I don’t remember the year but it doesn’t really matter anyway. Our twins were in middle school or grammar school as it was called in my day.

Melinda had been showing an interest in art and in music. I was in Paul Bowman’s 5 and 10 one day and I spotted this nice looking guitar. I was trying to buy more this Christmas than the usual socks and underwear for our kids.

I enquired of Paul what the price of the guitar was and he told me and I believe it was around 100.00 or maybe a little more.

I didn’t have that kind of money to spend so I walked away and left it there. I was telling my coworkers about the guitar and someone mentioned to me that Paul would let you make payments on the musical instruments. A few days later I went in and got that guitar for Melinda on payments and snuck it home and wrapped it and hid it in the garage.

In the weeks to follow I put our tree up and decorated our house for Christmas. I began to pull gifts out of hiding places and wrap them and put them under our tree. I always used name tags so each child knew ahead of time what was under the tree for them. In retrospect, naming the gifts was probably not the smartest thing to do.

Danny accidentally knocked the tree over one year with his bottom as he was in behind it trying to count his number of presents.

Melinda is normally a pretty upbeat person but this one particular Christmas her countenance slowly began to change….. everyone had gifts under the tree but her. The guitar was such an odd shape that even though I had wrapped it there was no way that she would not guess it and that was the only present she had as I was going to have to make payments for a year on it plus I tried to always spend the same amount of money on each kid and that one gift was her limit for that year.

As Christmas rapidly approached, Melinda smiled less and less and I probably didnt really notice as my life was so hectic back then.

One day Rachel came to me in private and asked why Melinda had no presents under the tree. I explained to her the why of it and she explained to me how sad Melinda had been. I think those kids were counting presents under that tree every time my back was turned.

Rachel went her merry way and immediately ran to Melinda and told her everything that I had said. That was back in the days before I realized that there are no secrets between twins and if you tell one in private you might as well tell them both at the same time so the story stays straight and it doesn’t get garbled up in the translation from one twin to the other.

Melinda was fine as soon as the cat was let out of the bag and when she opened her guitar that year she acted like she was surprised even though she had known for weeks.

Mark and I never exchanged gifts back in those years because it was all we could do to pay for the gifts for the kids.

i am really thankful for store owners like Paul Bowman and his 5 and dime where you could buy on credit sometimes.

Melinda still has that original guitar and says she will never sell it because she cherishes the fact that I made payments on it for a whole year at the 5 and dime.

Yesterday was the day that Sis decided to take me on my treasure hunt! Like I said previously, the mistletoe just hangs everywhere here in huge clusters right at an arm’s length away. We were driving along a country road and right on the roadside was this huge cluster of mistletoe just waiting for me! It is the most beautiful bough I have ever seen in my sixty one years.

Just down the road from where we found the mistletoe was a field full of gleaned cotton with several beautiful stalks of it that the machine missed. I was able to get all I want as it doesn’t come up every year and has to be replanted. I have always stood in awe of the beauty of a field of cotton. To me the sight of the pods bursting forth with the fluffy white softness is truly a wonder from God.

Next we head to the local Goodwill. Anyone that knows me in the least knows how I love finding treasures at Goodwill! Sheppard Air Force Base is nearby so this Goodwill is a really good one. Here I find the greatest treasure of all:

Today I drive to Oklahoma to see Rylan and do Christmas with him and family there and also attend Balee and Spencer’s baby shower for which I have been knitting for months for. God knows how the long drive here hurt my hips and back so much and I feel that He loves me enough to let me find a 2.99 travel cushion and a .99 cent back support! I sure felt the Father’s love in finding these treasures!

God is not a bell boy to me or a slave but He is my best friend. This trip has been amazing and not only am I taking home material treasures tomorrow as I drive back to Tennessee but I am taking lots of treasures of the heart.

My sister has had a rough year in a lot of ways and the battles are still ongoing as are my battles in my own life back home but our God is bigger than all we have or can possibly face and that is our greatest treasure of all!

As I write this it is Sunday morning here and for all of you that do not know Christ as your personal Savior, your treasure awaits you! Please find Him today!

My sister and both of her daughters are nurses and the two daughters both work at a hospice nursing facility here in town. Last night was their annual night to Christmas carol to the patients and I was so honored to be able to join in with them.

My great nieces and nephews and spouse of one of my nieces were with us too.

It was a little hard for me to see some of these patients as it brought back memories of our last days at the nursing facility with Granny Poston. I could see first hand that some of our recipients probably would not live to see this Christmas.

I think it is so important to do for others this time of year and to teach and encourage your children that Christmas is more than receiving gifts wrapped up under a tree.

I know that my sister and her girls work through a lot of our holidays and most people’s red letter days and they serve when the rest of us are celebrating. They work long, hard hours and lose a lot of sleep and their patients become extensions of their own families.

I had a family of military men and my sister has a family of nurse women…. it is all so much the same. Both groups of people are on the front lines serving others.

I salute my family here in Texas and was so happy last night to see their loving spirits in action!

Silent Night, Holy Night…. All is Calm, All is Bright…

Please take the time to remember others this Christmas!

Another day of laughter and good times!

My sister works from home some days so I sleep to my leisure just like I am a teenager or something. I have my own private suite here and a sleep number bed! Wow! She gives me her room even though I tell her not to.

When I get up I try to be as quiet as I can so she can work. I take my shower and dress and work on organizing my make-up bag which desperately needed it!

I hear a knock at the door and Sis brings me a cup of Pecan coffee. And then you wonder why I would drive 14 and 1/2 hours to get here! She does for me all the things I do for everybody else back home… here I get the royal treatment.

Sis returns to her office to work and I do what I do best and that is to Christmas decorate. Granddaughter Kaylee had started putting ornaments on the tree the night before but there were many left so I decided to try and make one of those coat hanger wreaths like I had been seeing on Facebook. It was easy and fun and turned out so pretty.

Sis comes back through and tells me she has 7 more charts to audit and then she will shower, dress and we will go into town and pick up some stuff at Hobby Lobby and grab a late lunch. I am all for it as I meant to get to Hobby Lobby before I left but never found the time.

On the drive here I noticed that the  mesquite trees just hang loaded with mistletoe. Every year I want Mark to go hunt me some and he has to shoot it down and last year he got fussed at by a property owner while getting it so I’m thinking why can’t I just grab some here somewhere before I leave since it is so plentiful. We drive by the city cemetery on our way into town and the tree lined sidewalks have trees just loaded and I am tall enough that I could just reach up and grab it! Of course I am running my mouth about it to Sis and she is laughing when I ask if I would get in trouble! I am always the country bumpkin that makes everyone laugh when I go somewhere new.

We do our shopping first as we decided that I would probably need a nap after lunch since I had been awake for 22 hours the day before. We finish our shopping and then Sis asks me what or where I would like to eat and since I cull nothing I tell her to choose.

She takes me to The Pioneer Restaurant as it was a family favorite when her daughters were small and even though it’s an older restaurant it has great food!

We walk in and the greeter meets us and asks how many and if we want a table or a booth and my sister says booth and asked that we be placed away from the breath of the door as it is freezing outside!

I look to the right where all these booths are and see what looks to me like propane wall heaters hanging in every booth… I think to myself how odd that is but Texas does have extreme winds and the building was very old so I think I have it all figured out by the time we walk to our booth.

We sat down and our sweet little waitress comes flying over and brings us chips and salsa and also squeeze bottles of homemade ranch and thousand island and it is meant to put on the homemade chips they just brought. Boy! It was so good like that. I look over at this thing on the wall and exclaim, Oh, it’s a jukebox…. I thought it was a propane heater!

Well now, just look at this! From a distance would you have thought it was a heater…. it’s BIG! Of course everything is in Texas.

When I said my comment about it being a jukebox and I thought it was a heater, my Sis says…..WHAT! The belly laughs start because sister already wants mistletoe from the city cemetery and now thinks jukeboxes look like heaters.

Like I said, you can’t take Lucy anywhere. This afternoon we go Christmas caroling at the nursing home where my nieces work… no telling what Lucy will get into there. I am wearing my snowflake sweater.

The JOY of the LORD is our strength. Be happy today…. Christmas is coming!

This morning at 2am I left my home to drive to Texas to visit my sister. I had asked Mark to go with me but he was fearful to drive that  long distance again since he had gotten a blood clot in his leg the last time that we went and he is still on blood thinners. He said he wished I would fly but I had several items that I wanted to transport out there and it was just better to drive.

I was very cautious today and only stopped for gas or food in very public places and made sure that my purse was across my body and that my car was locked up at all times. I was also very aware of my surroundings.

The total drive was 14 and 1/2 hours. After about 12 hours I was getting really uncomfortable in my seat so when I stopped for gas that last time I took a pillow from my back seat and sat on it for a little bit. After about 30 minutes of sitting on the pillow I felt really uncomfortable again and decided that I just needed to pull over somewhere and get out and do some stretches and movements to get the stiffness out.

I was on the last leg of the journey and there was hardly any safe looking places to stop. Finally, I saw a sign that said picnic area and handicapped accessible so I whipped in there quickly and jumped out of my car and here are some of the moves that I made.

I felt so much better! I hurriedly got back in my car and put the pillow behind my back as my shoulder blades had a bad hurting in them. As I started my engine and started to pull out there was a man in a green Mountaineer pulling a John Deere green trailer that was right on me. At first I didn’t think a thing about it but he never really stopped and when I pulled out he pulled out and followed me for a long distance.

All kinds of crazy thoughts were flying through my head and I was getting scared. I had had such a good day and had made no wrong turns or gotten lost and now this was happening! I began to plan how I might lose this person behind me and then he finally turned off.

As he drove away, I began to analyze the reason he had done that and it just dawned on me and I began to laugh uncontrollably. When I had hurriedly pulled off the road and was waving my arms frantically the man was a Good Samaritan thinking I had some emergency. I had been frailing my arms like I was trying to flag someone over.

I called my sister and said….. Lucille Ball has struck again and when I got to her house she took the above pictures of me so we could demonstrate to all of you.

Be careful where you exercise! Haha!

We both have laughed all afternoon.

Yesterday I wrote about the empty chairs around our tables by the passing of our loved ones but today as I cook and listen to music I hear the song Amazing Grace, my chains are gone. I suddenly burst into uncontrollable tears that just keep coming.

Our family is like most nowadays. We have had people that were a huge part of our lives go but those persons are not gone because of death but gone because that is the fate of our life sometimes.

We have a house right down the road from us that was built to house family and they were going to have the hot tub and we were going to have the swimming pool. We added an extra bit of pavement when we did our drive where a basketball goal stood because grandsons were going to live near by and be shooting all the time on that goal. None of that happened. It all busted apart and Satan smiled.

We have family in Texas and Oklahoma which seems worlds away sometimes and that is also how life happens.

We have had broken engagements, divorce, death, and just hard grudge worthy feelings. I know most of you have had that too.

We have grandchildren that we have to share with others every single part of the year. Weeks, Months, and Holidays always.

We have upsets, drama, tears, and pain but lots of laughter too because that is how we choose to live this chaotic life that was given to us.

Today as I cook my meal, and not only death separates me from persons that I love but also circumstances too, I ask God to let me Love Them Like Jesus and pray to remember the good and forget all of the bad so that I may rejoice in the life that I have and somewhere, somehow show His love to others that hurt just as much.

Thank you God for all the people that cross our paths but just for a season of time and for all the lessons that they teach us and how we as humans would love to hang onto them but we know that you are in control of it all and we just need to glean from the lesson that was meant for us to learn and press on and thank you for them.

We can preach all day long but the story that speaks the loudest is the one that we live and the realness that we portray.

Let us forgive the hurts, pray for the people that make us so sad, be willing to share the gifts of children or grandchildren that God gives us and most of all……..

LOVE THEM LIKE JESUS!

This morning I was looking out my kitchen window and these thoughts came to mind. We are entering into the holiday season. This is the week of Thanksgiving and then on to Christmas.

I have been really busy lately with the passing of my mother-in-law, being with family, making arrangements, and sending out thank you cards.

In order to get certain things done I have neglected other things. The picture above was God’s way of giving me a gentle nudge.

As you can see in the picture, we had a Tennessee killer frost last night but the sun faithfully came up this morning in all it’s glorious splendor and most of the cold icy remnants of the morning are gone away except the grass that was hidden from the sun by this little tree.

It doesn’t take big things to hide us from God’s light and cause us to be in cold and darkness but sometimes it is just the little things.

Please keep this in mind as you go throughout this holiday season of 2017 and don’t let even the little things keep you away from God’s light!

The Bible says it best:

May each of you have a blessed holiday season and may you Keep in the Light of God’s Love!