THE ROOST

The Party Has Started!

Welcome to my New Years Party!   I can't wait to see the photos you have chosen as your 10 favorite from this past year!  I will be visiting your blogs over the next few days to check them out.

It is not too late to join the party!  All you have to do is post your top 10 photos from this year with a short description under each one.

This is a way to give us a peek at your 2008 as it closes.  I will leave this post up through the weekend!

Please link back to me in your post & add your name to Mr. Linky at the bottom. (He and I have been round and round over the past few hours but I think I figured the complicated guy out for now....with lots of help....and prayers... and a few awful thoughts)!

Now with no further delay, my Top 10 Photos are.....in no certain order.... 

#1

I am holding Mr. Perfect right after his birth.

#2

The Pansies in full bloom leading up to my front door.

#3

Ok, this is not me.....but it well could be!  LOL

#4

Celebrating a mother-daughter weekend with my youngest chick at college!

#5

Hubs in his "dream car"!

#6

My 3 daughters all home for Christmas!

#7

Mr. Perfect in the car Pops & I gave him for Christmas.  He is in love with the horn!

#8

Hazel surrendering to her bath.  No her eyes are not green....silly!

#9

I LOVE studying God's word & eating out with this group of ladies.  It would be perfect if 3 were not missing that day.

#10

Mr. Perfect & Hazel watching for Santa!

It has been fun sharing my photos now I am off to see yours!  

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

You're Invited To A Party!

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and I am having a bloggy picture party and you are invited.   The way I look at it there are all kinds of top 10's to end the year.....best songs, video moments & personalities.....  I would like to celebrate your moments from the past year instead!

Soooo look at your photos from this past year and pick your top 10 (I know that will be hard). They don't have to be photos you posted just ones that are special to you.   Post them with a short explanation under each photo.   This will kinda be a way to recap the year for you and us too! 

To RSVP.....  just leave a comment telling me you are coming to the party and plan your post for tomorrow, including your 10 pictures.   Others can link to you from the comments left on my blog.  Spread the news on your blog linking back to me so they know who is posting pictures.

It will be so much fun seeing what photos were special to you from 2008!  I can't wait!!!

I have to give you a sneak peak of one of the photo's that will be one of my top 10 of 2008....

I am holding Mr. Perfect moments after his birth!

Now I have the hard task of choosing just 9 more photos for my post on New Years Eve.

Who made these rules up anyway! :0

See you tomorrow at the party! ;)

When It's over it's over...

Chicks I couldn't take it any longer........this

now looks like this.....

 And these two boys.....

are back in their home for the winter.

Do they look sad to you or is it just me?

It amazes me how when Christmas is over I can't stand having my decorations up!  I blame it on my mom who always had our home pulled together on the 26th each year without fail!  Thanks mom I have been working my buns off trying to get mine put up! 

Right when I think I have it all put away........

I find one more trinket that I have forgotten to pack up.....

Once it is all boxed up..... I just have to remember how it was in the beginning.....hummm.....Maybe I will change it up a bit this year.....After all change can be a good thing..... right?

I might have to crack open one of my new decor books I got for Christmas to get some fresh ideas....

I'll let you know what I come up with!  ;)

Wrapping Up December

I hope your Christmas was bigger and better than you dreamed it could be...

And your ready to start a brand New Year!

From my House to Yours

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

The Real Gifts of Christmas

I hope and pray you are enjoying the things dear to your heart this Christmas...

and thanking Christ for each and everyone.

A Reason to Celebrate

Jealousy, anger, selfishness, impatience.....are just a few things that make up our human nature.

I know I am guilty of excusing these traits (and many others)  in myself and others by saying it is merely human nature to act or feel that way.   While it may well be human nature I now have a divine nature living in me that enables me to act in a divine way and not a human way.

That is what Christmas is to me.....  Christ came to give me abuntant life, eternal life and a new nature to replace the old.  He came to give me a new way of life to restore what had been destroyed through sin.  

Oh the ole human nature still raises it's ugly head but it doesn't have to have power over me anymore.  Through excepting Christ as my savior I can now have victory in those areas.

Christ divine birth was the promise of a new birth that would take place in those who put their faith in Him through the corridors of time.....  I have been "born again" with a different nature in me.   No, I am NOT a little god, I am human with the ability to behave as Christ would have me behave.  

One day I will not have a struggle between the two natures any longer.  I will celebrate forever my complete wholeness in Christ.  But for now I celebrate too...The new nature brought to me through the birth & then death of the sinless Christ as well as the restoration of life eternal with Him that had been stolen away through sin.

Ps 69:4......I am forced to restore what I did not steal.

2 Corinthians 5:21...God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

We Have Started Celebrating!

Mr. Perfect and his mom and dad got here last night so we have already started celebrating!  

As soon as Grammy heard they were on there way I put my Christmas apron on....

 and got busy in the kitchen.

Chicken Rice Soup

1 package wild rice mix, prepared as directed

1 to 2 c. cooked, chopped chicken 

2 c. chicken broth

1 c mushroom soup

2 c. milk

1 & 1/2 c. Cheddar cheese

1/2 c. shredded carrots

1/2 c. onions chopped fine

1/2 c. celery finely cut

1 package Hidden Valley salad dressing

1 T. butter

Add ingredients to crock-pot and cook on high 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

 

And to go with that I made the best cornbread!

Broccoli Cornbread

5 eggs, beaten

2 c cottage cheese

1 1/2 sticks margarine, softened

1 medium onion, chopped 

1 package chopped broccoli, thawed & cooked

2 boxes Jiffy cornbread mix.

Preheat oven to 400. Mix ingredients in the order given.  Pour into a greased 9x13-inch pan.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  Let stand a few minutes before slicing.

Then we opened just one little gift early.....

from sweet Auntie Em.

Tonight we will have another party centered around the Dallas Cowboy game and you know who.....

their future quarter back! ;)

The Legend of the Candy Cane

A candy cane is a very special Christmas candy.  Legend has it that a candy maker wanted to create a candy that would be a witness to Jesus Christ.  First, he used a hard candy to represent Christ, the rock of ages.  It looks like the letter "J" for Jesus and also like a shepherd's staff reminding us of the shepherds who first heard the good news of Jesus birth and went to worship Him and of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who watches over us.  He added stripes on the candy to represent the stripes of the whip on the back of Jesus as the Romans led him to the cross.  It also reminds us that it is by His stripes that we are healed.  The color red represents the shedding of His blood to wash away our sins which makes us white as snow the other color of the candy cane.

Cooking with an Elf

Even though Santa and I have been on shaky ground lately.  I am still in good standing with the elves.  

One little elf has really been helpful to me in the kitchen.....

We have been cooking up some really good bars.  

I thought I would pass the recipe on to you so you could see for yourself.

Keebler Elf Bars

1/2 cup butter

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup milk

Keebler Club crackers

Chocolate chips (mini semi-sweet)

Chopped pecans

Mix brown sugar, butter, crumbs, vanilla and milk, & bring to a boil over medium heat.  Boil for 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, line the bottom of an 8x8-inch pan with rows of Keebler crackers.  Spread half the boiled graham cracker mixture over the crackers.  Place another layer of crackers over the mixture, then the remaining cooked mixture.  While it's still hot sprinkle generously with chocolate chips and then sprinkle with finely-chopped pecans.  Chill bars until icing and filing are firm.  Cut bars into squares for serving.

For a double recipe use a 9x13-inch pan  This bar cookie is unusual and delicious, crisp and a bit salty because of the crackers.  It gets lots of raves.

Grab an elf and whip up these tasty bars!

They are really yummy!