Merry Christmas!

How deep the Father's love that He should send his Son among us! I pray you and your family will have a blessed day reveling in the knowledge of the Father's love for us!

Luke 2:1-20

The Birth of Jesus Christ

 ¹ In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ² This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³And all went to be registered, each to his own town. ⁴ And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵ to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. ⁶ And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

 ⁸ And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

 ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” ¹⁵ When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. ¹⁷ And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

In a stable

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon this blog, but I just love what Missy wrote last week. Please go on over and read what she has to say about Christmas and living in a fallen world. I couldn't say it any better!

In a stable

A Charlie Brown Christmas

I don't care how old I get, I still enjoy watching A Charlie Brown Christmas every year. Here are two of my favorite scenes.

Midweek Elsie! Cuz everybody needs a little Elsie to cheer them up. :o)

She sleeps in the weirdest positions. Seriously. How is this even comfortable? 

A walk into my past

If you were to take a walk into my past about 15 years ago, you would have found that my life revolved around The School of Dance Arts and the South Carolina Theatre. By my Senior year, I was there 6 out of 7 days, and many days it was literally over 10 hours that I might have been there. You might say I was very passionate about ballet. It had always been a childhood dream of mine. I remember being four and watching the Nutcracker with my parents. I was enthralled with the entire thing and informed my mom that I would be on that stage one day. And yes, CHECK,  that childhood dream was fulfilled. I can't explain it, dance was and has always just been part of me and even today, I still get excited when I'm able to dance. I even took ballet with me to Africa. Teaching there was so much fun, and I even found time to take a few classes of my own. Fast forward three years back from Africa, and I'm still wanting to dance. This time, I decided we needed ballet classes in Dillon. I knew that our Wellness Center had the facilities to offer a ballet class. So, this past August, I marched myself down there and proposed to them that they needed to offer ballet classes and they needed me to teach them. AND. Success! We have now had three fun classes, and they keep getting easier and easier to teach. I was pretty nervous at first, since it had been a while. Now that I'm getting into the swing of things, I'm enjoying have dance back in my life. Maybe I'll actually get back in shape . . . one can only hope!      

Hey, look! It's me! My classes!

Our humble studio!

And, no, I'm not MIA!

Umm, somehow the last month slid by and I haven't managed to find time to blog. I'm still humbled that people are reading. Really, am I that interesting? What have I done the last month, you might ask? Simple. Go to school, come home and collapse, go to bed, wake up, and repeat. Apparently I have it on good authority that I complain every year can't remember how hard it is to transition a new class. Basically, I'm just now getting into the swing of things where I don't fall asleep from 5 to 7 every evening. So, hopefully you'll hear from me more often.

I'm really enjoying our new school year. We have a new headmaster, and I'm pleased to say that he's doing a great job. I've been really impressed! Not to mention the new lunch program he introduced. We now have a full lunch program at school, and I may or may not have gained some pounds from this fabulous cooking. Plus since it's just me at home, it certainly helps when I can have my main meal prepared by someone else. Especially when all I want to do is sleep when I get home (see above paragraph).

I have more to say about what's been going on in my life, but I'll end with my hall bulletin board. Not that I'm bragging, but I thought it turned out pretty well this year! 

Plus, here's some really cute photos of ELSIE getting into trouble!

Check out her tail! Apparently she is scared of the plastic bag in the corner. Silly cat!

And here we are proving that, yes, the shelf high above the washer/dryer can in fact be conquered!