"An Ornamental Occasion"

                                 
 Today we hosted the 2nd Annual "Ornamental Occasion", otherwise known as Lunch and Ornament Making at our house. After church, our church family and friends were invited to come over to our house. We had over 40 people come! We began with chili, potato, and chicken noodle soup for lunch. Thanks so much to all who brought items for lunch or loaned me your crockpots too!

Brent preparing to bless the food

The little candy cane and I today

                                  
 Bethany had fun with her friends too. Charlotte is one and a half, Addie is almost one and Bethany is 5 months. Baby Brody (1 month) also came to visit too. It is going to be so fun to watch these little ones as they grow and really begin to be able to play all together.

Bethany was catching a little nap during all the excitement

 After lunch, we decorated cupcakes that actually spelled out "Happy Birthday Jesus." The sprinkles were a big hit so it was a little hard to see a few of the letters!

 Then we had a birthday cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

 Then the ornament making fun began. Judith brought the ingredients for cinnamon applesauce ornaments. Yes, though they smell good enough to eat this kind are not edible but they turned out beautifully. My kitchen still smells wonderful. Hopefully, I can keep up with whose is each ornament!

 

 Upstairs in the playroom, we had clear ornaments and all kinds of decorating items: paint, glitter glue, glitter, seashells, "snow", pom poms, bells and more. Thanks to everyone for bringing decorating items too.

Here are the snowman ornaments I made for Bethany and I

Here are big girls with their creations. Rachel filled a plastic lightbulb with ALL kinds of glitter, shells, paint and buttons and made a little bear all on her own. Bekah used one of the snap together ornament and made her own jingle bell ornament.

What a fun afternoon we had! Thanks so much to all who came! We enjoyed our time with you! Looking forward to next year already!

Cookie Decorating at the Doreys

 Yesterday after Brent finished work, the girls had an evening at the Dorey's house decorating cookies. Last winter around Valentine's Day, they had the big girls over to decorate Valentine's cookies. Kay Kay asked me last week if the girls could come over to decorate Christmas cookies this time and their Mom and Dad could go on a date! We even had a gift card we had been saving to use for supper! The girls were excited and we were thankful too!

 Kaitlin and Debbie fed the girls supper and then they decorated. As you can guess, since I was on a date with my husband, I didn't take these. Thanks, Kay Kay, for keeping my camera and taking pictures for me too!

 Here are Rachel's finished creations and they are tasty too. Yes, she let us try a few!

 Debbie and Kaitlin even got a few great pictures of the big girls in front of the tree. Look how much they are growing up. Bethany got a great nap and was asleep when we took the girls over and apparently woke up just before we got back.

Thank you so much Kaitlin and Debbie for planning such a fun time for our girls! It is such a blessing to have church family that love our girls like family!

FMBC Christmas Cookies and Caroling

 Today was our 3rd annual Christmas Cookie packing for our community outreach tomorrow. Together our members provided over a thousand cookies which were packed this afternoon to be delivered to places of service tomorrow as a thank you to some of those who serve around our community.

 Everyone enjoyed a pizza lunch. Some of the ladies of our church packed the cookies while the kids enjoyed lunch. They had an excellent system going to pack those over a thousand cookies this year! They had all the packages of cookies ready very quickly!

 Our Youth and College and Cadet ministries helped with the packing as well.

 Here are a few of the finished packages.

 Here are almost all of the group that stayed for lunch and helped with the cookie packing and caroling.

 Yes, after all the cookies were packaged, a group of kids, youth, college & cadet and adults headed out around town to take cookies to and carol for some of our members.

 We caroled for Mrs.Marie, Mr. Buford and Mrs. Joan, Mrs. Anne, and Mr. Floyd this afternoon.

 Here is all of our "Caroling Crew" today

 We had 5 young ladies in our van who were ready for a snack after all the afternoon's excitement. We headed to Burger King for a snack and ice cream before everyone headed home for the afternoon.

Thank you to all who provided cookies, packed cookies, caroled and helped in any way! We had a great day at FMBC with Cookies and Caroling!

Charlottesville Army Reserve Banquet

Brent was asked to photograph a banquet by Robert Coleman for the Army Reserves based in Charlottesville today. We were able to go along as guests. The girls have been excited all week about going to a banquet.

 It was really a lot of fun. Those who had organized it must have worked very hard and also had planned lots of kid-friendly activities as well. First they had giant coloring books for the kids to color while the event was getting started.

 Then they had a wonderful lunch with really good food

 They also brought in Santa to see the kids and each child was given a gift as well. Our girls got Barbie dolls, which they were and are still super excited about!

 We also got to see Christopher today. He was also a guest of the Colemans'. Here he is opening his backpack and binder that he got as a gift.

 During the event, they also brought in several ladies from the Red Cross to do activities with the kids as well. The girls made candy cane and wreath bead ornaments and played some fun games. Here are both Rachel and Bekah playing "Pin the Nose on the Reindeer"

I was not really able to get any pictures of Brent as he had both cameras taking pictures during the time we were there.
 Thanks so much Colemans' for having us as guests at the Banquet today. We had a good time!

"O Christmas Tree"

 

Today after a fun lunch and visit with the Coiners, we headed up the mountain to cut our Christmas tree.  We have been getting a live tree since we first got married and have gone to the same tree farm every year since we moved to Virginia. As the big girls are getting older each year, they are getting more and more excited about going to pick out our tree. As you can see, Bethany was in more of a "get a good nap" mood.

 Thankfully, it didn't take us very long to pick out just the right tree for us this year. However, it was quite an effort to get it cut down this year.  We got it tied down and headed home to unload.
Bethany was a little more interested in it when we got it home and even more interested once we pulled out the lights to put on it.

 We got a start on the lights and garland and then it was bedtime. Looking forward to putting the ornaments in place later this weekend!

Bethany's First Christmas tree

Remembering as we decorate this tree and thanking God that Jesus was willing to die on a tree for me and He is really the reason we are celebrating!

^" He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed."  1 Peter 2:24