Merry Christmas my sweet sisters!

Thrive!
Frances

Last night at the Ged class I teach at Atlanta union mission, we had a
small but wonderful Christmas party!! Some wonderful women in my Life
group had donated money and wonderful gift items for their stockings.
It was a beautiful night of joy and tears as we shared togther.

Each week I am so blessed to meet with my sisters in that class and am
thankful to have them in my life! I have precious photos that I can
not share publically due to the safety of my sweet sisters...but they
are like the faces of angels to me.

Thank you to those who gave so that these women could enjoy a
Christmas party when they are away from family and friends this
Christmas and have no home. What a rich blessing to call these ladies
sisters...at My Sister's Place.

Decorating!

We got back to my parents' house and started the major task of decorating the 10 foot Christmas tree!!! Talk about a dream to me!!
My mom and dad have given over the decorating duties to my sister and my family and they are in a more advisory role. They love it! They get the music just right and my mom unwraps every ornament and tells us all about each one. Lots of fun memories and laughs!

I LOVE doing the lights...it's kind of my thing. I do it at my own house too. They are one of my favorite parts of decorating...way to go Martin Luther!

Then the girls get on their Santa hats and get to work on decorating! It was so big we had to get a ladder!!! Look at our cuties...

And then it is time for the final result...

...breathtaking! We always turn off all the lights and sit by the fire and just look at the tree with Emmy Lou Harris songs filling the country air. We opened the doors and just reveled in the beauty of family and Christmas joy!

And then cozy up by the fire...

and a little Christmas dress up! The story on this is that when I was about Virginia's age I thought the tree skirt would make a wonderful REAL skirt. So, I got all dressed up (I was being serious...for REAL!) and then sat down to play the piano in a TREE SKIRT! I have never lived it down. There are photos...but I don't have them. If I get my hands on them I will post it...it's just too funny that my own little girl is dressing up in that same tree skirt now. It's far too small for any tree my parents' get these days...but the memory is just too fun to throw it away!

All too soon it was time to head home from Sassy and Pal's farm. We love being there and my kids just savor every minute there! We are VERY blessed!!

When we celebrate Thanksgiving at my family's house, we always go over to the Christmas tree farm the next morning to get my parents' tree! Since we have an artificial tree at our house (Jay's decision!) I am always appeased by going to cut down a big tree for my parents' house!!! It is my FAVORITE thing to do and it also helps my mom and dad out to have us get all their decorations out and get everything done together...it's the BEST!
So, we got out that morning and headed out to cut down our own tree. Virginia was ready...and I was a little scared to see my little one with such a big saw. But, she was under the best care of her daddy and Pal (what the girls call my dad...so cute!). It was a beautiful day and once we got to work we even took off our coats. Perfect!

There is a hayride to the tree farm...but we were too excited to get out there, so after waiting a few minutes for it start up we just decided to get some exercise and walk to find our tree! Sassy and the girls! Poor Virginia can't do sunshine with those pretty blue eyes.

We head out to get ourselves a pretty tree! Sassy, my sister Holly and the girls picked a perfect one!

Of course, there is a BEAUTIFUL cotton field! It's like a winter wonderland...such pretty girls!

We found our tree and Daddy makes the first cut to get it ready for the girls to have a turn. Anli and Pal hold it steady.

Virginia makes the very last cut...then hurries around to catch the tree...TIMBER!!!

The girls were a huge help and they carried it all the way back!

Time to tie it to the old minivan!

On the way back to the house we saw these cuties...just to show you we are out in the farmlands!

Cutting down a Christmas tree is just so much fun to me! We had a wonderful time and then headed back to set it up, decorate it, and cozy up by the fire to wind up the weekend. More to come tomorrow...

Having a blast at the Operation Christmas Child family day!!! Just
about to watch the screening of the new Veggie Tales Christmas movie
too!!

Thrive!
Frances

Catching Up...Thanksgiving Memories!

We had a wonderful time with my family for Thanksgiving. We were able to go up on Wednesday and help mom with some of the cooking and getting things all ready. The weather was AMAZING and the girls enjoyed playing on their 11 acres with all the animals on their farm.

But, most of all they loved playing with the new kitten that my family had gotten. That kitty was so sweet and enjoyed every minute of the loving the girls gave her. Virginia never wanted to leave! One day we think a kitty may be in our future...especially since Jay likes them too!


Anli hung out with all the other animals and fed them. She and Cowboy were hanging out...while Anli had fresh fruit of course! Nan the goad is by her side along with Buddy...one of the 5 dogs they have. My family has an amazing farm and they have one large horse (they had two but one died recently), a miniature horse (so cute!), a donkey, a goat, 5 dogs and a kitty!

The girls and Gabby the sweetie pie donkey. I just love her! Look at those ears:)

Then there was the MEAL! It was awesome and having all the family there was the best part. My sister had the honor of bringing in the turkey my dad smoked...yummy! My parents just recently built a HUGE (like as long as the whole house!) porch of which this part behind my sister is screened with fans and comfy furniture. The rest (brand new) is open with an outdoor fireplace...we can't wait to crank that thing up when all of it is finished.

It was a great day!

Catching Up...The Bake Sale

The girls and I have been going to the refugee resettlement area in Clarkston, Georgia for a few months now and we have made some WONDERFUL friends! One of those families are the Crawford's and we have just loved spending time with them. So, on one of our times in Clarkston we were at their house for the afternoon and the kids came up with an idea to have a bake sale to raise money to help animals.

Alysia (the mom) is wonderful at helping the kids refine their ideas to something that would work out and also instill a sense of goal setting. She is great! She is definitely a "kindred spirit" as Anne of Green Gables would say:)
We we all had different parts, and our family was in charge of baking the goodies to sell, another family made homemade hot chocolate and Alysia was in charge of the site and all the publicity. It was a HUGE success and the kids made almost $100!!!

The kids all worked so hard and did a great job! It was so much fun!!!

Afterwards we all sat together and talked about the day. We told the kids how proud we were of them and all the work they did. It was a gorgeous fall day and God blessed us in so many ways!

Catching Up...Children's Worship

Last Sunday, our children's choir sang in our worship service! Take a close look at all those cuties. I love how they are looking all over the place, laughing, and just being kids! Virginia is the TALL girl...oh, I remember the days before the boys grew! My baby is looking right at me with that sweet smile...love that girl!

They did a great job...listen for yourself.

And the tears just keep flowing...

I got this in an email from a friend today and I just had to share it too! I mean...why wouldn't I?






Did you see that cutie from Ethiopia...I could eat him up!!!!

Get a kleenex for this one...

Little one...we pray we will be your family next year!
**New Post Below**

Family Focused Friday - Jesse Tree

We have done a Jesse Tree for many years now, but since I made my "Give Thanks" banner in the kitchen, I decided to brainstorm a cute way to do a Jesse Tree banner too. So, the girls and I went to Walmart and found the fabric and ribbon that we liked and got to work last night along with Jay for our family night. It turned out just perfect!! I am thrilled with it!!
I printed out the ornament templates from online and then the girls colored all of them. It follows Advent, so there are 27 of them this year. They did a great job! I really wanted it to be handmade. Normally, we just print out the ornaments and hang them on a ficus tree in our dining room. I am SO glad we did this one that will last for years!

This is what the tree looks like now. A Jesse tree is a wonderful way to celebrate Advent. It takes your family through all of Scripture starting with Genesis. It walks through many of the prophesies throughout the Old Testament about the coming of Jesus...and then takes you through the story of Jesus' birth in Matthew and Luke.

Each morning we have Scripture to read and then a short devotion to help us all apply the Truth that we learn. It is perfect for kids and then we place an "ornament" on our Jesse Tree that goes with the reading for the day. I am a HUGE Advent fan and we do all kinds of things to make the days leading to Christmas truly focused on Christ.

I will share about our Chrismon tree next Friday...it is so beautiful and is the focal point of our home with the message of Christ. I can't wait to share it with you again this year!

Catching up...part 1

The week of Thanksgiving we enjoyed some very fun and educational things as we continued to learn about the true history of Thanksgiving. We all enjoyed this unit study along with most of our regular studies. One day we learned all about the Mayflower Compact which those on board the Mayflower drew up in order to agree on how they would approach rule in this new land. So, while we read over the Mayflower Compact itself and talked about what it meant, we decided to make our own Worthington Compact. It was purely put together by the girls and it was AWESOME! It talked about how our lives and our family would strive hard after Jesus and to live like He would desire according to His Word! I mean I was floored!
So we printed out our new Compact and then we just HAD to make quill pens to sign it! So, we took straws and construction paper and it was done! They turned out great and since we cut the tip of the straw at an angle it made writing with "ink" (or paint) really pretty easy! So, we all signed our names.

Cool feather quill pens!

Then, we made our own parchment paper. We crumpled the paper up and then made a batch of tea and let it steep for the morning so it was nice and dark. Then, we poured that over the paper and brushed it all over. We let it sit for a while...

then we dried it with a hair dryer so it would dry crumpled and hard. That's it! I kept it and I will cherish those precious words from the girls!

I won't post the whole thing...it's quite long and kind of our family thing. But, trust me it was awesome!

Then that afternoon we joined an online chat at the Scholastic website where children from schools all over the US gathered to have a live chat with a Wampanoag Indian and a Pilgrim Interpreter from Plimouth Plantation (yes that is how it is spelled!).

It was SOOO awesome and we had such fun reading the children's questions and even got to submit two ourselves. There were over 900 people online! It was really cool and we were on there about an hour and it was so interesting.

We had a wonderful time in November and I know I learned so much I didn't know before. We read LOTS of books, watched some great documentaries, and made some amazingly fun crafts. And now it's time for Advent...love it!

Sent

Those are the words ony computer screen right now. I'm praying God will use those mere 400 words to encourage some one next month. By the way...I am one WORDY girl!! 400 words is SO short:)


Thrive!
Frances

Advent begins...

It's no secret that I love Advent! We have been enjoying it since
Sunday and are even focusing school around it too!

Just a little glimpse of our little Mickey reading this morning's
Advent verse from the calendar my aunt gave them over Thanksgiving. So
sweet!

I'll post more about our Advent celebration...after I turn in my
article this afternoon.

Thrive!
Frances