A Precious Time in Life!

Life is amazing!
It has so many parts and times and pieces. There have been many "times" in my life when I thought that surely "these were the best times!" But then there would be other experiences and I would declare that "NO - THESE are truly the best times!"
What I have come to realize is that life brings us many BEST TIMES - and there is no way to categorize them into GOOD BETTER BEST! Instead - each season is PRECIOUS and good in different ways.
I am currently experiencing an incredibly PRECIOUS time in my life - the NENE YEARS! Oh my goodness - it is overwhelming bliss!
It is a time when I get to stand back and watch in AWE as my son's become Daddy's. I have 3 OUTSTANDING son's! It is a humbling experience to see the men that my little boys have become! They make me PROUD - button-popping proud! I had a favorite saying when the boys were little and growing up - I had to say it often - I especially had to remind myself of it when they were in the middle of some sort of mischief or trouble -- "A little boy is all God has with which to make a man." It's true and God made my little boys into remarkable men!
As my son's have become Daddy's - I have become a Nene!
Poppy and I had the 3 oldest grandchildren for a couple of days just prior to Christmas this year. It was so fun!
Lawson - 6, Taylor - 4 and Britain - 3, made our hearts extra happy!
I picked them up between 5 and 6 pm on the 23rd - they went home with their Mommy and Daddy after our family Christmas on Christmas Eve.
We were very busy.
In just over 24 hours we accomplished the following:
* Ordered Pizza and watched Christmas movies until everyone fell asleep
* We stayed in our pajama's until just before the rest of the family arrived on Christmas Eve
* Made beautiful gifts for their parents, Uncle Aaron & Aunt Audrey, Nanny Green
* Made sugar cookies and decorated them
* Lots of singing - Christmas carols and the Razorback Fight Song (numerous times)-each of Nene's babies are Hog fans!
* Made pigs in a blanket
* Helped Nene vacumn, empty trash cans and clean up messes
* Read Christmas stories - I think Olive the Other Reindeer was the favorite
* Talked about Jesus and His birthday
* Built a tent and played in it
* Colored in our new color books
* Practiced a "Program" that we would perform on Christmas Eve
* Jumped on the bed
* Laughed and laughed and laughed
* We tracked Santa Claus all day on Christmas Eve (NORAD has a website for this). We saw that he was in China, Japan, Africa, Ireland, Sweden, Guam, Morocco, and countless other places.
* Sat in Nene's lap and lavished her with countless hugs, kisses and "I love you Nene's"
Whew.... makes me tired just thinking about it. ;-)
Thanks kids for making wonderful memories for your Nene!
You make my heart happy!!!
Here are a few pictures. Not many pictures - not my camera's fault this time - I was too BUSY to take pictures!!!

Christmas 2008!

I LOVE Christmas! I love the way it feels, I love the way it looks and I LOVE THE REASON WE CELEBRATE!
Baby JESUS - the KING of KINGS - Savior - LORD of LORDS - born on Christmas day!
I LOVE spending time with my family and friends during the Christmas season.
I LOVE the beautiful decorations - the festive feel!
I LOVE the delicious food and drinks that only surface at Christmas time!
I LOVE recalling my wonderful memories of years gone by AND creating new memories to have for the future!
I LOVE Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman!
It truly is THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!
Alas - it is time to take the decorations down until next year. ;-(
I will have more pictures to post as soon as Laura downloads her camera and sends me some. Thank you Laura.
We missed Abby at our family Christmas Eve celebration! She had a VERY bad day at work and was too upset to come. We hope you feel better quickly Abby.
Until then - here are a few favorites from Christmas 2008!

It's a Girl!!!!!

Lila Grace Coble is on the way! Her name is pronounced with a long "i" - for those of you who have forgotten first grade phonics - that means the "i" says it's name.
According to the ultra-sound - she is already PERFECT! We aren't surprised - look at her PERFECT parents, Aaron and Audrey - and look at her PERFECT Nene and Nana! Well - maybe slight stretch on Nene and Nana - Nawww.... we're close enough to count! ;-0
Seriously - Audrey and Aaron allowed us to be part of the ultra-sound reveal yesterday! It was awesome!
Lila cooperated and let us see her private parts very clearly - there is absolutely no question about it - she is a she!
Techology (except for my camera) - is amazing. We could clearly see her little spine and fingers and arms - Lila was looking straight into the camera too - it was as if she was looking at us! It was wonderful!
The room was full of excitement, wonder, awe, squeals and a few tears.
As always, I am thankful and humbled and honored that God is blessing our family with another precious child to love.
My heart is full!
Thank you Aaron and Audrey for giving us another grandchild!
I am so excited and proud - I LOVE being a Nene!!

Lots of catching up to do!

I started this blog on Sunday December 14th & finished on Tuesday the 23rd - YIKES! I decided to stop because I was so frustrated about my pictures that it was skewing my great weekend. I have slept on it now and am recovered. The next paragraph is my original blog - you see - I was not in the right frame of mind to blog.
Of course, as I have downloaded the pictures I took - my fun turns to ARRGHHHHHH!!! At one point this weekend I even tried to use my old camera! It takes good pictures but I don't like it because it is HUGE! Anyway - I can't find the cord that allows me to download the pictures I have taken. They are trapped in my camera! ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! OK - I have vented - let's move on.
Friday afternoon, Poppy and I went to Taylor's Christmas program at his play-school. It was the BEST! Naturally, Taylor was the star and completely out-shined every other child on the stage. I can say that - I AM his Nene!
I have attached a very cute video of a very small portion of the event. It's just a little video because I SUCK WITH ELECTRONIC DEVICES!!! Ut-oh - sorry - I am venting again!
Saturday afternoon I hosted a girlfriend party - we had a cookie exchange. It was a hoot! We decided that we will make this an annual event. The party was scheduled from 1:30 - 3:30 - but we ended up having fun until after 6! I have included a couple of pics from that.
I am so very blessed - I have the very BEST friends and family possible.

Dirty Santa Party!!!!

I LOVE girlfriends!

I have always been a "girlfriend" kind of a girl!
I am blessed in that I have an abundance of wondeful "girls" in my life - sisters, daughter-in-loves, granddaughters, mother-in-love and my sistah-friends! Each of the women in my life bring me much joy and laughter and mental support. ;-)
Each of them "make my heart happy!"

I was blessed with a new friend this year - Missy, aka Melissa. I met Missy through my friend Carolyn. I was lucky enough this year to be included in the annual Dirty Santa party that Missy so graciously and beautifully hosts.

Here are a few pictures from our fun evening!

I ended up with this beautiful live swag!

Look at these beautiful smiles!




























Missy, Janet and me!

I've been tagged!

Yippeee...... I've been tagged by my daughter-in-love Laura!
You know what that means???? I get to answer questions and folks will read and anticipate my answers!
I LOVE to blog! ;-)

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Definitely HOT CHOCOLATE! I really do NOT like Egg Nog!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or leave them open? Santa doesn't actually stop at our house anymore. He now stops at the homes of our grandchildren. However, Nene and Poppy wrap gifts at our house - it's so much fun to watch little faces eye the gifts all evening long anticipating what is inside. When our boys were little - Santa left the gifts open under the tree. When Ryan was 6, Sean was 5 and Aaron was 3 - the boys and I were cleaning out the toy box to make room for the new toys that Santa would bring. I told them that we would clean up the old toys and make them like new and then give them to poor children that otherwise wouldn't get any toys. I thought that was reasonable. Well, we worked for awhile longer and Sean declared, "I don't like Santa Claus anymore!" What - why don't you like Santa anymore? He says, "because Santa doesn't bring presents to poor children!" Geez..... I never anticipated that!
3. Colored lights or white lights? I love both - growing up we always had colored lights on the tree at my house. Now... it depends on my mood when lights are going up as to what is used.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Usually not - but I think we should. I do LOVE to smooch! Mistletoe would give me yet another opportunity to get even more smooches! I could "take" without asking.....
5. When do you put your decorations up? The day after Thanksgiving. This year it took me 2 full days to get them up. I turned on the Christmas music and put up decorations while John was at work. I have to admit that I doddled a bit more than usual while putting things out. I always enjoy my Christmas memories when decorating - I know - I'm a bit sappy.
6. What is your favorite Holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Hmmm... that is a tough question. Homemade yeast rolls - fresh from the oven. Now you are asking yourself - what is she talking about? There are NEVER homemade yeast rolls at Nene's! Well, I used to make them every year - long ago - and - growing up, my Mom made them every year (actually she made them every Sunday) - SO - they are still my favorite thing even though I don't serve them anymore.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? I loved everything about Christmas as a child! My Mom always made it a magical time. We always had a real Christmas tree - we always went out as a family and chose the perfect one! We decorated it together - and always put lots of "care" into each beautiful ornament. The tree always had icicles! Those horrible silver stringy ones. I thought they were beautiful though. We always went to church on Christmas eve and lite candles and stuff. Christmas was all about family - and being together - baking cookies, decorating, singing, listening to stories, making cards for one another - it was all about making one-another know how special they were. Yep - I loved Christmas as a child.
8. When did you learn the truth about Santa? Oh - I remember that very well. 2nd grade - that fat little boy, David Robb, told me. I remember I called him a LIAR! He told the teacher! I got in trouble. However, my teacher did have compassion and didn't make me sit in the corner - she said that I should discuss it with my parents when I got home from school. I asked my mom as soon as I got home - she deferred me to my dad - so I had to wait for him to come home. I was waiting on the front porch for my dad - as soon as he drove up - I cornered him. He took his time, changed his clothes, we ate dinner and then he told me to come and sit with him. I could tell by the look on his face that this was going to be serious - I started crying before he said a word. I remember clearly he said, "baby-girl, I am not going to lie to you, Santa Claus is really your mother and me." I know this will surprise you (NOT), but even as a child, I was emotional and lived directly from my heart! I started screaming along with the crying and hitting my dad on the arm - I was sad but mostly PISSED-OFF!!!! He let me cry and scream and hit for awhile - then he said - "ENOUGH!" My tirade changed to crying and hugging and he assured me that he would always be Santa for me. And he was - right through his last Christmas on earth.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas eve? We open gifts with our children and grandchildren and my sweet mother-in-law on Christmas eve - John and I share our gifts with each other on Christmas morning.
10. How do you decorate your tree? Over the years, I have collected lots of colors and themes for the tree - so - decorating color depends on the mood of the year. This year, I have used different colors in different areas of the house. Hmmm...... I like it.
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? I have a love/hate relationship with snow. I love to watch it falling and I think it is beautiful. BUT - I only like snow if I can stay home with John and have a good book to read and lots of yummy food to eat!
12. Can you ice skate? That is a great big - "NO!" I have tried several times over the years, my ankles bend - I finally gave up trying somewhere in my 30's.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Growing up we didn't have lots of money. I didn't realize that until I was much older. Did I mention that my mom always made Christmas magical? I think I was in kindergarten the year that I wanted a Toodles doll. I asked Santa everytime I saw him - I told everyone that Santa was going to bring me a Toodles doll. However, there was no money for a Toodles doll. My parents never discouraged me from asking for the Toodles doll and never told me that there wasn't a chance in HECK that Santa was going to bring me one. The really cool thing about Toodles was that she came with LOTS of different clothes to change and her own diapers. I went to bed on Christmas eve declaring that in the morning - there would be a Toodles doll for me under the tree. In retrospect, that had to be a lot of pressure for my parents. Anyway - my mom took my old Tiny Tear's doll and cleaned it up - then she made about 20 beautiful changes of clothes for her, complete with matching shoes and diapers and blankets. The really special thing was that these little outfits matched many of my clothes. In other words, she made them out of scraps left over from clothes she had made me. I never said a word about not getting a Toodles doll because I was so in LOVE with my many doll clothes. I played all day - all year - dressing up my old babydoll. Did I mention that my mom made Christmas magical?
14. What is the most important thing about the Holidays? Hands down - being with the ones you love.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? I LOVE sugar cookies, cut into cool shapes-the yummy homemade ones with frosting and decorations. Don't get them very often - but they are my FAVORITE! Maybe I should make some this year.
16. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? Hmm.... since the kids are all grown up, Christmas traditions have sort of fallen by the wayside. My favorite now is Christmas eve when everyone is "home" - home being our house. Christmas eve is our time to celebrate with our children and grandchildren - our family - at our house. I really need to get some memorable traditions going for that evening. I dream that someday all of my siblings can be together on Christmas eve again. We haven't all been together since the Christmas before my brother, Carl, was in Vietnam. That was 1965. I was the youngest of 5 children - late in life for my parents - the older kids starting leaving home when I was very young. Up through 1965, everyone was always able to make it home. After that - no. Ok - I need to stop for a minute and cry.
17. What tops your Christmas tree? An angel is on top of one and sparkly happy stuff on top of the other. Yep - 2 trees this year at Nene and Poppy's house. Better come and see.
18. Which do you prefer - giving or receiving? Definitely giving. It makes my heart happy!
19. What is your favorite Christmas song? It is a song that many may not know - it is an old old song that originated in the pre-civil war era. It was sung by the slaves as they gathered for their family Christmas. It's called "Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child." It is always sung without musical instruments and in 4-part harmony! It's beautiful!
Words:
Jesus.....Jesus....
Oh what a wonderful child.
Jesus...Jesus.....
So lowly, meek and mild.
New life!
New hope!
New joy He brings,
Won't you listen.... as the angels sing-
Glory! Glory! Glo---orr----eeee to the new born King!

I think my grandbabies need to learn that one this year!
20. Candy Canes - Yum or Yuck! That would be a BIG YUCK!!!
21. What do you want for Christmas??? That's easy - I want everyone in my family and each of my friends to be "Happy, healthy and completely WHOLE in every area of their life: body - soul - and spirit!"
22. Do you attend an annual Christmas party? Annual parties have changed over the years. Currently, the only for sure parties are Dirty Santa with some of my home-girls and the office party. I am trying to rekindle a Christmas cookie exchange party. I did them every year when we lived in Jonesboro. I'll let you know if it becomes a new "annual" or not.
23. Do you dress-up or wear PJ's on Christmas? I guess Poppy and I had better dress-up! We no longer own any PJ's! Sorry boys - but now that you're all on your own - well - heck - we even walk around in our underwear at home now!!!! ;-) It's probably best if you don't try to get a visual on this.
24. Do you own a Santa hat? No - but I think Poppy needs one! The whole Santa hat thing would mess up my "do!"
25. Who do you normally spend Christmas with? Christmas Eve with all of the kids and grandkids. Christmas day - usually just John and I - chillin, going to a movie, or helping feed the homeless someplace. Sometimes a combination of all 3!

That was fun! Thanks for inviting me to particpate Laura!

The 2 that I tag are Missy and Abby! You girls better not disppoint me.......

Merry Christmas!

These babies LOVE their Poppy!

I am so far behind on blogging.
I am still struggling with my new camera - I am a really bad picture taker!!
Most of my Thanksgiving pictures didn't turn out.
I am going to enroll in some photography classes.
I am so frustrated!
Anyhow - despite the fact that the quality of the photo's SUCK, these few show how much our grandchildren love their Poppy - and he them!