Thursday, December 28, 2017

A New Year of Joy


Most of us make New Year’s resolutions this time of year.
It’s a time of beginning.
A time to evaluate our lives.
Are we going in the direction we would like?

When most of us set our goals, we ‘should’ on ourselves:
I should exercise more.
I should eat more healthy food.
I should get more sleep.
I should read more.

We have scolded ourselves through the ages
Scolding yourself to do better never works.
We forget to keep those goals soon after we make them.

This year, my resolution is to find joy in every day.

tinybuddha.com
My joy may come in a different form than yours. 

Joy comes from who we are.

How will you find your joy?

Take some time to decide. Record it in your journal.

Make it a joyful year.

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Fairy Fun for the holidays

Just after Thanksgiving the children and grand children in our family begin making cookie and candy houses in anticipation of visitors from the North Pole. The guests, a fairy family, come to stay until Christmas. The fairies have lots of fun adventures, let Santa know how good everyone's been, and tag along (in secret) on holiday service projects.


The sky's the limit on the spread the kids create for their family - sledding hills, skating ponds, and swimming pools with diving boards. One house had a slide that started at the top of the roof and shot down onto a toboggan run that extended to the end of the gum drop garden. Candy trees covered with licorice vines give the fairy family a great place to swing from.



Every night the children write letters to the fairies and during the middle of the night the fairies write back. They make sure to tell the children how much they enjoyed their piano practicing, and how quick they were to clean up the table after dinner.


Sometimes the fairies suggest service ideas to help everyone get in the Christmas spirit - like singing carols for the lady down the street or giving cookies to the postman.
If the day has been very busy and the kids haven't had time to write their letter to the fairies, they call their message from the fire place up the chimney. Sometimes the fairies only have time to draw a quick picture about the nights adventures because they accidentally got shut in the dog house by the cat or stuck up the chimney surrounded by an army of live miniature marshmallows.

We have found that this is a great way to enhance the holiday spirit and give the children a creative adventure. Invite a fairy families to your house and have as much fun as the imaginations living with you can think up. 

Happy Holidays.