Three More Sleeps !!!!!!

Ask me how excited I am?!?!?!?! Only three more sleeps until we head off into the wild blue yonder, a.k.a. Philadelphia and New York!!! Yippeee!!! I just spoke with Na tonight and we were trying to form some kind of plan of all the things we'd like to do while we're there . . . We figured that the girls should head off to New Hope (a quaint little countryside where you can buy homemade Christmas crafts) while the guys go to a Flyers game ... I'm sure this will be agreeable to Tony :0) I hope he's not TOO disappointed at missing out on the crafts :0)

Today, as Na and I were chatting, we realized that Tony and Jaime had the same ideas - both wanted to take the other to a sporting event of the other's liking (Jaime=basketball, Tony=hockey). It really is the city of "brotherly love"!!! Sounds like they need some 'alone' time to me :0)

Our kids are counting down their own 'sleeps' until they get to stay with Nona and Pop. They always love to head to the mountains and receive the kind of care only my Ma can truly give. I miss it, myself, actually ... sometimes I just wish I could be a kid again and have my mom comb my hair after a bath in that "mom" way (slicked full-on to the side :0) or have cinnamon toast before bed or hear her tone of voice when I would tease her and joke around for HOURS at a time or watch the look on her face when she'd win at cards AGAIN and AGAIN ... it's easy for us moms to forget that we were all small children once too. I used to love to curl up with my Dad and watch John Wayne movies or chop wood for a nice big "faarrr" or play 'slap hands' with him (determined that I would get him next time .... didn't happen too often :0) or when my dad and I would scheme and hide rubber snakes at the end of my mom's side of the bed - I think that was one of my favourites!!!

I know my kids are going to have their own fun memories with Non and Pop. It comforts me and makes me so thankful that we still have them here to enjoy . . . It's so important to make the most of the time we have together. Spending those little, consistent moments together is what helps us to define who we are . . . our relationships with those people who have known us longer than anyone else bring a deeper meaning to our day to day lives that effects the way we love our own little families. It is in our own childhoods that we learned to love and be loved, forgive and be forgiven, trust and become trustworthy, value and be valueable, choose and be chosen, wound, be wounded and heal . . .

Well, I better wind up for the evening ... Regina's almost finished her reading (Hot Chocolate Friendship - Great read :0) and Maria's almost done her bath. I'm pretty sure Lou has beaten "Rhino" on his Spiderman game for the ump=teenth time and my smooth-jazz CD is almost done (a great little compilation of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Connick Jr., Norah Jones, Michael Buble and a couple of accepella Christina Aguilera . . .good stuff).

Be well and take care of your souls, everyone. May you all be blessed with health, healing and a surrendered heart. Know His grace and receive His love and mercy wholeheartedly . . . read the book of Romans sometime . . . it's a good one :0)