One of the perks

Merry Christmas sweet boy!

These bumbo seats are great!

Grampa's boy!

This year he's got baby Jesus in his mouth. Next year he'll play with the set!

I'm in BC now for a meeting tomorrow morning related to Women's Ministries. The great side benefit and one of the "perks" of my job, is that it does take me to places where my kids live. So, we get to love up our grandson and see our kids. Jaxton is delightful, cooing and babbling lots, oodles of smiles and great entertainment. He LOVES his jolly jumper and it's so fun to watch him dancing around in it. He continues to be the most contented baby.

My human mind doesn't understand

Tonight I'm leaving soon for a friend's baby shower. She and her husband have a healthy, beautiful baby girl. I just got an email from another friend telling me of the safe arrival of their grandson, Isaac. All such wonderful news with much cause for celebrating. I'm contemplating all of this in light of the very sad news I received 2 nights ago about the death at birth of a dear friend's granddaughter. I must confess I don't understand how the Lord decides who lives and who doesn't, why some families are celebrating tonight and some are mourning. All I know is that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.....Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Choosing Worship

Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship since they walk in the light of your presence.
They rejoice all day long in your wonderful reputation. They exult in your righteousness.
You are their glorious strength.
It pleases you to make us strong.
Psalm 89:15-17 NLT

Today I choose worship in :

a quiet house - another weekend alone
the nuisance of the kids' house not being rented yet
it seems there's more work to do than time to do it

the gift of deep friendships
the beauty of fresh snow
the aliveness of God's Word to my heart

and

this may sound silly, but God responds even to our silly desires......I've been trying to find the movie Memphis Belle - a war time movie I like to watch around Remembrance Day. I especially wanted to see it this year because we toured a wartime, plane museum this summer and the movie highlights an air crew on the same plane we saw in the museum.. No video stores seem to carry it any longer. Last night I flipped on the TV and guess what was on? Memphis Belle. He gives us our silly desires too!

Making memories

We had a great time in Branson, Missouri with my folks. We stayed in a great place, enjoyed some good shows and had fun with Mom and Dad. The weather was fantastic for November for this prairie girl. Branson draws lots of seniors, so we felt like the youngest there, but we're not all that far off the senior designation ourselves! Maybe when Doug is done "DS-ing" he'll lead tours to Branson!

Party #3!

And the parties keep on coming....My 2 daughters and husbands rolled out the celebrations too. I am blessed!

Party #2

Here's my brother Blaine's 50th birthday bash. A great time was had by all. He's a great brother and was a great sport! So nice to have all 4 of us together with our spouses and Mom and Dad.

Party #1

We celebrated my Dad's retirement and my folks' 75th birthdays last night. All my brothers and many of their kids were able to be there, along with 2 of our kids and their spouses. Mom and Dad related some neat stories of how they came to faith, how they spent Christmas as kids, what life was like in the 30's and 40's, along with some great miracle answers to prayer in their early years in ministry. Of course, we did plenty of laughing too, as "Herbert" - an old friend - showed up! Dallas was truly in vintage form.

Too cute for words

Jax's friend Bly

Jax's first Hallowe'en