MERRY CHRISTMAS!

... and a happy new year!  After a huge dinner with friends on Christmas Eve, we enjoyed a cozy day at home on Christmas day.  The kids may be older but still love the excitement of Christmas.  You can see them last night (below) in their new Christmas PJ's from Aunt Susie.  Thank you for all the cards, calls and gifts we've received.  We are blessed to be surrounded by loved ones and pray God blesses you throughout the upcoming new year.

Christmas treats.

We have been soaked in sweets this month.  It started off with a cookie party where I had to bring 13 dozen cookies and I came home with 12 different varieties, a dozen each.  Unfortunately, we ate more of those than we gave away. :)  

Then Aunt Susie sent a box full of treat making supplies and you can see here the fun the kids had making decorated oreos covered in colorful almond bark.  There were also the reindeer candy canes, chocolate Christmas trees and candy necklaces that look like Christmas  lights.  So cute.  We made some of them with friends and the ones we made on our own ended up making good gifts for their other friends.

Finally, the girls each made more cookies to attend their own cookie party this past Saturday.  Of course, they only needed to make a few dozen each and the extra cookies from the party were donated to a local Christmas dinner for those in need in our community.  All in all, it's been a deliciously fun December.

It's finished!!!!!

Hard to believe but Goose finally finished her second book!  She had worked on this book for well over a year and wrote 19 chapters.  The hard part was the editing.  After so much time invested, she dreaded going back through it with me.  It's not fun to realize parts need clarification, other parts need deleting, and more need rewording.  That's when writing becomes more work than fun for her.  It doesn't help that she's already well into her next book and feels like she has "outgrown" this one BUT she stuck it out and it's finally done.  Even more fun was when she looked through her brother's and sister's artwork to pick out a cover photo.  The beautiful cover art was done by her little sister.  I'm proud to say that this title will have a place on my shelf forever. :)

Fall birthdays

Rather than make excuses again... I'll just say that we've had a fun and busy fall and I'm just now getting around to posting some photos.  Elijah turned 13 at the end of September and he celebrated like a man.  We focused on family, shared thoughts on growing up, had everyone pray for him and his future and shared some great food.  A little while later, he had some guys over for an airsoft battle in the backyard - which was great fun as always.  Here he is below with the blessing we gave him ready to display in his room.

Fast forward to early November and you see our baby turning double digits!  Amazing how quickly that has happened.  She celebrated with her buddies staying for a slumber party complete with yummy fondue (my kids never choose cake for their birthday dessert).  If you look closely you'll see her holding her Dr. Quinn DVD set.  She loves this show!   Perfect for a little girl who wants to be a nurse when she grows up.

What can I say, my kids keep growing up whether I let them or not.  Time marches on....

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

How fun to shop for our Samaritan's Purse OCC shoebox gifts this year!  We love to go to the Dollar Tree since we can get lots of bang for our bucks.  While the girls did each fill a box for a girl their age, the rest of us made them for boys, age 10-14.  Apparently that is the category that lacks the most boxes and they often have to give the older boys a girl's box.  We bought lots of extras for that age group as our church is also having a packing party on November 10th.  The best part was watching one of my blessings pull out an extra $10 of their own hard earned money to buy more gifts.

If you've never had the pleasure of packing a box for a child in need, this is the year to give it a try.  You will be blessed as you share the Good News about Christmas.

Necessary projects

In September we had to take some preventative measures to insure our basement stays dry next year.  Our driveway has a tendency of draining all the water into this little basement window (above).  Here you can see it after they removed the sidewalk (forgot a before photo) and below is the retaining wall we had removed.  It was made of old railroad ties, which had rotted out and was beginning to crumble from all the erosion.

When the Amish & Mennonite workers were done, we had this beautiful sidewalk, window well and cement retaining wall.  I can't imagine how the water can get in there now.

I also had an opportunity for patience as before the workers even left, someone's little footprints were accidentally imbedded in the corner of the new sidewalk. :)  Not a major thing in the grand scheme of life.

A fruitful harvest

We had a great garden harvest this year and take a look at these heirloom tomatoes!  Beautiful!  I've been able to put up lots of pickled foods and sauces, not to mention what we got to eat fresh.  So tahnkful for God's bounty.

Here is a shot of our garden with the heavy mulch we laid down around it.  It was wonderful not having to weed it this year and very rarely did we have to water it.  It may just be worth all that work.