In the First Light

In the first light of a new day

No one knew He had arrived

Things continued as they had been

While a newborn softly cried

But the heavens wrapped in wonder

Knew the meaning of His birth

In the weakness of a baby

They knew God had come to earth

As his Mother held Him closely

It was hard to understand

That her baby not yet speaking

Was the word of God to man

He would tell them of His Kingdom

But their hearts would not believe

Thy would hate Him and in anger

They would nail Him to a tree

But the sadness would be broken

As the song of life arose

And the firstborn of creation

Would ascend and take His throne

He had left it to redeem us

But before His life began

He knew He'd come back not as a baby

But as the Lord of every man

Hear the angels as they're singing

On the morning of His birth

But how much greater will their song be

When He comes again to earth!

Amen!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Santa's little helpers - Dinner style

Hannah and Samantha LOVE to be in the kitchen helping. Tom made his famous roast the other night and of course, they couldn't be left out of the kitchen for the preparations. It was very delicious...we may have 2 chefs in the making!

Hannah started by scoring the roast and putting cloves of garlic in for flavor

Samantha started peeling the carrots and then Hannah came to help outOur finished product was a very yummy dinner...complete with Grammy's homemade bread

Chesapeake's Christmas Parade & Gingerbread Houses

We had a fanastic time attending Chesapeake's Annual Christmas Parade. It was very chilly and it even snowed during the parade, which the girls thought was "da bomb"!

This was the front of the parade, the police bikes. Can you see the snow falling a little in the background?

Hannah was in charge of picture taking. We weren't quite sure of the "theme" of the parade, but the floats were very nice to look at.

That morning, the girls made gingerbread houses. If you have a chance to buy a kit that comes with 5 mini-houses...skip over it. Way too hard. Just buy a big one and let everyone decorate it. Here's our attempt at decorating them :)!

They didn't really come with instructions, so we just had to "wing" it when it came to what pieces went with what houses. I was in charge of putting them together and the girls were in charge of decorating them. Luckily we had help. We had Hannah's friend Olivia and my niece Becca helping us to decorate them.

Christmas Program & Field Trip

On Tuesday night, the girls had their Christmas Program for School. They did a great job. The theme was "Twas the Night of Jesus' Birth". Samantha's class just sang songs and played the drums during "Little Drummer Boy" and Hannah's class played a flute-like instrument during one of the songs. Enjoy the pics!

Samantha looks so cute playing her little drum...although she does look less than thrilled.

Hannah had a fantastic time practicing for this song. She could be heard each night in her room practicing. One of the songs they did is called "Hot Cross Buns".

On Wednesday, Samantha's class had a field trip to Glazenfyre and to Chuck E Cheese. Well, they were supposed to go to Hunt Club Farms to see the animals and Santa, but considering it was 19 degrees outside, Chuck E Cheese's warmth won over the hearts of the parents attending :). They got to paint an ornament at Glazenfyre and then have pizza and some fun at Chuck E Cheese.

Santa looks adorable and will be a beautiful addition to our tree once he's fired-up.

This is one of the girls favorite "rides" at Chuck E Cheese's.This game is new to our Chuck E Cheese, but it is so cute. You touch the screen to pop the bubbles. There were actually 6 or 7 new games and even I had a great time spending Samantha's tokens :).

Thankful

I am very thankful for my family!

We had a great thankgiving luncheon at Hannah and Samantha's school. We made cute little turkeys and pilgrilm hats. The kids made place mats for Thankgiving dinner and each of their classes did a little skit.

Thanksgiving dinner was had at my parents house in NC. We had a fantastic time and left very full.

After dinner, Tom and my dad took Hannah to try out Tom's 22 and she really enjoyed it.

Charlene and I had a fantastic time shopping on black friday. We started out Thanksgiving night around 9pm and got home around 6:30am Friday morning. We got some great deals, Santa would be proud!

This would usually be the weekend where we would get out all our Christmas decorations, but luckily my nephew came over last weekend and helped us put up our tree and then helped us put up the outside lights yesterday....so it's all done.

Hope you had a fantastic Thankgiving and black friday weekend.

Anniversary Dinner

I had to work late on Friday night....our anniversary. I didn't get home until after 7pm.

The girls had everything worked out for our dinner knowing that we didn't have the $ to go out to eat. Tom wasn't allowed out of the bedroom and they had been hard at work since about 5pm. They had swept the kitchen floor, prepared menus, set up a dance floor, set up a band, set the table and had everything all prepared for a nice in-home-family-restaurant.

So when I walked into the house, they took my purse and bag and had me close my eyes and led me to the bedroom. From there, they led Tom and I into the living room and onto the couch. Then the band proceeded to entertain us.

Once the band was done playing - quite well I might add, we proceeded into the very clean dining room and were presented with our own menus. Here is a tidbit of mine:

We had our choice of drinks - notice the beer selections - too funny....they must have gone into the garage refrigerator and looked at Tom's beer choices to write these down. Precious!

Here are the sides that we got to choose from.

And lastly, our dessert selections.

I must say, our waitresses were very well mannered and got a very LARGE tip from us. They did a great job and we will certainly be frequenting this restaurant again in the very near future.

The only complaint I have is that I had to do the dishes....but considering the dinner was free....I guess I can't complain too much!

I thank God every day for my precious girls!

Think we wore them out?

16 years ago today

I married my best friend!

We met through a mutual friend. Becky and I had gone to church together and she was telling me about a neighbor that she wanted me to meet. She brought him to church the next week to meet me. I had just broken up with a guy and wanted only friendship. He courted me for a while and we instantly became best friends and then developed the relationship. I remember when he proposed to me.....it was at the Virginia Beach boardwalk. He had already gotten permission from my father and everyone knew about it but me. He got on one knee and recited a poem he had written for the occasion. It was so romantic, I was brought to tears. I only had eyes for him. When he was done and I had accepted and we broke apart our kiss and applause broke out. We were oblivious to the crowd we had drawn.

We had a beautiful ceremony with about 150 people present. I borrowed my dress, he rented his tux. My sister (8 months pregnant with her son) was my maid of honor and his best friend Sam Gates was his Best Man. My attendants were Tom's sister, Kristin and Becky. Tom's groomsmen were Jim Stewart and Rolf Cuerrvou. Tom's brother, Corey was our ring bearer and Jim's daughter Lauren was our flower girl. Our family did the reception we had in the church fellowship hall. We got married at Lindale Church of Christ in Chesapeake, VA.

Today we have 2 beautiful daughters and are living our dream. Of course, we have had many bumps in the road: financial issues, surgeries and retirement; but also some joys along the way: our daughters, our home, our vacations in our camper and retirement.

Here's to 50 more years of happiness...

Happy Anniversary Baby!

Fall has arrived!

It may have looked like fall this morning, but it still doesn't FEEL like it. Yesterday it was 74 degrees...how is that fall weather? Craziness! At least I woke up this morning to the beautiful site of colorful leaves scattered over my front lawn.

Welcome Fall, it's about time!