Advent Songs and such

As children, our mother would gather us around the advent wreath during the 4 weeks before Christmas and we would sing these haunting Advent songs about the people crying out for the Messiah 4000 years before Christ was born.  The songs expressed a longing that I have not experienced in many other forms of music.  Maybe it's because we sang them in our mother tongue as children which added to the emotion of the song.  Here's a sample of one of the songs.

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/familie/weihnachtslieder/weihnachtslieder-4-tauet-himmel-den-gerechten-12683217.html

Here's an old photo of mom, dad and everyone with Tom and after is home singing in the old house on Summitview Rd.

Michael, Monika, Barbara were already out of the house at that time.  This was approx. 1960.

Thanksgiving in Florida

Florida does make an impression on someone that's spent most of her life in the Buckeye State where is gray and damp at the end of November.

We spent 4 days on the road from Arizona to Florida and didn't really feel the warmth until we passed the Orlando, Tampa line.  Sarasota was our first stop.  Carla, my dear friend that I met in Delaware at "The River" and discovered that she worked at the College next door, Columbus State.  Now that Bruce and her are retired happily in Florida, we couldn't resist dropping in on them.  We had our first Florida dinner with them and I tasted wonderful fresh Florida grouper. Artur had chicken tenders....;-(

Nest stop was Ft. Myers where we met up with our friends of 30 years from Delaware who vacation every Thanksgiving in a Condo at Ft. Myers Beach.  What a treat to see them again.

Arrived at Josefa's on Friday evening.  That's the Florida that you see in picture books.  She's living the dream.

Our last day.....trip to the Everglades.

We had to have some pictures of mothers and daughters.  We were laughing so hard.  It was so much fun.

Josefa is so lucky to have Chris to take care of her and Cyenna.  He's such a gentle teddy bear!

Sad to leave the kids behind in Florida.  All I can say is that we had a wonderful time.  We miss them and pray for continued blessings on our family.

God bless America...it sure is a beautiful country.