Project 365 - Week 52b

Week 52b.

Our Christmas was a bit different this year and I was a little apprehensive about how it was going to go.  I love tradition and when you mess with that, it makes me upset!  But we have had a wonderful Christmas and I have loved every minute of it!!  I hope you have too!

We had our Christmas on Christmas Eve this year because we traveled to Tucson, AZ on Christmas day to be with my family.  Each time I come home, I feel like I miss the desert more and more....it's just part of who I am!

I am planning on continuing Project 365 into 2012.  It is just such a wonderful chronicling of our family and I want to do it for my kids!!  I hope you will join me too and invite friends.  We usually start out the year with 20+ people but end the year with a faithful few!!  I would encourage everyone to do this at least once and to make the effort to stick it out...you will never regret it!

Here's my week:

Saturday

 We started Christmas Eve with a service at church.  It was wonderful and we ended the service with 3 baptisms....that was awesome!

 Then we headed home for our traditional Christmas dinner and this year added Christmas at the end!

Sunday

 Of course we had to finish the advent calendar and then we saved stockings for this morning.  Steve and I wrote letters to each of the kids this year and put them in their stockings.

 Then we headed to the airport to fly to Arizona.  So weird being flying on Christmas day!

 Monday

 You can see snow on the tops of the mountains right now!!  I love that.  It reminds me so much of when I was growing up!

 My brother's family came over in the afternoon.  We had appetizers in the basement and did Nani's santa bags and presents.  Then Nani fixed a wonderful Christmas dinner.  It was a great night!!!

Tuesday

This is an antique marble game that Jason is playing.  It is something they always play when they come to my mom's house!  They never get tired of it!

This cracked me up!!!

Wednesday

The older I get the more I miss the desert.  It is so beautiful to me!

Today we went to the Desert Museum and met some friends that recently moved to Phoenix.  We had not seen Wanda and Jeremy for 12 years!!  We had been in ministry together at two churches.  It was so great to see them!!!

Thursday

We all did a lot of relaxing at Nani and Papa's too!

What is it about boys and sledge hammers?

Jared loves rocks and was given some geodes by a good friend. The boys all went in the garage to try to smash them open.

Friday

 We went and saw Sherlock Holmes today.  GREAT movie!!!  I think even better than the first!

We all went out to dinner for our last night.  This is me and my daddy.  

We have had such a good visit!  I am ready to go home but it will be hard to leave too!!

Saturday
Happy New Year's Eve!!!

We are on our way home from Tucson.  :(
Steve is got stuck in security...I, of course, had to get a picture of it and then got reprimanded by a TSA agent...oops!

So how was your last week of 2011?!!!

 

Our Christmas presents...

...several of you have said you are waiting to hear where all our Christmas presents/money went to. 

If you are new to my blog, our family started a new tradition 4 years ago.  In realizing the kids had more than they needed, we decided to give them the money we would spend on their large gift at Thanksgiving.  Then, they had until Christmas to give that money away however God led them.  On Christmas morning, instead of opening a present, we each tell about where we gave our money and the story behind it.  It has become my favorite part of Christmas!!

I have been so amazed over the years at the different directions God has taken each of us.  We have never given to the same place or person.  You can go HERE to read about previous years if you would like to.

Here is where God led each of us this year.....

Alyssa gave her money to ASHA foundation.  They give out grants and scholarships for graduate students and people doing research across the field of speech pathology.  She is currently in graduate school for speech language pathology and has now seen first had how important new research is for her field.  She has also been exposed to some of the exciting ideas that are being researched and wanted to be part of it.  It is so awesome to see her not only thriving in graduate school but loving it so much.  

Jason has a good friend at college that he met his freshman year.  This friend has a hard time fitting in socially and doesn't make friends easily.  God put this boy in Jason's path and Jason reached out and became good friends with him.  Recently, his friend has had a tragedy occur in his family.  One that has completely turned this boy's world upside down.  Jason knew he would probably not be receiving any presents this year for Christmas and so he took his money and spent it on his friend.  Seeing Jason talk about the joy he received from blessing his friend was priceless. And I think the encouragement and love that his friend felt from him was probably priceless too!!

Two years ago, Jared used his money to bless a classroom of children in a poor area of Arkansas with books and apples.  He had heard about the class from his English teacher as her daughter was the teacher of this class.  As Jared prayed about where his money should go this year, God kept bringing to mind his English teacher.  So he went back to her and asked if he could help out with the class again this year.  What he didn't know was that her daughter had been telling her mom how much these kids needed in the classroom but she couldn't afford to buy it all.  Jared's money allowed her to buy all that she needed plus more.  But what I love about God is that when you choose to be obedient and bless someone He leads you to....not only are you blessed too, but He tends to extend that blessing out to others as well.  This teacher and class were certainly blessed by this gift, but Jared's teacher was also encouraged and blessed in the process.

Steve gave his money to One Verse.   OneVerse is a program of The Seed Company that enables you to support local Bible translators as they make God’s message available in the language of their people.    One Verse has found that $26 provides the resources required for national translators to translate one verse of Scripture into their own language.  Steve purchased 1 verse of scripture in honor of each of the rest of us to be translated in the language for Papua, New Guinea.  My verse is Acts 18:16.  How cool is that?!!  This would be an awesome ministry for your children if you are looking for one or a sunday school class.  

This year, I felt led to study God's word through Precepts by Kay Arthur.  If you haven't done one of her studies it is an inductive study, meaning you study it word by word or precept upon precept.  It has been very intense as we are studying Isaiah, but God knew what He was doing when He led me to it.  It has impacted my life in a huge way and as I struggled with some things in my life, God has given me clarity through this study.  So when our leader told our group that we had the opportunity to share in buying Precept studies and bibles for a missionary in China, I knew exactly where my money should go.  It brings me great joy to know that something that is impacting me in such a big way will now also be used to impact women on the other side of the world.  We raised so much money, they were able to buy 18 bibles, several precept studies and also have money left over to be able to rent a room in Beijing to hold the classes....wow!!!

Once again God led each of us in completely different ways.

And once again we were ALL honored and blessed to be part of it.

Thanks to all of you who have asked about this.  It just shows me another way God uses our obedience to touch others......He is so good.

I must concede.......

...Jason won.

Yes, I said it and there you have it!

Remember this guy...

This is a Santa that Jason and I hide from each other each year.  

This year, I thought I had it won. I mailed it to Jason's girlfriend's house and they had it out when he came over for dinner. You can go HERE to read more about it.

Weeeelllll, we flew to Arizona Sunday to have Christmas with my family.  When we got to the airport, Jason had packed in a carry-on that he wanted to check...it was STUFFED full.  So being the mom that I am (and cheap I don't want to pay $25 for a carry-on!), I made him open it up (right there on the sidewalk) and take some things out and put them in his brother's suitcase so he could carry his on.  I was a little confused as to why he was so put out by that.....

 Then we got to security and there was NO ONE in line.  The good news....no one in line, the bad news....they had nothing to do.  So we all got stopped and searched...ugh.  Jason was getting more and more irritated when they asked to open his suitcase.  I was right behind him and was saying..calm down, it's no big deal.....

....little did I know that the SANTA was in the suitcase and now had been exposed TWICE in my presence....neither time did I notice.  yes, I am observant like that.

Fast forward to Christmas dinner last night.

Jason was partly in charge of taking pictures.  

Let me just show you how much fun he had taking pics of me with the Santa BEHIND me that I NEVER saw!!!

 yes, I am even posing for pictures I ASSUME he is taking of me!!!

So, there you have it....

JASON WON

...this year.

But don't worry....

I have 365 days to begin thinking about this cute little guy and how I am going to win NEXT year!!!

Project 365 - Week 52

Week 52.

So it seems weird to be week 52 and yet still have 7 more days left....will we put week 53 next week?  I looked back and the issue is the week 1 only had 1 day in it!!  What to do?  I think when I post next Saturday, I will call it 53b!!!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!!

Here's my week:

Sunday

 This was the craft we did today in Sunday School.  I found it on Pinterest and it turned out so good!  However,  I did not take into account little girls wearing tights or ticklish feet when I planned it!!!

Monday

 Tonight was our staff/elder Christmas party and white elephant.  This is always a great time.  We have been blessed with some wonderful people to work with!!

Tuesday

 We went to a Christmas dinner for my previous job tonight.  It was so nice of them to invite us..I miss them all.  This is our Youth Pastor's son...he LOVES Jason!

Wednesday

 Finally got around to making Christmas cookies today.....yum!

Thursday

Tonight we had a much needed family night.  Dinner and then games.  We had so much fun playing Cranium the other night that we decided to do it again...only with Alyssa's updated version.  It was so much fun.  However, no one knew hardly any of the "updated" songs in the humdinger section!!

Friday

Presents finally showed up under the tree today.  we have a "snooper" in our family and therefore the presents stay hidden until the last minute!  Now it looks like Christmas!

I am going to add Saturday on to next weeks pictures since it will be a busy night worshiping and celebrating!  

I wish each of you a very merry CHRISTmas!!!

Merry CHRISTmas!

Merry CHRISTmas to all my blogging friends!

Praying you each have a blessed holiday!

I know I have taken a break this week, but that will continue over the next as I take time to enjoy my family!!!   I will be posting P365 tonight for those that want to join in!!

Project 365 - Week 51

 Week 51.

Well, coming back from vacation is always hard.  But I had so much going on this week that I didn't have time to notice!!!

As I am typing this, I am done with all my Christmas shopping, all my kids are home and I am a happy mama!!!  Can't get much better than that!

Here's my week:

Sunday

 Jared was asked to play his French Horn in service today.  He did such a good job!  He was so nervous and I am VERY proud of him!!!

Monday

 Stopped by Alyssa's apartment to check out her tree!  I grudgingly gave over some of her ornaments to her....I was just not ready for that.

Tuesday

 Can you guess what today is?

Yep, prep day.....ugh.

I think I will never drink Apple juice again!!!

Wednesday

 And after prep day comes......colonoscopy day.  This was not near as bad as I had made it in my head.  In fact, thanks to this IV port....I don't remember it at all!!!! :)

Thursday

 Today I attended the funeral of a friend's father.  He was only a year younger than my own father and it really hit home to me that I need to enjoy every minute with my parents.

Friday

 My kids are home!!!!!!!!!

Of course, we pulled out a game.....an old one this time, cranium.

I think I laughed till I cried!!!!

I love my family!

Saturday

Today was my Ladies Tea for the women of my church.  I baked 5 cakes for it.

 This Chocolate cheesecake was actually baked by The Cyber Hermit.  She was gracious enough to help me out!!

 Red Velvet Cake

 Old Fashioned Pound Cake

 Strawberry Cake

 Tiramisu Cake

My friend, Laya, hosted it at her house this year and it was so much fun!!!

So, how was your week?  Are you ready for Christmas?  Done Shopping?  Link up and share with us!!!

Letter of Intent

I'm joining Foursons for Letters of Intent today.

Here is what she say's about it:

Has entering the month of December sent you into a panic attack? Have the holiday blues hit you full-force? Have you called all of your credit cards to find out how much remaining balance is on them so that you can go shopping for gifts? Have you told your kids Santa isn’t real so they can face the reality of a very small Christmas this year? Or maybe your company is handing out a huge Christmas bonus this year! Well tell me about it…in letter form of course. Write the who, what, when, where, and why of it all. Grab the button from my sidebar, and link up at the bottom. I look forward to your Letters of Intent!

Dear Christmas Cards,

I am determined to get you out in the mail before Christmas.

I know that in the past say 27 years, that has happened only a few times....even when I have you in my hands well before Christmas....but I am determined to do it this year!

In order to insure this, I have:

* had you made and delivered by the first week of December. 

* decided not to include a Christmas letter.....which my husband usually writes but is too busy to.

* bribed my son to address the envelopes for me......this is a big deal and needed extra bribing because 2 years ago he lovingly addressed and stuffed all the envelopes for me and then I never mailed them....ever.  

He was still a little bitter over that.

* have bought all the stamps needed for the envelopes.......if I run out of stamps, those last few seem to never make it to the mail box.

So, there you have it.  I should be able to do it!  My Christmas cards might just be Christmas cards this year instead of New Years cards or even, yes, Valentines cards.  Whoot!  Whoot!

Signed,

The woman who is so proud of herself.....but not holding her breath!