New years Eve

I trust everyone has enjoyed their holidays. I had a nice visit with my sister and the rest of my family. Happy New Year

Birth of Christ

Matthew 1:18-25
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (KJV)

Luke 2:1-14
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (KJV)

The Visit of the Shepherds
Luke 2:15-20
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (KJV)

My Decorations

I just realized i have not talked about my decorations.
I have 6 trees in my apartment. The tree in the Living room has mostly Hallmark ornaments and snowmen and glass white balls. I collect the Hallmark Snow Buddies and Winter friends. Under my tree I have my village. Some of the houses I have had since i was a little girl. I also have business buildings that I have bought. I have a train station, because there have been years when i have taken the train home. I have a hotel because I have attended women conferences and stayed in them. I have a candle store because I love candles. I have a school building to represent that I am a sub teacher. I have a lighthouse to represent the ocean which I also love. I have a church to represent my involvment in my church. I have also included carolers, and other figurines.
On the entertainment center i have put woodland and nature scenes. I have the train ornaments from Hallmark, the squirrell ornaments from last year and three Father Christmases walking among trees and some deer spread throuout. On the other shelves I have my sleighs which I also collect.
I did my kitchen in red and white peppermints and red and white snowmen. I love the tree on my counter, It is a very cheerful tree. All red and white
I have snowmen in my bathroom and snowmen figurines.
I also have a blue and white tree in there.
In my bedroom I have what I call my Santa workshop. It has elves, my Cherrished Teddies collection. I also have a red and white tree.
In the Dining room I have a very simple candle centerpiece. Near the closet that I don' use I have a small green bench with a snowman and small tree sitting on it,
Hopefully I will get to post pitures soon

Decorating for holidays

Myspace Graphics, Christmas Photos Graphics at WishAFriend.com

Christmas acrostic

I saw on a couple of other blogs Christmas acrostics, so I thought I would do one;

C-is for Christ whose birthday we celebrate

H-is for heart. May I keep Christmas in my heart

I-Imagination. Imaging the wonder in a child's mind of Christmas Day

S-snow, sleighs, smiles, sounds, smells of baking and surprise

T-time. It is almost Christmas Day

M-Music. The joy that carols bring

A-Angels who foretold The Birth of Jesus,

S-smiles that come on Christmas Day

Have a fun day

6days to go

It is a snow day today, We are having a major winter storm. We are expecting 6-10 inches of snow. All the schools in Mid Michigan are closed. I will be working on gifts in a jar today, I don't need to go anywhere so It will be a day of listening to Christmas music and getting ready to go to Indianapolis for Christmas.

Last night

I was able to be a hostess at our church Christmas Journey. It is set in the woods behind our church and tells the Christmas story. When the people are finished going through they come in for hot chocolate and a warm cookie. It was a lot of fun. There were 932 people that went through and 32 people commited their lives to Christ for the first time. How exciting is that. The hosts and hostesses dressed in white and black. I wore a red blazer also. It was quite a night.

19 days to go

it feels alot like Christmas here. It is very cold and snowy. My plans today are to get my centerpiece made for my dining room table. It is going to be pillar cndles with floral picks and beads. It is going to be simple.

I am enjoying drinking my coffee by treelight and also having my candles lit. It sort of gives a fireplace effect. How is everyone else doing? How are your plans coming

Easy haystacks

1 cup chou mein noodles
1 cup peanuts
12 oz melted white chocolate

Melt chocolate and pur in noodles and peanuts
Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper. refrigerate until firm
You can adapt this recipe to fit your need

21 days to go

I cannot believe that it is three weeks from today. We will be going to Indiananpolis for the day and I will be in Cincinnati for the week. I have scaled backi on the amount of decorating I have done this year. I managed to get the tree and the village up in the living room, The snowman showercurtain in the bathroom and the tree in the kitchen. That is about it,

Easy Peanut clusters

1 12 oz pkg chocolate chips.
1 peanut butter chip pkg 12 oz.
2 cups peanuts

Melt chocolate and peanut butter chips together over low heat. When melted take off heat and add peanuts. Mix together. drop by teasdpon fools on wax paper.
makes about two dozen

Hallmark preview

I just remembered I forgot to post about going to the preview last weekend. I got a couple of ornaments. I got the snowbuddie ornament and a snowgirl on a cell phone with a cup of coffee in her hand.
I have been a collector member for several years now. I know when the ornaments come out that Fall isn't far behind.
I am way behind this year on my shopping. I really need to get busy.

Merry Day 10

On MHH there are alot of great dieas of things being done to get ready for Christmas.
One of the main things today is to finish my wooden blocks.
Hope all of you are enjoying Christmas in July. I am thinking of putting out a small tree and some floral picks to celebrate. I am anxiously waiting for this weekend to look at the Hallmark ornaments.

My plans

work on my Christmas cards. I want to design my own cards this year. I also plan to look at my apartment to decide how I am going to use my theme. I was able to find the blocks to spell out the holidays so I wnat to finish my Christmas blocks. I was talking to a friend the other night and she has already planned the Christmas Party for Dec 2. I have my first inviation to celebrate. My family has also been talking about what we are doing.

update Christmas in July

I have been working on my thme for Christmas. I was at Hobby Lobby and got some things for my theme. I am adding two new trees this year. One will be a white tree and then yesterday I bought a small minature tree. I put gold garland on it. I am trying to decide if I like the garland.
I am going to decorate a little for Christmas in July. I plan to use my small tree and my floral picks.

Christmas in July

I have been playing catch up with the posts at MHH. I will be back later to post my plans. One thing I am planning is a brunch. It will have a Christmas theme. I also have started planning my decorations. I was in Hobby Lobby and found some great picks to go with my nature theme,

My challenge

I have decided that one of the things I am going to do is to declutter one tote each month to cut down on my decorations. I have 10 tubs I need to streamline them to just things I really love.
Ginger, Cathy, and Whimsy mom have all posted their challenges. I'm adding one to.

Keepsake ornaments

I have been a collector for quite a few years. I am really excited today because I found the Hallmark Ornament blog. One of the things I will be sharing are stories of the ornament collections I have.

My plans for this Ruddy Day

I am starting to think about what celebrations I would like to have.
SO that will be one thing start looking for ideas.
The second thing is I really want to make some different candies this year. I am going to start looking for candy recipes.
I was also looking at Gingerbugs challenge and two of hers that I thought I would do are add cash to my savings for Christmas and find card templates so I can make my cards.

March Rudy Day

I love to decorate for Christmas. On Rudy Day last week I looked for some new ways I could decorate. I found some new site's that I will be posting links to. I also found some card ideas that I want to share as well as tips.
My goal for April's Rudy day is to try a new recipe.
Stay tuned for more new ideas.

Christmas

Christmas is my all time favorite holiday. Throughout the year I will be posting my Christmas ideas for 2008

My theme for 2008 is Heaven and Nature sing