Lauren turns 10

Can it be that my lovely little Lauren is 10 years old? Indeed. I was feeling brave enough to let her have a birthday sleepover. This was the first year she didn't want a theme party. I missed it a little, but it was so much easier. The girls decorated Christmas cookies, watched the Nativity Story, put on a little production of A Christmas Carol, and giggled, acted silly and did what 10 year old girls do. For our present to her, she got her ears pierced. She was a bit nervous when I told her outside of Claire's why we were there. She had been asking about it for a long time, but I answered to wait until she was 13. I was sure she'd be ecstatic when I offered it 3 years early, but she was so nervous that it was going to hurt, it dampened her enthusiasm. After it was over and she realized that it wasn't bad at all, we got the joyous thanks that I imagined. We love you, Lauren!

Christmas Baking

We sure did a lot of it this year. I guess I made up for the lack of it last year. We made peppermint bark, Heath bark, chocolate covered pretzels, oreo balls, and those ever fun, but oh so messy Christmas cookies (not all on the same day). I had to clean the floor on my hands and knees after the cookie decorating to get all the icing off the floor, but it was worth it for the memory -- Right? Someone encourage me here:-)

Those easy artificial trees

Photos of our 2 new artificial trees that I mentioned. The big one is the nice one, and the little one in the upstairs window is from Walmart. Thank goodness I have a tall ladder and a strong husband to get it up and down from the ledge!

Funny Christmas Pics

In Peachtree City, UPS delivers Christmas packages via the usual brown van but also the golf cart with a trailer. We laughed so hard the first time we saw it. The next time we saw it, we chased it down and took a picture.


Such concentration required in the decorating of Christmas cookies!


Did the wise men really bring Connectagons to the Christ child?


Power to the People (at least those with chocolate covered pretzels)


A cozy viewing of Toy Story 3


And finally, my favorite: This is my idea of a White Christmas!

Decorating for Christmas

After the conifer aphid fiasco of last Christmas (see earlier Blog Post "Hannah's First Christmas") we decided to buy a nice artificial tree online during the after-Christmas sales last year. We finally got to decorate it. It has proven to be a nice, pretty tree that doesn't have bugs, doesn't need water, and doesn't drop needles. YEAH! The cost was equal to several years of real trees, but for the lack of hassle, I think it was a good buy. Do I miss the real tree? Not really.






More Christmas photos later.

Fall is Here

At our old house, the kids loved when the Bradford Pear tree leaves would fall and Eric would rake them into a big pile. Lauren was sad when we moved in July and she realized our new yard didn't have any Bradford Pears. "How will we jump in the leaves?," she cried. Never fear. We have Bradford Pears right next to our home. The property is actually common ground, but for all intents and purposes it is like our yard. The leaf jumping can continue!









I just had to throw in a pic of the view from my bathroom window. The turning leaves were just beautiful. The picture doesn't do it justice. I would just stand and look out my window in awe at the beauty of God's creation. A little thing like the leaves changing colors before they fall is a lovely gift from our Maker.

Thanksgiving 2010

For several years I have longed for a meaningful, traditional Thanksgiving meal. You know around a table set with china, the kids all dressed well, speaking of our blessings for the past year and thanking God for his grace to bestow them on us. Well, that's not quite the way we celebrate it with the family. But this year, I finally realized that we are indeed, celebrating it in a traditional way. The first Thanksgiving included days of feasting, fun and games between the Pilgrims and the Indians who had helped them survive that first year. The fact that we shoot guns, bows and arrows, hit golf balls and play football is all in keeping with the spirit of the first Thanksgiving. In our little family, we do spend time writing down a particular blessing from the year, reading it aloud, placing it in our blessing box, reading all the previous years' blessings in the box, and then thanking God for his goodness and grace. All the pieces are there. Once I figured this out, I had the most enjoyable Thanksgiving in many years.

A couple of Thanksgiving Indians - Running Bear and Little Raindrop