TWO RANDOM BEAUTIFUL THINGS...

Easter eggs in December!  There's a lovely couple in our Bible class that regularly shares eggs from their henhouse with everyone in class.  I picked these up Sunday!  Aren't they beautiful?  Organic, too.  I'm sure they could start a business but they choose to give.

Here's something else I want to share with you.  I listened to some of her album for a long time yesterday.  A beautiful song written by a beautiful girl.  She's a year older than my daughter.  Her mother passed away from cancer a few years ago, and had taught college math with my Dad.  She's poured her soul into this music.  Enjoy.

SWEETS AND SERVICE...

At our congregation we tried a new women's activity we called "Sweets & Service."  It was a Christmas brunch/craft/service project.  We decided we wanted it to benefit a local nursing home.  I racked my brain to come up with a way to keep 140 ladies busy for 90 minutes!  The organization and all the materials needed were frying my brain.  With a lot of prayer and some help from my good friend and we pulled it off!  Had a lot of help from our women's committee members as well.  

We had tables for crafts, gift bag decorators, card signing, bag filling, and ziplocing cookies - lot of jobs to be done!

The assembly line of goodies to go into the gift bags!

Lots of Moms and daughters came - loved that!

Sweet ladies signing home-made cards!

Our craft -  doorknob hangers!  They were all unique!

About 25 of us were able to deliver the gifts to the nursing home.  We sang a few songs, handed out gifts, and put the doorknob decorations on their doors.  It was a good thing to do for people who seem forgotten by our culture. 

Jesus was always reaching out to the forgotten ones.  I hope the spirit of Christmas giving touches your heart and you are able to do something similar this season!

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."  Acts 20:35

STILL PLAYING DRESS-UP...

for a school project they're working on, they say.  Right.  

Love coming home to this!  Another reason to continue my pack-rat ways.

BURLAP CHRISTMAS...

I've got a thing for burlap!  If you would've asked me a few years ago what I thought about burlap I would've turned my nose up at it.  It was that ugly rough background of all the bulletin boards at church during the 70's!  I distinctly remember olive green and gold colored burlap.  But people grow up and sometimes love the things they hated in childhood!

So this is one of my Christmas burlap projects.  A simple burlap pennant.  NO SEWING NECESSARY.  Yep, you heard right.  You can do this with just a little scissors, paint and hot glue!

Steps:
1.  Cut burlap flags to size desired.
2.  Stretch out twine to length desired and space out flags.  Leave long ends.
3.  Fold over the top to make a "hem" with twine inside, hot glue CAREFULLY.

4.  Flip over to front side and sponge paint the letters on it.

5.  Embellish with ribbons or whatever you like!

I actually added more ribbon after I took the picture.  And if you are really industrious, you could make two of them and spell out "Merry Christmas."  I'm keepin it simple.

FUN AND EASY!

CHOOSING JOY...

is not always easy.  Sometimes it takes a while.

After some unexpected news from the doctor, I have to think about it, talk to some friends about it, complain about it, and finally pray about it (which should have been my first response).  Then I can think about JOY.

I've been blessed with 30 + years of a normal female cycle and 3 healthy pregnancies.  So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that something weird might happen.  Without going into too much detail (don't mind sharing in person if you are wondering), I thought I was going through some kind of early menopause.  But after problems for nearly a year, the doctor is recommending removal of ovaries and uterus, of course, in DECEMBER.

But, why not?  I can see the Lord prepared for it to happen now.  A women's event I'm helping with is happening this Saturday.  It will be done.  Many years I have a Christmas party at my house between the Bunko group, Bible class or family.  This year everyone else is hosting - my sister's had the party planned for a year!  And the trip we thought we might take between Christmas and New Year's hadn't really materialized yet.  So no reservations to cancel or anything.  Hopefully my husband and kids will step up and do all the Christmas things for me while I'm physically down!

I don't think it's a mistake that Verse of the Day today was Phillippians 2:14, 15.  "Do everything without grumbling or complaining."

So, please, REMIND ME if you don't see me smiling.  "CHOOSE JOY."

IF YOU LIKE STARBUCKS SALTED CARAMEL HOT CHOCOLATE...

you'll LOVE these!  I made them as something new to take to Thanksgiving - besides the old standards.  I really liked them but I did learn something.  You cannot stack them - even between sheets of wax paper!  They weren't as popular as Puppy Chow or my sister-in-law's iced sugar cookies, or even pie, but that's okay.  Fun for something different.  Here's the RECIPE!

A NEW ADDITION TO THE ANNUAL PUMPKIN BASH...

was gourds!  We found out that green gourds are pretty juicy!  Click on that picture for a closer look!  Nasty.

Other than that, we had a wonderful holiday, filled with all the things we love:

9 a.m. Turkey Trot - The green team!

Lori always surprises us with a different cheesecake to add to the Thanksgiving meal!  Chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake is pretty fantastic.

4 different tables of chaos, I mean games, going on at once! We are especially blessed to have my father-in-law still with us this holiday, after a rough year of cancer treatment.  

Annual Cousin Pumpkin Bash - wow, are they growing up! (see previous posts under Thanksgiving if you're wondering what a pumpkin bash is)

Their traditional photo on top the biggest pumpkin

Well it's hard for me to pick one favorite thing about this special time with the family but I have to say what means the most to  me is the Wednesday night All Church Singing time. Not only do we sing for an entire hour, but each song is led and chosen by a different song leader.  Young and old, big and small, and I think if I counted right, 13 of the song leaders were from our family.  It's hard to not watch them the entire song, but I'm getting better at worshipping during this time.  Love watching these young men growing up getting involved in worship!  Yes, we are truly blessed.