Christmas Lights Lesson

This was a conversation I had awhile ago. I want it written down so I can remember it.

Deidre: We put our Christmas lights up this weekend.
Deni: Sean was putting our lights up and the neighbor who hates us came over and was hinting that she didn't have anyone to help her put up Christmas lights.
Deidre: That neighbor who yells at you and took you to the HOA for your weeds when you wouldn't pay her son to pull them?
Deni: Yeah.
Deidre: She wanted Sean to put up her Christmas lights after everything she's done to you guys? Seriously?
Deni: She said she couldn't do it because of her back and she didn't have anyone else.
Deidre: Did Sean tell her where she could stick the Christmas lights?
Deni: No, he's going to do it.
Deidre: WHAT?! He's going to do it? Why didn't he laugh in her face?
Deni: Because she's a mean old lady who has had a hard life and she needs some love.

I was really taken back when I heard that. Deni and Sean are two of the nicest, non-judgmental people you will ever meet. They go to church and believe in Christ, and do their best to really learn and grow. After I had this conversation with Deni, it kept coming back to me and I really thought about it. My first reaction was to return meanness with meanness, anger with anger. And that's not what Christ taught. I would like to be one of those people who leaves the world a better place, but I have my work cut out for me.

Christmas Present Project

I saw this link HERE on pinterest and thought that sounded like a great present. (For those of you too lazy to click the link, I copied the picture below.)

My problem was - where the heck do you find a frame big enough for that? Joseph's parents and my parents both have nine kids - that's nine photos side by side. It makes for quite a long picture. I knew I could always custom order a frame but a) that took time and b) it is quite expensive. Multiply that by two and I was looking for another solution.

Then I stumbled across how to transfer photos to blocks. Um, brilliant.

First I had to organize my family to take all the photos. Not an easy task. Also, cutting out the posterboard letters was a pain. We took some photos with the letters but we took photos without the letters too, so I ended up with great presents for the rest of my family. Score!

Plus, I was able to practice on the smaller projects before I tackled the larger ones.

This picture turned out really well. My sister Shanna was really happy with it.

Here's the one I made for my family. It says "We love you" because our last name isn't nine letters long. I wasn't 100% happy with it. Some of the ink scrapes off, which is fine for a vintage-y look, but one of my nephew's face completely scraped off and I was not happy. I think I didn't get the paper wet enough.

Here's the one I did for Joseph's family. We were able to spell out the last name because the number of letters matched the number of kids. Again, I wasn't 100% happy. His parents and younger siblings live in FL, so I had to wait until they came right before Christmas to visit and then only had a couple rushed minutes to sneak away and take photos. Then I had to flip the pictures in Photoshop (because otherwise they are backwards), print the photos (on a laser printer, one of the big copy machine types, not the ink jet printer at home), apply everything carefully with the gel medium, let it set overnight, get it wet and rub the paper off (two of Joseph's brothers helped with that part and then told their parents they helped rub the present), and modge podge it. This ended up being quite the project. The smaller pictures weren't too bad, but planning and coordinating the larger pictures was quite stressful.

Here are just a few more I did. After buying the gel medium (which was a bit pricey) and the wood (which I cut up into the two large photos and three smaller ones - the rest came from scrap in my garage) it ended up being a fairly economical present considering how much I got out of it. Although I think I rubbed off my finger prints. I could probably go commit a crime.

Christmas Parties

Last year I hosted a Christmas party for my department. Well, I invited the department of 50 people, but not everyone showed up (luckily). Just the cool people. It was a lot of fun, and I had multiple co-workers ask me if I would be hosting again.

This year, I forgot to start taking photos until the end, so I didn't get everybody.

Karen has HP's baby and Nicki has Johnson's baby. That was one difference this year; there were babies. And Karen's husband fell when attempting to ride my unicycle. And of course, since we are all underwriters, there was the discussion about my homeowner policy liability limit and the risk associated with my fire and trampoline.

Deni and HP, two of my besties. I really love these girls.

HP with hubby Justin. I didn't get one of them with their boy because he was too busy being stolen and loved on by other people.

I held Johnson's baby Kherington for awhile, but she preferred daddy.

The party was winding down.

Nicki and her hubby Drew, holding HP's baby Daelen. Nicki is expecting a little girl. Her hubby seems like a nice guy. He was cracking Deni and me up when we were roasting marshmallows outside. He seems a little accident prone. Nicki has told us a few stories of him ending up in the hospital. When Deni and I were asking him if he should be allowed near the fire, he singed his shirt.

Deni is crazy about babies, but doesn't have one of her own yet. I need her to hold out with me.

The department party was Friday night, and I invited my family over for a get-together on Saturday.

Not everybody made it, but we still had fun.

There were a number of times when I had to say, "Can you make a normal face please?"

It was too rainy to build another fire, so Mike roasted his own marshmallow.

We played some CatchPhrase, always a favorite.

And I found a surprise under my tree.

It's wet because the tree is Lilly's favorite place to play, and she gets into the tree water.

I'm pretty sure it was my sister Kristi. She's had magical elves visit her house and leave presents before, so she must have been paying it forward. It was a wonderful surprise. I love the beach, and this seahorse, beachy tree skirt is just beautiful.

And to top of my good weekend, I took some photos of my sister Shanna and her family. She just had a baby and he's a few months old now. We've been trying to schedule pictures for awhile and we were finally able to meet.

I haven't had a chance to edit these at all, but I couldn't resist. She has such a beautiful family.