Waking up with the chickens…

 

This morning, I woke fifteen minutes before my alarm was set to ring…

I headed to you-know-where… as I was passing by, my daughter whispered “good morning, Mom.”

On my way back to my room, I decided I was going to take those extra minutes, plus maybe the nine more I would have if I hit the snooze button when the alarm sounded, so I tiptoed back to bed and snuggled under my covers.

A few minutes later – still ten minutes before my alarm was set to ring, I heard my grandson’s VERY LOUD old-fashioned alarm clock clanging! Within a few seconds, he had turned it off and I could hear him climbing down from his bunk bed and jump to the floor.

I decided it was important to enjoy family time whenever the opportunity arose, so I “arose”, got a big hug from my grandson, then went to check on the girls… my granddaughter was sitting up in bed but Mom (who I knew had been awake a few minutes before this) was hiding under her covers I grabbed a clean sock, rolled it into a ball and lobbed it at her head! A few other things joined the fun (nothing big, miniature snickers bars and wooden clothes pins) until she finally gave up and joined us.

It was the most fun I’ve had at 5:45 AM… in a VERY long time!

I hope all my readers have a fantastic long weekend…

God bless you!

©Donna J. Mynatt 2014

U.S. Space and Rocket Center

Last weekend my daughter attended the Monte Sano Writers Conference in Huntsville, Alabama. Since it was my grandson’s birthday, we decided to celebrate all weekend, so we headed down to Huntsville early Friday morning.

What should have taken us three hours or so took almost twice as long due to thunderstorms and heavy traffic! Thankfully we arrived safely around lunchtime, so we stopped for pizza and ate it on the way to the (drum roll please):

U.S. Space and Rocket Center

Yep! That was my grandson’s birthday surprise! He had a great time! It was a wonderful experience for the entire family.

Notable Artifacts at the center include:

National Historic Landmark Saturn V Moon Rocket
Pathfinder – the world’s only full-stack space shuttle display
Apollo 16 Command Module
Skylab Orbital Workshop
Apollo 12 Moon Rock

I highly recommend a trip to this museum.

Bring your family to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville… there are plenty of rockets and artifacts to see, plus hands-on exhibits and simulators.

We plan to go back several times…

God bless you!

12/27: Christmas tree and decorations… when is it time to pack them away?

I love the beautiful Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, don’t you?

Every year, it seems to be the most beautiful Christmas tree, although I have only ever seen it on the Internet. I’ve never visited New York City… that is a future goal.

When do you take down your Christmas tree and decorations? I’d love you to reply with your own traditions…

Christmas Day was just 2 days ago… we keep our tree and decorations up til New Year’s Day, although that’s not set in stone. One year my children were away, I was sad… so I took them down on December 30th. And if my granddaughter had anything to say about it, they would stay up til February!

I will also continue to wish everyone a Merry Christmas… until New Year’s Eve (at least) so…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

12/26: Second Christmas… celebrating family

Second Christmas is an Amish tradition…

Christmas Day is meant for celebrating the birth of Christ, and the second day of Christmas is saved for celebrating with family. This is the time for gifts, treats and good food…

Today our little family will continue to celebrate Christmas with gift-giving. I’d share what the grandchildren will be getting, but the little stinkers are savy enough check this blog the moment it’s published.

So you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see… but I can share what I bought for the family…

it’s such a joy! We ALL love it! For several months, I’ve thought we’d find the right one any day, but instead it took months. Yesterday, my daughter texted me the picture… I took one look and said, “get it”!

25 Days of Christmas – Day 25

It’s Christmas Day!  

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Below is the traditional story of Christmas:

And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men.

. Luke 2:10-14

That’s what Christmas is all about…

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Happy Birthday, JESUS!

25 Days of Christmas – Day 24

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It’s CHRISTMAS EVE!

This year my daughter asked if there was a possibility that we could figure out a way to make Christmas Day all about Jesus, instead of it just being about toys and gifts.

But we were concerned that the grandchildren would be unhappy with any changes… wrong!

They love the idea! As always, they will be given one gift this morning – Christmas Eve – to enjoy. We will attend the advent service at Central Baptist Church of Bearden and spend the rest of the evening singing carols and enjoying the neighborhood Christmas decorations.

…and tomorrow is Christmas Day! Just 1 more day!

…MERRY CHRISTMAS!

25 Days of Christmas – Day 23

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Only 2 more days til Christmas!

Be kind to yourself… do NOT go crazy! Traffic is horrible at times, and the mall is over-crowded, with hardly a parking space to be found. Although people are out shopping for Christmas gift-giving, they do not appear to have much Christmas spirit… or Christmas joy, either.

If you find yourself getting stressed, do the following:

1. stop whatever you’re doing

2. take at least 5 deep breaths – slowly – until you begin to relax

3. remind yourself that you want to enjoy the holidays

4. listen to some uplifting music when you can, and

5. enjoy yourself.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

25 Days of Christmas – Day 22

3 days til Christmas!

I am getting so excited! I love Christmas time!

It’s Sunday… and time for church! This is the last Sunday to hear a Christmas cantata. My daughter and I both sang in a Christmas cantata 2 years ago and it was one of the most fulfilling moments for us in years.

I would love to participate in a Christmas cantata again, but I prefer the traditional hymns and carols and most cantata music has contemporary music – not much to remind people of the “good old days”.

I feel sure that I will be participating in another Christmas cantata in the years to come, because there will be traditional songs used again in the future. These songs are timeless…

But for now, I plan to concentrate on this year… and there’s just 3 more days…

Merry Christmas!

25 Days of Christmas – Day 21

4 days til Christmas!

It’s Saturday… Day of errands! Even more than usual, with 4 days to Christmas. We have a turkey, but need to buy sweet potatoes and the baking bag.

I’m really hoping today is better than yesterday. At work, while in the middle of purchasing, I lost my network connection. All afternoon, no Internet, no email, plus all my files are on the shared drive – on the server, so no access to any files or documents. I reported it, but there’s little hope of it being fixed before the first of the year.

I’m off next week; I go back to work on the 30th, so I need to keep my mind off the networking problem until the 30th. Otherwise, it’ll cause a tummy ache!

OK! On to better thoughts… grocery shopping, trip to the mall, Starbucks for buy 1 get 1 free holiday drink… and whatever else crops up. In the meantime…

Merry Christmas!

25 Days of Christmas – Day 20

5 more days til Christmas!

Wow! Just 5 more days!

I love the last week… we try to save a few things to shop for and purposely go out shopping, knowing it’s almost Christmas. There’s a feeling in the air, one of excitement… celebration… joy!

This is also my last workday… In just 4 hours I will be leaving work and my Christmas holiday will officially begin! YAY!

We have errands to run after work, then on the way home, we’ll drive through a different neighborhood to admire the lights and decorations. We try to vary our route each night.

Tomorrow I get to sleep late! Hurray!

Of course that means I’ll wake at my usual time, but I don’t “have” to get up… but I usually do. I’ll probably sneak into the family room to start a Christmas CD or movie… it’s fun early in the mornings, to snuggle up in my favorite soft UT blanket and watch a Christmas movie, evoking feelings of joy.

Then it’s time to head to the kitchen to make my favorite omelet – it’s a bit different each time, depending on what’s in the refrigerator. And once everyone is up and ready for the day, we’ll check our list to see what we want to do.

One thing we do is to let the grandchildren pass out little candy canes to other children they meet. These candy canes are securely wrapped, and have the story of the candy cane on the back of the wrapper.

There are different variations of the story, but essentially there was a Candy maker who made a candy to tell the real Christmas story.

He chose pure white candy for the virgin birth and to remind us that Jesus is sinless and he made the candy hard so it would remind us that Jesus is the solid rock we can depend on and that all God’s promises are solid.

The candymaker made the candy in the shape of a “J” to remind us of Jesus who was born a tiny baby and became our Savior.

Then the candymaker added stripes. Real candy canes have three small stripes for the beatings that Jesus took so that we can receive healing, and a big stripe for the blood Jesus shed on the cross so we can have eternal life.

My grandchildren love handing these out to other children. I’m hoping it is a good beginning to teaach them how to reach out to others with the message that Jesus loves us.

Merry Christmas!