For the Love of GJC

I created a new Pinterest board titled "Crafts for GJC." Let me tell you why.

If you didn't know, I have one niece and two nephews. They are Genesis, 10, Jalen, 8, and Christian, 2. Together, I will refer to them as GJC. I named Genesis, my niece. I love biblical names that are unique and not outdated. I love names such as Tamar and Micah. I also was in the room for her birth. The episiotomy has scarred me for life! Anyway, G is the sweetest, most innocent young lady. Jalen is also sweet and he's the most well-mannered young man you'll ever meet. Christian? I believe he tells it like it is, even at 2 years old. He has the cutest, most intriguing eyes. He's my Chocolate Boy Wonder, that's what I call him.  I'm blessed to be their aunt. Actually, it's "Auntie Meka."

 These are old pics, but they all look so gorgeous!

Anyway, I had a chance to spend some time with them over Thanksgiving break and it was awesome. My niece asked me to help her with her assignment that she was given over the holiday. She had to come up with a product to sell and make the advertisements for it as well. We came up with a product based off her interest in singing. Our collective idea was the Pitch Perfect Peaches doll. It was Jalen's idea to do a doll; he says that's what girls do. Haha! The name came from the movie, Pitch Perfect, which I adore. G came up with the name Peaches. The three of us were having a great time. Christian didn't necessarily understand what we were doing, but he was there to make sure we didn't forget any of our ideas because he kept repeating EVERYTHING we were saying. :-) As we began to come up with advertisements and whatnot, I thought we should watch the movie. It then turned into a movie day. I would buy popcorn and snacks and get a movie that they all would enjoy (I got Planes). Unfortunately, G fell severely ill that day and had to go to the hospital. We watched Pitch Perfect a couple of days later and Jalen took Planes to his home and watched it.

After that experience, I realized that I don't spend enough time with them. Here I am in the city spending time with my "little sister," through Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC, yet I am not fulfilling my "Auntie Meka" duties with them. That changes now. I will return home for Christmas really soon, and I am currently planning to spend a day with GJC.

I go the idea to do Christmas crafts with them after seeing some of the pins by those that I follow. I began to look for crafts that were gender neutral because so many of them were "girly." I'm too chicken to undertake making a gingerbread house, so this is what we will be doing:

We should have fun wrapping weenies. I like this because they get to prepare their own food.

This is Grinch Punch. We may watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but it's ultimately up to them what we watch.

This is a Christmas tree made up of ice cream cones, frosting and M&Ms. This should be fun!

We'll probably make all the food and eat it while watching a Christmas movie. They don't know that we're having a day together, but I'm sure they will be excited. I'm excited also! This is going to be fun and messy. I don't even know how Christian is going to handle all of this mess, but we shall see!

That's What Friends Are For

I was recently in a meeting and, as an icebreaker, all of the participants had to state something that went well for them recently. What did I say? "I value friendship. In the last couple of weeks, all of my friends have shown me why I consider them friends." So, let me tell you the actions of my friends that led me to say that.


True Friends: 

• Tell you, "Mi casa es su casa" and mean it. I can call 30 minutes before I arrive and she opens her house to me.
• Come and visit you everyday when you're visiting home even though their in the midst of a family reunion and family means so much to them.
• Say, "I'm pissed off for you!" - They go to bat for you....as I would them.
• Send you personal "Happy Thanksgiving" texts rather than standard group texts. - I hate group texts.
• Go with you when you're trying something new and scary. 
• Refer to you by their own made up nickname. LOL!
• Allow you a limitless amount of time to just sit on the phone and cry until you're able to get out a full word. - This happened. 
• Understand your love for Patron, bring you an entire bottle, and stay up til 2am talking about nothing even though they must be at work the next morning. 
• Drop everything to take you to the airport, no matter how far away it is, and not ask for gas money.
• Drive two hours to see you and catch up. 
• Tell you that you can do anything and follow up with their reasons why. :-)
• Listen to your never ending woe is me saga.  And there is no judgement.
• Write this on your Facebook page - As always, great time together. I value the hours sometimes minutes that we share, my friend. Thank you for your friendship!

Over the last couple of weeks and as I traveled back home (Florida) recently for Thanksgiving, those were just a few things my friends in both Florida and New York did.

I'm grateful to call them FRIENDS. I'm blessed.