Elf on the Shelf

Yes, we did "Elf on the Shelf" this year.  It was sparked by finding this great little guy at a thrift store for $3.  We didn't do the book thing where it said that the elf was watching you each day and reporting your behavior to Santa.  Mary knows the story of Santa but knows that it is a fairy tale.  She also knows who the real Saint Nicolas was.  So I just did Elf on the Shelf for fun.  We treated it with the concept of Toy Story, where the toys come alive when you are not looking and freeze when you see them.  Mary had so much fun with this.  She was so excited each morning to see what he was up to.  As you can see we had him playing Candy Land with is buddies, dancing the Nutcracker with Barbie, to getting ready for an ugly Christmas sweater party. He also read the Christmas story in Luke after we set up our nativity set.  I got a lot of my ideas from Pinterest and I also thought up stuff from the things she had in her room.  It was great fun and here are little thumb nails shots of what we did each night. 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to our friends and family.  May you have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful year!

Christmas Music From Many Years Ago...

I had a nostalgic moment today. I was at Walmart getting all the last minute Christmas stocking stuffers and goodies. I walked by a bin of Christmas CDs and was looking at them. Near the bottom I spied a CD called the Light of the Stable by Emmy Lou Harris. It brought back memories from a long time ago when I was young. I went to the library (I know this will really date me) and checked out a Christmas record by her and loved it. I am not usually a big Country Western fan but I really liked her clear sweet voice and the upbeat happy songs she sang. So I made a cassette tape and played it. It was during a time that I was a young adult longing for a family of my own and this album seemed to comfort my heart and give me hope. Well, when I got home tonight I put the CD on and Mary loved it! She loved it so much she began to dance around the Christmas tree. She listened to every song. I thought, wow, could I of ever imagined such a scene those many years ago of my beautiful little girl dancing and enjoying that music as much as I did.

 

Here is the first song on that album:

Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/Yem_U7lcW3U

Jacksonville

We went to Jacksonville to spend the day, last Sunday.   Jacksonville has Victorian Christmas celebration and we thought Mary would get a kick out of that.  It snowed in the morning so that made the day even more special.  We had brunch at the Jacksonville Inn.  Mary's little elf on the shelf got to come a long too!  After our meal we went shopping.  We met up with Santa but missed the carolers, I guess they got too cold and went home.  They did have hot apple cider and roasted chestnuts.  We had the most fun shopping at our favorite cooking supply store.  I just love the beautiful decorating on the outside of the buildings.

 

Decorating with Grandma

Each year Mary has fun helping her grandma decorate for Christmas.  The last 4 years it has been this small tree.  They had a larger tree but it became too much for them, so they gave it to us and they use this sweet little tree.  I am so very thankful that Mary lives near her grandparents and has a wonderful relationship with them.  I know these images will be treasured by her all her life.

Christmas Piano Recital

Sunday was Mary's Christmas piano recital.  She played Silent Night as a solo and then we played, Oh Christmas Tree as a duet.  She was so excited she could barely contain herself.  Grandma and Grandpa gave her some money for her birthday so we went shopping and got her this dress for the recital.  I put a snowflake and a holly clip in her hair.  She did very well and we were so proud of her.  I have included a video of our duet.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/RI3p_iaPsDs

The Holidays are Here!

Well, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Now on to Christmas :)  Yesterday we set up our Christmas tree.  Mary is at the age where she did most of the tree decorating.  We have a lot of ornaments of all kinds.  I have been collecting ever since I was in my 20s, so a lot of memories.  It is fun to tell Mary the stories behind them.  She really saved my back from all that standing and bending.  She loved having more input on where the decorations should go.  She also gets a kick our of the stockings, hats and stuffed Christmas toys we put under the tree.  She couldn't resist putting a Santa Hat on Mac.  He wanted to play with it but he did hold still long enough for me to snap his picture.   Today we tackled the school room.  Mary changed the calendar and I worked on the bulletin board.  We were happy how it turned out.  We do our supply shopping at the thrift store and get some amazing deals.  Also my sister, Linda, has gotten her a lot of things over the years and we have really used them these last couple of years.  Mary said it was amazing how pretty you can make something out of a little bit of stuff and a lot of love!  Well, I will post our pictures.  We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

 

 

This was a Christmas wreath making event at Hanley Farm.

 

We will put a candle on each day with a name of the Lord and read the scripture where it is found.

Getting Ready

A busy and happy evening getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow.  Mary helped me make an apple crumb pie and she also helped me arrange some flowers for the table.  She is loving it and I am so enjoying showing her things. I also put together a pumpkin pie.  I am so thankful for a husband and in-laws who love to cook too.  Rich made some fantastic pork ribs to take to a work potluck today and Mary and I had them for lunch.  He also got the turkey ready to roast tomorrow and will be make the stuffing.  It is so great to have Mary help with cooking.  It is truly a family affair!

 

Amish Cousins

We had a visit from my Amish cousins who live in Kansas.  They took a train trip out to California.  They visited with my dad and then they came up North to visit us.  Mary was fascinated by them and they are such sweet, sweet people.  We just felt comfortable with them right away.  Rich and I got to share our love of making bread, cheese, sausage and hams.  They like talking about that a lot.  My one cousin, Harry Wayne loves to make sausage and hams too.  We wished we could get some of the wonderful fresh milk that their cows produce to make cheese with.  We had such a great visit, just telling family stories and laughing and talking.  They are all retired now and their kids are all grown.  They all have big families and love kids, so they got such a kick out of Mary.  

 

For breakfast we went to my sister and brother-in-law's house.  Rich made homemade biscuits and my brother-in-law made gravy and eggs.  I made some sourdough cinnamon rolls.  Rich looked up the verse in Matthew 13:33 in the German Bible that the Amish use and printed it out.  He had told Harry Wayne about our sourdough bread and how in the old Wycliff Bible it said, sourdough instead of leaven in Matthew 13:33.  They thought that was pretty neat.  So he gave Harry Wayne the verse in German and asked if he would like to read it and he did. 

 

They are OK with taking pictures.  Dad had told me that they can have pictures of family members and they can take them too.  Some of them borrowed their kids phones (who are not Amish) for the trip and were able to take some pictures of family.  So I took one of Mary with 2 of my cousins and a video of Harry Wayne reading the Matthew 13:33 scripture.  Mary also drew a picture of them today.  We sure had fun and wished they lived closer so we could see them more often. 

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. This is the first year we all dressed up. We went to a friend's house and did some Trick or Treating in their neighborhood and had a blast. So many sweet and friendly people. I did a couple slide shows. The last one is Mary and I playing some fun music on the piano.

 

 

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