Monday 12/22/2008

Hello all, I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We here at the Hodges/Snapp homestead had a wonderful but excruciatingly cold weekend. The temp has fallen completely off the thermometer! We all thought it was cold this weekend as we headed out to Dales' father's house to celebrate an early christmas with the family. But compared to today we all could have worn our bathing suits! lol! It's a brisk -4 degrees out today with a high of only 15. Woo-hoo break out the sunscreen! Not only is it cold outside but the wind is whipping out of control with gusts of up to 40 mph. Talk about cold!!!! I felt it's fury as I refilled the car with antifreeze. Which I am very proud of. It was the first time I have every done anything like that all by myself. Dale usually does all the maintenance on the cars but seeing how he is at work in Ft. Wayne which is an hour away I had to don my coat and hat and face the cold all by myself. I had some trouble finding the latch that releases the hood but once that task was achieved I managed to find the overfill resevoiur and top it off like I had been doing it for years. Of course, Dale failed to tell me that the hydraulics on my hood were not working properly so I almost got whopped in the head with the hood. But, I managed to overcome this little obstacle and complete my task with honors if I must say so for myself.

Anyway, back to our christmas celebration at Jim's(Dale's father) house. Everyone had a wonderful time. We all ate, chatted, exchanged christmas gifts and had a wonderful time. Our family has been blessed with some new additions over that last couple of years. Jason, Dale's second child, has a 14 month old son by the name of Dominic and Ryan, Dale's nephew, has two sons: Kevin age 2 and Jackson about 8 months old. So we all enjoyed watching them open their gifts. This is the first real christmas that they can enjoy. Last year they were all just babies and too young to understand what christmas is all about. PRESENTS!!! And lots of'em. lol!

Jim was a little under the weather. He has a degenerative diesease in his back and it was causing him a considerable amount pain. But he seemed to grin and bear it taking it all in stride. He has had a tough year this year so we all have been keeping him even closer to our hearts than normal. I am a firm believer that when something bad happens to a family you should all rally around that person and be there for them. Providing them with more love and support than normal. Christina, Dales's oldest daughter and 4th in line in our blended family was unable to attend the festivites and she was much missed. Christina is 19 and she is just beginning to find herself. She like Trey, my oldest son and 3rd in the line up of our children, are really getting a big dose of reality thrust onto their plates right now. It's a difficult time for both Dale and myself. Our first reaction is to bail them out of whatever dilemma they are encountering at the time. But we know we have to stand our distance and allow them to learn from their mistakes. It's so hard being a parent at times. We sometimes forget that we have to let them stand on their on two feet. That they no longer need the training wheels. Or even if they do still need the traing wheels we can't rush out and install them, allowing them a crutch. Nope! They have to learn to be adults on their own. Our job now as parents is to stand on the sidelines and watch only rushing out to them when they are truly in need of it. You truly don't know what it's like until you have children of your own. Parenting can be defined in one word as Bittersweet. And I wouldn't change it for anything in the world!!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!
xoxo much love to all........