January 2, 2011

  •   Wishing you God’s Blessings of Joy and Peace in this New Year!

     

    I’m sure I hear an echo when I say,

    “How did we get to 2011 soooo quickly?!”

    It just FLEW for us!

     

    As I did last year, I would like to review some special occasions that happened in 2010.

    By reminiscing I realized I still did not  journal a very special blessing from a year ago and decided to do that right here – at the start of 2011. It was one of those experiences that you store away in your heart ~ and treasure. You will remember we celebrated our 40th anniversary. Barb invited us for dinner/supper to their home. She told us that it would just be the two of us and them. (She’s good at surprises~like my 60th birthday party also of last year.) When we arrived, we were escorted to this special little area – arranged just for us.

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    (There last name is Patches!) :) She hung some sheets in the basement giving us a private little corner. There was music playing in the background and a lovely appetizer waiting for us to start this special anniversary meal!

     

     

     

     

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    Barb enjoys adding the extra touches. Her table beckoned you to sit down and enjoy! And we did!

     

     

     

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    The Patches family ate their meal upstairs after we were served. The boys would help bring our meal to this little haven.  Barb told me later they were enjoying this! Darin would often peek in on us! :)    He is taking his Grandpa’s plate back upstairs.

     

     

     

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    This was so very, very tasty. On the spot, right now, I could enjoy this again! The potatoes are called Twice Baked Potatoes. I only made them once as I feel like they take a lot of time – but I just really like them. Jere was grilling the chicken – a Bar-B-Q recipe we thoroughly enjoy. So it was all extra special to us. I felt so loved! 

     

     

     

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    Seth is taking his turn to remove some plates!

     

     

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    I don’t remember what Barb was explaining here…..maybe how she came into our home and found this picture (when we weren’t home!) Matthew was also helping to serve our meal.

     

      

     

     

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    Earlier in the week Barb told me we would be eating downstairs. She gave us the choice to have our dessert there also or offered us to join them upstairs! You know what we chose! Barb ordered a white/raspberry swirl cake. (I am making myself so hungry talking about all this yummy food!!) She wanted a picture before it was served.

     

     

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    This is the grilling chef and Nevin discussing their cameras.

     

     

    I need to explain to you the next picture before I show it to you. Some of you have helped to make perpetual calendars. For those of you who have not I will show you more pictures of the calendar pages at my next journaling. I have helped to make several and didn’t realize that I apparently voiced my thoughts about this so much! I would have loved to have a calendar but didn’t ever, ever expect to receive one. We make them for various reasons – the elderly, someone who has a long term illness, birthdays, etc. The ones I helped with were usually birthdays – but for older people.  After the dishes were cleared from the table, we went downstairs and visited with the family. When we were about ready to leave,  Barb said, “Just a minute; don’t leave yet.” She brought a box downstairs and asked me to open it. I just could not, could not believe my eyes!

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    Barb caught my surprise – this just about brought me to tears! Like I said before, I just never thought I would have this privilege to enjoy our personal calendar!

     

     

     

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    We sat there and looked throughout the entire calendar….not taking time to read all them but to see each page and who had time to bless us!!

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    For you who are not familiar with this – this is what it looks like. This page was made by our niece. Barb came to our home while we were away and took our address book. She then mailed an invitation to names she found in that book ~ asking if they would help make a calendar page for us. It’s quite a job to organize all this, to laminate each page when they are returned, and to assemble it.

    Each morning I turn the page to that day’s date, read it, and am blessed by the love of that person. I know how time consuming they are to prepare and I just appreciate each page, each person, so much.

    I thought some of you may enjoy seeing what different people put together for us. Some are very inspiring, some filled with fun, others very artistic, encouraging, sharing memories, etc. It was hard for me to choose which ones to show you as I just appreciate each person’s page! So I decided to choose variety for you…..

     

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    ~a neighbor…they have recently moved so this page is extra special to me.

     

     

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    ~a sister-in-law…our son and his family were in Morocco. When we visited them it was decided we would have a camel ride. I was a bit apprehensive about this. I must have expressed that to my sister-in-law!

     

     

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    ~a school friend…..from grade school to graduation and I appreciate her friendship still today!

     

    I’ll show you some of the others next time. ~Blessings to you and your  loved ones.

Comments (13)

  • What a wonderful, special time.  You are truly blessed with your family doing this for you.  I love the calendar and the idea.  I must think about doing this for friends and family. 

  • Happy New Year Cordie!! (((Hugs))) What a blessing indeed to have such a wonderful friend to put a special meal together like that for your anniversary!

    I am just enthralled with the idea of making your own perpetual calendar, that is a wonderful blessing made from love!! Now were those little wooden holders made by the men at church or is that something you could purchase someplace?

    I pray you and your family are abundantly blessed this coming year!!

  • Oh, it was good to see a post by you again. I have really missed them….your posts, that is. You take such joy and pleasure in little things…a challenge!! Blessings on this a New Year, 2011!!

  • Happy 40th!! We celebrated our 40th last year too! What a nice meal and gift! I like the calendar!

  • just sweetness to see in pictures some of the joy you experienced last year.  what a gracious lady you are… so evident in every way.

    and blessings to you to friend in 2011….. so grateful to have a heavenly father who really is walking this path with us.

  • What a special, special anniversary party. You’ll probably remember it with warm, fuzzy feelings for years to come. And the perpetual calendar is such a wonderful gift to enjoy for a long, long time. Blessings to you, and Happy Anniversary!

  • @trustinghisheart - 

    @buana - 

    @Missionfieldof5 - 

    @houseintheprairie - 

    @myhopeisinjesus - 

    @singingrachel - 

    @ColeenSr - 

    It was a joy to hear from you; THANK YOU!

    We have seven of our family visiting right now from Colorado!! What a precious blessing! They went to New York to visit for two days people who they learned to know and love while they lived there for a year. The childrens’ ages are 13 to 4. So I have heard a lot of “Grandma’s” over 10 days…….and I love it. The quiet DOES see special today but I know after next Wednesday when everyone leaves I am going to wish for those precious voices to be all around me again!! Tucking them in at night I think I might miss the most……giving good night kisses to all five and talking in whispers a little before leaving the garage which has turned into a bedroom!

    Yesterday was my first since journaling on here to have time to do this again…..but found myself cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, gathering many, many rubberbands from the various rubberband battles :) ) - (two boys ages 10 and 11….and a sister 13 that enjoys doing the same.) I especially want to get back to you, Melissa, to explain how our daughter went about making and organizing this perpetual calendar. My niece did one for her mother but made it a 30 day calendar. That is also very nice if you don’t have quite as many people to contribute to it. My daughter left some empty pages for me to add some thoughts and pictures that mean a lot to me….expecially my grandparents’ birthdays! ~Blessings to each of you, Cordy

  • @singingrachel - Did you find my address dear busy Mother? I have my eye on our mailbox and have not seen a lovely picture yet!! :)

  • @threejoys - yes i did…. tomorrow i hope to get that in the mail.  sorry about the delay.

  • @singingrachel - No hurry, Rachel. I just questioned myself if I actually “did it correct!” :) Remember I am 21 years older than you are! :) ) My daughter will be 40 this year. Have a great week! (Remember to put your return address on the envelope; we just had our family picture taken.)

  • @buana - Jill, it was so good to hear from you. Please tell me how you are doing!

  • It’s so great to hear from you and thank you so much for asking how I’m doing.  I’m doing very well, thank you.  We are in the process of joining a church, which we are very excited about.  It’s a First United Methodist Church and we just love the Pastor.  This Sunday will be our 5th visit and we started attending the “Check It Out Classes” which started last Sunday.  Many blessing to you and your family, Jill

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