Merry Christmas Nana and Papa

There is nothing like Jesus's Birthday and having young grandchildren.  It seems that you want them to have everything, beginning with memories of the Baby Jesus.

This year, Luke is five and he is so into the Spirit of Christmas.  Did he make a few mistakes?  You bet he did! And they were lots of fun.

The season began with him being in the Christmas play at church.  We just have an awesome congregation that rallies around all the little ones.  Luke is a born ham, so you can only imagine how that went.

At school, they had a little Santa Shop.  It is here, that for one dollar, the children can make their own purchases.  The real problem is that they are only allowed three presents.   Luke bought a present for me (nana) and for Uncle Dyllie and one for himself.  He had it all figured out.  He would buy everyone else's at the Sock Party at church.  But, circumstance do not always turn out like we expect and the Santa Shop at Church was cancelled!

What to do, what to do!  Okay, he asked his mom for a date night.  He proceeded to ask me for the collateral to fund this date.  I asked him if he had a job.  He told me that his job was school, and he was going everyday and doing his job!

Then, he asked his mom to take him to one of his favorite stores.  JUST A BUCK!  Oh yea, you may have guessed it, everything is one dollar!  How wonderful is that for a five year old boy.

He bought a few more gifts.  One for Magoo (the future Aunt Dyllie) and Papa and another one for me(the nana)!

This just brought back so many memories.  My first gift is a change purse.  It is actually kinda cute and practical and I was very impressed.  I remember things I used to give my mom and dad.  I made ashtrays out of clay and bought my dad ties he never wore.  The man worked as a welder for General Motors and did not need to wear one.  I remember jewelry that was pretty gaudy!

Well, the second gift that Luke gave me did not disappoint me!  Yep, gaudy jewelery.!  It has iconic pictures of Jesus around the entire bracelet.  Of course, I have had to wear it on numerous occasions when he is with me.  If I don't have it on, he asks about it.

What I did discover, is that the bracelet flips over and on the other side is a very nice black onyx bracelet.  So, I wear it often and do the flipping thing from time to time.

Uncle Dylan got a car.  You know the kind you put in your pocket.  He let him have it for a few days, than made sure he asked to borrow it!  What a con artist.

Now, it was Papa Devon's turn.  He waited for Papa to get home from work and had him open it up.  After what papa had already heard, he was a little apprehensive!  What he found was a little, pocket size FIRST AID KIT.  Yep, Luke was good at predicting who should get what gift.

He also got Uncle Jason a trophy that says he is #1.

The best thing about this Christmas was that he remembers whose birthday we are actually celebrating.  We keep reminding him that Jesus loves those who give of themselves!  I am sure each one of use remembers these kind of gifts, the ones that were actually given with enthusiasm and love.

May God bless your Spirit of Christmas and may it last for a lifetime.

I SAID I WAS SORRY

I had gone to a Children's Mission program at the Bedford Church of the Nazarene.  It was a wonderful day of educating our children and how the children of Haiti have to work so hard to even have water to drink.  Many of them do not even have the opportunity to go to school.  I find it hard to believe that so many of them want an education and we have children who are trying to get out of going to school.

One of the things that they gave me was a Flipper.  It is used as an Evangelism tool for children.  I listened to the instructions carefully and just knew someday, I was going to be asked "What is that?".

Sure enough, I got my opportunity from my own grandson Luke.  Luke was still 4 in February and would not be 5 till the end of May.  I was not sure I could explain it to him, but he wanted to see it work.

I picked it up and started to explain it to him.  The yellow is Heaven.  This is where Jesus lives.  The black is sin.  We sin when we do bad or naughty things.  When we sin, we can not go to heaven.  It is like when you get all wet and dirty, you can not get into bed.  But, we can ask Jesus to forgive us.  We can say we are sorry, and if we really mean it, the red, which is the blood of Jesus, covers our bad things.  Jesus really loves us and wants to do that for us.  When that happens, our hearts are clean, just like this white heart.  Then, I flipped back to the yellow and explained that when that happens, Jesus will make sure we can go to heaven someday.

Luke seemed to be excited.  I think he was more excited that it flipped to different colors.  He took the flipper and went away.  I just figured, it was way to early for him to understand.

Oh yea of little faith!

A few weeks later, it was one of those yucky days.  It was really gloomy outside and rainy.  There would be no time to play outside.  It was much to cold.  I told Luke that maybe later in the day it would get better.

As the afternoon progressed, Luke was making a mess in his room and I knew mom was not going to be happy.  I asked him to start picking his things up and I want back to reading my Kindle.

Luke came running in with the little flipper and said, "Nana, I told Jesus I was sorry, and look"  he pulled back the blinds, " and he gave me his son!"  Just as he said that, the sun came out, not for long, but long enough for Luke.  He really did understand.

I hugged him, thanked Jesus and cried!

Now, it was close to Easter and we were making cardboard testimonies!  You know the kind that say, I was dead to sin and now I know Christ....etc...

Luke wanted me to help him make one.  I did help him and Luke shows everything on his face...Don't ya think????










 five colored pages to represent Heaven and God's love, the darkness of sin, the blood of Christ, a clean heart and Christian growth. The new Gospel Flipper-Flapper and Gospel Turnaround uses these colors and symbols. Each evangelism tool comes with a free instruction leaflet. Select your preference of the Instruction Leaflet in English or Spanish.

GO FISH AND OTHER FUNNY STUFF~

Luke is now almost five and he feels like he is a big boy.  He often says some really funny, memorable stuff that I want to remember...  One, I recently posted on Facebook.  The other came as we were driving home in the car from a Wednesday night service from church.

I had come home from work very exhausted,  I like to play Country Life because it is such mindless stuff, it is easy to relax.  All them crops and little animals are so cute.

Luke comes in the bedroom and says "Nana, let's play GO FISH, I promise you, that your farm will be there when we get back!"

Out of the mouths of babes.

One more!  Papa Devon and I were driving home with Princess Em and Lukie in their booster seats in the back seat.  Emily was staying until mom got home from work.  Devon and I said we would just keep her and not give her back to her mommy.  Luke was all for that, he loves his cousin Emily and they are the same age!
He said he would be glad to let her sleep in his bed.  I said that he would have to sleep on the couch with Uncle Dilly and he said, "I don't like sleep next to someone snoring in my ear all night!"...

OKAY, that settles that!

Be vewy vewy quiet wukie is hunting wabbit

I have probably told most people this story, but it is so incredible, that I just want to keep it alive for Luke forever.  It just makes me think that this young man has a real sense of adventure that I hope, he will keep forever.
He truly has no fear at this point in his life and thinks everything is a treasure.  What a clean heart!

Well, here goes.

A few Saturday's ago, it was still very cold, but the sunny was shining bright enough on a February day for everyone to want to be outside to get a little sun.  If you know anything about Cleveland, OHIO, you know that February has the least amount of sunny days for the entire year.  Many have sun deprivation!  So, it was no surprise when Luke asked if he could go play outside.  He put on his warm, winter coat and boots and headed out to see what he could find.  He usually brings home long sticks and even has a collection of pet rocks that he carries in an old pet box.

After a little while we heard Luke rushing into the door of the apartment.  He was yelling that he had found a bunny and he wanted to share it with everyone.  At this point, in my mind, I am thinking "Bunny"!



Uncle Dylan was the first one to intercept Luke at the door and I hear him say, "He buddy, you do know that that Bunny is dead!?" and I hear Luke say,  "Yea Uncle Dilly, but look at his neat eyes!"  At this point, Melissa goes out to see the bunny and I hear her screaming, telling him to take it back outside.  Mom often exaggerates.  She hates Luke to even get dirty.  All she wanted him to do was go wash his "gloved" hands!  Three times!

When she insisted that he take the bunny back outside, she realized a picture is worth a thousand words.

Not sure you can see it clearly, but he is holding a rabbit that its ears are at his shoulder and his feel are down past his knees and he was so very proud of this ole rabbit!!

He actually wanted to take it over to his Papa Bill's house (Melissa's Dad's) and put it on his porch.  Papa Bill is a hunter and Luke wanted to share it with him.  Melissa was willing to drive it over there, but only if Luke would put it in her trunk.

Well, we did not share it with Papa Bill, but just ask Luke anytime about his pet rabbit and he will be glad to share a complete description of it.

YOU CALL THIS TOAST!

It seems that Devon and I have stories that just keep coming to mind.  There used to be a Denny's Restaurant on the corner of our street and we would go there in a pinch.  It was never a very busy restaurant, and we enjoyed the quite times together.

One late evening, we were sitting in a booth, and an older couple (older than us anyways) were seated in the booth in front of us.  Devon was facing them, as he is more of a people watcher.  I had my back to them, but it was easy to hear their conversation, as they were quite loud.

The husband was complaining that his wife was suppose to go to the bathroom when they got to there.  She informed him that she had changed her mind and had gone at home!  He was not happy that she was not doing what she said she was going to do and the conversation continued to this end.

The young waitress, came and took their order.  The man had ordered his eggs with a toasted English Muffin. You can imagine the conversation as he complained about what his wife was ordering and insisted she would not eat everything.

A few minutes later, the waitress brought their food and set it on the table.  You could hear the man was not happy again and why would he...he did not seem to be happy with much of anything.

This young waitress came back and asked them if everything was to their satisfaction.  Oh my, what a question to ask.   The man picked up his English Muffin and said "You call this toast?'

The young girl looked at it carefully and said, "No sir, we call that an English Muffin!".  The poor thing was just caught off guard and in her innocence, answered honestly.

I could not control myself and was laughing out loud..  Since Devon and I continued to talk about it and we were both laughing, I'm sure that man had no idea we were laughing at him.

After they left, we joked with the waitress about the entire conversation and felt it necessary to leave her an extra tip, since we concluded that the angry man probably did not!

Now, every time things are not what we expect, we use the line "YOU CALL THIS TOAST!"