Happy 18th Birthday Christiana

18 years ago today our hearts were filled with much joy!!

I can't think of a more perfect birthday present to a father than a sweet little (Big 10 lb.) baby :)

God's gifts are the greatest!

Full of "Happy Energy", excitement and laughter.

These things have I spoken unto you,
that my joy might remain in you,
and that your joy might be full.
~John. 15:11 ~

May the joy of the Lord continue to bless others through your life.

What a blessing you are to every one of us.

We love you sweet girl.
:)

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Happy Birthday, Ben (Daddy)

What a blessing to have such a man as you are to lead our

family these 27 years.

We are so blessed by your commitment to the Lord and to His ways.

What a testimony to us all!!

We love you dearly, daddy (Ben).

Always will be special,

BIRTHDAY BUDDIES.

Christmas 2011 ~Part 1~

Uncle Tom invited us to go along and enjoy the

Colonial Christmas with him.
We're so glad he did!!

When we arrived everyone was singing.
Hot Cider was served and we joined in with singing.

The Dining Room



We experienced the Colonial Christmas Dinner for

the twelve days of Christmas, from Dec.25th to Jan.6th. and

the different traditions they had.

Dance Lessons in the Ball Room.

Reading a petition.

The political skit that was quite hilarious.

Aunt Mary even joined in with a few lines and was

the star of the evening.

The Storyteller from the perspective of the slaves.

Colonial Period Games.

(The first Monopoly. Don't remember the name of it.)

Aunt Mary enjoying herself with this lil' Gent.

Love the porch :)

On the joggling board. It was made for people with rheumatism.

Later it was called the courting bench because when you sat on it,

it would bounce you both towards the middle ;).

---------------------------

Time to step outside and enjoy the cold before it disappears.

We had a couple nights of cold weather so Liv decided to

use her handy dandy projector and set up an outdoor

theatre. No mosquitos to eat you alive, for a couple days,

anyway. (We'll take it!)

cozy or what?

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The "Annual" Dade City Christmas Stroll

Group "2011"

We look so forward to this every year!!

And a good day to you ;)

So many fun hats.

Why would anyone in their right mind buy 50 pounds of kettle

corn before they start shopping, so they can lug it around all night!?!

That would be me!! I couldn't even get through half the stores without

running into stuff. Good Grief!!

Ariana holding Aunt Mary's head band she purchased.

(She ended up giving it to Ariana for Christmas ;)

Happy Times

Like she needs caffeine!!!

She'll start shaking in about 5 minutes, ha ha.

:)

Happiness is ........

Every trip starts with a

delicious cup of java with a candy cane to stir it with!!

Mmmm, mmmm, fantastic!

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That's all for Part 1.

Be back soon with more Christmas fun.

If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: "God with us." We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ. The greater truth of the holiday is His deity. More astonishing than a baby in the manger is the truth that this promised baby is the omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth!

~John F. MacArthur, Jr.

Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity, Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel ~Charles Wesley

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

~News Flash~

The "Comment" part of our blog has been messed up for a while and different people have been asking about it. I think I've figured it out. You have to comment as "Anonymous" for it to accept your comment. Hopefully this will fix everything. If not, I'm stumped at what to do next!! Thanks for your faithfulness, as aggravating as it is.

November ~2011~

Beautiful Alabama Color.

Trip to Alabama to the Annual knife sale at

Bear and Son Cutlery factory.

http://www.bearandsoncutlery.com/

While there we met the owner of Alabama Damascus Steel

(One of only three places in the U.S. that makes Damascus Steel.), and he invited us to

visit the shop and see how it's made.

It was amazing how much work goes into making this steel.

It really shows you why it's so strong (and expensive).

It's a very long and extensive process!!

It's worth a visit if you're ever in the area!!
http://www.alabamadamascussteel.com/servlet/Page?template=about

We had two camera's the entire trip,

but nobody seemed to turn it on the first couple days!!

These are some of what we did get :)


Picnic Time


(Picnics on the road = happiness)

My favorite restaurant,

the back of a truck!

After taking 20 pics, trying to get this girl to smile,

this is what we end up with, times 20.

:/

(Notice Ariana's cardboard spoon.)

Like Gabriel always says,

Improvise, Adapt and Overcome :)

:)

Looking for the brown gold.

Not sure what's so funny......... Could be Anything!!

Nope, I STILL don't like McDonalds..........

but I like McDonald's bags filled with delicious pecans!!!

You can't eat just one :)

The taste tester and tester and tester....

(It was hard to get her to stop!)

Wonderful family.

Now comes the fun part.

We ended up with about 5 quarts.

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Garden Goods

What a blessing to be able to pick peas in November.

Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings.

Time to pickle some okra.

This is about 12:30 A.M. and a nice hot cup of java is in store

for the long night ahead.

Ariana is so looking forward to her first sip of delicious java.

(Something is sure funny in the background.)

YUK!!

(This coffee is horrible!!)

What is this floating in my cup!?!

Still laughing........

I've been sabatoged!!

Lemmy put garlic in my coffee........and.....I'm so sad, so so sad...

Okay, the emotional sad time is over, time to get to work.

Okra has been producing the entire month of November

and is still producing into December.

I sure hope the December post does not include Okra.

Gloves for the heat....

as in, HOT peppers.

----------------------

Odds and Ends

Making Etsy shop items,

Gifts,

Costumes and Clothes.

Fun times with chalk.

Christiana's next vacation (Dream).

Making our annual Samaritan's Purse boxes with Liv.

And this concludes some of the goings on in November.

May we all, this Christmas,

with it's bright and special pleasure,

remember all year long,

that Jesus is,

our greatest treasure.

Merry Christmas