Two Little "A ha" Moments

One...

Last night we had our annual Christmas Breakfast Bunko gathering and it was the first time that Freddie (the mother of our dear teen friend, Raymond, who passed away two weeks ago) wasn't there to play with us.

We were reminiscing about how Freddie reacted the first time she came to our Christmas game. You have to come dressed in pajamas, and she wore her clothes over her pajamas. She said her husband asked her, "Where are you going dressed like that?" and it was something out of character for her. But she came, and laughed about it, and had a great time, and quickly came to love our Bunko group because it was a chance for her to get out of the house and have some "me" time. We laughed about that last night, got a little teary-eyed, and remembered Freddie in our own way.

We were missing one player last night, so we always have a "stand in" sheet that just goes along with us from table to table. Last night, we put the name "Freddie" on top of the sheet and she was with us all night long.

On the first roll of the night, Chris rolled "Bunko" (all number one dices, on roll number one)--which like never happens. She just laughed and looked skyward and yelled, "Thanks Freddie!"

Two...

I started my newest book yesterday for the 12 Books of Christmas Challenge I'm doing. It's called Return to Wonder and is just great so far. After I read around twenty pages, I looked for a bookmark to put in my place. I noticed a gap further on in the book and found a sheet of paper stuck there. When I took it from its place to use as my bookmark, I read it.

It proclaimed: "The act of giving is more important than the merit of the receiver." In this season of giving--when it's really more important what our own attitude is--I thought it was an appropriate message.

Don't you love it when you're left little messages in unexpected places?