Traditions

 

 

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,

Jack Frost nipping at your nose,

Yuletide carols being sung by a choir,

Folks dressed up like Eskimos.”*

 

*From The Christmas Song

 

Christmas is rich in traditions.  It is the traditions that keep us connected year after year.  Early in our marriage, my husband and I determined that we were going to blend our childhood traditions and create our own Christmas and year-round traditions to insure that our family had reason to feel and remain connected.  Traditions cement our sense of belonging.  Creating and carrying out traditions has been a delightful lifelong pursuit.  We are flexible enough not to resist change and willing to adapt new ways of doing things.  In addition, we enjoy our adult children including us in their own young family’s unique traditions.

 

I really have enjoyed the comment “we always_______”. It is fun to know we can count on things to be consistent year after year.  But we have to be careful not to become too rigid since it is fun to explore new ways to celebrate.

 

One tradition that a daughter has created is for her children to sing Christmas songs on the stairway while they wait for their parents to get up to see if Santa has arrived on Christmas morning.  Most years they go through dozens of songs before the exhausted parents pull themselves out of bed.  Another has created a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve which is always new pajamas for each family member.  And another daughter’s tradition is the food they have for breakfast on Christmas morning.

 

What are some of your most cherished Christmas traditions?  And what do you hope to be remembered for when your posterity reminisces about Christmas’ with you?

Precious Christmas Time

 

This year we will once again have the blessing of our soldier son’s visit at Christmas. Excitement mounts as I count down the days until his arrival. His one and only Christmas wish was a ticket home. Having been away for a solid year, he is not shy about expressing his excitement to come home for Christmas. And we are excited! Our whole family will be together once again. 

However, his unit is on global readiness alert. Should his unit be needed, he will have to return within 24 hours to his Army base for any emergency assignment that comes up. He is required to keep his cell phone with him at all times and to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. He warned of this months ago, but it wasn’t until we got “test” calls and e mails from the Army to make certain we could also be reached that I was reminded how serious this is. Of course a call like this could ruin our plans for his short visit. We are praying for no calls and an uninterrupted visit.

 One thing I can promise is that I will enjoy every single moment he is here. From the moment we welcome him at the airport to the moment we will have to send him off again, we will fill his reservoirs with love, fun and relaxation. He has served long and hard. He will be well cared for by us as parents, his adoring sisters and his fan club of nieces and nephews along with friends and extended family.

Counting the days until our soldier son arrives to share with use in celebrating this sacred time of year.

 

Zing

Surrounded by excited grandchildren who invited me to share a movie with them, I enjoyed the lesson about Zing in the lives of the movie characters! In this instance, Zing was a romantic feeling.


I have created my own definition for Zing which I define as fun, filled with enthusiasm and excitement for life and a feeling of being loved and acknowledged! I determined that I want to be the kind of wife, mother, grandmother, friend and neighbor who adds ZING to the lives of everyone I meet!


Hope you will enjoy Zinging in your own way!

Self Esteem

Photo from Photos by MJ

As a family we have taken time to play a few kickball games together in recent months. Bonding is easy when cousins, aunts and uncles along with us, the grandma and grandpa, join in a shared activity. Cheering each other on, we enjoyed the game and our time together. Although no one was rigid in our game structure, allowing a few lenient calls. As I stood outfield, I thought it should be illegal for the younger kids to ever be called “OUT”. Of course, I realize that each of us needs to learn to play by the rules and be good sports. But in the overall scheme of life, I do not ever want any of my grandchildren to feel that they are “OUT” in the game of life.


My overall belief and underlying purpose as a parent has always been to help my children build strong self esteem. Early on as a mother, I determined that if my children had good self esteem, they could handle any thing else life may hand them. School would be manageable and relationships would be strong if they first had healthy self esteem. And that is my deepest desire for my grandchildren and future posterity.

 

I'm a Survivor

Choking back emotions as I watched scores of other cancer survivors at a recent Relay for Life sponsored by the American Cancer Society, I marveled at how many people at some point in their life experienced the shock of a cancer diagnosis. Each of these participants had their own story and I was certain that they must have experienced similar emotions as I did on that“day of all days” when a potentially life threatening diagnosis passes from the lips of a medical professional.

My heart connected to each of them in a the unspoken way only a ‘survivor’ can understand. It is as if you know to some extent what they have experienced and appreciate with them the precious gift of life on perhaps a higher level than ever before.

Blessed beyond measure, I am grateful to be among throngs of survivors, celebrating life and chalking up the years!

My Mother's Day Weekend

What a great Mother's Day weekend I had...and the fun continues. How blessed I feel as a grandma to be able to enjoy 3 end of school musical programs today, with one band concert and another musical program on Wednesday and an 8th grade graduation later in the week. To top that off, 6 of my grandchildren will be participating in a piano recital Friday. I love my kids and am so very in love with my grandkids!

ARMY MOM

Imagine my surprise and emotion as I found note on my windshield after coming out of the grocery store last week. The yellow paper was carefully folded and tucked behind my windshield wiper. At first I thought one of my kids must have seen my car in the parking lot and left a note. It is easy to tell my car as the license plate holder reads: PROUD MOM U.S. ARMY.

But as I opened the note, the message was from a complete stranger, written anonymously. It read: “Thank you for raising someone who has the courage to defend our freedoms.” The message touched me deeply. How kind of this person to take time to express their gratitude. When I was able to share this tender experience with our soldier son he told us that it is that sort of gratitude that makes rigorous military life all worthwhile.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place if each of us would take a few minutes every day to express gratitude for the little things we appreciate?

Birthday Celebration



As I contemplated how I would like to celebrate my recent birthday, I thought long and hard what would bring me the greatest joy. Would it be a supercharged shopping trip or a day filled with pampering services? Or how about a night out on the town? 

Suddenly I had the perfect plan. My husband dedicated his day to do whatever I wanted to do. He and I spent the afternoon and evening visiting seven of our friends and neighbors who had been facing health issues or other challenges. When he was trying to select the perfect bouquet of flowers for me, I suggested that we buy a bouquet and hand deliver them to someone else who needed a lift. Giving the flowers was much more rewarding than keeping them. Stopping unannounced to the seven people we had chosen infused excitement into our day. Seeing their smiles as they opened the door left the element of surprise in the day which is often the fun part of a birthday; we just reversed the role of the person being surprised!

The incredible experience of serving always blesses us more than when our focus is turned inward. We were truly the benefactor of those visits, sharing a little slice of our time with those who needed a little cheer. Celebrating life with them created a delightful birthday agenda for me!

I was blessed with calls, gifts and visits from family and friends for which I am deeply grateful. But adding the hours of time we shared with those who were struggling in some way, created a memorable birthday celebration.

Why should I be surprised?

Okay, okay, I expect you have heard enough soldier stories for a while, but bear with me for one more observation. Why should I be surprised that our son is now a soldier?

View the steps from ages 8, 15 and now 22. It appears that a major “advancement” was taken every 7 years.


Walk with me down memory lane of Jacob in a visual time line........

Age 8

Age 15

 

Age 22

RECIPE FOR 1 ARMY INFANTRYMAN

 The making of a soldier takes many ingredients, most of them bitter and difficult.
Not everyone is cut out to withstand the rigorous training. Many fail. 

We are delighted that our son passed with flying colors and has became a man, stronger than when he enlisted and stronger than he could have been on his own.

 The ingredients for an Infantryman:

Take 1 raw boy from the country or the city who has a desire to serve his country.
Mix with some very harsh drill sergeants.
Make him work almost 24/7, working out, training, doing laundry, cleaning barracks, night guard duty and a myriad of other assignments.
Do not spoil with too many hours of sleep.
Feed him a carefully planned diet with a balance of the right amount of protein and carbs to build muscle and generate energy.
When he is out training in the field, feed him MREs.
Have him sleep outside in the freezing cold during part of the training and work out in pre dawn hours every morning, arising at 4:30 a.m.
Make him march and march and march.
“Smoke” him and his platoon by giving them difficult physical punishments if there is even 1 thing the drill sergeant doesn’t like.
Break them down physically, mentally and emotionally to see who can and who cannot survive.
Mix him with boys from all walks of life and expect them to become battle buddies, helping each other. The group is only as strong as the weakest member.
Mix with other trainings with guns, tear gas, barbed wire, grenades, climbing towers, confidence courses, foxholes, mud, blazing sun and even tornado like weather out in the field at night.
Teach him respect for his superior leaders and instill within him intense discipline.
Honor him with his cross gun pin by literally sticking the pin into the flesh until it draws blood.
 Bake and cool often, preparing this soldier for all kinds of conditions soldiers can encounter.
Award him after he has passed all of the training and testing with a blue rope to wear around his shoulder, signifying the coveted “turning blue” braid.
Send him to his next training or duty post to continue becoming a more qualified soldier who is dedicated to serving his country.
The result: A man. A man with purpose. A man with passion for his country and a man focused on giving his best. A many who is strong. Army strong.

See how this recipe for PFC Stucki turned out after 3 months of training.

God Bless the USA

Our Soldier

I have become something I never once dreamed of or aspired to, but am honestly grateful to be~ and that is an “Army Mom”.  I have discovered an entirely new dimension to life and have gained an intensely deep appreciation for our military and the sacrifices made by thousands that are unknown to most and probably unappreciated by many.  And this comes just from our son’s experience with Basic Training.  There is so much more to come.

Our family has felt connected to the military and World War II through my father in law, our children’s grandfather, who often shared his experiences as a solider serving in the Army during that war. Like you, we are appreciative of those great men and women who have served our country throughout the years. But I really never thought of my son as being a solider…not until last summer when he announced that he was going to enlist.  His strong desire to serve and protect our country surfaced after he had graduated from college and worked full time for a few years in his new profession.  Once he decided to enlist, nothing could change his mind.  He was determined this was part of his life plan. And now I can see him thriving in his rigorous training and watch with awe as this new man emerges from the little boy that I used to rock in my arms.

My husband and I are on our way to his Basic Combat Training for the United States Army.  By the end of this week he will be a full fledged soldier with 4 solid months of training behind him.  And the training certainly won’t end there.  Following graduation he is off to Airborne Training and then to his assigned post, wherever that may be.

Jacob as a baby

As I pack my bags, I shed tears of gratitude for Jacob’s example of strength and persistence.  We have only heard a small portion of details of his intense training and are in awe that so many thousands of soldiers have survived it and land on their two feet.  I cannot imagine the physical, mental and emotional strength that one has to muster to endure the almost round –the- clock training.  It takes courage and guts.  Many don’t make it. They have to restart training or are sent home.  Sadly, one solider in training at the same base must have felt he couldn’t handle the training any more and took his own life on the shooting range a few weeks before Christmas.  Many have tried to quit. And many don’t enjoy the experience.  Thank goodness our son has been determined to accomplish what he went there to accomplish and is making the best of every situation.  When he gives us an insight into an especially difficult facet of training, he ends with “I had fun” or “I liked it”.  I cannot imagine being in the gas chamber for any length of time.  I cannot imagine doing night training, crawling through barbed wire and trenches in the dark while trying to avoid being shot.  But because they train and train hard, we have a strong military that protects our great country and our freedoms.

Jacob Jumping his bike

 We will be joining in the celebration this week as the soldiers will march across soil from every war since the Civil War on their way to their graduation exercise. We will be rejoicing in the accomplishments of every graduating solider on that field along with our son as we participate in his “Turning Blue” ceremony.  We will be celebrating America and our love for our country and our freedoms.  Ft. Benning, here we come!

God bless the U.S.A. 

Grandma’s House

Where cousins meet to become friends.

As a family, we celebrate holidays, birthdays and other occasions together. We believe in strong family bonds and enjoy the blessing of having all of our eleven grandchildren live within ten minutes of us. We love each of them and their unique personalities and enjoy being with them collectively, alone and with their own family groups. But I recently had an idea that I acted upon recently.

I gathered my six granddaughters ranging from ages 15-7 to meet for a special meeting at my home. As we enjoyed pizza, I told them we were forming a club with just me, their grandmother, and them! This time, no moms were invited. This will be a time when only seven of us will meet and create some memories. We voted on what we wanted to do as a group and what our club’s name would be. I reminded them of the profound experience I had many years ago that inspired my Celebration of Life concept and the book I have written and told them how blessed I feel to be living a healthy life so that I can enjoy them and their activities. Thirteen years ago my world was shaken and I wasn’t certain of my future.

(If you have not yet taken advantage of our free downloads of tools to help you celebrate life, visit www.CelebrateWithJoy.com. There is even a music download!)

Prior to our first official club meeting I had some of them help me with a service project for my mother, their great grandmother. In the future, we will create opportunities to serve others as a club. We drew names and I asked them to look out for that cousin (I included my name in the drawing) and to find ways to support and get to know that person better. What better way to keep connected to each other? We will draw new names next time we meet and repeat the process. If they lived out of town or out of state, I would have introduced the old fashioned concept of “pen pals” and encouraged them to write to the cousin whose name they have.

Although they see each other often, I envision that this club will create even stronger bonds and insure they will always know they have cousin-friends that are ‘true blue’ to them no matter what. When other friends ebb in and out of their lives they will know they always have friends in our club. In the tumultuous adolescent and teen years, we all need the reassurance that we belong and are valued. If, on those days when their hormones are raging and they may feel like they do not matter to anyone else, they will always be assured that they matter and are important to our exclusive club. I also am confidnet this will create a new dimension of a friendship bond within our family. I know that the younger ones already look up to the older cousins, but imagine how fun it will be when they teach each other life skills. In addition, the younger girls can use their older cousins as role models. Older girls can teach the younger ones. One of my first plans is to have a manners lesson, taught by the older granddaughters. My mind is reeling with the possibilities for future activities.

I am confident I will learn a great deal about what is going on in the lives and minds of my granddaughters. I will glean ideas about how to better live my life from them. This new connection will enhance and bless my life in multiple ways.

Just now, one of my ten year old granddaughters texted me to see if we, as a club, were going to meet today to celebrate two of her female cousin’s birthdays. Two of these grand-darlings were born on the same day! Never mind that we celebrated as a family last night. She wanted to know if our club was going to get together and celebrate with them today. That’s the spirit, Samantha!

I cannot leave my precious grandsons out of the fun. So my grandsons and I had a little meeting the following day to plan what we are going to do as our own unique grandmother/grandsons club…My 14 year old grandson was not in attendance when we formed this little group. I informed him that he is part of this group and asked if he was excited. His reply: “Oh yeah”. Being older and involved in more teenage activities, he will still be a good sport and, as in the past, a great example to his younger brothers and cousins in “the club”. Stay tuned for details about my newest club!

Oh, and if you are wondering what the names of our clubs are, I will let you in on our insider information.

My club with my granddaughters is: “Babe-alicious Grand Chikas”! Don’t you love it? That describes us well I think. Thanks for the suggestion, Victoria!

The club with my grandsons is “Gaylen’s (my husband’s name) Grand-Guys”. Who knows, we might allow Grandpa Gaylen to join since it carries his name!

I had better close this blog post and rest up for the upcoming activities with these new clubs! Besides that, I am going to go do something special for the name I drew!

This is a Joyous Time of Year!

We congratulate the winner of the Celebrate Life autographed book in our recent giveaway and invite you to participate in the upcoming contests. We love to give and we love to share. Claudia will be receiving her book this week. Please invite your family and friends to become followers at See You in the Powder Room, a network of women celebrating life and all the facets of being a woman.






Christmas is especially exciting at our home this year. Our one and only son returned home on Friday evening for a 2 week exodus from his Basic Training in the Army. After two and a half months of intense and rigorous training, it was so exciting to meet him at the airport along with 30 other excited family members and friends. Feeling his strength, hearing of his deep love for our country, listening about his experiences and sharing in his contagious laughter have enhanced the joy of this season for me and all of our family. 


What experience has enhanced your celebration of this joyous time of year?