Tree Trimmings, Gingerbread Men, and Our Friend Jim

Wow! Can I just say, I now know exactly why our parents would get so excited to decorate the Christmas tree. It was the perfect excuse for them to sip on their cognac of choice, act silly, and listen to great music. Well, that is exactly what Ryan and I chose to do on our Sunday together. It was such a wonderful day! Ryan gets all the credit for dragging out our "life like" Fake Christmas Tree. That darn thing is a pain in the a** every year! He also gets mucho credit for finding us great music to listen to while decorating our fragrant plastic tree.

After a little fluffing of the Fake plastic branches, and the game of twister we played just to get all the male and female lights connected perfectly with their mates, we washed our hands of the sap and invited our friend Jim over for a little extra help with the tree trimming. Jim is such a great helper!

The Family is Growing

Well I woke up to the best news this morning. My new nephew will be here Monday! This had me thinking about my family and how it all begin. Well, it began with My Great-grandfather Basil Samuel Kohut and Teresa Paraskevia Karchut. Both Basil and Teresa grew up in small villages in the Ukraine. They secretly admired  each-other since they were young children playing in the same villages. The Karchut family  had an arranged marriage prepared for Teresa, but it was not to her secret love Basil.  Basil took a leap of faith and came to America settling in Philadelphia PA. While he was here in America,  he sent Teresa letters begging her to come to America. He promised to marry her if she would take the risk and come to America. Teresa convinced her father to give her the dowry money to  buy a ticket to America. The pictures explain the ending to this love story...........

This is the Kohut family who moved to Wheeling and had nine  children. Photo below from the late 1930's

My Grandfather, Peter Samuel Kohut was the only boy with eight sisters, Nora, Teresa. Vera, Anna, Mary, Olga, Irene, and Katherine.

The photo below is from my Grandma and Grandpa's Wedding July 18, 1953. My Grandfather all grown up with his eight beautiful sisters.

10:30am Prayer

Thank you Lord,

for everything you have given to me

and everything you have taken

 away.

Lord,

thank you for always being by my side

when there is no one

beside me.

 Thank you Lord,

for listening

when there is no one to hear me.

Lord,

thank you for giving to me

when I have nothing

to give.

Thank you Lord,
 for having faith in me

when I am not able to have

faith in You.

Lord,

thank you for remembering me

 when I have forgotten

about You.

Thank you Lord,

for everything you have given to me

and everything you have taken

away.

This prayer will always be in my heart,

along with this person who put it there.