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My Favorite Pictures

From Our Christmas Celebration Today

I usually serve a buffet-style meal, as it seems to work best for our family, and I don’t need quite as many serving dishes.

I served chicken and rice, sweet potato casserole, baked mixed vegetables, seven-layer salad, pickled red beet eggs, cookies, and angel food cake with tapioca and cherry pie topping.

Chris and Jeff

Jere gave Kristen rabbit ears

So she gave him an elbow!

(I got a good picture of them, but it didn’t make my favorites.)

Deb and Jesse

Deb and Kristen

We like to read a poem, book, or show a video that reminds us of the real meaning of Christmas before opening gifts.  This year Jere read the meaning of the song, Twelve Days of Christmas.

This is as pretty as our garage gets ~ decorated for Christmas and full of family.

The youngest grandchild always gets the honor of opening the first gift.  Jesse seems pleased that his cousin Jordan is helping him. 

Three-year-old Jared loved getting presents.  When it was his turn, he said, “I want the biggest one.”  It just happened to be his.

Next was Ian ~ who was just as excited.

Zachary was quite serious when opening his gifts, but really liked what he got.

Ian was pleased to pose with Gloria, and the gifts he had given her.  He even helped his mom sew the fuzzy, horse pillowcase.

David reading the note on one of his packages.

Diana (left) gave Jana a Nancy Drew book (actually two books in one) and note paper.  Nancy Drew!  I used to read those books.  Some things never change.

Diana with her gifts.

Jenna (left) was pleased with her gifts from Jana.

Josh received his gift from Jenna.  I always enjoy seeing them together.  Josh is only seven weeks older than her.  We call them our Pennsylvania twins, and when Hezekiah is here from Maine, we have triplets.  He was born partway between these two.

Nathan got the shirt he wanted.

Jordan got a Nittany Lion hat.

Apparently he is a Penn State fan.

It seems all babies chew on wrapping paper – at least until someone notices.

Cerwin’s mother and my step-mother opening gifts.

After the gift exchange, we played “Now-You-Have-It-Now-You-Don’t” with open gifts.

~~~

Everyone gets three numbers.

When your number is called you choose a gift.

Your gift is only safe after your third number is called.

Until then others can “steal” your gift.

Then we played a game that I read about on someone’s blog yesterday.  The picture above is of Deb drawing her part.

~~~

THE GAME

Our daughter-in-law Chris began the game by writing,

On Christmas 2007 it was rainy and windy, and Jared hoped he would see a donkey-deer.

The other day Jared couldn’t remember the name “reindeer”, and called it a donkey-deer.

Chris handed her paper to Jeff.  His job was to draw a picture describing her sentence.

He then handed his drawing to Jenna who wrote out what she thought his picture described.

She handed what she wrote to Deb, who drew what Jenna wrote – and on it went, around the room while we visited and watched the children playing with their gifts.

The last person to get it was me.  I had to draw a picture of Cerwin’s description of the artwork he received.  He wrote,

An archery hunter wishing he had a gun.

“Hoped” changed to “wishing” – not bad on that, a rather difficult word to draw.  It wasn’t too surprising that the deer stayed in the story – a much easier word to draw.

That was fun!

~~~

I must tell you about the gift we received from our children:  Twelve meals from Dish it Up (www.dishitupdinners.com), a place that prepares meals to order, which you can take home to eat or freeze. 

Our children know their mother well .  She doesn’t enjoy or have a lot of time to cook.  It will be fun to checkout this gift.

~~~

Next week (December 30 until January 2) we will celebrate with our Maine daughter and her family.

In the beginning was the Word

and the Word was with God

and the Word was God.

John 1:1 NAS

Saturday

A Day With Four Granddaughters

First job of the day ~ remove  the air from the mattresses.

Next job ~ go to Chuck E Cheese’s

We always like to get there at 9 a.m. ~ when the doors open ~ which means we are usually the only people there for the first hour.

Jana competing against a machine for tickets.

There were lots of new machines.  Jana shows a new photo card.

Deal No Deal was new to us and a hands-down favorite of the day.

Cerwin and Jana

We were glad there wasn’t anybody else there waiting for this machine!

Diana making a good choice when choosing a case.

The game begins by showing you the cases,then shuffling them.  Jana is trying to follow the “1 ticket case.”

(Following a case cannot be done.)

The challenge of the game is to win fifty tickets as opposed to one ticket.

Of course there is a “banker.”

Pizza was the girls choice for brunch.

Then it was off to try something else.  Diana in the tube.

Jana feeding “The Dog.”

Diana in a “Tube Cage.”

Jenna was challenged by the Sidewinder ~ and trying to get this apparatus to the bottom without touching the moving sidewinder.

She was apparently successful many times, because this is the stack of tickets she won.

Jana was pleased to win the jackpot one time with this machine.

Gloria likes the challenge of keeping this machine in the air by peddling as fast as she can.

Her biggest disappointment was that the horse was not in operation.  Oh well, she at least got to look like a cowgirl with her new birthday boots.

~~~

From there we went to Wal-Mart ~ then to Park City where Cerwin wanted to buy new cell phones (the reason we talked him into going along in the first place).  While he chose cell phones for us, the girls and I went to the Dollar Store – where everything in the store is one dollar.  I told them they could each choose five things. 

After that we went to Build-a-Bear to get some Christmas outfits for my five bears, since they are part of our garage decorations.

~~~

The girls were here until 4 p.m. (twenty-four hours after we picked them up) and helped set the tables for tomorrow, dressed the teddy bears, and played GameCube, while I prepared food for our Christmas meal at noon tomorrow.

I was so tired last night that I went to bed at 8:30, and slept until 5:30 this morning.  That should keep me alert for the day.

I will praise You

O Lord

among the peoples

I will sing to You

among the nations.

For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens

And Your truth unto the clouds.

Psalm 57:9-10 NKJV

Decorating for Christmas

I needed to come up with a date for our four Pennsylvania granddaughters to spend the night – to celebrate Gloria’s seventh birthday – so asked if they would like to help us decorate the garage for Christmas.  They loved that idea!

First we had to get the garage ready by sweeping the floor and rolling out the carpet.

That is Diana, Gloria, and Jenna helping Cerwin.  Jana came a bit later.

Jenna was in charge of the winter and snowman area.  We decided to stack two benches to give her a fun area to decorate.  In this picture she is unwrapping a new string of lights.

She did a beautiful job.

Gloria was in charge of some of the specialty areas.  She has great plans for this basket, but we must go shopping first – for green and gold christmas balls.

Diana and Jana were in charge of the manger, shepherd, and angel area.

 They had so much fun, and did such a great job, that I think we started a new tradition.

Now they’re in sleeping bags – on air mattresses in the back part of the garage – making plans for going to Chuck E Cheese and shopping tomorrow.

Middle School Winter Concert

Last night we went to our local middle school’s Christmas concert.

While we waited for the program to begin, the Holiday Band presented some beautiful music.

Danny kept time with the bells.  He is a nephew of our daughter-in-law, Chris.

We were there, especially to see our granddaughter Jenna play violin in the orchestra.  She is in the middle, just behind the director’s music stand.

Beautiful and professional would describe the evening.

They played the opening song as the choir entered the stage.

During another song by the Holiday Band, the orchestra students joined the choir.

A close up of Jenna following the program.

Me too!  Me too!

The others wanted their photo taken with Jenna.  Left to Right:  Her brother Nathan, Jenna, Smita (a best friend and neighbor), and her sister Diana in the front.

Gloria (front right) wanted to get in on the fun as well.

But just as he who called you is holy

so be holy in all you do

for it is written

Be holy, because I am holy.

1 Peter 1:15-16 NIV

Look Who Perched in Our Dogwood Tree Today

I love when this hawk comes to visit, however, he terrorizes my little birds with his presence.

TFC Christmas Lunch

 It was fun having lunch with most of the TFC staff and some volunteers who work at the International Office, Marietta, PA.

Almost everyone cooperated when I took photos.

 Our meal was a bit more somber than usual, because those of us who arrived just in time for lunch came upon, or were delayed by a terrible accident near the office.

Emergency vehicles were arriving about the time I was – as was Hershey Medical Center’s Life Lion helicopter. 

I needed to take two detours before I was able to get to the office.

Howard Moses (third from left) was only two cars behind the accident, and saw it happen.  Bunny O’Hare (far end of the table on the right) and his wife Peg (to his left) were arriving at the office from the other direction.  He walked to the accident to see if he could give any prayer or emotional support.

Howard and Bunny prayed with the young man (I think his name is Jason) who was pinned in the car, and called his dad (both work at Marietta Motors just up the road).  They also supported the father with prayer as the helicopter lifted off.  

The father is a partner in the automotive repair business, and since we know the other partner, I called tonight to see how Jason was doing.  Glenda said he is going to be okay, but has some very serious leg injuries.

We are rejoicing with Jason’s young wife and his parents that God spared his life today.