Christmas Crafts

Each year, my family loves to do Christmas Crafts. One of my favorites was one I did about 30 years ago with Mom and Mawmaw. Over the years, I’ve used it for many things. You cut a square (whatever size you want the basket to be) of chicken wire from a hardware store. We spray painted it gold and hot glued ribbon around the four sides. Then we pulled it together from two corners and used a darning needle and heavy thread to sew the two corners tight.

Then we hot glued our Christmas pick and bow. Since it is 30 years old, it’s a little worn looking, but I don’t want to redo it since Mamaw and Mom helped me make it. It was fun. We used to make all kinds of need things to set around.

Christmas Decorations

The decorations are up and the tree is done. Time to settle back and enjoy the season. As I decorate every year, I take the time to let my memories go back to Christmas's past. My oldest Christmas decoration is a little white plastic wicker basket of poinsettias. I was 5 years old and Mamaw Eden took me to town on the "town bus". She took me to McCroy's to have a hot chocolate and donut while we waited for the stores to open. When we got done eating, we were walking by the end of the aisle and there were these little baskets of poinsettias for 10 cents. Now Mamaw loved poinsettias. I remember every Christmas that her plastic bouquet of poinsettias was the first thing she would set out to begin the Christmas holidays. Mom had a bunch of them, too. It was always a family joke who would get their poinsettias out first after Thanksgiving. Some year Mamaw did and some years Mom did.

Loving poinsettias the way she did and knowing they are my birth month flower, she bought me my own little basket of poinsettias. She said I could start my own tradition that they be the first thing I put out at Christmas.

Well, every year when Mom got the decorations down, I would get my basket and set it out. Here I am 48 years later and it is still the first thing I get out. Mamaw has been gone for 21 years and I still compete with Mom on who got their poinsettias out first. Every time I place that little basket in a place of honor, I think of Mamaw and all the wonderful memories that little plastic basket evokes. I still miss her so much. I know every time I set them out she is looking down and smiling on me.

I've started a tradition with my grandkids of buying them an ornament to hang on my tree each year. When they get married they will recieve their ornaments for their first tree. I can only hope that I touch their lives in such a way that they, too, will have fond memories of me when they hang thier ornaments each year.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

I've been away from my blog for a couple of weeks as I prepared for the holidays. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had the kids and grandkids over and had a great time. As usual, I ate too much. But I counteracted the extra calories by walking all day on Black Friday as I scurried around to catch the sales. As we go into the Christmas season, I love the rush of fighting the crowds to find the perfect gift. Being a December baby, I've often wondered if that is why I love the holidays so much. This will be a busy month with Christmas gatherings, school programs and church plays. There is nothing like watching the little ones as they rehearse their lines or learn their Christmas songs. My oldest grandson who is 10 will be Tiny Tim in the Christmas play at Richardson Cove Baptist Church. He has his line down pat "God bless us, everyone!" Which when you get down to it, that is the bottom line. As we celebrate the birth of Christ, we should count our blessings and realize that without His grace and love, we are nothing.

Who knows?

We recently did a Ladies Bible Study on Queen Esther. There was one thing that really made a profound impact on me.

In Esther 4:14, Mordecai is telling Esther to remain silent, he said "For who knows, whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this."

Truer words were never spoken. Who knows why God places us where he does at the times he does. Who knows what lives we might effect just by being in a certain place at a certain time. Look at your Facebook friends for example.

I get blessed daily from the people I grew up with and went to school with. I haven't seen many of them for years, but I see their Christianity, their family values and their faith in God daily on their Facebook page.

When I joined Facebook, I would never have thought I would learn so much about my friends or be so blessed by them.

But God had a hand in even that. He has a master plan and we just need to follow the blueprint He has given us by following in His word. For "who knows" where and when we will be in a moment "for such a time as this".

Goal Setting

Each of us have dreams and hopes that we want to see come true. We think of things we'd like to have, be or do. But do we strive for them? Do we work hard to make them happen? Or do we sit back an just wish they would drop in our lap. In order to achieve your dreams, you need to set clear defined goals. Many times in my life, I have made a goal list and fell short of achieving them. But just as often, I have been able to reach the pinnacle and obtain the goal. It just depended on the route I took to reach the goal. The key to goal setting is to have a plan of action and follow that plan. It is not just enough to WANT it to happen, you can MAKE it happen. This is the best plan that works for me:

• Determine what the goal or objective is
• Prepare a plan of action on what steps to take to reach the goal
• List any obstacles that could get in your way
• Decide on the best steps to take to bypass the obstacles
• Set yourself a reward for reaching your goal

Every time I follow these steps I have either reached my goal or exceeded my goal. So today, I will set my new goals. I'll decide the best steps to take, then I'll implement them with the knowledge that I CAN succeed.

Whatever happened to seasons?

Is it just me or does everyone have a hard time deciding what season it is. When I was growing up, the white shoes, sandals and flip flops were put away until after Easter next year. We bought new "fall" shoes and "fall" jackets. Lightweight with a little lining for those chilly morning. Sweatshirts and blue jeans were the norm to go outside and play in the leaves. Now we see flip flops in the dead of winter. One day it is so cold we are wearing sweaters and digging our winter coats out. The next day it is short sleeves and open toe shoes. It is 63 degrees outside and beautiful. But if you are inside looking out and didn't know the temperature was 63, you would say it looks like it is getting ready to dump a big snow on us. I'm just not sure what is going on. I want spring to feel like spring and fall to feel like fall. I don't want to wear shorts in February and long sleeves in May. I no longer "put" my seasonal close away because I have no idea what season we are in. I think we should just have one season and call it Autwin sprummer. That way, we are covered no matter what the weather decides to do.

The life of a squirrel

I have a yard full of squirrels and I cannot figure out their philosophy on life. We sat here one day and watched one particular squirrel. He came down along the wooden fence with a nut in his mouth. We watched as he scurried along the back yard. He would stop and look up, still holding his hickory nut. He would glance furtively around, looking for spies. He would run a few more feet, stop, and repeat the process. After three or four minutes of this procedure, he would dig a small hole and bury the nut. He then ran around the yard to various spots. He would stop and sniff around. Then he would run back, get the nut and take it to the new spot and bury it. How crazy is that? Apparently, eating a lot of nuts will make a squirrel nuts. He repeated this about four or five times, burying the nut, digging up the nut, over and over. Then he dug it up and ran up on the patio, climbed in my petunia bed and buried it there as it's final resting place. Then he left. He is back this morning. Only this time, he is outside my window on the ledge, eating the bird seed that has fallen from my bird feeder. I slowly opened the blind as to not scare him off. He tried to climb up the window screen. Guess I have a new pet. I think I'll buy a bag of unsalted, shelled nuts and make his job a little easier this winter. Think I'll name him Sammy. Stay tuned for more of his antics as winter progresses.