The Journey Towards Home - From Mess Maker to Home Maker

Got this one from Jen...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?  YES! lol  Usually bags for friends and wrapping for family.  Don't know why, it just ends up that way.  My FAVORITE wrap is brown paper tied w/twine or raffia w/some sort of CHRISTmas Stampin' Up stamps.

2. Real tree or Artificial?  We used to do the real ones, but I pick up quills ALL year, so we have used a fake one for years.  Last year, however, we got the most wonderful tree!!  It's very rustic - just the way I like it - it has just a touch of "snow" (so it doesn't look 'cheap') and pine cones and we put only vintage and rustic ornaments on it.  LOVE IT!  I hate to take it down!

3. When do you put up the tree? If not the day after Thanksgiving, then the weekend following.

5. Do you like eggnog?  No. 

6. Favorite gift received as a child?  Hmmm...my Barbie Dream House.  I'm old enough that it was the second edition, still cardboard, but it was WAY cool!! 

7. Hardest person to buy for?  My mom.  She's very well off and has 2 of everything.

8. Easiest person to buy for?  My dog, Maggie!

9. Do you have a nativity scene?  Yes; it's the one my family has had since I was about 3 years old and is starting to fall apart.  I'd like to get replacement Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus and a few animals from the company that does the wooden angels for all occasions (shoot, can't think of the name).  While I'm at it ... I CAN'T STAND to see the wise men in a nativity scene!!  They didn't find Jesus until He was 2 years old, for Pete's sake...so put them waaaaay over on the other side of the house that they can make a journey of it! 

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?  Both.  If I have your e-mail address, you'll probably get an e-mail; family and friends w/o e-mail get cards. 

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?  OK...I'm serious here...no joke...My dear grandma was a very frugal gal, having lived through the Depression she was always thinking of USEFUL things to give.  The first CHRISTmas we were married she gave us a can of Crisco w/a bow on top!!  lol 

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?  White CHRISTmas.

13. When do you start shopping? Usually in December.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  Yes.  'Nuff said.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?  My mom's stuffing!

16. Lights on the tree?  White.

17. Favorite Christmas song?  O Holy Night and I Wonder as I Wander.  I have a really beautiful arrangement of 'I Wonder...' that I worked out on my hammered dulcimer.

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home?   We usually go to my mom's house.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s?  Possibly...um...no.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?  A rustic star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?  We have our OWN family CHRISTmas on CHRISTmas Eve morning - when the girls were little we were always rushing all over the place and we weren't making OUR OWN memories and they couldn't enjoy their news clothes or toys.  So, when our oldest was about 5 we started our own tradition on the day before. 

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year.  The emphasis on Santa and stores putting up CHRISTmas - eh hem - I mean 'holiday' decorations BEFORE halloween!! 

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?  Rustic, vintage.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Didn't I answer that?  My mom's stuffing.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?  A digital camera.

The holidays are near so I want to know...

1.
Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
 Hot chocolate!

2.
Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
 Nope, never did the Santa-thing.  Jesus supplies the gifts – that’s what we’ve always told them.

3.
Colored lights on tree/house or white? 
 White

4.
Do you hang mistletoe? 
 yes

5.
When do you put your decorations up? 
  always right after Thanksgiving :) 

6.
What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? 
My mom’s stuffing.               

 7.
Favorite holiday memory as a child: 
When I was about 11, I couldn’t sleep one Christmas Eve night and I had my radio on.  It was about 2a.m. and Nat King Cole’s “Chestnuts Roasting” came on while huge, fluffy snowflakes floated down outside my windows.  Ahhhh.

8.
When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? 
 2^nd or 3^rd grade.
9.
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? 
Yes.  So that OUR family can make our own Christmas memories, we open our own presents on Christmas Eve morning so that it’s not interrupted by having to leave to go to someone’s house.

10.
How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? 
  We got a new Christmas tree last year that is very real-looking w/just a little ‘snow’ and pinecones on it.  We put away many of our more trendy ornaments for the girls to have one of these days and now only use the more vintage and backwoods-looking ornaments.  It’s very rustic and I LOVE IT!!
11.
Snow! Love it or Dread it?
I love snow...especially when I’m inside looking out!

12.
Can you ice skate? 
  That’s up for interpretation…I’ve roller skated all my life and only ice skated once.

13.
Do you remember your favorite gift? 

Christmas of 1998, Ty got me my hammered dulcimer!!

14.
What is the most important thing about the Holidays for you? 
Remembering God's gift to us in His Son Jesus and having my family all together for Christmas. 

15.
What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
 Pumpkin pie and red velvet cake.

16.
What is your favorite holiday tradition? 
The big family meal – everyone together and happy.

17.
What tops your tree? 
 A rustic star

18.
Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Definitely giving 

19.
What is your favorite Christmas Song? 
  O Holy Night and I Wonder as I Wander

20.
Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? 
 Yum.

21.
What do you want for Christmas? 
A digital camera

22.
Do you attend an annual Christmas Party? 
 Ty’s work and – if can call it a party – our annual Christmas Eve service.

23.
Do you dress up on Christmas or wear PJs? 

When I was little we dressed up for the meal.  Now we just wear ‘nice’ jeans and maybe a ‘dress’ blouse/shirt or sweater.

24. Do you own a Santa hat?
 nope – don’t do the Santa-thing here.

25.
Who do you normally spend Christmas with? 
Our family ~~ Christmas Eve day is for our own family; the weekend before Christmas day is w/Ty’s side of the family, Christmas Day is usually w/my side of the family.

I really enjoy my Old Farmer's Almanac newsletter and I have learned so much from it.  Today's newsletter offered and link to "Gardening Jobs by the Month," which is of interest to me as a novice gardener.  So many of those of you that I've spoken to lately are considering either planting a kitchen garden next year or expanding the one you already keep, so I thought you might benfit from this information, too.  Here's the link:

http://www.almanac.com/garden/jobs/index.php

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

Here's something I found and thought it would be a great lesson for our children with Thanksgiving coming... {KW<><}...

In the White House, Abe Lincoln was pacing the floor of his office.  He felt more troubeld than he had ever felt before.  The fate of the Union was at stake.  He felt as if he were almost alone in his concern for the outcome.  Friends and aides appeared to be almost panic-stricken.  Abe felt that this was the most critical hour of the [Civil] war, perhaps the most critical hour in the entire history of the United States.

In desperation he left his office, went into this room and locked the door.  There he fell before a chair.  With his head in his hands, he wept and prayed.

Now, more than at any other time in his life he turned to God.  In deep anguish he told God that he had done all he could.  He pleaded for help.  There was nothing more that he could do.  He must leave the result of the battle in the hands of God.  He now knew that if his country was to be saved, it would be only because God willed it.

It was a heartbreaking hour of prayer.

When he unlocked the door and came out of his room he felt that a great burden had suddenly been rolled off his shoulders.  His intense anxiety and torturing concern had been relieved.  He felt a quiet and calm trustfullness...

On his desk was a copy of the Thanksgiving Proclamation.  He had proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a day of national Thanksgiving.  The nation had never before had such an annual Thanksgiving Day and he had decided that it was time the nation remembered in a special day what God had done.

Now he read slowly the proclamation:

We have been the recipients of the choistest bounties of heaven; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.  But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

We have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

Tears slipped down his cheeks as he read these words, for he believed in them deeply.  It was because of this belief that he ordered the Treasury Department to engrave the words, In God We Trust, on American coins.

As he was sitting at his desk, thinking about these things, an aide rushed in and excitedly exclaimed, "There's good news from the battle at Gettysburg, Sir..."

But in spite of this great victory, his days were filled, dealing with generals, listening to the problems of many citizens, and handling endless administrative details.  For help he turned to God through the Bible and in prayer.

Almost daily now, he felt the need to go to his room to pray.  More and more, he became conscious of the work of God in the affairs of men.

Writing to a friend, Byron Sutherland, one day, he said,

I believe we are all agents and instruments of Divine Providence.  I hold myself in my present position and with the authority invested in me, as an instrument of Providence.  I am conscious every moment that all I am and all that I have are subject to the control of a higher power, and that power can use me or not use me in any manner and at any time as in His wisdom might be pleasing to Him.

One day, Mr. Chittenden, the register of the Treasury, asked him if he believed that God actually directed national affairs.  With a deep feeling of emotion, he replied,

The the Almighty does make use of human agencies, and directly intervenes in human affairs, is one of the plainest statements of the Bible...I have many evidences of His direction, many instances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own will, that I cannont doubt that this power comes from above.

~~~Reprinted from Honest Abe by Harry J. Albus.

For Today...

Outside my window...beautiful sunshine shining on a very thin layer of snow.  Sparkling like glitter on the roofs of the house and out-buildings.  It's been a few days since the morning has begun with sunshine.

I am thinking...how silly I was to have forgotten to do my Daybook yesterday!

M- Homemade pizza tonight, cucumber salad

T- Shrimp alfredo, toast, and salad

W- Thanksgiving at church.... :)

Th- Chicken and noodle soup, grilled cheese sandwiches

F- the boys and girls are on the road.