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Back in London 04.01.10

Posted in It's my life, tagged Big Ben, Cindy Eve, Costa Coffee, friends, http://www.calane55.worldventures.biz, London, notjustagranny, presents, Starbucks, Trafalgar Square, Travel, xmas on January 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

One of the things I love most about being away from London, is coming back. I never get tired of the view of the Thames as the train crosses the bridge! My heart always gives a little leap of joy, and no matter what the weather, be it grey or raining or sunny, it always looks just beautiful.

Coming back to London means a lot of things to me.

It means seeing my daughter again, getting a warm hug, enjoying time with her catching up on news. We get to enjoy a visit to our favourite coffee shops a) Starbucks for coffee and b) Costas for hot chocolate. yummy 🙂

Also, if I am in town long enough, I get to spend an hour or so with one or two of my friends, which is never enough and the time flies by too quickly.

Being in London means visiting my storage unit to offload stuff I acquired from the last trip and recycling my clothes. I get awfully bored wearing the same stuff for 2-4 weeks in a row. Visiting my storgae unit, is like going shopping at a 2nd-hand charity shop, except I don’t have to pay for the stuff coz I already own it.

I get to go see a movie again, if there is time. I get to see Buckingham Palace or the London Eye or the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. I always, if I am leaving from Charing Cross on my next trip, make a stop at Trafalgar Square and say hello to Nelson.

I love to watch the changing seasons with a fresh eye and to my delight, on this return – I got to see a light dusting of snow everywhere. That also means it is bleedin cold and I nearly froze between the station and home last night.

My daughter and son-in-law treated me to a great, late Xmas dinner and my daughter (bless her) went all out with a marvellous spread for her (95%) vegetarian Mom (not that I am a veggie myself 😉 ). We had a lovely cassis that went straight to my head and I got all silly and giggly as I do when imbibing.

They had loads of pressies for me and it was lots of fun ripping the paper off to reveal the contents, one of which was a pair of wellies!!! I have so wanted a pair of wellies since Feb 09 when we had all that snow. My daughter is a very thoughtful gift buyer!!! My son-in-law attempted to teach me how to play the new game they got for Xmas from a friend, which is a Playstation Dance UK set. But, since I have 2 left feet and no hand/foot eye co-ordination whatsoever (I would be a real challenge for the Strictly Come Dancing lot), we were in hysterics at my attempts to put my feet where they were meant to be. I scored a very hopeless tally. A fun evening had by all.

This morning it is up and about to catch up on appointments, meet my chica for lunch and in the evening catch up on new developments and training with WorldVentures. Apparently there is new information and I am looking forward to meeting up with other members.

Then it’s off again tomorrow!

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A Christmas story

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged asamanthinketh, Christmas, giving, Giving 101, http://www.giving101.org/whiteEnvelopeproject, Inspiration, receiving, The Man Who Hated Christmas, The White Envelope Project, tradition, traditions, values, Woman's Day magazine, xmas on December 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I just love this story. In an age when values have become muddled,and ‘how much I received’ is more important than ‘how much I gave’, this story is an inspiration. Perhaps at this time, it would be good to climb off the commercial merry-go-round and reassess our own values!

For the Man Who Hated Christmas
by Nancy W. Gavin

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past ten years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas–oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it–overspending… the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma—the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears.

It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.” Mike loved kids – all kids – and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition–one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there.

You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more.

Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing to take down the envelope.

Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit will always be with us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Editor’s Note: This true story was originally published in the December 14, 1982 issue of Woman’s Day magazine. It was the first place winner out of thousands of entries in the magazine’s “My Most Moving Holiday Tradition” contest in which readers were asked to share their favorite holiday tradition and the story behind it. The story inspired a family from Atlanta, Georgia to start The White Envelope Project and Giving101, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating youth about the importance of giving. To learn more about honoring a loved one through this special tradition, please visit www.Giving101.org/WhiteEnvelopeProject. On the site, you can browse a catalog of unique giving opportunities, create and send your own white envelope gift, purchase charity gift cards, and more.

sourced from:
AsAManThinketh.net

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