Breathing in the cool crisp fall air and hearing the crunch of the leaves on the ground, these are all little things that make me feel content and happy because it means it is fall and football is here and football season is my favorite time of the year.  I love football which made me an oddball growing up in my family.   Nobody in my household watched football or sports of any kind for that matter – that includes my dad and brother.  Heck, nobody even played any sports. My mother couldn’t stand the thought that somebody would lose.   I got my love of football completely from my grandpa — gramps, as I lovingly called him, absolutely loved football.

I didn’t get to see my gramps that often growing up but when I did he always made me feel special.  If I was lucky enough to visit my grandparents over the weekend in the fall, on Saturday gramps and I would sit and watch “State” play together.  State was how he referred to The Ohio State Buckeyes and that was the game we would always enjoy the most because it was his favorite.  He would try to explain the details of the game to me and I would nod as if I understood what he was talking about but mostly I only grasped that the team that with the most touchdowns won.  On Sunday he mostly just enjoyed watching any game that was on. He loved football and what made this time with him so memorable and special is how much he included me in his interests, talked with me, and  joked with me – time spent together.  He didn’t tell me to be quiet or shush me, he answered any questions that I would ask of him and I imagine that I probably asked a lot. He would interact with me.

As I got older, gramps would call me on game day during halftime to discuss how the Buckeyes were playing.  It wasn’t a long conversation but it was how we touched base and it made me feel important and loved.  Gramps died over 10 years ago and still today, when I watch football with my daughter, part of me expects the phone to ring and to hear gramps laughing about a silly play the Buckeyes made.  I miss him very much but watching football now still makes me feel close to him and still makes me smile.  It somehow makes him seem like he is right here with me.

Sometimes we parents forget that we don’t always have to completely sacrifice and forget our interests when we have children, we just need to include our children in on our fun.  Sewing with grandma (something she loved to do), cooking with my other grandma (she thought of it as an art form), reading books with my mom (we spent a summer reading the Little House on the Prairie books series when I was ten as my mom loved to read), playing toss with my grandpa, woodworking with my dad, chinese checkers with my grandma – these were all interests that members of family had and they included me and they have shaped my life – Thank you to all of them!   It works both ways – by the way  – -our children love for us to take part in their interests as well.

It’s never too early to get started.  For those of you out there who are sports nuts and expecting a baby, we haven’t forgotten you.  We have baby shower invitations and birth announcements with sports themes.  One of my favorite birth announcements is when you take a photo of the baby dressed up in your team colors and we put that on the birth announcement – we can use your team colors in the announcement.  Just take a look at these links for some ideas and remember we are here to help if you have any questions

* Sports-themed Photo Birth Announcements – This includes football, basketball, tennis, baseball and golf

* Sports-themed Baby Shower Invitations

* Sports-theme (non-photo) Birth Announcements – This includes baseball, golf and tennis – Also sibling non-photo

Munchkins Mom at MiracleMunchkins.com

One of the very first things we want to do for our bloggers is offer free stuff!  Who couldn’t use something for free??  So for the entire month of November 2008, we will be offering Free U.S. Ground Shipping off of our printed items for every order of $55 or more!  This is a great value and available only if you visit blog.

To redeem your coupon: enter “Nov Shipping” (without the quotes) inside the shopping cart where it asks for your voucher code.  Once you Recalculate your order total, you will see a discount added to your order for the same amount as the cost of ground shipping.

Need a faster shipping method?  If you need a faster shipping method such as 2 day air or next day air but still want to use the coupon, no problem at all!  Just select which shipping method you need, enter in the voucher code and you will still receive a discount in your shopping cart good for the amount of ground shipping.  This means that your 2 day air or next day air shipping cost will be cheaper for you.

What products is the coupon good for?  The free U.S. ground shipping is good for orders over $55 for all printed items such as our entire birth announcement line (every single style!) holiday cards, party invitations, baby shower invites, baptism invitations, thank you cards, and candy wrappers. 

Where can I find these printed products?  Just visit our website at www.miraclemunchkins.com 

• Our entire line of birth announcements can be found at http://www.miraclemunchkins.com/birth_announcements.htm
• A good starting place for all invitations is http://www.miraclemunchkins.com/invitations.htm
• Thank you notes can be found here http://www.miraclemunchkins.com/thankyounotes.htm
• Candy wrappers – http://www.miraclemunchkins.com/wrappers_shower.htm

Any questions, just email us at email@miraclemunchkins.com and we’ll be happy to help or post in the comment section below