An American Soldier

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a letter to a soldier from my family!

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving. I don’t know about you, but I had so much gobble it made me wobble. I’m glad it’s over with because that means it’s Christmas time! Yay! Our home has been decorated for three weeks now so I’m thrilled!

So my oldest is now three years old and it is becoming more and more important that I teach him the real meaning of Christmas. Therefore, I am attempting to involve him in as many “giving” activities as I can. We started with filling a shoe box full of goodies and necessities for both a little girl and a little boy. My son had an amazing time filling the boxes as we ran up and down the aisles of Target. If it were up to him, we would have thrown a set of patio furniture in the box, but lucky for me it wouldn’t fit! It was easy to get carried away, but I tried to keep us focused picking up toothbrushes, toothpaste, brushes, etc. and of course the “required” crayons and coloring books, trains, and cars. He had a blast putting the boxes together and once they were filled, we held hands and prayed over the boxes as well as for the children that would receive them.

Keeping the momentum going, today we created two homemade Christmas cards to be sent to American soldiers (see image above). I quickly found out that a one year old doesn’t necessarily want to trace his hand without grabbing the pen and a three year old can easily get “glue stick happy”. Though it took longer than expected, and I wanted to keep them to add to our “art” pile, I can’t wait for the boys to place them in the mailbox and wish them off. I hope the soldier who opens these cards finds them as precious and special as I do.

…Next on our list are stockings for the homeless.

If you and your family would like to send a Christmas card to an American Soldier, please address them to:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

All letters must be postmarked by December 10.

Holiday Road – Part 2

Okay, back to where I left off…After a cat nap, intended to help me regroup, I came across a motherly eye-opener on my sister-in-law’s refrigerator. It was a Bio Poem that my sister-in-law’s oldest son had written about her. It read:

Bliss
Blissful, excited, firm and funny
Mother of Aubrey and Gage
Lover of my dad, elephants and Jesus
Who feels good, ecstatic and surprised
Who needs chocolate, people, and God's Word
Who gives happiness, light and understanding
Who fears snakes, tornados and the Lord
Who would like to have fun, tell jokes and party
Resident of America
Stowers

Wow! What an eye-opener! It made me think, “If my sons were asked to write a Bio Poem about me, what would it say?” Luckily, my oldest son is three so the vocabulary is limited and I might get a better poem than I deserve. But he won’t be three for long and each and every day he is watching me, taking in each word, reacting to each time I get frustrated, acknowledging when I am sad and realizing when I seem to be too busy. And I’m sure, more often than not, he is wishing I would put down my Blackberry and simply play “cars” just one more time.

Did you notice how many times he mentioned her love of the LORD? He mentioned it three times. Is my love of the LORD that evident to my children? Do I always attempt to show understanding with the grace and love of Jesus? Am I doing all I can do to make sure my children know, love and follow Christ? Would my children mention the LORD in my Bio Poem?

Moms, Dads, Expecting Mommies and Daddies - How would (or will) your Bio Poem read? After I conclude this post, I am going to place a Post-it on my mirror that says “What does your Bio Poem say?” I hope it will serve as a daily reminder that my sweet little blessings are watching my every move and hearing my every word.

I hope you will continue to ride with me down this Holiday Road. The trip “about” a lifetime will continue with another “Life Lesson” that you don’t want to miss.