Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve to the Pamela's Girls!

Uncle R and I have had a good day so far - especially considering our poor Titans won today... we had not had our hopes very high since last Sunday's game went sooo badly, but it just goes to show that you never know with those guys! (heh-heh) It was really cold at the game and we were really bundled up with a Titans blanket over us! People were dressed up in Santa hats and various costumes like the Grinch, Elf and the Christmas Story bunny pjs. It was cute.

After a quick supper, we are now hoping to pull our little frozen selves together and head back out to attend our church's Christmas Eve service.

I thought that the Pamela's Girls would like to see our few little Christmas decorations. Somehow I never seem to have time (or energy) to get them all out, but I do like to decorate the mantel and get our much-loved snowman dishes out!

One of the things that decorates our mantel is the little santons that I bought at a Paris flea market. They are little figures that are used in a King's Cake (Gâteau Des Rois) which is made during the Christmas season in France. There is usually one of these small santons hidden in the cake and whoever finds it is "King" for the day. I was so excited to find a little basket full of these little porcelain figures while in Paris and was able to "haggle" the seller down to a euro a piece. He may have come down on his price because he felt sorry for me and my command of the French language... but I guess I'll never know.

We also have a set of angels on the mantel that we gave to Mama S years ago and they always remind us of her sweet self!

So - even though we don't have many decorations, the ones that we have out are all very meaningful to us!

I realize, however, that our greatest treasure is the supreme gift that the Lord Jesus gave when He came to earth to redeem us and make a way for us to be with Him forever! But He also gave us each other and I am very, very thankful for the Pamela's Girls and the Pamela's Boys! You are each lovely and precious to me and I know that I am richly blessed!

Pamela always had a special love for Christmas and was so much fun preparing tasty dishes and surprising her family with the sweet gifts that she shared. Below is a photo that she sent to her sweetheart, Ray, during WWII.

With much love and many hugs and kisses,

Auntie J

Thanksgiving 2011

Hi Shugs!

Wanted to share with all of you the little “surcy” I bought for myself this year. When I was decorating the mantel, I decided to include a decoy, which SS loves, some Thanksgiving pictures and pilgrim figurines, and lastly I pulled out an old , “vintage” plate that I like to use for Thanksgiving - I believe it belonged to Mommas.

I loved the look so much, that when I got a circular from Belks in

the mail showing the Spode Woodland pattern, I imagined how enjoyable it would be to drink coffee out of the little mugs and have a piece of pecan pie on the plates. One of San Fran’s friends once noted that I was very “seasonal,” liking to decorate for each holiday during the year, and she was right. Auntie J started me on some Christmas china one year, and I realized how much I loved pulling out a special set of china to enjoy during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so now I have this to enjoy during the month of November. I told SS I already have all the sets of china I need, but this is just the thing for the two of us to use when we have a sandwich or dessert.

When Mommy M and San Fran were growing up, we made note cards of this passage from the book of Psalms to read around the Thanksgiving table:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.

Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.

We are His people and the sheep of His Pasture

.Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name

.For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100

I wish all of my Pamela’s Girls a Happy Thanksgiving. Though we won’t be together in person, we will always remain close in spirit!

I love you ALL!! CiCi

A New Office Space For Auntie J

I am happy to announce to the Pamela's Girls that my office has at long last moved back over into the area of town where I most love to work - Music Row. Most of my professional life has been on and around this close collection of quaint tree-lined sidewalks, one way avenues and criss-crossing side streets and it's where I feel at home.

It was interesting working in the old Cummins Station building and I did enjoy having a great sushi buffet right in the same building where I worked - and - I will miss stopping into the used bookstore or taking a reading break during lunch at the nice coffee shop across the street. But being back in a lovely old house with parking right outside the door, bright shiny hardwood floors and open light-giving windows is a welcome change.

Our head of office here in Nashville did a great job in finding us this amazing space. There are a couple of good writers rooms, working fireplaces in several offices and just a good happy work environment overall.

My fellow copyright administrator (who I have nicknamed "Sunshine" because of her sweet heart and cheerful demeanor) and I have been placed in the same large room for the time being. There are several of us doubled up in offices on a temporary basis and I am thoroughly enjoying sharing office space with Sunshine! She is pictured above on our first visit to our new building.

We are occupying what was the Conference Room and it has a huge bay window looking out onto a small shaded courtyard within a wall with a busy street beyond. There are two sizable side windows beside one of which I have my new desk.

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but my previous office at Cummins Station had no windows and was a dark, albeit cozy little cave. So I am am absolutely loving having natural light to work by and seeing waving Fall-colored leaves just outside my window!

The house where we have our new offices was built around 1900 and has burnished parquet floors, large windows, and beautiful woodwork decorating the staircase that stretches between the ground floor and the third floor executive offices. The two landings both have window seats set in a bay window and overlooking our courtyard-like parking area which is graced by a scenic little fountain.

We are all extremely thankful for our "just outside the door" parking after having to walk so far to assigned parking over at Cummins Station.

I hope that I will be able to take my Pamela's Girls on a personal tour of these wonderful new offices when they can come up to visit! (hint! hint!!!)

Love to my sweet Pamelas Girls,

Auntie J

Kingston Plantation Getaway

(Written on October 13, 2011 from the balcony of Embassy Suites at Kingston Plantation)

The Earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness,The world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters.

Psalm 24: 1,2

As I sit here on the 18^th floor balcony, watching the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean on this beautiful October morning, I thank God for the blessing of this two-day respite from our day-to-day activities. I never come to the beach without being reminded of the magnificence of our God who has created such a universe. And I wonder how anyone could ever doubt His almighty hand in its design.

SS has had meetings to attend during the day, but we have had such fun eating out and shopping in the evenings. Last night I “almost” talked SS into letting us sleep with the sliding glass doors in the bedroom wide open, with the breezes blowing over us and the waves crashing on the shore lulling us to sleep. I think he was worried about security as much as anything else, so by the time I was drifting off to sleep, I heard the doors being quietly closed.

Embassy Suites has a very nice, as well as free, breakfast buffet every morning, which I really enjoyed! As I was eating some honeydew melon this morning, SS and I couldn’t help but think about one of our most endearing “Mommas memories.” The last year of her life when she was living along, unable to drive, we would do anything to provide whatever she wanted, which was never very much. But sometimes, she would have a “taste” for something, and when she did we were happy to get whatever she wanted. During the winter, though she called one time and said, “Shug (her term of endearment for us, short for Sugar, I think), I have a taste for honeydew melon.” Now it was very difficult back then to find honeydew melon in the winter, but if Mommas had a taste for it, we wanted to provide it. It really took some searching to come up with one. Since then, we’ve had a little understanding that if one of us said we had a “taste” for something, there was no questioning that we had to get it.

But that whole conversation made me think about how “Shug” was such a part of Mommas’ vocabulary, and how I might ought to try to use it with my grandsons, as well as my daughters and sister, to carry on the tradition. Would it sound unnatural coming from me? I think I may give it a try.

With love to all my Pamela’s girls, Shugs, have a wonderful week with safe travels

Love from Cici

My Sweet Boys and Me

It is hard to believe that less than 2 months ago, I was still carrying around hefty Baby M. Although he cries a good bit and is up several times during the night still, I'm much happier that he is in my arms rather than my tummy. He is such a sweet baby! He's starting to coo, bat, kick and smile. I wondered if I would think all of Baby M's milestones were has cute as Bo's were since I have already experienced them once, but I have to say that Baby M's first smiles melt my heart as much as Bo's did.

Although Bo has been sick a lot since he started school, it hasn't stopped him from learning new things on Daddy L's ipad and learning all sorts of new phrases like "Sorry Ma Ma, tank ewe Ma Ma and Otay Da da." He continues to amaze me more and more every day with the new things he can do and say.

And for the finale to my post, here is an absolutely adorable video of the two brothers. Bo likes for Baby M to bat at his face, so he's trying to make him rub his face. I had to abruptly stop it at the end because I got worried as to what Bo was going to do to Baby M next but I wish I had kept recording because he gave him "baby."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob9u-JyIJ1M

I hope Pamela's Girls have a wonderful weekend!

Love,

~Mommy M

My Morning Commute

I love driving my little, sporty, red Honda Accord. But my poor little car's CD player is not working - and - that makes me sad. I really love listening to audio books on CD on my long drive to work and I have missed having the CD player available. So... I took him to the shop today.

Fortunately, since our mechanic is close to the Hermitage station stop of Nashville's ONLY commuter train, The Music City Star. Now, I know that for SanFran S, riding a train to work is no novel idea, but on the few times that I have taken the train in to town, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It makes me feel closer to Paris, to traveling in Europe, to big cities that I long to visit... even if we are trundling along through Nashville's suburban forests, pastures and back yards and rattling over rocky streams.

There are only five train stops before the downtown Riverfront Park station. Then commuters can hop in one of the line of waiting buses to make the rest of their journey to work.

I am including photos from this morning. I wish that my Riverfront station had come out more clear, but the bus window didn't allow for much more.

Love and kisses to my Pamela's Girls!

Auntie J

Outside Lands

Last month I had one of my best friends, Felipe (I pronounce Phillip because his dad is also Felipe so that's how they tell them apart), came to visit me in San Francisco from Los Angeles. We met when we used to work at Macy's; me in San Francisco and him down in Los Angeles. We only see each other a few times a year but we talk all the time and are very close. I was so excited when he and his friends came up for the weekend. They had tickets to go to this huge 3 day outdoor concert in Golden Gate Park called Outside Lands. Learn more about it here. I'm not really familiar with the bands (guess I'm not that hip) and I don't like being stuck in the middle of big crowds (claustophobic) or porter potties (yucky). They had tickets for just one day and it's from 12-8. I really wanted to spend time with him so I decided to go and deal with it. Well, I am SO glad I went! I had such a great time and it was such a cool experience! And there were so many porter potties which are still gross, but there were sinks with soap and paper towels- nice! It was like being in a secluded forest with stages, food, people and music. Just check out the food! It was deep in Golden Gate Park in a place I never been. So it felt very secluded like we weren't in the city. One section was called "Food Truck Forest" and was my favorite. In a woods section there were all kinds of food trucks from cupcakes, to southern sandwiches (pulled pork bbq on buns) to mexican/chinese trucks. I was adventureous and tried the mexican/chinese food and it was delicous. I got spicy tacos with tofu, yummy yum.
I wanted to first share some photos with you.
One of the stages.Felipe and me (B.F.F's)Near the Food Truck Forest


And finally, I'd like to share a song that I liked. Auntie J is the music person in the family so probably is familiar with this band, Beirut, that I heard while there. I really like to listen to them at work because it's really chill and relaxing. I guess they're pretty hipster too. Now everytime I listen to them it brings me back to that fun day in the park. I hope you enjoy!

I am so excited that tomorrow night I leave for South Carolina to meet the infamous Baby M! I can't wait to see everyone!

Love,
SanFran S

Happy Anniversary Cici and SS!

Happy Anniversary to two of the best parents and grandparents in the world. Bo and Baby M are so blessed to have you as grandparenst, just as SanFran S and I are to have you as parents.

Thank you so much for all you have done for Bo to help make this transition easier. It warms my heart to see the two of them together. Baby M reminds me so much of Bo as an infant that it makes me realizes how grown up he really is. Isn't the likeness crazy?

I also realized another likeness when we compared Baby M's hospital photo to my hospital photo.

Happy Anniversary Cici and SS! Sorry we didn't get you card... It kind of slipped up on us this week for some reason:)

We love you!!!!

Love,

~Mommy M

Happy Anniversary CiCi & SS!

I am so proud of the sweet & wonderful couple that my sister and her husband make together. The most important aspect that they bring to their togetherness is that they both fervently love the Lord and that so obviously shines into their love for each other, their children, their family and all of their friends and acquaintances.

They are giving, loving and generous people. There isn’t a man on earth that I would have rather seen with my sister than SS. He is truly a good man – fair and kind, loyal & just. He was the measuring rod that I held to any of the boys that I dated as a teenager or the men that I dated as a young woman. And let me tell you – there are not many out there like him.

A former pastor of mine once said that the greatest & best gift that a man can give his children is to love their mother. What a perfectly wonderful job SS has done!

And as for my precious sister – I give a few verses that I believe aptly apply to her:

Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: “Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all.” Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

Proverbs 31: 28 – 30

I am really thankful that I met Uncle R because he met all my hopes and dreams in what a husband would be like. And somehow I feel that SS always gave me hope that someone like Uncle R could be in my life.

Happy Anniversary CiCi & SS!

I am including a few of my favorite photos that include CiCi & SS (the one of Smirking SS is one of my all time favorites of him!!!) There are a few of these photos that also have a little hidden Mandy while CiCi was expecting her!

With love from,

Auntie J