Christmas in North Carolina

What a wonderful Christmas--we are truly blessed. We spent this Christmas at our log home in Brevard, NC, with our oldest daughter Mandy and her husband Brian, and our granddaughter Lydia, and my sister Mary Beth and her husband Duane and their three children--Karen, Patrick, and Meghan. Oh, and there were five dogs, also. We bought two live trees--a beautiful spruce and a holly--and decorated them and planted them later. The holly tree is in memory of little "Piccolo"--the baby Mandy and Brian recently lost--and the spruce is the first of hopefully many more Christmas trees to come. 

We played board games, enjoyed a white Christmas, went shopping, even lost power and had to snuggle a bit! We all learned the ins and outs of Farkle!, ate way too much candy, and even had a group caroling session at our neighbors', the Clarkes'--with Brian on guitar, Meghan on trumpet, and Marianna on electric organ. We baked bread, walked dogs (a lot), ate, drank wine, talked, cried, opened gifts, ate some more, sang, went to church, prayed, and basically had a wonderful time. Lydia had more attention than she knew what to do with, and Brian had a heck of a time getting everything in their car.

And two thousand years ago a little babe was born in a manger, surrounded by farm animals, while his virgin mother and carpenter father looked on and angels sang hallelujah under a starry night so we could celebrate His birth over and over again. And that is what Christmas is all about--celebrating His birth and our rebirth.

a bad day

Ahhhh.....a husband who can cook, a nice cold mojito, and opera in surround sound. Melts away the stresses of a really really REALLY bad day. That and remembering that even on my WORST day I have it better than 99 percent of the world.

The reading of the day really helped me too:

Part of it(from Ephesians 4:1-7): "live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience,bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace: one Body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

Peace!

Not enough time

Today as I was driving home from body pump (which ROCKS!), I was watching pelicans and cranes flying overhead, and enjoying the beautiful Florida sky (and weather), listening to my favorite radio station, and marveling at how so many drivers just zip on by, in such a hurry to go somewhere, nowhere, anywhere? And I saw a man walking along the road, a man who obviously was in need of a job and help and more importantly, prayer. And here I was in my Lexus cocoon, heading to my big air conditioned house, and all I could do was make the sign of the cross, and say a prayer that this man's needs would be met and that he already had God in his life. From there my mind raced onward to "what type of legacy am I going to leave in this world? I'm 55 years old and what do I have to show for my time on earth? There is not enough time left for me to help everyone, to do what I should do, to help who needs help. And yes, this is a once or twice weekly occurrence--yeah, I've reached the midlife craziness, folks.

Then I came home and ate a bag of chips with Jalapeno cheddar dip, balanced the checkbook, and watched Master Chef to slow down my brain

Senior citizen on the blog!

I figured I would give it a shot...heck, I am feeling pretty darn inadequate today, having a case of the "pity me's" so to give myself a shot of "you go grandma!" I figured I would try my hand at building my own blog. I mean I am learning how to be an intel analyst, manage linguists (two jobs I knew nothing about less than 8 months ago), be a nana (again...knew nothing about that till January)...and I moved to a new house...so what the H E double hockey sticks?

On a good note, though, I did go to body pump today, and I did finish the entire release #74, including the lunge track and chest track without wimping out like some of the younger chicks!

So, I will try to regularly post my thoughts here, and try not to bore you all with too many diatribes.