Tabor College Basketball

A few weeks ago Allen and I went with Adam and the girls to the Tabor College basketball game.  

It was church night.  The pastors of  the surrounding area were invited to do a free-throw contest at the half-time of the girls' game.  When you arrived at the gym, you signed in under what church you attended.  Then, if your pastor won the contest, everyone from that congregation got free drinks!

Here is Adam making his shot.  Or "not making" his shot as was the case!

The Buhler pastor won free pop for his congregation.

 Adam got his girls a consolation prize!  And popcorn too!  (Don't you just love her nails?)

 A KU fan in the midst.  Well, more than 1 KU fan, actually, since that is our alma mater.

The guy in the gray "Tabor Proud" t-shirt is one of our amazing nursery workers at church!  We call him and Tony our "baby whisperers".

This girl did a better job at her free throw than Adam did.  Ha ha!  (Just rubbing it in, Adam!) She was really good and made lots of baskets. She graduated from the high school where our kids went.

The song "Who Let the Dogs Out" played while the cheerleaders would come around throwing hot dogs wrapped in foil to the crowd.  We snagged 3 hot dogs!!  We let the girls share one and the other 2 we shared with families around us.

It was a tight game!  Tabor won!

Wedding

A couple of weekends ago was a very special wedding.  Our friends, Gene and Miriam's eldest daughter got married!!  We have been friends for many years and our children went to school together.

I was asked to help decorate the Boathouse on Saturday morning. 

Above, Kathy and Debbie trying to figure out the arrangement of table settings.

The wedding took place at the college church in town.

The pastor's flight was cancelled the day before due to the weather out east but luckily he made it just in time!  They were practicing in the balcony since he missed out on the rehearsal practice!

Our son, Josh played the prelude and sang a solo, "Love Never Fails" by Brandon Heath. 

Following the wedding, Greg and Karen went aisle by aisle to greet people and then each row was dismissed.  Here Josh's children are watching the bride and groom.  It was their first wedding!

After the wedding, we drove to the Boathouse in Wichita.

Our family was together at one table.

We literally had to sing for our supper!  No fooling!  Each table had to come up with a love song and sing to the bridal couple.  Then your table would be allowed to go through the line for dinner (which was spectacular!!!  Filet mignon, mashed potatoes, green beans and salad.)

Even the bridal table sang for their supper too.  Of course, they were prepared!

Instead of cake, there were pies!  Peanut butter/chocolate, apple and cherry!

Cute signs on the pie table:

"He's the apple of her eye"

"She's my cherry pie"

"They belong together like chocolate and peanut butter"

Dave McCloud made all the apple and cherry pies!

There were several of us who made the chocolate/peanut butter pies (I was so honored that Miriam asked me for my recipe!  Recipe at end of post)

A very fun party!!  Congratulations Greg and Karen!!!  

Reece's Pie (makes 2):

Mix 3.9 oz. chocolate pudding using the pie filling instructions.  Spread on the bottom of 2 graham cracker pie shells.

Next layer:

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 T. butter, softened

1 t. vanilla

Mix all together.  Fold in approximately 2 c. Cool Whip or 1 c. heavy whipping cream that has been whipped.  Divide and layer on top of chocolate layer.

Top with more Cool Whip.

Break apart Reece's peanut butter cups and put on top of the Cool Whip.

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave and drizzle on top.

My family likes it when I make this pie to take places because there is 1 pie we keep at home!  I came up with this pie many years ago and it has always been a favorite!

What a learning curve!

Al bought me my camera (Nikon D3000) a couple of Christmases ago.  Several of my friends told me I just had to learn how to take pictures in manual mode.  It seemed way too complicated to me.  My brain just doesn't work that way.  For Mother's Day, Al gave me money to take photo lessons.  I was going to take them on-line, but the class filled up too fast and wasn't going to be available for awhile.  I found out about Gina and signed up with her.

This past week I had a day's session with her.  In the morning we went through all kinds of things.  I learned about ISO, aperture, shutter speed, white balance.....   Oh my.  Gina is a great teacher!!  I had such a fun day, but this 50+ lady has a hard time wrapping her brain around it all!  It is going to take major practice!  I debated even mentioning it because I do not want people to judge my pictures to see if I've really learned anything.  Oh well.  I will do my best, but there might be times I switch to auto because I can't figure it out!!  Ha ha!

After lunch, my models came so I could practice what I had learned on them!

 

Here is my try at movement so it won't show up blurry.

Jill called and asked if I would want to take some more pictures of the girls.  Adam's aunt sent some beautiful  dresses and they wanted to take pictures to send to her.   I said I would try.  I first practiced my settings on this doll.

The girls came and here are a few shots I got.

 Claire kept wanting to eat the netting!  Here I captured Jill trying to remove it.

 

I thought these angels were just beautiful models!

Graber Family Christmas

Our extended Graber Christmas celebration was in Pretty Prairie this year.  We rented out the grade school gym and the senior center.

 

After lots of play time, we went next door to the senior center to eat.

 Lots and lots of yummy food!!!!

Al gave us a Christmas quiz to see how well we knew the Christmas story.  Questions like:

What does the Bible say the innkeeper said to Mary and Joseph? (Luke 2:7)
A.  "There is no room in the inn."
B.  "I have a stable you can use."
C.  "Come back later and I should have some vacancies."
D.  Both A and B.
E.  None of the above.
The answer is E.  The Bible doesn't mention an innkeeper.  In fact, the word for "inn" means "guest room", like in a house, not a hotel.  Because Joseph was of the house of David, he was probably originally from Nazareth and had relatives who would have put him up.  But there would have been other relatives too and more than likely the guest room was full.  They were put in the "garage" or stable where the animals were kept.

After the quiz, the children opened their gifts.  We "aunties" all went together to fill Christmas bags for each of the children.

Everyone who comes brings a gift for someone of the same sex.  It can be a gag gift, something you have around your house you don't use, or an inexpensive gift ($10 and under).  We all draw numbers and whoever draws #1 gets to pick the first gift.  #2 can steal that gift or open another gift. And so on and so forth.

The ladies went first.  There was a whole lot of stealing this year!

Sid was excited about this movie, until after a second look he realized it was in Spanish.

Russell got this gift.  Sid said he was getting rid of it because it didn't work.  It never did show 126.4!

And of course, we would all like to lose a little weight after these holidays!