Thoughts on Christmas

"Christmas in America is more about getting what we want than giving what people need. Is this the tradition we want to pass down to our children? When we worship Jesus at Christmas, we're reminded that God came for all humanity. No matter our momentary circumstances, every human needs to be rescued from sin by the Son. "And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." 2Corintians 9:8. God gives to us so we can give to others in order to expand His kingdom, not ours. If we can resist the trap of giving easy gifts, and if we can reject the assumption that giving expensive gifts or many gifts is the best way to express love, something else might begin to happen. We might experience moments of relational giving that our friends and family will care about and remember. Relational giving means the way we pay attention to another person. We think about who they are and what they care about. When we refuse to equate money with love, we become free. Spending less doesn't always mean giving less. When we give relationally during the Advent season, this is what we remember: it's an opportunity to worship as we remind each other of the gift that was given for our sake. The conscious giving of our time and presence to another is not a new concept, but it is a neglected one."

I have been thinking a lot about Christmas and family. I have been talking to God and trying to understand why I was unable to spend the holiday with my family, why I am alone for Christmas. Usually I look forward to Christmas very much. I love seeing my family and spending time with them. Christmas holds many wonderful family memories for me, so what good memories will I get from being alone? I was pondering this very thing tonight while I was driving home from work and listening to Christmas music on the radio. I realized that I was repeatedly changing the channel on the radio because the song they were playing was not ‘happy’. Then it hit me, Christmas is not about being ‘happy’. Remembering Christ and the reason He came to dwell among us is amazing, humbling, and joyful, but not happy. We were and continue to be sinful people. God, the one and only true God, who created us to be His companions and stewards of all His amazing creation, the only god who is responsive and caring, sent His only Son to live a perfect and blameless life so we could learn how we are to live by His example so that He could then pay the ultimate price for our sins by dying on the cross. We have been given more than we could ever possible comprehend.

Thank you Lord for Your immeasurable love and unending grace, which is constantly offered to all humanity. Please give us eyes to see the opportunities You have laid before us to graciously give of ourselves in remembrance of your great sacrifice on our behalf. You are with me always, I am never alone.

May you all have a very blessed Christmas!!

Drive Time

Mom, Kent and I are moving on in our travels and are logging a fair bit of drive time. Kent is our expert in navigation and controls.


Mom is the pro at documentation of progress made.


And we have been passing the hours with games of Battleship and, most popular, Scrabble.


Good times and memories.

Beach Bums

After a great week with my Dad and step mom, Kim, I met up with my Mom and step dad, Kent. We will be road tripping our way up to PA, visiting family along the way. Our first stop was my step brother Josh's house to visit him and his wife, Jessie, and their daughters, Hannah and Mikayla. We had a wonderful visit. I had not seen then in a very long time, and I enjoyed seeing my beautiful, delightful nieces. Hannah wanted us to go to the beach, so Josh and Jessie took us to the beach at Ft. Fisher.


The water was a little cold for us to go swimming, but the weather was beautiful for wading and gathering seashells. We even found a jellyfish that had washed up!


The girls had a good time. Hannah and her mom played around climbing on the rocks and jumping from pylon to pylon. Hannah is an excellent jumper!


Mikayla is a doll! She is a very good-natured little girl, and enjoyed playing with a bag full of shells her sister had collected.


This trip also marks the first time my Mom and I had been on the beach together. We have each been to the beach, but never at the same time.


I had a fabulous time at the beach with my family, and hope to go again in the future.

Within the Realm

Well, my week in SC with my Dad and Kim came to a close quickly. We had a wonderful time, and are awaiting our next opportunity to spend time together. We went on many adventures while I was there, one of them being MagiQuest.


MagiQuest is a lot of fun. It is kind of like a scavenger hunt meets a video game. You start by getting a wand. The wand is your playing piece. You wave it at different things in the "realm" (playing area) to make things happen within the game such as to "enchant" animals and creatures to talk and give you clues or tasks, open treasure chests to find lost items ands gold, duel with goblins and dragons and the like. You take your wand back with you each time you play, and it remembers where you are within the game and allows you to pick up where you left off. My Dad and Kim found out about MagiQuest before I went to visit. They thought it sounded fun, and so did I. We went three times while I was there, and we made it through to the "Master Magi" level. The inside of the 'realm' is all decorated and the people who work there dress up, so if you have a good imagination you really can get into it and pretend you are in a magical land. Here you can see the castle where the princess lives. Inside the castle there is also the library and access to the dungeons.


Here is the tree house where the fairies live.

And the duel masters hut was decorated very nicely. I had fun looking at everything they had in there.

After all those magical adventures, we were hungry, so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. The food was very good, as was the company!


It was a great trip. Thank you for the good times Dad and Kim!

Midnight Matinee

Tonight I went to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 with my dad. He had never been to a midnight movie release before! (I have been to a fair share...) We had a good time, and are awaiting the last installment due in July.

Down on the Plantation

I am currently visiting my dad and step-mom Kim in South Carolina. Yesterday we drove to Mt Pleasant and toured the Boone Hall Plantation. It was a lot of fun. We got to go on a driving coach tour around the whole plantation, then there was a live demonstration about the Gullah culture that emerged from the slaves. After that we listened to a talk about the slaves and their life on the plantation. We were able to tour the remaining cabins, which contained an audio and/or visual clip, plaques and relics to educate you on the lives of the slaves from their enslavement through emancipation.

This is a photo of "Slave Row". Nine of the original shacks are still standing. The plantation produced bricks at one time and these are built from the rejected bricks. Each hut housed approximately 16 people. Inside I estimate they are about the the size of two queen beds pushed end to end. Boards would have been laid on the rafters of the roof for the children to sleep.

We also went on the tour of the first floor of the main house. The second floor is occupied by the owners of the plantation. The house is very beautiful colonial style furnished with antiques from the period the house was originally built in.


The whole plantation was very beautiful and the experience was educational and fun, but I think the image that I will remember the most was the Avenue of Oaks. The avenue leading up to the house is lined on each side with centuries old Live Oaks draped with Spanish Moss. It was gorgeous. My favorite parts of the house were the library/ball room and the breeze way which both featured floor to ceiling windows, lovely floors (hardwood in the library and original bricks made on the plantation laid in herringbone in the breezeway) and both rooms opened up into a garden courtyard. Unfortunately no photography was permitted inside the house, so you will just have to use your imagination, think Jane Austin.


Avenue of Oaks as seen from the house.

In a Pickle

Two girls packed two pecks of pickled...pickles.

Yes! We finally got around to canning the Kosher Dill Pickles!!! I am so excited, it will be like popping open tasty little reminders of Mom this winter. Mmm, mmm, good! Huh, what is that behind the pickles? I think I will call my Mom and ask... Moving along now. Val packed the pickles into the jars and I filled them with brine and capped them. How many pickles can you fit in one jar? Lets ask Val. She has her own way of figuring it out! The Pickles are beautiful and I am looking forward to trying them!

Blast from the Past

My cousin Shannon was visiting for the weekend from DC and she and I went to Cambridge Springs for a look around. I lived in Cambridge when I was a child, so it was fun to look around and see what is the same and what has changed. The town was mostly the same. Some different shops and such, but over all it looked about the same. It did seem smaller, now that I am grown! We had fun reminiscing in a local thrift shop, Buttons and Bows! I used to go there with my Mom. It is a small space with a ton of stuff packed in! They have three floors and just about anything you might want to look at and everything you didn't know you can't live without. I was lurking down in the basement when I saw it from across the room. I scrambled through the closely set racks of clothing and tables of household items and stands of shoes. Like a crazy person in Wal-mart the day after Thanksgiving I shoved my way across the otherwise uninhabited basement to get it. I found the holy grail of thrift items. A perfect gift for my mother. ( I am so happy that it is not an insult to give thrift store items as gifts in my family!) I found a 9 cup Corning ware percolator! Now, I am not really a coffee drinker myself. I like the idea of coffee, but not so much the coffee. I prefer tea. My mother on the other hand does like coffee, and she likes her coffee with perk. She has been using an aluminum camp percolator while waiting for the right one to come along, and now it has! Thank you Buttons and Bows!

We spent a bit of time in the little park in the center of town. It is a cute place with benches and flowers, a gazebo and a fountain, some historical information markers and a time capsule. Yay for small towns. :)





After a stroll up and down the main street with few pit stops in an antique store and a thrift shop we made our way to the historic Riverside Inn. We went in and had a look around. Our grandmother, Virginia, worked there. We had a great time looking around. I had much more appreciation for the beautiful antiques now that I am older than I did as a child when I visited with my grandma. It is a very beautiful inn. They have lots of guest rooms, a few dining rooms, a play house, and lovely yards and landscaping. I had a very good time, thank you Shannon!

Nana Comes A Visiting

Long rides in the car, and two flights on airplanes, to our house Nana comes...

or something along those lines. My aunt Kathy came for a week long visit, and we had a great time. She was very excited to spend time with Samuel, and he was happy to spend time with his Nana!

Fun with Spaghetti Sam

Samuel likes spaghetti. Never mind that it is difficult to eat, in fact, that is what makes it so very fun! Samuel is determined to feed himself, even if it means picking up individual grains of rice with his fingers for an hour. That is almost what it was like for the spaghetti too, since it was cut up into little pieces. He was covered in it, from head to rump to feet! Actually, I think there was more stuck to his bottom than in his tummy! Children have such determination. I am not convinced that I would do the same thing anymore, if it was that hard to feed myself and someone was waiting and willing to help by feeding me, I think I would take them up on their offer! Way to go Samuel!

Salsa and soup and sauce...Oh, my!

Well, Val and I wanted to do some canning, so we went out to buy some produce. First we stopped by the home of an older coupe who had a sign by the side of the road advertising tomatoes for sale, so we pulled in. Bert and Ernie (Yes, that is actually their names, I am not just inserting made up ones.) had a bunch of tomatoes they were selling from their garden, so we bought all they had. Which was about half a bushel. We also bought some of their home grown potatoes. After Bert and Ernie's, we ended up at Al's Melons, a local market where they grow a lot of their own produce. They were selling bushel boxes of roma tomatoes, and the boxes were lined up on tables out in front of the market. Val and I looked at them, and chose two to take home. I went inside to start gathering the other groceries we needed with Sam while Val loaded the Jeep. Then when we checked out, it seems that someone (and I am not naming any names, Val) had put a third bushel into the car. After a stop to buy canning jars, we went home to can!

I Don't Think We're in Denver Anymore...

When Val and Samuel arrived I had to go pick them up in Pittsburgh. I didn't really know where I was going, so my friends John and Lisa spent the day with me and showed me around the city a bit. We had lunch a Primanti Bros. which is a Pittsburgh tradition I had not yet experienced, and the food was almost as good as the company! (Which means it was very good!)















After lunch they introduced me to geocaching, which was a lot of fun. I am excited about going again! While we were looking for a cache, I got a few photos of downtown Pittsburgh.

After our fun day out, John made sure I could get to the airport and home without problems by putting his GPS in my car! What a great friend! I did make it to the airport fine, and brought Val and Samuel home. It was a wonderful day!

On the Road Again

The drive went well. We were blessed with good weather and no problems with either vehicle the whole way. I guess that is how it goes when you choose the right moving team!

Filling the Void

Just want to get everybody up to speed, fill in the blanks a little, reassure you all (if anybody still checks my blog after my prolonged absence) that I live on, and have in fact done things. So here goes the beginning of a series...



Egg Salad. I like egg salad. I also found a great way to cut up the eggs so they are the right size and still fluffy with very little mess or work! You may be asking yourself how, but if I have not told you, you may not be able to answer yourself. To save you some grief, I will tell you: a pastry blender! Yes folks, a pastry blender works wonders on hard boiled eggs for salad. No! It is not just for pastry anymore! ;)




Packing went well, I had lots of help from my friends! We even managed a little fun, as documented in these photos! Here Jessie tries to stow away in a box:


Tristan had fun building with these wire grates:


Here is Sam playing with Tristan and Darien so the ladies could pack and visit:

Well, we finished packing and the men loaded the truck, and we were off!

Notice

Hi all! Sorry it has been so long. I wanted to let you all know that I got to PA and am moved in. I will be doing a better update post soon.

Project Runaway

Want to runaway in style? Well then, I have the solution for you! Forget the old stick and handkerchief, why not just tie your kerchief onto fashion handles? Or, for a more time consuming activity why not cut out matching sized squares of fabric in two colors, sew them together, add a completely useless flap and a few pleats then tie them to the handles and call it a reversible hobo bag? It doesn't close and is vast enough to double as a rain poncho, if only it were water proof! Well, I did have fun spending time with my mom ( who also made an identical bag) and maybe I can use it to carry produce at a farmers market...if the handles don't fall off!

A Game of Culture

Thursday evening Jessie and Sam had Beth and I over for a game night. It was great to hang out and see Beth. She brought the game, and it was totally fun! I had never heard of it before, it is called Passport to Culture. You roll the die to move around the board and you earn CQ (Culture Intelligence, which are the points in this game) by correctly answering questions about cultures from around the globe. I recommend this game. So we played that game, played with Tristan and ate pizza. All around it was a great evening. Thank you for the good times friends!

A Clean Home

So I have some of the best friends ever! When I cam home from work on Wednesday, I had quite a surprise. Someone had been in my apartment. I was concerned and confused, until I noticed what was missing...the mess. It was gone! So I grabbed my purse and began searching for my spare key. That also turned up missing! Like a good detective, I put the facts together and called Jessie. She had stolen my house key without me noticing, then she and Sam came to my house while I was at work, and cleaned it for me! What a blessing!

I feel happy! I feel happy!

Mom and Kent gave me two tickets to go see Monty Python and the Holy Grail at Film on the Rocks for this past Monday. For those of you who don't know, Film on the Rocks is an annual event held at the Red Rocks amphitheater. Every week for about 10 weeks each summer they show a different movie. There is also a band and a comedian before the film shows. It is a lot of fun. So, Jessie and I went to see the Holy Grail this week, and we had a blast! Seeing the movie was fun, and the band was decent, but the comedian was not comedic by any stretch of the imagination. Oh well, at least the movie was still hilarious!

The Last Day

Today was my last day of work at YG Acoustics. I think I will miss working there, we had a good time. Tonight we are going out do dinner as a sort of good luck/thank you/farewell to my leaving the company. We are going to try Las Delicias, a mexican restaurant that is apparently very tasty. Now on to a different kind of work...packing!

Sewing Bee

On Saturday Mom, Aunt Kathy and I got together and sewed some clothes for me. We all had fun and worked hard.





Mom and I went shopping on Thursday and got a few patterns I liked and material to make three skirts and two tunic style tops.








Here is the material for one outfit. The green on the bottom is for the tunic, the pink and top green for the skirt. I love the trim on the green for the tunic!







The brown here is for another skirt, and the coral for a tunic.
And more fun trim!







This is a denim look-alike for another skirt.









Yay! I finished the 'denim' skirt!!











Mom made the green tunic, and Aunt Kathy made the brown skirt, and they are both wonderful!





We ended the evening with some more homemade Italian ice, orange this time! Yum!