Visit from the Holy Ghost????

As I was looking through the pantry to find the box of Town House crackers I had in the pantry with a good three sleeves of crackers in them, I notice the box isn't in the pantry anymore. Curious! So I ask Jack where they are. He says, "I saw the box upstairs in the bonus room". After going to get the box, I realise, all I HAVE is an empty box. NO crackers. So of course, I ask, where are the crackers, he of course, blames it on Caroline (who in all honesty had spent the better part of the last 24 hours holed up in the bonus room with her cousin, Allie.) Caroline, naturally, swears they had only eaten half a sleeve of the crackers.

So what happened to the crackers? Here is Jack's theory.

He deducted this from what? I don't know.....~ "The Holy Ghost snuck in through the window last night while Caroline and Allie were sleeping in the bonus room. He tip toes across the floor (Jack is demonstrating lifting the window and tip toeing across the floor) and gets two of the packages of crackers out of the box. You see, God really wanted some oval crackers, because He had some cheese up in Heaven He wanted to eat, but He didn't have any crackers to go with the cheese. So He saw the box of crackers in our bonus room and sent the Holy Ghost to come get them. And when the Holy Ghost left He disappeared just. like. that. (snapping his fingers). And all that was left when He went back to Heaven was some white fuzzy stuff and some white smoke. That was it."

So there you have it. The Case of the Missing Crackers solved by Jack Statzer and a visit from the Holy Ghost.

As a side note: what is interesting is we don't even say Holy Ghost (we refer to the third person of the Trinity as the Holy Spirit) - although Jack is quite stuck on that term because of a song we sang at church. He can't understand why there are ghosts in Heaven. And didn't we say that ghosts aren't real and if we said that then why are we singing about it at church.......I'll have to leave those questions to people who are much smarter than I am~

Friends

Friends are Friends forever if the Lord's the Lord of them......Just kidding. How many times WAS that song played at graduations over the years????

Anyway, I have been thinking a lot about friends and friendships over the past several weeks. I have been blessed with very special, dear friends whom I cherish and love.

With the advent of Facebook, I've been able to reconnect with a number of cherished friends from childhood, high school, college and later. Having moved every 3 years or so while I was growing up, made making and maintaining friendships a bit of a challenge. But having an electronic way to do that now is such an incredible blessing to me. It is fun to be able to reconnect with those people who knew you when you were a child and liked to play with barbie dolls and pretend to be 'teenagers'. Or those friends who remember that specific pub you used to hang out in a small German village in high school (hey, there was no drinking age there - the local hangout was really a pub). Or those friends from college who remember those crazy spring break trips to Daytona Beach where you shared Jesus with a myriad of drunk people (don't know how effective that really was!). Or friends you spent hours in the morning getting ready with using up cans and cans of AquaNet to make sure your hair stayed nice and big. As I reconnect with these old friends it has made me remember how blessed I am by how faithful God has always been to give me special friends over the years.

In addition to reconnecting with friends via the web, it has been an incredible few weeks getting to spend time with friends in person as well. Started back in November when James and I took an anniversary trip to Orlando. While there we got to have dinner a couple times with our dear, close friends, the Blumes. Having been in each others weddings and shared many tears, laughter, secrets and bits of advice, it is like hanging out with another sister and brother. So grateful for them. How fun to hang out with the Sassers for dinner recently. Having worked, played and vacationed with Amy for over seven years, they are such good friends whom I always enjoy hanging out with and wish I had more time to spend with on a regular basis. Going to a party where I got to see people I hadn't seen in over 25 years. Getting to reconnect with Hutch and Patty, spend time with Jennifer and meet her new hubbie, Mark and tell and retell stories from good ol' Perry, Florida. Hug the necks of people who have known me since I was a toddler or watched me walk to first grade as a small girl. Not to mention, my own sweet parents and sisters who are always near by or at least just a phonecall or text message away. I can't begin to describe how incredible it is for me to spend time with these people when often times we were only in the same place as them for a few years at most.

Most recently, the Lord has blessed me with some wonderful new friends too. Friends who we do life with weekly at church and in our small group. Friends whom I can always count on to pray for me and my family, worship with on Sundays and even hang out at the local Mexican restaurant from time to time.

Then there are the special ladies that I've never had the privilege of meeting in person, but have given me wonderful advice, prayed for me, encouraged me and supported me, many since before Jack was born.

Although the bank account would by no means register me as being rich, when you look at how wonderful and special are those I have the honor and privilege of calling friends, I'm truly a wealthy woman.

Thank you my dear friends for putting up with my crazy non-stop busyness, fast-talking, sometimes loud ways. For standing with me, loving me as I am and being there for me! I love you all!

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You, too? Thought I was the only one." ~~ C.S. Lewis

Irish Dance Princess

Caroline was born to dance. She has it her blood, much like her mother, aunt and grandmother. Having taken ballet, tap and jazz for a number of years, we figured she would stick with that just like I did. But having been born with red hair, a small petite body and an Irish ancestry, Caroline decided after seeing Lord of the Dance that she wanted to try her feet at Irish Dancing.

For the last year, she has been retraining her feet and way of thinking to learn Irish dancing. Although similar in some ways to what she had learned before, Irish dancing is pretty different. She loves that she is able to learn something that is part of her family history and is doing pretty well with it.

Although she has enjoyed the classes, we've taken it slowly, seeing if it was something she really wanted to stick with. Just a weekly class. But lately, I've seen something that reminded me of myself years ago. Constant dancing. I knew that if she was really going to get into this thing, I would know it when she started dancing ~ all the time. You will often see Caroline moving from one room to the next doing over-two-threes (an Irish Dance move) and steps and small jumps. Knew at that point that she had gotten bitten by the Irish dance bug and it is something she'll probably end up staying with. She has just moved from Beginner to Advanced Beginner this December and has been asked to join a team class where she will learn to do partner and trio dances. (which of course means more chauffeuring on my part!)

A couple of days ago we got an email stating that there was an opportunity for her to have a private lesson with Ms. Kathleen, the former lead dancer from Riverdance who had performed at Radio City Music Hall on Broadway. Knowing this is one of those once in a lifetime type of opportunities, we decided to let her do this. Caroline had such a blast and really learned a lot. She loved every minute of it, even if she was completely out of breath for most of the class (Irish dancing is not for the faint of heart - quite a workout!) Such a fun time~

Christmas Traditions - CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS

Christmas is easily one of my most favorite times of year. I love spending time with my family and loved ones, singing carols, buying and giving gifts to others, and a myriad of other special family traditions.

Like most families, our family has traditions that we do each year that help contribute to our family identity and closeness. Many of the traditions we do came from my parents. My mom always placed an emphasis on having and celebrating those family traditions and for that I am grateful because we now do many of the same ones and I hope that as Caroline and Jack get older and have their own family they will hold onto those that are most dear to them and celebrate them with their own families one day.

James and Caroline's favorite tradition is one I always have held dear and that is reading the story of Christ's birth out of the passage in Luke 2. We also then spend some time in prayer before we open presents. This year we changed it up a bit and decided to do it upstairs before coming downstairs to see what Santa brought. (makes it a little easier to concentrate without having a pile of presents to stare at).

Jack's favorite tradition is decorating the Christmas tree while we sing Christmas Carols. As I posted earlier I love my tree. It isn't the prettiest or the best matching but each ornament is special and cherished. I received five new ones this year and each are already special and I am thankful to each of the people who gave them to me.
My favorite tradition is getting dressed up on Christmas Eve and going to church. I love to sing all the beautiful carols and songs and hear again about the King of Kings leaving Paradise to come to earth so I might have eternal life. (of course, getting new clothes for the occasion is pretty fun too!) After Christmas Eve we've started a new tradition we eat ~Tortellini Soup. This is the second year in a row we have done it so I guess that makes it a tradition. This year, my parents ate with us and that was such a treat for us. Caroline had been praying for several days that they would, but we weren't sure if they were going to be able to. So we were very excited when they were able to come. We have another tradition in our family that goes to when I was a little girl. It might go back even farther to my mom being a child, but I'm not sure on that. We have to take a picture on the stairs before coming down to see what Santa brought. Once the picture on the stairs is done. There is that moment when you see all the Christmas magic. We don't put any presents under the tree until Christmas morning. When the children go to bed at night, the tree is decorated but empty. The next morning, is magical.
As well as leaving out cookies and in our case Iced Tea to drink for Santa. Caroline and Jack each wrote a letter to Santa. Caroline's letter said something to the effect of I'm sorry I don't believe in you because last Christmas when I asked my mom if you were real she didn't want to lie to me and say yes, but I still do believe in you in my heart. Santa writes each child back a note as well. This year Santa brought Caroline and Jack each a Stieff stuffed animal all the way from Germany. Since I have a bear from when we lived there, I think Santa wanted them each to have one of their own to love and cherish.
Opening Christmas stockings are fun. Candy, trading cards, toothpaste, lip gloss, socks, underwear.
We finally got to the presents. We cut way back this year. In addition to wanting to be wise in this economy, we just don't need a lot of extra stuff. Mom and Dad made the early morning drive over to be part of our festivities. Caroline's favorite gift was her Boogie Superstar Wii game that she can sing and dance to. Jack's favorite gift was his Leapster. Not being quite old enough for a Nintendo DS, he is happy to have a handheld game that he can play. Another favorite tradition is going to Gommie and Papa's house to celebrate Christmas Round 2. We open more gifts, play games, have a talent show and eat yummy food. This year we had a shrimp and crab boil and it was delish!
Papa cranked the heat up on the hot tub and the kids loved having a dip before dinner!
Christmas traditions - the best of which is celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus. The fact that we are partaking in a tradition that people have done for thousands of years - having a wonderful birthday party - is just plain awesome! Happy Birthday Jesus!!!!!

Christmas Traditions - COOKIES

One of my favorite things to do as a child was to decorate sugar cookies for Christmas. Rolling out the dough, decorating them with different colored powder-sugar icing. Waiting until the icing hardens on the outside just a bit and then eating them.

Of course, we always left a couple out for Santa on Christmas Eve with a nice glass of milk and a loving letter.

Well, knowing from past experience that I unequivocally canNOT roll sugar cookie dough and cut them with cookie cutter to resemble anything remotely Christmasy, we went the easy route. Apparently there is a market for those of us who are sugar cookie challenged and you can now buy dough already cut! THANK YOU Pillsbury!

We baked them and then after they cooled the kids and I enjoyed decorating them just like I did as a child. Hope Santa likes them too! Wonder if they will taste as yummy as they did when I was a little girl (just got to wait for the icing to harden ~ just a bit).

Christmas County Spelling Bee!!!!

After months of practice, listening to songs over and over and over again, dance moves to master, sign language and song motions to memorize, we finally performed our children's Christmas Musical today at church. The Christmas County Spelling Bee. The Musical focused on spelling and learning all the different names of Jesus. The message was an inspiring one teaching us that we serve such a wonderful Lord and Savior who has many names all of which describe more of His character and love for us. Set in the 1950's the children looked adorable in their poodle skirts, and rolled blue jeans and white t-shirts.

We had over 120 children in the performance. Solo singers, solo speaking parts, dance groups and nine songs sung (most with movements). The children did very well. They worked so hard and had a fantastic attitude about it all. For us, it was a family affair. Caroline was in one of the special dance numbers to the song Emmanuel. Jack was part of the 4 and 5 year old choir that sang 4 of the songs. I helped direct the music portion of the play (not to worry, I wasn't in charge of singing - hand motions were more my thing) and James assisted with the sound system.

As much as we enjoyed it, I'm glad it is over for now as the holidays are rapidly approaching and we have much to get done. Here are a couple of pictures of the performance.

Christmas Traditions - CHRISTMAS CARD PICTURES

I enjoying taking pictures of my kids. (that comes as such a surprise I am sure!). It is time to start making plans for Christmas cards. I didn't want to use summer vacation pictures again this year. I thought about having their pictures taken at a local studio, but at the last minute decided against it. After church today, we had our own little photo shoot. We had some fun and after much cropping of pictures (I have a secret love affair with cropping pictures) this is what we had!
The first four pictures were used on the Christmas Card
These didn't make it on the card, but did make it onto our annual photo calendar!