Love is.....So much more

Good morning! Since I was suppose to share my giveaway winner from my birthday giveaway which ran from last Saturday through yesterday. I will annouce that winner first! Drum roll.....
It is Sandie! She is a terrific blogger and her Chatty Crone space is one I know many of you know! Please visit her and wish her well today! Congratulations Sandie! I will e mail you so I can send your giveaway gift on its way! Woo Hoo! Lucky lady! Sandie is a darling angel sharing so much good humor with us! She always has a beautiful share and today is no different. Visit her blog!
I wanted to share these sweet angels too. They fit the season don't they? Plus they are great additions to my birthday giveaway winner Sandie and my share with Marydon at Love is...today. Tomorrow I can share them with Sally for my Blue Monday share! I do have a host of blues to share but I will start with this one tomorrow!
Now I want to share my Spiritual Sunday. I hope you will visit Sweet Charlotte and thank her for her ongoing support of this weekly enouragement. I feel so blessed knowing all of you and I really love the shares I find around Spiritual SUnday. Thank you Charlotte you are a kind heart~
"Then Joseph...did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. " Matthew 124.
Think about Joseph. He was a small player in the greatest role of his life! He was single handedly chosen by the Lord to become the earthly father of Our Lord and Savior Jesus! I though Mary had a tough role! Joseph was mostly in the background but he sacrificed his place in his society to take on this role. He could have said no way! I am not breaking Jewish law! He knew he would be looked down on for marrying Mary although she was already with child.
During this glorious season with all the beautiful festivities please never ever forget the true and most important season for this season! The birth of Jesus Christ is and always will be first and foremost in our hearts!

This is artwork depicting the Holy Family. My middle Rebekah created this when she was in Catholic school and it is dated Dec 2001. It hangs in the living room during the holiday season. My middle girl is an angel!
Now I want to share one final angel. I received my Secret Santa Soiree package from my partner and I am currently trying to figure out who she is! I may have an idea who she is is but here is a glimpse of what she sent to me!

Some Harry and David truffles! Oooh...have to have those before I start my New Year diet plan! :)

A secret surprise!

A sweet cherub/angel! I love it! It matches one I have sitting on my dresser that is a little porcelain treasure box! Secret Santa where you peeking in my window?

A pretty note with a sweet angel guarding my packages all the way from.....Hmmm...Secret Santa where do you live?

A Yankee votive candle, actually a pair, with the intriguing scent of "Over the River". So sweet and Christmas scented! Plus it is a pretty shade of blue!

Some Swiss Miss Carcel Cream! I will have to share this with my Sweets! He is a carmel flavored addict!

A holiday note pad and much much more. I received some candy,a nail file and some tea time items. I am going to show those at a later date! There was a beautiful box of note cards and they are artwork reproductions. So pretty. Thank you so much Secret Santa! I will share more items next time.
I had so much fun playing Santa to my secret pal and I know she showered me with many wonderful gifts. Thanks for being such a generous Santa! Go visit Suzanne. You can see what others received from their Santa's too!
I will close with a love hug to all of you here! Come back soon!

Proverbs 2:3-5 and Love is....

I had a birthday December 3rd. Look at the verse above. I think sometime God sends me these little signs! Backward it is the year (53) I was born but  the day (3) is different from the chapter. I love this verse. I sets my heart into a happy mode:

"If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God."

Isn't life grand? I have a good friend who suffers from depression. I wish I could wipe away her sadness. I have a dear relative going through a tough financial time, why can't I wave a magic wand and make her problems disappear? I know three beautiful patients who this week received tough news, cancer! Life is not fair.

But God is good. He is here for you. To hold you in His arms. To wipe your tears away. To soften the troubles life hands you.

Trust Him. Come to Him like a small helpless child. He will listen. He does care.

Join Charlotte and all the wonderful folks who share with us each week. Come join the encouragement and spiritual healing.

 Join Marydon and I can bet she will remind you to trust Him who loves you. He will give you your own silver lining!

Love is....Jayden Alexander

This little Love is...could be Andrew and Tarrah. Except Andrew is fair and Tarrah has dark hair. I like to incorporate my Love is...with my Spiritual Sunday. I hope you will visit Marydon and Charlotte and thank these two precious ladies for sharing their time with us each week.
 These two meme's are so beautiful, full of love and encouragement. If you don't already please come join us.

Now may I introduce you to Jayden Alexander. This beautiful boy debuted on September 12th after giving everyone quite a scare! They lost his heartbeat momentairly and two minutes later mama Tarrah was having a C-section to bring our sweet boy into our phamily.
He is perfect. Each tiny finger (long and elegant) and sweet little toes count from one to ten! Praise God! His eyes are blue. I hope he will keep them. He is a minature version of daddy. I could spend the rest of my life just holding him, kissing him and whispering  "I love you" to him! He is an extra bonus baby! I have grandsons, now I have a great grandson! I am  silly in love over him! I want to shout it out!
I found two perfect Scripture verses that define my life today.

"Grandchildren are the crown of old men and  the glory of son's is their fathers." Proverbs 17:6

"A gray head is a crown of glory: it is found in the way of righteousness." Proverbs 16:31

I had Nick at age 39. Often people ask if I am his grandmother. Absolutely no! I am the mama bear, he is always going to be my baby man cub!
Do I love being grandma? Yes! Do I love being grand grandma? Definetly! Do I love being a mom! Absolutely!
My life is defined. I am happily enjoying it all!

Friendship Sunday

I am sharing a friendship Sunday thought with all of you today. I wanted to incorporate my Love is... post with a Spiritual Sunday post. I hope you will all join Marydon and Charlotte with these weekly encouraging memes.

Today I met two of the most fun blogging friends Suzanne and LaVoice. I also had the privilege of meeting LVs sister Patsy who is Suzanne's mom! Oh My Goodness! These ladies were so wonderful and heart warming! We had planned to meet on Thursday but their plane was delayed due to weather! Now wouldn't you just know that would happen?! But I was just happy they were all safe snuggled in that  plane full of people! It was going to take a few more days to catch up with them but it was worth the wait.
Have you ever dreamed about anyone and then realize your dream was real? I did just that and these three ladies were more fun than I know how to have!
LV is just an honest lady with a big heart and she shared her quesadilla at lunch with myself and my oldest daughter Noelle.  She is such a sharp witted lady and shares her blog with us as if we were all old friends.
All three of my girls traveled with me to Castle Rock today to meet the ladies.
Suzanne is a delight! She is a warm and wonderful lady with so many talents. Her blog is filled with vintage and her sweet three doxies. Her mom Patsy! Oh My Goodness! She was just a warm and friendly lady that you knew you wanted to get to know better! She has a blog but has not kept it up. We might have to try to change her mind!
The waitress and than another customer took a few photo ops for us in the restaurant and then outside my daughters shot some candid photos too!
I must tell you, you might have figured that I am chatty!  I tend to be long winded and I wanted to say so many things to these ladies that LV commented that I had enough words for all of us! LOL! It was a compliment.
It is interesting how the Lord ties our hearts together. I had been listening to a program featuring Patsy Clairmont . She is a favorite Christian speaker and she uses a lot of words. I tend to be like her and I think she is a pretty terrific role model!
So today please join me in saying a little pray for the safe travels for my once  bloggy and now real friends Suzanne, LV and Patsy. Friendship is a wonderful thing.

 From right to left, my daughters Noelle and Rebekah, Patsy, LV, Suzanne, my daughter Hannah and me!

 Myself with LV and Suzanne.
"Iron sharpens iron. So one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17

Love is.... You and I

I really don't live for my sweet hubby. I live for the one who died for me. Jesus Christ. I wanted to incorporate this Love is...today with my Spiritual Sunday post. So here is my tribute to love. Love of my phamily. Love of my sweet man and love mostly importantly  Our Savior.
Please join Marydon and all the participates of Love is... Although Marydon will be traveling she may not be able to post today so let's all post and make her smile when she returns from her trip.
Then stop by Charlotte and Ginger and thank them for sharing each weekend with us and encouraging each other with Spiritual Sunday.

I borrowed this lovely verse from Zephaniah 3:12 from Linda. She is always so gracious to share God's love with everyone. Stop by and say hi to her. You may tell her I sent you.

Now for the winner of the hand blown tea pot. Drum roll.....

Thank Hannah my lovely daughter who drew the name of:....

 Sweet Tea

I am excited for you! Now send me all your info so I may send this off to you this week!

Congratulations! Love knowing you Sweet Tea and I love knowing each and every person here!

Love is...

I always loved these sweet cartoons that are still featured in newspapers across the world. In the 1960s Kim Grove drew these sweet little characters for her beloved Roberto Casali. Roberto passed away from cancer in 1976 and Kim passed away in 1997. They had three sons, and their son Stefano keeps  the Love is... in print still today. There is not a lot of info about Kim but an interesting fact is that she and Roberto had two sons and she was artificially inseminated after his untimely death and that produced their third son. I thought it would be good to share what info I have collected about Kim. I have two of her books filled with these cartoons. she was born in New Zealand and lived and passed away  in the UK. At one time she and Roberto both lived in the USA illegally trying to find work so they would be able to settle here.
I hope you join all the participates of Love is....including Marydon, Sherry,Tete and Rita. We have such fun posting these sweet cartoons for you to see! Come join us please !
In memory of Kim's wonderful artistic talent I will give away a gently used copy of her book Love is..A Wild Ride. All you need to do is post a comment here and be a follower. Easy peasy!  I will draw a winner on July 30th! So you have lots of time to join the fun and leave comments. I am adding a button to my sidebar so feel free to share it with everyone. These little books are sweet as can be!
In honor of Love here is my Spiritual Sunday contribution. I love searching my bible for Scripture and here is a list I compiled about love:

"If you love me, keep my commandments." John 14:15

"Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friend. "John 15:1

"Let brotherly love continue.Be not forgetful in entertaining strangers:for thereby some have entertained angels unaware."  Hebrews 13:1-2

"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor:therefore love is the fufilling of the law." Romans 13:11

"Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honuor preferring one to another."  Romans 12:10

I hope you find some love in these verses today and stop by to thank Charlotte and Ginger for hosting the weekly meme Spiritual Sunday.