Christmas party

Several years ago (maybe 7), Allen and I began a young married's Bible study in our home. There were 3 couples with us. Then the next couple of years there were only 2 couples with us but we had a blast and really got to know one another well. After that, we had 6 couples. By now our church was really growing. There were many young marrieds coming to our church that needed to be in community life groups. So we encouraged each of the couples to lead a group of their own. We coached them and we also asked Dave and Sarah to come on board with us to help us.

Each Tuesday morning, Sarah and I meet with the wives of these couples. Last year we studied Beth Moore's study on the book of Daniel. This year we are going through a book called "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas. "What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?" "This book doesn't tell you how to build a better marriage (except it does), but how your marriage can help you deepen your relationship with God." It is so good!

We had a Christmas party. We had 3 kinds of soups, breads and desserts. You can get Sarah's recipe for her Navajo soup on her blog. Lots to eat. Lots of laughter!

We had our traditional white elephant gift exchange.

I found this box at an Amish country store in Oklahoma. I had to get it. Infact, I got two - one for us and one to give away. You open the lid and this spider pops out really fast and lands on your finger. Freaks me out every time! Sarah opened this one....

....but it was stolen. That is part of our gift exchange. You can steal from others. Below are pictures of some of the gifts we got. I also gave away Bacon Jam. Yes, bacon jam. Yuk!! I found the recipe on-line. Had to render the bacon for over an hour. Add 2 yellow onions and cook it in the bacon grease for 4-5 hours. Add spices and such and blend them together to make the jam. I wouldn't call it jam myself. It was gross. But if you know any of these guys, you will know they are bacon fanatics. They even made bacon-wrapped chocolate once. How sick is that??

We treasure these couples and the many other couples our church has been blessed with. What an impact for the Kingdom they are making! And because I am the nursery director at our church, I get the added blessing of getting to know all of their children and loving on them every week!

( I took 3 pictures of the group, and Joel - stinker that he is - made funny faces in every one.)

We treasure you all and you are always in our prayers!

"The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." 2 Tim. 2:1-3

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Christmas was different this year. We didn't open presents. Our son and his family won't be coming until next week, so we will wait for that. But we wanted to do something to celebrate Christ's birth. So we invited Jill's family, my parents and also this family who recently moved from Minnesota over for dinner.

This is the Tracy family. Didn't have a place to go for the day. New to town. Adam and Jill had recently met them at church so they invited them to come over. Jason is working with Central Care Cancer. Sarah is a nurse, but at home now with the kids. Sweet children - Ella, Owen and Sam.

They brought over some fruit shaped shakers and guitar and we had fun singing carols together. Hannah, Ella, Owen and Sophie played and played in our basement. Once when it got quite, Jason went to check on them. They were just getting ready to jump from the bed and swing on the ceiling fan! Luckily Jason saved the day - and our fan, and probably the kids from serious injury.

Joy to the World - the Lord is come!

And what if He had not come? No Christmas stockings, no Christmas tree, no churches, no Christ to comfort or to save us.

Rejoicing in Christ, in His birth, His resurrection, His indwelling of the Spirit! His gift of Eternal life!

Cookies and Carols

Some of us from church thought it would be a good idea to go caroling to the elderly from our church. Robyn Stucky came up with the thought after our Cocoa and Carols night at church. Sarah wrote eloquently about this evening.

Our first stop was to Kidron Bethel. We sang to several residents there, starting with Irene.

It was a difficult day for Irene as she just found out that her daughter, Jane has inoperable spine cancer. After singing, we surrounded Irene and prayed with her.

After Kidron, we drove over to Presbyterian Manor. Unfortunately our pastor's mother had the flu so we could not sing to her. A couple were not home. But the ones who were there seemed to be so happy we came to sing to them. We are not the best singers to be sure, (we wished Adam and Jill could have joined us with their lovely voices but Hannah was ill) but I think these folks were just overjoyed that we would remember them. And quite frankly, it probably did more for us than for them!

Our last stop was out in the country to visit Willard and Edna. They were one of the founding members of our church (as were a few others, including Irene).

Willard handed out some peppernuts. He said it was the first year they didn't bake them. Every year they have baked tons of peppernuts but this year, it just wasn't to be. As we sang, Willard and Edna joined in and we could feel Christ's presence as we worshiped the One for whom the season is all about!

We love Willard and Edna. Infact, Allen and I have named a great blue heron and a white great egret that visit our pond after them!

Doug and Robyn invited us to their home for Christmas treats after we finished caroling. What a great time we all had! They live in the home that Doug's great-great grandparents founded back in the early 1900's. The tiny homestead built in 1897 (if I remember right) is right by the big 2 story home. Doug and Robyn remodeled the home and it is just beautiful! Breathtaking!

We hope to do this next year if anyone wants to join us!!

* * * * * * * * *

Hannah and Sophia came over yesterday morning. Hannah wanted to bake cookies so we dug through all our cookie cutters for Christmas shapes.

Baking with these two can get pretty messy!

We had lots of cookies so we took them to our Christmas Eve program. A couple of us babysat in the nursery for the 4:00 service. The Paden family babysat during the 6:00 service. We told the Christmas story (Janelle said one little girl, a visitor, asked how Jesus could save us so she was able to share the reason Christ came), we colored, decorated those sugar cookies and ate them, of course. And we did playdough. Lots of fun! How I love these little children!

Allen, our daughter Mindy and I went to the 6:oo candlelight and communion service. It was so very precious! Steve told the story about DeShazer, who was in the military to get revenge on the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. In a mission to bomb the Japanese, his plane went down and he was captured along with his military buddies. As a POW, he was beaten daily. And witnessed the execution of 3 of his friends. Oh how he hated those Japanese! One of his buddies was a Christian and didn't hate the Japanese, but prayed for them. This man starved to death and because of his life, the way he lived and died, Mr. DeShazer accepted Christ. After the war, he ended up going to Japan as a missionary (I went to school with his kids). This man happened to lead the Japanese military commander who led the Pearl Harbor attack, to the Lord and together they traveled Japan, telling about our Lord Jesus and the fact that God is in the business of reconciling men to Himself and to eachother. Amazing story.

After the program, we did the traditional thing we do every year (even though the winds were whipping around at probably 50 mph!!). We love to drive around town and look at lights. Our kids used to complain about it and I think the last 2 years that they were in highschool, we just took them home and Al and I made a date of the evening.

Ok. This picture didn't turn out, but this house belongs to someone who reads my blog, so I will keep it here. Do you recognize it You-know-who?

Have a Merry Christmas!

Family Christmas

Sunday evening we had the Graber family Christmas at Al's sister's house in Little River, KS. Rudolph decided he would come to the party.

After eating wonderful food!! we had our gift exchange.

The young cousins exchange gifts.

Then it is the grown-ups turn. We always have a pile for women's gifts and one for the guys. Last year we all brought items from the house that we didn't use (but still in good shape). One year we all exchanged gift cards. This year, it was whatever but up to a certain dollar limit. There is always "stealing" of the gifts so it is pretty fun and often rowdy.

Here is a picture of Al and 2 of his brothers and his sister.

Sid, Reuben, Julie, Al

Last night, the Prairie Sunset Home in Pretty Prairie, KS had their Christmas party. Allen's Dad lives there. The Cousins Four (our sister-in-law sings in a quartet with her older sister and their cousins - well, 2nd cousins, but it would sound wierd to call them the Second Cousins Four) sang several Christmas selections as did another quartet that included a couple of the workers of the home. Santa made his rounds and we gave Dad our gifts too. On Sunday night we had taken pictures of all the family and so I got a frame and put them all together for Dad. We got him lots of clothes for the coming year also.

Often Dad doesn't seem to know who we are. Usually he doesn't talk, or maybe what he does say doesn't make any sense at all. Sometimes he says very odd things. But we hope he knows we love him. I always try to give him lots of touches. We had him in stitches a couple of times last night, but not sure he comprehended what was really going on. Sometimes he cries. He may not know us, but he always remembers Al's mom, Kathern. The Cousins Four sang a song that the group, The Quiet Place Singers (Al's mom was the piano player for them) used to sing many years ago. Al's Dad and I looked at eachother and by the way he responded I believe he seemed to remember that song. How he loved Al's mom! She died 20 years ago. I know Al's Dad longs to be with her too. A big thank you to the Prairie Sunset Home for the excellent care they give him and the others. It is always neat to see all the people there as we know many of them and went to church with them. Pretty Prairie is a small community. You should Google Earth it sometime. It is a mile long and a half mile wide.

I received this reminder of the awesomeness of God from some friends: In chemistry, He turned water into wine. In biology, He was born without natural conception. In physics, He defied the law of gravity when He ascended into heaven. In history, He is the beginning and the end.

Have a blessed Christmas with your families!

'Tis the season!

The Christmas program at church. The children were just darling!!
They sang "Away in the Manger"
and "Christmas Day".

Lunch with a dear friend,Debbie.
We like to garage sale together
and go out to eat.

When you eat at Panera, they ask for your first name. When your meal is ready they call it out. We had to laugh one day when we ate there. They called my name "Debby". Then Debbie's name. Following that there happened to be another Debbie. And finally, they called out "Seriously, another Debbie!" We had a good chuckle. In the 50's, Deborah/Debra was a very popular name, much like Ellie or Emma is today.

This will be a hard year for Mike and Debbie as she begins chemo treatments in January. We'll be there for you, Debbie!

In between the parties and get-togethers, I still get to have grandchildren over to play.

Hannah enjoyed our real stethoscope and listened to our heart beats. She took my blood pressure. As she was pumping the bulb, she said, "Nana, I'm going to pump all the blood out of your body." Yikes!

Hannah is in Berean's pre-school this year. They had a program at school with the K-4th graders. Her very first program in the school system! Hannah did great! Except for when she picked her nose!

Last night was the hospital pharmacy party. I cooked all day. Allen was such a great help to me. He wrapped bacon around little smokies and even arranged the fruit tray! The tiramisu pie was scrumptious!

We had an ugly sweater contest. What fun!
Harry won the t-shirt - "Original mistletoe tester"
Allen sure has some fun, crazy workers!

We have something every night until Christmas - young couple's leadership party, Graber family Christmas, a party at the Prairie Sunset Home where Allen's Dad is living, Al and Adam are going to a KU game and caroling. Then there is Christmas Eve and then Christmas. Our family will actually be celebrating after the holidays when Josh's family and my brother and wife can come down. How's that for keeping busy this wonderful Christmas Season!! What a special time to celebrate Jesus' birth with others!

"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

It is the Season!

Back from Arkansas!

I haven't blogged for a long time. I have been going down to Arkansas to help my son and wife with their children. Poor sweet baby Elijah has been having some tummy troubles and Josh and Staci have been exhausted from lack of sleep. We are thinking that perhaps Staci will probably need to stay off any dairy products and hopefully that will help.

They haven't had time to do any Christmas decorating.
Pumpkins still on the porch -
I thought it would be fun to make a
pumpkin snowman!

Here are the 2 little reasons I've been gone from home.

I took a little Christmas tree to them - just for the children.
Emeri was delighted to decorate (and un-decorate and decorate again!)
her own little Christmas tree.

Each year I buy an ornament for each grandchild.
I found a Little People ornament on-line for Emeri.
She LOVES Little People!

So we made a Little People Christmas tree.

I am home now.

Several parties this week to get ready for!

Shopping still needs to get done.

Wouldn't trade the time with Emeri, Elijah, Josh and Staci though!