Turkey Day

In about 30 minutes I am heading out for a long day at work. Rob will be taking the kids to his moms this afternoon. I should be home around 9 pm. But I wanted to tell everyone Happy Thanksgiving. And I wanted to show you Nadine's first ever Christmas list. She wrote this last night for Santa and gave it to Grandpa. I had to tell her what letters to write. She did a fantastic job for 4 years old!

Deck the Halls

I've been quite busy the last few days decorating the foyer at my church. I had lots of help from some of my ladies and after two straight days with what seemed like endless work - it's all done. Saturday I will be again back to decorating the auditorium. We couldn't do it this week because we have a wedding on Saturday afternoon. Here are some of the pics.

This is the big tree that I posted about last week. Didn't it turn out beautiful???

This tree I had to add another row of lights since the bottom row is out - but it is our Ist Annual Hope Family Tree. Each regular attendee is being asked to bring an ornament with their name and 2008 on it. So it's bare right now but I'll post a picture when it is all covered.

These trees are our Chrismon trees. All the ornaments on here were handmade by ladies of our church and in some way symbolize Christ.

This is our forest area. It is still a work in progress. We now have an animated deer (not pictured) and we are awaiting one final tree that is being donated for the far corner.

And this is Santa's chair. We have Breakfast with Santa every year. Santa comes and eats with the children, then reads them the true story of Christmas, the birth of Christ. It's really neat.

And after all of this I have decided that I will decorate your tree if you hate decorating for a small fee. And also I have a camera and can take great family pictures with any of our displays, again for a small fee. So let me know!

Thanksgiving Feast

Nadine has been working really hard at school to prepare for their Thanksgiving feast. She's learned new songs, baked pumpkin bread, made stone soup and pecan bars. Oh, and we can't forget all the decorations that they had to make for the big day. She has been so excited! This morning she woke up asking if it was Friday. I said, yes and she went crazy! She knew exactly what she was going to wear. And was sure to not let any of us sleep because it's Thanksgiving Feast day!

Make a Smilebox greeting

O Christmas Tree

Well, every year for the past three years Women's Ministries has decorated our church for the Christmas season. Last year we didn' t have a building so there were really no decorations except at our Christmas party at St. Charles Hospital and those were all put and taken down the same day. (That was a lot of work!)

This year we have our new ministry center! So Christmas is very exciting! However, the church only has 6 and 7 foot trees and our foyer is about 30 feet tall or more. Now, Christmas is the one holiday that I go over the top! I'm dangerous in Christmas stores no matter what time of the year it is and I don't think I could ever have enough Christmas decorations. So you have to realize that in my humble opinion 6 and 7 ft. trees are not anywhere near big enough for a room that is as gigantic and open as our foyer at church.

I have been searching and searching on Craiglist for a 12 ft. tree. We have these tile clouds in our foyer that make a faux ceiling at 14 ft. So one 12 ft. tree would definitely look proportionate in the foyer. And I somehow convinced the powers that be that the small trees we currently have would look ridiculous all alone in the foyer without some focal point. So I was given a budget to find a tree. Well I finally found one last week. Was on my way to get it when i received a phone call that what they thought was a 12 ft. tree has turned out to be only 9 ft, and my hopes were crushed. Which only made me search harder!!!!

I got on ebay and found not a 12 footer but a 13 footer pre-lit. Now, this is where God was watching out for us, because not only did he find us a 13 foot pre-lit that's over 5 foot in diameter at the base...he found one with all the ornaments! And gave it to us at a steal of a deal!

Today, Evalee and I took a ride together northeast of Cleveland, Ohio. It was a 2 and a half hour ride one way, but great time to catch up and visit together without the kids. (They didn't fit in the van because we had to take out all the rear seats.) And we picked up the fabulous tree! It's very crazy how excited I can become about a Christmas tree. But I was ready to hug the guy and give him a big kiss! But I refrained!

I was told there were two boxes that were five feet long and big. However, one box was five feet long the other was about seven feet. It barely fit in my van. And it would have been quite hilarious to see Ev and I trying to get them into my van. I dropped Ev back at her house and headed up to church where Buckeye Bo helped me unload the tree (again another funny spectacle.) We didn't think to use the dollies that the church has! I absolutely cannot wait until Sunday to get the tree up!!!! But here's the pic they advertised with on ebay, so you can at least get an idea of how monstrous this tree is!!!