Joyful Thursday!

No, this isn't a new meme,...just the way I feel today... :)

If you are here reading today, I'm going to ask you to do something...don't just scan this scripture (yes we're all guilty of the occassional 'scan')...really read it,..slowly, and with the excitement that it deserves...taste every word, this is God's Word! It fills my heart to overflowing... I love His Word!

Sing to the Lord a new song;

Sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, bless His name;

Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.

Tell of His glory among the nations,

His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.

For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised;

He is feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are idols,

But the Lord made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before Him,

Strength and beauty are His sanctuary.

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name;

Bring an offering and come into His courts.

Worship the Lord in holy attire;

Tremble before Him, all the earth.

Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns;

Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved;

He will judge the peoples with equity."

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;

Let the sea roar, and all it contains;

Let the field exult, and all that is in it.

Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy

Before the Lord, for He is coming,

For He is coming to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness

And the peoples in His faithfulness.

Psalm 96

My heart is full today....full of so many things....

Joy and overflowing love for my Lord Jesus, He has always been so faithful to me, always been there gently guiding me, and comforting me.

My heart is full of thankfulness to Him for the blessings He has given to me, my precious husband,...I am so very thankful for the man that he is and the gift of him in my life.

My heart is full of a Mother's love...today we are picking up our son at the airport. I love being a Mom, oh how my heart aches to kiss my child everyday....today is the day! I am thankful that my great big baby boy is still more than willing to let his Momma kiss his face - he knows how much it means to me.

Oh my heart is full!

He'll be here until the day after Christmas, so I may be absent from blogland. Maybe I'll have a moment to pop on a photo or two, but it's not too likely.

If I'm not around to say it before then, have a very Merry Christmas!!! Thank you for being my friends! :)

Christmas Parade of Homes

Today I'm joining in with The Nesting Place for her Christmas Tour Of Homes. I wish you could all come to my house for dinner, or coffee, or games, or tea, or girl time or WHATEVER, during the month of December, because I just love the cozy feel of a home decorated for Christmas! It's so much fun to have a house full of people with the sound of Christmas music in the background and the fake fireplace DVD on the TV (it's 85 degrees ya'll).

BUT, since you don't all live just around the corner, let's have a virtual visit...come on it!...

Here are some of the things you'll see at my house during Christmas time...

Ahhh, yes,...we've all seen this before...you won't see this when you visit though, he's not still up there, hee hee hee...

After all his hard work,...this is what the house looks like...

From the driveway. I put plain wreaths in the windows with red velvet ribbon and bows. I bought all that stuff at an after Christmas sale for pennies!!!! Who doesn't love bargain decorating???
From across the street. All the lights on the house are red and white.

If you were peering into my front window, this is what you'd see...note the plumerias still blooming in my garden (gotta love Florida!).

Come on inside and you'll see my nativity set...I've been trying (forgetting) to finish painting it for about 6 years!!!! Pretty sad, eh? Should I make that my challenge this year? It WILL be painted by next Christmas...it's up to you guys to hold me to it! :)

Turn around and you'll see our tree...

during the day...

And at night...

Let's go into the dining area...

My hutch (I call it the "coffee station")...it's hard to tell, but I have colored lights draped at the top, which I love at night...my vase changes it's flowers for every season, so these are my Christmas reds and whites, and my little cloth Jesus candy cane. In the center of the bottom shelf is a drawing my son did of the nativity scene when he was probably 4 or 5 years old - precious!

This little Christmas bird sits on my table to greet you...

If you were coming to Christmas Dinner your place setting might look like this, not quite sure yet, just testing ideas...

Now into the kitchen...

I love colored lights!...this is the dining room, at the entrance to the kitchen...

I love this cute little cloth wall hanging...

Door swag in the kitchen, the lights look so pretty when the house is dark...

Now, how about just a little bit of this and that...

There's a little corner in my hallway, I brightened it up with my tiny tree. :)

I made these stocking just a week ago. We've had the same stockings for forever, and I wanted something new, but never like what I see in stores...I really like the way these turned out.

I drape greenery on all my doorways and at the top corners, I have a mixture of white roses and red hydrangeas, or red roses and white hydrangeas.

CHOCOLATE!!! It's EVERYWHERE!

That goes without saying...doesn't it? :)

Little clothes pin snowman on the bathroom shelf...

Pop over to the Nesting Place to see more lovely homes, and to enter her giveaway!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Our Christmas Tree

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY...

This is what I call my "Jesus Tree" :)

Have a Beautiful Day!

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About How We Celebrate Christmas

I "borrowed" this meme from my friend Jo-Lynne, over at Musings Of A Housewife. It looked like fun, so here I go...

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About How We Celebrate Christmas...

I'm sure you've been wanting to ask me these questions all year long, right???? LOLOLOL

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Definitely homemade Hot Chocolate,...I especially love Abuelitas Mexican Hot Chocolate, because that's what my grandmother use to make for us from scratch, mmmmmm. As for egg-nog, if I love the taste, but can't deal with the thickness,...I like to mix it with skim milk to make it easier on me. But I LOVE Egg Nog Ice Cream punch! :)


2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Well, we don't do Santa...sorry. Now, don't get me wrong, present show up mysteriously in the middle of the night for certain, but they are either from Jesus, or Mom and Dad. My parents always set up our gifts UNwrapped, and the display was amazing to see (there were 6 kids, so imagine tea parties set up with new dolls, barbies townhouse set up with furniture and a new Ken doll, guitars on stands, battleship games set up ready to play, etc... - it was really cool to wake up to that.
But I never followed that tradition, I guess since I had only one child?


3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? On the tree I do white, because it goes with the theme I use. I use to do colored and may start again next year because I kinda miss them. On the house we do a white red and green color theme, kinda like a gingerbread house look. On the inside of the house I string colored lights in various places.


4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yes, most definitely...I LOVE kisses! :)


5. When do you put your decorations up? Beginning the first day of December.


6. What is your favorite Christmas dish? I am assuming this means "food", not dessert soooo, I guess this yummy tenderloin roast I made one year, that really sticks out.


7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? My Mom always placed a small gift at the foot of our beds while we were sleeping. So, when we woke up, we were allowed to open that one gift before we got our parents up - I loved carrying that tradition through to my son.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I had 5 older siblings, I don't ever remember believing in Santa, so there was not "moment of truth".

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Absolutely, this has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I have a Jesus themed tree. White Lights=stars in the sky, Red balls=blood shed for us, White balls=His purity, Gold balls=Gifts of gold for royalty. I also have clear glass ornaments and several of the colored balls have names of Christ (Lamb of God, Friend, Messiah, etc...) written on them. I have these white hearts that have the attributes of Christ on them (faithful, loving, kind, just, etc...). I also add candy canes because they are like a "J" for Jesus, and they are red and white! :)

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I love snow, I don't live in or near it, so that's easy to say. But I do remember having snow at Christmas as a child and it is such a wonderful memory...I love snow.

12. Can you ice skate? Actually, yes. Just your basic skating style, don't think I'm doing loops and stuff, LOL.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Funny, I actually STILL HAVE my favorite gift. When I was 9 yrs old, I picked out a stuffed Chimp named "Zip" from the Sears catalog. He didn't make it in time for Christmas, but showed up a few weeks later and I loved him dearly. He sits on my bed to this day and my name is still marked in pen on the bottom of his shoe. :)

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Celebrating the wonderful gift of Jesus, the music that makes me feel all hapyp and warm inside, seeing lights on the houses, the smells of cookies baking, laughter, family and friends, watching people open their gifts!!! :)

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Buche De Noel, a rolled very light cake with a mocha filling and dark chocolate coating. I learned how to make it about 25 years ago in my High School French class and still have the original copy (remember that blue ink from those big rolling copy machines we had?)

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Oh, I have 2....Christmas Eve, we do our "Drive to see the Lights" tradition....and, My Christmas Day dinner, when my best friend Kim and her family join us....it's so much fun to menu plan and decorate the table, watch everyone open gifts. I love it!

17. What tops your tree? A bright star.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Totally giving...I love to wrap gifts, and make them all sparkly and pretty and I LOVE watching people open them.

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? I could eat one a year, but they are a MUST for the tree.

20 Favorite Christmas Show? That's got to be a "Charlie Brown Christmas". :)

21. Saddest Christmas Song? Hmmmm...I'm dreaming of a White Christmas? Because it just ain't gonna happen here in Sunny Florida!

22. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Oh, this is easy. Words can hardly define what I feel when I hear David Phelps sing O Holy Night. He doesn't just "sing" it, he FEELS it, and you will too when you watch this...TURN YOUR SPEAKERS UP, and get some tissue, you will be ushered into the throne room of the King...at least that's what it does to me!

Ugly can be Beautiful!

I found a sweet surprise today in my backyard. See, I love gardening, it's one of my passions. I have one policy regarding my gardening passion though,...if it's a really finicky plant and takes too much "specialized" babying, I'm not growing it.

Over the years I've had a few Orchids given to me. As much as I love the way Orchids look, their flowers are so amazing, I have no desire to get carried away with their supposed needs. So, I hang the handful of Orchid plants under a branch in my Pecan tree and basically ignore them, if I happen to be out that way watering, I'll spray them...that's all they get.

In return, they are pretty ugly...scraggly, yellowish green ugly plants.

But every once in a while I am blessed, through nothing I have done, with this gorgeous display. Today was one of those days. I was given a gift made by the hand of God, as if to say,...see I don't need your help, I made these, and I'm giving them to you free of charge! He is awesome and gracious, His gifts are precious, no matter how small.

Two princesses dressed in their finest! What a sweet reward!

Have a beautiful day!

Christmas with a Capital "C"

Love this!!! :)

Have a beautiful day!