Words of comfort for the wee hours...

Well, another Christmas has come and gone and is tucked away into my photographic family archive.

There are many things I feel I could write about, but I think I'll just keep them between me and the Lord for now. I'm still having trouble sleeping so I'm trying to spend time with the Lord in prayer and in his word. I wanted to share a verse that I read and just absolutely love!!

2 Samuel 22:47 (ESV)

47"The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock,
and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation,

The Lord lives! Oh what sweet words! May God be exalted indeed!

All for Jesus

I am praising God this morning for this time of year, that we can celebrate the incarnation of Christ and ultimately the sacrifice Jesus made for those who belong to the Lord.

Ephesians 1:7 (English Standard Version)

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

My mind has been on Jesus these past few days because of some conversations I have had with friends lately. I shared part of my testimony the other day and I was reminded again of the depth of God's love for me and the incredible sacrifice Jesus made and responsibility that He bore - for me and my sin. OH! That I would remember this and carry this with me every minute of every day!

There is such comfort in knowing that I am His!

Psalm 100:3 (English Standard Version)

3Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

So as we enter this Christmas season, the Lord has renewed in me the true reason for this celebration.

Oh what a joyful time of year!

In light of all this, my mind and heart has really been on those I met while I was in India. Especially the little kiddos in the orphanage. They are so hungry for truth there and I long so much to be able to go again and share the gospel with the Indian people.

Inside a classroom at the Christian school in Chennai

I pray the Lord will allow me such an honor again to labor for him among the people I love so much.

"I think my wife's a calvanist"

My friend Christy posted this on her blog, and I thought I too would share it. I think it's pretty funny.

Dreaming of cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudel...

Christmas Eve has finally arrived, and in ever, true 'Amber' fashion I was up into the wee hours of the morn working on some homemade Christmas gifts. I've been disappointed in myself this year because typically most of my gifts are things that I've made, but I honestly don't know what happened to the time this year, and well, time escaped me. So unfortunately I bought most of the gifts I'm giving - which I know the recipients could care less whether it's from the store or my hands, but for me, I just enjoy slowing down and taking the time to piece together something from my heart.

And now that I have all of you gagging, here are some pics of this years' Christmas project. I used some of the portraits I took of my nieces and thanks to Jeanne Winters' blog, I was given the idea of doing a collage on canvas for each of them.






I also found these pics from last year. My brother Jason built this picket fence bench and I painted flowers to match her room on the toy bins for Lauren for Christmas last year. I love it when we can do a project that is big like this and involve more than just me : ) For Madison's first Christmas my dad and I built a dollhouse bookcase for Madison - it is one sort of like my dad built for me when I was little. I'll try to find the pictures of that. Of course that was 10 years ago and I'll have to hunt down the picture or negatives. I hadn't gone digital in my photography yet!

Willison Family Christmas Dinner

Okay, so I seem to be backtracking and getting caught up in posts, But last Friday we (Me, my mom, my brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces) traveled to Louisville (pronounced Lewis-ville) Illinois for the Willison Family Christmas dinner. We are so blessed with a wonderful family, that is large and close to one another - and we always, always, always have such a wonderful time when we all get together!

It is so wonderful to see the families grow each year. Mom pointed out that with the Willisons there's always a baby at a gathering! I love big families! So anyway, here are just a few pictures. If I have more time, I'll try to post some more!





I am completely blessed with such a wonderful family! It would have been even better if Jason and Amy could have joined us, but we'll all be together soon!!

Oooooh!

I've been working so much lately and that has resulted in an immense amount of pictures and graphic design files on my computer, so much that I can't do anymore until I clear off some space for my workhorse to do what I tell it to. Anyway, I came across these pictures I took not long ago. Actually this was just before the remnants of Ike ripped through our area. I came home to a beautiful sight above the house. Anyway, I hope you enjoy them!

My unexpected gift to myself…

So last night, I went shopping for a special Christmas gift for a dear person in my life. I’ve struggled with what to get her and spent nearly two hours traveling up and down each aisle in Target trying to get an idea for a special gift.

I usually make my gifts that I give, but this year I have been so incredibly busy that October and November raced by and before I knew it, here it is 4 days until the big day. No time to make a quilt or piece together a scrapbook – I have to go commercial at this point.

In my hunt for a creative gift or even a grand idea for one, I came across a hand mixer that had three different attachments – one in particular was of great interest to the baker in me. It had dough hooks that would cut through cream cheese straight from the refrigerator!! I’ve used one and was amazed at the ease with which it cut and blended, and you can only imagine my glee when I saw that this particular hand mixer was on sale for $17.99. I caved and decided that it would be a gift to myself – and a time saver in the end, as I won’t have to wait for cream cheese to soften before baking a cheesecake. (I’m sure at this point you are wondering why on earth such ramblings about a hand mixer are important and questioning my own sanity and wondering how a person can be so excited by such a simple thing – but trust me, it doesn’t take much to make me happy : )

Defeated, idealess and feeling a migraine coming on that I’ve been fighting all week, I made my purchase and happily carried my new kitchen gadget to my car. Upon realizing that I had spent the time equivalent of a full-length feature film dodging shoppers and wondering aimlessly, I decided to call it a night and head home.

Now I have a reputation that I confess I am not proud of. I tend to drive a bit fast. And even though since graduating from college and being more settled I have slowed down, I still tend to chase pavement a bit quicker than I should every now and then.

Lost in deep thought and traversing I-164 for the Bluegrass state apparently I blew right past an Indiana State Trooper who clearly did not have the Christmas spirit for a gift weary and migraine plagued gal.

It’s really sad that I can identify law enforcement solely upon the shape of the headlights in my rear-view mirror – but that is just the case. I was ripped from my deep thoughts and plunked right back into reality when Trooper Scott hit his blue lights.

So this year for Christmas instead of enjoying my hand mixer with the special dough beaters, I’ve decided to punish myself and take it back because now I’m supporting our local law enforcement for the holidays. So, kudos for our law enforcement for keeping our highways and byways safe from unruly drivers such as myself!

Perhaps I will acquaint myself a little more with cruise control.