First Sunday of Advent

Christmas is upon us, and it seems so soon. We've just finished Thanksgiving, and here it is December tomorrow. Someone said in a post that they wished we celebrated Thanksgiving like the Canadians do. That way we could concentrate on Thanksgiving and then have plenty of time to turn our thoughts toward Christmas.

The first Sunday of Advent--that never meant a lot to me because I grew up in a church that did not practice the liturgy that many churches do. However, in 1991, our family began attending another church where we became members, and in this church, the same denomination that I had been in all my life, did have part of the order of service the lighting of the Advent candles and reading Scripture that was a part of it. In the years since then, I have looked forward to that part of our Christmas celebration.

I am amazed and awed by God's plan and His love for the world and for me. He, who was God, wholly and holy God became man like me and took my sins upon Him.

The Anchoress has a wonderful post today, expressing so well the meaning of Advent

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

If Christmas is a part of your life, I pray richest blessings for this wonderful season of the year.

Sweet - Carmi's theme

This photo is about 27 years old. We have a big cedar tree in our front yard which has a branch perfect for sitting in and climbing on. Here you see Sarah and David (Ella's daddy) smiling sweetly for the camera. You can see where Ella's cheeks come from. I've been moving photos from one computer to my newer one and have been having fun looking at old photos and reminiscing about my children's childhood.

Carmi's theme this week is "sweet." Go to his site, and you can see other entries.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from beautiful, sunny Florida. I've read so many wonderful Thanksgiving greetings and posts already. I wish for you all a blessed day wherever you find yourselves. Ella's going to be with her grandparents in Ohio this weekend. She'll get to see her two little cousins and aunts and uncle, along with her grandparents. Sarah and I are having dinner with one of her very good friends. Heather is cooking her first Thanksgiving dinner, so she hasn't made any great promises. Whatever the result, it will be good to be with friends.

As we look at the economy and wonder where it is all going, I've been reminded this week as I read a letter from missionaries working in Cambodia, as they describe families who live near garbage heaps, looking for their daily sustenance there, and seeing photos of children from Haiti who are literally "skin and bones," we still have so much.

May we always have grateful hearts. I love Psalm 100 from The Message.

Psalm 100
A Thanksgiving Psalm

On your feet now—applaud God!

Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.

Know this: God is God, and God, God.

He made us; we didn't make Him.

We're his people, his well-tended sheep.

Enter with the password: "Thank you!"

Make yourselves at home, talking praise.

Thank him. Worship him.

For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love, loyal
always and ever.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Let It Snow

Did you see the Penn State football game Saturday? Snow, snow, snow. I became a Penn State fan when my son went there to university. When I can, which is most of the time, I watch the football games with the Gulf Coast Penn State Club. A lot of the faithful viewers are Pennsylvania natives, who have retired to Florida.

When the game came on, it was snowing quite a bit. The temperature was 24 at game time. Laughter erupted from the group as they looked at all the fans bundled up...of course, there were the students who were there with no shirts on and their blue body paint.

During the game, as the camera panned the crowd, there was a sign that said, "As long as we've got Joe, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

The room was full of loud chatter when all of a sudden, it became very quiet. I looked up at the TV, and there was Jo*Pa, speaking in an interview. Everyone had stopped in mid-sentence to see what he had to say. He has been doing his coaching from the booth for a few games since he injured his hip at a pep rally early in the season. I just read online that he had hip replacement surgery today because he wants to be back to work by December 1 to help get the team ready for the Rose Bowl.

A national championship is what the team was after, but after the 1 point loss to Iowa, they dropped in the standings. The thought is that even if they had gone undefeated, they would have been overlooked in the BCS standings. It has happened before.

Anyway, they beat up on Michigan State and earned the Big Ten title, so it's off to the Rose Bowl.
Let's go, State!

Rows - #2

September 21 was the final home game of the regular baseball season for the Tampa Bay Rays. The rows in the stands were filled with Rays fans eager to see their team play on this final game and to wish them well in the playoffs. The team ended up winning the American League Championship and went on to play in the World Series. Unfortunately, they did not win the World Series, but they are champions to us fans in this area of Florida.

Ev*n Longoria was chosen to be rookie of the year by a unanimous ballot, and Joe Madd*n was named AL Coach of the Year. This team, which had the worst record in baseball last year turned it around this year to win it all--almost.

Now when someone mentions the Tampa Bay Rays, you won't have to ask, "Who?" To see more photos of rows, visit Carmi's blog.

Rows - Carmi's theme

Carmi's theme this week is "rows." My mind immediately went back to Washington DC and the trip that my son and daughter-in-law gave to me for a birthday present this year. We spent most of our time on the mall visiting the monuments and memorials. The newest, the World War II memorial, has a wall of stars, 4,000 of them, which represent the more than 400,000 lives lost during those years. If you scroll down, you will see another photo of this wall. Below the marble band at the bottom, you see the stars reflected in the pool beneath it.

When I visited Washington a few years ago, it was in June, and I literally became ill from the heat. The ladies I was with and I rode the trolley to see the sights, a great way to go, by the way. You can hop on and off all day. When we got to the Jefferson Memorial, I looked for the gift shop because it was cool there. We rode on to the Lincoln Memorial, and I was so hot and almost overcome by the heat that I told my friends I had to go back to the hotel. They went on to see the Vietnam Wall.

I missed seeing it that day, but I didn't miss it this time. My husband served in the Air Force in Vietnam and came home. Many did not. This wall has row after row of names of those people who lost their lives there. Some were there rubbing names onto paper. This gentleman was down on his knee with his phone out, taking the photo of the name of his loved one.

I just read that it was on this day in 1982 that the Vietnam Memorial was dedicated.

Rows...reminders.

Veterans' Day

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation
is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

As promised

One reason I stayed in Virginia through the end of October was to be able to see Ella at Hallowe'en. My daughter-in-law's co-worker has a couple of little girls, just older than Ella. They have a relative hwo makes beautiful costumes, and Ella has fallen heir to them. Last year she was a lovely flower, this year, Little Red Riding Hood.

She and her little neighbor enjoyed visiting the neighbors' homes where they heard all the oohs and ahhs from the adults who filled their baskets.

Isn't she a cute!

She made quite a haul. Most of it was put away for another day...probably more for Mom and Dad than for Ella.

In the Pumpkin Patch

So many pumpkins...which one to choose.

This one might be a nice one.

I just need a little help picking this one up.

Is that determination or what!

Carmi has chosen autumn for this week's photo theme. Visit his blog to see other entries.

A recap of my month in Virginia

It must have been a Saturday. Ella was dressed in her Penn State outfit with her blue and white shakers, all ready to cheer for the favorite football team. She has learned to say "We are....Penn State" and raise her arms and call "touchdown." Smart girl, this one. During the month she received a present from some friends of David. What was it? A Penn State hooded fleece...just what the doctor ordered.

One day in her bedroom she got her doctor's kit out. She's fond of the stethoscope. When she started seeing the pediatrician and the specialist, she really DIDN'T like all the poking and prodding. So she got a doctor's kit and took it with her to appointments. That has seemed to make things a lot easier. She decided to listen to my tummy...a lot to listen to.

When Carmi had his theme of "happy," I thought of Ella in her room with her books. She loves to be read to and does quite a good job of "reading" herself. There is a book fair at a barn near Harrisonburg that has book sales during the year. There is such a wonderful selection and the prices are so low. If I were still teaching, I'd go nuts there. I go nuts enough wanting to buy everything for Ella, but I restrained myself this year. I only bought three or four. They are hard to resist.

A future member of the church praise team? Maybe so. After church was over, she made her rounds of visiting at the church and then headed for the drum set. She's really quite talented. Maybe I should get her a drum set for Christmas? What do you think?!

These will have to do until I get "Little Red Riding Hood" uploaded. I left Virginia about 8:30 this morning. When I got near the North Carolina border, traffic was backed up because of road work, and I sat and crept along for more than an hour. So I'm sitting in a motel room near the Georgia border instead of the Florida border. I had hoped to get nearer home, but I stopped because I was afraid darkness might overtake me, and I don't see well enough at night to drive safely, so I'm sitting here watching a football game and doing this.

When I left this morning, there was ice on my windshield. In the morning when I get up, I'll probably put on a pair of shorts.

Later.

Happy Halloween

On our weekend in Washington, one of my requests was to visit the zoo. We not only got to see the wonderful animals that are there, but we also enjoyed the seasonal decorations.

Clever ghosts and goblins could be found all through the park.

Our walk through the park ended up seeing the big cats, my favorites. Happy Halloween! I'm sure I'll have pictures of Miss Ella to post tomorrow night.

World War II Memorial

Perhaps the most moving moments for me were at the World War II Memorial. Many veterans of the war were there. I know it has been the goal of many to visit there before they die. There were many in wheelchairs; many walking around using oxygen. A very dear friend who is a missionary in the Dominican Republic was home on assignment a couple of years ago, and one of the first things he did was to take his dad, a veteran of WWII to the memorial so that he could witness it.

I took many photos of the towers, the fountain, the quotes in stone, but the most moving were the photos of the veterans. I talked with a couple of them as I stood by the pool. I shared with them that my father had volunteered or been drafted, I'm not sure which, but when he arrived at Camp Blanding in Florida, he was 4-F, so he returned to Lacoochee. There he worked as a foreman in the lumber mill and guarded German war prisoners who were brought to the States to work in places like Lacoochee who had sent their young men to war.

I was born in September of 1941, just four months before Pearl Harbor. Being that young, I remember very little, but I do remember the day the war was declared over. In that little sawmill town, there was the honking of horns and people on the wooden sidewalks, crying "The war is over!"

WWII Memorial

The memorial honors the 16 million who served in the armed forces of the U.S. during World War II, the more than 400,000 who died, and the millions who supported the war effort from home. Symbolic of the defining event of the 20th Century, the memorial is a monument to the spirit, sacrifice, and commitment of the American people to the common defense of the nation and to the broader causes of peace and freedom from tyranny throughout the world. It will inspire future generations of Americans, deepening their appreciation of what the World War II generation accomplished in securing freedom and democracy. Above all, the memorial stands as an important symbol of American national unity, a timeless reminder of the moral strength and awesome power that can flow when a free people are at once united and bonded together in a common and just cause.

This is just a part of one of the many bas-relief sculptures depicting scenes from the war.

Be sure to click on the photos to see the detail.

WWII Photos

This field of 4,000 stars represents the more than 400,000 lives that were lost during the war.

Two of the many veterans who were visiting the memorial were gracious to talk to me and let me take their photo.

We were all in the war. Our parents and our brothers and sisters all did their part for the troops who fought so valiantly.

WWII Photos

Carmi's Theme - Happy

Happy is the theme that Carmi chose for this week. He said to me, "I'm sure you have lots of photos for this." Indeed I do. This little girl brings so much joy wherever she is. I know I sound like a doting grandmother, but I can't help it. It's hard not to be just plain foolish over her. She's witty, she's a charmer, and can she ever talk. Happy? Yes, I am happy when I look at this little girl. My heart swells with love for her.

Saturday in Washington

A week has passed since we were in Washington. As I stated before we spent the night in Fairfax, took the Metro into the city, got off at the Smithsonian stop, and as we exited and looked around, there it all was...looking to the right was the Capitol building, and

to the left was the Washington monument. What an imposing structure. I remember seeing it on my trip to DC before, but I had forgotten just how tall it is.

Surrounding the monument are US flags. I didn't count them, but I assume there are fifty, one for each state. Then I read somewhere that there are fifty-six, one for each state and the territories. What about the District of Columbia. Does anyone know?

Looking down the mall from the Washington Monument is the Lincoln Memorial. We walked down there, and on the way visited the World War II Memorial and the Vietnam Wall. I must say this was a memorable day for me. Seeing the World War II Memorial was perhaps the most moving...more to come.