Two New Additions

I wanted to post pictures of the newest additions to our church! No, no one got baptized recently. But... we did get a new cross for the front of the church and a nativity scene to display instead of our usual Christmas tree at Christmas. Big thanks to Sis. D's dad who made our cross for us, it matches our pews and is lighted from behind. All the brethren love it! And Sis. D and I really wanted and tried to find a nativity scene before Christmas and we looked online and everywhere we could think of, but we could not find one that was big enough, but didn't look cheesy. Then, the day of our church Christmas party, I was walking through the mall and lo and behold, there in the window of the Christian Outlet store was this beautiful nativity scene! It was on sale and I bought it on the spot. Our church really wanted to get away from the Christmas tree that we usually put up and I think the Lord made me find this one because everyone thinks it's perfect!

Christmas at Our House

Litte Mister Twister

So we all have to admit it... Daughter A can wear ANY hat she wants too and still look cute!

Little Miss A in her Christmas Dress

Three little ones wondering when we will open those presents?

Little T showing off his aminal!

This one's for you Russ!, here's Baby M in all his sweetness!

Waiting to get the food!

Sis. K , Bro. D and Daughter L in their jammies!

No Christmas tree for us this year! Our Christmas "bench" made it's appearance once again!

Awww! So sweet!

Here's another one for you Russ... Bro. D is getting all the food!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, full of love and family and good food! Here at our house, things are winding down. There are still a lot of boxes to recycle and we still have two church tables in the computer room, with borrowed chairs from our Christmas Eve dinner. There are a ton of goodies hanging around. Ack! And we still have New Year's Eve to look forward to. I can't believe it's going to be 2009. We are nine years into the new century. I remember ringing in the new century with Bro. Tom who is now gone from us and awaiting his heavenly home. That was a very special evening and now it seems like so long ago.

There have been quite a few changes around our house lately. We got rid of our "land line". Now we just have our cell phones. For three months, if you call our old phone number, it will direct you to my cell number. It feels weird to not have our "land line". At first I was paranoid that I would miss a call. Or that cell phone service would go away and then what would I do? But I'm calming down. Really, our "land line" hardly ever rang. So now there is one less bill to pay! The biggest change is that two of my youngest three kids moved out and into their own shared apartment. I've had to be careful to not write about this until I could collect myself. I'm ok now, really. Most of the time anyway. It's hard to have that gaping hole of my daughter's room staring at me, and wonder if she is coming back. Do I move on and make it into my sewing room, or should I leave it empty... just in case? And should our youngest son spread out in his room, or should we keep space for our missing young man, just in case? Big sigh. These are questions that haunt me. I'm happy for my two little nestlings that have flown the coop, they are so cute in their new home! I'm trying to concentrate on that part of it, so I don't ruin it for them. You know, by making them worry that I'm too sad over here... in my almost... empty... house. Our youngest is half way through his 16th year, so I'm in no danger of being an empty nester soon. But it's looming on that horizon and I'm kind of feeling like I want to turn back the clock several years.

Enough of that! I'm going to get organized and set my sewing machine up and finish some UFOs. (that's "unfinished objects" in sewing/quilting talk) I only have two days of work this week, and so that will leave me 5 days of getting things set up and figuring out where to go from here before the new year really starts.

Thanks Giving Season starts

I really love that our holiday season begins with Thanksgiving. I believe that the whole season from Thanksgiving through New Years Day is a season of giving thanks. On Thanksgiving Day we celebrate a bountiful harvest, which we all truly do enjoy. We give thanks to God for all our many blessings and gather friends and family close around us to enjoy their company. Then it's on to a whole month of preparation culminating in Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We decorate our houses to remember Christ's birth, we gather and shop for presents for our loved ones, we plan delicious goodies to give to each other, we look forward to our church Christmas dinner celebration, all the while remembering that Christ was born one day a long time ago to save us and to bring us true "peace on earth and goodwill toward men". Every family has their own special way of doing this, and what a blessing and I am so thankful that we have the freedom to do whatever we choose to do! Even when the festivities of Christmas are over, we then celebrate the bringing in of a New Year. A New Year to live for our Lord, a New Year to give our lives for our family and brethren, a New Year to begin again the turning of the tide toward spring. We truly do have much to be thankful for beginning with our Thanksgiving celebration.

On that note, I'll post a few pictures of our Thanksgiving Day!

OKC Visiting Brethren on Halloween

Here are a few pictures from our HUGE weekend with the brethren from OKC. Our brethren here enjoyed them so much and we hope they all enjoyed us as well. I am desperately needing sleep since we stayed up every night until WAY past my bedtime. Even with gaining an hour on Saturday night, we used up every bit of it visiting on the word of God. This picture is of Grandson J, who is so squeezingly cute! Then it's on to Puppygail our new little puppy around the house! She's got such an imagination!

Here are Miss B and Daughter L all dressed up for Halloween. This picture is a milestone for Miss B. She's wearing the Halloween costume she didn't get to wear last year because Halloween pretty much marks the time that it's been a full year since she got so sick. She looks and feels great now and her momma even testified in church Sunday that she can JOG around the track at the high school! (just a little bit!)
Here are the two Sis. L's, double R and me!
Our little Grandson M with his Daddy, what superheros they both are to me!





We all got a little antsy waiting for Bro. M and Sis. C's plane to arrive so we took pictures of our socks! Here are a bunch of our brethren waiting for what seemed like forever for 8:30 to arrive so we could go get them from the airport... the trick or treaters kept them all entertained though...And here they are! Our dear brethren from OKC. Visiting and more visiting! Wow, what a great weekend