CATS

As most of you know, I was brought up and raised on a farm. That meant always having lots of pets. My favorite of course was cats. I spent hours and hours with my dozens of cats and kittens. We still have cats. Not because we go out and choose and purchase them but because we somehow acquire them. Above is our old cat of 15 years, Sammy Sylas who we adopted when our youngest daughter brought him home as a kitten. A very cute kitten I must admit. She said if we didn't adopt him he would have to be killed. So we have had him for quite some time. Actually he will be 16 this spring. He spends a lot of time outdoors hunting and such. He is inside when it gets very cold outside and today is 6 degrees with 3 inch's fresh white snow.
A friend of mine brought over a can of Fancy Feast (the expensive gourmet cat food) that had been left behind by her brother who had been visiting for Christmas and had their cats along. WOW! how is that for a long sentence. I decided to treat our elderly cat like a king and serve him the Fancy Feast in a glass dish like on the TV commercial. I think he loved it!

He ate every bit of it and licked the dish clean. He is looking old but is still very big and has a loud voice.

Now this little creature we call Midnight! She came to our door the last week in Nov. and wanted in. She sure is sweet. She is declawed, jealous, gets along well with our dog Baxter but is very scared of our Grand puppy . She is a good jumper and never knocks anything down. Yesterday she thought this would be a good spot to rest and watch what was happening from this high spot in our living room.

You can see how comfortable she is and close to the ceiling.

Here she is, watching as I'm in the kitchen making a meal. I guess she can see better what I am making from this high advantage point compared to being on the floor. She is almost always in the house and we enjoy her a lot. There is one more cat who hangs around our yard, He is very big, muscle bound, black long haired and declawed. He has never been brave enough to come in our house but lets me pet him when I feed him on our patio table. I call him Blacky. He has been around for 1 1/2 years.
Soon I will blog about the dogs in my life.

FUN FRIDAY

It certainly was a Fun Friday January 4th, 2008. The weather was beautiful, calm, and sunny. We along with our oldest daughter and family spent the day at a favorite spot of mine, Spearfish Canyon. This is up in the Northern Hills and it was white and glittering with the 7 to 8 inch's fresh snow. This is the gorgeous Log Restaurant where we enjoyed a quiet, relaxing meal.

The fire place to our right was crackling with warm fire, the food was great and the company superb. The 4 children were as well behaved a they could be. The scenery out the big windows was gorgeous with a nice view of the canyon.

This is Pa pa and our Grandson enjoying the scenery from the inside of the restaurant.

Another picture of the snow covered Canyon against the clear blue sky.

After the meal, we followed the snow covered trail around and below to a good size waterfall.
The waterfall was still running strong but had a lot of frozen ice around it. It is so amazing how different things look in winter and how the beauty is still there, only changes.

I especially loved the big snow covered areas at the bottom that resembled big hills of ice cream. Those are words from my grandchildren.

My daughter, son-in-law and their 4 children.

I must say our handsome tall son-in-law sweeps our Daughter off her feet!

Very cute, loving and playful! They are just too cute!

This our beautiful 10 year old granddaughter posing in front of the waterfall.

Our youngest granddaughter at 5yrs old posing along the trail.

And this is our youngest grandson, He absolutely thought it a blast to keep falling in the soft white snow. He was about soaked when we finished our hike.

He also took part in some of the snow ball fights. Father and older son really got into this snow ball/chase game. It was fun to watch them. Even mom got hit by a few snow balls.
She may have even thrown a few!

You can see how still it was and how the freshly fallen snow just lay about 7 inch's deep.

On the trail. Deep in the canyon and in the pine forest. We all enjoyed the quarter mile hike.

More beautiful scenery.

This was toward the end of the trail as we came up toward the west out of the canyon.

On the way home we stopped at some very close friends for a short visit.

Our 8 yr old grandson coached by his dad got to shoot his new Bow. (one of his Christmas gifts.)

LOOKS GOOD!

JUST ONE MORE TRY!

A heart for giving!

The first grade class where my youngest daughter teaches, led the Lutheran school in a special project for the Porcupine Mission children. The above photo shows some of the items that were collected and carefully placed in their hand decorated bags. These are mostly items that are very much needed and appreciated. Each of the 30 bags has either a child's or student Bible in it, to help spread the word of God. What a huge project.

One of the little girls from the first grade class, who had a certain amount of money to tithe to any charity or organization she wanted, chose to purchase most of the towels and wash cloths for this project. This is a picture of the contribution. This really helped out a lot and I know it was the love of God that overflows and helps them all to contribute and share.

This is my youngest granddaughter. She was visiting us when she heard of the project. She had carefully collected many ribbons and bows from opened Christmas gifts and a baby shower we had attended. She was very proud of her beautiful ribbons.

She came carrying this biggest brightest golden bow and told me she was giving this to the Mission children. I graciously accepted the bow and told her how happy this would make some one and how much this would trim up a bag. She looked at me with those big loving eyes, smiled and ran off.

A few minutes she was back with the whole collection of ribbons that she had so much treasured. She said she would like to give them all for this special project, to the children from our Porcupine Mission. Any gift that is given from the heart as hers was, is worth more then even a $1000 check that's not given out of love. 2 Corinthians 9: 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

She looks cheerful to me!

Below is a picture of just a few of the hand decorated bags full of good stuff! You can see how nicely the children colored and wrote on the bags. Also you can see how beautiful those ribbons look on the bags.

This close up shows that first gold bow my granddaughter brought to me out of love and compassion for someone less fortunate. These children who gave of their time, talent and treasures have been taught the true love of Christ. They are letting their light so shine.

A special prayer goes out for Gods blessing to every one who will receive one of these bags.

THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS INDESCRIBABLE GIFT!

2 COR. 9, VERSE 15

Epiphany The 12th Day of Christmas

Today is the twelfth day after Christmas, The start of Epiphany season. This celebrates the visit of the Wise Men who came in search of the newborn King. Today's church service was centered around the visit of the Wise Men and the gifts they brought. In Bible class we watched the final half of the Nativity story where the picture above is from. This shows the part where the Wise men arrived. I love the movie and all the special meaning captured in the writing and the filming of The Nativity Story. I know the writers, producers and actors had to have prayed for God to guide their talents and use them according to His good and gracious will.

This is my gift just after my grandchildren helped me place these by my personal ceramic Nativity. The boxes are decorated so beautiful, I can't help but think of what the original gifts by the wise men might have looked like.

The first gift mentioned in Matthew 2 was the GOLD. Gold was given to show the infant Jesus, God's very Son was a KING! A King for all mankind.

The second Gift mentioned was FRANKINCENSE. Frankincense is a resin from the dried sap of the Boswellia tree. Frankincense was burned as a incense during the sacrifices at the Temple. This gift was to show that Jesus would be the ultimate sacrifice for all people, for all our sins.
Frankincense and Gold were equally precious.

The third gift mentioned was MYRRH. Myrrh is also a resin used as incense and also put on dead bodies. Myrrh has a bitter fragrance. This was to show the bitter job that Baby Jesus had come to earth to do.

The glowing light from the star that guided the wise men to the place where Baby Jesus lay, reminds us that Jesus is still the light and we need to let that light shine through us that all might know that great gift of salvation.

. . .And they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures,

they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Matthew 2 verse 11b

On The Fifth Day of Christmas . . .

It has been awhile since I have blogged. We have been busy enjoying our family as our oldest daughter, husband and 4 children have spent a week with us. I will be sharing a lot of the happenings with you.

What a blessing it was to have our family together for Sunday morning church and then our gift opening. Our five sweet grandchildren were quite excited and barely had time to pose for this picture. Since the first day of Christmas is on the 26Th, this was on the Fifth day of Christmas. What a fun day it was. Opening the gifts took about 1 1/2 hour as we take turns opening so everyone can enjoy watching each other and share in the joy of both giving and receiving.

It was a great time for our family!

Above is my oldest grandson opening his Lego's gift from us. He was quite excited and couldn't wait to get started setting this Star Wars Lego pieces together. Even the other Grandchildren were excited and anxious for him to set it together.

My oldest Granddaughter had been wanting a fountain pen like her Nana (me) likes to use. You can see from her expression that she was surprised and excited about her fountain pen, refills and pretty pink Journal.

Here is grandson #2 (also known as chick #2 from my daughters blog, The Lutheran Hen) He was happy to receive his first Webkinz since his older sister already had two. These cute little furry stuffed animals have a card with that allows the webkinz to be a virtual pet on line and thus they can interact with other online webkinz. It's hard to explain but this popular pet is a lot of fun.

Below is granddaughter #2, she is 5 years old and has the cutest personality. When Santa didn't bring her a pink pony webkinz that she wanted she figured she would have to wait until her birthday. Little did she know that her Nana and Papa were giving her this Internet pink pony pet. She named her Rosy.

Here is our youngest grandchild using his tool set gift from us to saw open another gift from his Great Grandparents. It worked very nicely to rip through the paper on his new footy pajama's.

There is never a dull moment with our precious grandchildren around.

Our two lovely daughters received beautiful cable knit sweaters from my parents. Here on the left is our oldest daughter (the Hen) with her white sweater and our youngest daughter with her pink sweater.

Oh yes, even I had my turn opening gifts. My grand daughter was helping me discover the surprise inside this beautiful box. It is the Wise Men's gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Very lovely decorative boxes to hold a sample of the very first gifts ever given at Christmas to the Baby Jesus. What special meaning in the gifts of the magi. Later my grandchildren helped me place these three gifts around the baby Jesus in my ceramic nativity. This gift was from my youngest daughter and family, I received a Digital Photo Key chain from my oldest daughter and family. So as soon as I decide which 60 photos to put on this key chain all my friends can enjoy seeing my favorite photos. Just maybe you will be the lucky one. I will treasure these special thoughtful gifts for many years to come. I could tell a lot of thought went into these gifts. Like the special perfect gift from our loving Father in Heaven. A Savior who is Christ the Lord.

OH COME LET US ADORE HIM! OH COME LET US ADORE HIM,

OH COME LET US ADORE HIM, CHRIST THE LORD!

Puzzle update!

As you remember, this is the beautiful Nativity Puzzle by Tom duBois that we had been working on for over a week.

December 27 Th, WOW only 2 pieces left. But wait a minute, where is the last puzzle piece, we only had one left to be placed in the puzzle. After much searching of the floor and area where we had been puzzling, I (You got it) I found the lost, very final piece of the 1000 piece puzzle hiding in the couch. It's a victorious feeling to place that last piece in its place.

Here it is, complete. We did leave the puzzle up until our family arrived on Dec 29Th. Just so they could see it, as proof that we really did get it together. Then it was carefully taken apart and put back in it's box until another time. Maybe next year we might try another Christmas Theme puzzle by Tom duBois.