One More For The Year

I'm sitting here next to my hubby as we wait for this year of 2012 to close out. It's been a pretty hard year. I remember last New Year's Eve. I cried at the stroke of midnight. 2011 had been a hard year. Both years have been years of hoping and praying for change. No change.

I saw these verses over on Joyce's blog today and it gave me hope. (Thanks for the reminder, Joyce!)

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. 

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” 

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; 

it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:21-26 

 

A couple of weeks ago I was working on some Christmas gifts in my sewing room and ended up watching the movie Fireproof. (It's a really good movie about marriage. Really good.) The song While I'm Waiting played.  The tears came. 

 

Here's a video of the song and the words.

 

 

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting

 This just seems like a good thing to pray about for the New Year.

 

I know this isn't an upbeat what-a-great-year-I-can't-wait-for-next-year post, but I'm just keeping it real, people. Keeping it real.

 

Wishing all my readers a genuinely Happy New Year! 

Post Christmas Post

Hubby and I are in the post-Christmas mode. That involves lots of laundry, vacuuming, putting away Christmas decorations, eating leftovers.

I called lunch today "Christmas Dinner, Take Two".  Here's the line-up waiting for time in the microwave.

We had a wonderful Christmas. We started out the celebrations with traveling to Iowa the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with each of our parents and siblings. The drive down was not fun as there had been a big snow storm the day before and the roads still weren't very good. But Hubby was a good driver and it took us an hour and a half longer, but we made it. We enjoyed the time with our extended families. Caleb and Amanda met us there. The grandparents were happy to see them as it had been quite a while since they last did.

The storm left behind some beauty:

The drive back north was much, much better, especially since Megan and Zach were driving up here to celebrate Christmas with us all! I texted Megan when we turned onto the interstate and she texted back that they were only 6 miles behind us. Couldn't have timed that if we tried!

Sunday night we enjoyed some yummy spaghetti and a craft time. I got a crazy idea to look for a fun, easy, cheap craft on Pinterest and this is what I came up with:

Note to self: dollar store clothes-pins are really cheap for a reason. Bad, bad quality. But they still made interesting snowflakes.

Some people where a tad excited about the craft time:

Such a goof.

I found our craft box when I was looking for some paint brushes. The kids had fun remembering some of the things in there.

 See that red zippered thing with colored pencils in it? I used that when I was a kid. There are also some different kind of crayons from when Hubby was a kid.

I found a couple of things of Play-Doh in the craft box that was still fresh. I think it's been in there for a good five years. Zach used it as a visual-aid to explain to Hubby about something in his car that needs to be fixed. It made me giggle.

Puppy came along and had fun playing in the snow and provided lots of entertainment.

A couple of mornings his people went out to go snow-shoeing in the field next to our house. Puppy was sad and looking out the windows the whole time. He had some pretty funny sounding whines.

We opened gifts on Christmas Eve since Megan and Zach had to head back for work on the 26th.

Puppy had a gift to open and went at it until he got out the toy.

I discovered this photo where it looks like the Puppy was helping Caleb open his gift. Silly.

We very much enjoyed having everyone here to celebrate. We are thankful they were all willing to travel up here so we could all be together. All of those kids are so special to us. My cousin wrote on his Facebook page about how their in-laws complete their family so perfectly. I believe that is true for us as well. Our kids spouses fit in and complete this family as if God planned it that way.... Hmmmm.... ;)

Joy to the world the Lord has come!

Let earth receive her King!

Let every heart, prepare Him room

And heaven and nature sing!

Teamwork

Hubby and I have been busy, busy, busy getting things ready for celebrating Christmas with the kids here. Over the weekend we made cookies, six different kinds as a matter of fact, and the majority have chocolate in some form. Hmmm, I guess I forgot about variety.

Sunday evening Hubby and I worked making a triple batch of Butterhorn Rolls. It sure did help to have a extra pair of hands to help form each roll.

Last year's photo, but be assured, they rolls look the same every time I make them. :)

We decided we make a great team. We got a lot of things accomplished together. I dust, he vacuums. I create dirty dishes, he empties the dishwasher. We go to the grocery store together and he helps carry in the bags and put the food away.

Together, we finally finished decorating  the Christmas tree. I think that's the latest we've done it. We even sorted through some of the decorations. I know I fussed about needing to sort through and then when I was actually doing it, I went and got all mushy and sentimental and couldn't toss very much. Sigh. I think I have a problem.

Here's a few photos I just took with my phone of some of the festiveness.

Sometimes, when we have gone on vacations, we have bought an ornament to hang on our Christmas tree. Here's a shot with just three of those. The top arch shaped ornament is from Sydney, Australia. It's the Sydney Harbour Bridge. (Like how I spelled Harbour there? My spellchecker doesn't.) The star shaped one is from New Zealand and has a Kiwi Bird carved in the middle. (Did you know that the people from New Zealand call themselves Kiwis?) The bottom ornament is from Singapore and called a Merlion. It has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. (Mer meaning fish.) It's the symbol of Singapore. It symbolizes Singapore's origin as a fishing village and Singapura in Malay means Lion City. (Such an educational blog, huh?)

We have several more ornaments from travels, but I just chose these three for today.


This is an ornament some adorable little two year old boy made. (Yes, I got a little teary when I unwrapped it.)

How are all your Christmas celebration preparations coming along?

A Snowy Hodgepodge

 

It snowed yesterday so I think it's time for the Wednesday Hodgepodge! (yeah, I know, random...) Go on over to Joyce's blog and play along. Or you can just read through all those who linked up. Or both.

1. How will you spend 'the night before Christmas'?
Well, that all depends on how "Christmas" is defined. In my world, Christmas is a different day each year and most of the time it is not on December 25th. This year we'll be having our Christmas celebration with the kids on the 24th. So 'the night before Christmas' is on the 23rd. We will all be gathering here and enjoying a spaghetti supper.

2.  What is one thing you are not?
I am not a morning person. But then, I don't think that's a newsflash to anyone who knows me in person, or anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time. (In fact, Sunday morning when I got up, my sweet Hubby brought me a glass of iced tea [yes, I drink it year round] and said as he was walking out of the bedroom, "I'll let you have your wake up time." Smart man. He knows me well after all these years.

3.  Fudge-are you a fan?  Your favorite flavor?
Is there any other flavor than Chocolate? I do like fudge and if it's chocolate with some sort of nuts in it even better. I don't eat much of it because it is super sweet. I don't remember having ever made it myself.

4. Did you attend any craft/vendor fairs in the month of December? Do you prefer homemade goodies or the more professional stalls? Are you giving any homemade gifts this year?
I have not attended a craft fair in a very long time....as in years. I'm only giving one handmade gift and I probably better not say what it is. I will say, I got myself all sidetracked with making those quilts for those adorable twins that I didn't do more handmade things like I thought I might.

5. What's your favorite type of holiday gathering?

My favorite would be when I am with our kids. Last year we celebrated Christmas with them on New Year's Eve or what I called: Happy New Christmas Merry Year's Eve Day. It was a really fun day with them.

6. We're approaching a new year...what's going to be different in 2013?
I know some things I would love to be different, but I have no idea if it will be a reality....

7. Share a favorite scripture, quote, saying, or song lyric relating to peace.

“God can't give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing.”

-C.S. Lewis

8.  Insert your own random thought here.
Snow on the ground means snowmobiles zipping around the field next to our house. Blech.

That Big Project

Last week I wrote about a big project I was working on.(Remember....the one where I ran out of thread and Hubby ended up driving me 120 miles round trip to buy some more?)

I have shared that my niece had twin girls the end of November. About a month before the babies were born, I got a brain storm to make them some quilts. I spent a morning looking for ideas for a quick, but cute pattern. I found one that I had pinned on Pinterest  It's called Around the Block. Basically it's a giant Log Cabin block. It was pretty simple to put together. It probably took me longer to cut out each piece (because each one is a different size) than to sew the whole thing together.

I shopped for the fabric when we stopped at the Missouri Star Quilt Company before Thanksgiving. I had asked my niece about the colors in the babies' nursery. My goal with the fabric was to have the same fabrics in both quilts, but arrange them differently and do the backing in different fabrics. The girls are twins, but not identical.

I borrowed this photo from my sister's Facebook page. :)

I learned from my niece that one of the girls is already showing to be a bit more feisty that the other one, so for that quilt I chose some monkey fabric for the backing.

And of course, no quilt is complete without the label:::

I prayed for those sweeties to know the love of Jesus as I made the quilts. I hope they get a lot of good snuggle time with these!

Adventures in Smaller Town, Minnesota

A few weeks ago I received a postcard from the state telling me that I need to renew my driver's license. I plopped it on the side of the refrigerator with a magnet and promptly forgot about it.

Last week Hubby reminded me that I needed to get my license renewed, so I looked up the website listed on the card to figure out where I needed to go.

Today, I got myself all gussied up (meaning I actually put on make-up and fixed my hair all nice and everything) and headed to the local mall. (Just to clarify... the "mall" is more like, as my son would say, "a few stores connected by a giant hallway.") Why the mall? Well, that's where I thought the website told me to go and I remembered seeing a somewhat official looking office the few times I have actually been in this mall. I walked up and down the mall, and did not see anything that said License Bureau or DMV or anything. The "Official" looking place I remembered was a Social Security Office. I didn't think they would renew my license there.

So I stomped (annoyed with myself) back out to my car trying to think of what to do next. I considered calling my hubby at work to have him ask someone, but I never know if I can get a hold of him while he's at work and I really wanted to get this done today. So I pulled out my trusty smart phone and went to Ask.com and searched for where to renew my driver's license in Smaller Town, Minnesota. (No, that is not the real name of the town I live in. I'm just not keen on blabbing on the world wide web exactly where I live.) Huh, there was an actually place in the down town area called a License Bureau. Who knew? Obviously not me. I've lived here for two and a half years and have never seen this place.

So I followed the directions on my GPS and even then had a hard time finding the place. It's in a pretty obscure place.

Anyway. I ended up filling out the paperwork, taking the eye exam (last time I renewed my license I could pass the exam with no glasses...no such luck this time), and paying the fee and smiling pretty (they even let me approve the photo) all in less than ten minutes. I now get to carry a piece of paper around until the hard copy comes in the mail.

I know this isn't the most riveting blog post. It's just a glimpse of how non-riveting my life in Smaller Town, Minnesota is.

(Besides, I have been known to write long blogposts about such exciting subjects as Potato Salad.)