Hello Friends

I'm having fun over at Facebook.

Care to join me?

Anita! I'm talkin' to YOU. =)

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Love,
Janet

Coventry Carol

We had a beautiful advent service at our church last night. Our gifted pianist explained the history behind the Coventry Carol and then played it for us on the piano. It's dark and yet filled with hope. I hope you enjoy listening to these two versions.


This excellent website is filled with interesting information:

In The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, this gentle lullaby was sung by the women of Bethlehem to their babies, urging them to "Be still, be still, my little child," just before the unwilling soldiers of King Herod came to slaughter their infants in Herod's attempt to eliminate a competitor, the newborn King of the Jews. In the liturgical calendar, those children are commemorated on December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents

The lyrics:

1. Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child.
By, by, lully, lullay.

2. O sisters, too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day;
This poor Youngling for whom we sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

3. Herod the King, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day;
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young, to slay.

4. Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee,
And ever mourn and say;
For Thy parting, nor say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay



The Cambridge Singers:






This is a beautiful rendition by Phil Keaggy:

Merry Christmas Bloggy Friends

Photo shoot 2008.

It was much less painful this year. A certain boy in this family decided to smile. tee hee.

My neighbor is so talented. Just look at the lighting and pay close attention to the fence in the background. Isn't that cool? I'm also happy that (for the most part) we are all smiling and looking like ourselves. Not an easy task with seven people. It also helped that it wasn't 40 degrees outside like last year.

Here is the link to Jen's business web site.

And here is the link to her blog. She is really excited about launching her new blog some time in January. I'll be sure to let you know when she does.

Sisters and bro, yours are in the mail box today.

So Funny!

Fox News is our homepage and this was the headline first thing this morning when I sat down at the computer.


















It's fitting, don't you think?

=)

My 22 Word Story

Abraham Piper at 22 Words is having a contest.

Write a story using only 22 words, post it on your blog and his readers will vote for the best. The prizes are two very nice children's books. I don't have either.

Don't worry, we don't have the flu right now. This is what happened last year:


If a five year old with the flu sneezes on your face on Monday morning, you will have the flu by Tuesday.


Challenging and fun!

I Was Forced To Do A Craft

Oh, you know I kid!

A sweet mom from Lauren's kindergarten class is putting together a scrapbook for the teacher as a Christmas present. We were each given one piece of scrapbook paper and told to decorate it however we liked. Of course, it would have been nice to actually have Lauren write something to her teacher but I procrastinated and did it at the very last minute. I sat there this morning and thought; what would Lauren say to her teacher. Most Kindergartners I know would say "I love you" to their teacher so that's what I decided to write/stamp/peel (whatever). I think it turned out well enough but I didn't see any of the other pages and I am very glad about that. It will be a sad day when I do actually see the others. LOL.

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Donna told us to post a picture of the oldest ornament we could find on our tree. This dates back to 1984 when I was a freshman at the University of Arizona. Do you wonder why a young lady of 18 would receive an ornament of a football helmet as a gift? Ok, I'll tell you. I was an athletic trainer for the U of A's football team, assigned to the defensive linemen. You can stop laughing now. Here I was a naive, 18 year old girl from Wisconsin weighing all of 120 pounds spending all my spare time on the practice field and game day with giant 300 pound linemen. It really was fun and if it weren't for terrible home sickness I would have stayed with the intern program and gone on to great things in the athletic training field. Ha! I'm kidding. The guys were very good to me. They told me who NOT to date. :)

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Happy Friday!