Tag Archives: Christmas

Weekly Wrap-Up . . . Christmas Week!

As you may recall, we began the week with Sunday, when I sang a Christmas special at church for the very first time ever. Then, we got rolling with our week!

On Monday, the kids and I ran a few errands, which included going to the doctor’s office to pick up paper prescriptions for those who needed them, and going to shop for gifts for the children in the family we had invited to our home for Christmas dinner. That was so fun, because I really didn’t expect to be able to do much, with what little cash I had left, but a combination of two angels from church helping, plus a sale at Family Dollar Store, where they had all toys buy one, get one 50% off, helped a lot! I had really thought the best I’d be able to do would be some little toys from Dollar Tree, so this was so cool!

On Tuesday, I baked more mini loaves of Banana/Berry/Nut bread and Hawaiian/Banana Bread to use as part of our Christmas morning breakfast, part of the gift for the family who was coming for Christmas, and as part of dessert on Christmas. These are the same breads I made to put in gift baskets for our pastor, deacons and church staff.

My husband managed to get off work a couple of hours early that day, because business was quite slow, so he was able to be home and help with getting the kids ready for church. Our church moved the usual Wednesday service to Tuesday, and had a beautiful candle light Christmas Eve service! Mike was needed to run the sound for the service, and to be there by 5:00 pm to do the sound checks, so it helped that he got off work early, that way we could also get supper done and get there on time! 🙂

After church, we got home, got the kids settled down, watched an hour of TV with them, then got them to go to bed so the marathon wrapping could start! This happens nearly every year, as I tend to need to wait for the payday before Christmas to finish shopping, but it’s also what finally makes me really feel like Christmas, lol! Mike put together the breakfast casserole following a recipe I’ve used for many years while I wrapped, then came in and we watched old TV shows on a retro channel, all Christmas episodes. Think “That Girl”, “The Bob Newhart Show”, “Odd Couple”, etc. 🙂 After the wrapping was done, we went to bed, we knew it would be an early, long day the next day!

Here’s how nice it all looked when we went to bed . . .

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Christmas morning (controlled) chaos . . .

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“The Batman” and “The Artist” had wanted tablets for Christmas. Here is what they found in the top of the boxes . . .

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and here’s what was under them . . .

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For the rest of the morning and early afternoon, here is what we saw . . .

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Then, our friends arrived, and it was controlled chaos again! 🙂

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Finally, the FOOD!

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We decided to do buffet style. Most of the food was on the table, but there were some things on the island as well, and we had set up tables in our front room with folding chairs borrowed from church. We had a wonderful time together!

Mike posted this picture of our brown Christmas to Facebook, as our friends back home are covered in snow and ice . . .

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Thankfully, this couple of days after Christmas have been fairly calm and quiet, as I have a cold and really needed to rest.

The day after Christmas . . .

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And today, watching the DVD of 40 episodes of “The Beverly Hillbillies”, which was one of the Christmas gifts they loved!

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I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and that your week was great, too! Why don’t you write about it and link up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers? For the guidelines, just click the graphic below . . .

As always, I’d love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! To do so, please go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the page and enter your email. If you enjoy “My Journeys”, we’d love it if you’d go to our Facebook Page and “like” it! 🙂

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Weekly Wrap-Up . . . Busy Busy! :-)

So, you already know that this past Sunday night our two older boys, “The Batman” and “The Artist” were in our church’s annual Christmas play. On Monday and Tuesday, I concentrated heavily on laundry and working on finishing up our Christmas cards, which I was making, so I could have them done to bring to church Wednesday. I made it, yay! 🙂 We also needed to be at church early that night, as “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” were singing special music as part of the newly formed group “Cadets For Christ”. Here is a video of their song . . .

Thursday morning, I worked on addressing cards to be mailed out, so that we could get them mailed on our way to homeschool park day. Along with that errand, we stopped at the library to pick up a DVD I had on hold, Mary Poppins. Can you believe, my children have never seen it? Well, since we left the house before lunch, I did stop at McDonald’s near the park and got everyone burgers from the dollar menu. Except for me, I can’t eat them, so I got a grilled honey mustard snack wrap. 🙂

Ah, park day! It is so grand living someplace where we can go to homeschool park day, on December 19th, NOT wearing winter coats!

Here is “The Batman”, he was playing catch with someone, and between throws . . . and do you see the beautiful mountains in the background? 🙂

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And here is “The Puzzler”, also playing catch!
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“The Artist” was wandering with friends, and “Mr. Loquacious” never stopped moving, so I failed to get pictures of them.

“Mr. Loquacious”, who I suspected was catching a cold, but had insisted he was “fine” and wanted to go to the park, definitely has one now. He’s sneezing some, but he’s still running around playing and acting normal, so I think he’ll be just fine.

Today is Friday. Do I have my Christmas shopping done? No, I do not. 😦 So, this evening, “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” will be hanging our with their dad. I will be dropping “The Batman” and “The Artist” off at their Youth Pastor’s home, where they will join the rest of the teens caroling, and then having their Christmas party. Since I do all of my grocery shopping fairly near to their home, I will get groceries while the boys are there, then pick them up. That way, I have them handy to unload the car at home (smart, yes?). This frees up tomorrow, when I will be able to shop alone, and get the Christmas shopping completed.

I hope! 🙂

How was your week? Why don’t you write about it and then link up with us at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

For the guidelines, please click the graphic below

As always, I’d love it if you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the page and enter your email, and you’ll be notified whenever there is an update! If you enjoy “My Journeys”, please, go to our Facebook Page and “like it. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

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Filed under Albuquerque, Cadets For Christ, Christian faith, Church, education, family, home education, Home-school Group, Homeschool Park Day, homeschooling, Mesa Baptist Church, Weekly Wrap-Up

Christmas 2023 . . . Teen Drama At Mesa Baptist Church

This past Sunday night, December 15, 2013, the teens along with our youth pastor and his wife put on our annual Christmas play. This year, it was a drama, to show what Christmas could be like in the future, if our country continues on the path we are walking.

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This play, Christmas 2023, was originally written by Sam Gipp, and was edited for Mesa Baptist Church by Mrs. Aubrey Grantham.

It is the year 2023, and there have been many changes. We have had another world war, and all mention of the Lord Jesus Christ has been outlawed. Children are now removed from the parents when they reach school age and sent to government “boarding schools”, where they are taught humanistic, atheistic views. There are no true churches anymore, all have been turned into social clubs, and the Bible is outlawed.

The Jamison family, upon whom our drama is focused, has been decorating for the “X-mas” holiday, while waiting for one of their own, John, to come home from the government boarding school for the holiday. They come across a box of things from years past, in which they find a nativity scene, Tom’s (the father) old Bible, some CD’s with Christmas carols on it that sing of faith, not of santa. As they begin to reminisce, they talk about the church they used to go to, Mesa Baptist Church, and Pastor Carr, who has not been seen since he was taken away some years previously. At first Tom’s wife is very nervous about finding all of these things, but then, their two other children, David and Susan, begin asking questions, and their parents tell them all about how it used to be.

But then, John arrives home, and sees the Bible. He becomes very upset, and is ready to report them, when the parents convince him that they should go to bed and talk more in the morning. Susan, however, sneaks back and is reading the Bible, when her brother David finds her. The next day, they all talk much about it, including John, and their parents, who had come to salvation many years ago, are able to lead their children to the Lord as well.

During the holiday time, the Jamisons take opportunity to witness to others, including a group of carolers who come to the door. You can watch the carolers in the video below. My son “The Batman” is one of the carolers.

Later, “Santa” comes to visit, as the government has sent a Santa out to all the homes, bearing a “gift”, as you’ll see in the video below. “The Artist” portrays Santa in this drama . . .

The time comes for John to return to his school, and he asks how to be saved, and then declares he will tell everyone about Jesus, and the Bible, no matter the consequences.

I’m doing this post, not just because I’m proud of my boys for being involved in their teen group, or for being in the play, but because the story really touched my heart. I want all of you to KNOW that you need to be saved, if you have never been. God doesn’t want anyone to go to Hell, but as a Just God, He cannot have sin in Heaven. We MUST either pay for our sins, or we must accept the sacrifice He made to cover our sin, by sending Christ in human flesh, to pay for our sin. Please, watch this video, and consider the truth . . .

If you do not know for certain that if you died today, you would be in Heaven with the Lord, then please, please, speak to someone who can show you the way. If you wish, you can contact me, making sure I have your email.

(before I get comments about the “origins” of the term Xmas, please know that I don’t care about that. In today’s culture, it does not stand for what it may have stood for thousands of years ago. In today’s culture, it most certainly stand for removing “Christ” from the word Christmas.”)
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Weekly Wrap-Up . . . More Christmas Stuff!

You know, I ALWAYS forget how busy it gets this time of the year, until it DOES get busy this time of the year, lol!

In between planning for Christmas day (we have invited a large family from our church for dinner on Christmas), doing regular household STUFF, trying to figure out the best way to give each of our kids at least one thing they really want, and then fill in around the edges, we have had a church homeschool party, I have had a reviews due, had an order of cards to complete, and am even now waiting for a FedEx delivery of materials to do a new order for the same person!

Tuesday evening, the kids and I FINALLY decorated the poor naked tree that had been standing in the living room for several days . . .
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In the midst of it all, I try to keep in mind the real reason for this season. We still have things going on at church. Sunday night, my younger kids, “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” sang with the Sunshine Kids Choir for the special music, as you can see in the video below . . .

Wednesday night, I was on schedule as back up for toddler nursery, and one of the ladies on the schedule had sick kids, so I took her place. I like nursery on Wednesday nights, plus, I was working with a young mom with whom I very much enjoy spending time in conversation, so, win-win! 🙂

Yesterday, we had another homeschool Christmas party, this one with our Thursday park day group. We really had fun! We did potluck, I brought pizza casserole and Totally Bad For You cake (chocolate/peanut butter), for which I was a finalist in the Flint Journal (Michigan) “Merry Indulgences”bake off way back in 1995.

The cake . . .
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and the extra frosting to snack on later!
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I love potlucks here in New Mexico, we are getting to try lots of stuff we’ve never had before! Some of the things brought were sopapillas, black beans, tortilla rolls, some kind of chili that was really good, and bunches of other wonderful tasting things! We find this variety in our church potlucks as well, and are enjoying it!

As you can see, there is an abundance of food here (and I THINK I took this picture before more people arrived with even MORE food! . . .
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Doing what they do best . . .
“Mr. Loquacious”
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“The Artist”
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“The Batman” and “The Puzzler”
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Making ornaments . . .
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Here are the final products!
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Later on, we had a white elephant gift exchange, which is always a lot of fun!
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All in all, though this is a busy time, we have been having lots of fun! I hope you are finding time to have fun, yet still keeping your focus on what we are really celebrating here, the birth of our Lord, without whom there would be no salvation.

If you’d like to link up with the weekly wrap-up, just click on the graphic below for information.

As always, I would love it if you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the page and enter your email, then never miss an update again! If you enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook Page and “like” it. I’d sure love it if you did! 🙂

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