This past December, I took my 5 youngest for a morning out on the town.  First we met Sarah and Abigail at the thrift shop in Charlotte Hall.

 Abigail loved the big bin of Beanie Babies.

 Abigail loves animals, especially stuffed animals, so this was a thrill for her.

 Every day when Abigail takes her afternoon nap, she surrounds herself with lots of stuffed animals...and we laugh about how she can glance at her collection and know in an instant if one of her beloved animals is missing!  Heaven forbid!

 We were all standing around watching her...with fear for the moment when we had to tell her it was time to put the animals back so we could leave.

 But then we told her Grandaddy was meeting us at Burger King...and she quickly returned the animals to the bin.  Voila!

 Meemaw couldn't come, just Grandad.  It was our first blustery day of the winter.

 Smile for the camera, Abigail!

 On December 2nd, we had our annual dinner with the XYZers from church.  (Stands for Xtra Years of Zest.)  I knew I was going to forget to take pictures, so I took one before everyone came.  We only had 16 folks come this year.   

Anna made her famous teacakes.  The theme for this year was, "It's a Cowboy Southern Maryland Christmas."  We had lots of fun putting on the 35 minute "operetta" afterwards.  If you want a copy of the dvd, let me know and I will get one to you. 

I was nervous about this year's food because my oven wasn't working.  I borrowed my Dad's huge smoker, and we served carne asada shish kabobs.  All the women enjoyed the veggie shish kabobs.  (That's an artichoke?!)  Mike fixed my oven the night before, so we were able to bake our sourdough dinner rolls after all.   

Here's the performance.  We hope to have another XYZer event this summer since we heard a lot of them say they wished they'd known it was going to be a Western event so they could've dressed western.  We'll have to have a real hoedown!

I miss the Christmas season and sitting in front of our fireplace with the Christmas lights on.  My children slept outside under the stars on Christmas eve.  Now they are waiting for a snowy night so they can wake up and brush off the snow.  They also have plans to sleep under a tarp some rainy night.  Never a dull moment.  

Mike is working late tonight, so dinner is every man for himself.  I made a skillet full of Tandori chicken...a family favorite...so I know there will be no leftovers.  One good thing about being busy...the time sure does fly!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

"Hast thou not known?  Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.  He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:  But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

 ~ Isaiah 40:28-31 (KJV)