Christmas Eve

We just had our marathon celebration day today! We went to church this morning...had ALL the family (including grandparents and even my great-aunt) over for lunch and to exchange gifts. Then we went to church for the candlelight service and came back home and had dinner with just the parents and K&H and their kids, and then opened presents, and then sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and had birthday cake. It was a very good, very fun day! Mom is exhausted, though. She keeps saying that if she stops moving that she will crash!! Here's some of my favorite pictures from the day!! (as you can see, Aubrey can get Aunt Nini to do whatever she wants!!)

You know what struck me when I saw this picture? Aubrey and Brendon look the same age...but they are a year apart! They look like twins here, though. In fact, Brendon looks like he might be a little bigger than her (I think he outweighs her by now, but she's still taller).

Ugly Naked Guy

I thought I'd better write something before Adam took me off of his blogging friends list again!

Yesterday, our church took our Christmas pageant on the road. We went to Ft. Hood and presented it at one of their chapels. It was a lot of fun, and I got to know several people in the church better both on the bus and backstage.

Through chatting backstage with some of the other ladies, I discovered that I missed seeing my very own ugly naked guy walking down the street I live on. The mom in a family that lives close to me told me that they were driving somewhere on Saturday afternoon at around 5:30, and there was a man walking down my street completely naked! They immediately called the police (who had apparently already gotten some phone calls about this guy). Frances (the mom) said that it looked like he was either high or drunk or something. Pretty crazy! And I was just sitting in my apartment, clueless about the chaos going on outside!

On a totally unrelated note, here's a really great, easy recipe for Christmas (or it could work for Thanksgiving, too, since it's pumpkin).

Pumpkin Pie Bread (Recipe is for two 9X5 loaf pans)

You'll need:
3 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
3 c. white sugar
4 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin puree
1/2 c. water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your pans.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat together sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, and pumpkin.
4. Stir in flour mixture alternately with water. Divide batter equally between pans.
5. Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted to center comes out clean.
6. For best flavor, store in clear plastic wrap at room temperature for one day before serving.

I made this for my Sunday School teachers, and they all loved it! I used 3X5 foil pans instead, though (little loafs). The recipe is enough for 9 of those pans and you only have to bake for about 40 minutes. Enjoy!!

Christmas Memories

We just had a group of 6th graders come in caroling. They had been at a nursing home and had some time to kill before they needed to head over the mall for lunch, so their choir director (a former member) called and asked if they could come over here. It brought back SO many memories of choir days in the past.

It was their 6th Grade Girls Choir and 6th Grade boys choir. There were about 30 girls and of course, maybe 8 or 9 boys. They sang one song together, and then 2 songs each by themselves. One of the girls sang Silent Night as a solo. The boys sang "Grandma got Run Over By a Reindeer" and "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." The girls sang a Santa medley and that Faith Hill song from the new Grinch movie "Where are you Christmas." (All trying to sound like Faith Hill...as a group...)

Aahh...those were the days...I actually miss singing in choir. Once I finish up at DBU, I plan to find a community chorus that I can get involved with. I'd love to sing with the Pointe of Praise choir here at church, but they meet the same time as our G.A.'s and until we get some leadership for this ministry, I'm going to need to help out there!!