R.I.P. Kirk

My sisters fiance passed away last week and 

I have been thinking about this verse 

and how it is so appropriate

at a time like this.

Death is bittersweet-

On the one hand we miss those that pass on

but on the other hand our faith allows us 

to feel comforted that our loved ones

are now in Heaven

His name was Kirk

and he loved to fish 

I believe that he is sitting

on the shoreline in Heaven

waiting for that big one

that he keeps catching 

over and over 

and over 

again

My prayers are for my sister

who has lost her love

in hopes that she can feel

the peace that

only 

Jesus 

can give us 

Hark the herald Angels sing..

Glory to the newborn King!

Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

What beautiful words!  

Merry Christmas everyone 

and may we all never forget the real reason

for the season!

CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS

I can't believe we are in November (mid-way no doubt)

and so close to Christmas.

Since I have some time on my hands right now

I have been busy making some gifts

I will give you a little preview here of what I have been doing:

hint:

I love making Christmas ornaments 

I also have about 5 gifts wrapped

Have you started your Christmas preparations yet?  

Only 40 days, 10 hours, and 52 minutes left to go!

With the economy so tough

and just how hard things are anymore, 

it is nice to have something so special

to look forward to

remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

49 Days Away!

The stockings-

A tradition beginning in a European country originally, 

children simply used one of their everyday socks, 

but eventually special Christmas stockings 

were created for this purpose

The Christmas Tree-

decorated real or artificial, and 

a Christmas tradition

The Door Wreath-

Christmas decorations 

symbolizing the coming of Christ, 

aka the Advent season in Christianity

The Snowman-

They are customarily built by children

as part of a family project in celebration of winter

____________________________________________________

Some of my Christmas memories:

We grew up in a Swedish family

and celebrated Christmas Eve with a 

large family gathering and the 

exchanging of family gifts

after we ate dinner

The dinner sometimes consisted of

a Swedish Smorgasbord

My grandmother would say the 

blessing in Swedish.

As kids we never really knew what

she was saying, but boy did she say it well!

There was corn pudding, Swedish meatballs,

lutfisk - fish in a jar (yuck), limpa bread with lingonberry jam,

dates rolled in powered sugar, bread pudding,

scalloped potatoes and chicken,

sauerkraut, and other family favorites

One of my mom's favorite sayings

was: "But we have to feed the people"

With 6 kids in our family

we had a massive amount of

gifts under our tree

The youngest kid usually

was appointed "Santa"

to pass out all the gifts to everyone else

Some of us other kids would usually

get up and help Santa

Christmas morning found our gifts from 

Santa under the Christmas tree.

I remember so clearly the little hand written

signs with black marker with our names

on them. They were large signs and were

placed in front of our "pile" of gifts from Santa

(Of course it was my dad's writing on those signs)

Santa never wrapped up gifts for our house

(our parents were too pooped after 

wrapping all the family gifts that 

were handed out on Christmas Eve).

Christmas day would be a little 

bit slower paced and end with 

a nice ham dinner

________________________________________

Are you ready for Christmas?

What are some of your family traditions?

remember:Jesus is the reason for the season

SHADOWS OF DAKOTA

We cast shadows

not so unlike 

reflections

in water

For other shadowy shots, please click on the following link:

LEARNING TO PLAY

It is a paradox of creative recovery

that we must get serious about

taking outselves lightly.

We must work at learning 

to play

                                                  -Julia Cameron

This is a picture of my dear nephew about 14 years ago. 

What a treasure he is!

I am linking to:

PRETTY IN PINK

Linking to:

How sweet it is

My sister recently had a cookout at her house 

I offered to bring something sweet for dessert.

I had an angel food cake in the freezer and 

thought Hmm...

what can I do with that?

I went to the grocery store and tried to find something

that was not too unhealthy to transform this angel food cake into

I ended up buying some plain greek yougart, crushed pineapples

and a box of instant coconut cream pudding

I mixed the yougart with the coconut cream pudding

and then drained some of the crushed pineapples

I spooned the yougart/pudding mixture over the cake

and then added 

the drained pineapples on top of the cake

and let me tell you

This was "yum" good!

If you need something quick and good

just take an angel food cake

mix instant pudding with 

something like yougart or cool whip 

and then add some kind of fruit on top 

of the cake (blueberries, cherries, etc)

Spoon the mixture on top of the cake

add the fruit

and you will have a real crowd pleaser!

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please click on:

Maybe a touch of pink

I have really been playing around with my beads lately

and wonder

if you like my latest creation?

Glass beads

(Amethyst chips with lilac and maybe a 

touch of pink in the middle of the bracelet)

with sterling silver earrings

I am linking to: 

AMAZON GIVEAWAY ENDS JULY 10

$10 Giveaway to Amazon.com at Ramblings and More.

To enter this giveaway and visit a great blog

please click on this link: