Holiday endings, New Beginnings

The past few days we have been busy taking down the Christmas decorations and packing it all away. We actually enjoyed getting our house back as it's usually a little crowded with the tree and Christmas decorations. The girls love having the tree in front of the picture window instead of in the corner of the living room so we give in and live with the furniture crowded for a few weeks to please them.
Above I have posted a few pictures from our Christmas pictures.
From top to bottom: My girls with cousins, hubby Christmas morning, my sis and mom with one of her wonderful baked delights, Christmas gifts: my sweet little Electrolux vacuum, new tea pot from my MIL which I love!

We did have a wonderful Christmas and as always I'm excited to begin a new year! Each year I ponder the journey of the previous year and my goals and anticipation for the new year ahead.
I love to write out my list of blessings from the previous year and the goals for the coming year.
God has been so good to us this past year and I'm so thankful for his love, mercy, protection, and blessings during 2008!!

One of the things I have done is claim a VERSE FOR THE YEAR, as suggested at HEART OF THE MATTER. I spent a while this afternoon praying, reading, and journaling in some quiet time with the Lord! Oh, my goodness, it's really difficult for me to choose ONE verse! I love so many of God's precious promises!

But..........I have prayed and chose two verses..........

"But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."
Isaish 40:31

also.......

"Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God, I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."
Isaish 41:10

As I read from Beth Moore's devotional book, Voices of the Faithful, my heart was truly blessed as I read her words.

She says, "Our souls crave new beginnings. Fresh starts. Calculate with me just how willing our compassionate God was to accommodate."
"God Himself came up with the concept of an annual New Year's Day when He ordered creation and gave the sun and moon their instructions" (Gen. 1:14).
"God didn't think an annual new start was nearly enough. He who created the human psyche also compartmentalized those hundreds of days into 12 months. Every month we get another first. But 12 new starts were not enough, either. The very first verses of scripture unfold a seven- day period of time we call a week. Think how we look forward to a "weekend" and a subsequent new beginning on Sunday. Fifty-two new beginnings a year sounds like plenty, doesn't it? Ah, but not to God, He who configured our needy souls ordained the sun to rise every single morning and set every single evening. A curtain of darkness falls systematically on the scene of every single day, calling it history."

Lamantations 3:22,23
"Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness."

Praise God for New Beginnings and his compassion each and every morning!!

Countdown till Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

With only a few more days till Christmas.........
we have so much we want to do!!

I did find time to stitch this little pillow to decorate our home for
Christmas

Our Country Theme Christmas Tree with a few handmade ornaments
and store bought ornaments made to look homemade

Here the kids are making sugar cookies and decorating

Gingerbread House made with friends

Church Christmas Program

Today the children presented a wonderul Christmas Program during the worship service. Recitations and Christmas hymns were sung. The little ones were so cute and of course very funny. Some were shy and wouldn't say their part. One little guy held the microphone and made a face as if he were going to cry and said, "Oh, I can't," as he handed the microphone back to the song leader. How cute!!
Others were not shy at all and danced and waved at family in the audience. One little guy gets so excited and decided to sing a solo, we enjoyed it so much.

Other recitations were given by older children who had memorized their parts and did very well.
Of course I am very proud of my own daughter who participated and read the opening recitation.
These are our leaders of the future and I'm very thankful for all of them!

With so much running around and activities the past few weeks I'm planning to get my house in order this week. Tiany has some very helpful information to help me with this so I plan to spend a little time visiting her blog! Thanks to all of you who share your tips and encouragements each day!!

Have a Great Monday!

Making Memories

Checking in to let you all know I'm still here. We are having a wonderful time "Celebrating Christmas" with lots of activities to fill our days. Fun with friends and family are what makes the Christmas season so special.
Although we have been pretty busy I make sure we are taking time to relax and enjoy the season and spend time together as a family! Here are some ideas to help enjoy the season to the fullest! These sound simple but sometimes we need to be reminded to slow down and enjoy the season.

Enjoy hot chocolate together often
Read a good Christmas book or better yet the Christmas Story from the Bible
Make cookies together
Visit a nursing home or elderly person
Take a meal to a neighbor
Set up a night with friends, church members, etc. to go Caroling
Play in the snow
Sing and learn about Christmas Carols together
Watch a Christmas Movie

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14

FRIENDS

We have a very special home school group that we love very much and we are spending time doing lots of fun activities such as:
ice skating, join together to see a symphony and a ballet, The Christmas Carol, caroling at an elderly apartment complex, Christmas party, and next week we will meet with a few close friends to make cookies and ginger bread houses.

The kids are not the only ones who are having much fun and fellowship, our mom's had a Mom's Christmas party and had a blast!! We sang and acted out The Twelve Days of Christmas
and also exchanged gifts as we played the game of "stealing the gift" theme. What a hoot these ladies are!! We had such a great time as we laughed, enjoyed wonderful food and fellowship and even danced a bit!

FAMILY

Taking time out to visit our family is something we are doing this year as we try to show the LOVE OF CHRIST during this special time of year. Little visits, helping with wrapping gifts, shopping, and anything else needed that me and my girls can do to help others.
We have also enjoyed shopping together with family and of course grandma who lives next door always makes Christmas special by baking cookies together and making special recipes that are traditional each year. Now, mind you, our children and the nieces and nephews are all teens now, but, grandma still has a stocking as she has every year filled with goodies for them to enjoy before Christmas. Spoiled I tell you! Spoiled rotten.

SERVANTS

As we continue to teach our children (young adults) to serve others by example, we can lead in guiding them to serve during the holidays.
The youth in our church served in a homeless shelter a couple of weeks ago and this has been such a blessing for them to reach out to others less fortunate. The timing of being so close to Christmas really touched the hearts of our teens as they realize giving is better than receiving.
Many of them testified about how much this meant during a special Youth Service during the morning worship service.
Another way they helped to serve is by buying for two children from an Angel Tree set up in our local Mall. The youth did the shopping, budgeting, and wrapping of this project.

HOMESCHOOL

Yes, we continue to do school between all the wonderful activities that surround the Christmas season. We are doing a bit of a Unit Study on Christmas which includes reading several good books for the season.

The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
The Christmas Barn by C.L. Davis
The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans

We are also using several of the wonderful resources found here.

HOMEMADE GIFTS

A few of our gifts this year are homemade. It's become a tradition to make the GIFT JARS like the ones found here and here.
Oh, what fun we have making these, especially the cookies using M&M's are really pretty for Christmas and the most YUMMY and very pretty are the Chocolate Chip Oatmeal!!

We hope you are enjoying this Christmas season as much as we are!!!