Centerpieces of Christmas & other fun!

blurry shot of our table.

Sherry "bought" the table, provided some deco and treats and lots of encouragement to Beck and I. Somehow, we managed to NOT get her name on our table description.

We used my Grandma Greenhill's China and our theme was winter wonderland, outdoorsy-like. Gathered branches, Beck spray painted them gold...stars everywhere, little hints of JOY and lotsa glitter.

At our illustrious table, we had Sherry, Becky, my momma, Christy and Cammi K, Mel and myself. It was sooo much fun.

Our speaker for the evening was Karen Pence, our Governor-elect Mike Pence's wife. She was really cute.

as you can see. She read us a poem called "A Cup of Christmas Tea".

Here is our Jesse Tree for 2012. I love reading about our history from the creation to Jesus Christ...such a good foundation for my kids and for us. We are also reading "Bartholomew's Passage" for our Advent reading. Thanks to Nicky Z for introducing these great books to us in 2010.

THIS is my new star light. It's made out of thick paper and I've seen them hanging on Mass. Ave downtown. I happened to see them when we were in The Loop in St. Louie and since we missed a day at the City Museum (bummer!!), David said we could buy this instead...I. LOVE. THIS.
Just need to find a good place to hang it.
Stars make me utterly joyful.
maybe they remind me of my little star. I don't know.
I'm a dork.

HI!
I've got a lot of catching up to do, eh?
I also have a lot to do, so I don't know how much "catching up" I'll be doing, ya know?

Here are a few things I DO know:

1.)  Today was dreary but God provided a few morsels of JOY for this weary traveler (me). first thing was a long awaited visit with my lovely neighbor, Tashena. HI! I even pet her gigantic dog, Mason! yah me! When I got home, I got a most loveliest of packages from my loving and fantastically creative cousins, Tory, Linda and David down there in North Carolina! that, my friends, is a blog post in and of itself. If that stuff wasn't enough, whew!, when I got home from being out and about with David and Levi today, a ginormous and lovely birthday planter was waiting for me in my room...my loving family in Michigan sent it to me for my birthday as well! Thank you, Tory, Linda, David, Uncle Frank, Aunt Nan, Uncle John and Aunt Darlene! You guys all made my day! pics to come....

2.)  I know that in 18 days, give or take, it will be Christmas. I always seem to wait until the last minute. I don't even have my cards ordered, which is sooo unlike me...and not because we haven't had a great one taken, but because I realized that we didn't do anything to include Jack. So, I'm decoupaging a J and we will try again at my 40th birthday tomorrow...yes, you heard me correctly...my mom, sis, hubby and whoever else (ya sneaks) are having a party for me, even though my b-day isn't until the 18th...wow. surely I'll have pics of that very soon too.

I can't believe I'm going to be 40. I thought I'd be dead by this age. ha ha. just kidding...but really!

FORTY?

egad.

I'll be back...gotta run a quick errand...hope your Friday night/weekend is off to a good start.