Thursday, December 25, 2008

It's a wonderful life!

Today brought more snow, we are seriously worried about getting a flight out of here Friday for Brad and Krystal's wedding. We will keep our fingers crossed and our knees bent. It was really a quiet day, we made some deliveries, John, Amy and Angie came over to visit for a bit. We wrapped presents and had just a regular dinner. It is funny how things change throughout the years as the kids get older and move away. Traditions change and sometimes that is hard. This year was John and Amy's turn to spend it with his family and so it was just the four of us for dinner. We didn't have a turkey like normal, we decided since it was just us ,that we would have salmon instead...that worked.

We were hoping that John,Amy and Angie would be able to come back early enough to do some of the Christmas Eve traditions  with us. They didn't make it back till 8:30pm and by that time Angie was beside herself. She was just too tired, she usually goes to be around 7:00pm, she had a fit when they told her to come in the house, she wanted to stay out in the snow and look at the Christmas lights. I finally took her out and we walked up and down the street as carefully as we could. She loves the lights and to her surprise one of our neighbors had built a snowman and she was so thrilled that she broke into song, ONCE THERE WAS A SNOWMAN and FROSTY THE SNOWMAN. She is a handful, but I am telling you the feeling I get when she and I are together is magical. I love being her grandma ( NANA ), she told me tonight that the lights were beautiful, she said "I love you Nana" it is hard to put into words how that makes me feel. I have heard all my life how wonderful grandparenthood was... and it's true! She is a tough little spirit though and gives her mom and dad a run for their money, she reminds us so much of Lauren when she was a little girl,  many times when she is in trouble ...we call her Lauren instead of Angie! :) Even though Lauren was by far our hardest toddler she has turned out to be one of the easiest teenagers, so I try to remind John and Amy that there still  is HOPE!

We did keep a few of our traditions tonight after John, Amy and Angie left. We read a new Christmas book, I try to get a new story every year and this one had a CD with it and so we got to listen and read along. It was a fabulous story and it was read by Dick Van Dyke (one of my favorite actors) . The book is called MR. FINNEGAN'S GIVING CHEST  by   Dan Farr (www.givingchest.com) , we all just loved it and it's messages. Here are a few of those messages from the book...

...Remember that the Christmas spirit doesn't need to end after December 25th

...We can reach out to others and in doing so, we'll find that the happiness that comes from helping others is proportionate to the sacrifice we are willing to make

...Remember that not all gifts are financial. Your time, love and service are often the most needed gifts.

What a treasure that book was, then we read the traditional Christmas Story from the book of Luke, my favorite part is where it mentions that Mary kept and treasured in her heart the things that she experienced. I can only imagine what an amazing woman she must have been to be chosen to be the Mother of the Christ child, what an honor, what an responsibility and what an experience which I am sure was not easy. She surely learned much from her life and her Son's life.

Last we watched IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE together, I love that movie! What a great message it too had. At the very end my favorite quote was from the Angel (Clarence) that helped George Bailey. This is what he wrote in a bible that he left for George and his family. It went like this..."NO MAN IS A FAILURE WHO HAS FRIENDS". I know that to be true, my life is worth what it is ,because of the Love of my family and friends. I didn't get to send Christmas presents or cards to each of them this year to express that, but I hope that they know how rich we feel because of their love and friendship. This is truly what Christmas is all about LOVING ONE ANOTHER! I pray that you will have a wonderful Christmas and remember what a wonderful life we have. Thank you for being a large part... of my wonderful life!

Good night and Merry Christmas!

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