Malissa's Merry-go-round

I have been so remiss here lately!

I wanted to wish any readers I may have left a very Merry Christmas.

We're looking forward to a huge snowstorm tonight (blech!).

Other than that, just some wrapping to do and cookies to bake.

I hope you are enjoying a merry Christmas season!

Here are some of my favorite posts from last year.

I have 2 questions

Manager Scene

Fond Family Memories

Hark the Grandpa Angels Sing

My mom had these cute little pilgrims when I was a child.
I always loved them. I'm sure Mom probably still has them, but I'm also pretty sure she's not giving them up.
I started looking on Ebay for them but they seemed to go for high amounts.
This year, I snagged this pair for $4.99!
I was so excited.
Philemon likes to put them on the piano and play. He says it makes them dance.

One of my online friends posted it.
My answers follow the questions. Let me know if you do this too--or leave it in the comments.

Do you know which president declared Thanksgiving a national holiday?
Lincoln,

Where will you spend Thanksgiving Day?
home

What's the farthest you've ever traveled to celebrate Thanksgiving?
From Oshkosh to Appleton 20 miles We never travel for Thanksgiving

Do you put up decorations?
Yes

What's your best Thanksgiving memory?
PJ's 1st Thanksgiving--he had only been home for 1 day &
watching the parades

What's your funniest Thanksgiving memory?
The time my mom put sliced hardboiled eggs on top of the stuffing. We all hooted and hollered and "ewwed" and she insisted she always did that. We insisted she never did that. She got mad;) She still insists she always did that.

What's your worst Thanksgiving memory?
The first year that my sister had moved away (My parents had moved away a few years before) It was my 1st ever without MY family around.

What's your favorite Thanksgiving Day food?
mashed potatoes and stuffing

What's your favorite Thanksgiving Day pie?
pumpkin

What's your favorite food made from the leftovers?
just the leftovers

What Thanksgiving Day food do you most dislike?
Now that I'm a grown up I don't care But my dad ALWAYS made us eat olives--blech

What's the weirdest thing you ever ate at a Thanksgiving Day dinner?
The stuffing with the picked off eggs

Do you watch football on Thanksgiving?
Only if the Packers are playing

Do you know what teams played the 1st football game, Thanksgiving 1934?
no

Have you ever watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special?
Probably I also just read tonight that the whole thing is on You tube but I haven't checked it out

Have you ever watched The Waltons Thanksgiving Story?
can't remember

Have you ever watched The Mouse and The Mayflower?
No

Do you watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?
Yes

Do you go shopping the day after Thanksgiving?
no way!

What is absolutely your favorite thing about Thanksgiving?
Family, time to count blessings, the fact that it's pretty much a non-commercial day

What is the one thing you like least about Thanksgiving?
My family being so far away

Who would you most like to invite to your Thanksgiving dinner?
My far away family

What are you most thankful for this year?
Family , God's provision

4th of July is right around the corner!

Get in the mood with this great picture show.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms.
I love this photo of my Mom and my son. He was giving her 100 kisses.

My Mom lives too far away from us! We miss her.

Hope your day is special Mom!

Today, we colored eggs with Grandma.

The basket is hidden. It doesn't come from the bunny. Just from us.

I am looking forward to an early breakfast at church and a Resurrection service.

I love the anthems and hymns of Easter.

There is nothing like being the pianist on Easter morning. I love pounding out

"Up from the grave He arose" and "He Lives".

My heart is full as I play and listen to the congregation sing about the truth of our risen Saviour.

Happy Easter to you.

Last night, my friend and I went to see a local church production of The Promise.
It's a musical & dramatic production of the story of the life of Jesus.

It's heavily based on the Easter story.

This church did a fantastic job and I was so glad we went.

I am spending this week thinking about the sacrifice Christ made for each of us. Seeing The Promise was an excellent addition to the week.

For the past couple years the pesky creature has been hanging around here in March.

When we check out books at the library about Ireland, or listen to Irish music, he shows up.

The biggest clue that he's here are the glittery shamrocks that appear all over our house.
He likes to make messes and create mischief.

So far this year, he has dumped a box of Lucky Charms, turned our gallon of milk green, and left trails of shamrocks throughout the house.
Little Boy tries hard to catch him. We both want the Leprechaun's pot of gold!

PJ whispers ideas to trap him in my ear and we plot.
That's why we bought Lucky Charms. It's not a normal allowed cereal but it does have shamrocks in it! He put the box out in the middle of the kitchen floor hoping that the Leprechaun would try to carry it away and PJ could catch him. The box would be too heavy for a little Leprechaun right?
Unfortunately, we woke up to a spilled box of Lucky Charms.

We think we will try to make Irish soda bread one day this week. We'll keep listening to Irish music and learning about Ireland.
Who knows? Maybe this is the year we'll catch that pesky critter.
If not, we have a lot of fun and learn about another culture in the process.

I was sorting through some photos in my "to be scrapbooked" box.
One of the files is labeled "sentimental".

I found an OLD valentine from my Mom to me. It's so sweet.

I know that my parents love me (us), but it's so nice to see something from long ago that she took the time to write down.

This is exactly why I do not believe scrapbooking is a waste of time in the least. Sharing thoughts and feelings with our children is a precious gift.

I'm so blessed to know how much my Mom loved me when I was 7 years old. I'm blessed that somehow this little piece of paper survived all of our moves and purges.

My parents made a big deal about Valentines day. One year when they were very poor, my Dad bought a box of children's Valentines and hid them all over the house for Mom.
She said she was finding Valentines in July.

This simple and inexpensive idea has become a tradition in our family. Just today, I thought "OH! I need to grab a box of Valentines to hide."

My Dad often came home on Valentines day with tiny boxes of chocolates and cards for each of us girls. Mom of course got the big box and big card.

One of my worst childhood memories involved Valentines day too! I was sick on the day of our party and for several days thereafter. When I went back to school, I was so excited to pick up my Valentines.

I got to school and there was not one Valentine for me. Not even from the teacher. I was a disappointed little girl that day.

My most favorite memory also involves Valentines day.
My husband asked me to marry him on Valentines day. (A post for another day)

Valentines day is a lot of fun. Yes, it's a "Hallmark" holiday, but it's fun to have a day set aside to have fun showing our loved ones how very special they are to us.

These are bad scans, but isn't this the cutest Valentine you ever saw!?



(2001)

Lincoln's Birthday (February 12th)

Poem to read: "Lincoln" by Nancy Byrd Turner
Books to read: "Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers" by Karen Winnick Honesdale (Boyds Mill Press); "Abe Lincoln's Hat" (Step into Reading, Step 2) by Donald Cook (Random House); "Abraham Lincoln" by Ingri D'Aulaire.
Quote to read/copy: from Gettysburg Address "That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Website for parents/older students: http://www.abrahaml incolnonline. org

Washington's Birthday (February 22nd)
Poem to read: "Washington" by Nancy Byrd Turner
Book to read: "George Washington" by Ingri D'Aulaire
Quote to read/copy: Henry Lee about Washington, "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen."
Website for parents: http://www.mountver non.org

Presidents Day (third Monday in February)
Display chart of presidents (or flashcards in a timeline)
Write a letter to the president; pray for the president.
Children's website: Presidential Prayer Team for Kids
Parents' website: http://www.presiden tialprayerteam. org

There's also Groundhog Day (February 2 - http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Groundhog_ day ), Valentine's Day (February 14),
Chinese New Year (February 18).

I'm a bit late in posting these. Our week of rest got in the way I guess.
Enjoy.

We had a delightfully quiet and relaxing Christmas day.

PJ got all sorts of great things and played happily all day. It took us 3 hours to open gifts. Not because he got so much, but because he was enjoying things as he opened.

This was much preferred than a 5 minute greed fest.

The decorations are still up. The gingerbread men have not been baked. There is entirely too much candy in this house. I have not downloaded the photos yet.

Other than that, we're having a great week.

We bought this for my son's 3rd birthday. I wanted him to be able to enjoy the Nativity without my having to holler at him for touching a special manger scene.

Last Christmas, when we got out the decorations, he yelled, "My manager scene! I love my manager scene." (That is not a typo)

He is in charge of setting it up and keeping it neat. He keeps it in the front of the tree and we don't bury it underneath presents.

Including the nativity scene in a child friendly way is important to us.

See other Nativity scenes at Iris' blog

I've been seeing this on lots of blogs so here's my take on it.

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate is always great. PJ does like "egg milk"

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? We don't do Santa

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? white lights

4. Do you hang mistletoe? I have some fake stuff that I hang up.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Stuffing, mashed potatoes

7. Favorite childhood holiday memory? I'd say just my family being goofy.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I can't even remember. We just did Santa for fun and it was never a big deal.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? When I was a kid we did, but now we do a simple Christmas so we save it all for Christmas morning.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? red bulbs, the old favorites, candy canes

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? I don't like driving on snow--of course I like the old "white Christmas"

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? making room for Jesus in our hearts. Thinking of others.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? all of it unfortunately

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? reading Christmas books each day in December.

17. What tops your tree? an angel made by my sister many years ago.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? I definitely love getting gifts--it's my love language but I do prefer to give. (That is also a part of gifts being my love language)

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? Angels We Have Heard on High. But honestly as a musician? I love them all.

20. Candy canes: for decorating. I don't really eat them. We stick them in a mug of hot cocoa sometimes.

21. Favorite Christmas movie? It's a Wonderful Life. Totally!

Tag you're it.

**Another last December repost
A discovery was made this Christmas season!

My brother, sisters, and myself absolutely hate wrapping Christmas presents by ourselves. If we're wrapping with others, we enjoy it and find it to be an enjoyable experience.

If we're stuck wrapping by ourselves, we find it to be a major drag!

We blame our father! He saved Christmas shopping for Dec 23rd if he was early--or Dec 24 if he wasn't. He'd take us along and drag us from store to store to comparison shop. (If you're shopping on Dec 24th, why are you comparison shopping!?)

When we were all exhausted and whiney, we'd drag home and start the wrapping.

We'd sneak in to their bedroom making a big production out of hiding everything from Mom. We'd wrap and giggle and laugh about the choices we made.
I think Dad would sneak chocolate in usually. So we were eating and laughing and wrapping.

Ok, laughing is not the word--I think that we were howling! Dad loves giving gag gifts and making the presents from someone famous. I think Mom has received presents "from" Nancy Reagan & Brett Favre to name a few.

So, Dad ruined us. Apparently we are all "social wrappers" and I'm pretty sure we're going to stay that way.

My brother was here this weekend, and he helped me wrap PJ's presents. We enjoyed ourselves!

**Another repost from last December when no one was reading me.
When we were kids, my siblings and I sang our own version of Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
Our Grandpa's name was Harold so we'd sing "Hark the Grandpa Angels Sing"
Just in the car or around the house. (NEVER! at church.)

It was just our silly little family way of remembering Grandpa.

We never lived by our Grandparents.
When we were very young, they lived in Michigan. I remember staying with them one weekend while Mom and Dad went to another town where Dad was preaching. Grandpa had to take us to church--this was before he knew the Lord and he was not amused at his assignment.

We got dressed up (in some majorly funky 70's dresses--I'll have to see if I can scrounge up that photo of that morning) headed to church and settled into Sunday School. While we were changing classrooms for Jr Church, Grandpa nabbed us and said we were going home. My sister and I--Baptist pastor's kids through and through were horrified at the thought of skipping church! We threw a fit, but Grandpa won and we went home. When our parents returned, I think Becky and I told them that horrific occurence before we even said hi!

When they moved to Tennessee, we got to help him in his huge garden. Hailing from the Frozen Tundra, we were enthralled that he could plant in February. We'd sit out on the back porch and spit watermelon seeds, cook big Southern suppers with Grandma, and listen to Uncle Dennis, Aunt Carol, Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa tell stories. We'd sit in the other room, while they played games listening to the conversation of our family. Laughter, snorts, shouts, and thumps on the back--hilarious stories, family tales--the fabric of my life!

We had croquet tournaments. Grandma and Grandpa's home had a huge front lawn. We'd set up the game and play like crazy. Cousins on the porch laughing and teasing while we waited our turn. Grandpa lining up his shot--he was not just playing for fun! (A trait passed down to all of us!)

The first Christmas after Grandpa died, I teared up when we sang our Grandpa Christmas carol. Special memories have a way of being bittersweet.

"Hark the Grandpa Angels Sing...."

**This is a re-post from last Christmas when no one was reading my blog. It's pretty good if I do say so myself!
Simplify seems to be the mantra today. Simplify your life books abound and yet our lives are crazier by the day.

Christmas brings out the crazies in all of us. We want Christmas to be bigger and better. We want it to be perfect and nostalgic. Norman Rockwell, Martha Stewart, Hallmark... all adding to our sense of failure when it comes to Christmas.

When we're striving for the perfect Christmas, something as little as a pan of burned gingerbread boys can send us over the edge.

We go into debt buying the latest must have present. Wrapping paper costs a pretty penny--postage has gone up. No wonder Christmas has become one of the most stressful times of year.

I think I realized this year how badly our world's celebrations have become. Christmas is on a Sunday this year and churches began canceling services so families could be together. I read about a woman who wanted her pastor to cancel church because the moms have so much to do for Christmas day.

PHEW! What a messed up priority list. I want no part in celebrations of the birth of my Saviour, that make me too busy and stressed out to stop and worship Him.

Before I was married, I was always up to my eyeballs in Christmas preparations. I hosted a carolling party, sent out a pile of handmade cards. I wrapped in co-ordinating papers with specially purchased tags to compliment the papers.

I purchased gifts for people because they purchased one for me. I made spicy pomander balls out of oranges and whole cloves and cinnamon ornaments that took days to dry. I purchased a new ornament every year.

I made sure I had 3 new piano pieces ready each year so that no one at church would have to listen to the same offeratory they had to listen to 2 years ago! (horrors!)

I was sucked into the marketing deployed by the retailers. Bigger, better, more perfect every year.

When I married my husband, he put the kabosh on all that. He said no way! Christmas is about Jesus and there would be no stress in our house over preparations.

At first, I must admit I rebelled because I ENJOYED all the hustle and bustle. As time passed, and I became accustomed to simplifying Christmas, I began to love our new way to celebrate.

Last year was the first year that I finally "got it". I enjoyed Christmas immensely without all the stress and this year? Well, let's say I am having the best Christmas ever.

So how did I get there? I'm not totally sure but I'll share with you the steps we've taken along the way.

**We purchase gifts that we pre-planned. We choose ahead of time what everyone is getting and we stick to the list. No last minute "Yikes I must buy more!" It is hard resisting the pull of the marketing at this time of year, but it's much more relaxing.

For our son, we try to follow a popular trend with young families these days. We choose three presents because the Wise men brought 3 gifts to Jesus. We don't follow this exactly, but having a guideline helps us avoid the mountain of gifts under the tree.

We realized that this time in our family's life was the perfect time to institute a simple Christmas--we have one child and he is young! He will never know any different.

We do not ask him for a list of things he wants. We are trying to avoid creating the "gimee's"
We don't concentrate on what we want or what we hope to get.

**I only make cards if I choose to do so. If I don't feel like making cards or I run out of time, I either buy cards or are you ready for this? I don't send them! I love getting cards, and displaying the cards we receive, but I refuse to stress out over cards. I have a friend who was going crazy because she hadn't made her cards. I pointed out that she could buy cards and she looked at me like I had 3 heads! "But people expect me to send them a homemade card!"

Cardinal rule of simplifying Christmas--you don't do things because other people expect it from you! If you can take this to heart and make it your cardinal rule, you will enjoy Christmas much more.

**Downsize your Christmas tree and ornament collection. This year, I actually was going to get a big tree. My "Charlie Brown" tree had outlived it's usefulness. When I went to buy one, I almost passed out! They were over $200 and pushing $300. No way on earth was I blowing the whole budget on a tree. I purchased a small one and consciously chose to be content with it.

That can be rule number 2! Make decisions and choose to be content with them.
If you decide that the decisions you made this year weren't quite right for you, then by all means tweak your decisions next year.

Our little tree looks just fine. We are able to enjoy the lights and warmth it adds to our home just as much as we would enjoy a taller tree.

Since I have a small tree, I was finally able to edit all the ornaments I was holding onto just in case we ever got a big tree. I got rid of boxes of bulbs, lights, and ornaments I was not in love with. Since our living room is red, we chose to go with red bulbs, gold garland, and mostly crystal or white ornaments. Everything else was donated to help someone else have their own Merry Christmas.

**Philemon and I make one special treat each Christmas. We don't need to have trays of sweet treats. He and I decide ahead of time what to make and we make it an event. This year we chose to make gingerbread girls and boys. We had a wonderful time listening to carols and decorating cookies.

I even went so far as to purchase Pillsbury gingerbread dough. I have a wonderful recipe from my Mom for gingerbread boys. We made them almost every year. At first, I was feeling badly that I hadn't made the dough. Of course I realized that this was all about the time together and the experience for my little boy. He doesn't care if Mommy didn't make the dough--he just had fun making memories with me.

I wanted to make our neighbors a plate of cookies, and even bought the ingredients, but time ran out and I refused to stress about making cookies--that is not part of our celebration (the stress or doing things we feel we "should") So I bought some soup mixes and fancy rice, I'll put them in a basket with a bread mix and call it good. That decision saved me hours of work in the kitchen. It's not that I would not have enjoyed the baking, but I did not have the time and so it was a task I happily never added to my to do list.

**We have chosen to skip Santa in our home. Our reasoning is that we want Christmas to only be about Jesus. We give one another gifts because Jesus came to earth to give us the greates gift we could ever receive.

This decision focuses our celebration solely on Jesus, and also gives us a break!
Fewer presents and wrapping paper! No running to the mall and falling apart because the Santa picture didn't turn out--no agonizing because someone mentioned Santa's fictiousness in front of our child. Santa is for fun and the real Santa did wonderful things for poor children--that's all.

Our son gets gifts and even a stocking--they just happen to be from his parents!

**We read the Christmas story together. We just read it tonight. Then we talked about our favorite characters in the story. We especially like the version in Luke chapter 2.

Other ways we focus our celebrating on Jesus are:

Having a child friendly Nativity scene.

Having books around with paintings that picture the Bible record of the birth of Jesus.

Listen to carols more than we listen to secular Christmas songs.

Learn verses from the Bible story.

Use postage stamps with Mary or Baby Jesus on them rather than sugar cookies and snowmen.

Try to send out a card with a religious theme.

Wish people Merry Christmas instead of happy holidays.

Talk about Christmas being Jesus' birthday.

Worship with our church family--even when Christmas preparations or celebrating could be done during these times.

**We incorporate and establish traditions.

I have my chilhood stocking. My Mom made one for my husband and one for my son to match mine.

We read one Christmas storybook every night in December.

We plug in our tree lights every day.

We listen to Christmas music as often as possible.

We drink out of our special Christmas cups and mugs all season long--then we put them away to bring out next year.

We display the cards we receive from friends.

We drive around to look at the "Jesus lights" (Christmas lights). When Philemon was 2, we went for a ride to see the lights and he called them Jesus lights--the name has stuck.

We look for new ideas every year to incorporate into our meaningful celebrations.

So, our celebration is not perfect but we will always look for ways to make it better.
We are happy to hear what others do so please post any ideas you may have.

Just remember it is possible to simplify your celebration so that you can enjoy your Christmas season.

I have had this past week off of Christmas preparations. Everything was done, and I could enjoy the sights and sounds of this beautiful time of year!

Give it a try! You might like it!

What a fun blogging chicks carnival.
Our family is pretty crazy.

We give gag gifts.

We tell each other how cheaply we got their presents.

We eat too much chocolate!

My mother would wrap each sock or mitten separately. We'd wake up to a mound of presents.

A lot of these crazy family moments are due to the fact that we never lived by our extended families. I can't remember one Christmas that we spent with anyone but our immediate family.
We lived in the cold north where weather dictated travel plans, and Dad didn't like being away from his church on Christmas.

Mom grew up in a wealthy home and always had a ton of presents.
Mom and Dad were not wealthy.
So, Mom did all she could to make Christmas a very fun time. Dad did the memorable.

There are stories that can't be published on blogs. (Or should not be siblings! hint hint)

My sister wrote about some of our crazy memories on her blog.

My Dad would blare his Yorgi Yorgenson records. Ok, they ARE funny. But not over and over and over all Christmas morning.

You can go here and click on the songs to hear. I suggest Yingle Bells, and I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas. He also sang "All I Want for Christmas is My Upper Plate" and "Walking in my Vinter Underwear" (to the tune of Walking in a Winter Wonderland.)
This music would be punctuated with my Mother hollering "Charles! turn that down!"

My Mom's family always opened gifts on Christmas Eve and my Dad's on Christmas morning.
So, we got to open one on Christmas Eve and the rest Christmas morning.

One year, on Christmas Eve, I spied out my gift. It was beautifully wrapped and I was sure it was my big gift.
Dad tried to talk me out of opening it. That made me even more certain that it was my good gift.
Being the oldest I had to wait til everyone else opened theirs. The suspense built.
I opened it to discover it was my gag gift.
I was SOOO mad. My Dad was choking on his laughter because he had told me not to open it.

It was a big old ugly rat trap!

Needless to say the rat trap has made it's rounds.
Last year, my father in law had a box of junk I sorted through. Lo and behold there was a rat trap decorated for Christmas with a music box that played a Christmas carol. (Wow! someone else has our sick sense of humor.)

I sent it to my Dad. I'm sure that I will get it back this year.

My Mom reminded me tonight of the Christmas program where a little boy picked his nose and turned and wiped it on my sister's song book!
We all had to watch the rest of the program with that floogy hanging there! Eww!!

But the worst of all! When we'd go shopping with Dad (no earlier than the 23rd) he'd drag us all over town comparison shopping.
Ok, you don't get to comparison shop if you wait til the 23rd! Then we'd go back to wherever he saw the best price.
We'd be exhausted. He'd be saying, "Isn't this fun!?" and his favorite saying when we were all getting grouchy "Fond family memories."

When we got older, he'd make us go in the lingerie section to buy a nightie for Mom. (EWW!)
He's stand out in the aisle with a big old stage whisper. "No! not that one." "No the one to the right."

We'd protest quite loudly!
"DAAAAAAAAAAAAD! Go in there and get it yourself."
He's say with big horrified eyes, "What! look at all these people around here. They'll think I'm some sort of weirdo."

Sigh! How did they have 4 children is all I'd like to know!

Merry Christmas! Yes, we can celebrate the true meaning even while remembering our quirky families.

Many years ago my associate teacher and I got together one December Saturday to make these ornaments as gifts for our students. They are so fragrant and are perfect for Christmas decorations.

We found that drying time totally depends on how thick they are. We decided that a thicker dough was easier to cut and transfer so we didn't mind the longer drying time.

We cut ours out with a hand cookie cutter and used a knife to cut out a tiny heart on the hand.

Try to dry them on a wire rack so the top and bottom can be drying at the same time.

We tied them with red or orange check gingham cotton after they dried. I had one hanging in my kitchen for years!

Apple Cinnamon Dough
1 cup cinnamon
1 cup apple sauce
1 -2 plastics zip bag

1. Pour cinnamon and applesauce into a zip bag.

2. Seal the zip bag and knead until the mixture turns to dough.

3. Roll some dough out about 1/4 inch thick, then use cookie cutters to
create fragrant tree ornaments, package ties, and air fresheners. Make a
small hole toward the top of your cut-out before the dough dries so
that it can be hung with string or ribbon.

Applesauce cinnamon dough can also be molded by pushing it into candy
and popcorn molds.

4. Allow your applesauce cinnamon dough creations to air-dry for 12
hours or until hard.

I wrote this letter to my son after the 4th of July parade last year.
I think these thoughts are appropriate for Flag Day--you may see this again on the 4th!

Dear Baby,
I love this photo of you at the fourth of July parade.
I am trying to teach you to love America. I want you to respect our flag and all it represents.
So many men and women have died for America. They fought for us--so that we can enjoy freedom.

You were being silly and said "give me liferty (liberty) and a piece of pie!". I laughed and laughed at you. You are so sweet and innocent. Someday, I hope you'll know how very priceless our liberty is.

We are free to worship God as we choose. We are free to travel around our country. We vote--we can express our opinions. There is so much more to being an American than the fourth of July.

I trust that I will teach you well. When you grow up, I want your heart to swell when the flag passes by in a parade--or when you hear it flap in the breeze.
I want you to get chills when you hear the Star Spangled Banner. When you put your hand on your heart and pledge allegiance to our flag,
I hope you'll know how very special this land of ours is. I want for you to know how very blessed we are to be Americans.

I love you! Mom"