GRANDMA'S PICKLES!!

Christmas Eve has always been one of our families favorites. Family, that didn't see eachother but once a year, got together. Special dishes & food were served! Fun games were played. And laughter was heard. As the years have gone by, people & families have changed, and so have traditions.
Christmas Eve as a child was always anticipated with much excitement. I remember getting dressed as a kid, just watching the clock tick till mom and dad said it was time to leave for our Great Aunt's house. I am sure that my parents were just as excited to go, they would not have to listen to us asking any longer, "Are we leaving yet?" "Is it time?"
It wasn't about the presents. (Not that we didn't like presents, but we didn't exchange any on Christmas eve.) It was about the FAMILY and FOOD!! The table was layered with everyone's special dishes. Potatoes, Grandpa's favorite sweet potatoes, ham, turkey, salads, fruits, fresh veggies, stuffing, jello, pudding, Aunt's fruit salad, olives, pies and the list goes on. The most anticipated food I looked forward to was GRANDMA'S HOMEMADE PICKLES!! When Grandma broke out those pickles, everyone gathered around. Now that was pretty scary for there was usually about 20 of us that would gather together for Christmas Eve. No one could make pickles like my Grandma! I can't explain to anyone how absolutley scrumptious they were. My poor Grandma would barely get into the door without one of us asking her if she remembered the pickles. "Oh yes!" She would say. "I brought two!!" She knew that one jar would never be enough. 3/4 of the time the pickles she cut up for dinner were gone before we sat down as a family. (That's where the other jar came into place.) It always seemed "someone" would HAAAAAAAAVE TOOOO walk by the set table, before dinner was served. Amazing how the pickles kept disappearing!
Time has gone by.... Families have grown.... Society has changed.... Traditions have been altered. Many years have gone by and the Christmas Eve Dinner Tradition is no longer what it was. People changed. The tradition altered a little for some years to Great Grandma's house on Christmas Eve for snacks. Then Great Grandma went home to the Lord.... Tradition changed a little again. It couldn't be at Great Grandma's any longer.
Grandma's pickles stopped. I asked Grandma a couple years ago what had happened to her pickles. She looked at me and said, "No one was eating them fast enough.... They went bad." First it was sad to hear her say that, but then I thought about all the GREAT memories growing up, with extended family and eating GRANDMA'S FAMOUS PICKLES!! No one else had that priveledge! It is something that we will always remember and appreciate for years to come!
Today, Christmas Eve is at my home. A new tradition which began about 7 years ago. I want my kids and nephew and nieces to have memories of GREAT FOOD at Auntie's house on Christmas Eve. Without Grandma's famous pickles, I had to finally experiment enough to find a brand of pickles that "will do" from the grocery store.
Nothing will ever take away from our family's GREAT memories of past traditions, even as we create new ones! :0)

Being a Christian is a form of Community.

Being a Christian is a form of Community. We are people who have a love for a Higher Power. We are families joined together by Christ’s love. We have a love to share the glory of our Savior through service and fellowship. We are many who like to extend the hand of Jesus to God’s sheep.
Christian Communities have a strong love for our Creator, God. As a community we love to share the love of God to His people (sheep) in many ways. Stepping out to the local towns and inviting them to come together in unity to make the world a better place to live in, is just one way. Sweeping sidewalks, painting public restrooms, pulling weeds, child involved festivities, praying, is not just work, it is community. Opening the doors every Sunday with arms of welcome to anyone of God’s children is tradition. We are ALL special and unique. For God made us that way. We are here for His purpose and His only.
He wants us to reach out to others, in times of sorrow, happiness, bitterness, love, and celebration. Having coffee together, meeting for lunch, or calling on the phone, is some varieties of fellowship, but the sky is the limit! Reach out, Love one another! Just as God loves us!
There are times that this community could be difficult to be a part of. Are they walking the life of a Christian? Are they doing their part to be in this community? Are their beliefs the only way? These are questions that are sometimes asked of those who are part of the Christian Community. Personally, I look at those questions as ways to disguise fear, lack of knowledge, and curiosity. These are just other opportunities for God to work through us and persevere. Invite them! Share you passion! Love them!
I love the Christian Community! I love my Lord God with all my heart and am very thankful for the blessings He has bestowed on my family. The real question would be, “Why would I not want to be a part of the Christian Community?” Something would defiantly be missing without the Christian Community and the love it involves! Through God everything is possible.

What my "purse" tells about me

The contents in my purse quite often stay the same, unlike the purse itself, which I change out about every 2 months. This may state that I enjoy change, try to be prepared, but that I am also sentimental.
How do I come up with these?
As for the contents of my purse not changing much, you would determine that for many reasons. You would know that I have a family of three kids & a husband, by the mini photo album you would find loaded of pictures. Some people may assume that I am obsessed with pictures, which they would be correct, since I am a photographer at heart. You would see that I enjoy shopping at Target & Borders and buying bulk at Costco, by the cards and receipts you find tucked in the front pocket. By looking at my driver’s license, you would know that I live in WA and that I am an Organ donor. You may assume that I am a certain weight and live in Granite Falls, but that would be incorrect for I procrastinate updating my ID, falling back on the items of my purse “staying the same”.
As for being prepared, you would find several things in my purse that would indicate that I try to plan for things. Such as the lotion and the Kanka medicine, would declare that I have dry hands and that I suffer from canker sores. The feminine product would tell you, “better be safe then sorry”. The Leatherman, multi-tool, at the bottom of my purse, would tell you that I don’t like using my teeth to open packages or tearing the plastic ties off of my kids new shoes. You would know that I like to be prepared in emergencies by the 3 insurance cards & the first aid card you would find in a plastic sleeve pouch. Some find it odd that I carry a book of stamps with me, but I find I have a habit of remembering that I need to mail things when I am out and about. Plus, then I won’t loose them to a stack of paperwork and kids in the home.
People might assume that I like to carry “junk” by the prayer request card that has chicken scratch all over it. It looks like it needs to be recycled. What they may not know is that I hold on to this card for a sentimental reason, the prayer request card has thoughts and blessings written by my husband. When you go through my change compartment you would find a “squished” Orcas Island novelty penny from our vacation last summer. This indicates that I may have been there and that I cherish it. When you dig just a little deeper, you will find a preschool picture of one of my students and a clip art of Baby Jesus in the manger.
All and all, I found that my purse tells a lot of my identity, but it also contains some things that others may look over.

By Caroline 4/10/07

TESTING...

I am excited to be a part of the "blog" world. :0)