Christmas tour

Here are some of my favorite things to decorate.

My china cabinet with all the nativity scenes. Sometimes we space them through the house sometimes have them all together. This year my children gave me a huge blessing, they decorated the house for me. My mother-in-law fell and broke her hip and while my husband and I were at the hospital they cleaned, decorated and put up the tree. It was wonderful to come back from a very long day to come into a clean, decorated house.

My piano looks so festive with Mr. Snowman waiting to sing.

The top of my Hoosier Cabinet has had plenty of use this season with all the flour we have gone through. And don't you think a scale with balls is better than us using the scales?

Even the bathroom gets a little decoration, although you can only see the top of the white poinsettia. I love the little dove on the shelf and the bowl of Christmas ornaments add sparkle to my lipstick red bathroom.

Christmas is...... Christ

I love Christmas, the sights, the smells, the decorations, the feeling of expectation. There is something wonderful about having a whole season focused on.....

What is your focus? If you go into the world it is presents, the gimmee's, Santa, shopping, rushing, doing and all the stuff that goes along with it.

But to have a whole season to be able to be focused on Jesus, that is a gift. Yes, I know we should do that every day, but to have this season of anticipation... Can you imagine so long ago the anticipation they had waiting for Jesus to come? Knowing He would change their lives forever. Do you anticipate His second coming as much as you do Christmas? My children joke I am the biggest child at Christmas. I love to decorate for my family, to bake, to buy presents and look forward to how much they will enjoy them. I love to teach my children why we do the things we do at Christmas. Why do we give presents and decorate and bake. Each year we bake a lot. We carol and give cookies to out neighbors. It is my son's favorite activity for this time of year. He has been repeatedly asking when they can go give cookies out. And sing, loudly to the neighbors. I have been telling him he needs to wait within a week of Christmas. So yesterday was a week and they delivered cookies and had a wonderful time. Giving, not getting. Don't you imagine that Jesus is having a wonderful time anticipating us coming to heaven. We know He is getting a place ready for us. Don't you think it will be wonderfully decorated with a feast waiting for us. Isn't it hard to wait for that?

It's a choice

This morning I awoke to rain falling, at least I thought it was rain until it landed on my feet. In my bedroom. Not a good way to wake up. Our bathroom toilet upstairs had developed a crack and slowly leaked all night. Our bathroom is right over our bedroom so it rained down all night.

This week our washer and dishwasher both broke down too. So we have had a wet week. But there have been blessings in the midst of this. We have 2 washers so we can still wash clothes. We have a 7 dishwashers here to help with dishes. They get to eat off of them so it seems only fair. My husband worked 3rd shift last night so he was home this morning at 7, went to Lowes bought a new toilet and installed it with help from our 3 sons. Of course, the 2 year old was not a lot of help but he had fun. We mopped up the water and dried the carpet as best we could upstairs then my husband took apart the ceiling fan that was leaking water, got numerous shocks while doing so and put it all back together. Now all we have to do is dry it out and fix the ceiling. Thankfully, we have a son-in-law that does drywall work. (he gives me a mother-in-law discount)So today and this week I had many choices. I could choose to look at the good side and things and be thankful for the blessings that God has already given me or I could choose to complain. Toilet water in my bedroom might be a good cause for complaints; but a better choice would be thankfulness.

My First giveaway!!

I have my first giveaway for you. A Christmas apron! Just leave your name and a comment and I'll draw a winner on Friday so I can mail this and you can have it to hostess your Christmas dinner.