A Very Different Christmas...

 Since we had our family Christmas on the 18th, my DH and I decided to take a little vacation. We've always wanted to go "somewhere" for Christmas - preferably where it was snowing, but we would have had to drive for days to find snow. 
 My suggestion was to go back to Nashville, TN, and spend Christmas Eve with the Rockettes. We had seen their show about 4 years ago, but we never get tired of seeing them perform.

  We left on the 22nd and went through Memphis, TN, and stayed right across the street from The Peabody Hotel. We managed to see the ducks walk the red carpet, but my camera didn't work too good to get a decent picture of that. 
 I did get some pics of their gingerbread houses which were amazing! 

My grandson, Cayden, said these gingerbread houses looked a lot better than the ones they made. LOL 

 We walked down the street and ate at B.B. King's. Oh my gosh - the best food I had the whole trip! 

  On the 23rd we drove on towards Nashville stopping to eat at Loretta Lynn's Kitchen. We'd also been there before, but it's a nice place and everyone is so friendly. Then we drove up to her ranch. I do love that drive! 

We spent 3 nights in Nashville, and stayed at the Radisson across from the Gaylord Opryland. We have stayed at the Gaylord before, and decided to use the savings to do more sightseeing this time! 

 The first night we had tickets to cruise up the Cumberland River on the General Jackson. The show was awesome! It's always fun to meet people from everywhere. The people at our table were from Georgia and Indiana. 

 The next day we went to tour the Ryman Auditorium, and took the backstage tour. It was so neat getting to visit the dressing rooms where the legends had been. We weren't allowed to take pictures backstage.

 Here we are! Performing at the Ryman! :)

 

 That night we went to the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular! The name fits the show! Just awesome, but of course, no one is allowed to take pictures. I can certainly understand why because some people were rude and took some pics anyway at the end. Their live portrayal of the birth of Jesus is indescribable! There were camels and lambs, and it was just beautiful! 

 On Christmas Day, after we went to church across the highway, we were invited to have lunch with an old friend that lives nearby. We had such a nice visit, and it was also nice not to be eating at a restaurant on Christmas Day - mainly because there wasn't much to choose from.

 That night we went to visit the Gaylord and ride the gondola. There were sooooo many people there we didn't stay long. What was with that? Why weren't these people home on Christmas Day? LOL

 So I'll leave you with a few pics from there if you're still with me. If you took the time to look at all of my pics, I do appreciate you. This was a special trip for us, and we enjoyed it so much. The lights at the Gaylord were gorgeous! I wish you could all have seen this live!

 

I guess you saw old Shrek in there. I wish the grands could have seen him. It was really weird.

  We did a few more things, but these are the highlights. We crammed a whole lot into 3 days for sure! 

 I hope everyone has a Very Happy and Blessed New Year! We have had many blessings this past year, and we are so very thankful!

Shirley

A Merry and A Not So Merry Christmas!

 My hubby and I took a wonderful trip to Tennessee during Christmas. I'll post more about that later.

  On Christmas Eve morning we received a text message from our oldest grandson that Logansport's First Baptist Church was burning down.

 I quickly got up and got on Facebook because everyone puts the latest information on there. My heart just sank when I saw the pictures. It was still burning, and burned way up into the day.

  Arson is suspected, and there is an intense investigation going on to try and prove that.

  The church burned down in 1963, but the big beams in the sanctuary were saved along with the baby grand piano. NOT this time! 

 They did manage to save the newest building built which is the fellowship hall that has a modern kitchen and bathrooms plus room enough to have church. 
 Let me share a few pictures, and then I'll tell more.

Before

 The CROSS still stands and so does the Word of God! Nothing can take that away!

 The cross will be taken down and added to the new church building.

 Our small town fire department, most of which is volunteer, and others (including my son), worked as hard as they could to put out the fire. It was a raging, hot fire. 

 I'm sort of glad we weren't here to see it. We went by there as soon as we got back into town on Monday, and there are no words to describe it. Our pastor was driving around still looking at the rubble, and he looked so pitiful.

  We were married in that church, and our son was baptized there along with various funerals of family members, weddings, and such. Lots of memories. My husband grew up here and watched the other church burn.

 The church sits right next to the property where the old school used to be. The school burned in 1991, and it was arson, but no one was ever arrested. FBC bought the remaining school grounds along with the old gym, and the old home ec. building which is now the youth building.

 At least they have plenty of room to start over and places to use. They are bringing in portable buildings for the offices.
  So please keep the church members in your prayers. We have several older deacons that aren't in good health, and this has really taken a toll on them.  
Thanks,
ShirleyC

Want to See a Little Snow?

This is so cool! Go to Google.com. Type in "let it snow", and hit return (enter). Your screen will turn to snow and white out. Then click on "defrost". (You must have Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari for it to work.) 

  Also you can use your mouse to "write in the snow". Pretty neat little trick, Google!

 No, it's not snowing here! These pics were from nearly 2 years ago when we kept the kids overnight, and it snowed. We had a blast!

Occupy Your Sewing Room!

I posted last week about this event coming up. I hope there are several of you that read my post that plan to participate.
  If you want to Link Up to Occupy Your Sewing Room - then click HERE!
 I have been working hard even before this week, and I did manage to get a few things accomplished.


 Just Friday night I embroidered this little shirt for our foster grandchild for his birthday party. He loves trucks and cars of any kind, and he sleeps with a little red monster truck so I couldn't resist this cute design from www.designsbyjuju.com. The big 5 came from the alphabet "Landon" by www.planetapplique.com, and the name is from Kabo designs #114. I think he will love it!

 This week I also worked on my fabric gift bags. Now I'm not finished, but I wanted to show you the ones I have made. They are nothing fancy, but they serve the purpose and eliminate a lot of extra garbage for the landfill at Christmas. I bought the fabric after Christmas last year at Hancock's, and also the ribbon at Hobby Lobby.
 Sorry I didn't pictures of the bags with gifts inside. I just haven't had time! I will add some pics later. I've made 6 of these so far.

 
These are some shirts I did at the beginning of the week.

Saying from Applique Corner

Snowman face from Sew Terrific

Jingle All the Way from Bunnycup Embroidery

Some other shirts I've done for my grands will follow. I try to make them a few each year. We rode the Polar Express right after Thanksgiving, and I made all 3 a shirt with "I Believe" from Planet Applique. I had to have these done in November.

 Yes, I've been busy! However, this isn't all I've done. I'll have another post coming up of a few more things I did in November. 
 I still have a couple more things to make. This will be a very, very busy week! I'm just thankful that I'm retired and I can enjoy the month of December no matter how hectic it gets.
  I love Christmas, but I always try to remember the real reason for the season. Jesus Christ was born to save us all! John 3:16.


Hugs to my blogging friends!

Update on Myself and My Grandson...

  Yesterday was my 6 months checkup with my tongue/mouth/neck doctor, and Dr. Kim said everything looked good.
  I was so glad to hear this after all I went through in May with the "suspicious lump" that turned out to be a clip.
  It has been 3 and a half years. I just don't know where time goes! 
  Please remember my grandson, Bubba, who was in the wreck in September. He will be having a bone graft on Dec. 20 on that same leg. He is able to bear weight on the leg now, and after he heals from this surgery, he will be having therapy.
 Also Clayton, Bubba's brother, is having his wisdom teeth out on the 16th - right before our family Christmas. Ouch! 

 Leaving you with a little view of my daughter's Christmas card this year. 

 The naughty side:

The nice side:

 I didn't even ask what she had to bribe them with to get these pics, but I KNOW them, and I KNOW it has to be good. LOL!
 Thanks for looking.

Occupy Your Sewing Room

  Read all about it HERE.