Merry CHRISTmas

Merry CHRISTmas everyone!  The time of the year we celebrate our Savior's birth. I am so very thankful that God sent his son to earth. I am even more thankful that Jesus died for my sins, conquered death and is in Heaven today, guiding my steps here and waiting for my time to come and join him.

I have been promising for weeks that I would get my decoration pictures up.  Here are a few, I decorated a lot like last year, so the main things I will put are things I did differently.

This was one of my favorite "new" pieces. It had been an autumn decoration that I converted to a Christmas one. Here's the thing, At Hobby Lobby, arrangements not nearly this nice were selling for almost $100. I bought two $20 swags that were on sale for half off, which made them $10 a piece, wired them on, fluffed them and then added three tea light electric candles. The picture isn't as pretty as the real arrangement. I LOVE it!

This actually just got added yesterday, the canvas is my Christmas gift from Sheila King, my program's assistant coordinator. I love it as well, it will be one of my favorites for the rest of my life.

This is the guest room, I don't think I posted any pictures of it last year.

I got a new nativity this year, at Sheila's parent's auction. It has a really nice stable with it, but I liked it up here, so I didn't use the stable this year.

Part of our guest bathroom, I don't think I put anything here last year either.

My Christmas tress.

And my front porch....

So, here it is, Christmas day, am I ready for Christmas? Finally. Good thing too since it's here.

I will post another post over the next few days with more thought, but for now, going to leave you with the crafts I made this year....

I made nine of these, probably going to make many more to sell at craft shows, I am really happy with how they turned out.

Made these for Robert's coworkers, tp snowmen. The card says, "Money is tight and times are hard, I got you this instead of a card, something to use, something to share, so Bottoms Up because I care. Merry Christmas!" They were well received.

I made 39 snowmen, should have been 40 but they are made out of socks and who would have thought that out of two 10-pks of socks, one would have a whole in it. These were for co-workers and a few friends.

This is sweet trash, I took for coworkers.

and whipped Chocolate Orange Body Butter that I made over three times before I decided it was okay, still needs some work on the recipe.

Made these for the AWANA kids I worked with, one of the offices made these last year for all of us and I knew our kids would think they were great, and they did.

Merry CHRISTmas Everyone!!!

and into December

The playing catch-up seems to be a never ending story right now. I am actually sitting at my desk over my lunch hour, quite frankly, where I was when I made my last post. Just thought I would give you a quick update.

We had a good thanksgiving, the guys worked at the farm, I went to Mom's, looked through some things she wanted me to go through and then the guys came and had lunch with us. Very simple but very nice. The snow was falling and it was just a good day. The year my dad died, it snowed on Thanksgiving. We went to my aunts for lunch that day but not before the Fulton boys came down on the snowmobiles and we got to have some fun in the snow. I'm still a fool for snow much to the disliking of some of my family, friends and coworkers. I honestly love living in Illinois. We truly get to have 4 distinct seasons. When we lived in Pennsylvania, we had two; Winter and August. It was either really hot and dry or really cold and wet, there was no middle ground. There truly is no place like home.

After lunch on Thanksgiving, Robert took me down in the bottoms to cut greenery and weeds. There is a place down in there that seems to be a million miles from anywhere. I love it, God's country for sure. I tried to capture the feeling with pictures but it just didn't do it justice. The snow was ever so gently falling. This was truly a place where there was peace on earth.

Andrew also turned 50 on Thanksgiving, we celebrated on Saturday though so he still had his own day. He got a new air compressor for his birthday, I guess it was what he wanted but I find it the equivalent of getting a vacuum for a present, but oh well, he is happy.

We also took in a little shopping on Thursday evening. Robert had wanted a tv for his bedroom at the farm and I was wanting one for over the fireplace. I didn't think I would ever do that but I can't seem to get anyone to just go sit in front of the fire so maybe we will use our living room more if there is a tv. I know I will at least on Sundays when I have had enough of NASCAR or football.

Black Friday was a first for Andrew to be on the other side of the cash register. I was really leery of how he would behave but he did great and actually outlasted my old partner, Robert. We left at 4:30 Friday morning and got home at 5 Friday evening. We just really had a good fun day. I LOVE the fact that he finally is his own boss and can take off when I have a chance to so we see each other more.

Saturday is our 23rd wedding anniversary, we are going to Evansville to the Acropolis for dinner, it is our favorite place. I was just in Evansville on Monday with Mom for a doctor's appointment and I think that is what caused us to want to go.


About time to get back to work so I will close with a couple of notes (okay, so I totally ran out of time and now it is 9:15 p.m). I have picked this year's theme song for Christmas...Holly Jolly Christmas. It is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's 50th Anniversary, of course we have special ties to Rudolph because Sam the Snowman, who narrates Rudolph was our very own Burl Ives. We celebrate Holly Jolly Christmas here in Jasper County every year, tonight is our first night. I chose this not only because of the anniversary but because of Andrew's business, we joined the Chamber of Commerce, which is responsible for Holly Jolly Christmas. And I chose it a little bit because John Cougar Mellencamp's "Small Town" isn't a Christmas song. I am so very, very proud of my hometown, while the world was going crazy just two short hours from my house in one of my favorite town's to visit, we had a 9 year old member of our community fighting big battles on the medical front. Ironically, he is in St. Louis in the hospital. His name is Jack and I have known his family for a long time, his aunt is married to one of the Fulton boys mentioned earlier in this post. Jack and his parents spent Thanksgiving in the hospital. The morning after, Jack had major surgery. The amount of support from this little spot in the world has been priceless, not only to his family but to us standing on the sidelines cheering them on, holding them up and bringing them before the Lord.
I learned a long time ago, when we were what seemed to be a million miles away, again, there's no place like home.

So, we are well on our way into the Christmas season. We have already had our Christmas party at work and I feel officially behind because my house isn't finished. I am hoping by the time I go to bed Sunday night I will be there. I am, as usual, making many of my friends homemade things for Christmas. The only thing I have completed is these little sock snowmen, thanks to Pinterest. I leave you with our little contribution to #jackattack, my snowman army and at least one random picture of Gibbs

Gibbs is giving Robert a wet willy. Robert is his second favorite person in the house. I think he will always remember that Robert (and Garrett) is the reason he is alive.

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