Winter Wonderland!

Yesterday we woke up to a  Winter Wonderland, it was so beautiful out side.  My pictures do not really show how it looked.

 

I had to go into town in the morning and wish I had taken a camera.  It may be cold here, but days like this make it more bearable. 

Made a batch of cut out sugar cookies so our grandsons would have some to decorate later today.  Also made up a gift package for my neighbor.  She has had a very bad cold for a while now and is having Christmas at here house this weekend.  Their three daughter and families (ten grandchildren all of them little) will be home for the weekend.  With working and being sick she hasn't had the time or ambition to do much baking.  Made her up a gift bag with cookies, frosting, and sprinkles to enjoy decorating with the grandchildren. 

Have a school Christmas program to go to this afternoon, then celebrating our grandsons birthday later. So hard to believe that our oldest grandson will be thirteen tomorrow.  What a blessing he is. 

Merry Christmas!

Discovery

I was reading a Christmas devotional this morning and it was talking about Christmas morning without wrapping paper.   With out the wrapping paper the joy would be short lived as it is exciting to unwrap the gifts to see what is in them.

God created us in a way that causes us to enjoy the process of discovery.  Have you ever noticed that sometimes it is more exciting finding something than having it? 

God tells us in scripture to seek Him.  Proverbs 8:17b   And those that seek me early shall find me.  
Jeremiah 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me,when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

God could have revealed all of His truth to us right from the very beginning, but He chose to reveal Himself to us a little at a time.  God allows us to enjoy the process of discovering Him.

Don't let yourself get discouraged over what you don't know about God, but be excited about unwrapping all there is yet to discover.

God's gift of Himself to us

is a present we will always be unwrapping.

Snowed In!

Snowed in this morning. Some places we had huge drifts and other spots there was almost nothing. The news reported the the highway from Marshfield to Stevens Point was impassable this morning.  The grandsons were excited to be snowed in and have to spend another day with us.  Although they were looking forward to hearing grandpa sing in church this morning.  Will definitely be having a white Christmas this year.

The neighbors snow pile looks like it usually does close to the end of winter. 

 

Had to shovel out the drift to take the dog out this morning.  

Spending a quiet day at home.  Grandpa and the boys watched the Packer game and I watched  "Wind At My Back" Christmas special. 

Finished the Advent Calendar that I was working on.  Decided to hang it as a wall hanging instead.

And she shall bring forth a son,

and thou shalt call his name

JESUS

for he shall save his people

from their sins.

Matthew 1:21

IT'S SNOWING, IT'S SNOWING

We are getting snow, possibly up to 14 inches with blowing!

 

 This pictures is a little fuzzy from the blowing snow!

Grandson out doing some shoveling until Grandpa gets done at the neighbors and 

blows our driveway.  He went out into the yard and let the snow from the snow blower hit him and

came in covered with snow.  Said it was like being in a blizzard couldn't even see the house.  Made his day!

Yesterday I had to sub in the pre-k room, there were 28 little ones.  Went from that to helping at the preteen  Christmas party at church last night.  The kids had a lot of fun.  They sang, had a short Christmas devotion, played charades acting out titles to Christmas songs, did an ornament exchange,  played musical chairs, decorated their cookies and finished up with ice cream sundaes.    The boys had a lot of fun.

Spending the day with the grandkids, making popcorn balls, fudge, and watching some Christmas movies and enjoying the snow.

It's snowing harder and the wind is picking up, I think we will be snowed in soon!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It's A Wonderful Time of the Year

The stockings are hung with care.

 

The tree is decorated.

With help from our grandsons.

Grandpa put on the lights and the garland and the boys did most of the ornaments for me.

Standing on a chair to reach the top, trying to hide a Packer ornament!

The house is decorated.

We have had this nativity set for many years.

This set is very special to me because it was my mom's. 

The Christmas village.

Have to have some snowmen.  

Baking has been started and some of it already eaten!

These cookies are for a Cookie Exchange this Saturday at my cousins.

Chocolate Chip cookies with M & M's and white chocolate drizzles over them.

When I need a break a nice cup of Christmas Tea (Russian Tea)  hits the spot!

 

Russian Tea

10 c. water

3/4 c. sugar or honey

5 tea bags

Bring water and sugar to a simmer and add tea bags simmer for about 10 minutes.

 Remove tea bags.

1 - 12 oz can frozen orange juice concentrate undiluted

1 - 12 oz. can frozen pineapple juice concentrate undiluted

1 tsp. cloves

Add to the simmered tea and simmer an additional  20 minutes.

Serve warm or cold.

Later today my plan is to get some gifts wrapped.  My husband is working a shutdown tonight and tomorrow so it will give me some time in the evening to do some wrapping and sewing.  Still have a couple of gifts that need to be finished.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We celebrated Thanksgiving

On Thursday we celebrated our Thanksgiving with our grandchildren.  Because of work schedules we had to celebrate early this year.  We have so much to be thankful for the Lord has been so good.     

  For the first time that I can remember we are putting up our tree before Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow after church during the Packer/Viking game we will put up the tree.  Our grandsons want to help put up the tree while they are here.  I will wait and put up the rest of the decorations after Thanksgiving. 

This week I will be busy subbing at the school, they aide that I am subbing for has to go over to the special ed room at the high school in the afternoons.  I get to take notes in two different classes.  It has been many years since I have had to do that.  

Have a good week!

I am finally getting a chance to update my blog.  It seems time has just slipped away from me.  Here are a few of the things we have been up to.

Getting the garden ready for winter.  The little part that  jogs out in the front is my new strawberry patch.  Not looking to good at this time.  Quite a few of the plants didn't make it after the heavy rain we had earlier.  Hopefully enough will come through the winter that I can replant some runners next summer.

Finished a couple of projects that have been around for a while, this one is a fall piece that I made for the back of the rocking chair. 

This is a flannel lap quilt that I have had the material for a long time.  It has been a slow work in progress.  The material was bought from a quilt shop when we lived up north, that has been 4~ 1/2 years  ago.  Finally cut it out two years ago, sewed it together last winter and finished it a couple of weeks ago.  This wouldn't seem so bad if it was something complicated! 

Had a surprise birthday party for my husband.  His birthday is really the day after Christmas.  It seems that we always end up celebrating Christmas with part of the family on his b-day. So this year though we would change things up a little.

So this year we planned a little party on a night the grandsons were staying over.  They thought it was great celebrating early like this.  Grandpa enjoyed the surprise too. 

Then there was the Packers verses the Vikings game!  As you can see we have fans of both teams.  One grandson and his dad are Viking fans (really a fan of who ever is playing against the Packers) the other one along with the rest of us are Packer fans.  Things can get quite lively at times during these games ;o)           That is a little bit of what has been going on around here lately.  

We are having our Thanksgiving next week so I have been doing some baking and shopping to get ready.  Also working on a few more sewing projects that I can't show, they are Christmas gifts.  The past two weeks have also done a lot of subbing.  

The weather man is saying we may have some snow flurries this weekend!  I am hoping!!!!