TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
 There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me.  What in the
 world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge that won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas?   Today I found out, thanks to the Internet.    From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly.
 Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality, which the children could remember.

 The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
 Two turtledoves were the Old and New Testaments.
 Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
 The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke &
 John.
 The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of
 the Old Testament.
 The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
 Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy
 Spirit, Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution,
 Leadership, and Mercy.
 The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
  Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: Love, Joy,
 Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self
 Control.
 The ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.
 The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
 The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in   the Apostles' Creed.

Blessed are the Little Children… and especially this little cowboy.

Merry Christmas and God bless us all

Hi Everyone

I hope you all are busy with shopping and  trimming trees and putting up the lights – all the celebrations of Christmas that show “love”.

 

Don’t forget the “reason for the season” is Jesus Christ so say a little prayer for a special Birthday wish of Peace on Earth during these holidays.

Love you

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Well, I’m back and had a marvelous trip to Idaho.  We had an early Christmas along with a very special dinner and a magical tea party with the Grandchildren.

I want you to remember how magical a three and four year olds imagination can be at that stage of life.  That is the joy we get to play with when we have our tea parties.  We not only had a tea party but we celebrated everyone’s birthday during this tea party.  By that I mean we were eating real food (which consisted of grapes, M&M’s, cookies) and we also ate “play food” of pizza and French fries along with our tea.  It all tasted magnificently real even the imaginary was awesome.   Oh yah, don’t forget the Birthday party part – we each got to celebrate our birthdays by having everyone else at the table singing “Happy Birthday to you” separately along with a cheer at the end of the song and a big hooray.

After that we decided to each sing our favorite nursery rhyme songs “solo” to us.  The songs chosen were “ittsy bitsy spider”, “twinkle twinkle little star”, “baa baa black sheep.”  Call me a bragging Gramma if you will, but these girls really have beautiful voices – lol – It was paradise just being there with them and the joy and laughter was deafening.

Then to top the trip off, we all went to JC Penny’s and had our pictures taken together – Now this will be an event to remember forever and I can’t begin to explain all the love and joy these little girls have given me.

For all of you who haven’t yet enjoyed the benefits of Grandparenthood yet – it is something to look forward to.  We get to spoil them, and we do, and then leave them to our kids and come home with the memories that will last forever – Wow – Now that’s the best of all worlds.   I love my Children so much but I adore my Grand daughters more than life itself. 

Thank you God for all the blessings you have given me - Thank you so much.