Wonderful Christmas!

It's a wonderful Christmas! 

Enjoyed a white Christmas this year. The above picture was taken from my balcony this morning. A beautiful sight to begin the day.  Read Luke 1-3 from my new "The Message Bible". And took time to thank God for His gift of salvation. 

Opened gifts from family and friends. God has blessed me with some of the most amazing people. I'm very thankful they are part of my life.

For Christmas dinner, I used my NEW ELECTRIC GRILL! It's so easy to use and the food tastes GREAT!  The menu consisted of: Grilled and hickory smoked onions, peppers, portabella mushrooms, tomatoes on a Brown rice Pizza crust with homemade pizza sauce. YUM!!!

Onions and Peppers starting to cook.

Onions finishing up and tomatoes starting.

Portabella Mushrooms smoking.

The grill fits perfect on my balcony and the hickory smoked smelled wonderful.

Pizza's finishing up on the grill.

Christmas dinner. YUM!

Hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas Day! Wishing you a POSITIVE 2011!

God MULTIPLIED His Blessing!

God is amazing! 

Each year in October I set time aside to Celebrate God and His blessings. And each year, God sends special gifts and blessings my way as constant reminders of His love and care. This year He sent several blessings. (Read posts dated October 16—29, 2010 for the details.)

God is so creative

in presenting His

blessings and gifts to me.

This year He used a contest. I won a Cowboy Grillin' Pack, which included a large grill and LOTS of goodies.

The picture of the grill is to the left. For the rest of the prize see post: Cowboy Grillin' Pack. 

Over the years, God has been very gracious to send blessing not just for me, but for my friends as well. And the Cowboy Grillin' Pack is an example.

God MULTIPLIED this blessing

so that others could share in His goodness!

God could have chosen ANY brand and ANY size grill. And HE made sure that the prize was a Char Broil RED® FOUR-BURNER INFRARED GRILL WITH AUTO-CLEAN™. 

God had a very specific plan in mind! 

Special and dear friends of mine like the Char Broil brand grills. A while back, they has discussed that in the future, they'd like a new one for their patio. As I looked at the grill and thought of how special these friends are.... I knew exactly what God wanted me to do!

This was a blessing that God

wanted me to PAY FORWARD!

My friends are getting the Char Broil 4 burner infrared Grill and most of the extras, and in turn they are buying me the much smaller CHAR BROIL ELECTRIC GRILL! Yes, an ELECTRIC GRILL, that means no lugging gas tanks or charcoal up the apartment. I just plug it in and grill. And it takes wood chips so I'll have the flavoring of grilling. The smaller size will fit on my balcony.

Why didn't God just give me the smaller grill? Because God wanted me to be able to share this gift with my friends. Not only am I blessed by God's gift, my friends can enjoy God's blessing too.

This blessing MULTIPLIED! 

My friends have a new grill which they will make very good use of... and I'll have a smaller grill perfect for my needs.

God designed this gift SPECIFICALLY

to be MULTIPLIED to those around me.

How cool is that!!??

Creating a positive day

MULTIPLIES joy to those around you!

Cowboy Grillin' Pack

Here are some pictures of PART of my Cowboy Grillin' Prize Pack I won a few weeks ago (see post 10th Anniversary Blessings Celebration!; Oct 16, 2010).

The grill is being assembled by a friend, so I don't have any pictures of it yet. But here are pictures of the "Prize Pack Fit for a Cowboy"! 

I know that I'll create many positive days (and meals) using my Prize. Plus the Grill and accessories will all be great reminders of all God's amazing blessings He continues to send my way! 

Loading the prizes into the van. 

The Cowboy Prize Pack (minus the grill).

Closer Look 1: Spices, Cookbook, Fryer Cover, and basket.

Closer Look 2: Grill Tools and Wok Topper.

Closer Look 3: Oil-less Infrared Turkey Fryer

Closer Look 4: Grill Cover, BBQ sauces, Grill Grate Cleaning Brush

Grilling! Yum!

A few weeks ago, God gave me a small grill. It's the perfect size for me. The first time I grilled it was steak. On Saturday, although I didn't feel like grilling, it helped me ignore the pain and provided some yummy food! This time, I grilled onions, ground turkey burgers and the buns. A few extra so that I can enjoy grilled burgers without all the work of grilling.

There are steps necessary to grill. First I have to clean out the old ashes, then add the new coals, set the grates. I also set up some chairs to keep the birds away from the hot grill. For safety, I fill a pitcher with cold water, just in case the fire gets too big. Then I get all the food ready and light the coals. Wait for the fire to die down, add the food, wait, and ENJOY! 

Just as there are steps to grilling, there are steps to living a positive life. The first and foremost is a relationship with God. He is the one who not only supplies eternal life, but also gives grace to live each day. Another step is to keep your focus positive. If you focus on "all the bad things" it will drag you down. Yes, there are bad things that happen, however, there are many good things too! Another step is to share the blessings with others. That way you remember the blessings and others can rejoice with you. And lastly, take time to thank God for the great things He does for you, including loving you with an unconditional love.

If you feel overwhelmed,  one way to create a positive day is to do something special, (in spite of the pain). Yes, grilling did increase my pain, but I sure enjoy the "reward" of the yummy food afterward.

Here are some pictures from the latest grilling episode.

(View left to right then down)