Life in the Middle Age Lane

What can I say about 2013?  I hope that I grew a little wiser, loved a little more, appreciated the diversity and difference in people more than before.  As with many things, I am still a work in progress.  I have been blessed with an enormous amount of good friends that I need to work on returning their love and appreciation.  Over the 47 years of life, I have been able to hang on to friends from different decades of my life. Each one molding me to be a better person, the couple of "friends" that I no longer have are the ones that affected me the most in seeing what my limits were and also my short comings.  I am most grateful for those failures. I can honestly say that this year was all about improving my relationships with neighbors, friends, and acquaintances.  Learning to say "no, that won't work for me" was my biggest challenge and still is.  But I am getting there.  I can't give 100% to all and the ones I should, my family is what should matter.

I spent four hours yesterday volunteering at a church in The Woodlands. Most of the time I shy away from writing about the individual act of service I perform. However, this one struck a little too close to home. I signed up for gift distribution, thinking that it was like an "Adopt-a-Family" type of program.  What I didn't realize was that it was for a Women's shelter and all the customers picking up their Christmas gifts were either physically or sexually abused.  Let this sit with you a minute....... The women I saw were all very thankful and had this look of shock and disbelief that they would actually be having a Christmas this year and most of all they all commented on how their children would be so excited on the toys they were to get.  All moved to tears and all gave soulful hugs that felt like liquid sunshine.  With everything going on in my life this year, this was by far the most rewarding thing I have ever done.  And it was only a small gesture on

Cohron & Newland Family Our family is growing.....We had a total of 30 people all related in one way or another over for Thanksgiving. I think I am doing something wrong because I read other's Thanksgiving plans and they are all visiting their family members and not having to cook.  How in the world do you get away with that????  I would love to be invited to someone's home and not have to worry about cooking, cleaning, and entertaining! Melchor Family  We tried to color coordinate and I forgot to change my father in laws shirt to the red sweater I had for him.  And then I forgot to tell my mom and was too embarrassed to tell her I excluded her by accident.  She didn't bring it up and hope no one rats me out. 1/4 goofiness runs in our family The new members to our family. My niece Alisha's boyfriend and his parents.  It was Marceline's first Thanksgiving. Emilio's hotty boyfriend join us too! Marceline with John John trying