Serve by Design

This is the time of year in which our well-wishes turn from Christmas to New Years. We have spent this past month of December wishing everyone a "Very Merry Christmas!" Now with the turning of the calendar, our sentiments are expressed as wishes for a "Happy and Prosperous New Year!" The dictionary defines a wish as "a desire or hope for something to happen." We bless others with a positive wish for good things to come to our family and friends. This is the often repeated expression of the New Year. Making New Year's Wishes! Image Credit: depositphotos.com The other evening, we heard something different about wishes while streaming the latest super hero film, Wonder Woman 1984!   Warning! This could be a "spoiler alert" for those who have yet to view WW84!   The two-and-a-half hour action-packed adventure is based upon the ninth installment in the DC Extended Universe and features the comic series character Wonder Woman. The ending has a susp...

  Just days before Christmas and all through the room, Not a person could stand or a cleaner could broom! The gifts, stuffers, boxes and packages awaiting their wrappings Were seasonal reminders of loving and celebrative trappings! Santa's Helper! One of Santa’s most dedicated helpers was full of Christmas passion As she studied, contemplated and talked through her every abstraction. Would this match up better with a preteen grandchild or younger? Or… should I bestow this special surprise on a larger age number? The time is counting down without a way to stop the clock. Getting these sacked and delivered is causing me obvious shock! I’d ask Mike to help but he’s bossy, difficult and dismissive! I’ll just plod on my own and pretend to be short of taping adhesive! 🎄🎅🤶 It is for sure that I am not the rhyming writer of our family, but I couldn't resist this little verse! Monique has been writing the family Christmas newsletter for more than thirty years now. W...

 "Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end!" These are the sentiments of many who watched as people in the United Kingdom were being given the first shots to end the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, I was watching the global news broadcast "France 24" through our Roku and delighted to see the first and second persons vaccinated. The first British person to receive the Pfizer-released vaccine was a ninety-year-old grandmother. The second individual to receive it was an eighty-one-year-old man who had the unique name of William Shakespeare (like the famed English playwright!). I laughed when Francois Picard, the news desk reporter said, while holding back his laughter, "We can't make this up! My colleagues in the newsroom are calling this moment, 'The Taming of the Flu!'" (an obvious and playful reference to Shakespeare's Shrew!). A Vaccine of Hope! Image Credit: iStock.com A little levity is appropriate in order to release the pressure val...

We have a daughter who is coming home with her family to spend Christmas with her identical twin sister! It is "double trouble" once again at this season. Twin sisters and their families home for the holidays! Eleven people will fill up a house for sure! If you don't know, twins are inseparable! They are a great blessing that's hard to explain and impossible to divide! The best of friends and the fiercest of rivals! One thing I have learned over the years, don't take sides because they can "turn on you" in that moment! Like the athletes they are, they will take up for each other and tag team any opposition that comes their way! Since 1939, the Wrigley company has been using twins in their marketing of chewing gum. We have delighted in seeing various twins who have been featured in television commercials over the years. As many of you, we have sung along the catchy Doublemint  tune while chewing away, "Double your pleasure, double your fun, with Doub...

Pretend this is a popular game show. The host makes a statement from a field of general knowledge (literature, history, science, religion, popular culture, etc.) and the contestant identifies the answer with a question. This is delightfully counter-intuitive! Usually, we ask a question and then the hearer simply answers it with a statement. Indulge me, please. First, the statement... "This man has been made famous by questions." Answer is... "Who is Alex Trebek?" I think you have already figured out that I was teasing you with this little exercise of engagement. "What is this about? Who is this child?"  Clip Art Credit: FAVPNG.com Alex Trebek lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on November 9 and passed away at the age of eighty. He will be missed and certainly remembered by his many followers as the quintessential and iconic host of "Jeopardy!" This syndicated game show created by Merv Griffin first aired in 1964 and Trebek had been the steady...