family – Page 15 – Gracious Rain

July 7, 2015July 7, 2015

Happy 4th of July!!

Of course, everyone celebrates holidays in their own family fashion–but this one, for us, simply needs to include a big pile of the day-time, mostly kid-friendly fireworks. You know, tanks, parachutes, crackly bombs, snakes, poppers, and…

smoke bombs. I know, you were thinking that I’d show a picture of the actual smoke coming out of that silly little thing–weren’t you? Yeah, well, every time I tried to take a picture, the colored smoke that the kids have LOVED for a million years–was gone in like 4 seconds. I’m not kidding. Is it just me or were some of the fireworks way, WAY shorter and smaller and…ummm, dare I say–cheaper this year? Hmmmm….

But I digress.

My cute little pyros still enjoyed themselves lighting every possible combustible thing in site.

Then came the Tank war–and the rock-paper-scissors to see who would go first.

Bald guy won.

Probably, if you want the best tank war pictures on the face of the earth, you should give the camera to a crazy teen-aged boy who has no fear of losing an eye or a couple of fingers.

That ain’t me baby. So, you’ll have to believe it when I tell you that it was epic. Except for the fact that THIS year, the tanks didn’t shoot 18 inches of sparkly flames AND they didn’t have wheels. Seriously, firework people?! How can you have a tank battle when nothing moves. Good grief.

At least we had pizza and that made it all better.

And I finally got a shot of the smoke bombs–that shall henceforth be known as smoke WHISPS. Let’s be accurate.

The baby boy had a lovely time and didn’t even have to cover his ears for most of it, and he even caught a couple of parachutes. I was too busy clapping to get a picture of that–sorry.

The big boy had a marvelous time too because, well…because he was setting things on fire and that’s really all it takes for a grown-up-little boy to find pure unadulterated joy. You know it’s true.

Everyone left at dusk to go to the Cul-de-sac of Fire up the street…

but I found that from the yard, the view was perfect…

and I didn’t have to deal with ashes in my face…

or tiny pieces of cardboard landing on my head.

Of course, from my very own bed worked nicely too.

April 26, 2015March 3, 2017

My Little Helper

While I was looking at the real estate For Sale site the other day, Miss Chompy came in and asked what I was doing. I said, I’m looking for a house that I can live in someday.

Pointing to the home on the computer screen, she said, “That one’s nice. You should buy it.”

I said, “Yeah, but I have to save up a ton of money first. Even small houses cost a lot.”

She got all excited and ran out of the room calling back, “Don’t worry, Grammy. I’ll help you!”

The sweetheart came back with the penny jar and this sign.

Ummmm….

thanks, honey.

I think.

April 18, 2015

My Beany~

Never a creature so loved.

How I’ll miss those dear little paws.

Good bye my sweet, sweet Beany.

February 5, 2015March 9, 2015

Super Bowl 2015

Having been around a little bit of football in my day, it must be concluded that…

Superbowl is a pretty big deal in these parts.

Such a big deal in fact, that once the people started arriving and the food was spread out, I stopped taking pictures, because, well because I was watching the game.

But this was a very interesting year because we are across the board–big Patriots fans.

But there are a few among us who adore the Seahawks too. And that’s perfect.

Then of course, we have the Viking fans…

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and the BYU fans all mixed up in one room. But it was after all, football and seriously, for people like us, no matter what the colors…

that’s enough.

December 28, 2014December 22, 2022

From Bethlehem~

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For many years now, I’ve gotten a new nativity–of some sort– at Christmas time. If you’ll recall, last year’s was a rubber ducky set. Ridiculous, but very cute. I couldn’t resist.

This was never meant to be a tradition really, but more an activity to ease the heartache of losing an entire box of nativity sets that I’d collected over the past 30 years. In one of the many moves our family made since becoming single, this most important box, somehow, never made it to us. In it we’d packed six or seven different sets that the kids had grown up with–most importantly, one that I bought while on a trip to Bethlehem back in the 70’s. To say that it broke my heart to lose that box is putting it lightly. However, I’ve always believed that things happen for a reason, and if the reason is that someone, somewhere needed that box full of baby Jesus more than we did–well then, I’m good with it.

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This year, my dear daughter April gave me a gift. An incredibly beautiful gift. When she heard that her In-laws were going to the Holy Land, she arranged to have them find a new nativity set– hand chosen for me, in the town of Bethlehem. Oh, my goodness what a perfect job they did.

It is beautiful! The detailed carving work is amazing and each piece has it’s own personality, distinct and lovely.

When I was in Bethlehem a million years ago, I bought the only set I could afford. I loved it for that reason, but the craftsmanship was very low scale. In fact, the running joke was, “Don’t look at the faces too closely or you won’t be able to tell a donkey from a shepherd!” Yeah, it was kinda bad.

But this set…is simply gorgeous!! Joseph’s staff is removable and baby Jesus isn’t carved into the manger. You can actually take him out…which fact we’ve learned over and over as we keep finding him in random places. That Magoo! It’s fun to take each piece and study it for awhile to appreciate it’s individual beauty. Mary is smiling, the wise men are incredibly ornate and the sheep and other animals look…real. It’s breathtaking I tell you.

Such a treasure, such a blessing, such a gift of love this Christmas!

Thank you, my sweet daughter.

Your thoughtfulness has healed my heart.

I love it beyond words. And you too.

Merry Christmas.