Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas!

Love from us!

Merry Christmas!

Well, this week has gone by SO quickly, and now Christmas is right around the the corner. Here are some highlights from our busy week:

• Sunday - we had church in the morning, and in the evening at church we had a special worship service called "Christ in Song" with lots of music telling the story of Christ. I got to sing in a ladies ensemble, Kenny sang in a men's quartet and the kids sang with the kids choir. It was a beautiful service!
• Monday- Nathan and Tim had their annual Christmas concert with their piano teacher. Their teacher, Mrs. Schnieder, was voted "Best in Brentwood for 2007!" The concert was wonderful; the boys did great!
• Tuesday - piano lessons, making cookies and two parties filled this day. I made cut out Christmas cookies with the kids, which is one of their favorite Christmas traditions that we have. They each take a turn rolling and cutting the dough, and we spent about 3 hours doing this! Lizzy got to go to a caroling party with her good friend Emmy in the evening, and Kenny and I went to a nice dinner party at the Trummel's with several of our dear friends. It was another special day!
• Wednesday - the dreaded Winco trip (anyone who lives in Brentwood will understand!), more cookies baking, candy making and prayer meeting...oh and we delivered our Angel Tree gifts after prayer meeting!
  
• Thursday - AH, the ONLY day where we did not have to go anywhere except the boys' TaeKwon-Do class in the evening. We made more cookies, and I finished wrapping all of the presents!
• Friday - I finished my baking yesterday, ran a couple of errands and then we went to another Christmas party last night at the Clappins with a few good friends. A fun way to end a busy week; just relaxing, chatting and eating yummy appetizers!

So, today is Saturday, and my parents arrive this afternoon to stay until next Thursday...so starting the official Christmas celebration!! My brother comes on Monday. I may not have time to post again until after Christmas so I want to wish all of my blog readers a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!


"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
~Luke 2:1-14

Community Service

Today our Keepers of the Home and Contenders of the Faith groups went to Eskaton (where Kenny's Mom lives) and some of the kids played piano. We also asked the residents a few questions, such as "What's your favorite Christmas memory?" or "What was a favorite toy you received as a child?" It was fun to hear some of their answers, such as the "roller skates with metal wheels" or the "oranges in my stocking!" A little different from what our kids know of Christmas! The kids handed our ornaments that we had made last Friday to all of the residents as well.

We also sang "Joy to the World" with them; spreading a little of Christmas and Christ with them. It's good to honor our elderly and show the love of Christ in small ways.

Merry Christmas!

Snickerdoodles

We love to make snickerdoodles and Christmas is a perfect excuse to make some! For a fun holiday twist, add green and red sprinkles to your sugar and cinnamon mix. When you roll the cookies in this, they will bake up looking quite festive!

I'm not even going to post the recipe here b/c it's one of the most well loved cookies in America! :o)

Happy Baking everyone!

Comments

For some reason, blogger did NOT alert me to the comments that I just published this morning when I got on here to post something. So to all of you who left comments, I apologize that it took a WEEK to get them on here!!

Thanks for the birthday greetings too!

This doesn't look right....

Yesterday Kenny's laptop decided to stop working. Kenny is quite sad b/c he does SO much of his work on that thing. Anyway, he decided that he would just try to fix it himself! For those of you who know Kenny well, you know he is NOT going to be considered for a job with the Geek Squad any time soon (like never) so I was pretty nervous when I saw the laptop 'innards' all over my desk. He's more of a "ooooh, let's take it apart and see how it works and then put it back together" type of guy! I can imagine that when he was a little boy, he was actively taking apart the toilet or his dad's radio.

So, he got it back together, but without figuring out the problem. I just thought I should document the moment.

Thanks to Jason for talking sense into Kenny, and telling him to not mess with it anymore. haha!

New Blog

I've added a new blog site to our list of favorites sites.

Serving the Lord in Lakeshore

Our church is sending 21 people to Lakeshore, MS in January to help rebuild homes in that town that were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. We have set up a blog for them to post on while they are there, so we can keep track of what they are doing! They leave on January 5th, and will be gone for a week. It is our prayer that much can be done to serve these people who have been without homes for so long. There is another link on our sidebar called Rebuild Lakeshore as well, if you want to see the ongoing work there.

Check out the blog! Nathan and I will be posting little things before they go, but hopefully they will be able to post daily while they are there.

Nathan and Kenny are going on this trip!

More Birthday Stuff

I never finished posting about my nice birthday-day. I woke up to breakfast made by my three sons. Such a treat! A short time later, the phone rang...and Pauline sang "happy birthday" to me over the phone! Later, Stef brought me a yummy peppermint mocha (my favorite!) and Sue brought me a carrot cake (again, my favorite)! I felt very blessed and loved! :)

Thanks to everyone who called, sent me e-cards and gave me little gifts! Later, my family made me another carrot cake (Stef, I can share with you...I know how much you LOVE carrot cake!) and gave me more presents.

It was a special day, and I am thankful to God for the great blessing of family and friends who are like family! You all made my 41st birthday fun!

Birthday Breakfast!

So today is my birthday (#41) and my boys all got up at 6:45am and made me breakfast!!! Such a sweet surprise! They served me a ham and cheese omelette, a bagel with cream cheese and sliced apple! Very delicious, and a LOT of food at 7:15am. :o) Kenny helped me finish it.


Such a nice way to wake up on one's birthday!

Lizzy and Dan also signed contracts written by Nathan and witnessed by Tim, promising to "obey unconditionally" today. What more can a Mom need?

Christmas Tree!!

Saturday we put up our Christmas tree...it's an all day event! We have to borrow the Betti's BIG ladder in order to decorate the very top! Personally, I do NOT like the high ladder (or any high place for that matter!) so the kids enjoy the climbing part. :) Even Lizzy climbed all the way to the top to put ornaments up HIGH (12 foot tree).

My parents give the kids each an ornament every year, so they each have a set of Hallmark collectibles that will be theirs to keep one day. Nathan's set is "Kiddie Cars" but that collection ended last year, so this year he got a Corvette ornament. Tim's set is "All American Trucks"...lots of cool pick up trucks! Dan's set is called "Flying High"...all airplaines. Our tree looks quite "boyish!" Ah, but then there is Lizzy's set...now she has a "Fairy Princess" set, but her first set was "Little Women" with the four sisters from that famous story. So, there are a few girly ornaments too! Anyway, it 's fun to pull out all of the ornaments each year and add the newest one!