Christmas Eve Traditions

 Christmas Eve.. Greene Family Style

First we eat. 

Then we sit around and talk a little bit.

Then we sing. The same carols from the same copied sheets every year. 

We have a wonderful time. 

We recorded our incredible singing this year. 

My videos are somehow saved in a file that is not supported by you tube.. great.

Thankfully my sister got us singing!

So if the pictures don't provide enough of a glimpse into our lives, take a look at the video!

Don't forget you will have to go to the bottom of this page and pause the songs first.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Santa's Elves

 Christmas Eve Eve... okay girls, let's get busy!!

   

If you were at home, you might have gotten a treat.  If you weren't oh well.. there is always next year!

The treats included:

Christmas Crack

(a cracker base with carmel and chocolate.. rather addictive!)

Candy Coated Popcorn

Candy Coated Pretzels

Almond Carmel Pretzel Candies

Lots of fun to make and very important to get out of our house ASAP!

(right now Lexi is running around on a sugar (crack) high!)

Not seen... Kylie "helping" underfoot....

Prayer Request and a Heavy Heart

I found a blog (http://www.aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/) a couple of years ago and follow it regularly.  Linny, the author inspires me.  One of the things that she teaches over and over is to pray and fast. She has lots of posts about it so if you have any questions about it, go take a look at her blog. 

One of the things that I have learned from watching her is that the prayers of others, even those that we have never met are special and uplifting.  So since Linny is hosting praying and fasting today, I thought I might join in.

I have a couple of prayer requests and I offer to you, list your request in the comment section and I would be honored to pray for you.  And if you don't happen on this post until 3 weeks from now, you can still comment and I will still pray for you.

Here are my prayer requests.

1. Our house is for sale.  It has been for sale for the better part of two years. (or at least feels that way!)  We have had it on the market for the last two summers and nothing. nada.  Please pray that our house would sell soon!  We have found a house that fits us, our budget and is in a great neighborhood, but we can't buy it still owning this house.

2. My younger sister who fosters children has done respite care for a 10year old girl a few times and we have all come to know her and love her.  She is outgoing and silly and funny and adorable. She is ready for a forever family.  None of our immediate family are in a position to adopt her.  So please pray for this child that she would be adopted by a family that would dote on her and love her forever.

3. One of my special needs students (who you have seen pictures of creating clay pieces) is on hospice.  She is in the end stages of cerebral palsy and is suffering.  Please pray for her and her family.

Thank you for allowing me to share my heart.  So many are hurting right now.  Our friends down the street lost their 32 year old son in an auto accident this week. Celebrating Christmas will be so hard for them and for others.

I pray for a joyful day for you. 

Christmas Cookies

 

 

Making Christmas Cookies with Cousin Abby is AWESOME!

A Merry Tacky Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas with both sides of the family this weekend. We had a nice time with everyone. I don’t have any pictures of Doug’s side on my camera, hopefully I can get pictures from one of the kids as they were videoing and taking pictures all day!

Yesterday we celebrated with my side of the family. We did a tacky Christmas sweater contest this year. It was hilarious! Doug didn’t win the contest, but I have to say, seeing a big guy in a baby blue sweatshirt with a snowman and teddy bear on it was FUNNY!!
  

And of course, we had to have a picture of the “girls”. My mom and sisters always did the “Greene girls pose,” so that’s what we did too!


Hope you have a great Christmas and don’t forget to capture those memories!!

Name Meaning Signs for a friend

A friend of mine asked me to make name meaning signs for her co-workers, so here they are.  They are a little larger than 5x7.  They were suppossed to be 5x7, but by the time I added the backer and made it look fun, they were probably 6x8.

It was nice making these as I got my crafting fix in without having to go to crazy...

I do have a few more projects mulling around in my head.  Hopefully I'll be able to work on these this next week!

We are off to celebrate Christmas with my family today.  Yesterday we had a great time with Doug's family.  Yes, I'm sure I'll have a few pictures to share.

Have a great day!

Teacher Gifts... with attitude!

By the time Christmas break gets here we teachers are exhausted and a little stressed. So, here is my teacher gift this year for my friends!!


I proudly wore mine today.

I screen printed them yesterday.. a one woman rush print job.

My student’s were a little bewildered :)

A Curveball, the desires of our heart and Christmas presents

A Curveball... do you ever feel that just when you have things figured out life throws you a curveball?  I feel this way often.  Maybe I should become a MLB catcher cause I feel like I'm becoming a decent curveball catcher.

The desires of our hearts.. God says that he will give them to us.  Of course, there is the rest of the verse that talks about if we are in harmony with God we will want the things He wants for us... but anyway.  My heart's desire is to have a four bedroom house.  I know how selfish is that.  But it is.  So our house has been for sale for what has seemed like forever.  We have looked at houses and it seems like I find one I love and our house still hasn't sold.  Over and over.  So our house is for sale and I have found a house that is perfect for us.  The size, the price and the location.  But guess what.  Our house still hasn't sold.  So if you know of anyone that needs a great 3 bedroom home, send them my way!

Christmas presents.

Ugg.  I am so not motivated to do anything Christmasy this year.  I don't consider myself to be in a humbug mood, I just can't get moving.  And I've got to!  Teacher gifts have to be done today!! EEK.

So I will be crafting something today.  I've got an idea.  I'll show you tomorrow!

Tangled. And no, it's not about Disney's new movie!

I read a blog called A Place Called Simplicity and yesterday, the author wrote about the nets that we are not willing to lay down in life. 

This was really interesting to me and as I processed and read the comments that others had posted, I was struck with how we can get so tangled in life that we loose focus on what God wants us to do.

I'm not going to rewrite Linny's post here, I think you should go read it...

But as I evaluate life, I realize that my feet seem to be tangled in nets. 

The net of "am I good enough to...." has tangled in my feet and left me paralazyed to take that first step many, many times.  Yet, if I am truly going to follow Jesus, then I have to say, if I'm called, He must have prepared me.

However, on the flip side, some of the tangling of my feet is from wading through all the "good things" I'm trying to get done.  Community and church boards, service projects and extra's that I HAVE to do at school. 

I wonder what would happen if I was willing to let it go.. would I wake up and feel called to move to Africa?  That's kinda scary.

So I don't know.  I do know that I'm ready to re-evaluate some things in life.   I've started with one big net.  The net of having to keep everything.  It's funny, while the other "nets" tangle our hearts, the net of stuff actually does cause us to walk funny as we have to tiptoe our way around our junk.  I think letting go of my sentimental net will be rather freeing.

What about you?  Do you have any nets tangling in your feet?

Pink Glasses

 

Not sure where the glasses came from and they didn’t survive very long, but oh Kylie was cute while they lasted!

Pierced Ears: A Rite of Passage?

Lexi has been asking to get her ears pierced for what seems like forever.  Finally we said we would do it for her birthday. 

We forgot.  (One of my many episodes of being an awesome mom?) :)

So this morning Lexi and I went to and got it done.

   

She must have really wanted it done as not a single tear from a melodramatic child!

Isn’t she cute! 

and yes, they are fancy!

Thanksgiving Dinner, a tradition.

  

Lots of food.  Lots of people.  Lots of noise.  Lots of Love.