We Wish You a Merry Christmas

A few pictures from her Christmas Program last week:

Here’s the sweet girl all dressed up for her big night…

I’ve always loved this pink coat. Her granny (Mario’s mom) found this for her two Christmases ago but it was still a little big last year. This year it fits her just right!

And this is my sweet friend Tina’s two boys. Aren’t they adorable? She also has a baby on the way!

Here is J with a few of her classmates…

And I thought this picture was pretty cute. I love this kid anyway because he is a little cowboy. Always wears his cowboy hat and his family’s Christmas card had a picture of him decked out on his pony standing on their doorstep. It was so cute. I loved his little sport jacket and tie and when I took the picture he leaned over toward Jaiden and smiled.

I was too far away to get a very good picture, but I was able to get closer as they exited the stage.

After the program was over we hurried to one of my coworkers and his wife’s house where we had our annual office Christmas Party. In the past we have always brought a gift and played a little game. This year we tossed out our old tradition for a new and better one. Our office sponsored a couple of families in need and we all brought our gifts that night for a wrapping party! It was really neat.

Thanks Tim & Shelly for opening up your home to us :)

Imagine this: Jeryn found found something to rope with. He also walked away with a nice pair of chaps…compliments of Cody, Tim & Shelly’s sweet little boy that had outgrown them.

We just returned from my parents from an early Christmas with my sister, her family, and my grandparents. We had a wonderful time together. (Hopefully some pictures of that soon). I guess I’m almost all ready for Christmas even though I feel like I’ve still got lots of running around to do. I am so thankful this year for so many things. I pray that you and your families have a great Christmas as you rejoice in the Lord and celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Sisters in Christ…

This is Esther.  She is as sweet as she looks.

Smart too.  We just love her! 

Jaiden asked me the other day if Esther was her “sister in Christ?”  I thought that was so cute.  We were on our way home from Wal-Mart and got into an in depth conversation about what it meant to be brothers and sisters in Christ. 

It all started because I have a friend that works as a greeter at Wal-Mart.  “B” is severely handicapped, in a wheelchair, and his speech is very slurred.  He loves to give my kids stickers when we come in and we always spend several minutes talking about the Lord.  When I ask him how he has been, he ALWAYS says, “Hey! I am SO blessed.” 

I can’t tell you what a pick me up it is to have a short visit with him and be reminded of the kind of attitude I SHOULD always have.  God has done great things for us all!  If sending his only son to lay down his own life for us was the ONLY thing that He ever did (and it wasn’t!), it would still be enough. 

B and I always finish our conversation by talking about heaven and how much fun we are going to have one day in eternity.  No more pain and suffering.  No more sickness.  No more tears from the every day struggles of life just being plain tough.  For B…no more wheelchair.  No more restraint from the use of his precious drawn up hands.   Just eternity with our Lord and Savior, the One whom we were created for.  It will be strictly rejoicing I’m quite certain!  

When we headed off into the store, Jaiden asked me, “Mom, how are you able to understand everything when you are talking to your friend.”  I explained to her that I just listened very closely and that we had just hit it off immediately because of our love for the Lord.  “B is my brother in Christ,” I told her. 

I explained to her that when you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, that you are part of a new family…a family of other believers.  And that those believers are called brothers and sisters in Christ.  She began to name the brothers and sisters that she could think of.  Then she asked, “Is Esther my sister in Christ?” 

Week 2 at Mario’s office went well.  We definitely feel the prayers of those who have kept us in mind and for that we are grateful!  Yesterday we went in to the office for several hours.  Mario had work to do and I was on a mission to get a tree up in the office and do my weekly cleaning.  The kids came along.  Mario offered a customer some of the oranges in the back and he accepted.  Jaiden proposed that we sell the oranges.  Career in sales maybe??? 

Jeryn didn’t care anything about selling the oranges, but he liked the idea of bowling with them:

I was finding oranges everywhere as we were getting ready to leave…

The tree didn’t turn out as good as I’d hoped, but it was okay.  I always think I have a ton of ornaments and then when I hang them, it’s still bare.  We actually moved the tree AFTER it was decorated because of that.  We put it against a different wall where you couldn’t tell that the back had NO ornaments :)

   

I made some of the ornaments that Kelly @ Kelly’s Korner had showed us how to make.  I did a State Farm ornament, one for each of the girls that work there with their name on it, and a couple with some scripture references that have meant a lot to me during the time that we have been preparing for this agency.

On the way home, we rented some Christmas movies for the kids and I made some caramel popcorn for a treat!  My mom and Aunt Donna always made this when I was growing up.  In college, my mom would made it for me and bring it in containers to my basketball games.  Me and my friend Keeshia would eat this stuff until we were sick!  Between heavy weightlifting and several gallons of caramel popcorn, my thighs did not thank me my freshman and sophomore years of college!  I’m sure they won’t thank me this Christmas either.

 

CARAMEL CORN:

6 quarts popped corn

2 sticks margarine

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup white corn syrup

1.2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon soda

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Combine margarine, salt, sugar and corn syrup in medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil, boil 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and soda, stir well.  Place popped corn on 3-11x13 jelly roll pans.  Pour the mixture over popcorn.  Bake in 250 oven for 1 hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes.  Remove from oven, turn onto wax paper and cool.  Store in airtight container.

This is The Day That the Lord Hath Made