2010 marks the 33^rd year for the annual Advent Walk in our city. The walk is always the first Sunday of Advent and is held in the afternoon from 2-4 pm. It is an ecumenical service and includes five historic churches in downtown Paducah.

Each church is responsible for part of the Advent Worship Service. Those attending walk as a group to each church. They are led by the ministers, deacons or priests of each of the five churches. The order of churches rotates each year and the last church in the rotation hosts a time of fellowship after the service and serves light refreshments.

This year the walk began at First Presbyterian, and the next stops were at Broadway United Methodist, St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic, Washington Street Missionary Baptist and Grace Episcopal. This is a community event with people coming from all over our area to attend.

It is a great time of coming together with our friends and neighbors who attend other churches. It allows us to worship together. It reminds me that even though we are all different, we are much the same. Families take time to attend this service together before the busy holiday season gets in full swing. It is a wonderful tradition and we look forward to it each year.

Janet

It was back in the day . . . as they say now. We had moved from Kentucky to New Jersey, the day after my high school graduation. It was a difficult move for me and I thought my life was surely over! It was a wonderful opportunity for my family as Dad had a great job there. As an 18 year old – New Jersey was so far from my comfort zone that it was difficult for me to see that anything good was ever to happen in my life again. Can you say “Drama Queen”?

We moved and had a lovely home in a wonderful neighborhood. I was accepted at the local college only a few short blocks from our house. I would be able to stay at home and even walk to class. We settled into our new residence and before long other teenagers began to appear in the neighborhood and I decided the move wasn’t too bad a deal. I made friends quickly and before long there was always something going on that I would be invited to. I think it was because I had a funny “southern accent” and they loved to hear me talk! Of course, I thought they had funny accents too.

November came and since it was our first Thanksgiving in Jersey, my parents decided to take the family to New York for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. OH MY GOODNESS, my life was over I thought! How dull, how boring, how totally childish . . .why would anyone want to ever go to New York and watch some silly parade? I was way too grown up for such things. So I was given a choice of going or staying home. You know which one a sophisticated college freshman chose . . . staying home. As it turned out, a friend invited me to their home for Thanksgiving dinner. My parents, my younger sister and brother headed for New York City early on Thanksgiving morning.

OK, fast forward 30 years. HOW dumb was I? Why did I think I was too grown up to go the Macy’s Parade? I missed one of the greatest opportunities of my life . . .if only, yes, I said it, if only I had gone. What memories I would be able to share with my children and grandchildren when we watch the parade on television. I had the opportunity to see the Macy’s parade live and in person and I didn’t go! Each year I have a sadness that comes over me when the parade begins. I missed my chance. Some day, I am going to see that parade in person. I am not Too Grown up now!

Janet

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and before the rush of the December, I want to take a moment to appreciate the quiet loveliness of this holiday. As an adult, Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday because it truly gives me a day to spend with those I love, to enjoy some delicious food, and to contemplate all the blessings I have in my life.

This year finds me thankful for many things. I am most grateful for my family. My daughter brings joy in ways I never could have imagined prior to becoming a mother. Daily discoveries, laughter, singing and dancing, and innocent beauty are all gifts from her. Our extended family provides support and love and it has been wonderful seeing her grow to love and develop relationships with them too.

I am thankful for our health, our home, our jobs, and our warm clothes, as the weather grows colder.

I am grateful for the beauty in our world, in nature, in the arts, in the people around us, and in the everyday moments of life.

I am thankful for friends, near and far (and for the ability to stay in touch through modern conveniences such as the internet and phone.)

And finally, it is important for me to stop and remember those who are not so fortunate and those who suffer at this time. I hope to always be mindful and find ways to help and improve the lives of others while also being grateful for the gifts we have. This is something I want my daughter to understand too. It is not enough to be thankful for our gifts if we don’t work to improve the lives of others.

I am wishing all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving rich with the things that make your heart full.

-Lisa D.

There are many holidays I enjoy celebrating during the year, but Thanksgiving has become one of my favorites! As a child, Christmas and my birthday topped the list, but now that I am an adult, my birthdays aren’t quite as exciting!

I am trying to celebrate each holiday equally and to the fullest. It really bothers me that before Halloween, Christmas decorations are filling the stores. I don’t want to rush the seasons. Days and years are passing much too quickly anyway and we seem to be in such a rush to get to the end of the current year and begin a new one! Wouldn’t it be nice if we could slow things down just a bit?

Thanksgiving is about giving thanks. There are many things to be thankful for. I am thankful for my health and the good health of my family. I am thankful for my country, that I live in freedom allowing me to make choices that are the best for me and my family. I am thankful for my home, it is warm in the winter and cool in the summer. I am thankful for the love of my family and friends and the ability to love them in return. I look in our pantry and am somewhat ashamed that it is overflowing when I know others go to be hungry at night. I am thankful for organizations that allow me to share food and clothes with others who aren’t as lucky as I.

This year, let’s slow it down a bit. I hope you and your family join my family as we give thanks.

Janet

Ella Grace may only be 14 months old, but she already loves clothes! She had a great time shopping at the Strasburg Children store located in Cool Springs Galleria in Nashville. She received a gift card for her first birthday from her Aunt and Uncle who live in Nashville so we picked up Aunt Jane and took her shopping with us! It was a fun day. We were planning to have lunch at Loveless Café, there was a 45 -60 minute wait. Normally we wouldn’t mind waiting, but we had shopping on our minds!

We took off for the mall, grabbed a quick lunch and went straight to Strasburg. Ella Grace’s mommy selected a beautiful green and red plaid dress with a green velvet sash. Luckily Strasburg knows their customers well and built dressing rooms large enough for strollers, mommies, children, nanas and aunts.

As Ella Grace prepared to try on her first dress, I am naturally pulling out my camera! My husband says he doesn’t know what I did before I got that camera for Christmas last year! Well, I didn’t take any photos that ‘s one thing I didn’t do!

Checking the settings on my camera, a thought crossed my mind that maybe, just maybe I was being a little foolish. After all, I could take her picture at Christmas with the Christmas tree, etc. Then I heard the oohing and aahing coming from the dressing room next door. I hear someone (probably another “Nana” )saying ”Look at me, come on smile, let me take another picture. . .you look so precious. . .etc, etc.” At that moment, I forgot about feeling foolish and just started taking photos.

Ella was patient as her Mommy put the dress on her. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. She kissed the baby in the mirror. (Sorry about that to the sweet sales associates who work there). She patted the front of her dress as she felt the slip underneath that makes the skirt full, then twirled in the mirror. I guess twirling in a new dress is just something little girls are born knowing how to do.

We went out into the store, thinking we might select another dress for her to try on, but she had other ideas. She went straight out of the store into the mall, barefoot with tags hanging on the dress just like Nashville’s own Minnie Pearl had on her hat! I guess Ella wanted to model for other mall shoppers.

Ella made friends with the sales associates in the store and wanted to help them with their merchandising! She checked out the video they have to entertain the children while mommies and grandmothers shop. She loved the stuffed animals and had a great shopping experience! Thanks Nashville Strasburg! We will be back soon!

Janet

Today, I went with my daughter to a craft store to try and find a turkey shaped cookie cutter. We recently made Halloween cookies and my daughter had so much fun rolling the dough, cutting out the cookies and decorating with sprinkles. I thought it might be fun to replicate the experience for Thanksgiving. We have been talking lots about sharing (this is a pretty hard sell for the two year old crowd) and how it is wonderful to share with people. She enjoyed sharing her cute pumpkin cookies with people on Halloween.

At any rate, we walked around the whole store, looking at all the Christmas frames, decorations, do-it-yourself ornaments, gingerbread cookie cutters and snowflake cupcake cups. My daughter stood mesmerized, gazing at a tiny village set up carefully underneath some brightly decorated Christmas trees in the store.

We even heard Christmas carols over the loudspeaker.

I had to stop and ask an employee if they had any Thanksgiving cookie cutters. He looked at me like I had five heads. Honestly. Then he said slowly, as if perhaps I might not understand, “All of our fall-themed items sold out weeks ago. We only have Christmas and Hanukkah things now.”

I opened my phone to confirm the date, and yes, today is November 5. I didn’t realize that if I wanted to purchase anything Thanksgiving related, I would have to do so shortly after Labor Day. I guess it all ties in. There are Halloween decorations in the store in August, Valentine’s candy lines the shelves the day after Christmas, and good luck if you need to buy a bathing suit in the summer- you’ll never find one. They sold out in March!

My question though, is this: what is the rush? Why do we have to push the holidays up so early? Can’t we take things one day at a time? Of course I’d like to plan ahead a bit, but not that far in advance. I don’t understand why our society has become this way. By the time the holidays arrive, aren’t most people sick of them?

At any rate, I’m lucky enough to live in NYC, where you can find just about anything you ever need, no matter what time of year it is. I’ll head down to the baking supply store tomorrow and find a perfect little turkey cookie cutter, I’m sure. My daughter and I will make Thanksgiving cookies the week of Thanksgiving and share them with friends and family alike. We will use this month to talk about what Thanksgiving means, and just how lucky and grateful we are too.

Christmas can wait, at least, until after Thanksgiving!

-Lisa

We took Ike on his first trip to the Blue Willow Inn restaurant in Social Circle, GA. This is a very popular southern place to eat; especially for Sunday lunches after church! During our delicious lunch Ike was introduced to fried chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni & cheese, green beans, and for dessert, banana pudding. I think Nana even gave him a sip of sweet tea! Welcome to the south Ike! Yum! Yum! He loved it of course! (He only gets to eat vegetables and fruit at home!) Afterwards we took some pictures in their beautiful front lawn. Here he is wearing the Orange/White Diagonal Diamond Sweater Vest. I love sweater vests for little boys!

- Courtney

Be careful what you name. Sounds silly, right? We thought so too. Then we had children. Apparently giving something a name raises it to a different status. When the refrigerator breaks, it’s a bad day. When the refrigerator, which was previously named Bessie and remained a standing joke enough for the kids to know its name, and it breaks it is not only a bad day but the beginning of a crisis. What happened to Bessie? Where is she? What’s this new one? Does it know where Bessie is? Is Bessie SICK!!! When Humphrey (a goat) got sick, he died. Is Bessie going to die?!?! Take note, he was more upset about a refrigerator than a goat, but grant it, the refrigerator did live in the house and hold food.

Now, enter Susan. Susan is my ipod. About 6 months ago, I had thought about getting an ipod. My wonderful husband decided that it was a good idea, and took me to get one. The kids and I spent way too much time looking at them deciding on colors. First it was going to be green. Then pink. Then blue. Ooh, did you see the silver? Then I thought, nah, get pink, because then there is NO WAY my husband would snatch it and load his stuff on it. But at the last minute I changed my mind, and went back green. I decided to name her Susan, since it made sense when synching things etc. Then the kids started to get attached. We’d start to leave the house to go somewhere and our four year old would start screeching “Wait, we forgot Susan! We need her! She sings to us!” So, we’d troop back in to get her.

They’ll do something cute and yell “Where’s Susan? She should be taping this to send to Memaws house?” And then the ultimate betrayal. I left Susan in the car, and did not go back for her. Before you think I’m heartless, let me explain. We live out in the woods. We were getting out of the car the other night and we started to hear this noise. We couldn’t tell what it was, but it didn’t sound good. Like an angry animal that was way too close our house. Of course, the front porch light (who we have not yet named) was broken and it was pitch black. Then whatever it was starting making noise again. My husband grabbed the baby and told us to HURRY to the porch. From the noise, it sounds like we might have a coyote! We do have some in the area, but we hadn’t seen any yet. Needless to say, we left Susan in the car in our rush. Our son panicked when we came in and he realized she was missing. Luckily, he’s still at an age where we can tell him that all that singing wore her out and she was taking a nap! We rescued her the next morning…during full sunlight!

-Jenny

This is a pretty typical sight if you live on a golf course in Florida.  We have such a beautiful view of nature that we are always running back in the house for the camera.  We have water between our backyard and the golf course.  The alligators like to get out of the water and sun themselves usually on the golf course side of the water.  Most days we can see an alligator somewhere.  If we scan the water really close, we can see an eye sticking up.  It always appears they are watching us as we watch them.  We have learned to respect each other and coexist peacefully.  After all we are living in their habitat.

-Diane

Picnics are always fun and taking the grandchildren to the park for a picnic and playing is even more fun. We are lucky to have beautiful parks in our city with playgrounds especially for toddlers. One little park is full of big beautiful trees that have been there for years and years, making it nice and shady. There are picnic tables available for a quick lunch or sometimes someone is having a birthday party or a family picnic with lots of people milling around.

Jathen and Ella Grace are big enough now to enjoy outings, so the past few Mondays we head to the park for lunch and playing together. Aunt Wendy comes along and we have lots of good food to share. We don’t do anything fancy . . .peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit, sippy cups of milk or juice is the normal menu.

We always take the stadium blanket and put it down as it seems to be easier to feed the children that way. I hadn’t thought much about it before, but the first day we went it wasn’t long until I noticed an ant had joined us. Now that may not seem like a real important event, in fact to most of us it is a real annoyance when we are eating outside. However, to a toddler boy and girl an ant is a new experience and a fascination. They had probably never seen an ant before 3 weeks ago, but now I find myself hoping an ant joins us for our picnic meal. Jathen gets down really close and looks at it while it works its’ way closer and closer to the food. Of course, Nana stops all the fun when I move the food, but then the ant starts on his way again trying to reach it and the toddler is once again fascinated.

In our busy world with everyone multi tasking and much busier than we should be, I appreciate that little ant and I have begun to look forward to his arrival too. It’s a small, simple part of God’s creation but, I hope I never grow up so much or become so complacent that I stop seeing that little, tiny ant through the eyes of a child, just as Jathen and Ella Grace do.

-Janet