SHOW & TELL #31 - Christmas Tree Skirt

Oh my!!!! I almost forgot Show & Tell this week hosted by Kelli. Coal in my Christmas stocking for sure!! Go check it out and sign up on Mr. Linky.

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For my Show & Tell today I am showing my Christmas Tree Skirt.

It is the Twelve Days of Christmas

I made this back in the 1980's. So it is 20 years old.

It is made of red felt and trimmed with white rick-rack

It is felt appliques for each of the twelve days and then trimmed with embroidery and sequins.

It was a kit I bought and put together.

We have used it every year since and I still love it as much as the first year I made it.

Thanks for dropping by and visiting my Show & Tell today.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!

PRAYING TWELVE TAG

I love it when someone "new" visits your blog and you KNOW that it was no accident. This happened to me Wednesday when Channel Of Healing from Africa left me a comment on my Losing Some Battles But Claiming The War post.

When I followed the link I found this wonderful tag, Even though I was not tagged by Channel Of Healing I just have to be a part of this because I believe so whole heartedly in the power of prayer, and the instruction that we are to "Pray without ceasing" I Thessalonians 5:17

THE PRAYING TWELVE TAG

Are you one of the praying twelve? Then read this.

There are 12 months/ 12 disciples/ 12 tribes of Israel/ Jesus' birth celebrated in the 12th month.

May everyone who receives this message be blessed!

REMEMBER to pray. That's all you have to do.

There is nothing attached. Just tag twelve.

Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. There is no cost but a lot of reward. Make sure you pray, and pray believing that God will answer.

May today be all that you need it to be. May the peace of God and the freshness of the Holy Spirit rest in your thoughts, rule in your dreams tonight and conquer all your fears. May God manifest himself today in ways that you have never experienced. May your joys be fulfilled, your dreams be closer and your prayers be answered. I pray that faith enters a new height for you. I pray that your territory is enlarged and I pray that you step into your destiny within the ministry. I pray for peace, health, happiness and true & undying love for God.

I have given serious thought to the twelve I have selected. We know many people do not pray at all. We know that many people say "they will pray" and then do not. These twelve I believe to be very serious Prayer Warrior's in the Kingdom Of Our God.

Carin, Karen, Stephen, Ginger, Pearlie, Barbara, Leigh Ann, Tina, the following two are not bloggers. They read my blog and are personal friends who are serious prayers and who uphold us in prayer, as we do them, Don, Carol.

I have to tell you this was VERY hard because there were so many more of you I knew would pray and I had to limit it to 12. That makes me feel SOOO good!!!! Knowing so many of you are out there praying and being the Body of Christ gives me great joy and hope.

What a special time of year for us to participate in this together!

FIVE BLESSINGS

Kelly, at Girl On A Mission, had a Holiday Giveaway drawing for this wonderful DECEPTIVELY DELICIOUS cookbook and I was the winner.

And the Winner is....
Penless Thoughtsis the lucky winner of "Deceptively Delicious"!
Congratulations and Merry Christmas!

She announced the above on her December 13th post and today it arrived in the mail. It is chock full of great recipes and I will be eager to tear into it soon. Thank you so very much Kelly for this lovely treat.

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Ornament Swap

Kathleen Marie of The Open Window hosted an Ornament Swap. This was the first swap I have participated in. My swap partner was Sandi of Did You Ever Think About.
Sandi is from Nazareth, PA. How about that for a Christmas ornament!!

I have only been to PA once, in 2002, but it has a special place in my heart because my beloved father was born in PA.

This is the adorable little Angel and card that arrived yesterday from Sandi.

Isn't she precious? She is especially dear to me for 2 reasons:

1) I love and collect angels!! and 2) She is hand made.

Thank you SO much Sandi. I will place her in a very special place in our home.

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Bookmark from Kitty

I received this precious, hand made, personalized bookmark on Monday.

I am showing the front and back.

It is so special to me because it was a gift from Kitty of Kitty's Korner.

Kitty is a sweet, stay-at-home mom from Albuquerque who holds a special place in my heart because of my having lived in Albuquerque and being raised in Santa Fe.

Kitty has not been blogging since October, when her computer went down, and is sorely missed by many of us.

I think it is so personal and special because she used the Kitty print fabric!!!!

Thank you from the depths of my heart, Kitty.

I miss you!!!

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I am reminded AGAIN of the blessings that blogging and my blog friends have added to my already blessed life. EACH and everyone of you are very special to me.
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Blessing #4.......Mickey's employer paid him for the 5 days they were shut down, do to lack of power from our ice storm, and they were not opened. What a wonderful surprise, shock and blessing this was. It is especially so with the fact he has only been re-employed by them since September 29th.

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Blessing #5........Mickey was given a check today as a Christmas Bonus!!! Wow, they are being so good to him. Guess they really appreciate the fine employee he is and the fact he was willing to come back to work for them.

WOW!!! Blessings and more blessings!!!!

LOSING SOME BATTLES BUT CLAIMING THE WAR

As I began my post, The Serious Side (here) about our granddaughter Oksana choosing to remain with her mother on July 14th, I made the following statement.

"One of the constant desires of my heart is to be authentic and real in my thoughts, beliefs and feelings expressed on this blog. " This has always been my heart for this blog of Penless Writer and will always remain so.

Then on November 23 I had the joy of sharing the good news of Oksana's return to her father in Re-Joyce With Us.

Our family knows how to lose some battles, and have lost many, but we also know how to win the wars and we have won some major ones. The reason we know how to win the wars is not because of who we are but because we are Born Again Children Of The Living God.

"For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" II Timothy 1:12

&

"NOW FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR, THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN". Hebrews 11:1

The past 79 days, since our oldest son returned to Tulsa, has been a war. MANY victories, which I have recorded in this blog, but also lost battles. Our enemy, Satan, does not give up those who he has controlled for a long time easily. We know this and were fully aware of the war we were entering. BUT we also know:

I John 4:4 - "Ye are of God little children, and have overcome them: BECAUSE GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU, THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD."

For our prayer warrior Brother's and Sister's in Christ out there in blog land, we covet your prayers as we stand and contend for our family. They are our heritage and we claim them for GOD.

ICE STORM

I'm sure most of you have heard about our massive ice storm in Oklahoma since it's been on all the national news.

I thought I'd share a few pictures with you.

This is the only damage we had in the front yard. This pine tree literally snapped in half.

This is the house to our south.

This shows the two houses across the street from us. All three of these homes suffered much worse damage than we did. The house to the left literally had the drive way covered with branches and tree trunks but had already been cleared before I took the picture.

The next pictures are of our back yard.

The large green tree you see was also literally snapped in half. What this picture shows is the top half draped over the bottom half.

We have a Red Leaf Maple tree and a Tulip tree, that are our favorites, that suffered no damage. We are so grateful for that.

This shows the tree to the right with the upper portion and a lower section broken off.

The tree next to it shows various branches stripped off.

The picture right behind the 5th wheel shows the tree in our neighbors yard which was literally mangled.

Tulsa was hit really hard and there are 252,000 homes without power. Our little town of Coweta faired much better. We only lost power yesterday from 3 pm to 10:30 pm last night. We had already gone to bed and loaded the blankets on top of us.

The following pictures show us trying to stay warm and occupying ourselves.

We were in total darkness except for these two oil lanterns, one small flashlight, and some candles.

This shows David talking on his cell phone.

This is yours truly with about 3 layers of clothing on!!! Sitting in the very dimly lit room. I read some chapters out loud by flashlight to Mickey from "Glorious Appearing" by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Here is my Mickey trying to stay warm. I think he looks cute :o)

Here is David reading from "The Complete Essays of Mark Twain" by the light of the two oil lanterns.

Actually it was sort of fun, for the few hours we had to put up with it.

Our youngest son and two grandchildren ended up at our oldest daughters and husbands for the night. Our son-in-love had managed to buy a generator so they were able to have one small light, a small space heater and an electric blanket.

Our second daughter and oldest granddaughter and their room mates ended up all sleeping in their den near the fireplace. Jacque says her beautiful trees that she loved about the house she just bought are totally demolished.

Yesterday neither Mickey or David went to work, but today both have done so.

Marc also went to work and brought Oksana & Aric out here with me. They will probably be one of the ones without power for up to a week, since only his neighbor and his house lost power from broken power lines when the trees snapped. They will be spending the entire time here with us. It's fun having them.

Well, Oksana wants to get on the computer so I need to get off. A big thank you to Myrna from Cherish the Word who dropped me a note this morning to check on us. I really appreciated that!!

This is a show of the back yard early yesterday morning before the trees began splitting and falling.

This is a picture I took out our bedroom window yesterday morning showing the ice laden branches. Fortunately the tree in the front and the Red Japanese Maple near our bedroom window were not harmed.

SHOW & TELL #30 - Sleepy Baby Doll

Show & Tell Friday at Kelli's today!!!! Always a fun time!! Be sure and join in, post your show & tell and then put your name on Mr. Linky and then visit all the other Show & Tell posts. Thanks again, Kelli for hosting this fun time.

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This is my Sleepy Baby Doll that sleeps on my bed during the day.

This doll is special to me as it was made by my sister-in-love, Sally.

I bought 3 dolls from Sally in 1991 as she was making dolls to sell at that time.

Sleepy Baby has a porcelien head and hands. The rest of her body is stuffed fabric. Sally made the dress and head piece she is wearing.

She is precious to me because Sally made her. Thanks for letting me share her with you today.

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Today, December 7th, is also my Forever Friend, Joan's, Birthday.

Happy Birthday Joan

I wrote about Joan and our friendship that spans 63 years here.

ABOVE ALL THAT WE ASK OR THINK

Yet another of God's promises that has been fulfilled in our lives.

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, acccoring to the power that worketh in us." Ephesians 3:20

65 days ago our son returned to Tulsa - 51 days ago he bowed the knee to Jesus and became a new creation in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Today he started his new job.

That in itself is wonderful but that is only the 1/2 of it.

The thing that kept him from coming back to Tulsa sooner was his fear that he could not get the type of work, here in Tulsa, that he loved and was trained to do. He had been a Network Engineer in Silicon Valley. He did not believe the job opportunities here in Tulsa would afford him that type work.

Two days after he posted his resume on the internet, L*e*v*e*l 3 posted a job opening that fit him perfectly. He could hardly believe his eyes when he saw it!

He applied for it immediately and he got the good news that he had been selected at 4:30 p.m. the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Talk about this family having even more to celebrate on Thanksgiving.

Here is the information on the company for those interested.

Level 3 Network
The Level 3 Network today operates as one of the largest IP transit networks in North America and Europe.
The Level 3 Network was designed to maximize coverage, performance, flexibility and scalability. We offer more long-haul and metro route options than other providers. In addition to our intercity route miles, we give customers access to over 26,000 metropolitan route miles.
Our high-capacity, nationwide backbone was recently overbuilt with new DWDM, IP and private-line switching layers. Level 3 technology deployments have enabled new, market-leading services like 10 GigE LAN PHY and 40 Gbps Wavelength services.
Our voice footprint is expanding with our network. We currently have connectivity to every long-distance tandem office in the United States, and to a large and growing number of end offices. Our customers have the ability to terminate calls anywhere in the world over the Level 3 Network.

Turns out this company is one of the largest of it's kind in the world. Who would have dreamed such a company was here in Tulsa, that a job opening would come up just as he put up his resume.?

The irony of his landing such a job, after moving here from Silicon Valley, CA.!!

BUT

God knew, and God had it all planned out and truly gave us

Above all that we ask or think!!