WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

NIGHT AT THE LIBRARY

For quite some time now I have wanted to visit the Billy Graham Library. When I heard that they were having a special "Christmas At The Billy Graham Library", I knew that I wanted to go while the grounds were all decorated for Christmas. So...last night, Walt, Grace, Emma and I piled into the car and headed south for the Christmas experience at the library.

We picked one of the most crowded nights of the year so far, so after parking, we caught a shuttle that carried us to the library. Emma was very excited about the shuttle ride!

As we came off of the shuttle we saw Billy Graham's Birthplace all lit up for the holidays. This is the actual home place where he lived just a few miles from its current location, from about age 9 until he left for college. The home has been restored using about 80% original materials. Billy's father built the house in the 1920's for about $9000.00!

It was so neat for me to walk through and see so many similarities to the fixtures and furnishings of my grandparents house. I even saw a set of porcelain figurines that were identical to some that my grandmother had.

During Billy's childhood, the Graham family owned a dairy and so the building is barn-shaped with a huge cross-shaped opening. It is absolutely breathtaking in the darkness with the Christmas lights.

There was a live nativity.

And inside was a beautiful, huge Christmas tree with lots of handmade wooden crosses and rustic ornaments. We took advantage of someone offering to take a group photo in front of the tree.

Inside, they have the Graham Brothers Dairy Bar, where you can purchase salads, ice cream, and sandwiches; as well as, coffee and hot apple cider.

Here are Grace and Emma waiting on Poppa to bring us some coffee and cider.

Emma and me waiting in the Dairy Bar for our treats!

And after we were done eating, we turned our "eating" booth into a little "Photo Booth" and took some pictures of everyone.

I couldn't resist a picture of Miss Emma in front of the gorgeous poinsettias. They were almost as tall as she was!

And before heading out, we decided to stop for one more photo op in front of that gorgeous Christmas tree.

There was so much to see and do, but we decided that we would need to go back for a visit without a certain little "munchkin" with us. The tour itself takes about an hour and a half and we were afraid that might have been just a little too much to ask of a 4 year old!

The grounds must be beautiful in the daylight, but they were absolutely MAGICAL all decked out for Christmas!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas....

I know, I know.....you're saying FINALLY, right?!?!?  I really wanted to get some Christmas pictures posted last week, but I just could not get it done in time, but I have finally gotten a few pics to share with you.

This little guy is on my back door welcoming all.  After all, back door friends are best, right! Ya'll come on in!

I have my Willow Tree Nativity on a table in my kitchen.  I absolutely LOVE it and just stop and look at it every time I walk by. 

 
I hope to be able to add additional pieces each year, but for now these are all the pieces I have. I really would like to leave it out year-round because I love it so much!

This is the table in my breakfast area.

For some reason the jeweled fruit in the vase look fluorescent pink, but it is actually red.

These are my little poinsettia balls that I have hanging from my kitchen light fixture.

A Fontanini snow globe that I have had for many years which I dearly love.

Some pictures of my fireplace and mantel....

Just some fun little frosted glass balls that I have in a vase on the trunk that I use as a coffee table in my living room.

This is another nativity set that I have on a table in my dining room.  

I actually received this set as a gift at a Christmas office party over 15 years ago and have always loved it.

We have really down-sized with our decorating and we only put up a small tree.  I have it sitting on a trunk next to my china cabinet.

This is an ornament that Josh made me in Sunday School one year and is one of my favorites.

This little girl goes on the tree every year, too. Believe it or not, when Faith was a baby, we all called her "Miss Piggy" cause she was such a chubby little thing. This reminder has been on the tree every year since!

 

This is an ornament that Grace made at church and is one of my favorites, too! What a special little angel!

And this is my treetop angel that has been on our tree for as long as I can remember.  She's not really anything special, but my tree would not be complete each year without her!

And, finally one of my very favorite Christmas things are these....

My sweet husband gave me these a couple of years ago and my kids have added some special pieces to them since then.  I just love the red cardinals and I can use them all through the Winter -- not just for Christmas.

So that's just a short little tour of some of my Christmas "stuff". Thank you so much for stopping by for a little visit.  

I hope all of you have a  VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a BLESSED NEW YEAR!

Apparently...I'm a Blogging Slackard!

I received a comment from my daughter yesterday saying, "Mother, where are you and why aren't you blogging?????" So....at the risk of being ex-communicated from the blogging world I decided I better let ya'll know I'm still alive and kickin' out here!

I have just not been able to "get it together" lately. I was "tagged" by several of my sweet blogging friends recently and I have just simply not had the time to sit down to do the memes and awards, but I want you to know that I WILL!  

I have not had very much to blog about in recent days, but I did have something exciting happen to me last week.  I had a very stressful day at work and when I finally got home that night it was dark outside when I went to check my mail.  There was a box in the mail from a company that said "Kritters In The Mailbox"!  I'll be honest -- I was a little nervous about EXACTLY what MIGHT be in this box! I'm not usually real crazy about "kritters"!

But, when I opened up the box, I found the sweetest gift from one of the sweetest people I have "met" through this blogging world, Dawn. She had read one of my previous posts about one of my favorite things and had remembered it.  This is what was in the box:

The cutest little pewter owl pin!

And the cutest owl socks you have ever seen!

How precious are these guys!!

I'll be honest -- it just lifted my spirits so much! Isn't it wonderful how God will use a friend to lift our spirits at JUST the RIGHT time! I think that's what I love so much about blogging! Many of you have no idea what an encouragement you are to me after a stressful day when I come home and read your posts.  

Just know that God uses you in so many ways in my life and I thank each one of you for the encouragement that you give.  Even when I don't have time to leave a comment on your blogs or post on my own, I am still reading your blogs and are so blessed by them!

Please don't give up on me!  I promise I'll be back in the swing of things very soon!

A Very Special Gift From A Very Special Friend!

I was sooooo excited this evening as I turned into my driveway after work to see this very special package on my front porch.

I knew it was something from my sweet blogging friend, Becky ! I recently won her giveaway that she had in honor of her 100th post and I have been so excited to get the package that she was sending. As you can see, EVERYBODY at my house was excited about the arrival of this gift!

"No.......you open it!"


"No...... you open it!"

I did the honors and..... drum roll........

Could these Christmas towels be ANY cuter! I mean really! Becky had also included some cute little napkins and a very special Christmas card.

A Christmas card with a picture of her precious little grandboys --- Reid, Cade and Ridge! It is the cutest thing ever! I absolutely LOVE these little guys!

What a special gift to come home to! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Becky!

I so wish that we lived closer to each other because I am convinced that we very possibly may have been separated at birth and I know that our girls and our grand-babies would love each other, too! I'm so thankful that I discovered you in this blog world because I so enjoy reading your blog and getting to know you and your precious family better.


Your grand-babies are on my fridge and I will think of you every time I look at their picture! I have the towels already in my guest bathroom and they are just perfect!


Thanks again, sweet friend!