Sermon #1 - “Your Plan: Do You Have One?” Rev. Clay Lein
Sermon #2 - “Your Plan: Worship Daily” Rev. Clay Lein
Sermon #3 - “Your Plan: Meet Weekly” Rev. Clay Lein
Sermon #4 - “Your Plan: Serve Monthly” Rev. Joel Prather
Sermon #5 - “Your Plan: Give Regularly” Rev. Clay Lein
I am not a reader. Never have been. I read when I need to for classes or meetings but I don’t read for pleasure. I’m not too sure why. Both of my parents like to read and I have read books here and there, but I just never got hooked. So I am starting something new in 2010…I am going to start reading!!! I got a jumpstart at the end of 2009 by joining the women’s book club at church. I am not going to set a certain number of books or anything, I am just going to start a list of books I read through out the year. Here is goes:
2009
The Shack by William P. Young
Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon by Debbie Fuller Thomas
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore
Unashamed: A Burning Passion to Share the Gospel by Floyd McElveen
Unafraid: Mary by Francine Rivers
2010
Visionary Parenting: Capture a God-Sized Vision for Your Family by Rob Rienow
Under the Cajun Moon by Mary Starns Clark
Never the Bride: A Novel by Cheryl McKay & Rene Gutteridge
The Red Tent: A Novel by Anita Diamant
Currently Reading~ Organic Outreach for Ordinary People by Kevin G. Harney
Next Up~ ?????
No, but it can move the people who will.
I was fortunate enough to have been able to prescreen the movie TO SAVE A LIFE at a church outreach conference back in October. Although I am not yet the parent of a teen or pre-teen I feel so blessed to have seen this movie and to have been made aware of the battles of today’s youth.
Teens struggle daily with issues unique to their generation and they make choices every day that will impact the rest of their lives. The indie movie TO SAVE A LIFE will be the largest national outreach event for teens ever done. To Save A Life deals with issues teens face every day – it’s their story told in their voice with their music.
TO SAVE A LIFE is more than a movie. It's the difference we can make when we use our influence and time for others — in our family, neighborhood, campus, community, or world. Some people are just dying to be heard and accepted. Don't let them have to. Be the person who takes the time to show people they have value. Listen. Reach out. Engage. Imagine if we took the time to show other people we care. TO SAVE A LIFE dares — no, inspires — you to.
Dare to make your life count! See the ripple effect your life can have on others! We are never more like Jesus than when we reach out to those who need him most. For a preview of the movie you can visit www.ToSaveALife.com.
Visionary Parenting: Capture a God-Sized Vision for Your Family by Rob Rienow
Under the Cajun Moon by Mary Starns Clark
Never the Bride: A Novel by Cheryl McKay & Rene Gutteridge
The Red Tent: A Novel by Anita Diamant
Currently Reading~ 
Lord, Save Us From Your Followers:Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America?
by Dan Merchant
Next Up~
by Nicholas Sparks
Want To Read In 2010~
Organic Outreach for Ordinary People by Kevin G. Harney
The Shack by William P. Young
Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon by Debbie Fuller Thomas
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore
Unashamed: A Burning Passion to Share the Gospel by Floyd McElveen
Unafraid: Mary by Francine Rivers
I am pretty sure that most received their Christmas cards from us before Christmas Day, but it was close. Last year I was on the ball, I had professional pictures taken and sent the Christmas cards out in the beginning of December. Not the case this year. I ended up snapping a few pictures of the girls in front of the Christmas Tree about 5 minutes before we left to go to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular {which was AWESOME by the way…I highly recommend it}. When we got home that night I plugged the pictures in to a template on Walmart.com and DONE. Thank goodness for one hour processing!
2009 Taylor Family Christmas Card
Sermon #1 – “The Trappings of Christmas: The Lights” Rev. Clay Lein
Sermon #2 – “The Trappings of Christmas: The Presents” Rev. Clay Lein
Sermon #3 – “The Trappings of Christmas: The Child” Rev. Clay Lein
Sermon #4 – “The Trappings of Christmas: The Tree” Rev. Joel Prather
Sermon #5 – “The Trappings of Christmas: The Choice” Rev. Clay Lein
This year we started the 2 day countdown to Christmas by decorating our first ever Gingerbread House. We made a Gingerbread Tree last Christmas and the girls thought that we should move up to a house.
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Step #1 Complete! {or so we thought}
Time to add the delicious decorations:
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Gracie added the last finishing touches! {Take notice of the gumballs at the peak of the roof because this is the last time you will see them}
Right after we finished adding all the “landscaping” {and using up ALL the icing} the roof opened up and swallowed the gumballs. Thinking that it had moved as much as it was going to move we decided to cover the gap with larger mints.
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Looks good enough eat!
WAIT!!! Not yet!
We finished up the day with a Christmas Eve Eve dinner with friends. We had a great time with lots of laughs. What a wonderful way to start the Christmas festivities.
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Kathy and I met in Allen to take the kiddos to visit Santa. Last year we took them all together and really enjoyed having them all in the same picture so we decided to do it again this year. They all look so different {especially Preston who was still in the oven cooking last year}. Santa looks EXACTLY the same…oddly so. How does he keep his hair cut so that is looks the same? Guess that is another one of his many secrets.
Lance and I have been wanting to take the girls to buy a real Christmas Tree for several years now. We both grew up with that tradition and it’s one that we want our girls to have too. We decided this was the year! We loaded up the girls and headed to the tree lots. Of course I brought my camera and had visions of getting tons of great pictures…like the girls looking at trees, the girls in in front of the one we chose and of course the tree tied to the top of the car. However, I forgot to charge the battery on the camera so these are the only {sigh} two pictures we have of our family Christmas Tree search…there’s always next year.
Well, I don’t have a bunch of pictures of the search, but we did find our perfect tree:
You might notice in this picture that Lance doesn’t look too excited to be putting lights on the tree. I don’t blame him because this is his FOURTH TIME to puts lights on this tree. Let me explain. The night after we bought the tree Lance stopped on the way home from work to buy the lights for it. After dinner he started putting the lights on. He got the first string on, asked me what I thought, we both liked it so he continued with the next two boxes. He was all done, plugged in the lights and…the last two boxes he put on the tree were BLUE! After looking at the boxes more closely we now know that in the LED world of lights there are “warm white” lights {normal clear lights} and “cool white” lights {which are blue}. So the next day I took back the blue lights to replace them with “warm white”. Luckily I bought the stores last two boxes of the “warm white” {there were cases and cases of the “cool white” in case you were wondering}. That night Lance started putting the new lights on the tree again. He got 2 boxes put on and it was all looking great. He opened the final box of lights and inside were RED LIGHTS! Someone had just shoved the red lights in the “warm white” box. At the point it was comical {to me anyway, I don’t think Lance was quite as amused}. Knowing the girls were dying to decorate the tree Lance went to several stores trying to find one last box of “warm white” with no luck. So he brought home a completely different type of light. They all matched and they all worked. Now why did we get a real tree again…oh yeah, for the memories!
After Daddy got the lights on it was time to add the ornaments!
Time to put on the star or in our case the nativity cross
Taylor Family Christmas Tree 2009:
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