More Fun With Mom

Our little downtown square has an amazing display of lights. I've never seen anything like it so we definitely took Mom to see it. She got a family picture of us there. I have no pictures, however, of the camel rides (which I didn't have the $5 for), visits with Santa, a real reindeer, horse-drawn carriage rides....pretty cool.

 

Mom and I have a tradition to spend a Saturday together doing whatever we want. This year that meant last-minute shopping, going to a pleasantly brainless Christmas movie, and sampling stuff from a gas station disguised as a gourmet food shop (it proved to be nothing but smart packaging). And the day started here with a delicious brunch! Unfortunately, I didn't feel very good, can you tell?

 

So Mom could visit with my sweet sisters-in-law and meet my new nieces, we met for lunch at a tearoom in one of the old downtown buildings - there goes my tank overflowing again! I'm not a photographer but, oh my gosh, I love this picture. No caption necessary for a moment caught like this...

 

Is any of this working at all to entice a visit from a friend or two???

Grammy

Our tune this Christmas didn't have much to do with Santa coming to town but we did eagerly anticipate someone else -- Grammy! We spent some valuable with her and I believe she very artfully (and successfully) created a week of unforgettable moments with her grandson, Joshua. Among the memories:

Pizza at the best place in my old college town!

 

A welcome into the world of 3-D movies. How are we ever to be satisfied with things not threatening to slap us in the face now?

 

Cut-out cookies! This is a Grammy tradition every year. She travels all over the country to do this with all 7 of her grandchildren! Like I said, who needs to sing about Santa?

 

The "Happy Birthday, Jesus" cake. They did a great job. I got a little anxious to slice it up (as you can see) but they reminded me that we needed to light candles and sing! And so we did, most merrily.

 

Thank you for coming, Mom. We had such a good time and we love and miss you! Good luck on round three of the baking spree....

The Bible Thumpers

Every Thursday I have 'BS' marked on my calendar and that's just not right. BS stands for Bible Study and nothing otherwise so this wonderful, fantastic group of girls deserved another title, I thought. Our final vote:
The Bible Thumpers

 

God has blessed me so much with the friendship of these girls. It's amazing how God knit us together. Every week we laugh AND cry - count on it, share what we learned from our study, tell our deepest secrets, pray for each other, and then laugh and cry again. Sometimes we laugh BECAUSE someone in particular is still crying! Well, that someone did the most thoughtful thing for us all yesterday by hosting a Christmas luncheon I'll never forget. Every detail was wrought with the special attention that fills my little domestic tank to an overflow. Have you ever seen a custom-made Christmas curtain for the guest bathroom -- just for a get-together with your friends? Wish I'd taken a picture. I loved every bit of it. Most of all, Shannon, I love you! Thank you for bringing me in and putting me on your 'kindred spirit' list. You made my season.

Remember how I gushed with admiration over my beloved grandmother awhile ago, especially on how no one can say things like she can?  Many of you concurred.  My favorite comment was from my sister, Carolyn, who brought up something about her that had me laughing for days and made me believe I needed to put up an addendum.  Here's Carolyn on Grandma:

One time she told me that if I was ever hearing something I didn't like, to "put it in my sifter and say, 'that's not in my recipe. I'm baking this cake.'"

So now there are 3 of us in the world doin' some siftin'. Anyone else with another Grandma-ism?

All I Want For Christmas Is....

 

Ornament Tag, Part 2

 

My friend Lorri made this for me and I have no idea how she did it.

 

Joshua and Grammy (my mom) painted this and some others together. And he was 6 -- just like me!

 

My friend, Tempelle, and I went shopping one day for the perfect pair of black shoes and never found them. She, however, found one in the way of an ornament for me! I laugh whenever I see this and still wish I could find those shoes...

 

My friend, Amy, made this for me -- it's one of my favorite verses. She could have very easily made this in her own honor as she is such a wise woman! And very creative!

Lorri, Tempelle, Amy -- you are very missed this year. Thank you for giving me an endearing way to remember you every Christmas.

Mom -- thank you for giving me simple traditions that make little things huge. See you in a couple weeks!

A Christmas Tag

My friend Amy has started her own great tag involving favorite ornaments. She picked several of hers and shared the special meaning behind them and invited anyone who would like to do the same. This seemed like something fun to do until I realized that EVERY ornament on my tree has special meaning. Nothing on my tree hasn't either been made by us or given to us for some sweet reason, so narrowing it down to several is very difficult. I eventually took pictures of 8 and I will divide it into two posts based on the order in which they came to me.

 

The one above was one I painted with my Mom and brother when I was 6, I think. I picked this because I'm so glad Mom saved these for us!

 

My Mom gave Greg & I this one for our first Christmas together. It's see-through, like one of my favorites when I was a kid.

 

This one makes me sad but it means a lot to me. I took care of a baby for a long time that didn't end up making it and his family made this angel ornament for me. I will never forger that baby.

 

And this one brings me total joy. Becky made this for me the Christmas I was pregnant with Joshua. It's an expectant Momma made out of a clothespin! If only I had actually looked this small...

Anyone up for sharing? I'd love to see your special ornaments!

Getting The Tree

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It's been the tradition since our first year of marriage to get a live tree. A tighter Christmas might mean that the tree's a foot shorter this year but it didn't matter. How could it when it was actually snowing outside!

 

The 3 of us spent the day decorating the tree, eating some Chicago-style pizza, baking cookies, and, when night fell, we snuggled together to stare at our tree and watch "It's A Wonderful Life". I love that movie. I've been watching it every year since I was 12 but I still tear up at the end. I want to be friends with George & Mary Bailey and have Joshua marry ZuZu.

By the way, it ended up snowing all day and through the night. By December 1st, we had a blanket of white everywhere! No picture, though. Memory was full.

Thanksgiving Day

Among so many blessings I am truly thankful for this year, one of them was to host a houseful of wonderful family on this special day. It's been a tough year emotionally but God is good and He has brought us to a good place in this new home. After 10 years of living near no family of ours from either side, I am now surrounded and supported by the best in-law family a person could hope for. Thank you Banks Family for loving me these past 12 years as your own. You are a blessing!

 

The Turkey Boys! My brother-in-law, David, and his Dad, John, made the best smoked turkey you've ever had.

 

Too many cooks? Are you kidding? Who came up with that phrase? You can never have too many cooks! Mom B. and Becca peeled, I think, 640 potatoes.

 

Table One! This might be the kid table. I see no one in this picture that I would trust with anything of great responsibility.

 

And Table Two. Well, maybe this is the kid table...

Maurer Family: We missed you and we'll see you next year!!

I recently asked some friends for their opinion on the appropriate time to start decorating for Christmas. They were pretty decisive that it should be the Saturday after Thanksgiving (at 0900, meet you in the attic?). That sounded good. After all, I'm new around here and I wouldn't want to not fit in, so I've been very busy the last few days preparing for Thanksgiving.

 

 

 

 

Truth is, Joshua carried a large electoral vote on this one, and you can only watch a little one jump up and down and beg you to get those lights out so much before it becomes infectious, you know? Really ladies, I had nothing to do with it. Really.

By the way, can you tell which room I didn't do?

Blessing Baskets

 

Our church is feeding a few thousand families for Thanksgiving this year so this morning we helped put the "baskets" (paper bags full of groceries) together. It was freezing cold - exactly 32 degrees - but it was so much fun. Josh and I doubled the bags and got them to the food assembly line while Greg helped load them onto the trucks.

 

This really was a sacrifice for Greg because he's been achy and feverish the last couple days. Yet, he was so glad to do it!

One thing that had me giggling to myself (and only to myself because no one else was laughing) was the motivational music blaring out the big speakers in the parking lot. We were rockin' to Stryper, no less, singing "To Hell With The Devil!". Do you remember them?!? I think they were the Christian answer to KISS once upon a time but I don't think anyone in this crowd was struggling with a Gene Simmons craving. Interesting choice.

You know, as these things always go, the blessing you're suppose to be to someone else always ends up blessing you. It was a cold and early Saturday morning but there's nothing else I wish we'd have done.

"....I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for ME." -Matthew 25:40

A Great Tag!

Don't you just love the 4th picture in the 4th folder of your picture files? I do! I was tagged my Ashley A. to post and tell about it, then to tag 4 more friends to do the same. So here it is:

 

Don't ask. This was not in college, in fact, it was taken just last year. Suffice it to say I have NEVER needed alcohol! I will tell you that three of my favorite people are in this picture - Amy, Ashley (the one who tagged me), and Morgan (hidden behind the banister). This picture made me laugh and then hurt. I miss y'all so much. I need entire posts to tell more about you. Hmmm...

I now tag Julie, Charissa, Kirsten and Marlita. Can't wait to see your 4ths!

Good News, Bad News

 

Well, for all of you that remember my car dilemma, the good news is that Greg bought a HONDA!! It was a suprise for me, a pleasant one, and that was after teasing that he had brought home a Mercedes. Not a funny joke when I call and say "I'm on my way home. What have you guys been up to?" There were tears, in fact. So, yes, I have enjoyed driving around indiscreetly and thriftfully.

Bad news: I've already wrecked it. Didn't pull it into the garage far enough and when we closed the door it perfectly sliced up the rear fender. And that's why I don't drive a Mercedes!

Elizabeth Phillips

 

When people ask "Who is your hero?", this is the woman that comes to my mind every time. She personifies the consumate 'everything' that a girl aspires to be: faithful wife, loving mother/grandmother/great-grandmother, Biblical and all-other-things scholar, brilliant wit and conversationalist (NO one can say things like she can - can I get an 'Amen' from someone who knows her?), unsurpassable apple pie maker, teacher, musician, artist, world-traveler, gardener, economist, would-be politician, and best hugger ever. Those hugs are called 'whoofers' and they're warm and wonderful. I'm happy to have my middle name after her and I only hope I can be just like her when I grow up.

 

Here she is with all her greats, or 'cherubs', as she calls them.

 

And here is one of her cherubs. It blesses me that he adores her like he does. She has a legacy that is catching, for sure. It sure caught me.

It's November 6th, two days after the election, and you'd think I had a lot to mull over right now.  I don't.  Everything worth examining and praying over, the struggles with the consequences from one canditate vs. the next, the hopes and fears associated with them, the significance of the times as God sees it -- all of it has been belabored in my soul for months already.  Yesterday I felt like King David.  After he had his affair with Bathseba, she got pregnant, and then he had her husband killed, David's infant son was born very sick.  He spent days on his face before God, repenting, full of sorrow and begging God for mercy.  God had His way and He took that baby home.  When David was told the news, he picked himself up, cleaned up, worshiped the Lord and got something to eat.  His servants were bewildered about that but David's response was (my paraphrase) "What's done is done.  I hoped and prayed for another outcome but God is Sovereign and it's time to move on." We've all kind of been David.  We took our eyes off the Lord and had an affair with our wallets.  We may lose some things very precious to us as a result.  On our faces before the Lord is the place we ought to be if we haven't been there yet but then it's time to get up, clean up, worship God and have some sustenance.  No President saves us, no matter what party.  Our hope is in GOD alone and that never changes.  That's refreshingly good news to me.    

Trick or Treat!

We joined up with neighbor friends Nathan and Connor for our tour around the block last night. This neighborhood is full of cute kids! I'm so glad we're still not too old for dressing up because I love that community feeling of all the families being out together. I also love the wink in the above picture. Joshua explained to me that you always see old west sheriffs winking. (?)

We had a rookie trick-or-treater with us last night, too! I'm afraid Kierstin was all for the excitement until she learned she wasn't Iron Man.