Christmas/New Years

Christmas Musical, Tapestry of Light; a Celtic Celebration can be found on YouTube. Look for cld9trs (Cloud Nine Tours). Under that heading you can click NBC2011.wmv. New Beginnings Church choir is directed by Bill who is standing on the floor. I am singing on the front row in a white sweater.

I can hardly believe that Christmas has come and gone! We traveled to Springfield on Christmas Eve to take Noel and Mark home. Gramma went with us. That evening, I accompanied Janice to her brother's in Nixa to take Christmas gifts. It was a treat for me to see Dwayne and his family, as well as their luxious mansion. It was decorated with a million colorful lights! Gorgeous! On the way back to Springfield, we stopped at Appleby's and took dinners back for everyone. While we were enjoying the food, the phone rang. Dwayne's mother-in-law had just passed away! Linda and her sister flew to Indonesia on Christmas morning. Linda's family is Christian, and that is a comfort.

On Christmas Day, we went to Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Springfield. It's a mega-church and we always enjoy the service. The music makes me feel close to heaven! After church, Steve and his family joined us for a ham dinner that Janice cooked. Then, we opened gifts. The little boys were so cute. Hunter kept saying, "Awesome! Cool!" When the gifts ran out, Bill and I headed for Branson.

We rambled about in our condo. We expected Noel's family to join us, but he wasn't feeling well, so we had the two bedroom, two bath to ourselves. I took some pictures that I will post. While in Branson, we saw lots of movies and shows because it rained a lot. We saw, "War Horse", "Mysteries of the Great Lakes" at Imax, and "Sherlock Holmes". We also saw Legends in Concert featuring look/sound alikes for Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, and the Blues Brothers. Bill was a little jealous when Elvis kissed me. Ha!

We left Branson on Wednesday and traveled back to Oklahoma. On Thursday morning, Noel called me and asked me to take him to the ER at OK Heart Hospital. They kept him overnight and moved up his pace maker replacement to next Monday.

On New Years' Eve I made chili and lemon meringue pie for the family. Ian and Phyllis came over about 9 p.m. and stayed until midnight. The Firelake Casino was shooting fireworks. The next morning, I taught the 10 people in Bible Study who showed up. Everyone was glad to be together. Just before worship service began, we learned that our good friend Randall Hair had been taken to emergency with a possible stroke. We stopped and prayed for him and his wife, Lisa. Randall made the pulpit, the communion table and the choir risers. He's a gifted carpenter!! He's still not doing well, but we know without doubt that the angels of God are with him and his doctors. The New Year has its challenges, but we are not alone and don't have to journey without the power of God!