Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Happy Christmas!  This is is pix of my SugarBug, Emmalinn touching Joseph in a manger.  At her day-care, they have this set up outside and I wanted her to see it up close.  She was amazed by all of it.  She is only 3 yrs. old, but as with my daughter, I believe you are never too young to learn of the sacrifice our Lord made for us.  She may not understand it yet, but as she grows it will be familiar to her and she will understand one day.

As I was baking yesterday, just as busy as a bee, I was listening to Christmas music on Pandora.  I really hadn't been paying a lot of attention to most of it, just singing along kind of mindlessly, you know how you do that.  "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" came on by some female country artist and she sang all the verses.  I loved it from the beginning so it really caught my attention.  She came to the verse that says, "And when they came to Bethlehem, Where our dear Saviour lay, They found Him in a manger, Where oxen feed on hay; His Mother Mary kneeling down, Unto the Lord did pray. O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy."  I thought about the words telling of Mary kneeling down to pray before our Lord and how she had just given birth to Him and how she knew that He was our Saviour, she knew she needed to worship Him, she knew she needed to pray to Him, she knew He was the King.  I was so moved, I had to sit and of course I cried. 

Christmas is about giving, sharing, and being with our loved ones.  But we can not forget that Christ our Lord is the reason we even have this Holiday.  All the traditions, all the gift giving, all the food, everything about it pretty much goes back to symbols that represent some aspect of the birth of our Savior.

I sincerely wish all of you the happiest Christmas and New Year!  Hug and kiss your family and loved ones.  Cherish these memories that you'll create.  Have a safe and blessed time.

See you in the funny papers!

Acts of Kindness

My daughter called a few minutes ago and I truly was just thinking of her when the phone rang.  Through her shaky voice and tears, she told me how she assisted one of the Case Workers at her office (she works for our local Council on Aging) in giving some can goods and other staples to a woman.  This woman is pregnant and is a little older than the usual age for pregnancy.  They also gave a stuffed teddy bear to her for her baby.  She was so grateful, could not thank them enough and so happy to have something for the baby.

This is my daughter's first Christmas at this job and the first time she has been this close to assisting others.  She has seen first hand what it means to truly give of yourself to people that find themselves in need.  When she was able to leave the Case Worker, she went in to her office and began to cry, overwhelmed by emotion.  The Case Worker found her a few minutes later, gave her a hug and said thank you for reminding me why I do this job and what Christmas is supposed to be about.  This made her cry more.  Of course she calls me and I began to cry with her.  We get so busy with all of our preparations for the Holidays its so very easy to forget that the greatest gift we can give to people is ourselves.

I think we all have "aha" moments in our lives, sometimes a lot of them.  Today was one of those "aha" moments for my daughter.  I know this isn't a great story that will go viral, but in it's own way, it is a great story for my baby and for me.  This might be the thing that will change her life as well as some of you that may read it.  It only takes one tiny little pebble to ripple the waters of our lives.  We never know how many lives we touch each day by any one random act of kindness or even just a smile and hello to a stranger or someone you see in a store.

As I'm headed in to my little kitchen to bake my first batch of cookies, I'm going to be dwelling on this today.  This little story really does make me think about this Christmas season in a whole new light.

Do what is within your power to help others and be kind above all else.  Happy Christmas.  See you in the funny papers.

Cindy vs. "Cloud"

 

Hey y'all, how are you doin'?  Happy Birthday to my sister-in-laws Glenda and Kaye!  I hope you both have a wonderful day. 

This Christmas season has been a busy one so far and the next few days will be even busier.  I have lots of baking and cooking to do and I hope that I can post pix of some of it if things turn out pretty.  I'm having serious issues with pix and all of this "Cloud" business (do I hear an amen out there?).  The way I thought it was supposed to work is that if you have a computer, an IPhone and an IPad, you should be able to have them interact with each other simultaneously, right?  I don't think so.  I took pix on my phone and then the IPad, tried to download them here and they won't show up on the "Cloud".  Where are they?  They are supposed to be there, right?  You know how I said I was so proud of myself for figuring out all of this blog stuff, well I didn't say anything about the "Cloud".  So I've had to call in back-up.  Jeff is very smart in this world of computers, he had his own computer business for a while, actually made a living from it, works with them every day still.  He worked in our office computer on the "Cloud" and made sure everything was set up right the night before last for a couple of hours.  To no avail.  He sadly reported to me that it was going to take some more time.  So there you have it, I'm not so dumb after all.  Not saying he is, just if he can't figure it out yet...you know. 

I know we have all had a roller coaster of emotions going on with the shooting, but its ok for us to be looking forward to the Holidays and spending time with our loved ones.  We can especially be thankful for them now, truly appreciate what each one means to you, kiss and hug them, laugh with them, enjoy them, and call your folks that live out of town, tell them how much they mean to you.

Don't work too hard over the next few days.  Happy Holidays.  See you in the funny papers!

The After-Math

We have had too many After-maths in this great Country of ours.  It's time for all of us but mostly our government to decide - are we a Nation that was based on Godly principles or do we just leave all that "God stuff" outside of our homes, our schools, our government, to sit and rot in the weather?  I personally believe that our steady downward spiral started the day that prayer was no longer allowed in school. Our children need to be taught that there is a spiritual nature in us at an early age.  And with that education, a respect for values, a respect for laws, and a respect for authority figures will be nurtured.  We need to come together as a Nation and pray for this change.

I'm really not trying to preach religion, I believe that as a person matures, they are going to make their own choices.  However, I also believe that if that person isn't presented with knowledge of our spiritual nature or of God and His Commandments as a young child, they will grow up with no real sense of good and evil, especially if they aren't taught that literally at home.  Before any of you get your panties in a bunch about that - I've been a Youth Leader at my church and I can tell you from my own experience, that not all parents teach their children literal behaviours or beliefs at home.  We all get busy and before we know it, our kids are grown and they have learned what they need to know from TV, from movies, from school, from each other, from music (some, not so good), etc......you get my drift, I'm sure.  Most parents have good intentions, but unless you really take the time each day to sit and talk with your child about their day, ask them questions about it, listen to their answers/ questions, just BE with them, you won't be able to teach them or get to know them.  I guarantee that I would have known something was wrong with my boy, way before he had gotten a gun to shoot me.

My sorrow for this shooting is beyond measure.  As a parent, just like all of you that are, I can't even begin to imagine what these parents are going through. I still think of my 28 yr. old daughter as my little baby girl.  I still see that sweet baby smile when she'd recognize me, I see those beautiful curls as her hair was just starting to grow long, I see her running across the yard to jump in my arms, I see how she looked on her first day of school, I guess all of these pictures in my mind will never stop no matter how old she gets.  My heart just aches for these parents that won't get to see their babies change and grow.  I want to always lift them up to our Father in prayer for their strength.  I really don't know how they will go on.  Life is always changed with death, but this is worse because its not only happened to them, its happened to our Nation as well.  This will most likely be a chapter in our future history books.  They, and us will be dealing with yet another tragic After-Math.

 

I don't want anymore After-Maths.

Maiden Voyage

Hey y'all, how are you doin'?  This is my very first post and I have to be honest with you, I've been scared to death about it.  I've literally been working on this for weeks trying to figure this blogging thing out.  You'd think after working in a large Corporate environment for 26 years, most of the latter part of that time as a Senior Secretary to the Director of Internal Auditing, that this would be a breeze.  Well, you are never too old or experienced to learn something, I'll be the very first to admit that.  Its funny, after using my IPad for so long now and having to come in to the computer room to get this up and running, I've even forgotten where some of the keys are for simple characters, hahaha. Also, I will probably refer to Star Trek or other SciFi lingo, cuz I'm a serious fan, a Trekkie if you will.  I haven't been to a convention yet, not because I haven't wanted to, just hasn't ever worked out.  So anyway, you'll have to just ignore the nerd part of me if you don't like it.

 

I do hope y'all enjoy this blog.  My life always seems to take on a comical aspect no matter what I do and that's what I will be sharing about.  I used to be a Floral Designer years ago and had gotten in to helping people decorate for the Holidays, which led to decorating their homes for all occasions.  I also designed and decorated my Corporate office for the Holidays; helped coordinate the "Big" Christmas party and did the decorations for that; I was asked to assist with other parties and dinners for some of our VIPs throughout the years; I coordinated some major Conferences for our Management in the Internal Auditing department; I was asked to decorate one of my City's large Credit Union's office when they built their new local headquarters; and with all this, I did the same type of work for individuals who acquired my services for their homes.

 

I have a wonderful husband, Jeff; a beautiful daughter, Dinah Kate; the best son-in-law you could ask for, Kenny; my little Sugarbug - a.k.a. my granddaughter, Emmalinn Ann; my cats, Fergie and Billy (both adopted from the Humane Society); my 80 yr. old mom, Gloria; my 84 yr. old dad Al; brother, Jimmy and sister-in-law Janora and that's just right here.  I have another brother, Tony and sister-in-law Glenda; then theres Jeff's brother, Joe; sister Kaye and her husband Anthony.  These guys don't live around us, but there will be stories, I'm sure.

 

I guess I'm going to try to publish now.  By the way, the pic above is my front door wreath that I made, I hope you like it. I will also be working on the format of my blog, so I'm sure you will see changes shortly.

 

I will close with what my grandfather always said so he never had to say goodbye (I miss him all the time), "see you in the funny papers!"