Soon we’ll be posting a 2011 year in review and catching everyone up on what has been going on in our lives. But for now, we are busy celebrating Christmas with those we love. We’re so thankful for this time of year. Peace and joy and love to you and your family this season and throughout the coming year.

Yesterday, Jason Segel was on Bob and Tom talking about the movie. He told a story about how during his press junket to promote the movie, he was on a Mexican talk show with Kermit. During the interview, he noticed the talk show host was beginning to tear up and his lip was quivering. He eventually just started crying and Jason and Kermit gave the guy a hug. This is the power the Muppets have. Jason said this on B&T, and I think it is so true. “The Muppets were the creators of modern comedy. They set the stage for Monty Python and Saturday Night Live.” But even further down the road, if it weren’t for the Muppets, we wouldn’t have The Simpsons or Family Guy. The Muppets showed it was funny to take something that belonged in the world of children, like cartoons or puppets, and put it in adult world situations and teach the same lessons Henson was teaching to kids in Sesame Street to adults still trying to figure life out. It really isn’t that easy being green, but if a frog from the swamp can take a bear, a pig, a dog, a whatever, and a band lead by a guy missing a bunch of teeth and put a show on Broadway or solve a diamond caper or sing songs with music legends or perform skits with stars of the silver screen, then anyone can. They are truly cultural icons, and no matter the outcome of this new movie, I for one am glad they are back.

Sometimes I forget that people love me. Not that the people that love me do a bad job of showing me they love me, because they don’t. But because I get so frustrated or angry or upset that my brain clouds my judgement, and I don’t ever think that maybe the person who I am angry with isn’t saying things to hurt me. They are saying things because they love me.

Sadly though, this cloudiness can lead to people saying some extremely mean and hurtful things. I know some of the things I am most sorry for in life were because I said something when I was in this type of situation.

I think it’s important to remember that people are not evil…some are, but most aren’t. And the ones that make us craziest are probably the ones that love us the most. Maybe we should cut them some slack.

We also hiked for Safe Haven, a homeless shelter for families, who every year puts on Hike for the Homeless. We mentioned in our blog from last October, that we were participating in  the sixth annual hike. Savannah, her sister Brook, and two of Brook’s boys, Cameron and Ethon, formed Team Trailblazers. For the seventh annual hike, Team Trailblazers almost doubled in size! Also our team was able to raise $200 in just two days! We also hiked Edwin Warner Park for 2.67 miles! We are so fit! Here is a picture of the whole team.

And continuing with a move to fitness, we are running the Grace Ministries Turkey Trot on November 24. We are super excited because our good friends John and Anelle will be running with us! Well, they will probably be running ahead of us, but we will be in  the same race.

ARRIBA! ARRIBA!

But it got me thinking, what with all of the news and media focused on celebrities and Hollywood and movies, and grumpy dudes laying a verbal smack down on a kid’s movie, we seem to be living in a world that is so critical and judgmental of everything. And if our entertainment is focused on the judgment of complete strangers, how are we treating the people that we know?

This past Wednesday night (or early Thursday morning really as it was 2 a.m.) we watched my dear, sweet Memaw take her last breath on this earth. I’m thankful she’s not in pain anymore, and I’m thankful for the hope of Heaven, but I sure do miss her already. Life will never be the same without her, but it certainly was made sweeter because of her time here with us. A few of the grandchildren spoke during the service on Sunday. I thought I would share what I read during the services for those who couldn’t be there.

Memories of Memaw
My Memaw always fit the perfect image of a grandmother. From my earliest memories, I remember her in the kitchen cooking, I remember her sitting at the sewing machine helping me sew, I remember her rocking in her chair and crocheting…all the classic grandmother things.

There are so many things I’ll always remember about Memaw. She was a good hugger. She laughed a lot. She loved to sing. I remember her singing “Hang down your head, Tom Dooley” when I was little. As a teenager, I loved sitting beside her in church and listening to her beautiful alto voice harmonizing. I was determined to learn how to harmonize, so I would try to sing just like her. Memaw was also a giver, always sewing or crocheting gifts for us, or even giving her own possessions. Personally I’ve inherited several items, for a porcelain egg to a guitar, simply because I mentioned how much I liked them. (Come to think of it, maybe I inherited her knack for getting what she wanted.) Of course I can’t talk about memaw without mentioning her feistiness and her zeal for life. She knew how to have a good time.

I was blessed to live so close to my Memaw and to even live with her for a time. Some of my favorite memories are of her taking care of me. Whether it was coming to my defense when the older kids would pick on me (yes, I’m talking about you Mariah ) or when I got older and she would pick me up from school when I had migraines, I always knew she was there for me. One of my favorite memories is the year when I was sad that I couldn’t afford Christmas gifts for my friends, so my Memaw helped me sew a gift for each of them. That’s the kind of grandmother she was. My sisters and cousins tell similar stories. While Memaw helped me through migraines, my younger sister talks about how Memaw helped her through puberty, with words of wisdom and lots of Advil. There were so many of us grandchildren, but Memaw took the time to give us exactly what we needed.

My Memaw had 8 kids, 29 grandkids and 27 great grandkids, and yet she still made me feel special and loved. Now there’s a slight possibility that I wasn’t really Memaw’s favorite…but she would make me feel like it. I’ve heard the same from a lot of people — how sweet she was to them, how special she made them feel. I’m pretty sure I inherited some of Memaw’s feistiness and ability to tell it like it is, and I know I inherited her love for music, but in the end, it’s her ability to make everyone feel loved and accepted that I hope to pass on. In a big family, it’s easy to get overlooked, but I always knew that wherever Memaw was, I was welcome there, and she would be happy to see me. I’m looking forward to seeing her again in Heaven one day. Just like it’s been all my life, I know she’ll welcome me there, and she’ll be so happy to see me.  

• Happy birthday today to Ryan! So glad he got home from New Mexico in time to celebrate his birthday. He is my best friend and favorite person to be around, and I’m so thankful he was born 28 years ago
• Happy travels to Ryan! By the end of June he will have travled to New York, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Texas within a two-month time period. I’m glad that at least half of those are trips involve me. (I’d rather have a higher percentage, but 50% isn’t too bad.)
• Happy Friday! Don’t you just love Fridays? Fridays are great because everyone always seems so relaxed and ready for the weekend.
• Happy Father’s Day this weekend to our dads and granddads and dad-like influences and friends who are dads. And to Ryan who is the best dog dad ever to our sweet LuLu.
• Happy welcome home to my sweet, little memaw who was in the hospital for over a week (and it was her third time in the hospital within two months). So glad she finally got to home where she can be a little more comfortable. Praying she feels better every day.
• Happy welcome home to my friend Stephanie who recently moved back to Tennessee from Hawaii. Steph and her husband Richie are expecting their first baby, and I’m so glad she moved back in time for us to see her so cute and pregnant. Loved catching up over dinner the other night.
• Happy baby shower to my childhood friend Tiffany. Loved catching up at the shower, and I can’t wait to meet sweet baby Enoch.
• Happy baby! Since our last Festive Friday post, we’ve found out even more people in our lives are expecting. Is America experiencing another baby boom, or is it just with people in our life? It’s a good thing I love babies.

I’m choosing not to dwell on the fact that I’m stuck here, but instead to focus on the fact that I’ve had exciting adventures of my own in Africa. You might recall from this post that Ryan and I went to Swaziland in December 2009 to celebrate our good friends John and Anelle’s wedding, and also to take our delayed honeymoon in Swaziland and South Africa (Kruger National Park and Sabi Sands…as made famous by the last season of The Bachelor). I’ve been going through the pictures since I’ve had Africa on my mind, and I realized that we never posted any. So here are some of our African memories for your viewing pleasure. This is the wildlife edition.

While visiting the Kruger area, we saw so many animals. It was amazing to be able to see them roaming free in their natural habitat instead of caged up at a zoo.

We saw monkeys:

We're pretty sure this sneaky little monkey was eating mustard from our neighbor's fridge.

Isn't the little baby monkey in the middle so adorable?

Giraffes:

We think this giraffe was in love with a giraffe across the street. They wouldn't quit staring at each other.

Giraffes in the road are not nearly as concerning as elephants in the road. Although this one was reluctant to let us through.

hyenas:

Mama and babies. Hyenas aren't really scary like "The Lion King" made them out to be.

We saw springbok and a hippo and lots of other creatures too. One of the most exciting things is that we were able to see all five of the Big Five game:

Elephants

This is Grumpy the one-tusked elephant who was marching right toward our little Chevy Aveo. We knew who would win that fight. Thankfully, he decided against it at the last minute. But that's a story for another day.

Elephant march! I just love the little baby elephant on the end. This reminded me of the elephants marching in "The Jungle Book." Yes, another cartoon reference. Ryan kept laughing at me because everything I knew about the African animals I had learned from a cartoon.

Rhino

We didn't get any great pictures of the rhinos. They seemed to keep their distance.

Buffalo

This guy was ready to have his picture made!

The three amigos

Lion

I love this one. We were so close to a wild lion! Pretty, isn't it?

It's so dark because it was 3a.m. and we weren't allowed to use flash because they didn't want the lions to attack us. I love that they just lie down in the middle of the road. They obviously own the joint.

Leopard

We sat under the tree watching this guy for hours. I think he liked the attention.

Here he is about to pounce. He started playing with a meerkat just like a cat would play with a mouse.

The great thing about these pictures is that most of them were taken with our digital SLR, and we don’t have a good lens to zoom with. (Note to self: buy better lens for next African adventure.) We were just really that close! Close enough that the lions and the leopard could have jumped in our open air safari jeep at any minute. It definitely had to be one of the most exciting things I’ve ever experienced.

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” –e.e. cummings