The Christmas Story.

This morning before opening gifts our family has the tradition of reading the Christmas story together. Because of a sore throat I was not able to read it outloud myself. So I had the pleasure of just listening, and pondering the words of Luke. I think sometimes we almost forget what Christmas is really about. It's not just about: gifts, Christmas trees, cookies, decorating, but about God's son entering the world as a baby. And I don't want to come across as Miss Perfect Christian, because I also find myself dragged away from the real meaning. I am also not saying that Christmas trees, cookies, gifts, and decorating are all bad things. I think that those are some of the things that make Christmas so exciting! So what I guess I am trying to say is during the hustle and bustle of the season and of life, taking time to read God's word is what really matters. If you haven't already read the the scripture yourself, I have included the Christmas Story in my post. And if you have already maybe take a moment and read it again and really take in the miraculous story. I know it was helpful for me to read it again. I don't think you can ever read the story too much.

Luke 2:1-20 (New International Version)

The Birth of Jesus

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.
4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels
8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Courtesy of: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A1-20&version=NIV

Merry Christmas!!

Walking In a Winter Wonderland!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

Have fun in the snow!! Be Safe!

Take Care,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME!

Yes, Today December 15th in the year 1995 I was born at the University of Michigan Medical Center. I won't share the whole story of my birth, but I will say that it is a miracle I am here today. Here are some pics of my birthday day:

Here is my peppermint ice-cream cake with an E on it. SO YUMMY!

For lunch, my sister and I had a tea party. Here I am sitting at our little table full of goodies. Since my parents had lunch with my mom's staff we had our own little party at home. What a great birthday so far!! Tonight I am planning to open gifts and then go out for supper. I LOVE BIRTHDAYS!! 10 days till Christmas!

Take Care,

SNOW!

SNOW!

Yesterday morning on the morning news the weather guy said there was an 80% chance for snow today. So I woke up this morning and looked out my window and found myself looking at a white blanket of snow on the ground. YEA! So I hopped out of bed and put on my coat and went outside into the winter wonderland. I took my dog out since she LOVES snow. As soon as I was outside I heard the goats "ma ma ma." I think they were a little wacked beacuse they have never seen snow before. Here are some pics from this mornings  snow:

Hope all the Harrisonburg folks who are reading this have fun in the snow!! And to all the rest of you, Take Care.

Butchering Chickens

Remember these?

Well, if not about 10 weeks ago I posted a post about these peeps. Well now this is what they look like...

All grown up!! And today my family butchered 10 of them.

 We use a traffic cone for the killing tool. My dad is in charge of the killing part. He puts the chicken in the cone and its head pops out the bottom of the cone. My dad then cuts the head off and lets it bleed.

After dipping them in 140 degree water then comes the plucking part. Kate likes plucking!!

This is what a fully plucked chicken looks like.

The coolest part of all is the gutting! You get to see all the intestines, fun!

Hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse of what happens here on the farm. I would love to here your comments about this post whether you liked it or not.

Take Care,

Decorating

As you can see from my new blog design I love decorating for Christmas. This morning my sisters and I put our "fake" Christmas tree together. In my family our tradition is to decorate for Christmas right after Thanksgiving. Another tradition we have is that my sisters and I usually are the ones who decorate. My parents don't get to excited about decorating so they leave to my sisters and I. As we near Christmas let us remember the real meaning of Christmas, and why we celebrate it.

Take Care,

The Chesapeake Bay

This is a picture of a sunset right off the island we stayed at in the Cheaspeake Bay.

On November 18th at 5am my sister, dad, myself and a bus full of 22 Juniors and Seniors from EMHS left for what would be a 6.5 hour trip to the Chesapeake Bay. Since my dad drives bus for EMHS Myron the biology teacher at EMHS asked him if he could drive for this trip. My dad said yes and asked if my sister and I could come along too, Myron said that would be fine. So on our trip there the directions happened to take us right through downtown Washington DC. The best part was our timing sent us through DC during morning rush hour, mix those two things together and it's going to be stop and go for miles. We finally got to the dock where our boat was to pick us up and take us to Port Isobel at 12:30pm. We formed an assembly line and loaded all of our luggage onto the boat. Then it was a 45 minute boat ride to Port Isobel where we would be staying for the 3 days while we were there. When we reached the island our leaders Willy, Foster, and Deidra showed us our rooms and we unpacked. 

After unpacking we were shown the bakery which was a different building used for a dining area and lounging place. Then after having an session on some of the rules and expectations we got back on the boat for our first adventure. Our first fun experience was baiting and setting crab pots. Crab pots are the most common tool to catch crabs with. We baited them with a fish callled menhaden. Before putting the fish in the pots we had to kiss them goodbye and brake them in half. I had a hard time kissing my fish, but it wasn't that bad after it was all done. When we were done we headed back to the island and ate supper. After supper the high schoolers went on a night hike but Kate, my dad, and I chose to go to bed. 

The next morning after breakfast was all done we headed off to our next adventure, MARSH MUCKING! Doesn't it sound like fun? Well it was a lot of fun. Lets just say we got muddy and gross. Though we didn't get as muddy as the high schoolers we still had our share of fun. After we got into some cleaner clothes we ate some snacks and got on the boat for our next experience. This time we were going to the neighboring island which was called Tangier Island. The island has a population of about 580 residents. Our boat captain, Captain Charles lives on Tangier Island. There we got to explore the island and see how the lifestyle of the Tangier people was different from ours. There is quite a dramatic difference from the two. While there my dad, sister, and I got to enjoy and share a crab cake. So Delicious!! After exploring we headed back to the island and had lunch. Next, we got back on the boat and gathered our crab pots. And on the way back I got to drive the boat, pretty big job but of course I could handle it :) haha. We recieved little over 30 crads but we could only keep 28. So for supper we had striped bass which Captain Charles and Foster had caught during the day our crabs we got. 

The next day which was our last day we had breakfast and then we went scraping. Scraping is where you take the boat out to a shallow area and drag a box like thing with holes alongside the boat. After about 5 minutes you take it out of the water and dump all the stuff out of it. And what you find is amazing, sea horses, crabs, shrimp, and all sorts of macro-invertebrates. We then put the creatures into jugs and took them back to the island. When we got back to the island we dumped all the creatures into a bigger tank that already had fish and sea horses in it. We then started to pack and clean up. After the 45 minute boat ride to where the bus was we ate lunch and said our goodbyes and we were on our way back to Harrisonburg. We got back home at around 8:30pm. What a fun fun trip and I am so thankful I got to be apart of it.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving! Don't eat too much:)