Happy end of 2007

I am just getting to the day that I think about the past year and get ready to say goodbye to 2007. I always feel a little nastalgic when it comes to the end of the year. I like the opportunity to start over with the new year. I usually mess up my good intentions by 3 o'clock on New Years Day, but at least it is a clean slate for a few hours. As I look at this past year I will remember it with fondness as I became a grandmother! It has been one of the best feelings I have ever had. I got to take a trip with Emily to visit my parents. Tom and I got to take Sheila, Andrew and Olivia to see my parents.(very cool) I quit my job of 14 years and took a chance to try something new.(Big change for me who sometimes does not like change) I experienced having Alisha, our college grad come home and live with us after a year of empty nest. This is a really big challenge sometimes. I still havent figured my role in this yet. I have spent a lot of the past months not feeling 100%. I dont know what the problem is. Some of it is hormonal for sure. Ya ya.... I am hitting that menapausel erra and not liking it too well. (enough of that) As I reflect on the year 2007 I once again must confess that I am so wonderfully blessed and can never thank God enough for all He has done for me. I dont know what 2008 will bring but I know that God is faithful in everything.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. Romans 15.13

And a merry Christmas it was

I had a wonderful Christmas with all those I love in Charlotte!

Holiday Hoopla

I've been tagged for Holiday Hoopla whatever that is so I have to name 12 random things about Christmas. If you are reading this you have to do it too and tag someone else. Here goes.......
1. I love Christmas.....I hate Christmas....
2. I will clarify #1 I love what Christmas means(Jesus coming as a baby to earth) I love the family time, the songs and the wonder of the time. I hate the commercialism, the greediness, the crowds, the stress of getting everything done.
3. As a child I was deathly afraid of Santa. If I saw him coming I would freeze, hide or whatever to get away from him.
4. I make a ton of christmas cookies and many people like them very much.
5. I very much enjoy the scent of a fresh pine tree in the house.
6. I would rather give a gift and enjoy the person opening it rather than get a gift. Although I do love to get gifts too.
7. My favorite gift ever was a 2 liter of soda and a pint of sherbet. I come from a large family and gifts from parents were not huge. I just remember the year we each got a gift and our own bottle of POP (as we call it up north) and pint of sherbet. It was such a neat gift when I was around 8 years old.
8. My most embarrasing moment for christmas was when my gift from my parents was a scratchy ugly orange sweater and a pair of mittens. I was thinking to myself "what are my parents thinking giving me this as my gift for the year". I had a real attitude. I think I was about 12. My mom knew because my face betrayed my disappointment and she told me to put my hands in the mittens. I did it and behold there was $20.00 in the gloves! A lot of money back then. I felt sooooo ashamed! I have tried since to have a better attitude about what I get. Maybe that's why I like to give better.(I dont want my reaction to a gift to hurt anyone)see #6
9. I am married to a man that I used to call Mr. Christmas. He loved everything about it with the girls when they were little. He still loves it but I think sometimes he still wishes our girls were little and he could do the whole santa thing and all the trimmings and get excited about it.
10. My favorite Christmas hymn is O come all ye faithful. I love the part about O come let us adore Him.
11. I love sappy christmas movies and love to see new ones every year no matter how cheesy they are.
12. Tom and I started a christmas tradition our first year together for Christmas and I would have never thought it would be such a big deal but it is. We have pizza for our Christmas eve dinner. It has expanded over the years but it started out with Tom and I having french bread pizza, and to this year 28 years later we have had pizza and something every Chrismas eve.

Cookies for Christmas

Cookies......How is that there is such a thing as Christmas cookies? I dont know, but I do know that 26 years ago my friend Cathy and I started this grand idea that we would make all these different recipes of cookies and candy. Then we would give them as gifts to family and friends. This worked great for the first few years as we were both stay at home moms and it was fun to do it together. People LOVED getting the home baked goods. It felt as if we were giving a wonderful gift of ourselves. As the years have passed I have still kept the tradition alive. I still make a lot of cookies but not quite as many as I used to. Cathy and I do not do them together anymore. We both started working after our kids got older. It got harder and harder to fit making the cookies in before Christmas. Every year I think "I am not doing it this year" and then I buy the ingredients. My family looks forward to eating the cookies around the tree during the season and of course on Christmas. It has become a tradition that Tom complains that I make these cookies and give them to everyone and he gets none. I think I may just make them now so that we can play that game. He does get cookies!! We had a plate the other night while we watched a Christmas movie. Something about it is so tasty and wonderful. I guess there is something to Christmas cookies that make them special.

I also had the joy of sending a plate with Alisha to take to Roxboro for all my girls and Andrew to eat as they had a weekend together. The thought that they were continuing the tradition of being together and eating my cookies around the Christmas tree gives me great joy. Maybe someday my grandchildren will talk about grandma's wonderful Christmas cookies. I guess I will have to keep making them for now. They do bring me joy in so many ways.

Merry Christmas

Is there anything more exciting than Christmas! Everything about it gives me an excitment that isnt there the rest of the year. I know that we do alot of unnecessary things to celebrate Jesus birth, but all of it is to worship the King of kings. Who else deserves a party like we throw on Christmas? No one here, but certainly Jesus does deserve all that we can give.

O come let us adore Him

I have finally gotten into the Christmas spirit and started listening to all the songs regarding the celebration. One song that strikes me as a wonderful worship song is "O come let us adore Him". Do we adore Him? I do at moments when I really wrap my brain around who God is and what he has done for me, but those moments are short and few. Even in a worship service at church I am distracted and give God less than my best. I consider myself a strong christian with godly morals and values. I pray to God everyday and regard Him as Lord of my life. I read my Bible ....but I am not sure that I adore Him as I should. When I analyze my life(as I am sure that everyone does) I have to say I can see God's hand in it all. In my childhood, my young adult life, my move to North Carolina, my marriage to Tom, my children, my church, my friends, my job. There is nothing in which I do not see that God has moved for His glory and my good. He deserves my praise!

Do I adore Him? YES Do I adore Him as often as I should? NO Do you? For this season of Christmas I for one am going to try to Adore Him as I ought.

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

O Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing all that hear in heaven God's holy word.
Give to our Father glory in the Highest;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.