Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wow! It's been awhile since I updated my blog. I've been busy getting my house in order and preparing for company. Literally, a day after putting the last item away in the craft room, the next day my sister, Sandie, and her family were arriving for Thanksgiving. Also arriving later that week was my sister Martha and her family and my dad came as well. We had a wonderful

time all together. It was so much fun cooking a big meal in a roomy kitchen.

We had a buffet-style meal.
We were all pretty stuffed by the time this pic was snapped and getting ready to play a few games before sleep.

This is Friday morning, Dad with his girls and grandson Diego, before he heads back home to New Mexico.

One thing we did while we had family over was to have them take a picture by "the Beach." There is this mural painted on my craft room wall, everybody loves it when they see it so I've decided to leave it there. (Me, Sophia and the panda (above)

Jeremy, Martha, Craig and Jordan

Here's my sister Sandie and her family: husband Paul, Sophia 5 years, (in the back) in front is Diego 3 years and baby Roman 8 months old.

More pictures of the house after we decorated for Christmas:

Looking up from the entrance.
Jimmy spent three days rearranging the lights out front.

Here's Jimmy with our niece Nikki. (She lived with us for about 10 months when she was 12--she's now 26 and doing really well.) She and the rest of the family came on December 13th to surprise me! We had a house warming party while they were

here.

Jimmy's mom, Delcy.

I hadn't seen the decorations in over a year since we didn't put up a tree last year as all of our household items were in storage. (Come to think of it, my dear friend Chris, loaned us a small table top, pre-lit tree last year.) It was like Christmas when I unwrapped the tissue paper from each ornament. Each has a story and I remember where I got each one. A lot of ornaments are hand made, some by me and some I bought a craft fairs from Germany, Texas and Missouri. One of my favorites is the Christmas Pickle. It's a glass ornament of a pickle I bought in Germany and tradition is that whoever (usually one of the children) finds the pickle ornament in or on the tree Christmas morning gets another present or treat.

I made this wall hanging last year while we were in temporary housing, it says NOEL on each of its four sides and has a wreath of holly and berries in the middle. (If you know me...I had more sewing items than personal items.) It was so easy to put together, I have plenty of fabric to make a few more. I thought it looked great living above the fireplace for the holidays.

This is Chloe, Delcy has been her guardian since she was 18 months old, very cute and smart. Here she is looking down from the top of the stairs.

Then an hour or so later we found her sound asleep on the bottom step.

This is Angie, Jimmy's oldest sister, with her first grandson Jay. He really didn't need any help smiling for the camera. He's a happy baby, in fact, during church service the next morning, he found a lot of things amusing and just chuckled the entire time we were there. :)

Protestant Women of the Chapel Conference (PWOCI) or as I like to call us(them) Precious Women of Christ--November 13-16, 2008

I was so privileged to be able to attend PWOC's national conference. It was held right here in Dallas. I was able to take a day off from work to attend the conference filled with 1,000 women from all over the US and Europe. I went as part of the Fort Leonard's group and was so glad to see familiar faces.

Here I am with my sweet sisters in Christ, Suzie and Chris. I have a lot of fond memories of serving on the local PWOC board planning retreats and sharing rooms together. (I have their blogs linked on my site.)

With Chris, is Janice, a special friend with whom I also worked together on the board when she was Praise & Worship chairperson.

Here is a group shot of the ladies from Fort Leonard Wood.

Here's hoping and praying that 2009 will be an even bigger blessing for you and your loved ones.