Happy 2011

A new day, a new year and a chance for all of us to have a new beginning. It can't possibly get any better than that. I woke up this morning to the sound of rain tapping on the tin roof over my head. My first thought was how strange it is to be hearing that sound on New Years Day, instead of the silence I should be hearing as snow drifts down from the heavens. From those thoughts my mind turned to how fortunate and grateful I am to have that roof over my head, when there are so many people on this very day that has no roof to shelter them from the rain or snow. 

  

I was up by 5:30 this morning and enjoyed a smidgen of quiet time, which I used sipping a cup of coffee, sending Birthday greetings to our now 18 year old granddaughter (Happy Birthday Brittany) and thinking about the New Year's resolutions that I won't be making. It didn't take me long to figure out that it was pointless to make lists every year of resolutions that I knew I would not keep. For instance, there were a lot of resolutions in my lifetime to quit smoking. I didn't quit, if anything the stress of even thinking about laying down those cigarettes and walking away from them, prompted me to smoke more. When my youngest grandson was born we spent a lot of time on the road, taking him back and forth for blood work to be done because he had jaundice when he came home from the hospital. What helped me give up smoking was looking at Seth through the car window one wet rainy day, while I stood outside puffing away. I asked myself how long was I going to allow a little tobacco stick to control my life and separate me from my grandchildren, children, and husband. So no resolutions from me on any given New Year's Day. What ever changes I need to make in my life will come when it is time for it to happen.

I do have the New Year's 'Good Luck' food cooking as I type. Since J.D. and I have been married, we get a double dose of Good Luck each year. I fix black eyed peas, rice and cornbread for my southern raised husband. For me, I fix that traditional northern menu of a pork roast, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Of course we eat a sampling of it all.  You just can never have too much good luck.

As you dig into your New Year meal today, I hope along with the tasty food that will nourish your bodies, that you will receive a double helping of blessings. Happy New Year from our house to yours.

   

Happy New Year

As my end of the year post I am offering you a 'Condensed Year In Review' collage. We made many great memories in 2010 that I will carry forward into the new year. My awesome evening with Melody and Kate at the Martina and Trace Concert. I was able to cross that one off of my Bucket List. Britt knocking the socks off of the audience at the Wizard Of Oz musical, in her role as Dorothy. 

Even though our hearts were broken when our beloved Buddy was hit by a car and died, rescuing our Paddy girl from the dog pound the day before being put down and St. Paddy's Day has helped us move forward and heal. What a blessing she has been to us. I turned 61 this year and spent most of 2010 thinking I was 62. Of course that entitles me to spend most of next year when I am 62, thinking that I am 61. We went to band concerts, football games, chorus concerts, soccer games, School plays and even had breakfast with Santa. We traveled this year to Chicago, Louisiana and Texas and did some camping. We even fed the water fowl at the park, but the best part of the whole year has been the time spent with family and friends. Those memories are priceless.

   

As we celebrate the coming of 2011 tonight, we will also be celebrating the hope of a better year than the one we are leaving behind. I not only wish for my family and friends (....and if you are reading this post, I consider you my friend) good health and happiness in the new year. I wish for those that have found themselves jobless in this year, the joy and prosperity of a new job that is far better than the one lost. For those that have lost loved ones to death, I wish for you to be able to replace the hurt, emptiness and anguish with warm memories and the healing that you so very much deserve. For those that have suffered from poor health, I pray that God' loving touch will heal you and bring you good health. Above all else, I wish for you all to be able to look at the world around you and see a world filled with love and peace.

Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year

I learned years ago that most New Years Resolutions are broken. With that knowledge I then decided that to start a new year with resolutions that won't be accomplished, but instead will be left to fall along the side of the path as we journey through the year is just not right. Why would I intentionally set myself up to fail? Instead I take each day as it comes to me and I try to make the best of what each day brings instead of making New Years Resolutions..

Taryn spent the night with us last night. She has been with us for the past 4 years to welcome in the New Year. It has become a tradition with us, a tradition that we look forward to. I am hoping that she will have warm memories of this as she grows older. I know G'pa and G'ma will.

We are wishing Britt a Happy Birthday today. She is 17 years old now. I just don't know where the time has gone. It has become a tradition for her to go shopping with her mother on her birthday and have a nice lunch while they are out. It seems like only yesterday that her Great Grandma and I would take her shopping and instead of putting her in a shopping cart we pushed her around in her stroller. We were constantly back tracking looking for her shoes that she insisted on taking off and tossing them to the side as we strolled along. She still prefers being barefoot to wearing shoes.

Later today we will find our way off of the ridge and go to Chris and Melody's for New Years Dinner and all of the traditional 'Good Luck' foods. I am in charge of making the fried cabbage....... Yum! (Right Melody?)

"Friendship is the bridge between two human beings."
"Friendship is the bridge between Heaven and earth."
"Friendship is the bridge between the known and the unknown."

~ Sri Chinmoy


Happy New Year !

May we all be blessed with the warmth and love of friendship,
good health and good fortune through out the New Year.

Happy New Year

There is no way we could take off on our road trip without doing a post to wish you all a Happy New Year! We wish each and every one of you the Blessings of Good Health and Much Happiness in the coming year.

I am going to try to get a few posts in while I am gone, but won't promise anything.

~Jo and J.D.~

Peace, Love, Good Health and Happiness

Wishing all of my blogging family and friends a Happy New Year filled with peace, love, good health and happiness. If you are going to be on the roads tonight and your celebration will include alcohol, please drink responsibly and have a designated driver.

As the new year approaches I am finding myself reflecting on this past year. It was a rough one for my daughter Tersie and her children. It was during the holidays last year that her marriage of 14 years ended. It could have blown us all away, because we had spent our family Christmas together and there was no clue what-so-ever that before the New Year was rung in ex-son-in-law would be turning so many lives upside down with his revelation of "no longer being happy". Needless to say that made this year's celebration difficult to deal with and nearly heart breaking for Tersie. Those firsts will get you every time. She has done so great all year with the firsts that she had to face. I have been able to watch my daughter transform into the beautiful person that she is with each new obstacle she has had to face as a single parent. She has become independent and strong. Perhaps there is truth to the old adage 'If it doesn't kill you, it will only make you stronger'. It has been like watching a beautiful butterfly emerge from a cocoon. Hopefully with this holiday almost behind her as their first single parent family holiday, she will be able to completely rid herself of that cocoon.

Divorced families do make for some difficult planning when it comes to Christmas and New Years celebrations, not to mention birthdays. With Chris' ex-wife (Oop's mother) we have had many family get togethers either completely destroyed or turned upside down, just because she likes the chaos. This year at Christmas was no different. (Jo note: You would think we would all be used to it by now and come to expect it. Some how, for some unexplained reason, we let our defences down and she catches us off guard every time.)

Tonight JD and I will spend a quiet New Years Eve here on the mountain with T-Bear and ring in the New Year just the three of us. Tomorrow being Britt's B'Day, she and her mother will go birthday shopping while T-Bear and I bake her B'Day cake and decorate it. In the evening we will gather at Chris and Melody's to celebrate the New Year with all of the Good Luck Food and celebrate Britt's 15th year of life. All the 'Yankee' children and grandchildren will be present and accounted for. (Jo note: Just one more reason to celebrate.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!