Christian Photographers Community

Dear JudyB, I just finished listening and reading the latest Christmas Song... How absolutely lovely. I also listened to "Watchman, Tell Us of the Night"  I recognized the tune and discovered it is the same as "Come Ye Thankful People Come"

I, too, have been working on my Christmas letter which I hope to have emailed and posted soon. I think I am about two weeks later than last year.

My Christmas decorating will probably occur this weekend. I haven't even unpacked anything as yet.

The only time I have been near the ocean was with a family I was working for, as a Mother's Help in 1962. I do have some CD's that help me recall the wonderful experience.

Pat that is one of my favourites as well.  But my all time favourite is "What Child Is This".  We need to answer that question to be sure......

I have baking to do as well.  Thankfully I have a good mixer and don't have the heavy hand mixing to do.

Janet a time of mourning and rejoicing when a sister goes home.

There is another one to listen to Ruth.  Going into town tomorrow....Have a good day.

Stopping in to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  Sounds like all are very busy getting ready for the holiday season.

I have put up my little tree and a few decorations as my daughter likes to see my little home all smiley.  They are not doing a lot of decorations this year as we are going to have a quiet Christmas.  Wendy is not feeling great and Amanda is not living at home now...  times change....  

We had snow a little while ago.  The kids were away in the US and I was busy outside feeding the rabbits and birds.   There are around 14 different species, including orioles and annus hummingbirds.   In the beginning the birds fought as they didn't realize there was plenty of food for all.  Now they eat together without a squabble.  Woodpeckers, Orioles, blue jays, little birds, including a family of 4 Quail, not a fight or squabble to be seen or heard.  Could be our politicians would benefit from spending time in a garden watching birds.  

Wendy put a box down on the floor today and Squeek took instant advantage.  Despite her senior years and bad arthritis, she never misses an opportunity for a little joy.  




I hope that all have a wonderful holiday season.

Liz








           

Liz what a wonderful picture of squeek.  How old is she now?  It is good to hear from you come back soon!

Here comes the sun......

Welcome Soni!  Hope you stop by soon.  It looks like a storm brewing in your direction. Take care.

Larry:  Super day coming for all of you with the family and I pray that everyone will be healthy and able to enjoy.  As to the new job for SIL, it is really a downer on pay & no health care paid..  Difficult but you never know, as it could work out later. 

We went to grandson's concert last night & the choir & all musicians played the  Christmas music as well as secular - nice for a jr. & senior high school.  Rare.  Fantastic music - we stood on our feet & roared & clapped.  Don can hear the percussion very well and he loved it. 

I have one day without anything planned.    Nope, that is wrong.  I should not have said that and now I am thinking of what is not on the list but still needs to be done. 

Liz, wouldn't it be great if the politicians WOULD take some time to spend in a garden and learn from God's little creatures.  How lovely it must be to watch your birds at feeding time.  And I think we can all learn a lesson from your Squeek, as well.  Sure good to see a post from you again, and hope you have a peaceful, joyful, and healthy Christmas and New Year.

Carol, sounds like a wonderful concert!  So far, here in our little town, we sing Christian music and have prayer at most all public functions, including City Hall meetings.  Praise the Lord.  Now, don't go and get too busy, you need some time to unwind, too.  

I am going to get my hair done, then will drive over to Hugoton to pick up those cards Walmart messed me up on; as Mark picked them up yesterday.

Probably this afternoon, I will be addressing envelopes!

Hi everyone.  For the second Friday our Friday's Men's group met at McDonald's rather than the Senior Center.  They have a parade of Christmas Trees in the Senior Center.  The trees and decorations are donated by businesses and there is no admission charged.  I understand the trees are for sale and will be gone by next Friday.

We are looking forward to later today when Pat and Paul will be with us for the evening.  Once again Pat has made homemade soup so time won't be a factor and we won't have to go out to eat.  It is much more enjoyable to sit around the table and visit rather than out in public. 

With a little help from me yesterday afternoon Pat finished the Christmas decorating.  She limited it to the family room this year.  Our daughter loves Christmas so she will enjoy it as we will each day until the season is over. 

I am not going to mail Christmas cards again this year but yesterday wrote a Christmas e-mail that I will send to friends and family members.  I decided that will be better than nothing at all.  I tried not to make it very long.  If they don't care for receiving greetings in this manner they can just delete the message.  At least they will know that I thought of them.

Janet, we still have prayer and Christmas activities in our area.  Glad to hear that Darrel is feeling better.  I am finding that I am spending a lot more time in my easy chair than in my office.

Carol, it sounds like you enjoyed a great concert.  Glad Don could enjoy it also.

Liz, good to see you posting.  I think cats love boxes.  I know we had a hard time keeping our cat out of the suitcase when it was opened.  Guess he thought it was a box. 

Judy, thanks for the Christmas carols that you are posting.  It sounds like your knitting and sewing projects are coming right along.  Do you do a lot of baking at Christmas?

Etta Sue, the casino's usually put out quite a nice spread in their buffets.  Hope you enjoyed the class reunion.

Ruth, RuthV and Jeanne, good to read your postings.

Pat has gone to Walmart to try to beat the crowds today.  Our coffee maker failed a couple of days ago and she is getting a new one plus probably doing some grocery shopping and I don't know what else.   Other than making a quick trip through the drive-thur at the credit union I plan to have a quiet day and stay home.  I did get all the gifts wrapped yesterday.

The buffet at the casino was very good.  Again there were 17 of us.  Lots of talking, food and laughing!  And walking.  I am leery of valet parking so I parked at the casino end and walked through the casino...holding my breath because of the smoke...up the escalator and more walking to the buffet.  Then had to reverse all that to get back to the car and then walk more at the grocery store.  I survived! 

Home was where I did some laundry and made Party Mix.  Party Mix is a tradition in our family so now it is officially the Christmas Season for me! 

I was going to go swimming with Kitty but she emailed me and said she was up in the middle of the night with the flu.  I think it is God telling her to slow down!  She does too much for her age! 

And I finally heard from Rex...my classmate in Mexico.  It seems while in Tijuana, the afternoon that he called me, he got to feeling bad and had his SIL call for help.  He remembers being put into an ambulance.  They took him across to a hospital 6 blocks from the border in the U.S.  He was in ICU 6 days.  A blood clot from his leg went through his heart into his lung!  His wife can't come to the U.S. since her Visa was revoked but some how they got a woman to get Rex after 8 days at the hospital and take him to Phoenix where they spent the night with friends and then met Marina at Nogales.  But he is home now and we Skyped this morning for awhile.  He looks good and he says he feels good.  He is on Coumadin now and has to have a blood test every week to know what dosage to use for the Coumadin.  Ivalou is on Coumadin so I am familiar with that.  Rex should have been gone a dozen times.  God still has plans for him while on earth or he doesn't want him in Heaven just yet!!  Thanks for your prayers.

Posting for Marilyn:


On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 1:12 PM, Marilyn Fisher <marilyn_793@hotmail.com> wrote:
I still can't get on CP. however I can get on christianphotographers.org, which is a Christian Events site. I have tried 3 different browsers, cleaned the cache and done everything possible to to try to get on CP without any success.

I am getting as ready for Christmas as I can, I've made  2 batches of Rocky Road Fudge, the one I did yesterday I also added coconut and pecans to the marshmallows. In the first batch I  used chopped almonds and marshmallows. I am trying to do different things this year. I got a recipe from my neighbor across the street for Coconut Chocolate Chip macaroons, She brought some over last year and I went crazy over them, so I am going to make them and only one batch of Banana Bread.

I put up my little 3ft Christmas tree last week and set up a Ceramic Christmas village that I found hidden under Keith's train table upstairs, He didn't even know it was there, I put it all around the tree on the table thinking that if I covered the whole table top the cats would stay off the table. Grubby stays off but Fritzy being much younger and so curious still gets up there and takes the ornaments off the tree to play with them.

I also bathed Happy yesterday and he fought me the whole time I had him in the tub. At  one point he somehow managed to get his head down the front of my tank top. (Silly dog.) I still need to bathe Bebe today. If I had done her first I could have done them both in the same day. But Happy wore me out, he still has the skin fungus that we have been treating since last March. it's a good the the Veterinarian  only charges me for tests and not for  Happy's monthly visit to his office. He calls Happy's medicine  to Walmart  where it costs less than he charges.

I got a letter from Keith's sister on  Tuesday telling me that  his DIL's 35 yr old brother had passed away on the  1st and the funeral was that day.  She seemed to think it was from an overdose. Keith told me that the young man had tried to commit suicide just before Keith was  in Portland  in October. So prayers for the White family would be much appreciated.

Savannah tripped over her shoe strings, which were too long, outside of one of her classrooms and fell fracturing her wrist. At 14 she was so embarrassed but on Facebook she says looking back it was funny.

I can't believe  how much of an activist Sarah is becoming . The day after Thanksgiving she went to the mall with a big sign protested  Corporate Greed. The kids told her they would be very embarrassed if any of their friend saw her. So she wore Forest's  Werewolf Halloween mask and gloves. The mall police officer made her leave so then she went to Target.  gilbert just lets her do her thing and he stays home with the kids. Personally I think  she is  becoming TOO much of an activist and is indoctrinated the kids to her way of thinking. She make them read certain books and watch certain TV things. She is sounding more and more Socialist and it worries me for the kids sake. Please pray for my family.

Anyone who want to can  communicate with me either on Facebook or by email. marilyn_793@hotmail.com, email would probably be the best way.

On TV this past week was the movie "Silent Night", about 3 American soldiers and 3 German soldiers celebrated Christmas in a German home the last Christmas of the war.  It was an amazing story based on a true story.  If you have the opportunity to watch it, it would be worth while.

I went to Hugoton and got my cards, came home and napped a bit because for the past three nights, coughing has kept me awake.  Then I addressed most of the cards, took the ones I'm mailing out to the box.

I have my painting stuff ready to load in the car in the morning.  I will meet my friend Winona out at Santa Fe Feeders and we will go on to Minneola from there together.  This should be a fun meeting, as it's Christmas.

I'm praying grandson Mark gets a job; he has had three more calls and is trying to line up interviews.  He's been waiting a long time now!  He really wants to get back up in the air!  One job is for a flight instructor, for which he is qualified.

Judy, I've watched and thoroughly that movie two years but this year, since I cut back to basic cable, I can't get it.    

I've been taking my garbage to the landfill myself since Gene died, because the private collectors were asking anywhere from $45 to $50 a month and they don't separate recyclables.  But it's finally got to the stage that It's really more than I want to handle, hoisting the heavy bags into the car and then tossing them into the garbage bins at the landfill, even though it only costs $3 a bag (plus the gas to get there).  Last week I found out from my neighbor that the outfit that picks hers up every week is only charging $25 a month and will take the recyclables, too.  So I asked her to have him see me when he came for hers and I've made the arrangements.  What a relief that's going to be.  Praise the Lord!

We got about an inch of snow last night but today it's supposed to go above freezing so that will be gone before long.  And that's OK by me!   

Time for some fun.

This week's promise: God is merciful

Have You Found God's Amazing Grace?

"Only fools say in their hearts, 'There is no God'

They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; no one does good!

...Oh, that salvation would come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel!

For when the Lord restores his people, Jacob will shout with joy, and Israel will rejoice."
Psalm 14:1-7 NLT

Rescued from rebellion

Young John Newton called himself an atheist, and his life demonstrated his lack of belief in God. Even the coarsest sailors aboard his slave-trading ship could not stand his filthy speech. He brutalized the male slaves and sexually abused the women, and he prodded other sailors to do the same. The ship's captain finally put him ashore on the coast of Africa, and there he became a servant of slavers.

Finally rescued by another merchant ship, Newton once again fouled the ship with his presence. In a drunken stupor he almost plunged overboard, and the captain wished that he had. Then, amazingly in the midst of a vicious ocean storm in 1748, God touched his heart. Years after his remarkable conversion, Newton commented, "I see no reason why the Lord singled me out for mercy...unless it was to show that with him nothing is impossible."

The fool who had said in his heart that there was no God was now transformed. He became famous throughout England, both as a preacher and a writer of hymns. Without a doubt, the best-known hymn of this former atheist is the following:

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.
JOHN NEWTON

from The One Year® Book of Psalms by William J. Petersen and Randy Petersen,
Tyndale House Publishers (1999), entry for January 23

I can't understand why Marilyn can't get online here.  It's really weird.  Thanks for sharing that from Marilyn, Larry.

Well, we had a wonderful sleep here at Larry and Pat's and now we're still here!!!  Apparently, Paul wants to show me a couple of places in Atlanta!  Not sure what's up yet.

OK, folks.  Get those thinking caps on and get out the camera.  We have a new mini challenge - #52, A Personal Expression of Christmas"  here:  http://www.christianphotographers.com/community/index.php?topic=11223.msg157828#msg157828

I can't figure out why Marilyn can't get on CP either.  She has no problem with other sites.  It has to be something with the web address but I even sent her a clickable and it didn't work either!  It's not that she doesn't have the right user name and password, she just can't get on CP!  Weird!  Probably something very simple. 

This evening, Ivalou and I are going to my son, Tony's house.  Charlene has made reservations somewhere in Indy to take us to eat!  So I had better get spiffied up!  I don't want to look like a 'hick from the sticks'! 

It is cloudy and suppose to rain today.  Yesterday and today has been heat waves.  Above freezing!  So nice to go out and not have that blast of cold hit you!  There are still spots of white stuff on the ground but if it rains, that will all be gone.  Just hope it stays above freezing if and when it rains!!  Snow, I can go.  Ice, not so nice!

It has not happened for a long long time, but I had problems getting on CP from other computers while on trips.  Library computers and family computers. 

Listening to Pandora to my old church music I set up.  Most of the songs coming in are super.  Not always "old".  I have my earbuds on.  Salad is made but not tossed for luncheon this noon and this is the quilting group.  Almost sick of going to so many places & too much food. 

Janet:  Prayers for a job for Mark. 

Tomorrow is a pizza party for Don's birthday this week and early church as well.  That should be enough for the day.  One grandson may not be there yet - he is still in school in Minnesota.  We just read a news article from South Dakota where he played & made a goal & assist.  Amazing that his name is in a newspaper - his team beat their winning team and they showed such great sportsmanship. 

Alan Jackson is singing "Standing on the Promises" - such a nice and clear voice.  Does everyone know how to set up Pandora on their computer?  It is FREE. Larry gave me the information and I am forever grateful. 

Hi everyone.

Carol, just type in Pandora.com in your address line of the browser and then sign in to your account and away you go.  It works just like the app on the iPod Touch.  I was listening to it last evening for a bit when I went to bed and you hear some nice music by folks you probably wouldn't ever have the opportunity of hearing.  It sounds like your grandson is quite good at ice hockey.

Etta Sue, hope you all have a lovely evening with your son and his wife. 

Pat and Paul left here after lunch today to go to the Atlanta Aquarium and then I think they planned on heading up the road to home.  Hope they don't run into bad weather before getting home.  Paul is hopeful that they will finally be getting high speed internet at their home in Virginia perhaps this next week.  We had a lovely visit with them and hated to see them leave.  Paul went with me this morning to my final choir rehearsal for the Christmas Cantata last night.  We had the privilege of practicing with the 14 piece orchestra composed of professional musicians.  It was great.

Jeanne, sure glad you were able to work out an agreeable arrangement with our trash service.  They changed the way trash is picked up in our county by assigning areas so now we get one truck a week through the neighborhood and not five or six on different days.  We did have to pay for 18 months of service when we paid our property tax but now on it will be an annual fee.  If the fee isn't paid they put a lien on your property.

Judy, thanks for your postings.

Janet, know you will probably be back when you read this but hope you had a great time at your painting event. 

We are suppose to get a frigid winter air blast with some rain and by Tuesday to be down to 15 degrees.  Not looking forward to it.  Sure hope it isn't too bad for people to get out to the Cantata tomorrow night. 

Have a wonderful Lord's day folks!

    Hi to all.  We have had two very busy days as we went to a beautiful Christmas concert  last night then today was our family get together in Toronto and a couple from our old church did all the cooking which it makes it so much easier for all the ladies.

The children had so much fun meeting ther cousins anplaying with each other so it made for a wonderful day.

I will just say that I am tired and must go to the basement to help Noreen wrap some gifts.  Have a wonderful day with the Lord's people.   Gord and Noreen.

Yes, we had a wonderful time last evening at a lovely Italian restaurant.  Never heard of this before but what Ivalou and I ordered, we also got to order a togo for today!  So I had Alfredo Fetticini last night and today I am having Lasagne.  Hope that is spelled right but if not, hope you understand.  The only draw back was it was raining but the plus was I wasn't driving! 

While at the restaurant I got a call from Rex in Mexico...Mobile Skype.  He asked where I was and that according to Google Earth we were in for lots of snow....10"-12" last night.  Well, we got snow but maybe only a half inch!  It turned colder but it's winter.

I am all ready for church and this evening is our Christmas Cantata.  Sure hope the weather allows people to get out to the Cantata.  Ruth Ann and the choir work so hard. 

I left my Droid in the car.  I got it out of my pocket while driving home and couldn't get it back in the pocket with my coat on.  So I put it in the cup holder and said, 'I will probably leave my phone in the car now.'  I did. 

Everyone have a God-filled day!

Hi everyone.  We are expecting much colder weather to hit today with possibly a little snow in the air but they don't predict it will be anything significant here in our area.  I have my fingers crossed that it won't keep folks from coming back to the church tonight to hear the Christmas Cantata. 

Pat and our daughter have gone over to Wal-Mart so our daughter can do some Christmas shopping.  I will be attending church this morning.  Our newly reconstituted bell choir will be playing this morning but the choir will still be sitting in the choir loft to lead in the hymn singing.  I plan on resting this afternoon to be able to have the energy for the Cantata this evening.

I have been thinking of Ruth Ann and that we haven't seen her post for quite awhile.  I do hope she is all right.

Etta Sue, hope your phone didn't get too cold last night.  Being in the garage should have helped protect it.  It sounds like you all had a wonderful meal last evening.

Gord, good to see you posting.  That wrapping gifts can be a real task.  I hope we have that done for this year.  Our daughter will be wrapping her gifts here today so we don't have to haul them down to her apartment and then back out here.

We have been hit again with snow.  It stated between 6 and 8 .  Nothing was going on when John got up at 6, by the time I got up the storm was upon us.  Ruth G are you getting it yet?  Or will it bypass you!?

Have a great Lord's day.