Christmas is family & fun

My popsicle stick nativity.

It is old and I don't remember who made it but I cherish!

Made lovingly by the hands of a little child.

Oh why didn't I put a name and date.

Cathy is 71...

Bubba is 75.

How did we ever get this old?

Now we are blessed to look back on a life full of adventures and remember.

Getting old is God's way...

"The days of our lives are seventy years,

 and if by reason of strength eighty years."

Psalm 90:10

Mark and Amanda preparing food for our party.

Old favorites...

sausage cheese balls and pigs in blankets.

The house is a wonderland of sights and smells.

Walter getting a good talking to from his Dad.

Too much excitement!

You can see the Christmas punch in the background

and the tablecloth my Grandma Hodie made.

Coffee time.

The boys right before a pillow fight broke out.

Notice Eli's Santa shirt.

The children's table complete with floating candles and Disney decorations.

Lots of Star Wars talk and goofing around.

They were loud and excited!

David and his sister Amanda cracking up.

Lots of laughter and fun.

I love them!

These two were our babies!

Now they are middle aged with children of their own.

The circle of life keeps going!

We played dirty Santa.

Walt got to keep this cute little puppy.

Actually, when all was said and done, everybody got something they really could use.

I got a small legal pad and two new pens.

You know me, I'm always writing something!

Thank you to Amanda for gathering all the gifts for this game and then wrapping them.

🎁

Lucy opening the surprise gift for all the grandchildren.

More on this picture in my next post.

I ❤️ Christmas!!

nothing but the blood

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I saw this picture on Facebook earlier today.

It spoke volumes to me about this God/Man Jesus Christ and what he did.

It was His death that saved us...

His shedding of His precious blood.

Everything the Bible says about Him is true.

He was born of a virgin.

(The first time He came to this earth)

He lived a completely sinless life.

He died on the cross.

Three days later he rose from the grave.

He is in heaven now seated at the right hand of His Father interceding for us.

He is coming back the second time to claim His own.

Way back in the Old Testament God gave us a perfect picture of the salvation that was to come.

When it came time for the Children of Israel to leave Egypt where they were  in bondage,

God spoke this to them...

They were instructed to take a perfect lamb and kill it...

"And they shall take some of the blood

 and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel 

of the houses where they eat it."

Exodus 12:7

After that was done they were to cook and eat the flesh of the lamb.

Thus they celebrated the first Passover.

"Now the blood shall be a sign for you 

on the houses where you are. 

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you;

 and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:13

Those who did what God commanded were saved that night.

Here is the miracle of salvation:

God didn't first go inside to see if the people were worthy in His sight to be saved. He looked at the doorway to see if the inhabitants of the house had done what He instructed them to do.

That is God's way of salvation. 

No one could ever be worthy in and of himself.

We have to do it God's way through the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ.

What does God require of us?

Very simply,

 BELIEVE and have FAITH in His word and be saved.

Trust that by shedding His blood Jesus paid the full price of our redemption.

Rest in Him until He comes to claim us as His own.

Praise Him daily for what He has done.

"Jesus said to him, 

I am the way, the truth, the life.

 No one comes to the Father except through me."

John 14:6

❤️

written by cathyc

the calm before the storm

This was before Christmas when everything was neat and clean.

Now it is the day after Christmas.

The big day is over.

Our families have left to go have Christmas with their other families.

The house is an absolute mess,

 but it is filled to the brim with amazing memories

 of one of our best Christmases ever.

I haven't had a moment to look at my pictures.

(there are a lot of them)

Just wanted to say...

I'm so thankful for these people...

we have some teenagers,

some elderly people,

some middle aged people,

and some children.

They are all so dear to my heart.

All comes from God who gave the most amazing gift ever given...

Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today I'm doing a little cleaning and a lot of resting.

Maybe I'll get to go through my pictures.

Mostly I'm reflecting

 and being thankful

 and praising

 the One who was born in a manger and changed the world.

Until later.

Cathy

Merry Christmas

May the love and joy of Christmas fill your hearts with happiness and peace...

today on the birthday of Jesus our Savior,

and always as we spend our eternity with Him.

"To God be the glory, great things has He done."

Jesus is all we need.

Jesus is everything.

🎄

wrappings and trees and things

I finished wrapping the Christmas gifts yesterday.

Just before I went to bed last night,

I placed them under the tree.

I have been working countless hours since November 29 to make this magic happen.

Now it's time to start procuring  groceries for our favorite tastes of the season.

I love to gather around the table on Christmas Day,

to hear the children laughing and talking with each other,

to share memories of past Christmases.

I just love to sit back and watch everybody,

their faces, their smiles.

Christmas Day is otherworldly,

a taste of heaven,

a perfect day.

Our tree is a bit quirky this year,

but I like that in a fresh cut Christmas tree.

The star is a little crooked,

the right side of the top part of the tree doesn't match the left side,

some of the lights are not completely proportional.

But as every tree, every year, this one is magical.

It lights up the dark and brings memories of past Christmas' that warm my heart.

There is a great big fresh green wreath on our front door to welcome our guests,

except that all of the guests come through the garage.

I hope that it has been welcoming to the delivery drivers.

I have done almost all of my Christmas shopping on-line this year.

Amazon rocks!!

I love this basket of huge fresh pine cones just inside our front door.

Something nice to be greeted with.

I love Christmas~

Jesus Christ God's Son is the best gift.

This world was a mess.

Sin was rampant.

The relationship between God and man was irretrievably broken.

In the fullness of time God sent His Son Jesus into the world to deal with man's brokenness.

Jesus came to this earth to die.

He took the sin of the world on His shoulders.

He gave His life so that man could be reconciled with God.

God accepted what Jesus did on the cross as payment for our sin.

Through Jesus' blood we were made righteous and holy in God's sight.

This world is still a mess.

Sin is still rampant.

But man has been given the gift of salvation.

Jesus died so we could live forever in perfect peace with God.

Indeed we celebrate!

Merry Christmas to all of you.

two great pleasures and a downer

It's back!

❤️ my 🎄

Decorating the tree is a much loved activity for me.

Those tiny little figures called ornaments

bring back the fondest of memories.

Given with much love...

cherished in my heart of hearts.

Coffee...

Ever since radiation in my mouth took away my sense of taste,

coffee has been intolerable to me.

I have not had that much loved cup of java in the morning for almost two years.

Recently, because I got out my Christmas mugs,

I decided to pour myself a cup to see what would happen.

Lo and behold, my palate was pleased.

For the past week or so I have had a cup every morning 

along with a half bagel and my computer.

I think it's a miracle.

Slowly, slowly, healing is coming.

The caffeine gave me quite a high though.

Looking forward to having room service very early in the morning on our cruise.

This morning I had a 9:45 appointment in town.

It was pouring down rain.

When I finished, I couldn't wait to get home.

I had a couple of errands to run but I opted out until Monday.

I knew exactly what I had done.

I slowed and rolled through a stop sign at an intersection.

The policeman saw me flagrantly break the law and he hunted me down.

Blue lights flashing he pulled behind my 2005 Honda Van.

After a very short period of denial,

I pulled over and stopped.

Here he comes standing out in the rain with no coat on. 

I took my time getting my driver's license out.

Finally, I rolled down the window.

He said, "Mam, do you know what you did?"

I confessed.

I have a court date at the end of January.

Don't know what my fine will be.

Made me mad!

He did get thoroughly soaked though.

🌧️

.

happy 14th birthday lucy

Really?

Lucy is fourteen?

I can hardly believe.

The cousins came to help us celebrate.

Harry is missing from the picture because he was (still is) sick.

Archie and Walt have also fallen ill.

Even David has a fever.

Nevertheless, it was quite a party.

First game on the agenda was lawn darts...

We had a perfectly beautiful day to play our summer game in the yard.

Jake scored highest and won the first place prize.

Amanda & Mark took second and third place. 

 Gram kept score.

Next we went inside to fulfill a tradition.

After I spend literally hours making my Christmas villages come to life,

I let the grandkids throw snow on them.

Here is Archie being very meticulous as per his personality.

Gus and Jake are much more animated.

Much of their "snow" landed on the floor.

I never mind though.

I tell them I will vacuum it up when they leave.

Lucy putting the birds on the telephone wires

Dinner was lovely.

Of course the decorations are Christmas.

This was Lucy's requested menu...

Steak cooked on the grill.

Baked potatoes with all the fixings.

Salad with my homemade salad dressing.

&...wait for it,

Jalapeno deviled eggs.

For dessert she requested my delicious pecan pie made the gluten free way.

Lucy is a gluten free girl.

*I can learn new tricks in my old age.

Keeps me thinking!

😊

Game # 2...

Guess how much money is in the jar.

These folks are in the midst of making their guesses.

The correct amount was $12.91.

Erika won this game.

Eli playing the inchworm game!

Jake first place again.

Lucy with her gifts.

And lastly the birthday pie.

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Her parents gave her a phone.

She was completely surprised and overwhelmed.

She's growing up.

That's a fact!

stopping for beauty

Fall has been beautiful in Savannah this year.

The colors of Autumn are hard to beat. 

One day a couple of weeks ago Amanda and I were driving through our neighborhood.

All of a sudden she brought the car to a screeching halt to get out and take a picture of a tree.

I jumped out and took a picture of her taking that picture.

One doesn't see color like that in south Florida.

In the South Fall is short and fleeting.

One day it's blazing hot and the trees are still full of green leaves.

The next day the trees are bare and it's freezing cold.

Fall takes a long time to get here and it departs quickly in a burst of freezing cold air.

One day it is 85 and the next day it is 50. 

Below is the progression of my favorite front yard tree.

It goes from fully loaded to almost bare in a little over a month.

We let all of the beautiful leaves fall and form a carpet.

Then last Friday our wonderful yard man came and cleared all of them away.

The grass was green again.

Now we have the stick trees of winter and it's going back up to almost 80 this week.

🍂🍂🍂🍂

a few more thanksgiving...

This girl, what can I say about her.

She is the best daughter a mom could have.

She is always there for me...happy and smiling.

My pillow.com

The Thanksgiving tablescape as Amanda calls it.

Our grandboys are growing up.

Jake is taller than me...

Eli getting there fast.

The Hollingsworth family

Me striking a pose on a piece of driftwood.

I still can't get over how good it feels to be alive and well.

Jake and Eli with the turkey wishbone.

Jake won and all of his wishes came true.

Playing "Gobble" Bingo for cash.

A perfect ending to a perfect day!