Post Thanksgiving / Pre Advent Thoughts

This weekend has always been a favorite of mine. The weekend, in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Leftovers fill our refrigerators (and our bellies!). In my house there are a few things out for the next month, but the decorating hasn't begun yet. It will, in some measure, begin today. There are a stack of Christmas Cards waiting to be made, addressed and stamped but none have gone out yet.

This weekend, tomorrow actually, begins Advent, the celebration of Jesus' birth and First Coming. America has this right: Enter in with Thanksgiving to celebrate the Birth of the Saviour.

This next month will be full of activities. My desire is to also find those quiet times where Jesus and I get to hang out together. One of my favorite activities has been to get a cup of hot chocolate, have the lights of just the Christmas Tree on and listen to Christmas Music while reflecting on the good things of Christmas Past, thanking God for Christmas Present and looking forward to Christ's Coming again.

Happy Thanksgiving and a very Merry Christmas!

Thanks be to God for His Indescribable Gift!
II Corinthians 9.15

A Letter to Billy Graham's Son

November 17, 2008
1312 Pine Acres Blvd.
Bay Shore Long Island, NY 11706-5436


Dear Franklin:

Each Thanksgiving I have a personal tradition of thanking the LORD for the people He has brought into my life. I also thank them personally, through mail or e-mail.

Although we have only met once, I want to include you. Samaritan’s Purse has been a blessing to me and to my church.

When the shoeboxes came in last Sunday my heart was overwhelmed. Our church is very small but is almost all heart. Thanks for letting a small group of God’s people be involved in such a wonderful thing.

Last year I brought in an expert to help my wife and I put together our shoebox-our then nearly 4 year old granddaughter. I told her we were going to get gifts for a girl her age who didn’t have many things. Emma and I went to work. When my daughter (her mom) came to get her she told her, “Mom, Poppa and I shopped and brought things for a little girl who doesn’t have hardly any toys and we are sending them to her for Christmas!” She then brought her mom by the hand int the dining room and showed her the shoebox we put together. Thanks Franklin for your splendid ministry of letting the saints do the work of blessing others.

Some years ago another pastor and I took some medical supplies and surgical tools to Boone. We met. You told me you flew into Republic Airport from time to time. I offered then and the offer still stands that if you were ever in need of a ride to Kennedy Airport I would be more than happy to help. I am just 15 minutes away from Republic.

God bless you in your service to the King!

May you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Your dad remains a hero to me and is in our prayers.


In Jesus Our LORD,

Pastor Larry A. Mancini, Jr.

Here Comes The Cold!

It amuses me what a little cold snap or even deeper freeze can do. How the times have changed since those days of growing up here on Long Island! It could be just me but I don't remember people complaining of the cold or relocating to a warmer climate like they are doing today. Of course they didn't! The sun belt has become a big thing in the past 30 years.

I would like to speak up for the cold weather. I love it! I need it. These next few weeks are too busy for me to be spending much time in the yard. Now is the time we enjoy welcoming some winter feathered friends to the feeders outside our bay window overlooking the gardens. January and we'll be off to beginning plants inside again! For now we take a break for Thanksgiving and Christmas. January the garden sleeps and then by February we'll watch the first greens coming with crocuses and daffodils sprouts and stars of Bethlehem...

Perhaps another reason for being a cold fan is how invigorating that air is. I do enjoy what it does when out in it. Maybe there is more. Today I put back on a leather jacket I wore when my youngest daughter (now 28) wore when she was in Junior High- oops there I go dating myself again, pardon me, Middle School. Those quilted sleeves are so comfortable. The running I have been doing has been paying off.

I love the lines from The Night Before Christmas written by a Methodist minister in New York City for his own children...

And Momma in her kerchief and I in my cap had just settle down for a long winter's nap...
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow gave a luster of midday to objects below.

Oh yeah I am a fan of The Polar Express and White Christmas.

Bring on the snow! As I wrote a few days ago there is nothing quite like looking out and seeing the bluejay and the cardinal in the white birch tree with the blanket of snow underneath.

A Time and Season For Everything

Its November but still in the 60's in the day here for another day or so. Funny I say basically I stop feeding the fish at Thanksgiving and begin at Easter. They ate a little a few days ago but are slowing down now. Actually it is Easter if it falls in March. Usually around the end of March they really begin to eat regularly- just checked the blog here- they were up on March 8th this year- so basically it is December, January and February they stop eating food I give them. Funny how the pond really helps determine so many of my garden activities! When the garden is sleeping and the fish are resting the prime time for bird feeding arrives!

Rainy Day

It is a rainy day in the backyard this morning. I am sitting here at the breakfast tale by the bay window looking outside. I just fed the birds. They are enjoying their breakfast too! A blue jay just came to one and pushed a number of sparrows out. A red winged blackbird did the same thing on an adjacent feeder. The peaceful mourning doves know what to do- they just hang out at the bottom and eat the spillover. Ah the advantages of living peacefully!

Most people don't like rain. Weather forecasters are among those that lead the disdain. I see the rain as life giving fluid for my yard and the world. One trip across the Sinai (I did that back in 1988) and you are sold on rain's blessings! How beautifully green Israel appeared as we approached the border!

So today I am giving thanks for the rain once again!

Thank You LORD!

Jackson, Poppa and Emma

Recent Visitors

I picked what will probably be my last bouquet of flowers from my backyard for the season. I do this each year for my youngest daughter whose birthday is today. The garden is getting ready to ready for the most part for a winter sleep which will begin at Thanksgiving. We still have parsley and green onions, which we had all through the winter last year, but the garden is getting a well deserved rest for a few months. After a six week shut down things will begin to emerge once again.

But we are getting lots of feathered visitors now. I move our feeders close to our bay window for late fall and winter viewing. On one day this week we had a red bellied woodpecker, a flicker, red winged blackbird, purple finch, a mocking bird, a robin and other assorted varieties.

There is nothing like a snowfall and seeing the cardinals and blue jays together in the white birch tree, both of which have been here this week in abundance!

We soon will welcome Juncos from Nova Scotia, who come here to Long Island to winter along with several upstate birds.

The last few days the backyard has been full of these visitors.