Merry Christmas, Dad!

My boys made this for James for Christmas...I am so proud.

Mission Trip to India!

Our Pastor, Associate Pastor, and more are going on a mission trip to India.  They leave tomorrow!  Pray for them and the hearts of the people they encounter.  Here is a link to the blog our Associate Pastor Dave will be keeping up-to-date while there.
1040 Window

Christmas 2010

Wow, so many things to say...where do I begin?  I will start with the beginning of December, I think.   In October, (I know, I know) I applied for a job at Cornerstone Baptist Church (I love my new church!) as the Administrative Assistant, the current Admin. Asst was getting promoted to be the senior pastor's secretary so they were looking for someone to hire.  I was pretty excited about this, I prayed a lot, had my interview and waited, patiently of course.  And on December 7th, I started my first day on the job.  I love it and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God provided this job just for me.  That doesn't have much to do with Christmas but it was an important part of December.

Next came the making of our Christmas Card, I send tons of cards to people, this year I decided to do a photo card but wanted it to be memorable and fun.  This is what we came up with...

I already have some ideas for next year's Christmas Card, this is definitely going to become a tradition!

On December 17th, we hosted a Christmas party at our home.  I love having people in our home and during this time of year it is just a bonus.  We had a White Elephant Gift exchange, the gift I found lying around my house was a 1978 "Let's Disco!" book which I am sure came from my dad, he loved flea markets, garage sales, etc. and bought all kinds of strange things and then turned around and gave them to me or my sister.  I was excited to see a young friend of ours, Glen (a freshman in college and young minister) unwrap my groovy book.  He really got into it and when it was stolen he was quite devastated, he eventually stole it back and began learning some funky moves, it was very entertaining. 

 James got a pinwheel, some Alphabet flash cards though some were missing, and a toy ruler.  I got a couple workout DVDs, a Pamela Anderson one - oh my! and another one from the 1990s.  We also played games, ate tons of food, and chatted the night away.  It was a blast.

The following week our family went to my mom's on Christmas Eve morning and spent the day with my mom, stepdad, grandma, sister, brothers, and my two nieces.  It was a lovely day, we had a great feast, had a fun christmas gift exchange, and played some games together.  My brother, Curtis is very entertaining playing Guesstures.  That evening we had a Candle Light service at church, I sang "Sweet Little Jesus Boy" and then we received a lovely message from our pastor.  On Sundays this month he has been preaching about God becoming man.  What a miraculous thing for the Creator of the universe to wrap himself in flesh, come to earth, and grow up to die for us, ungrateful, dirty sinners.  What a gift of grace our God has given us for Christmas.

Christmas morning the boys opened all their stuff and then James' parents came over and some friends of ours, Jim and Darlene.  We had a lot of amazing food to feast upon and had a very nice visit.  James' parents went home around 3 to take naps or something and Jim and Darlene stayed to play games with us.  Yes, we love playing games.  We had a lovely Christmas, I am so very blessed.

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas Parody

I love this song!

Thankful

Thanks - giving, thanking and giving...our usual Thanksgiving takes place at my mother-in-law's where she cooks almost everything (to perfection) and we then partake in it. Once in a while we mix it up and do something different like going to my aunt's or mom's. My mom did hold Thanksgiving this year but we were unable to attend and I am now very "Thankful" that we didn't. My sister, niece, and brother all got the flu and there was vomiting involved in the night, ew and whew! I was going to visit on Friday morn but my mom called and warned me not to, of which I am also thankful.

This year an opportunity became available to us, our church goes to Forest Avenue Shelter in Kansas City every year on Thanksgiving to clean, cook, and serve the people there. The Shelter is in a church and it is for women and their children. I was very excited about being able to be a part of this ministry and the rest of my family was in agreement as well. Christian ended up being under the weather and unable to go with us (not the upchucking thing though, again...whew). My wonderful mother-in-law cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for us on Wednesday since we were out of school. We met up with church family in Sedalia, loaded up and then followed them in our van due to James queasy stomach...we have to drive everywhere. We arrived at Forest Avenue at around 12:30 and got to work. The ladies that stay at the shelter arrive at 6:30 pm, during the day they aren't allowed to stay there. They each have a chore assigned to them, such as, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping, mopping, etc. Our crew does the chores for them so when they arrive they can have a "true" holiday and to show them a lesson in action about grace.

The women and children arrived, a young lady, Hannah, who is 15 and from Cornerstone, led a devotion about showing God's love on your face (my interpretation), how can we tell people about the love of Christ with a sour looking mug? The youth served everyone and we all sat down to eat. There was a woman with three children, her oldest was a teenage girl who told us all that she loved us. The woman's husband was at another shelter that take men. Another lady used to be a successful travel agent but the company she worked for went under and she lost everything. They were all so thankful for a good meal and a warm bed. We fixed roast and cheesy potato casserole instead of turkey due to the fact they get tons of it during the holiday season. We make cookies and candies instead of pies and cakes because they can put them in a baggie and eat them for lunch the next day. What a lesson for all of us on what being thankfulness really means, we take so much for granted and whine and complain about the most mundane things. I am so glad I got to be a part of this, we will definitely do it again.

We cleaned up everything and left around 9, we were only a few blocks from the Plaza so I begged my darling husband to just drive through so we could see the lights and horse drawn carriages. We arrived home a little past 11, what an amazing day!
What I'm most thankful for is Jesus' sacrifice and the privilege to serve Him.

Mysterious Sickness

The boys have had some strange, mysterious bug. It started with Christian, he was down and out for several days, missed school and basketball, even church! I took him to the doctor, they looked him over, poked and prodded, drew blood, and nothing really. The doc said he probably just had a virus and it would have to run its course. It was mostly just exhaustion, a headache, and his stomach hurt, not queasy but just hurt. He eventually just sucked it up and went back to live among the rest of us. Then....Cameron's turn, it was pretty much the same symptoms. I had a couple days that my stomach hurt but I just chalked it up to gas. Who knows???