Monday Musings

The saying in the Rochester, NY area is "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." How true that has been these last few days. We've gone from snow to rain to 50 degrees and green all in the matter of three days. How strange. Don't think this has anything to do with global warming, it's been this way for all the 40 years I've lived here.

So, it's Monday afternoon. I've had a really busy few days. After reading Cheryl's latest post, I want to add my own "two cents" to her urging to reach out to someone in need during this Christmas season.

Last year our children talked to us about not giving gifts to one another for Christmas. Jim and I have so much. What we want or need we manage to buy for ourselves throughout the year. We decided some time ago to forgo gift giving and put our money in a travel account. It's worked well for us.

Paige, Gretchen and Brian asked us if it wouldn't be better to take whatever we would spend on each other and contribute to a charity. Jim and I agreed and chose a family that had been abandoned by their father. The wonderful mom gave me a list and Jim and I had a great time shopping, wrapping and delivering the gifts. Only the mom knows where they come from.

Because the circumstances haven't changed much for this family, we have asked Mom if we can do this again and she agreed. It has been a fun project for us.

Years ago, my assistant and I started an Angel Tree project in the library. Even though we have retired, we have stayed on as co-chairs of the committee. At the last minute, we received a request from a grandmother who had just been granted custody of her five grandchildren. As we understand it, they arrived with just the clothes on their backs. Thanks to the generosity of our local Teacher's Association, we were able to provide each child with a set of clothing AND a toy. Jim and I did this shopping on Saturday. It was such fun. It's been awhile since I've shopped for young children, and never for four young boys.

Jim started early this morning wrapping. I need to do the bows. I'll get to that later this evening. What a blessing for us to be able to take part in this project.

Once again, let me join Cheryl in urging those of you who have the means and the desire to get involved in sharing Christ with others this Christmas by giving what you can. I will confess to you that making this change in our gift-giving was not an easy one for me. I miss shopping, wrapping and giving gifts to my girls and Brian. However, I am very proud of them for taking this step in sharing the true meaning of Christmas.

Jim and I are into the entertaining phase of our Christmas season, I guess. Yesterday we had friends from church in for brunch. Jim and I did a spiral glazed ham and our son in law, Brian's hash brown casserole potatoes. They are so yummy. Everyone brought a dish, making it easy on me. The variety was great; we had a vegetable casserole and a stir-fry vegetable dish. Linda made her asini fruit salad {which she must always bring}. Beth made delicious cinnamon rolls and Lara provided gingerbread men and brownies for dessert.

Mr. & Mrs. Gingerbread.

Sienna is seriously biting the head off her gingerbread cookie

Evelyn is just taking it all in, while Daddy Jeff smiles at me.

There were twelve of us{if you count dear little Evelyn}. We had a delightful afternoon. This tradition started many years ago with a group of us going to the nursing home to sing carols and do a program of Christmas scripture readings. Somewhere along the way, the nursing home said they had too many groups at Christmas and "fired" us. Not to be daunted, we just kept getting together to eat anyway and hope someday they may let us come back to the nursing home.

Today I'm doing double time in the entertaining department. I invited two of my former library clerks and our "favorite" patron for lunch today. We all love crepes and have a favorite crepe restaurant where we like to go. I surprised them with crepes for lunch today. I had chicken and asparagus crepes for the entree and strawberry and cream crepes for dessert. I think they liked them. We had a delightful afternoon visiting and reminiscing; sharing lots of new titles to read.

It is so good to spend time with these gals. Although I love my retirement, I do miss some of the people. Actually, I miss all of my staff. We had such a pleasant working relationship, even if "nobody ever listened to a word I said. " {Don't laugh, you guys. You know it's true} LOL

In just an hour Bruce and Shelly will arrive for our annual Christmas Concert Dinner. Once again, this is a tradition that has been going on for years and years. In the early years, we would wait until after the concert and then Bruce and Shelly, another couple and Jim and I would have dinner together. If any of our kids were around, they came too. Some things have changed in the past couple of years, leaving just Bruce and Shelly, Jim and I. Also, being a little older, last year we started to eat before the concert. The tradition continues even if some of the circumstances change.

I'm going to close with a story about myself. Last week I was out with some friends from church. We shopped for a new stove for our church kitchen and then went to lunch. As we stepped out of the car at the appliance store, I saw a sign over the adjoining building. The sign read "Shogun Martial Arts". What I saw at first glance was, "Shotgun Marriage". Now, tell me if I'm not just a little bit nuts.

~Hippo Hugs~