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Welcome to the thoughts, actions and the all-around happenings in a day in the life of Jim Lawson

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Location: Springfield, VA

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

How Was Your Christmas??? Mine was Great!!!

What a great Christmas we had! On Christmas Eve the girls and I went to church for both of the 6:00 & 9:00 services. Dani choreographed a liturgical dance that she and her friend Emily presented at the services. They were fantastic and I had a lot of people tell me that they were great. I'm not too proud, am I?

I sang in the choir at both services, I sang a solo called Who Will Come This Win’try Night? which James Taylor recorded on his Christmas album. Scott Seifried, our choir director, accompanied me on the guitar and his arrangement was great, it made it so easy to sing. At the late service the choir sang On A Starry Night, a real pretty piece.

We got home around 11:15 Christmas eve and Barbara immediately put out cookies and milk for Santa. We were out of carrots so she made a plate of apple slices for the reindeer. Up to bed with everyone, prayers said and then to sleep. Barb was out in about 10 minutes.

At 8:30 am Barbara came into my room and told me to get up, I asked her why and yelled, “It’s Christmas!" She then proceeded to jump up onto Dani's loft bed to wake her up. We all trod downstairs to a living room where underneath the tree was filled with gifts. After we opened our stockings the girls insisted that I opened the first two gifts. The first was a large wrapped box with a long note on it. The note went on to say that "this was the best gift in the world, a gift that keeps on giving, no other gift has ever been given that anyone enjoyed more, ever!" Folks, this is what I opened....The Magic Bullet! My girls have been hooked on the Magic Bullet infomercial and love the old lady who has a cig butt hanging out of her mouth. Quesadillas in 7 seconds, chicken salad in 6 seconds, mixed adult beverages in 5 seconds, anyone?

My second gift was a collage that Barbara had made for me from school with pictures of wonderful things and biblical saying about the Christ child being born. It had many things about love and I will cherish it forever.

After opening way too many gifts we cleaned up the wrappings and got ready for my family to come over at noon. My mom, dad, brother, sister and niece all made their way to our place and we enjoyed a delicious brunch. We had ham, turkey, rolls, sweet potatoes, fresh fruit & veggies, breakfast casserole. We were all smiling by the time we were finished eating.

We then proceeded to open up way too many presents that my whole family exchanged. We always go too far with the gifts but we have a fantastic time and I can't think of a better family that I would want to spend time with. There was a ton of love in my living room.

I then took the girls to see their mother, Mary, and her family. I then got to spend some really good time with my brother Bill and my friend Doug. We had a nice dinner and decided to see A Night At The Museum. The movie was pretty good, not too crowded but enough people that you didn't feel alone.

Back to the house after the movie, a little more cleaning up and then off to bed with a smile because of the knowledge that I didn't have to get up at my usual 5:15 am. I hope your Christmas was wonderful one!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Oh, The Places I've Been





So many people chose to travel when it comes to the holidays. Some travel for business, some to get away from it all and some to visit loved ones. I thought I’d share some of my recent journeys with you.

Last Friday I drove on the Washington Beltway. This “superhighway” is known as Interstate 95 and Interstate 495. Confusing? Sometimes, but an experienced metropolitan DC driver can learn to navigate this modern monster.

It’s hard to believe that even though most humans have two good legs to walk on inventions are still being created to help us transport ourselves. I came across this device at a local Metro station. It is called an escalator and it helps you to go from one level to another. One bonus to this newfangled contraption is that it may be used for rising or lowering. The escalator still has some bugs to be worked out as it stopped while I was riding down and I was stuck for almost three hours before they got it started again.

Stop beating your clothes against a rock down at the creek! As I opened my mail yesterday afternoon I was regaled by an envelope from someone I had never met or even heard of. A person named Coupons Express sent me approximately 45 short missives, which informed me of offerings that local shopkeepers were making (I think the offers were only to me). I’m not sure why I was selected to receive these “specials” but obviously I had done something in the past to warrant this honor. The one that immediately caught my eye was for a new business that is called Dry Cleaners. I know what you’re thinking, “that’s an oxymoron!” Much to my surprise, they actually clean your clothes inside! The system is fascinating, you bring your clothing to their place of business, hand them over to a nice Asian woman and she asks you when you would like to pick them up.

I must admit that I was skeptical about whether my clothes would have that fresh “just-beaten-on –a rock-in –the-local-stream” look. When I picked them up I was astonished, not they only look cleaner than when I wash them but they were dry to boot! Additional bonus alert – If you smile at the nice Asian ladies they will give you free plastic wrap that is hung on your clothes. I’m not sure what the plastic wrap is for but I found a nice use for it when I glued it to the outside of my windows, it’s insulation time folks!


As the sun was going down, my body needed rest after such an exciting day so I wrapped myself up in my raccoon coat and snuggled in for a good sleep. Wow, modern technology has really jumped leaps and bounds since the wheel was first invented. Where will it ever stop? Now if only someone would invent a way for me to be able to go to the bathroom indoors I’d be a happy man.


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