We had our Anniversary on the 22nd of December, celebrating twenty-three years. God is good!! So thankful for my sweet husband and the leader he is in our home. I sure have been blessed!
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We had our church play on the 23rd. I am humbled to be able to direct and often write our Christmas plays. 2013 was a difficult and busy year so I wasn't able to write a play. But Mrs. Carolyn Parker came up with an idea and it was SUCH a blessing. And special thanks to Mrs. Amanda for helping direct this year!! Love my friends and their willingness to help whenever needed. The play was "Let's Talk About Jesus." The story was about a church that was having their last night of a Bible study on the life of Christ. Questions were asked to the man leading the Bible study, who was played by Brother Troy Tucker. I gave the list of questions to Brother Troy and told him I wanted to speak from his heart and from Scripture about the answers he would give. It was AWESOME!! The gospel was clearly given and near the end he really preached the Word. I was in tears at how wonderful it was. Our Christmas plays rarely are about Christmas. It usually is around Christmas. But we focus more on the WHY of Christ's coming than the actual coming itself. We try to present the gospel each year. This year was just wonderful.
Beautiful songs were sung.
The youth choir did a great job on everything. I was so proud of them.
Brother Troy did an excellent job on presenting the gospel.
Anna Grace played a little girl that got saved and was lead to the Lord by Mrs. Tammy Carter.
Then she got up and sang, "I Love You, Lord." It was so sweet. She has a voice like a little angel.
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On Christmas Eve we changed things up a little bit. Usually we spend Christmas Eve at mama's and Christmas Day at Bruce's mama's. But this year we did both on Christmas Eve. We had a terrific time at my mother in love's home, having brunch and opening gifts and just enjoying our family time. It was so nice.
Bruce and his mama.
Bruce's brother, Barry and his two sons, Zack and Elijah.
My niece Brandy and her family, Zack and Conleigh.
My niece Jessica and her daughters, Elanna and Ashley.
Bruce's oldest brother, Bryan and his wife, Cindy.
My niece Brittney and her family, Jordan and Leyton.
And Bruce's baby brother, Mitch with his family, Angie, Johnathan, and Jackson.
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When we left there, we went to mom's house for the rest of the evening. We played games like "Chubby Bunny" and a wrapping game where we had two teams wrap a player on their team in 45 seconds.
Justin was the winner of the Chubby Bunny game. The object of the game is to stuff a marshmallow in your mouth and say, "Chubby Bunny." Then keep repeating that until you can't say it anymore. Justin was able to stuff the most marshmallows in his mouth. However, by the end of that game he was ready to up-chuck and had to run out to the porch. LOL
Harrison and my niece, Jessica, were the team players that had to be wrapped. My brother, John's, team won. They had Jessica wrapped nicely in 45 seconds. They did a pretty good job. :)
My great nephew, Chance, loved the little box of monster cars we got him.
I was glad my niece, Jessica, was able to join us. She worked at the jail house all day and was ready for some good times and good food. Love that niece!
My sister in law, Jenny...
and my brother, John, were both very sick. But they didn't let that stop them from having a good time. They were pretty good sports all night.
Mom seemed to like the Origami Owl necklace we bought her. I started her with two charms. A teacup because she collects teacups and teapots. And a police shield, in memory of daddy. She teared up a little bit. We all missed him being there. He loved Christmas so much and any excuse, really, to have a fun party and a good time with his family.
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Christmas Day was great, in my opinion. We did NOTHING all day. We got up and opened gifts and then after that, Hannah and I worked on getting lunch ready. We ate, napped, watched movies, napped, checked out our new stuff, napped. Did I mention we napped?
The kids always have a sibling day together after Christmas. But since Justin and Hannah had to return to work the next day, they decided to go out Christmas night. They had a good time together. I'm so glad they have that little tradition. There may come a day when they can't do that, but they'll have good memories. And that's what it's all about.
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New Year's Eve we had our moms over for pick up party foods and games. We played Uno and Spoons and had a great time. If you've never played spoons, it can become a very vicious game. Hannah will tear your hands to bits with her long finger nails. But we had a great time and everyone survived. haha The moms retreated to their homes early. Hannah and I cleaned up the mess in the kitchen and then continued playing games with Bruce and Harrison. Justin had a bonfire party at Jeremy and Ashley's house. After games, we watched a movie. Stopped at 12:00 to wish each other a happy New Year, and resumed our movie. Then the next day we slept in entirely too late.
That pretty much sums up the last few days of December for us.
I look back on 2013 and see all the things God has brought us through. Wow! What a year!! The last couple of months has been a very stressful time for me. I've been dealing with something and determined that in 2014, things were going to be different. I decided I was going to let Bruce handle certain situations and I was going to separate myself from things that were causing my stress. I was carrying around a stiff neck and stress knots in my shoulders. I had pulled my back the day before New Year's Eve and knew it had to do with stress. On New Year's Day, my husband handled a situation that was causing more pain to be manifested in my back and shoulders and neck. As he handled the situation I was feeling kind of bad about him doing it. But almost IMMEDIATELY, I was able to move my neck. The knots in my shoulders were gone. And my back was fine. It was a New Year's miracle, for real. I decided right then and there that I could not allow myself to be stressed out like that any longer. I was just about to the point that I was ready to see a chiropractor. I told Bruce he was way cheaper than therapy. LOL So 2014 I am determined not to allow stress to invade my body. I know the Lord will send things my way that will bring stress. But I hope I can handle it better than I have been.
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I hope all of you are trusting the Lord as you begin a new year. I anticipate the workings of the Lord this year, but know that we know not what is ahead of us. I do, however, know that He is truly good in all things.
