First Half of December Photo Dump

A young friend at church brought a cute outfit for the grandbaby coming in April. Her daughter's name is Lucy so she said she would bring anything with her name on it!

 

Here are a few of our Christmas decorations.

I usually go all out on the mantle but I just haven't had the desire this year.

Since Mark has been dealing with the torn retina, I said, "Let's buy an artificial tree." He is still in shock because he knows how much I love a real tree.

I think the artificial tree looks pretty good!

I took a day of vacation and took my final (waiting on grades to post) and then I hopped in the shower

and went to the neighborhood Ladies' Brunch at Jane and Ann's home. It was fun chatting

with different folks!

Above - some of the food from the brunch - look at those triangle sandwiches covered with cucumbers -- they were Christmas tree sandwiches!!

I left the brunch and drove straight to the ENT's office regarding my recent allergy tests. Did I tell y'all that I'm allergic to all but 3 of the items . . .29 items to which I'm allergic. I went back to see them this week and had my first round of shots. The doctor said that I'm one of those rare people who will probably have to take allergy shots for the rest of my life. I had been seeing another allergist and had been taking shots for about 10 years . . .and I'm still that allergic to 29 things.

Last week, we drove to Pike Road and picked up granddaughter #2 from school. She has been wanting Gran and Pops to pick her up so we did! She has learned to swing herself. She talked non-stop from the time we picked her up!!

We were visiting so that we could go to her dance recital. The difference in last year and this year is amazing. I actually teared up watching the dress rehearsal!

On Saturday morning, Laura and I headed to a nail salon for pedicures.

We got home and Pops and sweet girl had been playing and pretending in the back yard the whole time we were gone.

We were standing in line waiting to get into the recital!!

We drove home on Sautrday afternoon and met our friends, Lu and Dave, at Casual Pint. It was a much needed evening of laughter!

During the night, two small tornadoes touched down in Homewood which is where I work and where Mark's mom lives. Several of our friends had major damage to their homes but no one was injured.

Mark's 98 year old mom was without power for several days.

On Sunday night, granddaughter #1 and her mommy and daddy joined us for a Night in Bethlehem at our church.

It was amazing.

Pop's and Gran's good friend, Duane, was working and helped her write her name in Hebrew on her Hebrew scroll.

She made a mosaic cross.

She made a bracelet.

We visited the bakery and Pops loved the baklava. Our sweet girl bought it for him with her shekels.

Granddaughter #1 sat in Joseph's chair while Joseph was on a paci run :-). As we were coming down the hall, we could hear baby Jesus screaming. I actually got chills because that was far more authentic than the Christmas card pictures of Mary and baby Jesus.

The alpaca was so soft and so sweet!!

Monday morning, the staff worked Night in Bethlehem so that our daycare kids could participate.

I was in a booth with one of my friends - Pastor Laura.

Elizabeth was in the spice booth "across the way" from us!

The tin punch booth was "across the other way" from us. Two of our youth staff worked that booth.

We were in the scroll booth. The kids were 3 and 4 years old so they can't read English, much less Hebrew. We told them how the scrolls were like books and we just let them stamp away.

Monday night, we had our "girls from the office" party at Peggy's house. It is so nice to work with people that you actually enjoy hanging out with! Peggy's house is decorated for Christmas like no other I've ever seen. It is beautiful and it takes her about a week to decorate it all!!

We did an ornament swap and I got the ornament above. We do a staff video every year that is much anticipated. There is a line in the song for this year "Go Jesus It's Your Birthday!" Our senior pastor is so creative and rewrites the words and comes up with the scenes. He has help from our Executive Director coming up with scene ideas. The video debuts on Sunday after noon. I'll try to post a link next week. The purpose of the video is to get people to give to our Manger Offering which supports 22 ministry partners.

On Wednesday, we had our office Christmas party. We are divided into "houses" and we ate together and played "reindeer games."

But first, you must appreciate the food. Our church chef is amazing, as are his helpers.

We slid oreos down the table into cups of corn syrup, unsweet tea, whole milk, mustard, Bernaise sauce, and another sauce . . .and then you had to eat it.

We did the candy cane in the bottle game and it was so funny.

We also played "hungry hungry hippo" but I guess it is actually "hungry hungry reindeer" - you wore solo cups on your hands and tried to scoop up the most marshmallows.

We did a lot of recording for the video on our party day and then Mark and I headed out to dinner at Seasons 52 with our "out to eat" supper club from our Sunday School class. We both had shrimp and grits and it was a delicious meal with good conversation.

Coming up next . . .cheese straw baking, candy making, brownie baking, a wonderful service at church on Sunday afternoon and our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter #2 will join us, our YA Christmas party, Christmas Eve Eve, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day . . .and then I'm taking the rest of the week off after Christmas.