Decorating pics

Here are some pics from our Saturday of decorating, both inside and out. That's Marsha and Haley in their Santa hats, then Haley posing as she puts an ornament on the tree. That's the ninja, Taylor on the ladder. She tried to climb it all day. Aren't they all just adorable? And Christmas-y? There I am on the roof. I had just cleaned the gutters out, then swept the leaves and pine needles off the roof. Then I hung some lights on the eave. What a fun day...

Finally, we have officially begun the Christmas season!!

Thanksgiving was great! We had a really great time visiting and eating, and visiting again later so we could eat some more! Great times, no doubt. But much like Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are the "Gateway to the Smoky Mountains", Thanksgiving weekend serves as a sort of "Gateway to the REAL FUN!!" Pigeon Gorge and Gatlinburg are nice and fun places, but the real beauty is in the mountains. Dig? I do love Thanksgiving. I'm so very thankful for all that God has given me. I do not downplay the importance of this day. But, oh man do I love Christmas! I've shared this all before, I realize, but I simply must say that this is the greatest time of year for me.
So, I got on the roof today. Later we will post some pictures of me up there. I hung most of the outdoor lights on the house. There are more, and because they are not up, we have not had our official lighting ceremony. We've never called it that, actually, but at some point just after dark on the day I get them all hung, we all go out to look at them the first time the house is all lit up for the season.
I'm working on drumming up some money to get some of those blown plastic figures of Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus to put in the little stable I'm going to build. I've done it for several years now in the church yard when I was in Raceland. I actually build the thing out of four or five wooden pallets I find usually behind Wal-Mart or some other place. Add a little straw and the figures, and you have your outdoor nativity scene. I'll have to buy the shepherds, animals, etc in the future.
I also am thinking of buliding some big "gifts" to put out on the front porch, plus I need some more garland, maybe some candy canes, etc.
Inside, we got the tree up, and decorated. It is our old tree, because the newer, much bigger one doesn't fit anywhere in our current house. It looks really good. We still have several of the ornaments we bought for our first Christmas together. We got them at Big Lots. This is our tenth CHristmas to use them. Wow. Some of them bit the dust over the years. We also have a lot of "homemade" type of stuff we have either made or received as gifts, or that Haley has made in school or Sunday School over time. It's really a mixture of homemade stuff and some store bought ornaments. Plus two different kinds/colors of candy canes. And red and gold ribbon. And lots of red bows. But no topper. We have to get one. Our first or second Christmas married, I forget which, we bought a buch of ribbon and made this huge bow that was our topper for three or four years, but it, too, finally bit the dust. We kept it in a cake box.
Plus my wife has a pretty large collection of Snow Buddies, which I don't think are made anymore. They were really hot for a few years, but then they quit making them. She has tons...big ones small ones. They are snow men for any one who is not familiar with them. She loves snow men.
Listen to me...I'm almost giddy. Good grief. How embarrassing is that. I wish it would snow. I'm a sick man. When else would one long to hear Burl Ives sing? I don't know of any other time, but a rousing rendition of "Holly, Jolly Christmas" wouldn't hurt my feelings a bit right now!
I even caught my wife singing along with Elvis tonight on "Silent Night" or something. Plus she came home from the Dollar General store last evening with one of my favorite treats. My first box this year of Chocolate covered cherries.
I had so much fune with her and the girls today getting stuff decorated, and cranking out the Christmas music..man, I love Christmas. And we haven't even gotten to the real important stuff yet. But I will post about that soon. I hope to have time to share a lot of thoughts on Christmas time in the comign several weeks. Anyway, I gotta get to bed.
God bless...
Brother Donnie

Caught in the act...

...of doing something good. This past weekend, while preaching revival in Sturgis, KY (which went GREAT by the way!), we went up to Evansville, IN to attend service where Brother Ryan Peters is meeting with some hispanic folks. The man and woman who were our hosts there are members of The Chur of God, They are from Mexico, but have been in the states for a little while. They allowed the use of their home, which was a blessing. They have two sons, Angel, and David, as well as a baby daughter Mariana. They are sweet people. They don't speak a lot of English, and most of us who went don't speak any Spanish. They had another family there who had three sons, and brought a young girl with them as well. There were seventeen in total. I was very proud to see Bro Ryan doing this. He has been working with these folks for sometime. It takes a lot of boldness and dedication, I think, to drive three plus hours on a Saturday, with a very pregnant wife at home, to try and help these wonderful folks get a work started for The Church of God. Plus he taught Sunday School and preached in Spanish. He actually had to translate his Spanish to English for the rest of us who went from Sturgis! Brother Ryan, if you see this, you did a great job! Brother Shane and myself as well as the others from Sturgis were blessed to be a part of the service. You got caught in the act, buddy! Good job!
This will be the first in a series of posts which are designed to be "GOOD NEWS" posts. I'll be looking for good things that people are doing for God and those around them. God bless you all...
Brother Donnie

Getting Ready for REVIVAL...

Hey! Just finished a great revival at our church in Winchester, KY with our new Regional Overseer Brother Paul Jernigan. It really was great for us. The Spirit was so rich and the messages so uplifting. I praise God for it. Wednesday night Brother Terry asked to be anointed with oil and prayed for because of a place on his back that seemed to be a spider bite or something. It was very swollen and painful. The next morning it was gone! God can fix things both small and great!
I'll be leaving tomorrow after work for Sturgis, KY for Revival. I am so excited! I've known most of the folks there for my whole life. Some of them even knew my family before I was born. (It's that way most places in KY for me.) But I've never had opportunity to preach there. My buddy (and Marsha's cousin) Brother Shane WIlcox and his wife and sons have recently moved there to pastor, so he invited me down for a weekend to preach. Unfortunately something has come up and my wife won't be able to go with me. The plan was for the whole family to go, and I'm very sad to be making the trip without her and little Taylor. However, I am excited to be taking my oldest daughter, Haley with me. She and I have never really taken a trip anywhere together, so this is going to be fun. She and I have been coworkers for a while. She was my assistant Pastor in E'town and Raceland. I used to take her on lots of hospital and nursing home visits. She has always been a natural with people, and I miss hanging out with her in that way, so I have appointed her my official "Assistant Evangelist" for this trip. I know Taylor will be fun to do these things with, as well, when she is a bit older, and I can't wait for that. I really do love my girls. And their sweet, pretty mommy.
Haley and I will have about a 5 or 6 hour ride in the van to get to Sturgis tomorrow. That's a long time so we are armed with the game boy and the DVD player plus some of our favorite cd's. But honestly, I hope we'll spend more time talking and cutting up and stuff. She is a very smart little girl, and crazy as a loon. She has the most insane sense of humor. A mixture of her daddy's strange senses of humor and irony and her mommy's general zaniness. She really seems to have a knack for understanding what makes something funny and exploiting it for extra laughs. Oh, and she's a bookworm. Very smart. Where that came from no one is quite sure. She absolutely loves school. Her mommy is a smart girl and from what I know a good student. Me? HA! I once skipped school so many days in a row that when I went back I had to go to the office and ask them to write down my locker combination because I had forgotten it while I was "away". But haley is dead serious about school. I am very proud of her. All that and she's gorgeous, too. lol
Then there's Taylor. She is the youngest. She's about 1 and a half. She has brown hair that is getting a little wave in it but not curls like the red head(Haley). The two girls on the surface are total opposites. Haley has always been kind of big for her age, but Taylor is teeny tiny. She has no fat on her, yet she eats like a bless-ed horse! Haley, while energetic and crazy, is quite controllable. Taylor? A maniac. My baby is all out like a lizard drinkin' water! Taylor is full of fire! And I love it. She never lets anything get dull or boring. She is also a very bright little thing, but with a much more mischievous nature. Oh, and she is a ninja. We discovered this a while back when Haley tried to wrestle Haley's game boy away from her and she (Taylor) went all Kung Fu on her big sis. Yes, my youngest daughter is a rogue ninja. Her big sis informed me that she had turned to a life of crime, but we are trying to rehabilitate her. Honestly, all jokes aside, she is a very sweet, adorable baby girl who has her big ol' daddy so wrapped it isn't even funny. And she's gorgeous. They both get that from their mother. She's a fox.
Well, I gotta quit for now. I need to study, pray, and prepare a bit more for the Revival, plus I need to get to bed.
God bless you all...
Brother Donnie

Hey...

Finally, I have returned to blogging. We had some major pc trouble, but a new hard drive later we are back!! We actually got it installed a few days ago, but I've been really busy. We had revival this past weekend with our new overseer Bro Jernigan. He did a great job and our people were so blessed. I hadn't had too many opportunities to hear him preach in a while, but wow. Our people were fed and then some. It was a very uplifting revival. We didn't get as many visitors to come as we had hoped, but it was still a blessing to our local folks. The folks from Raceland also were able to attend one night and were blessed. They really need some miracles up there. They currently need a regular pastor, and a building. I have been appointed to be pastor until further notice, and am glad to be, but they are in need of a pastor who can move to their area and give them full attention. Please help us pray.
I'll go for now, but will post again soon, I promise.
God bless...
Bro Donnie