This and That and Christmas Lights

Today is a mix of stuff. I wanted to show some more pictures of our house in Christmas lights. These two pictures were taken by Judy. I like them because one of them is taken through the Youpon holly bush with its beautiful red berries, and the other is taken from across the street. Judy is standing under the huge magnolia tree. Notice at the bottom middle of the picture the curb that turns to the right.

These next two pictures show our very ingenious squirrel. He finally figured out how to get the bird seed by climbing on the roof of the house, then jumping to the top of the bird house feeder. (Notice the youpon holly that is directly behind him and the huge magnolia tree across the street that show up in the pictures of the house above.) The second picture is proof that I do play the piano occasionally.

These last two pictures are of the Garden of Lights in Honor Heights Park. Judy snapped a few pictures. These came out the best. Enjoy them and your Christmas holidays.

Fabulous Dinner

Yesterday evening, we had 10 of our fabulous friends over for a nice dinner party. The 3 pastors at our church and their wives, John and Joy from Tulsa, Lowena from Muskogee, and my mother from Dallas. It was a lovely meal. We had pulled pork sandwiches (very elegant despite the name), broccoli and cheese casserole, Oklahoma caviar, salad and condiments. For dessert we had South African Melk Tart and Mountain Blueberry Coffee (smells and tastes just like blueberries). We had a lovely time visiting, laughing, talking about the Scripture, etc. Of course, the ladies and gentlemen loved the tour of our house.

We decided to make the dining room our music room, and make the music room our dining room. By so doing, we could extend our table to its full 8.5' length, with 12 chairs around it. But we also discovered that we were able to eat 'beneath' our lovely Christmas tree. So we have decided to leave the exchange of rooms as it is for now. Here are some pictures of the table set up before the guests arrived. One is in the afternoon and the other just after our outside lights came on.

Again, as we do daily, we rejoiced in the wonderful gift the Lord has given us in our house. And we thank Him for giving us such a blessed life. It just keeps getting better!! Like my friend Jewelle Dean says, "Give God the glory and He will give you the goods."

Catch Up

It has been a few days since I have written. Too much stuff going on this season.

My mother arrived at the Tulsa airport Thursday evening to spend Christmas with us. Next Sunday Jim and Kari and girls will be in Tulsa to spend Christmas with the his folks and us. We are eager to have them come. Then Jeff, Stephanie and their kids will be here the weekend after Christmas. We will have all our family, and my mother, here with us for part of the holidays. Wow! We are excited.


It is always so much fun to see the 3 girls playing together. They have so much energy, and each one of them encourages the others -- not always for good -- but always for fun. Someday Brent will be old enough to play with them. I wonder if he will become the leader because he is a boy, or if he will withdraw some because he is a boy. At any rate, I am looking forward to finding out.

Right now, though, Caitlyn is having fun being Momma's helper with Brent. She is very good, too! Stephanie enjoys her help. Caitlyn loves to snuggle, and sometimes when I am around, without warning, she will get up close to where I am sitting and snuggle in for a few minutes. It isn't very long, but it is greatly enjoyed and remembered.

The Not-So-Icy Ice Storm

As I said yesterday, we missed the brunt of the ice storm. Streets were ok, trees with just a little bit of ice on them, and by evening things were melting just fine. We are so thankful that we didn't get caught again like we did in January. I also promised some pictures of the storm. So here they are, and then I added some of a similar view from last January for comparison. Enjoy, and be thankful if you have never been caught in that kind of a storm. It is even horrible to remember. The oak is in the front yard, the pines in the back.


Now here are the same trees in January with the horrible ice storm on the 17th.

OK, I just had to sneak in one of my front yard, too. This was before it got worse!!

The Icy Edge

I woke up a little on edge this morning. We had rain yesterday which has turned to ice today. Remembering last January's horrible ice storm, I was a little concerned that we might have another bout today. AND my neighbor lost a huge limb off her oak tree which stands just beside our driveway. The limb literally fell across our drive way, blocking our exit with the car. The city truck came around picking up limbs in the street, so I asked if they could take this limb. No they couldn't because it was on private property. I asked them about me dragging it to the street and them picking it up. They said they would on the next round about. So I decided that after breakfast I would drag it down the driveway.

While eating breakfast, I heard the sound of machinery outside. I went to our front porch to check, and our next-door neighbor had a friend out helping her cut up the limb (no way I could have drug it to the street) and piling it up for the city to come by and get it. Wow! God really takes care of us! And she didn't have to do that. I learned during the January ice storm that limbs and trees of neighbors that fall on your property become your property (that's the law). So she was very nice to come fetch the limb.

Anyway, it is 35 degrees here now and rising. Tonight is supposed to be 37 and tomorrow 52 degrees. Whew! We missed this ice storm, although Tulsa (just 35 minutes north) got hit with it -- electricity out, limbs and such down, etc.

The Product of the Seed

It's Christmas again. My favorite part of the Christmas story is the wise men. I get so much joy reading and studying them. Here is just one thing that exploded inside of me some years ago.

I was preaching on the wise men on a Sunday morning. Somehow I got to church early with a lot of time on my hands, so I decided to sit down and re-read Matthew 2:1-12 in the Greek testament. In reading, I came to verse 2, the wise men asking Herod, "Where is He That is born King of the Jews?"

Now you must know that for years I had wondered why Herod went so ballistic when the wise men showed up with their question. Why was a baby so unsettling to Herod? Why did he kill all the babies in Bethlehem, just to get at Jesus? I know he was very insecure, but really....

So...reading this verse, I stopped short. Wait a minute! That is not the word for "born". This is a weird choice of words here. It was not gennao or apokueo. Instead the word was tikto (pronounced kind of like "tiptoe through the tulips", except "ticktoe"). Tikto has to do with fruit production, and is literally translated "that which comes from the planted seed", "the fruit of the seed".


So the wise men said to Herod, "Where is He That is the product of the seed, the King of the Jews." They were specifically referring to Genesis 3:15, "the seed of the woman." And they were telling Herod, "Your time is up, the real, long-awaited King of the Jews has come. We want to see THAT King, if you know where he is, please."

And, today, people have no problem with "Merry Christmas" and Christmas trees and gifts, etc. But when people truly worship the "Product of the Seed", bombs go off. People go ballistic. Play your holiday games - fine. But really bring Jesus into the mix - uh oh!

This year, may you come face-to-face with the Product of the Seed! Merry Christmas!

Olivia's Sense of Humor

I am convinced that Olivia has a very subtle sense of humor. I first noticed it when her family was living with us here in Muskogee. Every evening after dinner, Jim, Kari, Olivia, Ava, Mimi and Papa would walk down the street to the little park that has two ponds. After swinging and watching the ducks, etc., Kari would announce that it was time to go home and get in the bathtub for a bath. One day as we drove by the park, Olivia said, "There's the bathtub!" Kari said, "No, that's the pond." Olivia would reply, "Bathtub." And on and on this would go. This happened often. And I finally decided that Olivia was really teasing us.

Last night, Mimi and I were talking to Kari, Olivia and Ava on the web cam. After a while, Mimi left to go fix supper in the kitchen. When the girls said goodbye to me, they then wanted to say goodbye to Mimi. So I called out to her, "Judy....Judy...Judy, the girls want to tell you goodbye." Mimi came in, said goodbye to them, then left. Olivia said, "Where's Judy?" Kari said, "MIMI left." Olivia said, "Oh...where's Judy?" Kari said, "MIMI is in the kitchen!." Olivia said, "Oh...where's Judy?" Kari said, "MIMI is in the kitchen fixing supper." Olivia said, "Oh...where's Judy?"

I am sure she was teasing with us, in a very subtle way. I am eager to see this develop more in the future. What a funny girl!

Christmas Lights at the Gilmores

I am surprised! Judy and I drove around our neighborhood last night (Honor Heights) to see other people's Christmas lights. There were almost no Christmas lights up! Probably not more than 5 or 6 houses in the whole neighborhood. Most of the homes are more expensive than ours, but only two homes had more lights than ours. For those of you who don't know, Honor Heights is like the Snob Hill of Muskogee. (We didn't know that when we purchased our home!! But found out later.) Anyway, you would expect these people to fix up their homes for Christmas -- NOT!

So I am even more proud to present our home to you this Christmas. Notice in the photo of the porch that the pillar lights are reflecting in the windows behind them. In the center of the picture is our Christmas tree that is inside the house (it is about 15' from the front door, so all you get is the glow of the lights - no ornaments). Enjoy -- and Merry Christmas!!

A Little Christmas Cheer

What a great time we had in Denver, just before Thanksgiving! I took this little clip of our children/grandchildren/great grandchildren singing. It was so delightful. We missed some of them who couldn't be there, but most are gathered on the stage singing.

Then here is a video of the older clan. We learned to do a couple different Virginia Reels and had a great time learning and doing. This one is a circle and if you look really hard you can see Judy and me (I have a white shirt on) on the back side of the circle. Actually the girls moved around and the guys stayed in the same place.

Tomorrow I will try to upload some pictures of our Christmas house lights.

A Frog in My Bathtub!

This past October, or maybe it was early November, we had a frost warning. Judy brought all of her outside plants in and just quickly stuck them in our master bedroom bathtub. We don't use it, only our granddaughters do when they are here, so it was a good place to put the plants and water them (the water control also has a hose/sprayer attachment). One night about 3 weeks ago I heard a weird noise. It occurred twice then stopped. The next night, same thing. I said to Judy that it sounded like a tree frog. We never heard it again after that. Well, last Saturday Judy decided to work on some of those plants - cutting off dead stuff, refreshing the plants, etc. Suddenly she says to me, "There's a frog in my bathtub!" Sure enough there was a tree frog, which is now happily traversing our yard some place. Here is the picture to prove it. (You can click on the picture for a bigger shot, if you must.)


Now, on to prettier things. Here is our Christmas tree (see Kari's here and her two beautiful girls). You can see the lights on some of our front porch columns. Judy has done a really great job of decorating this year, kind of rearranged the house some. But the neat thing is she has decorated. With the little girls living with us last year, and Judy still working, it just wasn't feasible to do much decorating. (Who knows, I may post other pictures of our decorations in future blogs.)


O K, Stephanie, your turn to show off your tree!

Now the birth of Jesus was on this wise....

Judy and I officially began our Christmas season this morning at the breakfast table reading the Christmas story. We are going to do it just a few verses at a time and savor each part of the story. This morning we read Matthew 1:1-18, stopping at 'now the birth of Jesus was on this wise'.

A fuller Greek translation would be: 'BUT, in contrast with those mentioned above, the birth of Jesus was like this.' Those marriages and births were same-o same-o. For generations! The writer says, "On the contrary, what God is doing to to bring his son into the world is spectacular, out of the ordinary, never before experienced, etc. So, the writer is saying, you guys pay attention!!

We get into trouble expecting the ordinary with God, when from day one he has majored in the un-ordinary. Romans 12: "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Nicodemus got all confused. "How can a man re-enter his mother's womb." Ordinary thinking!!

My wish for you this Christmas is that you will have a real Christmas. I pray that you will meet unexpected people, have unexpected conversations, experience unexpected events -- all of your season to be un-ordinary. I pray that this Christmas that the birth of Jesus to you will be 'on the contrary.'

Merry Christmas!!

Happy 4th Birthday, Olivia!!

This is Olivia Grace's 4th birthday! What a miracle she is. Beginning life at 1 lb., 7 oz. and 3 months early is quite a feat. But she pulled it off! Now she is in preschool learning and doing and enjoying life. Like her mother, she loves to make friends and talk to people. Her big brother Dylan, who was only with us about 6 days, had to rush back to heaven to search for just the right sister to send to Jim and Kari. I think he did an excellent job! Anyway, happy birthday, Olivia!

We just made a long trip together to Denver. Each time she crawled into the car (she wanted to do it herself), she always called up to me at the driver's position, "We're not ready yet, Papa!" Also, on this trip, she discovered that her Papa and her Daddy had to go to the Boys' restroom. (This was a great revelation, and she came back from the restroom to announce, "Papa, you have to go to the boys' restroom." Good to know!)

Ugh! So much to do around the house, as well as at my desk. Which to do first, second, so forth. Leaves outside, writing inside! But the whole day MUST stop until I write about my Olivia. Now the day can go on.

I love you, Olivia, more, more, more.
Papa

Welcome to the Christmas Season

Today we began the Christmas season officially. And I must say that I am worn out already. After doing some around-town errands, we took all the Christmas things down from the attic (about 8 0r 9 boxes and 5 or so big black bags). We then took on the huge task of hanging the outside lights across the front of the house, and intermittently Judy worked on the leaves. Beginning about 12:30, we finished just after dark. With our house this is not an easy task, and I must say Kari was sorely, sorely missed. Last year she was here to help us. Oh, Kari, where were you today?!! But the lights do look nice!! Maybe there will be pictures later.

Tomorrow?? I will set up the Christmas tree in the living room. Wash the windows on the outside, put the lighted garland on the front porch columns, and maybe work some more on the leaves. Oh, yes! I must clean the hot tub, too.

But here is the fun of it all: working with Judy. She is such a trooper and so much fun to work with. Gotta tell you, last year I lost my nerve on the really high peak of the house, so Judy did that part of the lights. Same thing this year. I can't believe I am telling you this. Makes me look like a woos, but only because I am. Judy gets the big trophy!!

Around the World in 80 Days!

Ok, not that long and not that far! But sometimes it seemed like it. Judy and I and Kari and her girls made a trip to Denver, Colorado, pre-Thanksgiving (Friday to Tuesday) to see a niece/cousin married. Got back to Muskogee on Tuesday night late. Up and off on Wednesday morning to Dallas for Thanksgiving, home again on Saturday afternoon. Whew! I am tired.

Here are some pictures for you. Both of our girls have cars with DVD players and headphones. Suer make a trip nicer -- especially a long one. Here are our cute granddaughters watching movies and ignoring us. First are Ava and Olivia in their Chrysler Pacifica. Then Caitlyn in her Chevy Suburban. Brent has not developed an interst in the movies, as yet. But give him time.

We arrived home to NO flowers. Winter is here. Now we just have to hang on till next spring. More pictures and thought about the trips in the days to come.

I have failed to highlight our October visitors from South Africa. Every October Ron and Rina Kinnear come to our house for 10-12 days in October. This is their 2nd time in Muskogee. Here we are having breakfast on the patio. Everyone is all bundled up like it is very cold, but it was between 65 and 70 degrees! (So far the leaves hadn't started falling, so the patio looks somewhat clean. By now, the umbrella is stored in the garage, and leaves are swirling around on the patio. I pick up about 2 bags worth every other day. It looks so nice, then the next morning when I look out, my heart sags.) Back to Ron and Rina. They are so delightful to have -- always. We look forward to their coming, and hate to see them go. The first night they were here, when Judy and I crawled into bed, she said, "It's like they were never gone." How true. Good friends!



On the first Saturday they were here, Judy's uncle and aunt celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary just south of Springfield, Mo. So we made a day of it and took Ron and Rina with us. It was a great day. We met up with some of Judy's family in Springfield, and had time to visit Bass Pro. Ron and Rina had never experienced anything like it (for those of you who have been there). It was a little hard to get them out of there and on to the celebration, but we did.



As you can see in the above picture, we were with Judy's sister Sue, her sister Terrie and two of Terrie's children, Dallas and Emily; and of course, Judy's Dad and Mom, Dallas and Pat. Ron took the picture. I had blogged earlier about her uncle's and aunt's celebration. (See Saturday, October 13 in my blog archives to the right.)

Colossians tells us to "let the peace of God rule in our hearts." And the song has been going around and around in me, "He is my peace Who has broken down every wall." I can get really peaceful just looking at the beautiful pictures I took in the Bahamas this year. Judy's sister and husband, Bob & Sue, have twice provided us the opportunity of great peace in nature. The last time was in April when we sailed with them for a week in the Bahamas. These are some of those really peaceful pictures. As beautiful as these beaches, just remember that God loves you even more! But also know that as the beaches and clouds are constantly changing, so is your life constantly changing -- by his design. So just let his peace rule while the changes are happening.


Note the name of Bob and Sue's boat, Refuge. And it truly was for us. Whether sailing or in harbor, it was alway a reminder of God's great care and provision for us. We can just lay back in his love, take refuge in his care.

I know it is hard to believe that such beautiful places exist, but they do. We have been there, but I am still awed by its beauty just in pictures. The sounds are just as real to me as the picture is. Amazing that just this picture remembrance can cause such peace. So can Christ give us peace just by resting in his Word and allowing the words of the page to paint a beautiful picture in us of his great peace.


You can't imagine the thrill of slicing through the water with no sound but the wind in the sails!! It seemed like we were flying over the water, but we were only doing 6 knots. (I was on the front of the boat taking this picture of Judy, Sue and Bob.


Every night the sunset was always a little different, never quite the same. The natives would blow a conch (pronounced konk) shell at sunset to draw your attention to its beauty. As no two sunsets are alike, no two people are alike, and God treats each of us differently according to how he has made us. So just think, everything in your life is tailor made by the God who made you, just for you and him to enjoy together. Be blessed!

Yesterday I blogged about my grandchildren. Today I am speaking of Dylan James, our first grandchild, who is keeping my dad and Judy's mom company in heaven. It is hard to think that he would have been 5 years old now - just at that place where we could have started doing things together and having lots and lots of fun. The pictures here are of our Dylan statue in our back yard. He is facing the patio, so whenever we look out or go out, we see him looking back at us. There were two rose bushes planted in his memory, one on either side of him. However, one of them didn't make it through the winter. I guess it wanted to bloom where Dylan is. The other one, however, has bloomed throughout the summer. This picture was taken today, Nov. 10th, and there is still one beautiful red rose on it.


Every time we look at Dylan, he is looking up at us with a whimsical smile, as if to say, "I know something that you don't." After he went to heaven, Kari said, "I am so afraid that we will forget him." I told her she needn't worry, I never would. I look out and enjoy his presence, and sometimes even shed a tear or two. It would have been fun.... But someday, it will be great!
Blessings, Dylan, I love you, too.

."
It's Papa-time tonight. I just love the pictures of my grandchildren that show up on Kari's and Stephanie's blogs. If you don't check their blogs from time to time, I want to show some of the pictures they post. One is of Caitlyn and little Brent. Caitlyn calls him her "little sister". But then when you ask her her name, she says "me." Check the link to the right for Stephanie's blog to see the cutest pictures of her sleeping with Cali, the dog. She gets up in the night, goes downstairs and snuggles up with Cali. Aren't kids amazing?

The other picture is Olivia and Ava in their cute costumes. Kari worked to help Olivia learn a little joke to tell as she went trick-or-treating. (Knock, knock. Who's there? Boo. Boo who? I didn't mean to make you cry.) Last Monday she sang the song from "Dancing with the Stars" when we spoke on the phone. I resisted the temptation to show the picture of Ava with lipstick all over her face. (You can follow the link to the right for Kari's blog.) After she smeared her face good, then she was unhappy. She can't stand to be messy. Imagine! And where did she get that little trait, anyway?

Today, I am highlighting Judy's art work. Before Brent was born in September, Judy made a special trip to Stephanie's to paint a mural on Brent's and Caitlyn's bedroom walls. The one in Brent's room is a hunting scene (of course) with their two labs, Chauncey and Cali. Notice the frog jumping off the rock and the geese in the sky. Caitlyn's is daisies and butterflies. This artistry was at the request of Stephanie. She has always had very definite ideas of what she wants in her house, and I think this was a good choice. Judy did expert work. Just wanted you to see it.

For having no 'job' at the moment, we have been very busy with many things. The Lord is so good to us, and we are enjoying the day-to-day walk with him. We believe he is beginning to 'stir us up' on the inside, getting us ready for our new assignment.

Well, yesterday, as I said, I raked and removed leaves. Of course, today it isn't as obvious as it was when I finished yesterday. But these are the pictures to prove that I did the work.

After raking the leaves into a pile, I used my Black & Decker blower/vacuum to mulch the leaves and bag them. That is the first of many bags of leaves to finish the job. But it is enjoyable work. Not much effort, except for getting the tools out and putting them up, but the results are very satisfying.

Today, Judy is putting out winter flowers in her gardens to help out with the passing of the summer flowers.

After yesterday's shameless selling on my post, I thought I better write something less crass.

I really am enjoying my girls' blogs (see links to the right). It used to be emails and cell phones, but now we have added blogs. It is so much fun to read (almost) daily recounts of their lives. And the pictures we get are so warming. Things that the granddaughters say that are so cute, we get to 'hear' almost immediately.

I collect giraffes, and I have about 30 or so now in stand-alone, groups, pictures, etc. The other day I was visiting with Kari, Olivia and Ava on the web cam. So while I was talking, I took my giraffe that stands about 18" tall and paraded him across the web cam. The girls really thought it was neat. Just little things like that make for a really strong day.

Today, I begin the fall task of raking leaves. I have all the equipment to do the job as quickly and neatly as possible. I just don't have the equipment to get the stuff out and put it up. Oh, well, I guess that is what makes it work instead of play. Our maple in the front yard has been fun to watch. The tree is yellow now and the leaves are falling all around it. We have green, green fescue grass with yellow leaves on it. And the leaves are falling at such a rate, it looks like it is raining leaves. But as pretty as it is, I must now get out and rake. Leaves lying on top of fescue is not a good thing for the fescue. So.....

Not much to post today, so I want to do some "selling". You will notice under My Favorite Links two new ones about Brock and Bodie Thoene books. The Thoenes have written, and are continuing to write, great historical fiction books about the plight of the Jews in WWII, the establishment of their Jewish homeland, etc. Now they are in the process of writing a series about the life of Jesus. It is absolutely wonderful stuff. I have read all of their books, and they are impossible to put down once you start. They have such wonderful insights. I am told that Brock is a master researcher, and Bodie is the writer part of the team. (Thoene is pronounced TAY-nee.)

One link leads you to their web site (Thoene Home site). Have a look around, and if you find something that is interesting, maybe go to the 2nd link (Thoene Books to buy) and order it. You really should read their series in a certain order since some of the people show up in other places in their books. Here is the basic order: Zion Covenant, Zion Chronicles, Zion Legacy, A D Chronicles. This will start you in 1939 Germany and take you to modern day Israel. It is fascinating reading, to say the least. If you really want to get with it, you could start with Shiloh Legacy and Shiloh Autumn, THEN Zion Covenant (you will see how some American boys get involved in all this). Look into the Books tab of their site and see each book written with a short synopsis.

Enjoy! And by the way, being perfectly honest, anyone who buys a book through this 2nd link affords me a 4% profit. Not much, but it does help.

End of infomercial - the first and the last.

Yea! We have gas! On Monday, because I had smelled gas in the house, I called the gas company to come and check for a gas leak. Sure enough, there was about a 2% gas presence in the house (not enough to cause an explosion, though). By law, they had to take the gas meter off until we could get a plumber out to find and fix the leak. Ugh! Wrong time for a plumber's bill.

I called Jerry, assistant pastor at the church we have been attending. He immediately began calling plumber friends he knows, and by the late afternoon found someone who could help us. Adam came by on Tuesday after work, put on a pressure test, but couldn't find a strong leak. He left the pressure on overnight, and the next morning it was way down. So on Wednesday afternoon, after repressurizing (this time to 20# instead of 15#), and crawling under the house, he discovered a leaky valve at the heater. Sorry he had to crawl under the house to no avail, but it just shows his thoroughness. He replaced the valve, repressurized, and left. This morning I called him to say the pressure had stayed up. He called ONG to come check the pressure, they did and gave us the okay. We called the gas company and they came out and hooked up the meter. Yea!!

The only difficulty we had during this 4-day period was in drying clothes. Our disherwasher can produce its own hot water, no hot water in the kitchen, but we had hot water in our bathroom, and heat in the den/master bedroom area. It is nice to have gas again.

Oh! The plumber charged us $75 for the whole time, including the valve. Praise the Lord! And a special thanks to Jerry, who not only found us a plumber (I am sure he had nothing else to do.), but called every day (during preparing for the youth halloween party at church) to check on us and see what the progress was on our adventure. The Lord has sooo blessed us!


Hats off to Jerry, a great guy and good friend!!