Grandkids are the best gift at Christmas

Christmas Traditions

I have some fond memories of some of our family traditions. Staying up on Christmas Eve to open our presents at midnight. Who doesn't like staying up all night to open their gifts, anyone, anyone?....

Our mom would make us our Christmas stockings filled with treats and oranges, and nuts, we loved it! I also remember being in the kitchen making tamales with mom, my sisters, and any other woman in the house. We would all have our jobs, pressing the masa, filling it with meat, wrapping it up and putting it in the pot. But my favorite was all the talking and singing and dancing. It was so much fun.

Since becoming a mom I have my own traditions that I have started. Now because it is so time consuming I have not picked up on the tamale making and my kids let me know they are not happy with that. Oh well, what can I say...

I did stockings a little different, I put cute little gifts in them and had our kids open them up on Christmas Eve. I would also usually buy a game and that would be the one gift they could open Christmas Eve as well, and we would play that night, so fun.

One tradition that I enjoy is finding new ornaments for the tree. I like to add something new, so every year I pick something out that might have special meaning to us.
I also love that Sky and Solee contribute to our growing ornaments, for they send us something homemade, and I love it! Thanks Wendy and Malen for that gift.

I hope now that our children are grown with their own families that they will find their own traditions to add to our families.

Though this past month has been pretty stressful, I love this time of year. I am reminded why we celebrate Christmas. Our Savior's birth...

I hope that with all the stress of shopping, driving in this awful traffic, wrapping that last gift, or forgetting to eat cause we were just too busy, that we take some time to reflect what this season is really about. The love, the joy, the peace...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Take me as I am or not, I can only be me...

I find that I still have to fight to be who I am. There are some who don't try to even get to know me, not the person they see in front of them. But the woman I really am. I guess that is why I relate to this song so much.

Anita


Take Me As I Am lyrics
Mary J. Blige


[Verse 1:]
She's been down and out
She's been wrote about
She's been talked about, constantly
She's been up and down
She's been pushed around
But they held her down, NYC
She has no regrets
She accepts the past
All these things they
helped make to make she
She's been lost and found
And she's still around
There's a reason for everything

You know I've been holdin on.
Try to make me weak,
But I still stay strong.
Put my life all up in these songs
Jus so you can feel me.
so you can get the real me

[Chorus:]
So take me as I am,
or have nothing at all.
Just take me as I am,
or have nothing at all.

[Verse 2:]
Now she's older now
Yes, she's wiser now
Can't disguise her now
She don't need
No one tellin her
What to do and say
No one tellin her
Who to be
She's on solid ground
She's been lost and found
Now, she answers to G-O-D
And she's confident
This is not the end
Ask me how I know
Cause she is me.

You know I've been holdin on.
Try to make me weak,
But I still stay strong.
Put my life all up in these songs
Jus so you can feel me.
so you can get the real me

[Chorus:]
So take me as I am,
or have nothing at all.
Just take me as I am,
or have nothing at all.

[Bridge: 2x]
So it's all or nothing at all,
All or nothing at all
Don't you know I can only be me.
(I can only be me, yeah)

[Chorus:]
So take me as I am,
or have nothing at all.
Just take me as I am,
or have nothing at all.

Take me as I am.
Take me as I am.
Said it's all or nothing at all
Said it's all or nothing at all

Just take me as I am,
or have nothing at all. (This is me)
Just take me as I am, (take me as i am)
or have nothing at all.
Just take me as I am, (take me as i am)
or have nothing, nothing at all.
Take me as I am.


Found here:
http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/mary-j.-blige-lyrics/take-me-as-i-am-lyrics.html

Puts a smile on my face...

Been Thinking

...about how things can change when you aren't looking. I look in the mirror and see a different woman looking back at me. I have grown and changed so much in such a short time.
I am doing things I have been afraid to do, I am reaching out and finding I don't always fall...
I am learning to be the woman, that Father in Heaven sees in me.

I am realzing that it's okay to fail sometimes. That I don't have to be perfect for you or for me, it's in my failings that I learn and grow.

I am feeling...confident about who I am and what I can do...

Hmmm,what a feeling!

Me