Friday, December 24, 2010

A Special Merry Christmas to Brett In Afghanistan

Dear Brett,

Merry Christmas!!  It was so good to talk to you just a bit ago.   It's funny that it's already Christmas there but still early in the evening of Christmas Eve here.  Dad & I were just about ready to sit down to dinner when you called.  But it was far better receiving your call than eating :o)  I had a hard time eating for the huge lump in my throat and for the tears!!  Dad & I miss you sooooo much.  I know we always tell you that but it's so true.  It's great that you've got almost five months of your time done!  I'm sure time goes so slow for you being away from your family.  But when you're busy hopefully time passes a little faster for you.  Thank you for the many, many sacrifices you're making to serve our country.  Nobody knows what it's like except for those who go through it!!  You've been on my mind a lot lately and will continue to be until you're back in the USA.  We're praying that God will keep His hand on you and protect you and give you good health and strength.  Keep your chin up, buddy!!  We love you so much and miss you.
Merry Christmas!!
Mom & Dad 

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas From Our House To Yours ~ 2010

I took this pictures about two weeks ago.  It was so close to being dark outside, but looking at these you'd never know it :o)
 We have this white fence way around our yard and it's so pretty with the garland, white lights and red bows!!
 This is how they decorate the palm trees!  They are so pretty!!
I hoping that we'll be able to go out maybe tomorrow evening to look at the lights around our area.  The people go all out here on the Island with decorating!  Just beautiful!!
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And we want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!  Be thankful this Christmas for good health and remember those who may have lost a family member or close friend this year!  We've got so much to be thankful for but we take it for granted!!

Christmas Time At Our House

One of my sister's told me that she wanted to see pictures of my tree, etc.  So, here goes!!
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This is my Nativity Scene that was my Mother's.  I remember she got this when I was pretty young.
I really love it and it means a lot to me being it was hers!!
 Next year, I'll be adding another piece of garland so it goes down the sides of the doors farther
 My china cabinet with poinsettia lights on the top
 My little four foot tree
 I like how this picture turned out
 The caroler's were also my Mother's
 Something to remind me of what the weather is like up north :o)
 An angel
 We moved my little display case in the entry area so the Christmas tree could go in front of the living room window.
 The beautiful iridescent angel tree top that Dennis got me
 My pretty tree
 We now have lots of gifts under the tree from school kids and friends at Church.  I guess I should've taken another picture with the gifts :o)  We're saving them to open Christmas morning as we didn't buy anything for each other here.  Our gifts are waiting for us in the States!!
 I love this picture with the tree lights reflecting on the ceramic tile floor

 Some very special ornaments!!  My sister, Charlotte, gave these to us last year for Christmas after we found we were leaving Ohio and moving to the Caribbean.
 They are so pretty a glistening!  Someone told us one of the stores here sell something similar to mine.  So, if I remember next year when the decorations are being put out in the stores here I want to go looking to see if I can find some more!!

Church Choir Christmas Cantata

Our Church Choir performed their Christmas Cantata on December 12th.
They did an awesome job!
Lloyd is a senior in our high school and was the narrator of the cantata
The choir
 Dennis giving the director a small token of appreciation
 Bro. Laten our Assistant Pastor who has been very ill but was able to be out to Church again

The tree in our Church.  I think it needs a little more decoration but.....  It was supposed to be a 12' tree, but when it was delivered it was far from that size!  It was still pretty.

The Parade of Lights

The Parade of Lights
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Looking across the little bay area
 The following are pictures I took of some of the boats that were decorated so beautifully!  I know they turned out blurry.  For some reason,  I just couldn't find a good setting plus we were a little ways from them and they were moving when I snapped the pictures.
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This was Santa's sleigh pulled by a Skidoo.  'Ole Santa was standing on the front of the sleigh whirling a lighted whip in the air.  It was really neat.  I think they won a prize!
 This is a package (what you can see of it)
 This boat was decorated with huge candycanes
 This was a tree
 And a blue tree.  I loved how it reflected in the water!
 This was on a giant boat.  It was so pretty with all the lights!!
 When the parade of boats was over we left thinking that was it for the night.  Were we ever surprised when we saw the fireworks starting to go up into the sky!  They were awesome!!

What a great fun filled evening!!

Back to Blogging

Wow!  I can't  believe it's almost a month since I posted anything on here!!  So much to do and so little time is my favorite saying :o)  Plus my laptop is on the blink AGAIN, so I downloaded my pictures (many, many, many) on this our desktop.  I don't hardly know where to start but being it's Christmas time in the city I guess that's the best place.  We had sooooooo many different activities to attend for our school and Church this month and I tried to capture most of it with the camera.  I'll probably do several post on these things!!  Here's just a sampling.

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On December 4th, we went to a little town all it's own called Caymana Bay.  There are shops, restaurants, businesses, etc. there.  But on this particular evening they had what is known as The Parade of Lights.    I'll be posting more about that later.  This little village/town was so beautifully decorated.

This is looking down the main walkway
 Look at those BIG balls.  How about that snowman :o)
 There's a huge Christmas tree ahead
 It was a mass of people


 More pretty things

 There was a huge stage area here were they had some singers and a big choir from a local Church perform later in the evening

 And yes, it snows in Cayman!!  It was awesome to be in the snow and enjoying the 70 - 80 temps!!
 We ran into Bradley ~ a little boy from school
 One of the many fountain areas



Silent Monks

If you've never saw this before it is awesome!!