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Posts Tagged ‘family’
My Funny Valentines
Sunday, February 14th, 2010Guess what Tristan surprised me with today?
Friday, December 25th, 2009He re-vamped my blog site! I have to learn new things! Meanwhile-you can click on any of the photos and see them bigger!
2 Days until Christmas ~Too Delightful, Too Sweet!
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009Keep Christmas.
“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year.” Charles Dickens
I have a whole blog category called “Keep Christmas” inspired by this very quote. Keep: to continue, maintain, look after, maintain possession of. Provide and nourish it. Maintain, preserve and enjoy it. And what are we keeping anyway? The Christ Mass, the worship of Jesus Christ. Of course I will Keep Christmas. With all my heart!
The PJ Party
Of all our social engagements during the festive holidays, there is none so important nor more desirous for which to be invited than the PJ Party with the Grandbebes. The Little Prince himself called for this royal celebration this year, already having deemed it a most regal tradition.
This year’s soiree included “Ice” skating at The Orchard where Gemma promptly fell on her “buns” and did not like skating at all after that, telling every stranger who cared to engage her, “I can’t skate anymore, I am too little,” while Averi went at it as if she were born on ice and Guini fell if anyone skated past her within a 20-foot radius, presumably the wind itself knocking the little featherweight down. But she would laugh hilariously and get right back up and the boys? Well they were boys!. Then there was Taco Bell and these 5 can put away the chips and Nacho Cheese like nobody’s business.
Dave had the 2 little girls while I drove Gavin, Hunter and Guini home. We decided to sing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs, in between theologiocal discussions about how God could be everywhere at once and what God looks like and how God was right there in the car blessing Hunter and holding his hand that very second. Somewhere between “Let it Snow” and “Jingle Bells,” just after the kids had happily spotted the giant star atop the Christmas tree at the Brighton City Hall as we passed, Guini, moved by the true meaning of Christmas, led out a strong, rousing rendition of “Oh no, You never let go.” Yes. The Matt Redman song. And they worshipped their little heads off.
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me
Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You
Then…
The annual Reindeer prints: footprint for the head, 2 hand prints for the antlers, the forefinger for eyes and a thumbprint for the nose. These were created to take home for mommys and daddys – a reminder of how much they have grown since last year. Colorful paint and water flew in every direction, but voila! Art!
Then hot chocolate for all and we got in our jammies and pulled the couch close to the TV for watching Sprout and Elf while munching on popcorn.
The Party lasts all night and into the morning.
At exactly 6:13 this morning, I heard the rumble of small feet tear through the house and shrieks of naughty glee and giggles pierced the sweet sleep I so longingly clung to. Capt’n Crunch Christmas Cereal, helping Poppa wrap presents and place them under the tree and early morning screenings of the classics: Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman, our very own film festival! They are making tents of blankets and Baby Jesus is missing. We have sent out a search party, but Gemma announces from the top of the stairs, in that particularly little-lamb voice of hers, “I can’t find Baby Jesus, Poppa. I don’t know where He is?…”
Sandy-the-Dog endures being placed in swaddling clothes, but does enjoy the crumbs and treats the grandbebes leave around the house.
Hunter informs me before leaving that we did not do the PJ Party “correctly” because there were no balloons and cake. He believes with all his heart that a PJ Party must have balloons and cake. {you try, right?}
“Two more ’sleeps’ until Christmas,” the measurement Gavin and Hunter give to any upcoming event for which they can hardly wait.
Christmas is, after all, coming. In only 2 more sleeps!
Will Baby Jesus be found in time for Christmas?!?
Three Nights Before Christmas
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009Three nights before Christmas and all over town, there is much to be done and so many sounds…
1. Christmas with my family is pretty loud.
“Christmas at our house was like a Donny and Marie TV Special” (who said that?).
That cracks me up because it is like that for us, too. Rare is the quiet tree-lit silent night, or a room full of heavenly peace for pondering and reflecting. Even now, as I write this (on Monday night to be posted on Tuesday), it is late. And yet, the rooms are brightly shining and daughters have materials and supplies spread everywhere, working on Christmas projects and finishing last-minute gifts. They tease and cajole. They drink coffee and break out into song, filling the air with movie quotes and remembrances in a thoroughly unpredictable rhythm. Just now they are singing selections from the musical “Oklahoma,” for what reason, I do not know. I’d like to tell them to go to their rooms and get to sleep, but am reminded they are here now by choice, a gift to me, something I treasure. Let the madness remain.
2. I really do not like to shop. But at this point, I have no choice.
I power-shopped for more than 10 hours Monday. {sigh} I organized each person’s list according to every different retail establishment I would need to hit. I mapped out a plan, gathered coupons and those “free money” cards I have collected from said establishments (like $10 off a $25 purchase at JCP, $10 off any purchase at Kohls!) into a folder. I made sure to have my Starbucks giftcards for needed strength (did you know there is a company-wide shortage of caramel due to the popularity of the new Caramel Brulee Latte??!?) and most importantly, dedicated myself to having a good hair day because when you are going from morning to night, not having to worry about hair in imperative. Then I told Dave: this isn’t a pleasure trip, you know. The objective is to cross things off my list: quickly.
Several of my girls have asked for vintage/antique-type things so I added 3 thrift stores to my list, all within a short get-it-done radius. When we arrived at the first one and I leapt from the car with notebook and pen in hand and started bounding toward the door at break-neck speed, Dave commented, “There. See, honey? This store was created just for you.” For the big sign at the entrance read: ARC Thrift Store ~ Shopping with a Purpose.
Yes, I am a purpose-driven shopper.
3. I will continue to complain about the weather.
It was too stinking hot. It didn’t feel like Christmas with the weather in the 50’s, which is seriously impeding my glorious songs of old. But today, the temp has dropped! Here is what I want: Maybe the low 40’s with some big pretty snowflakes falling, but not on the streets-just along the sides so everything looks pretty and children can build men…and women. And just cool enough so you can wear the cute hat and adorable scarf set some one has given you (along with the coordinating fingerless gloves), but you don’t really need bulky coats. You know-cool enough that you’d look all New-England-wintry and Christmas-card-ish if you made a quick stop and took a few spins around the ice-skating rink while you were bustling about shopping, but not so cold no one can recognize you due to the outerwear overkill when, if you should fall, you would not, in fact, be able to get back up. Is this really too much to ask for???
Three movies that are not usually considered Christmas movies, but have great Christmas scenes in them:
[1] Funny Farm with Chevy Chase. [2] About a Boy with Hugh Grant and [3] While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock (omygosh, I LOVE this movie!).
Three nights before Christmas, 3 French Hens, Three Wise Men, and three wishes from me to you: peace, joy and love!
pictured: DP, Tara and Hunter’s tree farm adventure a couple of weeks ago.
Buttery-Sugary Goodness just 11 Days before Christmas
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Baking Day @ Our House
We scaled way back this year. We have been scaling back yearly, it seems. But we still mananged to get some of our favorites made and even a new thing or two, keeping that oven hot and hopping for hours. There are the wildly popular “Thin Mints,” a shameless and absolutely amazing rip-off of the Girl Scout cookies. The sugar cookies for decorating are made and await a coating of royal icing in delightful Christmas colors. Jovan used her new Pampered Chef cookie press to make the lightest most buttery press-cookies, dusted in colored sugars.
Stephanie has perfected peanut brittle. There are Mexican Wedding Cakes and Gingerbread Men, along with Peanut-Butter Kisses-Cookies and Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Balls heaped next to our chocolate-dipped pretzels and “Strawberry” cookies (which have no relation whatsoever to strawberries, other than how they look, but really are made from dates and pecans and coconut and Rice Krispies and fashioned to look like a strawberry – a Rhoades family fav from the 1950s and 60s). And more, yes, there is more.
Things change.
One interesting thing this year was computers. Looking around the kitchen and seeing 3 laptops (2 Macs and a PC) open to recipe sites – that was funny. So much for cute recipe cards, huh? It was also quieter and we missed Elise-the-Niece…Well, it was quieter, that is, until the boys and daddies joined us and a chaotic-Christmas-cheer ruckus ensued, fueled, undoubtedly by the pure sweetness of the ‘cane hitting the bloodstream.
The girls swarmed poor Santa
The guys show up for dinner at 6:30
The boys played cards with Aunt Dessa while the girls took our “food orders” for chicken nuggets and muffins, coffee and salad (their imaginary menus were limited and they are sort of pushy as waitresses, these granddaughters of mine). The ‘bebes chased each other, snuck sweets from piled-high trays of goodies and pushed Rudolph’s paw, making him sing the Rudolph song veeeeeery loudly, at least 172 times (that Rudolph nose was flashing like a traffic light, non-stop for hours!). I seriously wished for some one to decapitate Rudolph. But the grandbebes? Find him delightful.
Gemma was particularly artistic in her interpretive dancing, inspired by her viewing of “Frosty the Snowman.” Averi’s great joys were bringing handfuls of cookies to everyone, or unrolling toilet paper into the, shall we say, “bath bowl”, and I just hope there was no criss-crossing of these activities.
And at one point, so warmed by both this season of good will and by the way they’d been running like banchees, all five grandbebes ripped off their shirts and flung them like confetti into the air, thrilled to be set free from the confines of clothing so they could fully enjoy the twinkling lights and the Christmas music. “We’re nakey! We’re nakey!” Averi exclaimed with glee and they laughed as if it were the funniest thing they’d ever experienced.
Rocky and Tredessa interact with Santa as well.
Ah. It is the little things.
It took awhile to find every shoe and sock and coat amd mitten (and shirt) when it came time to go home with their large trays of cookies and candies. {Sigh}. But we did it…almost. I still have to make the marvelous butter-cookie dough from which will emerge Raspberry Ribbons and melt-in-your mouth Candy Cane Cookies, among other delights, and the Peppermint Bark awaits me this morning. But most of the holiday baking is complete for another year and it is way too much and more than enough and truly not as sweet as the time I got with my girls. And the whole bunch.
With Love from the Gingerbread House….Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Prep more next year.
One Week Later
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
We gave thanks. And we ate…a lot.
Today is trash day and I threw away enough leftovers this morning to have fed the whole group again! Tsk. I mean that gravy? Was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Really. Amazing! If I do say so myself. Lots of other wonderful food, too, by all the great cooks who came to the table. Stef & Wrex’s famous Red Hot Jello, and Tristan’s homemade bread (o the toast I have enjoyed this week) and Dessa’s corn casserole and Tara’s o-so-creamy mashed potatoes and Leah’s Mexican Pasta (the woman cooked like it was all in her court) and Stormie’s fabulous, fabulous pumpkin pies and so much more. It was 6 or 7 meals in one!
We sang karaoke like maniacs.
Wrex reeeeeeeallly loves to sing those country-boy-tractor-woman-lovin’ songs! Us girls all did a rousing rendition of “You make me feel like a natural woman!” And songs by the Monkees were popular!
The people who got the “wear black” memo.
Left: Dessa. Leah, Stef, Ali, Stephanie, Dave, Stormie. Right: three cooks in their aprons.
Those Thanksgiving boots were made for walking.
Ali, Stormie, Jovan, Stef, Tara, Tredessa
Boots were definitely the fashion footwear of the day.
We played the arguing game* and Wii.
And a certain rather large contingency disappeared into the basement for XBox 360…or something? Dave even brought out his childhood electronic football game so the kiddos could see an antique toy. : )
*The “arguing game” is actually Cranium Party Play-Off, available at Starbucks.
Sweet children ran and tumbled and jumped and spinned round and round.
Gavin and Guini, Hunter and Gemma, Averi and Samuel and Moses. They got along so well and were so sweet!
Family, by blood, by the Spirit, by choice.
Tredessa and Tara; Andy and Leah
Leah and Tara; Tara and DP; Stefanie and Wrex (aka “Sexy Wrexy”)
Thankful.
Happy Birthday, Jovan Marie!
Saturday, October 31st, 2009Jovan is turning 23!
Happy Birthday, sweet girl and amazing mommy. Happy Birthday to the one daughter God gave me who was not a moment of work for me: just a gift! Happy Birthday to the wife of my son’s youth, the daughter-in-law, who like Naomi’s daughter-in-law, Ruth in the Bible, is better to me than seven more sons could ever have been. I am blessed among women. I am blessed that you are mine by the choice my son made.
I am so pleased with you, Jovan, so proud of the young woman you are becoming. I know God chose you from way back when for Rocky. And though I did not give you birth, you are my beloved daughter. I thank God for you and I am so glad He chose you for our family. I love that you say you wanted to marry Rocky since you were 14. I love that the long, winding road of life brought that to pass. I love that the two have you have brought us Averi and soon her sibling. You are a life-giver in our midst!
In thinking about your birthday, I got to remembering that about 23 years ago I was asked to join this sweet group of people (the band, Parousia) as a vocalist. They played at Catholic masses, community events and on college campuses around Nebraska. The the first song I did with them was by Wayne Watson and it got a lot of play. Rocky was just a little guy at the time. He was climbing walls and sliding down banisters and making life exciting. And I was asked to sing this song frequently and I think the reason it was very well received was because when I’d sing it, I would purpose singing it over my own children and it was a prayer of my heart. So, in a way, before I ever knew you existed, I was singing this song over you, too:
Somewhere in the world today
A little girl is going out to play
She’s all dressed up in mama’s clothes
At least the way that I suppose it goes
Somewhere in the world tonight
Before she reaches to turn out the light
She’ll be praying from a tender heart
A simple prayer that’s a work of art
And I don’t even know her name
But I’m praying for her just the same
That the Lord will write His name upon her heart
Cause somewhere in the course of this life
A little boy will need a godly wife
So hold on to Jesus, baby, wherever you are
And often I’d change the words the last time through:
Cause somewhere in the course of his life
My little boy will need a godly wife
So hold on to Jesus, baby, wherever you are
And Jovanie? I know for sure that God heard that prayer and began even then to prepare you for our family, to get you ready to be one of us. You were born to be a Rhoades, sweet girl, my daughter and my friend. And I love you so much.
Jovan loves her sweets…and so does her daughter and her nieces and nephews (the five little monkeys)!
Twenty-three wishes for Jovan on her 23rd Birthday:
- Look at the sun shining today! It is for your birthday. It is so you can have a happy, happy day!
- I wish for you to have a great pregnancy all the way until baby-number-two is born. I hope these months will be full of fun and laughter and anticipation and your memories warm and happy of these days. You are so cute pregnant, girl!
- Enjoy crazy-romantic-love with your man. These are baby-days and busy-days, but keep the fires burning. May Rocky love you like a real man should and may you receive it with unabashed joy!
- I wish for lots and lots of happy mommy-daughter times with Averi…Gilmore Girls reruns and Cinderella watching!
- Jovanie, I pray for you to know Jesus in a closer way than you ever have.
- Let this year be a year of discovery: finding out who God really created you to be and what He has really called you to.
- I am wishing for a gazillion kids, but no multiple births, as you wish. But you guys make beautiful babies!
- May God enlrage your heart with an even greater capacity to love and be loved.
- I am praying for deep relationships for you. I am praying the connections and relationships you have, both friendships and family, will develop and grow and be life-giving and true. And I pray God sends you many new friends and puts people in your path both to bless and be blessed by.
- I wish sweet times of scrapbooking for you. Those will be hard to come by right now, but I am going to wish for suprise pockets of time for it, anyway. I know you love it.
- My wish for you is to find your own beat and to be unapologetic about marching to it.
- Jovan, I hope you will understand that you were called to us and will never be afraid to change us and impact us. That is why you’re here!
- I am believeing God for financial blessing. They always say you can’t get rich in ministry, but the Lord is your Provider and you guys are rich, but I pray for sufficient funds for planning for the future and raising your family.
- I want you to get the house you want, too!
- May your creativity continue to blossom and sprinkle color and light and life on everything you touch as you create home and memories for your little family.
- I wish for those traveling adventures that you and Rocky love so much to happen a lot over the next year.
- I also wish for special days, holidays, holy days and romantic nights to be festive and memorable.
- I pray you’ll find the ministry you were born to do and that the ministry things you and Rocky were created to do together will be fulfilling and sweet.
- Girl, let me hang with your babies so you can go out without a diaper bag sometimes! Shop. Or whatever you want. I love Averi! Can’t wait for the new little bundle!
- Happy Birthday, Jovanie. May there be great and growing joy-of-the-Lord in your heart. It will be your strength!
- I am wishing for long nights of sleep, and happy days of rejuvenating living for you.
- I am praying for the enemy to have to flee as the perfect love of the Lord drives out all fear and trepidation in your life. You are strong, Jovanie, in the Lord. Don’t be afraid.
- And? May heaven hear and answer your prayers as you call out to the God who loves you greatly. You have His ear, my sweet. He is attentive to your heart’s cries.
Happy, Happy Birthday, Jovan. You know I love you, right?…Mom (Jeanie)
Chicken and dumplings at Jovan’s family party, her request. Stef and Gemma, 2 pinkies in the pink and white decor; the pumpkin spice cake with 23 candles.
NOTE TO SELF: Me. Jovan. Creating our legacy books with scissors-in-hand, tape and glue and piles and piles of photographs.
About the party from Facebook:
Tara Powers Status Update: Truth or Dare for Jio’s bday tonight [using Rocky's I-Pod Touch]. Outcome=Rocky tasting soap, Dessa talking for 3 minutes straight, Steph trying to tell each person one good and one bad thing about themselves {editor’s note: she kinda chickened out – it was her great chance in life to really get us all and she couldn’t do it!}, Tristan speaking with an Italian accent, Jovan describing her first kiss with Rocky, Stormie wearing items from everyone, Mom acting out… Lion King, Me NOT sitting on Rocky’s lap, and Dave telling everyone who he would marry in the room..ME=)
Stephanie Rhoades Kelley: You forgot the best part – when Tristan HAD to kiss me – thank you Lord that I was sitting on his right and not someone else! *smile…
Scenes from a Good Summer or “Reunited and it Feels So Good”
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
Ode to the Family of my Summer, for I shan’t and mustn’t acknowledge an autumn which does not truly begin until the September (or Autumnal) Equinox, on the 22nd day of this month ~ yes, just a couple of days from now, but still. Despite the fact that my sweet daughters, Stephanie first and then Stormie, have brought me a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks each (how sweet are they??), I won’t purchase my first until it is truly autumn. I must sing of my love for the summer until the last verse fades softly…
Ross and Norma with grandkids and great-grandkids
Dad and the brothers visit
Press close, bare-bosomed Night! Press close, magnetic,
nourishing Night!
Night of south winds! Night of the large, few stars!
Still, nodding Night! Mad, naked, Summer Night!
~Walt Whitman
Joe’s wife, Robin with my dad; hanging on “Moslander Mountain”
Ross the Boss, Mrs. Moss, and all the Little Landers (Jeanie, Joey, Timmy, Tami and Danny)…except Tim didn’t come this year, but the rest did – with their spouses and children.
It was a divine time, full of remembering and creating new memories. Cousins kidded and cajoled. Siblings sought to reconnect. Dad told us where we came from and gave us insight for our futures. Mom cheered us all on and hugged the stuffing out of us. Love was in the air and in our hearts.
Gerron, Jordan and Austin being dudes
Tredessa, Grandma Moslandr and Uncle Joe
Sister-in-Law, Dawn.
Dawn and Dan share family secrets
Just the other morning my sister-in-law, Dawn, whom I have known and loved since she was 14, emailed me these beautiful sentiments about The Moslander Family Reunion:
“I took you all in during our time spent together. Kinda like a wonderful meal! I feel full, but want to take in some more. Good memories, but missing everyone.”
Cousins Rocky and Corbin having fun at the Phipps farm
Riding horses at the farm.
Brothers telling fish stories, no doubt
So blessed.
Me with little sister Tami and her husband, Gerron; Jordan and Rocky-best cousins forever!
I love my family. I am so blessed by wonderful parents and amazing siblings who have married so well. They have gifted me with extraordinary nephews and nieces. And everytime we are together, all is right with the world.
Aunt Tami with her nieces; Aunt Tami pulling me into silliness.
“In every conceiveable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.” Alex Haley
Mom and Dad.
Whom I have also sometimes (with great affection) called “Mammogram” and “Pap Smear.” Not sure how they feel about that! This is the result of these two people.
All my love to family, both near and far, both born to us and joined by love.
Related posts:
- Scenes from a Good Summer ~ Heaven Fest
- Scenes from a Good Summer ~ The Grandbebes
- Scenes from a Good Summer ~ The Garden
- Scenes from a Good Summer ~ Puerto Rico
Previous posts about the Moslander family reunion:
The perfect game for us
Thursday, September 17th, 2009Seen on Stormie’s Facebook recently (kicked off by her sly sister, Stephanie):
Stephanie Johnny Depp – nudist beach – showering – horny toad……………………………..crank calling
Stormie hahahahahahahahahahaha. yeah. September 8 at 8:44am
Pearl Nudist beach, showering, horny toad? What are you girls watching?!??! hehehehhe September 8 at 9:15am
Tristan’s “Big Night” (because he is turning 29)
Monday, September 7th, 2009Happy Birthday, Tristan Kelley!
pictured: The sign made by Steph and Stormie with a nod to The Office, naturally.
You are at that age – you know? The one everyone claims to be when they don’t wanna be the age they really are? So pretty much, for the next year, everyone will think you are lying about your age. But you’re not. Like McCaulay Culkin, you are actually 29. Which puts into perspective for me the little boy you were so many years ago when we watched Home Alone with our kids, and Stephanie, in particular.
Family.
When you chose Stephanie, when you decided (which in retrospect seems uncharacteristically devilish of you) to pursue Stephanie in spite of a road-bump whose name I shall not bother to mention here, you got us all, the whole loud, crazy, undone and un-in-law-tested bunch of us, lock, stock and barrel.
And we are grateful to your parents for the wonderful son they raised. We thank God that you were nurtured and encouraged in a godly home, prepared and equipped to be the man you have become - a great husband to Steph and a true daddy to the bambinos. Tell your mom and dad thank-you for me, will you? Because they did really raise a courageous son, one who, in spite of the size and girth of the sum of us, is not only equal to the task, able to withstand our faults and failures and shortcomings as much as enjoy any good, but strengthens us as a family, bringing rich character and treasure to us. Who could have known when you became one of us that one such humble young man’s presence in a family could change our course so drastically? Tris, you brought an increase of the favor of God upon us and I can’t remember life before you became our “son.” We are blessed.
pictured: he must have said something funny at the family party; a shot from the recent Kelley photo shoot taken by Tredessa; the apparent Rocky/Tristan “butt” shot…for their wives only, I am sure.
Food ~ The Glorious Timpano
As usual, we had your annually-requested-birthday fruit pizza (see recipe) instead of a cake (but I really am game to create free-standing drum set someday), which nearly drove several family members into a sugar coma. And, much to Stormie’s delight, your celebration became an opportunity for her highly-sought-after Timpano ~ as made famous by the cinematically beautiful movie, Big Night, starring Tony Shalub and Stanley Tucci. The movie is wonderful. The food they prepare is inspiring. Stormie’s version is delish!
Frolic.
What a silly family we are, sometimes, huh? But what great times celebrating each other and just being with people who’ll love you to the end!
Twenty-nine wishes for Tris on his 29th birthday.
- May the storehouse of good in you always be full to running over! “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him…” Matthew 12.35
- I wish for you to know the deep things of God and to increase in wisdom as He leads you.
- I hope you and Stephanie will always remain madly in love, and that your life’s pursuits will keep you running into each other in happy, romantic collisions.
- I pray that the love you bestow upon your children will come back to you a hundred-fold.
- Long life! And may it go well with you because you keep the 5th commandment to honor your parents. Keep doing that. You can’t go wrong.
- God? Bless Tristan. Really bless him!
- I wish you 50% off days at Mile-High Comics every Labor Day!
- I wish for your full talent as a musician to be recognized beyond your wildest dreams and that you be compensated duly.
- May you get all the best drumsticks and Zildjian cymbals you ever need.
- I wish for you to have good students: the kind who don’t waste your time and who will really learn from the treasure-trove of musical knowledge you possess.
- I pray that as you have dared2work at dare2share, you’ll get credit in heaven for the harvest!
- Tris, I hope you will always be strengthened by knowing that you are so well loved by our whole family.
- The time you need with the people you love. Thank-you for working so hard to provide for your family, for doing whatever it takes, but enjoy time that belongs to you, too.
- And that secret dream? May the resources and location come to pass quickly by the divine hand of the Lord. He is on the look out for you, I know it!
- Rest. I wish rest for you.
- Peace. I wish peace for you, too.
- And joy. I wish an abundance of the joy of the Lord to be your strength.
- X-box 360 expertise. As if you even need this wish – may you do reeeeeally well in X-box tourneys and beat everybody (except occasionally let Rocky have a victory since he is your “little brother”)!
- I hope you’ll…laugh (you thought I was gonna say “dance”, didn’t you?).
- I wish for your sense of humor to get even keener, if that is possible, so you can keep us laughing!
- Surprises. I hope this year will be full of really good surprises for you.
- I wish increased relationship and bonding between you and all the siblings (the sister you were born to and her husband, and all the ones you have because of Stephanie). Their lives are so enriched in the knowing of you.
- Cool t-shirts, the perfect jeans, great hair cuts and shoes that make your feet go “ahhh.” You have your own style and I wish for it all come to you easily this year!
- Songs. New songs. Lots of them.
- Beats and rhythms only heard previously in the halls of heaven. Bring ‘em on, Tris!
- I wish lots of English toffee for you and other sweet sundries, which I guess can be made possible if I will only get busy. Sometime between now and Christmas, maybe…
- I wish more kids for you, but apparently you are not going to receive that little present, but can’t you just see it? Six or seven more little redheads running around??! Wouldn’t the world be a more delightful and magical place???
- I am hoping for lots more conversations with you because I learn so much and am so moved by your insight and wisdom on so many different topics. You are truly one of the smartest people I have ever known in my life.
- And finally? I pray for God to bless you back, in the same kind and with the same measure with which you have loved us, shown respect to us, honored us and become a part of us. And if He answers that prayer, and I know He will, you will be blessed – on your 29th birthday and always. And I am believing for that!
We love you, Tristan. I hope you will always know how much. Happy Birthday to you!…mom (and so honored to get to share that role just a tiny bit even though you already have a wonderful mama)
NOTE TO SELF: Break out the toffee recipe because Tristan is worth it, even if it isn’t Christmas.
