New Traditions...This Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is slipping into history. The kids are in their rooms--most likely not asleep. My wife and I are watching (upon recommendation of a friend...), Arthur Christmas as we wait for the kids to begin dreaming of sugar plumbs and other such things.

The show, Arthur Christmas--it's a first for us. There's a couple of other new things we're trying this year. And even though "New Traditions" is an oxymoron, we're hoping the term sticks.

Since Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year, we had church--great day to go to church, by the way. Then we got ready for Christmas Eve. I spent time making a video for tomorrow. The kids did some baking and cleaning, and tonight we all gathered in our room and played a game.

Both my wife and I read somewhere about Christmas Eve traditions in other countries. They give books to their kids on Christmas Eve. We thought it would be fun, so we packaged books and pajamas and let the kids open those presents tonight.

The experiment was a huge success!

After the kids retreated to their rooms, I stepped outside with my phone. Just like in a book or a Hallmark movie, it's snowing, covering the world in a blanket of white. Even without the light of day, it's absolutely beautiful outside. I took a few pictures of our house, and a video of our culd-a-sac. I sometimes can't believe I live in such an amazing place surrounded by not only neighbors, but friends.

Will the kids be getting pajamas and books next year? Will we play games together and watch new Christmas shows? If so, then the term "new traditions" might actually apply. As always, time will tell.

Starting A Part-Time Gig...

It's interesting, but about the time I really got interested in reading and writing, I've spent less and less time in libraries. Had my new obsession occurred a decade or two earlier, I would have spent hours and hours among the physical books, magazines, and periodicals.

I guess the internet took away that joy, too.

But, funny how things happen. How, when you put in an application to work part-time at your local library and you give it time, you just might end up as one of those guys (or gals...) that wanders around the library with a cart full of books replacing the items we all at one time took out to either look at or leave the building with.

I thought having a part-time job would be so easy, especially after being in play after play for the past two years. It turns out, it's not, at least, not in the beginning. When we do plays we usually learn the music first. This involves all of us sitting around and listening to the music director play our parts. Then we sing.

This is my first week as a shelver and I didn't do a lot of sitting (and zero time singing...). In fact, I spent almost all my shifts on my feet. With plays, when it's not your scene being rehearsed, you sit and wait. When working part-time at the library, it's always your scene.

I hope these comments do not come off as complaints. I'm just expressing how my expectations differ from the realities of the new job. I've even had to take different busses to work--no big deal, just more planning.

But as I wheel my cart among the patrons and bookshelves, it's wonderful to see books I've read, and better yet, books written by people I know. Yes, it's a part-time gig, and I am among friends.