Instructions for Ornaments

I have had a lot of inquiries on how i made the Jesus Tree ornaments. So here goes.
I used:

5 Gold Velum sheets
5 Silver Velum sheets
1 black sharpie
1 spool of gold, silver and maroon ribbon
I got them laminated at a teacher store down the road!
1 hole punch

I sat out to do 100 so i could give away some to family so we could all do them together so you will probably only need 1/4th of the materials above if you are just doing 25.

I first found several sources to pull from that listed names of Jesus and the References. Here are some 100 names for Jesus, 145 titles/offices of Jesus and Names of Jesus

Next I picked 100 that stuck out to me and wrote them on the velum (including the scripture reference) with the black sharpie in two columns nicely spaced. Once I was finished I cut each one in a rectangle according to its size. I took them and laminated them at the teacher store. Once laminated I cut them out, punched two holes in each one and threaded desired ribbon through to hang them. I tied two knots so the ribbon would stay and they were ready to be hung or given away!
Be Creative and if you make some a different way PLEASE PLEASE tell me I would love to hear!

Traditions! Traditions! Traditions!

As most of you know, I am a sucker for traditions, so Christmas is no exception. I especially love starting new traditions and seeing them through. So when Vernon and I got married we had so much fun thinking of what we wanted our new family traditions to be! Some are old ones with a twist, some out of our own little minds and still others are spin-offs of things we've heard others do. (2 years ago i blogged on this same thing!)
So lets all share what our traditions are and maybe it will encourage creativity in each other!!!!

Here are some of ours. (and some pictures for visual) I tried to keep them simple so we can do them if we are in the States or in Sudan.

*The first year we were married I made ornaments that have the names of Jesus on them. We have a separate tree that we call The Jesus Tree. Each day, starting on December 1st, we pull an ornament out of the advent box and read the corresponding scripture, talk about Jesus and hang the ornament. Also, as people send Christmas Cards, we hang their pictures on the tree and pray for them after we read the scripture and hanging the ornament.

*On December 1st each family member gets a "shepherd's pouch." (this idea came from Noel Piper's book Treasuring God in our Traditions, its an amazing book I revisit each year) It is just a little piece of fabric I have sown into a little coin purse. All month each person put money in it. On Christmas Eve, everyone lays them at The Jesus Tree. In the morning when the children wake, they can come and see what the money has turned into. ( we calculate a head of time what we will give as a family to random places and ministries around the world, most often we buy something from the World Vision Catalog, like a goat to feed a family) This takes the focus off of getting and onto giving. We talk about where the money went, by using the map and globe and pictures. Last year, our money went to Sudan, because we were there, but we hope to spread it out all over so that our children will know much more of the world than the US and Sudan.
*We have Advent Candles. This is something I especially love. It is a very old church ritual to bring about anticipation of the coming King. Each week we light a candle and read some liturgy. It builds the anticipation as the children await for the "Jesus Candle" to be lit. (in the past we have kept the Jesus Candle in a specific place and lit as much as possible. Then during lent bring special attention to it so that the Thursday before Easter is the last day they see it lit until Easter morning)

here are some random pics of some things i through together this year from decor....just dorky fun stuff from around the house to add to the cheer...
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Soooo.....please oh please, do share your traditions! What do you do for Christmas?

A House Divided

not really, but on this particular night we have to agree to disagree! I was raised to cheer for KU and Vernon was raised to cheer for MU.....so if you are online and not watching the game, turn on ABC and cheer away!

VS

***update*** so as you have heard, KU lost. But to all you MU fans....i will be cheering loud and proud for MU next week against OU! MIZZOU RAH!!!!!!!

Gaddis Family Extravaganza

Here are some pics from today at the Burger home. Thanksgiving was so great! ALL of my Gaddis cousins and aunts and uncles came. We had a great meal and LOTs of laughs. We were 22 in all. (my sis and bro, their fams and mom and dad were not able to come). We even had our very own in house concert. We played MANY rounds of catch phrase music edition. And shared lots of great stories. AND IT SNOWED...briefly but it did in fact move from sleet to snowflakes....who knew.
Picture #1: the Dessert Table, can you handle this 6 pies, 2 cakes, homemade Christmas candy, puppy chow, Christmas Crunch, apple snicker salad, lemon bars, oatmeal raspberry cookies and all kinds of other little snacks! AMAZING.

Picture #2 : the fam, minus some who left early.
Picture #3 : Rob and Ann Lowe, my sweet little cousins. They are like siblings to me. I love them dearly.
Picture #4: Rob Lowe of Balmorhea (we got our own little concert!)
Picture #5 : Micheal Muller of Balmorhea (seriously check them out buy there stuff)
So if you can check out Ann's Jewlery Design sight you will not be sad. And Micheal is also a photographer check out his stuff here. ENJOY!

2 years of blogging

i wish i had something great to say,
something clever to add.
but little will come to this mind of mine,
i am sorry this poem is so bad.
But thanks to all who have read through the years
of my joys, my rantings and my stories.
Some entries were pleasant and some were just rude
and others were, lets face it, just boring.
You have seen our son grow from a baby to a boy
and heard of our Sudanese adventures
And who knows at this rate if i keep up the work
I'll be blogging the day I get dentures.
Two years of this rambling,
Two years today
with Xanga I started
with Blogger I'll stay.

Titus Time

These are some pics of Titus taken by our friend Sarah Barnes. Titus LOVES to go to "Reerah's" house to play. She is the Best! As you will see, Titus is WAY into soccer right now...and thanks to New Balance's line of children's 'wide' shoes, Titus will now gladly wear his shoes...amen.

A Sell-Out of Sorts

Well folks tonight i deemed myself a sell-out. Now, that is not to say things will remain this way, but for tonight....a sell-out am I. It all started Friday morning when I rolled over in my cozy warm bed and heard the recycle truck picking up the recycle bin. I thought to myself, "Oh no! i forgot to take the trash and recycle to the curb last night!" So i threw on my robe and rushed out hoping what I had heard was the truck down the street. Well, as the day went on i found out that, yes, it was indeed our Recycle Truck that woke me that morning. All this to say, now, Tuesday evening, our Recycle Bin is filled to over flowing. We have two recycle bags full in the garage waiting for next week. So tonight i was faced with having to throw away cardboard, two cans, a plastic container and a glass jar. It was dreadful, just dreadful. To make it worse I noticed how simply throwing those away eliminated having to rinse them and discard the labels and made dish doing a little less. WHAT AM I THINKING....i will not let these thoughts win!
If you come to our home much, there are a couple things you know well. One, i love the fact that you can freely and easily recycle in Fort Worth. Two, i am obsessed with baking, so a homemade dessert of sorts is always awaiting. Well folks sell-out number two happened within minutes of the aforementioned selling-out. I have this thing, I can not get my self to make cookies from those little bags of pre-made-just-add-butter-and-a-egg bags...i just cant do it. But Monday at the store i was feeling the exhaustion of pregnancy and was in the baking isle buying my usual baking goods. In said isle, i happened upon the bag-o-cookies section. I thought to myself, I would really like to make some cookies but i have no energy, this is just the trick. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME! So tonight while i was busy ruining the environment by not recycling, i made cookies FROM THE BAG....what is happening to my life?
the worst part....the cookies were really good.

Sudan Update

I just thought I would let yall know that we updated some video footage on our Sudan blog. Robin and Megan are back from Kenya where Isaac had his surgry. Isaac is back in Sudan and doing great! amen! Robin also went back to Sudan with Isaac and got to attend the opening celebration of Sunday School at the church in Yei. They have never had a children's ministry until now! Some of the Video are of the children enjoying their first Sunday School meeting! There are also photos (like this one) of the children working on and painting the building where they will be meeting! enjoy!

**we got word this week that a bad storm came through our Morobo Orphanage and damaged the orphanage building. No children or workers were hurt...amen! You can read more on the blog as well**