Our New Year's Eve Celebration

Wow!  I can't believe it is December 31st.  Happy New Year's Eve!!!

This year we are staying home to bring in the New Year.  Partly because I am still getting over a terrible cold and partly because we normally stay home.  I love being home on New Year's Eve.  It is usually a slower evening after all the celebrating of Christmas and Brooke's birthday.

I am so happy to tell you that I finally finished a craft I started a couple of months ago.  Yeah, you read that right.  A couple of months ago!  Janelle and I had gotten together back in September and she had showed me how to make these beautiful ornaments.    The instructions can be found here.

Janelle used her Silhouette to cut out the letters, names and the Fleur de lis.

I am going to be totally honest with you.  It takes patience to make these beautiful ornaments.  But once you get a rhythm it is fairly easy.  I found the B, D and the P to be the hardest to apply.  Simply because if you weren't careful the letters stretched out of shape.  That is why I do not have a D on mine.  :)

I am very happy with the way they turned out. 

The hubs made chili for his meal while I am having boiled shrimp from HEB.  I chose the Cajun seasoning.  They are delicious!!!

I had two glasses of my favorite wine (the bottle was half empty when I started!) along with my chocolate covered strawberries.  Lucky for me the hubs doesn't eat them, either!

Hope you are having a wonderful New Year's Eve!!!

Take care,

xoxoxo

Debbie

The Star of Bethlehem

In the early part of December I was invited along with the other women in our bible study class to watch The Star of Bethlehem, starring Rick Larson, at a friend's home.  To be completely honest, this was the one time I did not do my homework before time so I had no idea of what I was going to see.  I knew I would have a wonderful time, regardless of what it was about.

I am not into astronomy and Science is definitely not one of my strong subjects.  I am so far on the the creative side I tend to lose interest in Science, etc.  But let me tell you, I never got bored with this DVD.  The findings blew me away and moved me to tears.  Seriously.  I was not the only one in the room with tears in my eyes.

Mr. Larson walks you through Biblical and historical clues revealing the incredible significance of this celestial event as well as the vastness of God's creativity.  Scholars debate whether the Star of Bethlehem is a legend created by the early church or a miracle that marked the birth of Christ.  Is it possible that the star was a real, astronomical event?

I challenge you this holiday season to take a moment and watch the DVD and discover the secret of the Star.  It will definitely be worth your while.

I'd love to hear from you if you have seen The Star of Bethlehem to hear your thoughts on the findings.

Hope you are enjoying the holidays....

xoxoxo

Debbie

Our Visit to Santa's Wonderland

One of the fun things we did before Christmas was we all went to Santa's Wonderland in College Station (except for Brooke and Brad as they were in Wisconsin watching the Dallas Cowboys play Green Bay).  This was our second trip there.  The first time we went was eight years ago and it was ridiculously cold.   It was one of those random times the temperature had dropped for the one day into the 30's.  It was freezing!!!  We had coats and mittens but it was still too cold.  At the time, Miss A was almost two years old and was not able to ride the hayride as it was way too cold.

This year we bought our tickets early so all we had to do when we got there was exchange them for the wrist bands.  I paid extra for parking and we were literally right outside of Santa's Town.  We were prepared.  We had blankets in the car just in case we needed them for the hayride.

 

Warning!!!  There are a lot of photos.  I must say, the photos do not do the lights justice.  Everything is so much prettier in person.

There were beautiful displays in the windows outside of the restrooms.

Sweet P and I were taking photos while waiting for everyone.  She slipped on her sister's Harry Potter scarf while we were waiting.  Looks like we might need to add one for her list to Santa next year.  :)

The decorations were beautiful.

Once inside Santa Town, Mr. W found the first of many huge Nutcrackers.  He loves Nutcrackers.

We stopped for a quick photo before we got started having fun.  Before we know it, Miss A will be as tall as myself, her mom and Nonnie!!!

They had a huge bonfire in the middle for you to warm up if you were cold or you could just sit around and listen to the music.

This man (I never got his name) was singing and playing the guitar.  He was really, really good.  Everyone could not get over how he knew all of the current hits.

The first thing we did was ride the hayride just in case the line got really long.  Doesn't she look so cool in her scarf?  We bought it for her last Christmas while we were at Universal Studios.

This is where the hayride begins.

Mr. W kept repeating "I love it" as we drove through the lights.

There were lots of snowmen,

a Gingerbread House,

everything Texas,

the elves loading up Santa's plane,

a Reindeer Flight School,

a gator catching a fish,

Paw Paw and his sweet girl.

and a beautiful nativity scene.

There was a reenactment of Christ's resurrection from the dead.

 A tribute to the men and women that serve and protect our country.  This display is so beautiful.

Since it wasn't really crowded, we were able to ride the hayride again later in the night.

We rode a couple of trains.

There were quite a few places to choose from for dinner.

Surprisingly we all chose Bandera BBQ.

We were lucky enough to snag a table inside of the "mess hall".  It was a little warmer in there.

They had bubbles for pretend snow.

I couldn't resist getting a photo of the candy tree.  We bought Santa cookies, Oreo and Cookies fudge, Kettle corn and cinnamon sugar pecans.  There was plenty to go around.

 Sweet P rode the pony.

The hubs bought me this beautiful Mickey Mouse sculpture by Jim Shore.  I love the details.  I had never seen this one before.  There were so many beautiful things in the Santa Town Store.

I snapped a photo while we were waiting for everyone to make a restroom run before we left.  By this time Mr. W was pretty tired.  Tiffani put him in his pjs and he snored all the way home.

On our drive home, Tiffani and Justin were in the front seats and they saw at least six shooting stars (if not more!).  I was on the middle row, in the middle seat, so I didn't see any.  

We  had a wonderful time.  Here's our video from Santa's Wonderland.

Did you do anything fun over the holidays?  I'd love to  hear about it.

xoxoxo

Debbie