Christmas Music Memories

Today we were busy baking 23 mini loaves of pumpkin bread to give as gifts and my daughter got tired of hearing the Anthony Burger Christmas CD playing after about 10 hours. (Imagine that!) She said,"Do you mind if I put on that Dennis record"? I was delighted! That is my VERY favorite Christmas record-has been since I was a little girl. A few years ago we visited the Brass Armidillo in Tri-County area (it was an Antique Mall - they closed a couple years ago). As we were browsing the stalls, I found a stall that had a bunch of old records. I LOVE good old records so was going through them when what to my wondering eyes should appear but this record! I was SOOOOOOOO excited. $2.50 and several Christmases later, it made my heart glad to know that my daughter also enjoys my record!

My favorite song from the album reminds us that "Christmas is for the Family" and Dennis reminds us at the end of Side 2, "we're not getting any younger". So, be sure to cherish your family this Christmas season and don't forget to "laugh and pray together" like the song says!

Merry Christmas!

Creative Christmas Gift

Today I put together these meaningful gifts for a $1.00 and an afternoon/ evening of labor.

Tired of the same-old-same-old, I was excited when I read about this neat idea in one of the homeschool enewsletters I get. Michaels has these mousepad calendars in a variety of themes for $1.00. I chose the Front Porch theme for mine and used Mircosoft Works label program to make my labels. The most time consuming part was entering each name and year for each person in my immediate family (mom, dad, sisters, brother-in-laws, nieces and nephews) and my mom and dads parents and siblings' anniversarys and birthdates. Next year, though, all I'll have to do is print them off and put them on the proper date.
The result is a clutter-free useful gift for some special family members:
a mousepad and a calendar with everyone's special dates on it.

Decorating our Church for Christmas

This morning DJ, Lorna and I went out and decorated our church for Christmas. There wasn't too much to it - just carrying everything upstairs, unbagging and fluffing everything out and putting it in place. We did a couple new things this year. We put lighted garland and bows on the railings out front and we used gold lame' on the bulletin boards for the background. It was fun to decorate God's House for this time of year when we celebrate the birth of His Son.

Christmas! THE Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Today officially begins the Christmas Season. At our house, we already have three trees up and over 5000 lights decorating the outside! Some gifts are wrapped and the calendar is filling up. DJ is like his Mommy - we LOVE Christmas! Not the gifts but the season of Joy celebrating the coming of OUR Messiah, and all the fun things there are to do.

Last year we weren't able to visit this awesome house because of Benji's dangerous health situation. We wanted to make sure we got it in this year so tonight we bundled everyone in the van, turned on the Christmas music and headed to Mason's Heritage Park. The show is old time drive-in movie theatre style and is it ever AWESOME! They played one of DJ's favorites, "The Mad Russian's Christmas" by the Trans Siberian Orchestra, a Christmas Hymn Medley by the Mason Public High School Band and other selections. Now the hard part is going to be to keep DJ from doing it to our house! If you live in the greater Cincinnati area, be sure to bundle every one in the car and Monday- Thursday, you can get your whole car load in for $10.00 if you print off a coupon from: festivalsofmason.com

A wonderful Christmas Memory!