TIS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

? Did I say..."It's Beginning to Looking A Lot Like Christmas?

What I meant to say is... it's the night BEFORE Christmas and it looks like

Santa threw up in Nana and Papaw's house.

Does that bother anyone here? No sir it doesn't because that is a normal state in this house. What is beginning to bother a few people, Nana included, is all my presents are getting mixed up under the tree. (not unusual either). This year though I thought I had a fool proof system. I made my list early and it went every where I went, even to church. If you ask Papaw, he will tell you what a professional Christmas list maker I am. Each person has several lines under their name and the items I wish to purchase are listed under their name. As I purchased my gifts with loving care (and sometimes I had to exchange a gift item because I found a more perfect one), I put a check by the gift and stored the bags in secret places around the house (uh, maybe this could be a clue). Then as I wrapped a gift I put a star beside that item and put it under the tree. As I completed each person's list, I cross them off. Here's where the problem(s) started this year.

Right in the middle of my quest for the perfect gifts, we acquired two new families (eight or so) to buy for who weren't on the original list. These gifts needed to be purchased and wrapped much earlier than Christmas so I switched to another list and in the process I left my original family list on a counter at Wal-Mart. I panicked...I even called the store to see if the cashier had found a three page list with a bunch of names and gift items that had been crossed off or stars placed beside them at her register. (how on earth do you explain my system to a stranger?) Of course no one ever came back on the line to put my mind at ease. Papaw drew the line when I told him I was going back to Wal-Mart at 9:00pm to see if anyone had turned it in. The only thing left to do was try to remake the list. Now I have a "second edition" and there are checks and stars and gifts under the tree. I'll have to let you know next time if everyone got what they were suppose to get. I guess so long as the guys don't get the girls gifts and vice versa we will be okay.

I've completed the necessary things for Christmas Day and still have another week to catch up on what still needs to be completed. That will be the easy part though. (no list needed).

This has been the shortest four weeks in Christmas history. Hunter and I shopped, I wrapped late each evening after they went home and papaw went to sleep. Tonight, December 24Th, Christmas Eve, I still have a couple gifts left to wrap for tomorrow morning, but it's quiet and peaceful for a few hours. Even though we won't have everyone here on Christmas Day, we will only be as far away as the wishes in our hearts that you will all know we love you and would love to see you. I will leave you tonight with this thought...

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight"

p.s. Okay, so now it's the night AFTER Christmas and I hope to get this blog posted before NEXT Christmas. I hope everyone had a wonderful day and will be looking forward to a wonderful year.

Maybe soon I will post some pictures taken with the camera Santa brought me. Love you all!

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

****Nana and PawPaw's... A Month Before Christmas*****

We start pulling out the decorations and memories the day after Thanksgiving.

In years past, we took trips to tree farms, cut down our own tree and after having hot apple cider and a ride on the back of a diesel driven tractor, drove home. By that evening everything was done. The Christmas dishes were in the cabinet (the regular ones, you know the Styrofoam ones, put away), the tree is up with all the decorations shining from each branch, our three little trees with the snow and nativity nestled under them is in place in the front window, cookie jar out, bathroom candles ready to be lite. Ask Kaela about that one. She scraped red wax off the toilet and floor until she looked like she was bleeding. The floor still has red wax on it this year. We would even have a few presents wrapped and under the tree before going to bed that night...then the kids grew up and moved away.

We have had Christmas mornings (actually some of our best) when we would wake up to coffee brewing and muffins being warmed, fruit and cool whip ready for Christmas breakfast. We've also eaten Christmas breakfast at Denny's and IHOP and shopped at Cracker Barrel. We've decorated table-top trees with ornaments and celebrated in hotels. It's not been all about "getting it right". We have always told the kids it's the spirit of giving and believing that lives inside us ( the spirit of the One in whom we believe and who gave all) that makes it Christmas.
(the two pictures below were about thirteen years ago)

(This picture, was at Connie's about three years ago)This year, paw-paw grew the tree a couple days before Thanksgiving (no lights until the Saturday after though) Then on Wednesday Zackary and Hunter came over and helped with the small trees and nativity and put some of the Christmas Around The World keepsakes out while their mom and dad went to class. When they got back we had supper and watched Rudolph while we decorated the tree. Before we were done, we had egg nog and cookies. I'm not sure how far Hunter made it before losing his egg nog.

Boxes are still sitting around in every room, the left over polyester snow is still on the floor and there is no centerpiece on the kitchen table yet. We have the snowman dishes in the dishwasher and the regular ones on the counter. It is now three weeks before Christmas, but we are still working on it. When Zackary comes in now he says "okay, Nana, your best decorationer is here". In the next day or so we will be done, all except watching the stars in their eyes.

We've had snow and a fire and a few extra days off work (for paw-paw). Nana has been making her "list", checking it and re-making it, and probably having as much fun as any of the little ones. Even though we will not have our family Christmas this year until after Christmas I'm looking forward to getting together with everyone as often as schedules allow.

As this season progresses and gets more hectic, I pray we will all take a few minutes each day to reflect on the blessings of family and friends and on the true Reason for the Season, Jesus.
Love to you all,
Nana

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY

OR SHOULD I SAY, WHO YOU SAY IT IN FRONT OF??

You would think after 18 years of being a grandmother I would have learned a thing or two. Well, "I might have been born in a barn, but NOT at night" (Michael, age six). So, a word from a slow learner, be careful who you use your most expressive words in front of. Yes, there is a memory in the making here.

Thursday afternoon after Hunter and I picked Zackary up from school, I had to pick up a perscription from the drug store. The whole trip from his school to the house is about twenty-five minutes, if we get behind the school bus on Monroe. So needless to say I was just a little preturbed an hour and a half later when we weren't home yet. This is how it happened...

...Wrong turn in subdivision to avoid school bus (fifteen minutes wasted), prescription not ready at Walgreens (just give me about ten minutes, Mrs. Fenter) okay, so we waited 10 minutes, another pass through the drive-through and "we're having difficulty getting it to go through, can you give us about fifteen more minutes?" (now we have twenty-five more minutes wasted), second pass through... bag flys out of the little box and goes under the car which is pulled very close to the curb, visual NOT pretty and Zackary can't understand why I'm on my knees mumbling (another five minutes wasted). Okay, prescription retrieved and we are on our way. Ten minutes and we should be home! Turn left onto the 'short cut street' to make up time...OH NO bridge under construction turn left into a side street to detour, NO OUTLET, turn around in driveway back to the 'short cut' street and back to Walgreens parking lot (total of twenty minutes wasted!) Cut through to main four lane street to go the L-O-N-G way home and the car behind me cuts around and in front of me causing the car passing on the street to slam on their brakes and me to honk my horn (five minutes wasted)...here are the words of wisdom...

Don't say CRAP with your seven year old grandson in the back seat, because if you do, you will likely get a lecture on why that wasn't a good idea to say that.

The conversation went something like this:

...Nana, "Oh Crap, Dude, that was stupid."

...Zackary, "That probably wasn't a good thing to say."

...Nana, "WHAT?"

...Zack, "Just saying, you know with HIM in the car, (that was a head motion in Hunter's direction) I don't think mom is going to like it much when he says that word, you know the one you just said."

...Nana, "Huh??? Yeah, you are probably right."

If you think God gave you children to help you aquire patience, I wonder just what it is we are supposed to learn from our grandchildren...wisdom?

I love all of my grandchildren and you would think I would be pretty wise by now, thirteen of them later, but I'm still learning.

Love You All

What Is Today??

Most of you will not know the significance of this day in history, my history, at least. November 16th is my dad's birthday. I don't remember celebrating that day with him until his 60th one came. I remember him calling me and asking if I would fly over and spend the weekend if he sent me the airfare.
I was living in Houston in 1985 thinking all would continue along the same path it always had. I was excited about a trip to see daddy, to spend time with him. (Several times in the four months prior to that visit he had come to Houston to deliver products to some of the chemical plants on the channel and would come to my house and have dinner, he would stay at the hotel I worked at and we would have breakfast before I went to work and he left to go back to BR.) After the weekend was over he brought me back home.
That weekend he shared with me his life, his dreams for the future and plans he had made. I saw something in my dad I had not seen in a long time. Direction. In case any of you might think I wore Rose tinted glasses when it came to my dad, I did not. I knew him as few did. If you never had Pete Wallace invest in your life, you missed a great deal.

What I want to share next is for those who still have a parent living. Reach out and hold them, pick up the phone and call them, share yourself with them and let them share with you. You see, just about two months after our birthday weekend, around mid-January, a messenger brought the word that daddy had died. He had been working on clearing the field for his Christmas Tree Farm and had a heart attack.

I know we each have our memory of that day. The edges might be frayed just a little, but the subject is bound in our hearts. A love so deep it still directs our steps and those of our children. There are times I sob so hard just from the empty space in my heart that Les has to just hold me until the grief passes. Yes, 23 years later. Those times are fewer and further between and most often now it is with laughter and fond memories I remember him.

If you asked each of my kids what their most vivid memory of "Papaw Pete" is, each one would have a different answer. All would be of a gentle and non-confrontational nature though, I'm sure...what would each of you say???

I know I did a blog about him on father's day and posted pictures. I won't post them today. I will leave you with the thought that while he presented an exterior of toughness, he loved deeply and expected all he knew and loved to be treated with love and respect.

It is to him in large part that I have an understanding of love.
I pass that love on to each of you.

A MOTHER'S BLESSINGS

******************Being a Mom******************

For the past couple of months I have been preparing for and participating in a class on identifying and dealing with wounds and hurts (real or perceived), the lenses we see life through, and how these things affect our interactions with others. After saying that, I want to say the class only relates to this blog through my experiences in it.

If you are a mom (or maybe a parent) you might find yourself nodding in agreement with me as you read. I hope the journey will be as touching for you as mine was today.

I sat with three other people in our group, we have reached the "practice" stage of the class and I was the first to present my problem, for lack of a better word. What started out to be an assumed problem turned out to be a real one for me instead. The problem, "I just don't know how to fix what hurts those I love deeply, I'm afraid I might loose them. Some of those God gave to me to protect and teach and con ...oops, did I almost say the "C" word? (you know, the one moms never consider they do) control, but in a good way, like in "...teaching, correcting, training..." What I got when I asked that question was not what I expected, a "how to for dummies". It was an impression, or picture, or a vision, depending on how you feel God interacts with you. For me it was a picture. Not of me helping those people, but rather of Him helping them. Holding or carrying them like in the print of "Footprints" reminding me that when they (or myself in this case) only saw one set of footprints in the sand, they were His. We talked about it for a little bit and as I left class I saw completely different pictures.

You see, sometimes we forget what our "job" is. I DO believe that job includes some of the above things when our children are young. It is part of the role of a mother to instruct, nurture and train our little ones. Not for the purpose of making them into "mini mes" or what ever we precieve is best, but rather for Kingdom service. Giving them tools to use to live life the best they can and to love and trust the Lord as their friend and saviour. In so doing it frees us to love them and appreciate their uniqueness and strength and it frees them to make mistakes and learn the Grace God so wants to give. It frees Him to reach in and heal hurts and wounds, both for our loved ones and for us.

That's what this day was about, not figuring out how I can fix the hurts, but learning how to let God do that. I think it just might remove a wall that separates parents and children, friend and friend, self and God.

His blessings to me come in the forms of daughters, sons, their spouses, grand children, brothers and their families, friends -some closer than sisters, some of long standing and some new. Times of laughter, weddings, births, parties and living life together. Times of remembering the investments made into our lives by those who have loved us and gone to rest in Perfect Peace. I pray we will all give credit to these times in our lives as gifts, with out strings, from our Loving Father, Creator, Protector, Provider; our Abba (Daddy God) get to know Him and let Him do His job. No one can do it but Him.

I know in some cases this seems an over simplistic approach and in the midst of attack we don't always default to trusting. My prayer is that we will more often make that our focus. Enjoy those in your life and let everyone know how much you love them.

I Love You

More Family Fun Pictures

I just got several new pictures from the party on Saturday night and want to share them. If you don't believe in pirates, think again. I also finally got Lilly and Cade's pictures to download. Enjoy these!!!

I hope you guys don't feel like you are invited over to watch "home videos". We would just love to have every one here with us.

Picture from the front of their house.



Ghost of pirates past, giving out candy and Noni in the fish pond. The last on is Cade on left and Lilly on right. Cade was a little Monkey and I guess Lilly was a pumpkin.

A Family Party

**OUR FAMILY ACROSS THE MILES**************

Last night was a fun time of dress up, laughs, treats and games. I wish I could say I captured everyone on film and in character, but unfortunately, more often than not, those with cameras were some where else when you needed them.

The subdivision is built around a lake and most of the people set up tables there for giving out candy. A few stayed in their homes which made the walk a long one. Hunter and Kaden led the pack. I could not hear if they said "trick-or-treat" or not but I could hear Hunter saying "Tant tou bye, tant tou, bye" the whole time. They ran their little legs off. Of course they stole the show, (well maybe they had to share the prize with Wayne). It was hard to hold Zack, Chey, Abby and Abram back, they really got into it. After they finished trick-or-treating, we went in the backyard and bobbed for apples and "went fishing" we all enjoyed that.

We had a baby Buz Lightyear and Elmo, we had a Jr. and Sr. aerospace flight crew, a night in shining armor (Prince Caspian actually) a ballerina, and a fairy. Those were the little ones whom the party was suppose to be for. Then we had a big orange pumpkin (yours truly), a partly cloudy sky with a chance of rain (Toni Lin) a pirate and his woman (Wayne and Candi) and I mean Pirates of the Caribbean at that, accent and all. You would have thought they were back in their trick-or-treat days. Hopefully before I actually post this, my picture from New Mexico will download and we will also have Cade and Lilly (Elizabeth's and David's little babies) in costume also. I don't think David's two older girls were in the picture though.

The older grand kids were also there. Some dressed up some didn't. For those who did, I must say I'm not sure what they were suppose to be. Michael turned himself over to Jayella (his girlfriend) and Kaela and they did make up and fingernails and a wig. It was interesting.

Oh yeah, the food. What is a family party without food. One of Wayne's co-workers came and brought Crawfish Quiche, two dips and chips and home made pumpkin bread with cream cheese icing. We also had stuffed Jalapenos, Queso with chips, Rubens, brownies, bar-b-Que meatballs, wings (from Hooters, NOT my favorite)

Besides pictures from the party, I am including a couple of Zackary and Hunter from the pumpkin patch when they went pumpkin shopping. That was cute. Hunter thought the small ones were balls and kept trying to throw them. You might also notice he isn't worried about taking pictures, he is there to play with "pundins". I never tire of seeing Zackary smile. Life to those two is fun and games.

I'm sure I have forgotten things and other things, I choose not to forget. I hope you have enjoyed our party as much as we all did. Thanks Wayne and Candi for being gracious hosts. I wonder where you got all the "booty" to throw such a memorable night. From the high seas me thinks.

I love you all and you're always invited to our parties.

Each family is beginning to see how God has interwoven lives and hearts together for this life and the one to come. It is to Him we give the Glory of life.