Party Animals

There's a lot of partying going on in the Wallin household lately. On Wednesday, Dec. 3rd, I was responsible for another Ladies' Night Out. It was our church's Christmas party. We had about 80 women attend with games and fun activities, food (of course!) and an inspirational Christmas story.

Building Snow-women!

Then on Wednesday, Dec. 10th Andy and I both went to a couples event at church. There were probably about 150 people who attended that. We were supposed to work together as a couple to build our house. Actually the "house" was already built of cardboard and we were supposed to decorate it with things that were provided. Ours was pretty plain, neither of us are idea people: just plain vanilla. But some of the others were pretty amazing with what they were able to accomplish with the same materials we had. It was still fun (I think!).

And here is the finished product "proudly" displayed on our kitchen table. Fortunately, I took this picture before a certain someone came over and ate the tootsie roll chimney.

Yesterday C & C and their 5 children came over and spent the day with us. I had an open house for Christy's candles. We had munchies and snacks all day as people came and went, looking at and buying candles. Then I fixed a baked ziti dinner with a salad before going over to walk through our church's Living Nativity.

After church this morning, Tommy & Dawn came over to have our usual Sunday brunch: omelettes and waffles. Another young man from church joined us, as well. Then Andy and I hurried back to church: I to "man" the phones, Andy to trouble shoot for another night of our Living Nativity.

This week promises to be busy and full, too. My mother is coming down Monday afternoon to spend the night and bake cookies with me on Tuesday. Then Wednesday, we're having our staff Christmas party. Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights next weekend are the final 3 nights of our Living Nativity. It has been very well attended this year and we could have a record year if the weather continues to be nice.

Merry Christmas!

I got our Christmas letters out in Tuesday's mail, wrapped presents until I ran out of wrapping paper and tonight we put up our Christmas tree! Yeah!

Offering

I told Andy I was a working fool today. Whew! I'm glad to finally sit down and relax a little.

Andy left the house this morning at 6:30 to go to C & C's again to help Christian with their building project. That left me home alone all day long. But I wasn't lonely or bored. I filled my day with laundry, cleaning house and baking. It's a good feeling to have a clean house - too bad it doesn't last long. (Although it lasts longer now than it did when there were more people who lived here.)

Every Wednesday we have a staff meeting at church. Whenever anyone has a birthday, I make a cake and we celebrate as part of the meeting that week. Well, this week there are 2 birthdays! Pastor Jim's is today; Pastor Ralph's is Friday. Ralph likes carrot cake and Jim prefers cherry pie to cake. So today I made a carrot cake and a cherry pie. We'll party hearty tomorrow!
I also spent some time outside mid-day stringing Christmas lights on all our bushes along the driveway and in front of the kitchen. It's kind of hard to tell but the lights are on. They really look nice now that it's dark.

On Sunday we sang a song that I've been meditating on all week. It's called Offering, written by Paul Baloche:

The sun cannot compare to the glory of Your love
There is no shadow in Your presence,
No mortal man would dare to stand before Your throne,
Before the Holy One of heaven,
It's only by Your blood and it's only through Your mercy,
Lord, I come...

I bring an offering of worship to my King,
No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing;
Jesus, may You receive the honor that You're due,
O Lord, I bring an offering to You.

The song reminded me of Romans 12:1:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship.

Amy tagged me to put on the 5th picture in my 5th folder, so here it is:
My 5th folder was our Norway trip and this picture was taken the first day we were driving. We stopped along the road at this place to take a picture of this waterfall that was roaring off the top of the cliff.

Now I tag Mother and Dawn.

It's Tuesday Again

If you read Christy's blog you know she took Patrick to the neurologist yesterday. I went with her to watch the other kids while she was in the appointment with him. I worked about 2 hours in the morning, then left to go up to her house. In spite of the fact that it was mid-morning, traffic was still pretty awful. I got there just in time to help her get shoes and coats on the kids, then off we went. The appointment was with an extension of CHOP and was about 45 minutes away from their house. When we got there, the 3 oldest kids and I stayed in the outer waiting room while she took Patrick and Asher with her to an examination room. There was a TV in the waiting room and just as we got there, a video started: Peter Pan. Because the kids rarely watch TV, they were mesmerized through the whole movie. So there really wasn't much for me to do except watch it with them. I could have left and I don't think they would have noticed! That's how tuned in to the movie they were.

After the appointment, I came on home, then went in to the office for another 45 minutes before calling it a day.

Andy worked today on the front porch. It's looking good. He finished the siding, put in the lights and hung the shutters again. Then this afternoon he prepared to put the railing up. He dug and poured concrete for the posts that will hold the railings at the bottom of the steps.

So what did I do today? Well, my house needed a good cleaning and laundry needed to be done. I also took the Thanksgiving turkey carcass, put it in a pot, covered it with water, added an onion and a couple stalks of celery and cooked it about an hour. I was able to get more meat off the bones, as well as 3 quarts of broth. So we'll have turkey for a couple more meals.
The rest of the week promises to be busy, so I don't know when I'll be back.

What a blessing it is to enjoy being together with family. There are many families that won't get together and if they do, don't enjoy it.
It's been a fun couple of days. On Friday, our 3 daughters and their families and Andy's 2 brothers and their families joined us for turkey dinner. Believe it or not, we all fit in our dining room. It ended up being about 30 people, including the 2 babies. There was so much food and we stuffed ourselves!
Grace stayed with us after everyone left. She stayed Friday and Saturday nights, then I took her back home this morning. The last time we were together, she wanted to play games with me; but with all the people, including little ones who like to mess up games or walk in the middle of the game, it's practically impossible to finish one and stay sane! So this was a good opportunity to have a whole day to ourselves. She wanted to sleep in the tent, so Andy set it up in the front room.On Saturday, we played games, walked to our pond to feed the ducks, drove to the park to play and walk around,
then stopped in at my office to prepare for Sunday.
Andy was gone all day. He drove up to C & C's to help Christian with his addition project. They got a lot done...hopefully, Christy will soon update her blog with pictures. Andy got home in time for supper (left over turkey, stuffing, potato filling and pie), then built a fire in our chimnea. It was a beautiful night to be outside, clear and still. Unfortunately, we didn't have any marshmallows or chocolate bars, so we couldn't have s'mores. (I know...what kind of Grammy am I!)As soon as Grace had her breakfast this morning, we took off to deliver her back home. I was able to make it back in time for 11:00 service at church. Thankfully, traffic was light and I made good time.

One last picture: the front porch. Andy wrapped the posts on Thursday. It's looking good.
What does he need to do to finish?
1. finish the siding that he had to take off.
2. put in the lights on either side of the door.
3. put the shutters back up.
4. put on the railing around the sides and down the steps.
5. bring in topsoil.
6. plant the bushes and finish landscaping around the porch.

Thanksgiving

Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100

Andy and I were by ourselves today while our daughters spent the day with their families and in-laws. We are all getting together tomorrow, so in anticipation, I spent all day in the kitchen. There will be 31 people here: our own kids and grandkids, as well as Andy's 2 brothers and their families, plus Sarah (cousin) and Bekki (cousin of a cousin).

I made 2 batches of rolls, pineapple au gratin, potato filling, a cherry pie, an apple custard pie, a cheese ball, and sausage stuffing. I plan to cook the turkey in the morning. Dinner will be at 2:00 pm so I'll have plenty of time.
I had an adventure while baking the apple custard pie. I had it in for 30 minutes, then had to add the crumbs to the top and bake another 40 minutes. It was in for the second time, when all of a sudden after 10 minutes, the smoke alarms started blaring. I checked out the oven and the pie was blackening (as you can see in the picture above). I checked the temperature and it registered at 500 degrees! Oh, no. This happened before and we had to have the oven repaired to the tune of $350. Yikes! The stove is not even 4 years old and it wasn't cheap. Then it was repaired in February. What is going on? I found the receipt for the repair and fortunately, the parts are warranteed for 1 year. So we'll have to have someone come look at it again. Thankfully, there's another oven in this house (Mom's). I still need to cook the turkey, then heat up all the other stuff we're having.

My sisters-in-law, daughters and Mom are bringing sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, applesauce, corn, mashed potatoes, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie, green bean casserole. It makes my mouth water just thinking about all that food.

Andy spent the day working on the front porch. He got the posts wrapped and started replacing the siding. I didn't take any pictures of what he did today because by the time he finished, it was dark. I'll be out there in the morning with my camera so next time I post, I'll include them.

Needless to say, we're both pretty tired out, but looking forward to a fun day tomorrow.