It Was A Beautiful Christmas

 

We celebrated on Christmas Eve at our house. It was a wonderful day.
We had:
Two sons, two daughters-in law, two grandsons, one granddaughter, two brothers-in law, two sisters-in law, assorted nephews, great nephews, a niece, a great niece, my sister, a girlfriend of one of our nephews, and three large dogs.
I don't know what made it so memorable for me, but it truly was. We had delicious food, lots of visiting, wrestling between the young ones after dinner, a saxophone solo, piano playing, music and a game at the end of the evening. I loved every minute of it. I am so grateful to be so blessed!
I received a wonderful mix of gifts: the girlie type...yummy bath soaps, hand lotions and some great food items, a pair of adorable egg cups with little chicken feet and a CD. I am the proud owner of My Very Own Tool Box. I have a small saw, a file, wire cutters, a level, a stud finder, screw drivers, hammers, a measuring tape, needle nosed pliers and wrenches. I am also the excited recipient of a gift certificate to Purl Soho! Whee!
Christmas morning was slow and equally delightful. Our granddaughter and her parents had stayed over. What is more fun than watching a three year old wax on excitedly over a Dora toothbrush or her very own first pair of scissors? She took her time opening her presents and of course helped her grandparents and parents unwrap their gifts. When asked what the name of the DVD was that her Poppy had gotten, she mused, "Um, um, mmmmm, I think it's called (long pause), The Way of the Hummingbird!" (It was the Bourne Ultimatum. Close, huh?)
I am thankful to have such special memories such as these.

I wish all of you the best of New Years, filled with health, love and peace.


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This Is Not A Political Blog

but I just cannot write about the beautiful Christmas we had. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to do it.
It seems almost obscene to wax on about how wonderful it was in view of what has happened. I want to scream, to pray, to enlist the hopes and needs of so many people in this world today. GOD help us. May we all reach out to people who are in situations so horrible that their hope is blown up before their eyes.
Rest in peace, may your death not be in vain. Help us all to love one another, to be gentle, to care and to walk in each other's shoes, to understand, to collectively hope and work for what saves us all.
a small p.s. i do not mean to dismiss anyone who writes about their holiday, happiness or wonderful Christmas. This is just me.

Christmas Greetings..

For some unknown reason (me?) my scanner is not working so I will copy some of these words that seem so apt at this time. I wish anyone and all who come here now and then a blessed Christmas, Holiday Season...however you choose to celebrate. I fervently hope that each and all of you are surrounded by people you love, and people who love you.
May this coming year be filled with joy and when and if hard times come, as they do to all of us, may you be supported and held in comfort and grace.

AND WHEN WE GIVE EACH OTHER
CHRISTMAS GIFTS IN HIS NAME, LET
US REMEMBER THAT HE HAS GIVEN
US THE SUN AND THE MOON AND
THE STARS, AND THE EARTH WITH
ITS FORESTS AND MOUNTAINS AND
OCEANS-AND ALL THAT LIVES AND
MOVES UPON THEM. HE HAS GIVEN
US ALL GREEN THINGS AND EVERY-
THING THAT BLOSSOMS AND BEARS
FRUIT-AND ALL THAT WE QUARREL
ABOUT AND ALL THAT WE HAVE
MISUSED-AND TO SAVE US FROM
OUR OWN FOOLISHNESS, FROM ALL
.......HE GAVE US HIMSELF.

What we hope for, pray for, live for, comes as a gift.

Christmas Blessings.


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Gift To Self

If you haven't read The Gift of The Magi by O Henry in a long time, or if you have not yet read it, take a few moments to reread it or to experience it for the first time. You can read it online if you don't have a copy.
I reread it this morning and it was a wonderful little present I gave to myself.
What a simply beautiful story to be treasured at this time of year.

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An Early Christmas Gift

Our three year old granddaughter spent the weekend with us. She came down Friday evening with her Daddy. Mom stayed at home to have some R and R after her final exams. A well deserved rest for her, and a gift for us.
Samantha was a Busy Lizzy all weekend. We went for a walk on Saturday, she helped carry some plants in the nursery when she wasn't making mud pies, "feeding" the maples by putting spent leaves in the pots, and hitting every mud puddle she could possibly find.
Inside, she was "cooking", grocery shopping, arranging my Christmas bears and working on her Project. This project consisted of heavy stock paper, every sticker I could find, and random pencil squiggles on the paper.
Her enthusiasm for everything knows no bounds. Her pride in her accomplishments and joy of just Being is contagious.
My wish and prayer for her is that she can hang onto her enthusiasm, pride in her accomplishments and her sense of wonder for life. I fervently hope that the rug of childhood is not snatched out from underneath her too soon.
I know that before we turn around, she will care about what she puts on in the morning, she will be cognizant that her headbands she now wears backwards on her head are not "cool", and that she will soon begin to compare herself to others and may feel she comes up short. Someday too, she may want to be somewhere else rather than with her grandparents.
I am keeping safe the memories of these times we have. I am going to remember always this weekend when she declared, "Gams, you are hilarious!", or "Gammie, you are my best friend!"
I am going to keep the sight of her hugging her Poppy and the memory of her draping pieces of my yarn all over her Daddy's head in a safe place.
Thank you, Samantha, for the gift of you. We are blessed.

Happy Birthday

The birthday boy is pictured on the left.The one on the right is his brother, another one of my all-time favorite people.
I have read on a number of blogs how mothers are amazed at how time passes so quickly...in the blink of an eye. Don't I know that!
Birthday boy, I know that you have forgiven me for leaving you at kindergarten, those many years ago, when there WAS NO school that day, when I got half way home and the light bulb exploded in my head!
I know that you have forgiven me the day I took my time coming out to check on you, the day your little brother kept running into the kitchen to tell me you had fallen off of your skateboard. Three times he ran in and three times I said I was coming. Your brother finally yelled, "MOM, Kevin's fallen off of his skateboard, and he is lying in the BUSHES!" I went out to find you and, sure enough, there you were in the bushes with a broken arm. My only excuse is that you were a tad bit overly dramatic in those days.
I have forgiven you for breaking my tail bone when you were born. You won't remember, but the rubber donut and I were inseparable for a year.
I have forgiven you for having to listen to your first grade teacher tell us that in all of her years of teaching, she had never had a child like you in her class. This was not uttered with a smile on her face.
I have forgiven you for your thirteenth year, something best forgotten and filed away under "teenager" self-absorption.
I love you with all my heart, I love you for your integrity, your sense of loyalty, your "hard work" ethic, and your unstoppable sense of humor. I love you for your constant affection for your parents and your true love for that other special guy up there in the picture.
I know I am a few days late in writing this, but my pride in you is absolute and the joy I receive from having you in my life knows no bounds!

Oh! p.s. Sweetie, I've also forgiven you for taking my BRAND NEW Le Creuset frying pans into the back yard, building a little camp fire with pine wood and cooking some hamburgers. I also forgive you for encouraging your little brother (in the above picture) to make, as he whispered in my ear one time, "Frank Phone Calls".
And I forgive you both for taking the Hungry Jack refrigerated biscuits and placing them on a red hot burner so that you could watch them explode.
(If any readers are tempted to call Children's Services over my neglectful ways: it's too late to do that.)