Celebrating 2008

Reflections

I have ideas and ideas of things to write about this last day of 2008, but no one wants to read a long blog. Nor would what I have to say be all that profound, but I'm going to get started anyway!

I read through the ESV of the One Year Bible every year. Everything finished up today. Revelation has me contemplating the idea of eternity. 22:4 "they shall see his face" v.5 "and they will reign forever and ever." Remember Moses could not or was not allowed to see God's face, but in eternity, we will see his face. Matthew Henry's commentary sums it up:

The supreme felicity of this paradisiacal state 1. There the saints shall see the face of God, there they shall enjoy the beatific vision. 2. God will own them , as having his seal and name on their foreheads. 3. They shall reign with him for ever; their service shall be not only freedom but honour and dominion. 4. All this shall be with perfect knowledge and joy. They shall be full of wisdom and comfort, continually walking in the light of the Lord, and this not for a time, but for ever and ever. (italics his)

Contemplating eternity at the END of a year puts things into perspective for me. We are already living forever. We will never stop being. Things that bug and bother me now, puh, what are they? Nothing should bother me!

It was a winner!

See the last blog. The hat and scarf were a hit. Pink is a favorite color, which I knew, and they both fit exactly like I was hoping they would. I did go with tassels, too, by the way. Check the photo out that I've uploaded since I posted the blog. Yes, it was Stephanie. She's the perfect model, no?

Finished another

I crocheted another hat last night. This time it turned out like I wanted it to. After doing two and ripping them both out, this one turned out. I wanted to make a hat that fit close to the head and down over the forehead. The patterns I had just weren't working. So I ripped them out and followed one pattern for the first six rows, then I made it up the rest of the way. I wanted something open around the lower part anyway. I'm hoping to get a photo later on today of someone wearing it.

To change the subject. Den has a friend at work who is crazy about kids' movies. He keeps loaning them to Denny and then asking if we've watched it yet. Last night's movie was KungFu Panda. It was pretty cute. Evil guy subdued by witless warrior trained by a Yoda character. Jack Black is the voice of the "Dragon Warrior". He so fits the part.

I got started on another scarf.....

Coffee with a friend later. No other plans this week. I got the house all cleaned up yesterday. With all that gorgeous sunshine, I couldn't help but feel like spring cleaning! Then I went for a walk.

Holiday handiwork

Like I mentioned earlier, I've picked up crochet and cross-stitch again after a 20 year hiatus! Guess I was too busy homeschooling and raising kids to do it.

This is what got accomplished so far in the last week or so. To give credit where credit is due, however, I only did the outline on the cross-stitch. It took me FOREVER and it is not very clean looking! My dear daughter picked it up while watching John Adams and whipped it up perfectly! sigh. Oh, for young eyes again! I thought about giving it away as a gift, but since it has Linnea's loving touch, I'm keepin' it!!

The hat my boys have dubbed a "Gramma hat". Guess it's not too chic, but it's warm. Better keep it and hope for the Gramma part some day! The scarves were really fun. Shall I put tassels on the pink one? I think I'm giving that one to Andrew's girlfriend. It's made with a kind of soft suede wool/yarn. It was really easy to work with. The blue one is really soft, but has a thread around the yarn that catches occasionally making it a bit frustrating. I've started another scarf made of that same stuff only warm yellows, greens, browns and oranges. Maybe I'll send them to the Ukraine....

It's been really fun to sit and do this. I feel like I'm learning something new as well as making something useful while using my time better. No more just sitting and watching movies! Well, I take that back. We watched Mamma Mia the other night and the scenery and action are so fun, I couldn't take my eyes off. It's only about an hour and a half....

Boy, do I wish I had a couple of fun girlfriends like that....!!! I can think of a couple of sisters that could get into Dancin' Girl!! *smile*

What do YOUR gingerbread look like?

Linnea and Will have a tradition of making gingerbread "men" every year. Many times the theme of the men is the movie series that is currently going. One year it was The Lord of the Rings series, so we had Aragorn, Eowyn, Gimli, and so on. You get the idea.

So you must be guessing what this years' theme is, John Adams. They decided they would do United States Presidents. The lower photo is of George Washington (get the hat?) Abraham Lincoln (hat is also a giveaway) and of course they had to do the president-elect Barak Obama! He has a modern tie and his arm is raised. That's how you can tell who it it. The top photo they will have to describe. I know the one in the dress is Abigail Adams, and I THINK that's John colored the same. The guy in the glasses, hmmmm, he's the only one with a face. Who could that be? Maybe it's Ben Franklin. So they must've done others besides Presidents!

Andrew walked by them and said, "What other family makes Presidents gingerbread men?????

Flaming Christmas Pudding

The joy of eating plum pudding for Christmas dinner is not in the eating, but in the fire! We pulled the blinds shut, poured on the brandy and torched it! We have quite a show because we kept adding brandy because we couldn't see the fire at first.

The second photo is family photo (ach, do we HAVE to do this??) number two, taken before we went out for our annual Chinese Christmas Eve dinner.

To explain the tradition....

When we lived in Italy we had a wonderful, close chapel community. Probably for at least four years, maybe more, we had a Christmas fellowship dinner as a chapel community. The menu was set so we had a normal meal instead of "potluck" food. Afterwards we had our Christmas Eve service followed by dessert. By this time it probably was around 9pm. We drove home on absolutely deserted streets because every Italian was at home celebrating their Christmas Eve with family before going out to midnight mass. We then opened one present before going to bed.

When we moved to America our church didn't have a Christmas Eve service. We don't have any family living nearby, so we decided that we would go out for Chinese and then go to a local church's Christmas Eve service. That has continued since, and this was our 10th year!!! Only difference this year was that our church had an early Christmas Eve service. We went home after Chinese.

Now we drink champagne, eat panettone, open a present, and then watch "It's a Wonderful Life". Some of us get too tired before It's a Wonderful Life get over. Will and Linnea are our tradition watchdogs!