Merry Christmas Eve

Today is the day that kicks off the celebration of Jesus' birth. This evening we will go to Nadine's house for Christmas Eve festivities. We usually begin the evening with the last day/night of advent. David is always in charge for Christmas Eve advent. He gave me a preview of this evenings message. I am not sure what child was in ear shot of our conversation, but their words were I guess we don't need to attend Christmas Eve services, Dad has taken care of it for us. I am looking forward to what David has prepared for us. I do know there will be lots of singing and a Third Day song is included in the line up. After we participate in Advent, we then move on to the food. No party is complete without lots of high fat and high calorie foods. This evenings menu is as follows: cheese dip, little smokies, tortilla wraps, boneless buffalo wings from Chili's, Christmas cookie, taco dip, and I am trying out a new recipe for southwestern egg rolls. The deal is we don't make enough to feed an army, but we do have a variety of food. We will fix our plates and move into Nadine's living room and begin opening gifts that she is giving to all her family. My mom will decide if she is going to give out her gifts this evening, or she will wait and give out all her gifts Christmas afternoon at my house. Tomorrow on Christmas Day, everyone gathers at my house, and we will give out our gifts to the family. We began this back a few years ago so my children will be more focus on giving than receiving. That only works when we are at home, not out at Nadine's receiving.

Until I post Christmas Eve pictures, here are some pictures of our home this Christmas season.

This is what I wished my house really looked like, below you will see the truth.

We had some medium winds come through the area and blew my tress over. I thought I would leave one down for the picture.

Bad picture, but maybe this is what it really looks like to most people.

This is our tree in the corner that I blogged about earlier. I like the picture without the flash better than with the flash.

Carley decided to pose these three charters as if they were playing Monopoly. David and I made the this little piece of art many years ago.

I keep soft plush Christmas things around for when my young pre-school friends come over to visit; they have some things they are able to touch and play with. These Hallmark snow people are always a hit with little ones. They like to get them all playing at one time.

I love Nativity scenes. I have three on the mantle here. Below you will find a closer look.

The Nativity scene on the left came all the way from Hungry.

Hallmark sold this one several years ago and I loved the details on each piece.

This one in the most special of all the Nativity scenes. Nadine, my sister, made this nativity scene for me one Christmas while she was in college. One of the wise men has lost part of his gift thanks to a puppy who wanted it for himself. I had a cat who would hide baby Jesus at night. We had to lock her up in the bedroom with us because many times I could not find Jesus in the morning. He ended up under the refrigerator more times than not.

This nativity is the first one I bought back in 1986. It was my first Christmas from home living in Japan along with being a newlywed. I remember how excited I was when I finally received it.

This is where all the wrapping takes place. It really looks pretty good compared to what it has looked like in the past few days.

The Christmas Cactus is in the same pot as the one my Grandmother had this plant in. I am too afraid to transplant it. Everything I transplant dies.
Every family should have their own personal "Charlie Brown" tree. We were going to put lights on this tree, but decided the branches were not strong enough to hold them.

The Cash family wishes all of you and your love ones a very Blessed Christmas and an abundant New Year.

Happy Birthday Carley

We had days upon days celebrating Carley's 15th birthday. We began celebrating with grandparents, Tom and Connie Cash, while they were visiting us during Colton's performance in the Christmas Carol. We had a nice dinner then opened birthday gifts along with Christmas gifts. Christmas gifts will have to go into the Christmas blog entry.

Here is Carley with her gifts from her die hard Tar Heel grandparents. It is a long story how Carley ever became a Tar Heel fan. Let's just put it this way, her dad had a lot to do with it one weekend while I was on a ladies retreat. Carley was three years old and has stayed true to being a Tar Heel no matter how hard I try to convince her other wise. I have given up on changing her mind.

(Gideon wanted in on the action too. I guess he was offering a ball to the birthday girl.)

We choose to celebrate Carley's birthday with my family the day before her birthday. She opted to have her favorite meal at home instead of going out to dinner with everyone the day before her birthday. We ate grilled tenderloin steak, twice baked potatoes, peas, salad and dessert. To make her dinner a little more special, I used the china and crystal.

I know I am not the best decorator, but I think I got the message across.

Sorry for the blurriness. There are fifteen candles on this cookie.


We have a tradition of reading cards out loud before opening gifts. I think that is something my mom made my sister and I do and it has carried on to my family.

My mom gave Carley an accessory for her Ipod. She can place her Ipod in this sleeve like thing and attach the thing to her upper arm. She uses this when we go to they gym. I have no idea what the proper word is for this Ipod accessory.

My sister, Nadine, travels all over the place. Nadine brought back a key chain from San Francisco. Nadine also gave Carley a really cool t-shirt from New York City. We are so blessed to have someone in our family that get to go to these new and exciting places. We all benefit from her journeys.

Let me recap December the 16th 15 years ago. David and I had to be at the hospital at some ungodly hour of 5:30 am. Carley was a planned c-section because the last OB appointment the doctor said she would be born on Christmas day. Her brother, Colton, was almost three years old and I wasn't about to miss Christmas morning with him. There is just something about seeing children at that age being awe struck by the new toys under the tree.

We arrive at the hospital, my pastor at the time, who I didn't tell I was going to the hospital, showed up at 6am to pray with us. To this day, I have no clue how he knew I we were there. Around 8am, (I would have to go to the attic and look in the baby book to confirm the exact time), the doctor pulled her out and asked me if I would like to see my beautiful baby girl. The answer would have been yes, but the nurse said wait due to the fact Carley was beginning to poop and the poop would have been on my face. I had to wait just a minute or two before I really got to see one of the sweetest faces ever seen before in human history. On a side note, the nursing staff was not concerned whether her lungs were working or not. Carley screamed, not cry, but screamed the first several hours of her life. I wondered upon hearing that news if this was a sign from the Lord of things to come. For the past 15 years Carley is not only a joy to us, but to so many other around her. She has so much compassion for people at times I wounder where she gets it from. It is one of her many gifts from God. I don't see too many 15 year olds who love Jesus the way she does. My prayer for her is that she continues to pour over His word and love Him more today than yesterday.

Carley's birthday day. We took the day off from school because it was her birthday and we can do that because we homeschool. Carley chose to turn off her cell phone for the day and remove herself from all society. She went into the guest bedroom to study all day for her learner's driver permit. Around 3:30 she came out of the guest bedroom and announced she was ready to take the test. I wasn't too sure if this was going to happen today because the DMV is a government office and most government offices close around 4:30. Our DMV is about a twenty minute drive and then there is the chance of them locking the doors at 4:00 so they can leave at 4:30. I called to see what time they did close to make sure I wasn't wasting a trip to the DMV. Amazing things do happen in our world, they close at 5 pm. Carley and I arrived at the DMV, the receptionist refused to allow me to sit with Carley in the waiting area and I had to sit some where else. I assure you Carley was in viewing distance from me. Her and I were still able to communicate through hand motions. She later told me I should have taken the time to learn sign language like she did. It worked out later that I was able to join her in the waiting area she was waiting in. I don't know who was more nervous, her or I, while she was taking her test. She did pass the test and we walked out of the DMV around 4:50.

Carley will tell you the greatest birthday gift she could have received for herself is the driver's permit to learn to drive. Yes, she drives me almost everyday to the gym. That evening to celebrate her passing the test and her birtday, we had the Chunn's join us at a local Mexican resturant. Here are the last few picutes of the final celebration of Carley's many of days celebrating 15.

Reading more birthday cards.

Carley is all girl but like her mom, found that guys had cooler toys than girls. She does play airsoft with her brother and the youth at church.

The Chunns gave Carley a Corgi calendar. Carley loves her two Corgis and nothing would make her happier having a few more here to take care of. She will have to settle with the ones in the pictures.

She was ready to kill when all the attention was on her. Carley is not one wanting to be in the lime light.

I know the post was long, but this is another day in the Cash home. I hope to blog a little more after Christmas. We will have to tell you about the treasue hunt of Christmas Day. Until then, have a blessed and wonderful day.

The Christmas Carol

The Cash family has completed another few weeks of the life in the fast lanes. Right after Thanksgiving it was time to get into the theater mode of life. From previous post, you all know that Colton was cast as Bob Cratchit in the Christmas Carol. I have posted a few pictures that were taken at the final dress rehearsal. I am so thankful for those parents that were there with their cameras. Since Colton can drive now, there wasn't any reason for me to be down there as much as other parents of non-drivers. Enjoy the pictures.

Opening scene with Cratchit and Scrooge

Mr. and Mrs. Cratchit (remember Colton's costume for future picture below)

The Fezziwig party with Colton playing the fiddle in the background

The scene where Scrooge tells Cratchit that he is receiving a pay raise.

Practicing the curtain call

I have no idea what everyone is looking at, but another shot of the curtain call.

After the last performance the past Sunday, December 14, the Cash family hosted the cast party. Every member of the cast received a bear from the costume designer. She dressed the bears in clothes that resembled the costumes that the actors wore during The Christmas Carol. In some instances, she actually used the material from the actors costume to make the outfit for the bear. Here above, we have the Cratchit bear family with the Crachit actors.

Colton's bear

This is Dr. Lott playing Scrooge. Dr. Lott can be compared to Robin Williams. I promise you, he doesn't look anything like this is real life.

Check out this video that Colton made.

I hope you enjoyed the post and video. By all means, do not have a bah-humbug day.

Operation Christmas Child

I knew I had many things to catch up on over these past few weeks. I refuse to get behind in blogging. By golly, if one is going to do something, they should do it well, and often.

Right after Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping, Carley and I took a road trip with my mom and sister up to Atlanta to work with Operation Christmas Child. My sister, Nadine, introduced us last year to the joy of helping this ministry by working in one of the distribution centers. I am going to be up front and honest with all of you, it is hard work! Worth every stiff muscle and sore feet that can be soaked in hot water after a five hour shift of standing on one's feet.

The old adage says a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are my many thousands of words.

Imagine walking into a building seeing all these boxes knowing in 2-3 weeks they all have to be processed, boxed up and shipped out. A little over whelming don't you think? When we arrived to the warehouse on Tuesday, the warehouse had already processed 176,000 boxes. That was done in one weeks time. It takes countless of volunteers to get the job done.

This is a picture of a flat of boxes that have already been separated into an age group. Before the boxes are clear wrapped by ages, they have already gone through one process call sorting. We didn't work in sorting this year but here is a picture from last year.

Behind each worker is a flat of boxes. The worker opens the box and looks for inappropriate items that we were told to remove along with money that may be found in the boxes to help pay for shipping. The workers give the box to another worker across from them, and that worker places the box on the appropriate age category.

This is the assembly line and the next stop for boxes. Behind each worker is a pallet of boxes that have been separated into age groups. The worker takes the box, opens the box for a last look for any inappropriate items and to fill the boxes with other items if somethings have had to be taken out. Once the box is clear for shipping, then the worker tapes the box, places the box on the assembly line and pushes the box to the end of the line.

Nadine and my mom on the line

This is where Carley and I worked. We were at the end of the line. The end of the line is where the boxes are now separated into boy and girl boxes. As you can see by this picture, the boxes collect rather quickly at the end of the line. All these boxes were packed into large boxes that will be placed on a ship some time after December 13. Each large box MUST have at least 14 boxes. Carley and I averaged 16-18 boxes the first day we worked. Believe it or not, it was noticed because the next day when we worked, the Samaritan Purse personal brought it to our attention to thank us for the work we did.

On the second day Carley was tasked as the e-give girl. Samaritan's Purse did something different this year that none of us were aware that they did. This year one could donate on line and print out a tracking number to place on their shoebox to be sent out. The shoebox is scanned from the time it is packed into the large box to be sent out of the warehouse to let the donor know when and where the shoebox left. Once the shoebox is delivered, the shoebox will be scanned again to let the donor know where and when the shoebox arrived at its final destination.


This is the tired and very exhausted crew that left Wednesday around 1pm and then drove back to Florida.

If you ever get the opportunity to volunteer to work in a warehouse packing boxes, I say go for it. Every box that I touched and all the other boxes that were being sent from all over the United States, God will use in a mighty way. I am so glad that we had the opportunity to take part in what God is doing with shoe boxes.

A New Christmas Tree This Year

The Lord is always at work blessing His people and even those who don't know Him. This year I am truly blessed in so many ways and one is the opportunity to try out a pre-lit Christmas tree before I purchase it. How often does that happen? To make a long story very short, a friend of mine bought this tree last year thinking they would use it in their front yard. I asked if I could try out this 9-ft pre-lit tree in my home this year. One to see how the tree would look in my home and the other is to see if I even liked pre-lit tree. This is the story of this pre-lit tree.



This is the corner we cleared out to place the tree in. There is my beloved husband, David, reading the directions. (did you get that, reading the directions!)



Is this not the most pitiful display of tree branches. I thought if this is it, I I'll pass on pre-lit trees. I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but I did not realize we would have to fluff the branches. I was having a pre-senior moment. By the way, the directions said it would take 20 minutes to assemble. Assemble, yes, fluff tree limbs, I don't think so!

Second row placed on the tree and fluffed. Looking good if I say so myself.

The final row and top placed on the Christmas tree. I think it looks great for a pre-lit tree. I didn't have to place one set of lights on the tree. What a blessing!

I will show the final decorations in another blog.

Blessings to all,