We had the first hard freeze of the year. My boys have never seen a lot of snow or ice (and haven’t this year, either), so they made their own ski slope on our driveway. Anyone from up north will most likely laugh at our poor effort, but when you’re from Texas, sometimes you need to try to help things along.

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We have a dirt road in front of our house that washes out with the rain. At least, I think that is what causes it. It has been so long since it rained here, that I’m beginning to question my memory.

Anyway, Stan decided to rent a backhoe to dig ditches along the sides of the road and see if that would help. Oliver hadn’t gotten home yet to start using it, so Kathryn jumped at the chance to learn how to use a backhoe.

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I’ve been adding beads to my knitting using a sewing needle and thread to help get the beads on my yarn. I’m putting up a video for anyone who might be interested in seeing how I’ve been doing it.

I put a slightly weighted object at the end of my thread (just regular sewing thread), so it doesn’t matter how many beads are on it for it to have a bit of tension while working with it.  I also dulled the tip of my needle a bit with a fingernail file so I didn’t poke myself and get blood on my knitting.

I hold the thread between my little finger and ring finger so I can pick it up quickly when working a lot of beads on a row.  If you use a magnetic board, you can also drop the needle onto one of your magnets and it will hold it there until you are ready for it.

One of the advantages of this method is that you don’t have to accommodate the crochet hook and the yarn when trying to put the bead on.  You also don’t have to worry about splitting your yarn or dropping a stitch.

I worked one bead after I knit the stitch, one before I knit the stitch and another one after I knit the stitch. The advantage of knitting the stitch first is that you can adjust the tension of the stitch to accommodate the bead. It will also sit where it looks like it is on a chart. If you place the bead before you knit it, you are actually putting it one row below where it shows on the chart.

Here is a picture showing that placement:

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I am really late in getting this up.  I’m not sure exactly what all has happened as of late, but I wanted to let everyone know that Simon and Lindsey had their first son, Zane Gibson Porter, on January 21, 2009.

They were able to have him at home and he weighed in at 7 lbs 8 oz and was 21 inches long.  He has had a couple of check ups since then and is doing well.

Now for the important part:

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We usually put up our Christmas decorations on the 12th of December.  This year, however, most of Tamara’s bedroom was in my livingroom. (The rest is in my bathroom.)  We are putting a bamboo floor in her room to replace some very old (not to mention dirty) carpet.  So all of her worldly possessions needed to move for a while.  I just couldn’t see putting more things in my livingroom until we had gotten some of Tamara’s things out.  Stan has put down enough of the flooring for us to start moving her back into the room. So today, we moved Tamara’s things out of the living room, rearranged the living room, and put up our Christmas decorations.  It feels much more festive with the candles, lights, and decorations all around the room.

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Oliver has been working with the Driftwood Volunteer Fire Department for a couple of months now. He likes it enough to be looking toward studying to become a paid firefighter. He is starting EMT basic training next Monday and will try to take his basic firefighter’s course as soon as he is able.

That’s him decked out in his bunker gear below. He has grown a mite in the last few years.

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We had a very nice Christmas and New Year’s celebration this year. We spent a quiet morning at home on Christmas and talked about the details of Jesus’ birth. We let the children tell us all they knew about it first, and then filled in the details that were missing using the Gospel of Matthew for the particulars. We opened a few gifts from our family, and then had a wonderful lunch of tamales and Spanish rice. We drove out to see Stan’s folks for the afternoon, had a couple of games of dominoes and visited for a while. All in all it was a very pleasant day.

New Year’s Eve a couple that lives close to us came over for a nice visit. We played Uno for most of the evening. I contented myself with watching, chatting and knitting while the rest of the family got wrapped up in the game. I am working on an old knitting pattern for a child’s sweater. I am adjusting the pattern so that it is knit in the round where there will be no seams to speak of to irritate a little one. We didn’t do fireworks this year because of the dryness of the season.

Our older son was working with the volunteer fire department and, unfortunately, stayed rather busy all night. Our older daughter was away visiting friends. And with the oldest boy and girl married and away, it seems that our get togethers are getting smaller.

New Year’s Day brought our oldest daughter, her husband and our grandson to visit and for lunch. Our oldest son is in California, so we missed him and his wife, but did hear from him later on in the day. All in all it was a very relaxed and pleasant day.

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We put our Christmas decorations up Wednesday, the 12th. We don’t do a whole lot. We have a manger scene wall hanging that is about 4′ x 6′ that I think is the central part of the decorations. We have some wise men and snow men that I made way back when before there were any children. Umm. There really was a time before there were any children here. Then we have a small unglazed pottery manger scene and a couple of sets of Christmas lights. One set outlines our windows at the front of our living room, and the other outlines our fireplace. We also burn lots of candles this time of year. Somehow, candle light just makes a room feel homier.

The young boys were so excited about the candles, that they took some to the bathroom (the only room without a window in our house), closed the door, and did their schoolwork by candlelight this morning.

We always decorate for Christmas on the 12th of December. Twelve years ago, our 2 year old son Ernest died on the 12th. We were devastated, to say the least. There was no warning of illness, and it was several weeks before we knew he died of a brain tumor.

In a way, it would seem like it would make Christmas a very sad time, but for me, it made it even more beautiful. You see all of us are going to die at some point in time. We don’t really like to think about it, but it will happen and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. As Ernest was dying, I thought about how I would have done anything I could to stop it. And I thought about when Christ was dying, God could have stopped it, but He didn’t. He knew this had to happen in order for Christ to have victory over death. And he did.

So, to see Christmas not only in the light of Christ’s birth, but also in the light of his victory over death makes the season even more precious than it was before. It is indeed a time of rejoicing and celebration.

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We finished reading through Genesis on Friday.  Last night we did a quick review of some of the major events in Exodus and a bit later.  We asked the children to name the ten commandments.  Kathryn did the best using hand motions she learned from a young man in our fellowship.  I’ll try to make a video of her and put it up later to show how she remembers them.

We decided to go back to the New Testament and read the gospel of Mark.  We’ll begin the first chapter this evening.

We also went over 3 songs that people have requested to sing at our meetings that no one knew well enough to try.  I think we can do those.  There are a couple more that we need to work on.

Then we read a chapter from Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.  We usually are reading a book after our regular devotions.  It is very relaxing to have Stan read from a novel with all the children sitting around, captivated by the anticipation of what will happen next.  It seems we have read most of the books in our house, so when we found this one came with a good recommendation that would be new to everyone, we were all excited.  No one is allowed to read ahead, except for Stan, so each chapter holds something new for us all.

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Truman, Edward and Stan spent a bit of time at our neighbor’s tank yesterday and brought back these catfish as their reward for their patience.  Maybe we’ll have fish on their dinner night!

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