Joyfull Living

I want to share a miracle with you!! In my previous post I mentioned the Christmas dinner I prepared for my family. In the spirit of sharing and giving - I'll give you a little bit of background on this miracle. As a child, I had a unique life. My father LOVED to dine in restaurants. My mother HATED to cook. What a great arrangement which kept everyone happy. We ate out - ALOT! Since my family seemed to be creatures of habit, our family dinner table 5 out of 7 nights a week (no joke) was Denny's restaurant. We had our own booth, knew the menu by heart and also the servers! On occasion, we would eat at other places and I enjoyed fine dining lessons and acquired a taste for Italian food from my father. But, I didn't have many opportunities to learn the fine art of cooking. As a new bride - I brought along my skills of cooking which consisted of preparing spaghetti and hamburger helper. That was it! The rest was trial and error and mostly error!! To add to my alr...

Right before Christmas, I was on an awesome fitness routine. Exercising regulary - light weights 5 days a week, doing a 4 mile walk 5 days a week. Eating in moderation, lots of fruits and veggies, easy on the starches, etc. Balance is the key for me, if I deprive myself,that is not good!!, but if I do allow a treat, moderation is the key. Then came along the Christmas season...still we did not have an abundance of events to attend etc. Then last week it all bombarded! Dear husband and I went Christmas shopping and had lunch at a fabulous buffet restaurant. Then two days later we took the kids to an amusement park and again ate a fabulous buffet. Sunday night we enjoyed celebrating Christmas at my mother in law's home with of course more delicious food. Christmas night I prepared dinner for my family which is much smaller than dear husbands. I cooked for 12 and I'll quickly share the menu: Baked Ham Turkey Breast Cornbread Dressing Sweet Potatoe Souffle Collard Greens ...

I've seen this devotion twice now and it has been a blessing to me as I prepare for Christmas. So..I'm passing it along to you with wishes for a very Merry Christmas! I t's so easy to get distracted during this season. It's simple to forget that the reason for Christmas is to honor God and spend time with our families, in the midst of all our "activities" and trying to complete the big mental "to-do" lists we create around the beginning of the holidays. Here are some simple tips that we hope will help prompt you to have a more Christ and family focused Christmas. * Make time for special, scheduled family times. Set aside a night to spend time with your family. Get a tree together and decorate it as a family...watch a favorite Christmas movie together (like It's a Wonderful Life or The Nativity Story) or talk about memories and make cookies, cranberry and popcorn chains together. Go Christmas caroling or attend any parades, craft ...

This post was designed to inspire and motivate me to get some things done! Since it is my first post in about two weeks(!), it looks like motivation is needed. Christmas season is my favorite season of the year. I absolutely love the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of Christmas. But there is also a side of me that right after Thanksgiving kicks in and keeps my mind spinning with a list of things to do: make cookies, decorate, Christmas letter, Christmas photos, wrap gifts, buy gifts, do Christmas dinner, mail cards...on and on it goes. Lots of times, that just deflates me and the usual cheery tasks become burdensome and drudgery. But, I am learning that you can really do a lot in 10 minutes! In these little chunks of time, you can make progress on these tasks. If you are sending out 50 Christmas cards, keep all the things needed together and handy and if you have a small block of time, write out 5. Keep your gift wrapping items together and give yourself a few minutes to wr...