Christmas 2008 Overview

Merry be-lated Christmas!!! I hope everyone had a splendid holiday! As my three blog followers may have noticed, I have been somewhat absent this month, but for good reason. As usual, it has been a hectic holiday season, so rather than give the play-by-play updates, I'm going to give you a little overview. We'll start with my tree (shown above). Isn't it pretty? The gold, green, and real peacock feathers are this years addition, along with the green sparkly leaves.Here's our mantle. There are simply three stockings because the hangers spell "Joy". Don't get any ideas.

One of my coworkers and I baked these beautiful homeade cinnamon rolls so that we would have (cheap) good tidings to give everyone in our office. They were delicious!
Classic. These are the finalists from the Redeemer Youth Christmas party ugly sweater contest. Beautiful pose. (David, on the right, won.)This is what your mantle looks like at Christmas when you have a lot of kids. And when I say a lot, I mean at least 12. Plus spouses and grandchildren. The Tardy's had a Christmas party for our small group and an apartment complex at their house.

Aren't these cool? I made one too. This is also from the small group Christmas party.
A couple in our small group are getting married in a few weeks and we threw them a wedding shower at our house. It was lots of fun, as you can see.
And my second (or third) cousin-in-law, Cary, made this beautiful ham for the shower. I was impressed.
We had a Christmas Eve meal with my mom's parents and some of my mom's side of the family. This is Mimi and Papa, whom I adore.
This is my mom, her sister, and their cousin. They giggle like little schoolgirls when they get together.
We then proceeded to have a 5:30pm Christmas Eve dinner at Andy's grandparents following our 2:30pm lunch at my mom's. Here's some of the ladies from his side of the family: his mom, me, my sister-in-law Anna, and my sister-in-law Shannon.We spent Christmas day with Andy's brother Jason, shown above. It was fun and festive, as is apparent to all from the juggling...

And the instrument playing by my husband...
And I even got to play dress-up with my niece, Hannah.

These are simply little snippets from the month. It was a busy month, but lots of fun!

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men

Andy brought to my attention today the beautiful lyrics to this traditional Christmas tune that I have never noticed before. Here's a few of my favorite stanzas:

"And in despair I bowed my head
'There is no peace on earth,' I said,
'For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.'

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep"
'God is not dead, nor doth he sleep'
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, goodwill to men.'"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this as a poem shortly after his wife had been burned alive and in the midst of the tragedy of the Civil War. The first Christmas after his wife was gone, he wrote in his journal, "How inexpressibly sad are the holidays." With the ringing of the Christmas bells, he was once again reminded that, "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep."

May God comfort those who are "inexpressibly sad" this Christmas and remind them that he is ever watching over his children. And may he grant us the grace to remember this in times of suffering.

Merry Christmas!!!

Fall '08 Perspectives

For those of you who have been praying for our Perspectives class, I would like to say thank you SO much! Tonight was our last night and it was a wonderful class. I really believe that we will see a large chunk of these students go overseas to bring the gospel to those who have never heard it. Continue to pray for these students, that the Lord would give them perseverance in this vision.

She's pretty much amazing.

This, dear friends, is my niece (my brother and sister-in-law's baby). She is about 3 months old now and she's wonderful. The sad thing is, my brother and his family just moved back to Temple which means they are now 5 1/2 hours away. Before they left, I reminded Addie that I am her favorite auntie and that I love her so, so, so, so, so much.

She's beautiful.