My 21 Year Old Son

Yesterday was Dominic's 21st birthday.  Talk about feeling old.  The mind is flooded by the memories that we have together.  Things were not the easiest for Dominic and I.  I was not a responsible mother and I believe that was due to me having him at 16.  I wish I would have done things differently, but God had a purpose. 

Dominic and I grew up together.  It was very hard, but we lived through all of the rough patches.  We have so many good memories that today we laugh at.  Here are just a few.

Dominic (about 2 years old) and I lived in a little frame house and when it rained we had about 20 black sugar ants came in the kitchen from somewhere (never found where).  Two of my sisters were over (they are 3 and 4 years older than Dominic) and I was fixing lunch.  Dominic was on my heals of the kitchen asking all kinds of questions of what we were having, when will it be done and on and on.  I asked him to go play with his aunts.  He looked around the floor and said "Mommy, they are not out yet."  I laughed so hard, as I realized that he was looking for the black ants not his aunts that were just in the other room.

Another funny, Dominic had very blond almost white hair until he was about 11 years old and his eyebrows were very light also.  He was about 4 years old when my mother and I were talking about how light the eyebrows were that you could not hardly see them.  Dominic turned around quickly with a worried look and said, "Yes you can see my eyebrows, feel!"

There are so many memories that it would take years to tell them all.  I can remember all the sports that he played and played well.   He started off with T-ball, then to baseball.  In baseball he was an outfielder and one of three homerun hitters on his team.  Outfielders are usually not very good, but Dominic was very good.  So good in fact that the other team's coaches warned their players about hitting to center field.   As he became older he went to football in his middle school and high school (freshman and sophmore years).  He played both offense and defense.  Tight End and Middle Linebacker.  His middle school went 9-1.  At the awards ceremony he received the Patriot Award which was the highest achivement.  He also received the best block award.  High School he played JV football and soccer.  He seemed to very well, but he was more interested in Wrestling.  All through his high school years he wrestled.  He won so many awards that I cannot even remember them.  He was very good. 

Dominic has played many sports and seems to be a natural at most.  I am very proud of him and I support him as much as possible.  Today, Dominic is heading for college in the summer.   He did not want to go to college right away, but to go to work.  I told him to start college, but he needed to find his own way.  Finally in January of this year he said what every mother loves to hear "Mom, I think you are right, I need to go to college."   AWWWWW, confirmation that I am doing something right!   :)

Mom's Chili and Mom-Mow's Mississippi Corn Bread

I used the family cookbook that my mother put together that I spoke of in my last post.  It was great to be able to make some of the family dishes.  I decided since we are having some record cold weather down in Florida that I would make some chili and cornbread.  I usually use some other receipe, but then remembered the special cookbook that my mother gave me for Christmas. 

I looked through to find that my mother's chili was there and my mom-mow's cornbread was also there.  My mother is from Maine and my grandmother from the south.  So, north and south came together on our dinner table that evening.

The only thing that I did not take into account that my mother always made large portions because of having 5 girls and a husband.  I made the chili with all of the ingredients that it called for and added green pepper.  I did not even think of the size.  This is a chili that is cooked in a crockpot on low for several hours.  I have a very large crockpot.  This receipe was HUGE!  It went all the way to the rim of the crockpot.  We had chili for days.  It was very Yummy and David enjoyed the leftovers.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is a tradition that the "Lyons" family has had since I can remember.  It started with my Mom-Mow (grandmother) and after her passing it continued with my sisters and parents.  It is a very large group and we cannot seem find a house big enough to house us all; even though all of our houses are not that small.  It is a wonderful time and I love every minute of it.  There are a lot of activities and traditions.  We play the box game (this was a game my grandmother came up with), my dad reads the Christmas Story out of the bible, gifts for the kids, sister gifts, BIL gifts, mom/dad gifts and gifts from our mom/dad.  To say the least it is a busy night. 

This year was very cute for kids, they decided to put on a skit of the Story of the birth of Jesus (picture of skit to the right).  It was so cute and it was a little off, but the reason for the season was there.  Out of the mouth of babes.  I am so happy and blessed to have a family that truely knows the meaning of Christmas.

Just to explain a little of the activities.  The box game is a box full of small gifts for kids and adults.  Each family puts in 30 items (usually gifts are $1 or lower). We break up into teams.  Teams are matched with one child and one adult.  If we do not have enough kids to go with an adult then we will match the adults.  How do you get the gifts you may ask???? Well we a reader reads the "The Night Before Christmas" (or if we have enough gifts then we use Christmas carols )and then stops leaving the others to fill in the blank.  For example:  "It was the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a ______."   You are suppose to raise your hand and answer correctly.  However, most times that is not how it happens.  Anyways, whomever gets the answer correct then they get a gift for themselves and the partner.  The box game was created because our family is large and most of us would spend a fortune on gifts for every person in the family.  So my grandmother came up with the game so you still get something.  Since then the game is still in the family, but the sisters and the BILs do the $5 gifts to each other and the BILS to one another.  It is interesting to see what you can buy for $5.  You do have to be creative.  All of the adults do buy for all the nieces/nephews and each family does buy for our mom/dad.  We have told our mother not to bother buying the adults anything, but she does not listen.  Each daughter gets a box of gifts for herself and husband.  Each grandchild gets a box of gifts also.  She keeps telling us that she cuts back but we do not see it.

The best gift this year from my mother is the family cookbook.  It was a huge binder full of receipes from my dad's side of the family and my mother's side.  My mom-mow gave my mother the family "secret receipes" for Christmas years ago and then this year copied it and added my her mother's receipes.  There were also new receipes that she had and thought we would enjoy.  The most touching part of this book is the dedication page that explains the reason for the cookbook.  My mother also encourged to add to the cookbook with receipes from our husband's side of the family.

This year seem to be different.  Not that anything changed but for some reason the "air" was different.  All of the sisters are married and have their own families except for my sister Erica.  She has been dating Nick for almost a year and on Christmas Eve he popped the big question with ring in hand.  She said "yes" and all of us were happy to witness the start of engagement.  It was great.  We have a wedding in the October of this year and are happy to have an addition of not only Nick but his daughter Mykayla.  They both fit in our vast family very nicely.


It was a wonderful Christmas and one that will be remembered as one of the best; not because of the gifts, but for the simple memories of a family that is rich in love and dedication to one another.  It has taken me sometime to realize that my family is a large blessing.

Christmas with a "W"

David emailed me this short story. It is amazing how one mix up can change the outlook of the meaning of "Winter Play" at a public school. Thank God for our little children who can speak loads without saying a word. The story is very heartwarming and eye opening. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas with a "W" --- Author unknown

Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations--extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas.

My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a 6 year old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant" I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the production. Unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me there would be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then. Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise.

So in the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room, I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song.

Because of the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as Christmas, I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer. So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title.

Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bight snow caps upon their heads. Those in the front row-center stage -- held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the would sing "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up the letter C. Then, " H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love."

The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a small quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down -- totally unaware her "M" appeared as a "W." The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W." Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities. For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:

"CHRISTWAS LOVE"

And, I believe, He still is. Amazed in his presence.... Humbled by His Love.

"Going Postal"

Monday I went to the post office to send off my son's Christmas gifts only to find that it closes between 12pm - 1pm. I had never heard of such a thing. I was born and raised in Tampa, FL so our post offices were always open. Come to find out because our town is so small (around 1200 people) that they close for lunch because there only 2-3 people that work there at a time.

I was on a time schedule so I went to the other local post office which is about 5-7 miles away in Leesburg. They were open so I went inside only to find a line which I figured because of the season.

Now, I live in a county that is around 85% older adults (65 and above). I was the youngest one in the post office in the line, the next youngest was in her 50's, I would guess. The reason I tell you this is because the whole time I am standing there waiting all I hear is complaining of the line being so long that the clerks need to hurry up, work harder, and open another line. Also, one of the clerk's felt she needed to explain her lunch break to the crowd because she had to close. This started a whole bunch more complaining.

I was blown away how mean some of these people were. My thoughts: All of these people were mostly if not all retired. What do they have to do all day? Do they have a social event, golf game, or bingo that they cannot miss.

I am not disrespectful of older persons; however, I found it quite irritating that no one could give these hard working people a break. Christmas for postal workers is the largest and busiest time of year. Where was all the Christmas spirit? I have to admit that standing in line was not what I wanted to do or the only thing I had to do that day, but I was not going to complain.

During these hard times of people being laid off, I try not to complain about anyone. I mean some people are blessed to have a job that they enjoy while others have a job they can't stand, but need one to provide for themselves or families. So, I feel if I complain about someone that maybe someone last day. Employers have their pick now because there are so many people needing jobs, so I believe they take advantage. If you don't perform to what they want then you are out and the next guy is in.

Well with all of this said, just remember this is the holiday season. Give some joy to others by wishing them a Merry Christmas with a smile.

Darth Vader

I was decorating my blog with all the "widgets" that are all available and came across "Darth Vader Quotes." It seems that everytime someone goes to my blog there will be a new quote from Darth Vader. I just use it on my blog since I am married to a Star Wars nut.

Catching Up

Hello Everyone,

I have been so busy with college that I have not been doing a very good job of keeping up with my blog. So many things have happened through the last few months.

Where to start......back in August David was offered a position of youth pastor at our church that we have been attending since January. August was our planning month, so we did an official kick-off of the Youth group the first week of September by going to The Night of Joy event at Disney. Night of Joy is a christian event of many christian bands and is a huge night for youth groups.

Anyways, in August we were hard at work trying to come up with a name for the youth group since the church had not had one in 2 years. A few of the members of the church tried to get the youth group going about 1 year ago, but it did not happen for some reason. However, they did have a meeting (the year before) about names and such and then handed the meeting minutes over to us which listed all of their ideas. We loved "Youth R3volution" and so it became the name of our youth group. So the next phase was to give it a "look" or a logo that so many youth groups have now. We have done some heavy research on the subject of logos and what they do for a youth group. David was soon at work doodling and we had good idea what it would look like, however; the cross was just not right. Then I asked him do draw the cross that is on his necklace (it was a wedding gift from me) and that is how it all started.

The colors on this blog are not showing correctly, but at least you get the idea what our logo is. The 3 started out as kind of thing that kids do when they are texting by using numbers instead of letters, but then after looking at it a while David and I wanted it to symbolize the trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). We had a friend of mine do the graphic art for us.

September/October were big months for Cecilla. First, she had braces put on her teeth. Then, she turned "sweet 16" and also went to homecoming for the first time. She was beautiful. I still cannot believe that she is growing up so fast. She is my baby. She still loves to curl up in my bed. There are times when David and I are looking for her and find her laying in our bed watching a movie, playing the DS, or just texting her friends.

The joys of being a mother are endless. On the flip side the attitude, mouth, and the rolling eyes that come with being a mother of a teenage daughter I could do without. I now know the frustration that my mother went thru with 5 daughters. I don't know if I could survive it. With saying that, I love my little girl and would not have it any other way. She is worth it and I am enjoying seeing her grow up into a young lady.

November has been some ups and downs. Dominic moved to PA the week before Thanksgiving. He had a job interview up there and still has not heard back yet. However, God is good and he is working at UPS part-time and looking for something full time. He is staying with his girlfriend's Aunt who has offered to help him get on his feet by letting him stay with her. I still can't believe he is living up north in the freezing snow. He has always lived in Florida. I miss him and it is very hard letting go. He is 20 now, soon to be 21 and I still find myself worrying about him.

Our year is coming to an end very soon and it seems to have zoomed by. I have survived another semester in school. David has survived me being in school. Finally Christmas is here!!!!! Christmas is my favorite time of the year. It brings back so many memories as a kid. I remember the traditions that my family had and still carrying on. I miss my Mom-Maw the most this time of year because she loved Christmas so much.

My heart sings when I remember the reason for the season. Jesus the King of Kings was born. A gift from God. It is not about the gifts, stockings, Santa, or a tree. It is the birth of a little boy who will spend a few short years on this Earth to die on a cross for me. Hallelujah! Christ is Born.