It is hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone.
My life has been incredibly busy and blessed. I had one of the best Christmases ever. The presents were great, but the meaning behind them was even better. Do you remember that my husband Randy bought me a Pandora bracelet for my birthday a month ago? Well, I started off with three charms. A lady bug, which symbolizes my late Mom. A diamond cross, which symbolizes our love for God and a charm that says Together Forever. I guess I don’t have to explain that one…LOL.
Being that I asked for more Pandora charms, I knew I would get a few, but I didn’t think I would get so many! And with so much meaning behind each one. Some are private, but I will let you know about a few of them later in this blog.
We spent Christmas Eve right where we belonged. In church! What a great time that was! Our church family is so important to us. They love us to life without gossip, without drama and without judgements. Our church is not the church where everyone just talks about what people are wearing or who is doing what…none of the BS…our church welcomes us by name and says….We are so glad to see you! We love you!
If you don’t have a church, please come to ours! It’s Hope International Church in Groveland and we go to service at 8:30 am on Sundays. If you like to sleep a little later, there is a 11:00 AM service. Right now our Pastor is battling cancer, but we know he is already healed in the name of Jesus. We love our Pastor Tony and Jodie and we pray for them every single day.
Okay back to Christmas Eve. After we went to church, we stopped to see some family in Groveland. My sister in law Pam is a real gem. We had such a good time. My other sister in law Marcia makes the very best pork chops you ever wanted to eat, and she was gracious enough to feed us some leftovers. It was delicious! We were truly sad that we couldn’t spend Christmas Day with the whole family but we had made other plans with my kids. We plan on bringing my kids there next year. We promised!
When we got home, as family tradition holds true, we decided to open one present. Well, one turned into two and two into three. We laughed and loved the idea that we could do whatever we wanted. We had so much fun on Christmas Eve. We were able to speak to our grandson Cameron and I was a hot mess. It was especially hard this year to be away from Cameron, but I got through it with a lot of support from Randy.
Speaking of Randy! My wonderful, thoughtful caring husband was still (and still is) hurting from his fall from the ladder. Four of his ribs are fractured and there is nothing that can be done. But he is a real trooper and hopefully he will mend up soon.
We spent Christmas Day with my son Brodie and his fiance Sara. I cooked a turkey and ham and we had all the trimmings. Home made strawberry pie was dessert and it went fast. After the kids left, we decided to go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
We had a blast! We saw the Osborne Dancing light show and American Idol. We went on the Movie Ride and attended Indiana Jones’ stunt show. It wasn’t all that crowded, because we got there a little later on. What a great memory it was. Oh and speaking of memories!!!
Here are some of the new Pandora Charms I got:
A Bible – again our love for God and our church.
A football- something we love to watch together.
A heart that say I Love you.
My favorite was the Angel holding a heart. The Angel represents the angel that came to Randy on December 19th to give him the message to marry me. When I saw the Angel charm, I busted out crying. Its means the world to me.
Plus I got a few more that will stay private between my husband and I.
Ya know, I can’t tell everything!!!
all the BEST,
Best Life Barb
