Celebrate Christmas update

Hey all, in case you didn't hear there were 61 salvation this year at Celebrate Christmas this year. We are so honored that TarrantNet has had a vision for this project and many churches in Tarrant county have participated each year to present this in Trinity Park. There were new directors this year in the creative department and it was evident in the quality of the production. The most important thing is that God gets the glory for drawing people (in some cases, whole families) to Himself. In many individual people acting out of obedience in the cold, rain, wind, etc to set up, act, sew, administrate, pray and counsel - God honored it and allowed us to get a glimmer of His work in building His kingdom. Merry Christmas.

Almost Finished

After a full day of shopping I have 90% of my Christmas shopping done. Just a few more things to pick up here and there and now the wrapping begins! While the week has been busy, we have had some fun Christmas moments. Thursday night we went to Prairie Lights in Grand Prairie with Kelsie's best friend Morgan and her parents. It was our first time to go and we really enjoyed all the lights. The girls rode the 2 rides and we got hot chocolate - very festive. Friday night we had dinner with friends and a long visit over coffee - love those kind of evenings. Celebrate Christmas was cancelled because of rain but it's going tonight and it's really cold! Praying for the cast members to keep warm and stay healthy for God's glory!

Crazy Weather and Other Stuff

So, Saturday morning we put up our Christmas lights in shorts and by Sunday we had our coats out again and it was COLD. Since then rainy and yuck, chilly but tomorrow sunshine and high 50's until the winter blast comes through with the wintry mix over the weekend. WEIRD!!

Saturday was also the day we attempted a family picture for our Christmas cards. I addressed and got all the cards ready to send, all we needed to do (in theory) is take the photo, make copies and send. Yeah right! We should have taken our friend Barb up on her offer to take our pics but as usual we waited until the last minute so we just decided to use our camera on a tripod with the timer. Disaster! By the end of the hour long, hot (we had the fan and A/C going b/c we were all in long sleeves) photo shoot everyone was frustrated, hurried and sick of trying to pretend to be happy and smile for the camera and on top of it we didn't have a usable photo. So, we decided today to just take a pic of Raider and Kelsie. I only took 5 pictures and picked the best one - it was cute - Christmas cards go out tomorrow and that's one more thing off my list. WHEW. Almost done Christmas shopping, anyone else have a hard time getting something for their husband?

Well, here are some things I have enjoyed this Christmas season:

1. XM satellite radio Christmas music channels on our TV. Some of them play the best Christmas music and I love turning it on during the day at home.
2. Kelsie being a sweet angel in the church musical.
3. Pier 1 diffuser with the scent cranberry balsam
4. Our gas fireplace - love it!
5. Mistletoe hand soap at my kitchen sink from BBW.
6. Free shipping on items bought online - love that!
7. Cider - yum
8. Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks - still my personal holiday favorite
9. The new lighted, twinkling snowflakes we added outside this year along the walkway - so cute.
10. Getting Christmas Cards in the mail.

Hope you enjoy all the little things during this Christmas season.

Programs, Programs, Programs........

Sunday night was the last night of "Christmas in Reverse" and it was so good. Very well done from the beginning to the end - I was so proud of our kids. The message was evangelistic and I felt like each kid knew why they were presenting it. I had the privilege of making the angels look glittery - very fun with the glitter hairspray and powder. The girls were very pretty and it was funny to watch them try to eat their snack dinner on Sunday night dressed in all white with adults begging them not to wipe their cheesy hands on their costumes. Tuesday night (we found out late) was Kelsie's recitation at school. It was one of those programs where the kids from each grade is reciting something and it takes longer to get them on and off the stage than it does to actually do their little part. I have accepted that it's part of being a parent to endure those kind of nights and Kelsie's class did a cute presentation about Romans and Greeks (what they are learning in History). Friday night was the Point of Grace Christmas concert at McKinney Memorial. Our praise teams got invited to sing with them for the second half of the concert. It was fun, the girls from Point of Grace were down to earth and well, gracious. The concert was very good and even Kelsie enjoyed it - it didn't hurt that Frosty, Santa and Rudolph showed up at one point. Of course, during all this is also Celebrate Christmas. Wedgwood's involvement is that we are in charge of one scene this year - a large scene. We drove through tonight and Wayne has been working on it for a while to coordinate everything. It looked great and we are so happy that Tarrant Net has taken it on and expanded it. As of the end of tonight, 2500 people have driven through and 23 people have accepted Christ! They received the BEST Christmas gift this year. As I look forward to Christmas and check my "to do" list, I must remind myself to focus on WHY we are celebrating - Jesus Christ came to earth as a baby to complete God's plan for my salvation. I'm happy for a hopeful and joyous Christmas season. Merry Christmas to you and may you have the joy of Christ this season.