Good morning everyone!  Is everybody off and running on this cool and sunny beautiful Saturday morning?  Hope you will take time this week to get your December 1st goals down on paper and on our blog so we can enjoy encouraging each other.  I have found that because I listed in writing what I plan to get done, my brain, which doesn't normally work very efficiently, sends off a little reminder bell when I am out to grab _____ for Christmas. (For example, I was in Reeves Saine buying strawberry cake and saw beaded cross ornaments made by senior citizens in Mississippi, my home state, and I picked them up for Sunday School teacher gifts.)  

Would you please:  1) send me your favorite online resources for gifts, cards, anything that would be helpful to our group.  Tell me a tiny bit about the site, what is great about it.  Either email them to laurienewman@mac.com or post in the comments section.  

2) send favorite scriptures, quotes, poems pertaining to Christmas.  Reading these things is inspiring as well as helpful when planning Christmas cards, scrapebooks, etc..

Finally, I just discovered something wonderful I want to make sure you know about.  Sara Groves, a favorite music artist of many of us, is releasing a Christmas CD.  On it is a lovely song she has written called It's True about the fact that the fantastic fairytale like love story of Christmas is true in the birth of Christ.    I heard her sing this song at Andrew Peterson's Christmas concert last year and have searched for it in CD since then. You may pre order it at saragroves.com or I am sure it will be on itunes when it is released on the 23rd.

"But it's true

kingdoms and crowns

a God who came down to find you

it's true

Angels on high

sing through the night alleluya"

Sara Groves ~ O Holy Night

 We hope this page will be a place that we can post ideas and encouragement for one another, recipes and tips.  Please leave comments at the bottom of the posts and we will incorporate them into the blog as as we go!  Please forward this blog to anyone you think might like to join in!  The more the merrier!

Topic 1:  What are your goals for this 6 weeks?  Please reply in the comments section below.  It is fun to read the goals of each person to get ideas and inspiration.  This does NOT mean you need to take on all of them.  This is about helping your family and yourself, NOT being perfect.