Christmas Joy, at Home and About

This Christmas season has been as full of activity as every 

other year for me. Other than our family activities,

 most of it has been musical, and that's just fine with me.  

I realized my pictures are piling up, and I'll be doing more

Christmas music in a variety of venues 8 out of the next 10 days.

The fingers can rest after Christmas!

Below are the super children of Watch Me Grow, where

at the invitation of my good friend Miss Marianne, I've 

been doing Christmas singalongs since I retired in 2008.

Here's a brief sample of our freeze dancing,

always a holiday favorite with these pre-schoolers.

At the invite of long-time educator friend Elaine Sills,

I participated in Christmas at Weymouth for the fourth year.

The welcome at the entrance puts one in the mood.

The stately Boyd House is a warm abode for a

bounty of Christmas cheer.

My friend Sue and a duet partner performed just 

before me.  Numerous individuals and groups pitch in

to make Christmas at Weymouth a heart-warming event.

There are special trees and other festive arrangements

throughout the grand house as I've documented in past

blogs.  I didn't have time for the grand tour this year,

but what I saw was as magical as ever.

The stately Weymouth trees were in stark contrast to

the 2016 Loyd tree pictured below.  But this one is very

special to me and Judy.  While we are renting, we don't

have our old 9 foot ceilings, which our "free-range"

cedar trees always touched.  But we found ONE perfectly

suitable young cedar on the property we just sold and 

which is about to be cleared.  In fact, 3 or the last 4 years

we used a cedar that grew within 50 of our old house.

God blesses us with the small things.

Retired educators still love Christmas parties.

My faithful band of NCRSP gathered at the 

Moore County library for our final 2016 meeting.

I loved the Tree of Books the staff had created.

I've got enough books to build one a lot bigger

than this, but I think I'll postpone that project!

Let's move on to First Health Moore Regional

Hospital, where this towering tree graces the

main lobby.  It lifts the spirits of many who may

not be in their favorite place at the holidays.

Here I am without my long-time volunteer buddies,

Lyn and Jim.  They brighten many people's visits to 

the hospital.  They are kind, caring souls, with

charm and humor besides.

Another reminder of God's little gifts was this 

spectacular sunset this week.  Perhaps you saw it or

another one just as stunning.

This Thursday night we joined our friend Sal DiBianca

for a celebration of the 30th year of Sandhills Teen Challenge.

If you're not familiar with this Christ-based drug rehabilitation

program, it has been a blessing to our county since Sal and Debby

started it in 1986.

There's way too much history to go into detail, but

Teen Challenge is the ministry begun decades ago by

Rev. David Wilkerson, made famous by the book and

movie "The Cross and the Switchblade."

Over 1,000 Teen Challenge locations worldwide now

serve young (or not-so-young) men and women fighting

all sorts of addictions.  Year after year, testimonies of

Christ's life-changing power are shared.

And each year, the marvelous Teen Challenge Choir

rocks the place with some of the liveliest, most spirited

carols you'll hear anywhere.  It's truly thrilling!

I'll post a couple of excerpts on Facebook.

This year, we were honored to have as special guest

Rev. Don Wilkerson, brother of David Wilkerson and

co-founder of the original ministry in Brooklyn.  He

has an impressive and visionary resume'.

As I mentioned at the outset, this blog covers the first

ten days of December and the next ten will be a real

whirlwind for me.  But I'm excited about it and hope to

 have time to snap a few more photos and share the joy!

Merry Christmas to all!

Fall So Far (or Fall THUS Far, if you prefer)

We're at about the mid-point of fall and it's time

I shared some of our adventures with the grandkids.

Brianna is playing basketball for the Fire in the
Upward Church League.

Hunter is playing for the Dragons in his first
organized team sport.  Did I say organized?

They practice sometimes while they're at our house.
They also get to practice counting by twos.

There's more to life than basketball.  How's this for cheap thrills?

Then there's always the 3:00 freight train.

Evan is back to building his dream castle and manning it
with bold knights of old.

Claire uses a few of Evan's left-over pieces, but she's more
interested in her characters than the building.

Note her army of deadly snakes!

Evan adds a pair of watchful guardian eagles.

Looks like both fortresses are secure.

Nice going, Claire!

Now that Evan has lost his first tooth, all four grandchildren
have had that experience.  Many more on the way.

We spent an afternoon back at the old property and Bri
brushed up on some gymnastics she hadn't done for a while.

We soon headed down to the stream and waterfalls,
where the kids hadn't been for months.

While we were at the stream, we heard approaching voices.
Suddenly, Claire and Evan appeared.  Oh, what fun!

We were all happy to see that our unusual fungus from last
year had reappeared and even multiplied.

Here we are at the new footbridge across our frog habitat.

I may not be putting miles on this '73 Mercury these days, but that's
not to say it's not getting any wear and tear.  Evan's the driver,
while the others climb-- at a safe speed, no doubt.

It seems this would make for some distracted driving,
but Evan is very focused.

Next we were off to our trapeze swing that crosses a ditch.
Everyone got in many, many turns.

Off to the treehouse, where everybody found something to do.

Besides cooking and climbing, there was our outdoor "Little Library."

The same week, we all headed up to Morrow Mountain State Park
for a picnic lunch and a nice, long hike.  The kids were enthralled
with their natural "finds."

It was nice to have Jennifer and Amanda along--
especially since my camera wasn't charged.

Back around home, we attended one of Evan's Saturday morning
 soccer sessions.  Here he's sneaking up on the ball for a back kick.

Evan's age group practices drills together, then divides up for
a short scrimmage game each week.  He is a prolific scorer
and has a real knack for both offense and defense.

You can see the killer instinct in his eyes.

Six Cubes is our new favorite game.  Of course it came from a
yard sale, and that was many years ago.  It may be for ages 10
and up, but that didn't prevent Bri and Hunter from trying it with us.

You roll six dice at a time, then remove any dice that score
winning combinations.  You can continue or quit.  But if you
roll and score no points, you lose all points from that turn.

Her very first time playing, Bri scored a "straight" on a single roll.
This is worth 1,500 points.  If you've played Yahtzee, you'll
appreciate what the odds against this are.  Even a straight with
five dice is a rarity.

Here's the unique game board, with a few special spaces leading
up to 10,000 points.  You could easily create your own board and
use six ordinary dice to play this game without buying it.

Not satisfied with her "straight," Bri soon rolled the elusive
SIX OF A KIND!  The 6,000 points put her WAY over the
top to win the game.  To put it in perspective, the six dice are
one degree past Yahtzee's "five of a kind," plus this has to be
achieved in ONE roll.  Amazing!

I'm happy to say that Judy and I can top that 

Six of a Kind.

We have Four of a Kind Grandchildren that are

totally unsurpassed.

What are the odds of that?!