Making a Memory

Today I made some memories and hopefully gave some children some memories as well.  It was fun hosting the homeschool children in our church for a Christmas party.  One of the mom’s brought games for the older children and they decorated cookies for fun and to eat.  The younger children played individually with the box of duplo that resides in our ottoman.  A draw for a new to you book was held and all enjoyed having a grab bag of goodies to take home and devour at a later date.

Children make Christmas fun.  The hugs I received from the little ones fills my heart with a warm fuzzy feeling.  Today I enjoyed showing off my huge teddy bear collection and the music boxes got a work out.  Now I can take off my hostess shoes and put my feet up and relax.  And treasure the memories we made today.

A Box of Memories

Observations at an Ice Rink

Yesterday I took my two charges for their hour skate time at a rink.  While they were getting ready I found my spot under a bright light and watched the action as the children straggled onto the ice.  As in any crowd, there are a few who stand out . There are many who obey the rules of skating in a circle but there are always a good number who do things their own way, often endangering others who are just trying to stay upright.  All I can say is that it is a good thing that I am not on the ice, because I would be policing the whole show and bossing those rule breakers around.  The culprits are boys around the age of 12, who are still using the racks, but do not need them. Instead they use them to push into other people and tag them in their game of tag.  Doing this they weave in and out through the crowd that are skating round and round.  They are just an accident waiting to happen.

I watched two little brothers, about 9 and 6, trying to be like the NHL players who climb over the boards from the bench to get on the ice.  The funny thing is that the men who do this in the leagues, have nice long legs that are basically on the ice as they heave themselves over the boards.  These two boys had quite a drop.  They gave it a couple of tries and after conversing a while about it, headed back onto the ice for their skate time.

The other observation includes the youngest set, each of them wearing their protective gear, that is, a helmet that looks like it is too big for their head, and tiny skates.  They hang on to the push bars and their little running steps are quick and soon they glide for  a brief time and then take frantic running steps again.  Sometimes their speed gets out of control and when that happens, their legs tend to fold up under them and down their go.  No tears erupt because they know this is par for the course on ice, so they haul themselves up and have another go.