Favorite Christmas Songs

So, my brother-in-law asked us at Thanksgiving to go around the table and tell everyone what our favorite Christmas song was. It was very hard to pick just one. Since then, I've been trying to remember all of those wonderful Christmas songs that I love to listen to but often get forgotten (I seem to hear the same songs over and over on the radio). As I pulled out my CDs for this Christmas season, I made a list of my favorites, including the ones that are not quite as well-known. So, here's my compilation so far (not necessarily in any order), some classical, traditional, hymns, carols, others contemporary/worship, mostly likely at least a few that you aren't familiar with...check out any that you aren't familiar with on www.youtube.com, maybe you'll find a new favorite:

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Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee (Ode to Joy)

O Holy Night

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Christmas Offering

Angels We Have Heard On High

Mary, Did you Know

Carol of the Bells

The Gift

When Love Came Down (Point of Grace)

O Come All Ye Faithful

Christmas Canon

Let There Be Light (Point of Grace)

Breath of Heaven

In the First Light

Little Town (Point of Grace)

For Unto Us

Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah

All is Well

Emmaneul (Chris Tomlin)

My Soul Magnifies the Lord (Chris Tomlin)

Joy to the World/Unspeakable Joy (Chris Tomlin)

Glory in the Highest (Chris Tomlin)

Light of the World (Chris Tomlin)

Winter Snow (Chris Tomlin)

Born That We May Have Life (Chris Tomlin)

Jesus, Born on this Day (Mariah Carey)

Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child (Mariah Carey)

What Child is This

Hope is Born Again (Jim Brickman/Point of Grace)

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Angels from the Realms of Glory

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

The First Noel

O Little Town of Bethlehem (especially verse 4)

Silent Night (especially verse 2 & 3)

I also enjoy singing all of the verses of each of the carols...the additional verses are some of my favorites.

Anyone with other favorites?

A few favorites are listed on the Play list below. (I can only get 9 on there at a time) Enjoy! (You can still listen while viewing other sites if you minimize the window and they will keep playing)

Frugal Friday: More Inexpensive Thanksgiving Ideas

More great Thanksgiving ideas here... I don't know if all of the offers from last year are still available or not, but it appears so. Be sure to check out the "Scripture Adventures"!

A Season of Thanksgiving: Counting Your Blessings

One of the reasons why I love this time of year is that it reminds me to have a spirit of gratefulness. I saw this tool for writing down or journaling our gratitude. We've done something similar before. It can be used in various ways (some ideas are listed on the website) and I wanted to pass it along because I love the ideas and the artwork. I thought was so kind of them to make it available for free since it probably took some time to design (of course you will need to use your color ink to make them look nice). If you wanted to be really frugal, you could still use the ideas by handwriting on some index cards or maybe something else. Click here to download the printable "Gratitude Journal"

----Ephesians 5:19-20

"Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Another Valentine's Day Treat

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44372213@N00/3350270426

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Do you love chocolate? I admit I am a chocoholic. Even though I know dark chocolate is healthier, I have always preferred milk chocolate...until I discovered Green & Black's Organic Chocolate. Oh my, it is amazing! This is good quality chocolate. It is a bit more expensive, but it is made with higher quality (and healthier) ingredients than most of the other chocolate bars. It is available at Walmart for $2.97 for a 3.5 oz bar. I calculated the WW points to be only 1 point (because it's just 40 calories) for two pieces. There are 30 pieces in the 3.5 oz bar, so a couple little pieces a day lasts quite a while. It is such a decadent treat for a dessert. And, it's a heart-healthy way to satisfy a sweet tooth too, because dark chocolate contains lots of wonderful antioxidants. So, as a Valentine's Day treat (since $2.97 is a pretty cheap Valentine's Day gift), I recommend Green & Black's Organic Chocolate... ...or maybe you'd like to make some chocolate covered strawberries for your sweetie :) Click here for a $1 coupon through Facebook.

Click here for an additional sweet deal ($1/2 coupon which can be used with the other coupon) if you shop at Walgreens.

January Update: Christmas Celebrations and New Year Resolutions

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Praise God that everyone was healthy (we were fervently praying that we would not have a repeat of last year's stomach virus) and that we could enjoy time with family. For Christmas Eve, we went to church and celebrated with Mike's extended family. Then, on Christmas Day we spent time with Mike's parents, sister's family, grandma and his aunt's family. Then the following weekend (over the New Year), we traveled to Greenville to celebrate with my family. We really were blessed this year and enjoyed that time together very much, although we missed Jason and Kerby being able to be here with us (http://www.todalagentecr.blogspot.com/). We recently purchased a new camera (Nikon Coolpix P100)after our old one continued to need new batteries each time we used it. We were excited to try it out even though we are still learning how to use it. It has some nice features so hopefully we will become more adept at using it and have some professional looking photos eventually. (Since I'm so behind on putting a post up) Mike has already put together a nice video with many of our pictures of Christmas. So, if you haven't seen it yet, you can view it on his blog. I picked a few of my favorites to post:

Aaron with his letter "A" place card

Caleb with his new geeky fun glasses and the old camera that he carried around with him all weekend taking pictures Katelyn working on her "Build a Bear" craft with Mom Josiah (and Caleb in his muscle shirt) after playing the Kinect Us holding up Josiah's magnetic post-its and Katelyn's woven potholder gifts

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Mike and I hung stockings over our fireplace this year and had some fun filling them for each other (Mike even received a letter from Santa). We also enjoyed decorating our home this year even though the decorations barely made it up before Christmas. So, we left them up a little later this year to fully enjoy them.

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One of our Christmas gifts was the xBox Kinect. We feel so "cool" to receive one of this year's hot Christmas gifts (not that we really care). Our primary motive for asking for the Kinect was to be able to do some fun exercise with it. We took a long time to decide between the Nintendo wii and the xBox Kinect, but we are very happy about it. We have been enjoying it and it has been successful in getting us "moving" in the evenings, as you can see.

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Mike and I each set our own resolutions earlier this month. We find it refreshing to do this together in the New Year. The Jan. 2 sermon at my parent's church was a very good one on leaving your past behind and pressing on toward what God has called you to do (Phil. 3:12-14). You can listen to the sermon at this link. (It's not to late to set a new year's resolution if you haven't already - there is still 1 more week left in January.)

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My family decided to do our own Biggest Loser Competition and we are officially underway. So far it's been lots of fun. We each have our own goal weight to strive for. And, I'm impressed with how well everyone is doing. We are finishing up week 3 on Monday. It's really helped me stay on track knowing there is accountability. Mike and I finally set out to walk the whole way around the lake (it's about 4 1/2 miles but not flat) and we've done it twice now even through the cold and snow. It was quite challenging. We're also playing in a church volleyball league which has been fun and a good way to get to know more people at the church.

Mike's 35th Birthday Road Trip

Mike's birthday was last Saturday. We went away for the weekend and had a great time in Pittsburgh. Friday evening we met my Mom and Dad, and Mike's old roommate and his wife at the baseball game (used our free tickets). Saturday we went to the new casino on the North Shore with a friend of ours (Mike and I both won a little bit of money) and then went Swing Dancing Saturday night. Sunday we went to my old church on the Northside (Allegheny Center Alliance Church) - the service was great and we also ran into one of my roommates and her husband - it was great to see them. For lunch we ate at Max's Allegheny Tavern, an authentic German restaurant with a buy one entree get one free coupon from Tropicana Rewards . One of my favorite things about the city is the variety of places to eat. After a drive past the new Children's Hospital (my place of employment 11 years ago) and a tour through Aspinwall past our old apartment with a quick stop at Cold Stone Creamery for Mike's free birthday ice cream, we headed home. There's always so many great things to do in Pittsburgh. It was a great weekend. Special thanks, again, to Steve and Amy for their hospitality. Hope you enjoyed your birthday weekend as much as I did, Mike!

Fourth of July Family Fun

I'm finally getting to posting these pictures. We had a wonderful time with my family at Heritage days and celebrating the 4th of July... On Saturday, we went to the Heritage Days in the park. There were lots of activities and demonstrations...spinning wool, grinding corn, heritage wooden toys, panning for gold, alpacas, wood craver, weaving, and a native American teaching the kids games and making bead necklaces. Then as part of Heritage Days we rode on a school bus to visit the train (which the kids enjoyed since they had never been on one). What a full day of fun activites (all for free)! On Sunday afternoon, we had a picnic and the kids played in the sprinkler - of course, our family always dresses in red, white, blue attire which I think makes it more fun. Later in the week, on the way home my sister and her family stopped at our house. We spent an afternoon at the beach, which at one point we had to ourselves because it had started to rain. We do enjoy having the beach walking distance from our house. It was a fun time...even playing in the rain!

Community Days

Last weekend was DuBois "Community Days". It's a pretty big deal. There is lots of free entertainment and food booths from local organizations all day Friday and Saturday. Mike does a magic show there each year. This year his show was between the Fireman's parade and the fireworks - at the same time as the Golden Dragon Chinese acrobats. He still managed to have a small crowd of energetic and amazed children. The parade is always the longest parade I've ever been to - like 1 1/2 hours. The rain held off except for the beginning of "Church in the Park" on Sunday. Here's a picture of Mike and his little audience which grew to a much larger audience by the end of the show... ...and I have to admit that I watched some of the Chinese acrobats, but I couldn't really get close enough to see well or get any good pictures...

And, these pictures are from the parade....(Julie, Caleb would have loved that big tow truck.)

Memorial Day Summer Kick-Off Weekend

I'm just getting to posting this...

We were in Greenville over Memorial Day weekend visiting my family including Jason and Kerby before they left for Costa Rica on June 1. We enjoyed some outdoor yard games (fricket and cornhole), a fire in the fire pit, a trip to Quaker Steak and Lube for some wings, a trip to Grove City outlets, a cookout at Wilhelm winery and just hanging out with family. The weather was gorgeous. What a way to start the summer! Here are a few pictures...

(Mom & Dad had their eye on these fancy motorcycles at the winery.)

Unfortunately, Mike was planning on working that Monday so we didn't plan any Memorial Day celebrations. If we would have known all his clients for that day would have ended up cancelling, maybe we could have gone to Mercer for their big Memorial Day celebration. I love how they decorate in town around the courthouse. Maybe we can plan now for a patriotic celebration on the 4th since we missed celebrating Memorial Day...

And finally here is the latest purchase for our home... We got it at Home Depot that weekend and Mike had it up enjoying it within an hour of arriving home Sunday evening.