A great great great Christmas

Christmas has passed and I cannot believe it is gone. To me this season did not feel like Christmas at all and I wish that it was still coming, but since I cannot stop time I can only remember the season and plan for the following. To me this sounds really odd because I am not a huge fan of Christmas. I love decorating, the real meaning of Christmas, and giving more than receiving but I just don't think of Christmas as one of my favorite holidays. It is by far one of my favorites in regards to tradition (blogged about this last year) This year I want to describe some of the gifts I received. I spend all year working on Christmas gifts or at least gathering ideas for family and friends and I try to put a lot of effort into what I make or what I come up with. My two young sisters mentioned some items through out the year so I jotted some notes down and got them some items that reminded them of either what they are currently involved in or their childhood. As for some of my friends and family I made them more personal items, but back to what I received. For the past two years I have asked Santa (yes I still "Believe" look for a future post regarding this) for a Crayola Magic Glow Dome, I am a kid at heart and some toys still make me excited. Well finally I actually received the Glow Dome instead of an IOU. I was so excited to get it and color on it. The second gift I received was from my mom, she made my brother and two sisters each a cookbook. She has been trying to come up with the concept for years and she was finally able to create one and I absolutely love it. I was so excited to get that I have already put a lot of recipes I have been hanging onto in the cookbook. Now all I need is my own kitchen to use it in. The last gift I want to talk about was also made by mom and it was definitely an emotional and sentimental gift. In early November, my grandfather (mom's dad) passed away. One thing that we always remember about him is what he wore, he always wore a flannel shirt. So my mom asked my grandmother for some of my grandfather's shirts and she made us each a pillow out of them. It is weird to think of my grandfather as gone but there are still times when all the sudden were caught up in the moment and the tears start to flow. It is definitely a gift that I will be keeping forever.

Guest Blogger of the week!!!

This week I was honored to be the guest blogger of the week for Flying Horse Farms. I know I have already blogged once on here regarding my experience there but here is the new one, enjoy :) Volunteering at camp: How to describe the indescribable When anyone asks me about Flying Horse Farms and the experience I had at camp, I can only say one thing: it’s indescribable. I knew I was going to have a great experience when I drove through the gates this summer for a hematology/oncology week. But I couldn’t have imagined everything I felt and still feel today about camp. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about camp and all the amazing people I met there: from the medical staff to the grounds crew, the Alcoa fellows, the volunteers, and definitely to the children. Beyond a doubt, I was changed forever. And one story in particular showed me why this place is so magical. For the first half of the week, one of the younger boy campers struggled with homesickness. Even though I was an activities counselor, not one of his cabin counselors, the cabin adopted me early on. So I spent a lot of time with them and noticed that whenever he was kept busy he was always having fun. So his counselors and I did our best to get his mind away from being at home and keep him occupied so he would have a great time. His homesickness started to fade around day three and he started having a noticeably better time. It was amazing to see his transformation from a camper struggling and wanting to leave to one who began volunteering for games and wanted to participate. At the last campfire of the week, we all wrote wishes on our wish sticks. I wished for more times like this (the ones that most definitely make us feel human). The formerly homesick boy sat next to me and scribbled on his stick. When he finished, he showed me what he’d written. It said: “for all the kids to get better.” While you’re at Flying Horse Farms you sometimes forget the challenges these campers face in their daily lives. After all, they look like any other child walking down the street. So when I read his wish stick it struck me: camp actually gave these kids a week of freedom. Freedom from the hospital, the doctors, the “how are you feeling” questions, things that I don’t always think about because I don’t experience them on a daily basis. Through Flying Horse Farms we let kids have fun, be creative, dream, imagine, and hope. But most important of all, we let them be kids. Guest Blogger Amanda Ghiloni is a program volunteer at Flying Horse Farms.