The Greatest Gift!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!



Below are part 1 and part 2 of the play the kids were in at our new church in New Braunfels!

It's about 53 minutes total with the two parts. I hope you enjoy it! The kids did wonderful considering that they really only had 2 practices before the performance!

I had to compress them in order to upload them here...but they should still look okay!

Many blessings to you and your family for the coming year!





The Greatest Gift - part 1





The Greatest Gift - part 2

The Gift of Eternal Life

1 John 5:11
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (NIV)

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NASB)

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

Titus 3:4-7
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (NKJV)

John 10:27-28
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me. (NLT)

This Side Up Christmas Concert!

I posted some info about the concert on my other blog but it wouldn't let me upload the videos. You can see a few other pictures and info here: www.tiwacademy.wordpress.com

FYI

I am going back to post pictures, etc. from that past month or more...please check below as I am trying to put them in the right date order as I go!

Hope your Christmas preparations are going well!! We are getting there...but time is running out!

Icy "Stuff"

I just had to do a quick post about the interesting weather we had yesterday! We went from a high of 85 degrees around 4pm or so down to the 40's by around 9pm and around 30 degrees for the low last night! Amazing!

Here are a few photos of the sleet/ice that came down last night! We had rain and sleet off and on all night..a nice change after no rain whatsoever the past few months!

What is a True Disciple?

This is a pretty awesome video/message. You have to read the text as it is in Danish.

Haircuts!

My kids were waaaaay over due for haircuts but they finally had them done today!

We have a good friend who comes to our home to do them for the kids. She is a professional and does and awesome job!

I only got the first and last ones taken as the other two went really quick and I was getting lunch for the 4 extra kids who were over that day! :)

This is my youngest...he really doesn't like haircuts, but he has gotten much better over the years! He did move when she was using the clippers...resulting in a shorter cut than planned for!

My oldest getting her hair cut. Note how long it is in this photo compared to the one below after it was cut and it was being flat ironed.

The result of 4 haircuts..we could have made our own wig!

I made a new recipe this weekend for the Murder Mystery Dinner hosted for my Mystery co-op class (see my other blog for more info: www.tiwacademy.wordpress.com ).

This recipe was pretty easy to make from scratch and it tastes amazing! I plan to make some more to take to a Mom's Christmas party tonight! It fits well with the holiday season we are in as it makes use of cranberries also!

Here are a few pictures from when I made them on Saturday. See below for the recipe and link to the original site.

Here is the first tray of scones about to go into the oven.

The finished product! They were later served with the orange butter I made.

Below is the recipe which I found here: Orange Cranberry Scones

Cranberry Orange Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
10 teaspoons sugar, divided
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup cold butter or margarine
1 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup orange juice or rose water
1/4 cup half-and-half cream
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

GLAZE (optional)
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon orange juice

ORANGE BUTTER (optional)
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 to 3 tablespoons orange marmalade


In a bowl, combine flour, 7 teaspoons sugar, orange peel, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside. In a small bowl, combine cranberries, orange juice, cream and egg. Add to flour mixture and stir until a soft dough forms.
On a floured surface, gently knead 6 - 8 times. Pat dough into an 8 inch circle. Cut into 10 wedges. Separate wedges and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush with milk; sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake at 400° for 12 - 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Combine glaze ingredients if desired; drizzle over scones. Combine orange butter ingredients; serve with warm scones. Yield: 10 scones.

Christmas Barge Caroling Tradition

This evening we went as a family with our homeschool group to ride barges downtown along the Riverwalk and sing Christmas Carols.

This is an event we always look forward to and it is usually interesting to see how it will turn out as we end up being with different families each year and we do not practice ahead of time!

It was a fun evening and went really quickly! We stopped by Starbucks to get drinks before boarding the barges...another tradition over the past few years. We all got cold drinks though...it just wasn't cold enough for hot drinks this time!

Here are some pictures from our visit downtown tonight! We didn't make it to the Christmas tree by the Alamo tonight, but we will probably do so in a couple of weeks when relatives are in town visiting!

I also have a lot of other pictures to post and stories to tell...hope to get to back-tracking and posting a lot of fun things on this blog and my other blog at: www.tiwacademy.wordpress.com



Ok, it takes forever to upload a lot of pictures! So, the rest are in the fun slideshow below! Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday! We have made him a cherry pie like we do every year. He has enjoyed having me make him one for a very long time! Now my youngest daughter loves to help with make them also!

Here are a few pictures of the pie making and result!