12/07/08

Tonight we went to Meadow Lights with some of our best friends. It is tradition with them and we love the time we spend together. This year had to be a bit quicker since tomorrow is school. Normally we have done it on a Friday night or on our Christmas break where we aren't worried about getting up early the next day. This year our weekends have become so busy and there was no time to fit it in unless we did it tonight! It was still a lot of fun and we made great memories. One funny one was as we were leaving and looking at the scenes they have set up, there was one of "Betsy Ross" sewing the flag and a Christmas tree decorated in a Patriotic theme. Steve said "Well, there's Martha White!" We ALL cracked up.... he was thinking of Martha White flour.... NOT Betsy Ross. He'll be kidded about that for a long time.

Here are a few pictures from the night. :)






12 more days....

12/06/08

Here are a couple more of the kids ornaments I got them this year. Wesley's is a SS Chevelle... 1971, I believe. It was green and it was an "old" car (hard to believe it is "old" seeing as that is the year I was born...) so I got that one for him. Mikayla's is her Tinkerbell from this year. I love that is has a butterfly on it.


Before I forget.... that little girl I wrote about in my post yesterday did pass away last night. My heart breaks for those parents. I am praying for them.

Today I ran some errands with my best friend. We celebrated her finishing her first semester of Grad School by going to Starbucks. I got a Peppermint Mocha Twist... and, oh goodness... was that thing good. It had caffeine in it, which is not great considering I don't handle caffeine very well. Thankfully, I didn't have the jitters, but I was a bit "busy" in the early afternoon jumping from one "project" to another. lol

Tonight we went to the Apex Christmas parade in downtown Apex. We go every year with my best friend because her girls are a part of it with their dance studio. It was a great night, and we bundled up because of the cold! We watched from the beginning to the end. Great traditions and memories. :) Here are a few pictures I took. Let's just say trying to shoot a parade in a lot of darkness is difficult. You either have the flash too bright or not enough, if I let my shutter stay open longer to capture more light I got too much motion blur. Oh well... these didn't turn out too badly.

Looking down main street, Apex

Old cars all in a line... this one was cute

Morgan, I realize this is a Prowler, but I thought of you when I saw it.... (what is the difference between a Prowler and a Viper?)

Wesley and Mikayla with their best buds.... and another friend. :)

Me and my sweet man

Wake Christian's marching band was in the parade! It was great seeing some of my former students doing their thing. They played really well!

SANTA!! :)

Here is the Christmas version of "getting to know you." One of my online friends sent it to me and I thought I'd share here. :)


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
- Honestly... whatever works best. Usually a gift bag because all you need is a bit of tissue paper and "voila"... wrapped present. Our boxes that are wrapped are good if they even have a stick on bow on them. Sad.... I know.

2. Real tree or Artificial??
- REAL!!!!!!!

3. When do you put up the tree???
- The day after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down??
- Usually a day or two after Christmas. I miss it but am also ready to get my house "back to normal."

5. Do you like eggnog???
- Not really... Steve does

6. Favorite gift received as a child??
- Hmmm.... I have many. Any of my dolls I received, I would guess.

7. Hardest person to buy for??
- Lots of people nowadays. Most people buy what they want without waiting for a time for someone to give it to them!

8. Easiest person to buy for??
- Wesley and Mikayla

9. Do you have a Nativity scene??
- Yes.... one from my grandmother's collection, one my brother gave us, one from a friend (Mikayla likes it so she can play with it...it is a kid friendly one), and one I received from someone that is a miniature.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards???
- MAIL. I'm beginning to find that even now with mailing I miss the personal handwriting from cards. Most people just send the photo cards... which are nice, but I just miss people handwriting a note.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received??
- I just can't go there right now. lol

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
- "The Nativity Story", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", "Rudolph", "Grinch"

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas???
- The day before Thanksgiving, usually. lol

14. Ever caught mother kissing Santa Clause?

- Well..... hmmm.....

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas??
- Anything chocolate

16. Clear or color lights on the tree??
- Clear on our main tree... the kids have colored on theirs.

17. Favorite Christmas song???
- Anything sung by Josh Groban. "Santa Train" by Patti Loveless, All of Vince Gill's Christmas CD songs, Dino Christmas... I could go on and on.... OH... and "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas..."

18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home??
- Home for the most part, but have to travel different areas for family nearby

19. Angel on the tree top or a star???
- Angel.... the same one Wesley asked this year why we keep putting her on the top of the tree every year.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Day??
- At my parents we open one on Christmas Eve before going home to get ready for Santa. The rest are Christmas morning. :)

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year??
- Obnoxious shoppers.

22. What theme or color are you using??
- Memories.... that is the only way I know to put it.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year??
- Well..... in 13 days I'm getting something pretty special. Other than that, a new Canon 20D... which will not happen. lol

24. Does your family have any yearly traditions??
- My brother and I do our annual baking (that will be next weekend!), we go to the Apex Christmas parade with my best friend to watch her girls (as seen above), go to Meadow Lights with our other best buds, go see "A Christmas Carol" at our local theater, go see Christmas lights at night with the kids after seeing a Christmas movie right after school on a half day of school, drink in all of the beauty of the twinkling lights.

24. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, and Donner (or is it Donder?) and Blitzen....RUDOLPH.


And, again.... 13 days.... :)

12/05/08

I took this picture on our walk around Hyco Lake a few weekends ago. It struck me odd when I photographed it, because I took it in color, but it looks black and white with some color put back in because of the angle it was photographed. It became a favorite from that day. Thought it was fitting for this time of year.


Today was a busy, busy day but overall good. Lot's was accomplished with our Craft Day and then another superb play practice. I am just shaking my head at how well these kids are doing. They are amazing.

I heard some news today that made my "Mother's Heart" stop for a second. A friend of mine knows some people who has an seven/eight year old niece. This little girl was not feeling well and the mother took her to the doctor this past Tuesday or Wednesday where they said she had a sinus infection/bronchitis. They put her on antibiotics and said if she wasn't better by Friday (I believe, today) then just bring her back on Friday and they'd see what else to give her. Well, Wednesday night the little girl got up in the middle of the night saying she couldn't breathe and was really having a hard time. The Daddy told her to go the bathroom to get ready because he was taking her to the ER. She passed out in the bathroom ... and I believe was not breathing ...and when they got her to the hospital it was found she had a horrible case of pneumonia. They put her on a ventilator to help with breathing but it has been found she has had no brain activity since she's been on it. They are going to have to make the choice on whether to take her off the ventilator this weekend.

OH.

And it's Christmas.

And she's seven/eight years old.

My eyes are welling up with tears even thinking about that. Knowing your child was perfectly healthy last week and now this... I can't imagine what they are going through right now. My heart has broken for those people. I have prayed for them today. I so wanted to ask "Why?" but know that is not for me to ask. God knows, even when we don't, why things happen the way they do. All things... even these horrible things, are for a reason. Look at what He endured when He sent His Son knowing He was born to die for our sins. He understands the pain.

This reminded me of one of our songs from the play. This song has already spoken to me as we have been practicing, but I felt it fit for what I just found out today about this family.

"When You Can't See the Forest for the Trees"

When you feel like the stars have stopped shining;
And the sun just can reach where you are.
And when you're feeling afraid and forgotten,
Like you're left all alone in the dark.
It's so easy to say there's a God up in Heaven,
but sometimes, He's so hard to see.
But yet we have found if we just learn to trust Him,
He's got everything we could need.

If we had God's eyes and could see to forever,
We'd never have to struggle to believe.
We'd understand why,
And in all of our questions,
We know what the answers would be.
But we have faith enough to know,
God is always in control,
When we can't see the forest for the trees.

There are times when we wait and we wonder.
And we question the sound of His call.
In the silence we learn how to listen,
And we find He's been there through it all.
He's longing to lead us from where we are waiting.
He wants us to reach out our hands.
And with every step we're a little bit closer,
To all that the Father has planned.

We have faith enough to know,
God is always in control,
When we can't see the forest for the trees.

12/04/08

Here is Mikayla's fairy I collect for her every year. This one is the Lily Fairy. We love all of these... I'll be photographing them all a little more this weekend. I really don't like a lot of my shots from when we put up the tree because too many things were going on while I was trying to do them. lol

Had to get a cracked tooth fixed today. I am so numb right now... not sure if I'll be able to eat supper! ha!!

What I love about Christmas:

- The gift of Jesus Christ

- The lights... all twinkling and glowing

- The smell of a real Christmas tree... nothing like it.

- Watching the excitement on my children's faces

- Christmas Carols

- Memories with friends and family

- Baking (yes, I actually enjoy that more so this time of year....)

- Peppermint chunked, dark chocolate covered oreos.... oh, goodness.

- Ornaments (I know that is shocking)

- Small town Christmas parades... out in the cold... experiencing it

- Two kittens sleeping under the Christmas tree

- The coziness of the whole season

- Getting Christmas cards in the mail


15 more days..... :)

12/03/08

Here is Wes' tractor ornament for this year. :) He placed all of his tractors all over the tree in a "special" area.

Good day but extremely busy! Play practice was awesome today... best ever for first day of all together. I was really proud of the students.

We have AWANA tonight.... gotta run.

16 days and counting.... :)

12/02/08

Here are just some various ornaments from our tree. I took more pictures last night because I wasn't pleased with many of the other ones I took quickly the other night. We'll see how I like those. lol

Busy, busy day. More to come... The play is coming together beautifully from the standpoint that the kids know their parts. Now we just have to merge singing parts and speaking parts together and that will happen for the first time tomorrow. I know they will do fine... they always do. :)

I have many papers to grade and some homework to finish up with the kids again.... I honestly hope the last two days are not a picture of my whole month of December. We have had some long days.

Just so you know.... 17 days now until my "unknown destination" is revealed. I still can't believe Steve has done this. :) I am trying not to think about it so I won't wish away the days, but I surely am excited!!

12/01/08

I know I showed this last year... and may just show it every year. (I also realize I have readers now that weren't reading at this time last year!!) This porcelain Mary and baby Jesus was my grandmother's and is beautiful to me. I usually have it on the foyer table but with two kittens this year, I didn't want to chance it. I chose to "re-do" my mantle, which for me is shocking because you know how I do with change...., and put both porcelain keepsakes up there. (The other one will be shown later.) I actually love it a lot like that. It puts the emphasis of Christmas where it should be... on Christ.



Here is a cutie from Wesley the other day:

"Mom, you know how I like to clean and stuff? I know God is watching me and when I get to heaven, do you think He'll want me to clean up around there?"

I told him I didn't think there would be any need to clean in heaven, but that was a great thought he had. :)

Today we went to Walmart and the kids bought their "Joy Toys" for the kids that are underprivileged so their parents can get Christmas presents for them. They earned their ten dollars each and it wasn't just given to them, so to speak. I made them work hard for just a $1.00 but I wanted them to learn the value of that dollar.... and that money doesn't come easy. I realize this didn't fully sink in, but it is a start. I asked them how it felt to buy something for someone else with money they had worked hard for and they actually said it felt good. That is what I like to hear.... thinking of others more than ourselves.

Back to reality tonight with grading papers. Need to go do some homework with the kids, too. :)

ADDED LATER:

This was something Kevin called me about tonight when he was on the way home from work. I noticed the moon and planets around it earlier this evening as I was coming home from school/ Walmart, but didn't realize the significance behind them.

Since I am not well-knowing in this area, I copied and pasted what the Thoene blog had to say about this wonderful observance in our sky tonight!! (Their words are in dark green and red.) The Thoene's are wonderful Christian fiction authors and some of their recent books have dealt with the Wise Men and the stars they saw the year before Jesus was born... and during the actual time He was born. When I read the books it made so much sense as to why the star over Bethlehem was so bright... it was more than likely a combination of stars together to make one large light. All of these stars were given names and they were in relation to the Messiah. I wish I knew more about this to share in depth, but just know their books are awesome and I recommend anyone reading them. (The series is the A. D. Chronicles)

If you have the opportunity tonight, go out and see this beautiful part of God's Creation. I don't think you will see it much after today or tomorrow... and it will not happen again for a LONG time.

My pictures aren't that great because I don't have a high powered lens for this, but I was tickled with the results. (I must say it was COLD out there!) :)

Here is the exerpt from Brock and Bodie Thoene's blog and my pictures:

WHAT WISE MEN SEE—DECEMBER 1, 2008 by Bodie and Brock Thoene

Tonight at sunset remember to look up to the southwest. Last night we were privileged to see the moon, Jupiter and Venus even before sunset (did you know you can do that if you know where to look?) Tonight will be even easier, since once you spot the crescent moon, the two planets will be very near by. (Venus and Jupiter will be just to the right of the moon)

This was one of the last I took and had my shutter open a long time (tripod, of course) but I loved how you could see the whole outline of the moon.

Tonight, as you view the astounding conjunction of the Holy Spirit moon with the Splendor of the Lord’s Righteousness (Venus and Jupiter) keep in mind what the believing centurion said to Jesus: “And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes…” Then remind yourself that Jesus is Lord of Creation. It is He who set all the stars and planets in motion, making each ‘go’ and ‘come’ as He wills. From the dawn of creation He foresaw tonight’s sky, and you out watching it! Can you trust Him to deal with every issue, problem and nagging doubt in your life? “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word….and I shall be healed!”