Christmas 2011

I have been on vacation since Friday, 122311. My vacation was supposed to start on Saturday, but the county commissioners decided to allow all county employees to have a half day of paid time off on Friday (saying "off on" disturbs me a little, but I'm leaving it in). It was a wonderful gift, especially just before Christmas. I had already planned to be off through January 2. My husband has been on vacation as well. We really haven't done much, but it's been nice to be home together.

We actually haven't had Christmas with our daughter Jen yet (she's in China). We had mailed a Christmas box to her on 121911,which was the last day for international packages to be delivered before Christmas; that is, if the box went through Customs alright. Well, on Wednesday, two days later the box came back to us--we had forgotten to sign the mailing statement. It wasn't just our problem. The Post Office person who originally took our box to mail it, did not notice that the label wasn't signed, even though she looked over the whole thing to make sure it was all filled out.

We had thought we were going to have to pay for the box all over again ($80), but when we mailed it the second time, the guy at the Post Office said we didn't have to pay that amount again. We just had to pay almost another $20 because we had added a couple more things to a larger box. Anyway the box didn't get mailed until Friday of that week. We were told that it was still possible that the box might arrive before Christmas. Well, this is the 30th, and we have not yet heard that Jen has received her box. I hope she gets it before we have to go back to work so we can still have Christmas with her.

Mostly this Christmas season has been great! We have enjoyed the time and the gifts. We are thankful that God gave the very best gift for the world, His only begotten son, full of grace and truth.

Wonderful Christmas

We have had a wonderful Christmas for many reasons.

The whole foundation of Christmas is the fact of the birth of Christ. Without His coming to this earth as a baby along with all the other prophesied events that happened, there would be no point to our lives--live, eat, sleep, procreate, die. But to have our Creator Who deserves all our praise and service gives purpose to our lives.

All my family was home for Christmas. It's been great to have them here. I've appreciated having Jen here to help with cooking and cleaning up. And everyone is so appreciative of my cooking and planning. We cooked, ate, unwrapped gifts, played games, watched movies, and talked. Good times.

Several of our church people and people at work were very generous to us.

I'm off work for 12 days counting weekends. I only have to use four days of vacation because the rest are weekends and holidays. Yay!

I get to buy some new clothes.

13 Thursday Christmas Favorites

1. Christmas carols

2. 12 pounds of Christmas at work

3. Buying gifts for my family

4. Having both of my kids home for the holidays

5. Seeing other family members

6. Having the house all clean

7. Seeing Christmas specials/movies on TV

8. Hearing Christmas messages at church

9. Seeing the decorated Christmas tree with the gifts

10. Christmas Eve reading of the Christmas story from the Bible

11. Opening gifts on Christmas Eve

12. Guessing what's in most of the Christmas gifts for me and being mostly right (it kind of irritates the family)

13. Working on Christmas music for church in September or October

The Nitty Gritty

You know, life is made up of the the nitty gritty, unimportant details and what appear to be random events.

We got a new dryer today. I had to take off work from 11:30 because it was going to arrive between 12:00 and 5:00. It came about 1:30. Yay! And we didn't have to pay for it. Another Yay!

We're still looking for a new pickup. Gary was looking at a BMW SUV. It was $2800. That seemed just wrong. G asked the seller by email if that was the real price. Return email said yes, that he was trying to get rid of it soon. Trouble is he lives in Scotland and we would have to send money to a third party. As has been said, if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is. Oh, well.

I went to Christmas party last night for the ladies in my church. It was very nice. I won a prize for a game about Christmas songs. I probably had an unfair advantage. Oh, well.

I have another party at work on Friday. It's a white elephant game and we have pizza.

Our Master Club for our children at church is presenting its Christmas program Sunday night. G and I have quite a bit to do to get it all ready this week.

I have a wedding to play for on 12/20 and a rehearsal on 12/19 in Denver. I still have to practice quite a bit. The bride wants a lot of classical music. Well, I don't practice much on classical music even though I really like it. So I really need to get busy on it.

At work we are decorating a door in the department to enter into a contest with other county departments. So I am working on that with several other ladies. It's kind of like doing a bulletin board. In most of the past years, the commissioners have come personally to judge the doors, but this year we have to send electronic photos, and I guess all county employees will vote.

I don't have my Christmas tree up yet, but I will, Jen. It will be amazing, or at least it will be pretty.

Christmas Drawings

For our church's Christmas program this year we are having the kids draws various scenes of the Christmas story. We will then photograph them and put them on the screen at the front of the auditorium to show while the children are singing the songs. We've done it before at other churches, and it's very fun.

The other day we had the kids draw a picture of the angels appearing to the shepherds. We had already discussed that the shepherds were very afraid. As the kids were drawing in their own inimitable ways, one child decided that the shepherds were "sore" afraid and that one of them fainted, so he drew him lying on the ground. Then he decided that the sheep were really afraid too, and so he drew several of them on the ground in an unconscious state as well.

Another little girl has drawn a turtle on nearly every picture she has drawn. She just likes it to be there.

Children are very entertaining. I think the adults will enjoy the pictures when the whole program gets put together.