lives, I don't think I would ever know that a friend's husband ran a 5K this year and came in second! I don't think I would know that my aunt added three grandsons to her family this year. I don't think I would know that my nephew was going to stay put and work on his degree from home. I don't think I would know that people really do want to share their lives with me.

Thank you!
If you have sent your card and I haven't gotten it yet, I look forward to reading it. And if you haven't sent your card, there still is time.
Doreen

I love Christmas cards. I love them so much I sent out over 200 cards this year to my friends and acquaintances. Yet my mailbox sits empty (except for the bills and holiday catalogs). What did I do? Where did I go wrong? Is it a sign of the times that the hearts of man wax cold? I think that is going a bit too far, but I LOVE to get Christmas cards. I love getting the form letters that so many people hate. I get to learn so much about my friends and what is going on in their lives. I know some people view it as a sugar-coated-cleaned up version of what really happened in their family over the past year, but you know, I would rather have that than to have nothing at all. I would like to think that they are thinking of me as they slap the address on the envelope. I like to think they have a smile on their face as they put the stamp on the envelope at the last time they read my last letter; probably Christmas 2004.
I hope that by the time the New Year comes around that my mailbox is full! I love to see how family and friends have progressed this past year. I love to hear of their trial (even if they haven't over come them yet) and their triumphs. I just love to hear from friends and acquaintances.
I'm not sure I will send out 200 next yet, but then again, at choir practice today three of people I sent a card to commented on what a great card it was and how wonderful it was to get our card.
So Merry Christmas!
Doreen

I love a fire. I love looking into a roaring fire. I love watching it burn down to wonderful coals and I love looking at the white hot coals left by a fire.
When I was a little girl my house didn't havd a fireplace (talk about confussing a little girl who believed in Santa. Thankfully we left the front door unlocked on December 24th) but I didn't let the lack of fireplace from stopping my imagination. I remember getting a box and drawing a fire on the box so I could have my fire. I loved going camping and getting the fire roaring, warming up each side, smelling like a good wood fire as I slipped inside a sleeping bag and then waking to a warm fire in the morning. Talk about heaven!
I remember one camping trip when I was still rather young where a spark from the fire landed in my eye. My older brothers held me under the ice cold running water flushing out my eye. You would think that would stop me from being close to a fire, but no, I love getting close to a fire.
Now that I'm big and own a mortgage we have a fire place. Living where the eletricity is guaranteed to go out at least three or four times during the winter we have put a gas insert into our fireplace. One would think the romance and atmosphere of having a fire would be lost. But it isn't lsot or even diminished. With little children it was a safe choice as well. We can be safe in the winter, warm when the power goes out and always have a warm fire to cuddle in front of.
The only thing better than a warm fire is to have someone you love share it with you. Thankful I have a housefull of people to share it with. Of course my favorite person to share it with is my husband and way too many times we don't get to sit in front of the fire just the two of us, but that is the price you pay when you have six children in the house. Next on my list are my children. I love having my little ones snuggle in my lap as we talk around the fire. My older children are physically too big to fit in my lap anymore (they will soon crush me) but I can sit next to them and talk.
What a great picture; parents and children talking. I think conversation is a lost art. We are too busy to sit down and just talk. It is one thing to go through the check list of places to be during the day or week, but it is still another to just sit down and share feelings, emotions, testimony, concerns, worries, dreams and desires.
When was the last time you sat around a warm fire with your children just communicating with them?
I think I'll put it on my schedule to do with my children....let see.....maybe next week...yes, I see a day free.

Doreen

My husband has had a blog for quite some time and I've been tinkering with the idea of doing one myself. SO......I decided I would try my hand. After tinkering with other blog designs, I choose this style and my title, "The Back Dor." When I was a young girl my nick name was "Dor" but more importantly I wanted the feel of a back door friend. You know the type (or at least we use to have those types of neighbors). They were friends who just opened the door to your home, walked in and "helloed" and they were more than welcomed in the house.

Well, I want to be that type of friend....one that can walk into your home and feel welcomed and likewise, I want you to feel that you are always welcome at my home.

So grab a cup of cocoa or lemonade and let's chat and have a great time becoming "back dor" friends.

Doreen