{Service Project}

Yesterday the girl's Primary group (children's Sunday classes at church) had an opportunity to do a service project at a nursing home. I was excited about this opportunity, b/c rarely do children have opportunities to do service to others. I have always enjoyed going to nursing homes because the people there are so lonely, they are just so starved for attention & love.

We started reading a Christmas story each night in the month of December. So far each of the stories have a moral that ends with "it's more blessed to give than to receive", so this was a great opportunity to teach the girls.... to give of their talents to others. I think they finally got it. :)

Prior to going to the nursing home, all the kids made jingle bell bracelts, as well as hats w/ "reindeer" hands, and some ornaments to hand out to the elderly. My girls were asked to dance their Highland Dance, so they dressed up for it (much to their excitement) and did the Highland Fling. They did a great job. I had to talk to them prior to coming about the importance of service to others, so they had a much better attitude about it during their time there than they did before we left home. ::gigging::

Friday night we put up our Christmas tree. When we moved to Texas, we didn't have room in our truck to haul the tree. It was getting old anyways, and the base was made of plastic and was broken, so it kept falling over (who makes plastic stands to hold HUGE HEAVY trees up? No one but trusty Walmart!). So, I went on a hunt for a cheap, but practical and cute tree. I found one at Sam's for $125, and it was a slim 7.5 foot tree that was already prelit, which is a major bonus in my mind! I'm always stringing the lights, and I hate it! Anyways, got the tree, and the girls went to town on it Friday night, decorating it. A few ornaments got broken... thanks to the tile we have throughout the house. I had forgotten I had bought some great ornaments after the Christmas season at Target, so we added some color of red, dark green, lime green to our tree! I love it!

It's so hard to get a decent picture of the tree.... nothing can ever capture what it really looks like in your eyes, on camera.

I was just playing around w/ my camera. For some reason, it's acting up on me, so I was playing w/ the color accent, and took a picture from the bottom up. Kind of cool looking....