AWAY IN A MANGER, Our annual Christmas party. Dec 19, 2016

 We enjoyed a fun annual friend Christmas party on Monday Dec 19th.  It was originally scheduled for Friday the 16th but we had to cancel due to extreme cold, snow and wind.  

The men enjoyed a good visit as it had been months since we have all seen each other.  

The women enjoyed their share of visiting too as we had a light meal with snacks. 

 Everyone had the opportunity to create their own craft "AWAY IN A MANGER"  These would latter be judged by one of our guests.  Many craft items, glue, scissors and glue gun were provided.  

Very busy, very involved.

Very sweet baby JESUS!

Opening the unanimous gifts is always a big hit. .  Several exchanges were made before their gift was opened.  Everyone trying hard to avoid  "THE BEE" our traveling  gift  that has changed hands many times and been changed into many things to fit our party theme.

 The hymn "AWAY IN A MANGER" was sung line by line whoever had drew the right line.  Their hymn line was also used to chose the initial pkg each would get, they were matched up with a hymn line that had been attached to each unanimous gift .  Very hard to explain but it was fun, guess you had to be there. 

Well, well, what do we have here in this tiny pkg?    A tiny nativity with a note.  
  OH NO!  The note says,  
 "YOU GOT THE BEE!"

This was more like a "BEE IN A MANGER"   or should we say "BASKET?"     Diaper and all. 

Drum Roll  PLEASE,
 and the winner is . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The winner!
 created  by my second cousin Melissa H. 

Some of our very unique wine.  We also had coffee, hot chocolate, soda, and tea.
It was a great evening and ended with

a prayer for Advent and

  Luther's evening prayer.  
 Merry Blessed Christmas 2016. 

Late October trip to E and W ND "Reformation" & "Halloween"

 

 Jeff and I took a trip to ND to pickup my mothers belongings that we had in a storage area.  We now can go through it as time permits having it close at hand.  The tree above was my mothers and my niece Angel and I had a great time going through my moms Christmas and Fall decorations.  We thank Angel and David for a good time and for being such good hosts in letting us stay at their beautiful home. We were only there 2 days so didnt get to see many friends and family.  We did spend a few hours with my cousin LeeAnn, and then drove out to spend time with my 91 yr old Aunt Vera.  

We spent a short time visiting the grave sight of my mom and dad,  my brother Dale and other family members and friends who have gone on before us.   

 The date is already on the head stone.  We took some fall flowers too.  

My dads VA foot marker.  

My aunt and uncle who was my mom's youngest brother.   

Fall flowers for on my only siblings grave.  My brother Dale.

Beautiful Cemetery and so thankful for St Andrew members for the hard work of upkeep.

On our way to western ND to visit our youngest daughter and family.  Here is Little Luther as we pass the geographical center of North America in Rugby, ND. 

Fun with grandchildren.  Noah with animals and below, farm and more farm.

 

Very nice ND day for a walk.   We saw old tractors, an old cement town safe and the big sky line elevators.

Getting prepared for the trick or treaters.

Helping with the cookie dough to make Reformation cookies for church coffee hour.

Enjoying spice tea with Papa.

Reformation cookies, we had fun making 5 doz cookies and everyone enjoyed them after the Reformation Worship service. 

Our 6 yr old grandson lost his first tooth.  So exciting to be there for this big event in his life.

Little Luther on the Lutheran Cross.

Our grandchildren really loved helping dad with the wood splitter.  

The carving of the Pumpkins.  Lots of fun with grandchildren, even Ansir came to join in the fun.

Messy job!

Our good-looking grandson, my how he has grown up to be a man.

This one was mine!  Yuck!

The finished jack-o-lanterns.  

We made our own fun Halloween carnival
even made our own tickets too.

Treats from Nana and Papa.

Getting all dolled up to be Elsa from the Frozen movie.

           Notice the pretty gloves?  Doesn't get much better than that. 

Below is our very own Minion , He is a cute one!

Absolutely beautiful. 

A little face paint will make this really a cute minion. A fun trip to the Nursing home to join in a great Halloween celebration and visit friends. Then after a great supper at home, out trick or treating around the town.  It was a good thing it finally stopped raining for that event.  It was so much fun doing all this with our grandchildren.