I'm sort of late with my greatings here. It's been a blur of a week between our Anniversary, last minute Christmas preparations and my husband being home on vacation. He is at Wal-Mart right now working just tonight as they go in Christmas night and clean up and restock what they can as they get ready for the big after Christmas returns and shopping that always occurs. He is off until Thursday afternoon after this from his main job. We have completely enjoyed the time with the kids. We went tonight to my mother's to visit for a little while. My family as a whole didn't get together, so we just made these plans on our own. Not sure what happened there-but it was sort of nice having this low key event with just mom. We were supposed to go to Jay's family's get together on Friday, but his mom ended up with the flu. It is supposed to be rescheduled sometime after all is well again. We broke with our tradition of "Christmas morning" opening of gifts with the kids this year so that they could enjoy opening gifts without the rush of Sunday morning time (of going to church). That was nice as well. They totally enjoyed everything, from the ham we cooked, to the time spent with us, to the gifts we had picked out for them. Currently they are playing with their Nintendogs ...totally absorbed with these cute little game dogs. (I hear barking in the background) Even I've had a few turns and I must admit, it is quite the fun game. It has some wireless technology, and they not only can play with their own puppies, but each others if they are in "bark mode". They also got a boost in their clothes. Jay and I exchanged a few small gifts. We ended the night with the reading of the Christmas story (as opposed to reading where we currently are-in Zachariah) . It was after midnight, and was a good way to end such a festive evening of love among us.
I've been also working on beaded necklaces, bracelets and alphabets for gifts this week. Each takes a bit of time to design and construct. (especially the beaded alphabets..pearl beads on wire).
I did some sewing as well this week. I also had a temp job at a model home. I enjoy these as they usually give me some time to catch up on reading, sewing (hand) or some other small task as am able to sit and be busy as I pass the time there.
I still haven't had much computer time yet since finishing with phone books. (that indeed is a story perhaps for another day ) My mind has been cluttered with a lot of different thoughts between what I needed to do for the Christmas celebrations as well as left over thoughts concerning how badly phone books went and ended this year. I am thankful for God sending His Son and for Salvation that I have through Jesus. Our pastor this morning spoke on Isaiah 9:6 where it says:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Our pastor mentioned that it saying "a child is born" denotes Jesus' humanity, while the phrase 'a son is given' is a reference to Jesus' deity. I love verses like this that just cause me to stop, read, ponder and to praise God for His son Jesus and all that it means to belong to Him. I love verses that so simply show who Jesus is.
So with all the busyness of the season, I am thankful for what the season truly means. As the world tries to snuff out Christianity in various ways and means, I proclaim who I am in Christ , because of Christ and because one night , many many years ago-God came as a man, later wrapped in swaddling clothes -a gift for all who will receive His forgiveness for their sins. Christmas is all about Him....the rest of what we do with the season is just a side note.
Merry Christmas to all that might stumble along my blog -May it be filled with God's Son, and His love.
Happy Anniversary to My husband Jay
I love you!
19 years and counting...
I loved our Christmasy Wedding...and the years that have followed.
I love this picture...because while we are clearly getting pelted by birdseed, we are hanging on tight to one another together, much as we have as life has pelted us with it's problems and struggles.
Im just glad I was wearing flats
Ü
This is in my son's latest issue of Dog & Kennel magazine. It is an ad for a dog CD, with the "hit" single Squeaky Deakey. They apparently surveyed dogs on what kind of music they liked and took a year to develop this CD. We just had a good laugh over this ad.
It's amazing what a fresh hair cut can do for your mood-especially if you have a good hair stylist. According to my card from Super Cuts-It has been since April since I've had a hair cut. I let it grow very long this summer, and also have been growing out my bangs. Finally enough was enough. No more throwing it in a pony tail when it was in my face or feeling heavy. I wanted a hair cut. So this morning I finally went. I hate going. It always seems like pulling teeth to get them to understand what I meant. This lady listened and actually did exactly what I wanted her to do. She even made a suggestion that was helpful. So around my chair sat 4 inches of hair in a pile. Amazing. It feels so much better...and will keep my neck warmer than it has been. A pony tail seems to evoke a draft(which is cold this time of year)! LOL
We traveled through a local nativity scene tonight at a church nearby. It was a drive through kind of thing with the people staged around the church building outside. There were different real animals and some really neat scenery. We've been through that one before and knew it would be good. Afterwards we drove through the cemetary here in Gibsonville to see the luminaries. The Boy Scouts sell and set them up each year.
We then drove to Krispy Kreme for a box of doughnuts. Their machine was broken, so no hot doughnuts now. We did pick up some gift cards for gifts....and also a calendar (with buy one get one coupons...or freebie coupons) with some pretty cool retro pictures in it of times past.
On the way home, we passed by Stoney Creek and drove through their luminaries. Some other Boy Scouts (or possibly the same group) put those out. Amazing looking and fun to drive through.
Yesterday, after I quit (yes quit) phone books for the year (long story) , we went to the Streets at Southpoint. The kids and us split up (each with a walkie talkie) in order to do some Christmas Shopping in secret. When we gathered together again, my kids kept mentioning the "bubble snowflakes". They asked if we saw them, which we had not. (My husband and I had walked together through the inside of the mall mainly...and had not made it to the outside). They wanted us to see these bubble snowflakes..so on our way out to the car, we went through the area and they said see....see the snowflakes of bubbles. I looked up and then took a deep breath. I saw these bubbles....appearing as snowflakes floating down. In my deep breath I sucked in some (LOL) I then started gagging thinking, what did I just suck in? I then learned how to walk through them without sucking them into my nose or mouth. Im sure they are non toxic, but it sort of took me by surprise. It was a neat idea, and looked pretty cool falling from the sky....but I hope no one has any kind of allergic reaction to the bubbles falling on their skin or as I did, because they suck them into their airway.
It was nice to just be able to walk around, see the mall decorations, hear the music and feel the excitement in all the different activities that Christmastime is near.
a little holiday cheer....lol
1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.
2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.
3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc. This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.
4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set(2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.
5) 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.
In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.
Phone books are holding us captive ....
will be back soon...
You are the Christmas Ball.
What Christmas Ornament are you?
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Last month, when my husband was off, we took the kids to Boone and Blowing Rock for the day. We had a great time. During part of the day, we went into this new -to-us Christian bookstore that was up there. It was decorated beautifully for Christmas. This LARGE, almost full sized nativity was viewable from the upper level there in the store. It was displayed on some wooden beams suspended across a large opening from floor to the high ceiling. I took a picture of it, and then took it into my paint shop program to make what you see below.
this verse was one that they used on a sign in the front of the store. Overall, it was a neat experience going to
this store . I got some very good pictures from there, hopefully which will come in handy this holiday season.
