A Gift For My Readers - Eat And Be Merry

My dear friend, Gregory Kompes, put together a holiday recipe and story collection that could be shared during this holiday season. I know most all of the contributing authors. I can't wait to try the recipes they shared. Everyone contributed a story to go along with the good food. The writing is superb and fun to read.

I contributed my mother's pound cake recipe. My stepdaughter and I made one for Thanksgiving. This was the first time I'd attempted in all these years to make my mother's signature cake. We burnt it! Oh well, the inside tastes like heaven. I had to laugh...if you read my essay in the recipe collection, you'll understand why.

I hope you enjoy this gift. Let me know what you think. I promised to pass the comments on to Gregory. I'm sure he'd like to know that all his hard work is appreciated.

Happy Holidays!!! Here's the link to Recipes and Writing.

Day of Love - I Have to Say It

I have to say it - I am married to an incredible man and he is perfect - at least, for me. LifePrints is almost a year old and because of its focus I don't talk very much about my family, unless I can tie it into my theme.

What better theme than the universal day of love to tell to you about my husband, Todd? It's perfect.

"I fell in love with you in kindergarten," he told me one day.

"What do you mean? I didn't know you back then," was my bewildered response. We'd been dating for a while and were sharing dessert in one of those fancy fondue restaurants.

"Yeah. One day when I was about 5, my friend told me he had a girlfriend with pretty blond hair and the brightest blue eyes he'd ever seen and her name was Lisa D. I feel in love with the idea of you and never forgot your name. So when I saw you for real in the 7th grade it was like you walked right out of my dreams."

I rested my head on his shoulder and swallowed the lump in my throat. So much had happened between junior high and this day in the restaurant - a winding path of close friendship, other loves, lives, and families. And some how, so many years later, we still ended up here, fulfilling a little boy's fantasy or was it his destiny?

That was a little over 5 years ago and on Valentine's Day I am reminded again that we are meant to live as one. A necklace fell out of my card this morning, a hematite donut with a moon charm suspended in the middle. He made it for me last night after holding onto the stone since last spring. He'd bought it in a little rock store in the New Mexico mountains.

On Christmas Eve I made a lapis donut necklace, wire wrapped with an identical moon charm and hid the little box under the tree. I'd carried the stone in my wallet since the day I bought it last spring in a little rock store in the New Mexico mountains.

I didn't know. He didn't know...and yet perfection.

The Quiltmakers Gift and the Power of Giving

I love to take my children to the library, especially my youngest son. We scour the shelves for books with bright pictures and lively stories - not too short and not too long since he's still a toddler. Sometimes I discover one that touches my heart.

The Quiltmakers Gift by Jeff Brumbeau and Gail de Marcken is such a book. This is a charming fable that celebrates the joy of giving by pitting a generous quiltmaker with magic in her fingers against a greedy king who demands gifts from everyone in his town.

Even though the king has everything he is searching for one special gift that will make him happy and he believes it's a quilt from the quiltmaker who lives high in the mountains. When he threatens her with bears and drowning, she smiles and says that she never sells her quilts. She won't give him one either because they are for those who have nothing and he has everything.

She tells the king that each time he gives away one of his treasures to someone else she will put a piece in a quilt for him. Eventually, the king learns that giving made him happy in a way that receiving never could.

Since the publication of The Quiltmakers Journey and The Quiltmakers Gift, the authors began collecting stories of generosity and sharing from around the world. Some people were inspired to act after reading the two books. Others wrote into the website to tell stories of generous people and organizations who reminded them of the quiltmaker in the books.

One such group was Fresh Youth Initiative of New York City. Since 1995 the youth of Washington Heights have gathered together to make sleeping bags for distribution to homeless people in their neighborhood. Andrew Rubinson says that nearly 1,000 youth have participated in making 400 hand sewn sleeping bags. These children are like the Quiltmaker who walked the darkness putting blankets on the shoulders of people sleeping in the streets.

I stumbled upon another group that carries on the tradition of the Quiltmaker. I don't know if the women of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and Ministry from Chapel Hill, NC, have ever read the Quiltmakers Gift. They certainly embody her spirit by making quilts that they've donated to Lutheran World Relief, hurricane disaster relief programs, nurseries at local hospitals, and grade school children in need.

Quilters are known to be generous, creative people who love to share their gifts with those they love. Look to the fictitious Quiltmaker of Brumbeau's story and to the real women and youth of this world reaching out to help others in need. Giving indeed is better than receiving.

In The Spirit Of The Season - Relax

The crowds, the frantic people, the short tempers, the craziness of shopping for gifts - is this what the last days before Christmas feel like to you? If so, go in your room, close the door and take a deep breath - maybe take several. Look, I'm doing it, too.

It doesn't have to be this way. I think my stress comes from wanting to make everyone I love happy (my chronic need to please syndrome). I have to find that special gift for let's see...6 people and counting. My house needs to be perfect to entertain guests on Christmas Eve. I want to make the most delicious meal ever on Christmas night. And I still have to keep up with everything else I do each day. So when I looked in the mirror at my frazzled face, I thought, "Something has gone very wrong. This is supposed to be fun and I look like I'm about to jump off a cliff."

If anyone else feels the way I do then follow me in making this declaration:

I will have a joyous Christmas. I will slow down and take time to BE part of and in the season. I will remember that the holiday is a celebration of love and love comes in many forms (not just in a perfectly wrapped present that I spent hours searching for). I will be aware of and pay attention to the people around me. I will not subject anyone to my irritation, impatience, or self-importance. I will remember that this time of year is for sharing of myself (just a smile will do) and receiving from others (I really do deserve it, sometimes I have trouble remembering that I'm taking the joy of giving away from others when I try to do everything myself).

And after all of that, I will take more deep breaths, be still for a moment in the joy of the season and remember it can last through out the year if I chose for it to. I will head to my car with quiet contentment and finish my shopping with a grateful and loving attitude.

Here hoping I can pull it off....:)

Happy Holidays to all!