Under His Wings

When Tim mentioned he wanted a Hormel 3 lb ham for our Christmas dinner, I was thrilled.  Memories of my house filled with the aroma of said ham baking in our oven every Christmas morning flooded my mind.  YUMMY!  I can't wait to pick up on the tradition tomorrow morning. Some other Christmas memories have been brought back in the past week.  My oldest son, Elijah, brought home some Turtle candy from his best friend's house one night.  Mike's mom works at the local candy factory that makes the delicious nutty treats.  It was a tradition on mine in my Grandma's later years (she's been gone 11 years), to get her a box of Turtles and something with a teddy bear theme. The same Grandma also liked pretty sweatshirts.  I saw some at Kmart when I was there.  I bought a beautiful black sweatshirt with a cardinal on it on Saturday.  It reminded me of watching my Grandparents feeding peanuts to the cardinals off their back door.  It's a tradit...

When I saw a link on Facebook this afternoon from my hometown (Binghamton NY) newspaper that there would be a live video of the Spiedie* Fest balloon launch , I was very excited.  I used to attend the festival with my family and some years by myself for many years before I moved to Elmira nearly 16 years ago.   I was able to watch most of the launch live.  I was awestruck at the beauty of the balloons being blown up then take flight. I called my mom, who lives about 5 miles from where the balloons took off, and told her about the video.  She found it and we watched together.  What a neat experience as we could not be physically together.  After a while, my mom decided to go outside to see if the balloons would come her way as they used to on a regular basis when the festival first started nearly 30 years ago.  Sure enough at least 3 balloons came in sight.  I really really got homesick. It brought back a lot of special memories, ...

Mom, Dad and I 5/26/12 I had the opportunity to go home to visit my parents yesterday.   What a wonderful time we had!  We had a nice picnic with yummy hot dogs, cabbage salad, pickles and olives and cupcakes for dessert.  It was my Dad's birthday the day before.  After lunch, my mom, Tim, my 3 kids and I played a game of croquet.  What fun memories that brought back.  We used to play a game of croquet at many of our family picnics when I was growing up. It was so neat to see Nate's reaction to the game.   "This is my new favorite sport,"  he kept on saying.   Guess what I'm going to purchase soon!!!!   I'm glad that my kids have shown the desire to continue the family tradition. Then we attempted a Chinese Checkers game.  Trying to play with 6 people was a big challenge.  All our pieces got stuck in the middle.  It was fun trying.  Chinese Checkers was a game I used to play with my G...

Kenyon family July 4 picnic 1976 with Great Grandma Etta Kenyon. All the great grandchildren are pictured except for Kyle who was born about 2 years later.  I'm in the bottom right hand corner behind the bush.  Al's children Mark (oldest boy in back row) and daughter Robbie (girl with red pants next to my then baby brother Jason) were there too. Not only has my home church lost a dear friend, our family has lost a dear cousin.  Alan died on 2/22.  He had been sick with heart problems the past few months and was getting tested for another possible illness last Wednesday when he had complications. As I remember Al, I think of the many special family times we had as I was growing up.   Memories of him of course date back a lot farther back for my mom.  For many many years into my young childhood, my mom's family got together many times a year for picnics and holiday dinners.  Alan and his family attended many of these special even...

My mom called me with some very sad news this morning.  One of our former neighbors died yesterday morning.   Bob and his family were some of our first neighbors when we moved to our house in 1972.   I remember the great sound of Bob playing his organ.  I could hear it when I was outside playing or on the way over to my grandparents' house.   He was the organist for our local hockey team for many years.  I spent many hours playing with his 2 sons, Kevin and Greg. After he moved across town, he became our  County Legistlator.  He had a few unsucessful bids for Congress back in the 1990's.  He was a greatly respected business owner too.  My grandfather worked for him in his semi-retirement years. His parents, who both lived into their 90's, were my granparents' best friends.  They had been neighbors for about 50 years.   My grandparents moved into their house in 1954, when my mom was 8.  ...

As I referenced to last night, one of my fondest Christmas time memories (other than Christmas day itself)  is participating in church Christmas programs.   My absolutely, positively favorite production that we did was Two Nights before Christmas by Lynne and Phil Brower in 1984.   I was nearly 15 years old. It was directed by our Assistant Pastor, Allen Carpenter and his wife Emily (who later died of cancer)*. It was their last Christmas with our church.  A few months later, they moved  a few towns away.  In 1990, they arrived at a church in Cortland NY, where I went to college.  I was able to attend the church.  I participated in a Christmas cantata there called An Old Fashioned Christmas .  That's another of my favorite musical memories. Two Nights Before Christmas is a story of toys who come to life to share the Christmas story with the toy store owner, Mr. Mc Duff. ...

I have always loved the taste of fresh garden tomatoes!  My Grandfather was a very dedicated gardener for many years.  I couldn't wait every year for his tomatoes to get ripe for us to eat.  I remember my Grandma canning jars and jars of tomatoes every year.  Beans were another yummy veggie my Grandpa grew.  I used to help cut the beans for Grandma and Grandpa to can.   This is really making me miss my Grandparents.   It was 8 years ago yesterday that my Grandma died.  Grandpa had died a year and a half earlier.   I'm thankful for the many years I had with them.  I don't know many people who had their grandparents into their 30's like I did.  The past few years, I've tried my own hand at growing tomatoes and other veggies.  Because of my April surgery, I wasn't planning on planting any plants this year, but thankfully my friend Julie shared some tomato plants her neighbor had given her.     ...

Main Street Johnson City NY. On the right hand corner is my first home. We lived on the 3rd floor. As most of you know, my mom had surgery last week to remove a lymph node out of her neck. She is recovering well and we haven't heard any news from the pathologist. That's a good sign. Before the surgery, I took the time to walk around a bit around the village where I was born and raised for the first 2 years of my life. A lot of things have changed. Next to my favorite park of all times, there's a Newspaper printing building and a huge brand new Walmart, replacing the Endicott Johnson shoe factory my dear Grandma used to work in. The park itself has changed a bit. Much of its old playground equipment has been replaced with new stuff. I was disappointed the tiny elephant slide didn't survive the cut. However, the carousel just was refurbished and will be a part of my kids' lives for years to come when I go home to see my parents. I drove by some of the ...

My favorite picture of my Grandma and me. I was about 17 or 18. I'm the one on the right side end. That's another memory. My grandma took me to Benza's barber shop in J.C. to get my brother and my hair cut. We always got B-B-B Bats candy(made by a local candy company) 15 years ago today (3/20/96) a big void was made in our family. My wonderful Grandma, Mary Anna Corwin, died of liver disease. We spent many days with her at her farm house in the country. It was so peaceful there! She took us many places. My favorite place was CFJ Park in Johnson City to ride on the carousel. there's not much left of that park anymore, but the carousel was just refurbished. I'm planning on taking my kids there this summer to ride it. We went to the mall, Mc Donalds, and to visit friends and family just to name a few activities. Grandma was part of all our family picnics and holidays. My favorite holiday tradition was when Grandma made her Cod Fish balls (deep frie...

Picture this...3 excited children waiting patiently for Daddy to show up with the movie camera. Soon the bright lights appear blinding those 3 anxious children as they dash down the stairs to their awaiting mom, grandparents and most years great grandma. Later in the day, the smell of ham permiates throughout the house. The family gathers around the kitchen table that has been moved to the living room. Pistachio salad, olives and pickes and soda are among the Christmas menu favorites. Fast forward 30 years.... those parents along with the 3 children now adults in their mid 30's to 40 with 3 grandchildren gathered around a now smaller table in the living room. Some of the same favorites are on the table along with some new ones. The gifts are opened now in the early afternoon instead of early morning. The conversations are now focused on childhood memories and thoughts of the future. It was so wonderful having my parents, brothers and I together today for Christmas. It is...

There's no place like home! I guess that phrase has gone through my mind a lot watching the Wizard of Oz the past few days, but it really means to me that there's no place like the house I spent nearly 24 years living in..the place where my parents have lived since 1972. Looking out the back door I remember sitting under the big Maple tree and writing in my journal. I also spent hours back there playing baseball and kickball with my neighbors and sledding down our next door neighbor's hill. One year I hit my face against a tree. Going up to what is now my mom's craft/computer room I reminised formulating many hopes and dreams for my life. In the living room, I remembered all the Christmas dinners that we had with my mom's parents, my dad's mom, my great grandma and grandma's aunt Emma. Looking out the front door while waiting for Jason to show up, I became sad looking at my grandparents' house. Memories there could fill another blog entry. I rea...

Have you ever met up with a friend you haven't seen for a long time and it's like you talked to them yesterday? That's the feeling I got many times as I attended the 20th reunion for my Christian school I attended from 1975-84. I was invited to the reunion by my friend Terri (the second woman from the left) back in March at our dear friend Sheli's funeral. That was a wakeup call! I had the opportunity to get back in touch with Sheli after her mom died last summer and I didn't do it. Now it's too late, so when I was invited to the class reunion, I vowed to myself I'm not going to let these friendships get away again. Going to the reunion made me sad in a way hearing about the fun I missed. I never really clicked with my high school friends. Now it's time to make new memories. There are a few of my friends that we said we would get together. They have kids my kids' ages. I've been invited back for the 25th reunion. There's o...