My Christmas Purse

My granddaughter Lilly gave me this delightful and unique Christmas gift.  She bought it at her school's Santa Shop. 

I don't know if you can read the package but it's a kit to grow a purse.  Lilly was very excited about this.

It's quite tiny but it grows 600 times bigger.  We followed all the instructions very carefully.

And we waited.  And it grew. 

Because Phillip and Hannah have been sick, Lilly hasn't been able to come over, but if she was here to hold it, you'd be able to see how big it's grown.  I'm sure it's 600 times bigger, maybe even more.  Thank you, Lilly, for this wonderful gift.

Christmas

Christmas Eve

I don't have any memories of Christmas Eve to share today.  There are lots of good ones but I can't find them.  I'm sending love and prayers to all of you for a wonderful day tomorrow celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.  Because He came, I have the sure confidence that those we're missing so much are safe and complete, rejoicing in His presence, and that we'll be together again.  Merry Christmas!

Two Days Until Christmas

One of the things I miss since my children have grown up is Christmas pageants.  There was always a Christmas pageant at church that included all the children.  The Sunday School director would drag out the wooden manger and fill it with straw.  Baby Jesus was usually a doll but the Sunday School children played all the rest of the parts in the nativity scene, with the little ones usually being the angel choir. My children have been involved in some unforgettable Christmas pageants through the years.

There was the year someone discovered a microphone hidden in the manger and pointed it out to the others.  From that point in the program, all of them huddled around the manger and sang right into it.  The only thing we could see was the tops of their heads as they all bent over the manger/mic.

Another year the poinsettas that decorated the platform were plucked bald by nervous children before the program was over.  Thankfully no one ate the blooms.

Once one of my children, who will not be named in this post, confused the lines and instead of saying, "This gift is not just for me, but for all mankind." said, "This gift is not for all mankind, but just for me."

My favorite program was the year another child, not to be named but whose picture follows this post, had been very quiet and subdued during every practice.  We were worried that the unnamed child would not even participate during the actual program.  To our amazement, on the big night, our little angel leaped onto the platform and enthusiastically flapped her wings during the whole song, almost smacking the other angels and singing at the top of her little lungs, "in express tomatoes" instead of "in excelsis Deo."

The Christmas program that we saw this year was amazing, beautifully capturing the awe and majesty of this wonderful season, but I missed my little angels or shepherds confusing their lines and flapping their wings while mangling the words of Christmas carols. 

Three Days Until Christmas

Back by popular request - Christmas 2007 - The most unusual, tackiest, most creative yard decoration we've ever personally seen. 

This was in a yard that Mom and I drove by almost every day.  She wanted me to stop and take a picture so I did. These folks kept up both "Welcome" and "Keep Out" signs so I didn't get too close.  If you can't see it clearly, Santa is perched on the back of the toilet being pulled by 8 pink flamingos.  Since they've never done this again, I'm glad I recorded it for history.  Enjoy this sight of the season.

Four Days Until Christmas

These are ornaments that hung on our Christmas tree when I was a little girl.  I don't know if Mom and Dad bought these when they got married or if they were Mom's before they got married but we've always had them.  In 2010, Mom helped get out our Christmas decorations and she was thrilled to see these old ornaments. It was so much fun to see her eyes light up as she remembered them.  It's one of my best Christmas memories. These ornaments have always been special, but those memories of her make them priceless. 

Five Days Until Christmas

This elderly couple has been around for a lot of years.  Uncle Fred and Aunt Lois gave them to Dad and Mom a long, long time ago.  I believe they're made from folded Reader's Digest magazines.  They're getting very fragile but they are a Christmas fixture around here so we'll take good care of them.

Six Days Until Christmas

Many Christmases ago I cross-stitched these little stockings to hang on our tree.  Back then, we were five:  Phillip, me, Jason, Jaclyn, and Rachel.  As the family grew, we added Emily, Laura, John, and Hannah.  Then there were weddings and we added Jennifer, Daniel, Jimmy, and Jon.  Grandchildren came along and we added Caleb, Jack, Samuel, Lilly, Lucy, and Jonas.  And there's room for plenty more! 

By the way, I realize that Lucy's stocking is backwards.  I redid it a couple of years ago, and I did it backwards again.  Eventually I'll get one done for her the right way.

One Week Before Christmas

Christmas is in seven days.  We always put our Christmas decorations out on Thanksgiving weekend.  That's one of my favorite things.  It's like meeting old friends.  On this week before Christmas, I'm going to share some of them.

This is my very favorite Christmas decoration.  When I was a teenager, I cleaned house for an older lady who attended our church.  She had traveled widely and had once worked at the Library of Congress. Her apartment was filled with all sorts of interesting objects that she'd collected. That Christmas, she had me get out boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations and we decorated her whole apartment.  This was amazing to me since our family's only decorating involved Daddy cutting a pine or cedar out of the field and us putting our few decorations on it.   Maybe because I was so awed by all of her beautiful things, she told me I could pick any of her decorations that I wanted for my own.  This is a 3-dimensional paper nativity scene.  Out of all the things I could have picked, I have no idea why I chose a paper nativity scene.  I've had it for over 40 years now and it's showing its age just like I am, but it's a wonderful reminder to me of a gracious, generous lady.

Bathroom Remodel Is Finished

The hall bathroom is finished.  Hannah picked out the colors, furniture, and fixtures.  It all came together very well.  Here are some before, during, and after pictures.

Before

 During

After

A Contest, Sort of, Without a Prize

The following article was written quite a few years ago by one of my children.  Unfortunately, I didn't date it so I don't know exactly how old the child was.  I'm not saying which of the six is the culprit.  That's the contest.  Who wrote this?

My Least Favorite Food

     My least favorite food is vegetable soup.  Vegetable soup has things in it that I can't figure what they are.  The noodles, if you can recognize them, are lumpy and float to the bottom of the bowl.  That's not even counting the vegetables.  I take a bite and I taste the disgusting flavor of beans, corn, onions, and tomatoes all together.  The worst thing is that I don't even like them by themselves!  This is just a little reminder to remind Mom not to feed me vegetable soup.

Who is the food critic?  The prize for a correct guess is that I won't make vegetable soup for your birthday dinner.

August in Bloom

Mom's crepe myrtle is beautiful this year.

I guess this is a lily of some sort.  Mom has them in planted in 2 places.  The ones at the side of the house bloomed once and haven't bloomed again but these in the front have bloomed all summer.

Daddy loved moss roses so I always plant some.

I don't know what these light purple flowers are but they're pretty.  They're planted in a container out by the shed.

I can see this flower bed from the kitchen window.  We just sprinkled some packets of flower seeds in the bed and it's been so pretty all summer.

This strawberry planter belonged to my mother-in-law.  We meant to plant strawberries in it but we never did.  Phillip brought this petunia home one day and planted it there and it thrived.  It's part of my view from the kitchen as well.

We planted marigolds in the vegetable beds this year.  If you look closely you can see a tomato on the vine.

This little sun flower sprang up in one of the tomato beds.  The poor little fellow is trying his hardest to bloom.

Lucy is really proud of the flowers she "planted" in the sand box.  When she got finished, she said, "Ta Da!"  She was proud of her garden.

July

 Lilly tried on Devin's motorcycle helmet.  Lucy thought it was interesting but she didn't want to try it on.

 Our garden has been producing overtime.  We've canned lots of green beans, tomato sauce, relish, salsa, and pickled green tomatoes.  We put squash and zucchini in the freezer. 

 Lucy and I made a tutu. 

 The kids have been swimming in my brother's new pool,

 and in our much smaller pool.

 Caleb, Jack, and Sam came for a few days.  The cousins enjoyed spending time together.

 I let Sam go swimming in his clothes.

 This is the water fight section of a long battle with Hannah pitted against Caleb, Jack, and Devin.  Hannah eventually took them down, but a couple of days later, they got her back.

 The computer and Wii got a real work out while the boys were here.  Jack is letting Lilly have a turn while Caleb watches in the background.  Caleb is playing a game that he wrote all by himself on the computer.

 Rachel and I took Sam and her girls to the park for a breakfast picnic one morning.  Sam declared that he was a pirate so I couldn't take his picture, but I managed to get a couple of him.

 He liked the dolphins that spray mist.  It was a hot morning so it felt good.

 Lucy had a good time.

 Lilly liked the mist, too.

 Sam and Lucy played a duet.