Playdate with some fun!

We invited the Feller girls over this morning for some Christmas ornament fun! I saw this idea last year on my friend Tracie's blog. She made "Cinnamon Applesauce" ornaments with her little girl, Lily Kate. I thought maybe Cora would enjoy it this year.


The craft is quite simple. You mix equal parts of cinnamon and applesauce. I had my doubts on this forming a dough but all that cinnamon really thickened it up. Roll it out and use cookie cutters to make your ornaments. After leaving them on a cooling rack for one day, the ornaments dried nicely and were ready to hang on a tree! They smell wonderful! All the girls enjoyed doing this!



Cora and I mixing up our dough



Chloe enjoyed mixing up her dough as well



Chloe and her mom cutting out their ornaments.



Cora did a good job helping us!


















The ornaments went into the oven at 150 degrees F for 1 hour and then to the cooling rack for about a day.



















The girls enjoying a little story with Melissa.


I loved getting to have people over! I hope we can continue to be gracious hosts to all of our guests!

CBS Christmas Program

Cora and I are involved with a great ministry here in Greenville called "CBS" or "Community Bible Study". Last year was our first year of involvement and we loved it. I was in the "Lambs" group with Cora so she stayed with me while we did our study on Genesis. This year, we are studying Acts. Cora is in her own class - the one year olds! Her teachers are Patsy and Elaine and they have been so wonderful to Cora. She is learning all about the Bible. Today was our last meeting for the year and the kids had prepared a program of all that they had learned. I was overjoyed seeing Cora sitting up there! She did great and sat still with her group. I remember going to this same event last year, seeing all the parents and grandparents there with their video cameras and picture cameras, thinking "This will be me next year" and here it is!



They gave the kids stars to hold onto - probably a great idea!



As you can see, there are alot of kids involved.






I was worried about getting right in front of Cora, thinking she would get upset if she saw me.. but it was almost like she didn't even know who I was. She stared right at me and didn't make any movement at all. They must have worked with them well!

"You can't catch me.. I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

Most Tuesday mornings, we find ourselves at our public library to enjoy story time! Cora is getting to the age where she can sit still for a little while - this is mostly while watching "Sesame Street". So during story time, she is usually exploring and being a distraction to the other kids. But on this morning, the librarians put on a play - they acted out the "Gingerbread Man"! Now, I have to confess.. I feel like this was the first time I've ever heard this story! So imagine my horror to discover that you can in fact catch the gingerbread man, the wolf did and ate him up. Hopefully Cora was not as traumatized as I was! Just kidding. We really enjoyed seeing the play. I wish they did a play every week - maybe Cora would sit still and listen!



Cora enjoying the play



It was puppets and real people! The set was really cute!

Quick shot of us!


Is it bad that I came home craving gingerbread cookies?? I better get to baking!

Sharing Cookies at Spring Arbor

Today, Cora and I went to see our friends at Spring Arbor! We came with cookies ready to pass out and carols ready to sing. Okay..Cora can't sing yet.. but she did have some bells to ring! I'm so glad that we got invited to share in this with the other moms in Greenville. It is such a great opportunity to bring a smile to the faces of those residents at Spring Arbor. They enjoy seeing the children so much. It is so sweet to see their faces light up over them. They love talking to them and, in Cora's case, trying to get them to wave back to them. I hope this is something we can continue to do!



Our little group of carolers!



The residents all met in one room to hear the music


Molly and her mom were brave enough to share Bible verses they had memorized.

Cora enjoyed passing out cookies but I think she would have liked to keep some for herself!

Celebrating Advent - Candle of Peace

Today we had the honor (?) of leading our church in celebrating advent. I say this as I was a little worried how our toddler would do! But she did fine and we were able to read about "The Candle of Peace". This marks the 2nd week as we anticipate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I've always striven to remember the true reason of why we celebrate Christmas - it's not all about presents and eating cookies. It's taking time to reflect on that night when Jesus was born and what that truly means. So I love that we got to do this for our church. This is what we read, if you are interested!

“Today is the second Sunday of Advent. The word ‘Advent’ comes from the Latin word 'adventus' meaning 'The Coming' or ‘The Arrival’. It is the season whereby we celebrate the coming of Christ to earth. Last Sunday we lit the first candle in our Advent wreath. It reminded us of the hope we have in Christ. Today we light the second candle of Advent, the candle of peace. The prophets of old spoke of the coming of a King who would save his people. This King would be unlike any king who ever ruled. Nearly every earthly king who has ruled has done so by acquiring wealth and power. And nearly every king who acquired wealth and power took it from the backs of those under them. Not this King. He is the kind of King who gives, not takes. He would be born in humility and would give His life as a ransom for us. This is why the prophet Isaiah calls Him the “Prince of Peace". The very heart of the Christmas message is how this Messiah brought peace between us and God.

“We believe that Christ has come into our world. The apostle Paul describes this peace as being beyond our understanding. How true that is!We believe that this peace is complete and total. We believe that our restless hearts cannot find true peace unless it anchors in Him. And we believe that this peace will find its ultimate completion when He returns bringing us a new life. This is what we look forward to as we reflect upon this great King. We light this candle to remind us that Jesus is the Prince of Peace our hearts have been longing for and that only through Him true peace is found.”

Family photo- if we had done Christmas cards, this one would have been it.


The candles of Advent


Cora would have done a great job lighting the candles.

I just couldn't resist adding a photo of our cute Cora in her Christmas dress!

First Snow

Can you believe NC has already had a snowfall? I remember growing up and wearing shorts and t-shirts on Christmas day! Not this year and not this weekend! It has been so cold, not getting out of the 30's for a few days, and even though they mentioned snow fall on the radio, I didn't believe it until I looked out the window and saw it for myself. We got maybe quarter of an inch but it stuck to the ground and Cora loved seeing it. We went outside and the first thing she did was point at it and want to sit in it. Crazy girl.



William and Cora - you can't see it but it is snowing here!




Cora and I walking back from getting the mail. I think she would have run in it all night if we had let her!

Not a lot but definitely something!

Christmas is still a few weeks away but at this rate, we very could well have a white Christmas!!

Breakfast with Santa!

I'm from a pretty small town - Vanceboro. It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone. My dad still lives there so anytime we can make the quick trip over there to visit, we do. Well this particular day, our reason for going was to have "Breakfast with Santa"! I heard about it through a friend on Facebook - it was an event at Holly Hill Church for kids. Even though Cora is still kind of young, I thought it would be a good photo time to visit dad and also enjoy a little fun!


Cora and her papa.. Ready to go inside! It was cold!!


Enjoying the breakfast - it was yummy. Pancakes, bacon and sausage, etc.



Family photo outside the church - too bad Cora isn't looking.

Santa lead a story time after the breakfast!


Santa read from Luke about the birth of Jesus Christ. We didn't get to stay the whole time to hear it as Cora was ready to go by this point but we really enjoyed getting to share this with Cora. I'll have to post the photo of her with Santa (or her standing near Santa) and also the letter she received from him later!!