I hope everyone had a very pleasant Christmas. Mine was.

Let me start off by saying that I realize this blog may sound a bit materialistic, but it honestly is not meant to be. The greatest gift I have EVER received was the gift of salvation that Jesus Christ gave me with his death and resurrection. But I did get a few neat things for Christmas I'd like to share with you. 

My husband made me cry with his gift. It was more precious than the gold and gems he's given me in the past because I know he put a lot of thought into it. When he asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I rattled off a few smaller things that I'd like to have, nothing elaborate, and one of them was the latest Harry Potter movie that just came out on DVD. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and don't know what was going on that I didn't make it to the theater when it came out this summer. I think maybe we were down south visiting with Baby Cherry when she was born and missed it when it came to the theater here. Anyway, wrapped up with "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" was "It's a Wonderful Life." John hates that movie. I burned him out on it when we first got together by watching it three to four times a season. Everytime it was on television when I was at home, I was watching it. Since then, they don't play it as often and I usually miss it anymore. This year, I caught the tail end of it but watched what was left with wrapt attention, recited some of the lines and cried at the end like I do every year. So, when I opened that present, I bawled with joy, because I know he's going to gripe everytime I go to watch that movie, but he gave it to me because he knows how much I love it. It is my most favorite movie in the whole wide world. *BIG GRIN*

My daughter also gave me a custom-made bag with a photo of Baby Cherry on it. It's got some jeweled cherries on it as well as the words "Grandma". I really love it and have shown it off to everyone.

We had a nice dinner at John's sister's house with her new husband. His brother was there with his new girlfriend and her kids. We really liked them. He was divorced earlier this year from a lady who never wanted to come to family events on his side of the family, so it was nice to have him there with her. She and I were on the same team playing Taboo and she ROCKED at it. She was so good at giving clues and picked up well on my clues, too. One of my nephews was on our team with us as well.

We are under a snow advisory today. If the snow isn't too bad, we're hoping to drive up to Newton this afternoon (about 40 minutes away) to look at a 2002 Impala they have on the lot that's within the right price range for the bank to loan me the money on it. I've already requested preapproval from the bank and should hear back from them this morning. Our truck has a leak in the heater coil (or is it core?) and when I called the mechanic, they said it will cost nearly $600 to repair. It has a lot of other problems that need fixed, too, including the brakes which cost me nearly $800 last time I had to have them done, sooooo, it's time to junk this baby and move on. I will miss my 4-wheel drive. It's a gas hog, but I trust it to get me around in the crappy weather. Right now, she's getting a nasty greasy film on the inside of the windows when we run the heater, and it's worse when we run the defroster. It makes it difficult to drive when the window gets covered with this stuff, especially at night when the lights reflect back into it. Please pray that we make the right decision here and the financing comes through for it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years. Our church is having a watch night and a lock in for the youth. I'll be going to it for a while on New Year's Eve and then coming back the next morning to make waffles for the youth. It will be fun.

 Hello, and Merry Christmas to everyone. I was searching the web for a nice Nativity picture to put on my blog when I came across this web site for the Sand Nativity of Jesolo. This is a place in Italy that has different artists come in every year to sculpt images of the Nativity story in a huge sand pit as a fundraiser for different charities around Italy. It's pretty awesome. They sculpt a new Nativity scene each year. There are no photos there yet of this year's scenes, but scenes from the past are pretty cool.

Here is a scene from 2002 of a pregnant Mary and Joseph approaching the city of Bethlehem on their journey to the census. I just love how the artists have the windows lit up.

Here is the one that attracted me to the site to begin with. This is from 2003. Look at the detail!

And here's another of the shepherd's in awe at the news of Jesus' birth. I just love how all their jaws are dropped. There's also light eminating from their campfire.

There are many more images from the past several years on display at Jesolo Tourism site.

I hope that while we are engulfed in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, with the shopping and the parties and the church and school activities, that you'll take time to reflect upon the REAL reason for the season: that God came to earth as man that He to take on our transgressions. Without Jesus Christ, there is no reconciliation with the Father God. I hope more than anything else this Christmas that you will know the peace and love that comes with having Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

Now for a funny story: I got to speak with my daughter Shannon last night. Our gifts to them arrived via FedEx yesterday. She and her husband just moved into a new house, so they don't have their Christmas tree up yet and she's been putting presents in the office. So far, my nearly 3-year-old granddaughter has been pretty good about not messing with the gifts. Shannon said shortly after she put our gifts in with the others, Leighann came into the living room wearing this cute new outfit (Disney Princess pajamas) modeling them for everyone (she loves to do fashion shows of her new clothes). Shannon, who has a terrible time about keeping out of presents until Christmas day herself, was at first giddy that she could see what we sent her without getting into trouble for opening our presents early. Shannon went into the office to find that her daughter hadn't opened any of the presents except the ones that had just arrived and then ONLY the ones that were intended for her. HOW DID SHE KNOW??? Shannon and I are both puzzled.

Have a very merry Christmas
and a happy New Year!

With the presidential caucuses just weeks away, we in Iowa have been getting bombarded with politicaly ads. I'm sure most of anyone in the United States that pays attention to the news knows that few weeks ago, Mitt Romney led the polls here in Iowa, but recently he's been surpassed by Mike Huckabee.

My husband found this neat questionnaire from USA Today that helps pinpoint which candidate most supports your views based on the answers you give. Some of the questions were pretty tough because there were more than one answer I agreed with, but I had to choose which I thought was probably the best.

Follow this link to the quiz that will help you decide: USA Today Presidential Candidate Match Game

BTW, my 1, 2 and 3 choices ended up being Huckabee, Tom Tancredo (who I believe has dropped out) and Romney. I was leaning that way anyway. I thought about Fred Thompson, but after visiting a couple of his web sites, I decided his answers seemed a little too canned and insincere.

• With just over 6 weeks until the caucuses, Iowa is bombarded with political ads, and they are getting more and more frequent. I'm sure by Christmas, every other ad will be for someone wanting to be president. Caucuses are Jan. 3, I think.
• Although we have lived here nearly 12 years, this will be the first caucus I will attend. We moved here immediately following the caucus in 1996. I didn't quite understand the caucus process in 2000 and didn't attend, forgetting that while we have a primary later in the year, we don't get to vote for president at the primary. In 2004, I was sick on caucus night, so I didn't go. By then I'd learned that the caucus is where all the Repbulicans in town gather in one place, all the Democrats in another, and they have a big meeting debating which party candidate we should put on the ballot and then vote on it at the end of the nite. There are no voting booths. It's like a town hall meeting. It will be interesting to actually participate in one this year.
• The weather man is predicting snow on Wednesday.
• We have no plans for Thanksgiving day itself. We rarely get a whole day that neither of us has to do anything, so I think we'll just sit home and enjoy it. I may make hubby his favorite beef and noodles for dinner or just a ham steak and a few Thanksgiving-style sides. My friend "L" invited us to her house, but I'm liking the idea of puttering around my own house doing my own thing all day.
• My friend "L" and I will venture out early Friday morning for our annual tradition of bargain hunting on Black Friday. We stick to the smaller towns where the crowds are not vicious. We made the mistake of going to Des Moines one year. We got there waaay too late for the good bargains and the lines at the registers were hours long. Not again.
• Some malls are opening at midnight Friday morning. We are toying with the idea of whether we are capable of handling starting shopping at midnight and going until 6 or 7 a.m. We'll make that final call when we talk Thursday afternoon to plan our shopping strategies. Luckily, I've scheduled myself off on Friday so I can come home to sleep regardless of when we get started.
• I hope everyone who is traveling for the holiday gets to where you are going and back safely. Happy Thanksgiving.

Welcome to the world Grandbaby #3

Dionna Dawn

November 14, 2007
10:21 a.m.
5 lbs. 11 oz.
19.75 inches

From the What-will-they-think-of-next Department:

Notice the feet under the Coca-Cola machine closest to you? Apparently some Japanese designer is making these dresses with a hidden panel in them that women can just pull out and hide under if they ever need to elude someone pursuing them. They also have manhole handbags that you can throw onto the street to keep a mugger from getting your wallet. It looks just like a manhole cover so your wallet, along with your money, ID and credit cards, will be perfectly hidden.

Whatever! Would you actually buy something like this?

Today's featured question is: "Would you become an organ donor?" I am an organ donor. While my husband, and I think my mother, have known my wishes for that for years, it was only a couple of years ago I actually filled out the organ donor paperwork to file with the state organ donor group to make it official.

For years, I was always leary of having "organ donor" listed on my driver's license because I didn't want them to let me die to harvest my organs. I think that ridiculous idea came from some B-movie I watched when I was younger where an ambulance driver was letting patients he picked up that had a chance of living were they treated die for their organs. Then, when I heard that it doesn't do you any good to just have it on your driver's license if you next of kin don't know your wishes, I let it slide for years without registering. Officials in Iowa have said that even if it is on your license, if your next of kin don't says "OK", they won't take your organs anyway.

My body may not be perfect. My eyesight is pretty bad, my liver is fatty, and I'm sure my heart has some strain on it due to my weight (though I have EXCELLENT blood pressure), if my organs can help another person live a longer, more productive life, they are welcome to them. I won't need them where I'm going because God will make me whole again there.

Don't forget, Daylight Saving Time ends tonight (technically tomorrow morning at 2 a.m.). Set your clocks back.

I could use the extra hour sleep myself. I went to bed last night at 8:45 and woke up this morning at 7, minus a couple middle-of-the-night bathroom breaks that tend to come with getting older.

It's been a pretty good day. Hubby and I drove to Knoxville today. He and our assistant manager interviewed a couple of applicants there while I ran the store for a bit. Then hubby and I went to lunch together - something we don't normally get to do. Sure, we eat together in the break room most days, but we rarely get to go out to lunch together on a work day. It was pretty nice.

Now I'm just extremely tired. Don't know why. It's not like it's been a real strunuous day, but my body is telling me to go to bed at 8:30 on a Friday night. I think I'll listen to it for a change.

It's going to be a busy weekend. I work tomorrow and our Sunday school social is tomorrow evening. We are having a taco night. I'm making homemade enchiladas as soon as I get off work. I'm hoping hubby will go with me, but not holding my breath on that. So far, he has agreed, but we'll see.

He has he day off work tomorrow but plans to spend it raking leaves into the street. The city has a vacuum-like thingy they bring around once a year. Next week they'll be doing our quadrant of the city. We have a large maple in the front and an elm on the side. The maple is nearly finished dropping it's leaves already (and as soon as I find my data cable, I'll post a pic of it when it was ablaze with colors). The elm seems to drop all of it's leaves overnight (at least it did last year) and that's AFTER the leaf vacuum goes by.

You have got to go to Mark and Kerri's site and view this video. Watch it all the way through. It is incredible! Have a tissue handy.