Christmas gifts and music and preparations

Good Thursday morning!  I want to share first of all this "word" on my sink window.  I usually go to the women's Bible study, "Abide," at Calvary on Thursday mornings.  This semester, however, my weeks got crazier than normal and I was not able to attend the last few weeks.  On the last morning they had a brunch and each woman could pick a card with a "word" for them from the Word.   Since I couldn't be there, our teacher, Sherilyn, sent this to me in the mail.  She had no idea how totally appropriate it was for me right now.  Sometimes we have to sing songs of joy and victory by faith, not seeing anything to feel joyous or victorious about.  And then sometimes our faith becomes "sight."  I love when that happens.

Here's another picture I want to share.  Some of you may remember the pictures of the house I pass frequently.  It had been hidden in overgrown trees for years.  Last year it was sold and it became obvious that the new owners were going to be refurbishing it.  But then it all came to a standstill for MONTHS with the scaffolding in place, but no windows.  I cringed thinking how wet it must be getting with all the extreme rains we have had in the past six months.  But now they are back in business!  There are windows and doors and insulation and now SIDING is being put on.  I'm so excited to see how this is going to end up.  It will be beautiful for sure!

And just for perspective, this is a picture I took in March!

On Saturday we went down to Sam and Jenn's.  Dick was helping Sam with a repair project.  I played a fun trivia game with Sammy.  He had it on his tablet and was able to put it up on the TV screen!  I offered to make the dinner of their choice, and cream of tomato soup with grilled cheese was the winner.  I make grilled cheese sandwiches with seeded rye bread and a variety of cheeses.  It was the perfect meal for a cool rainy evening.  I almost forgot to take pictures until we were ready to leave!  Can't wait to have them here for Christmas!

Jeremy had told me that my Christmas gift would be arriving on Saturday.  He wasn't too excited about the fact that we would not be home until evening.  I assured him that we live in a very safe community and I was sure no one would be stealing it off my porch.  When we drove in Saturday evening I snapped this picture and sent it to him, haha!

It was a huge box!  Imagine my surprise when I found this gorgeously gift-wrapped box inside the big box!

It was so exciting to take the box out of the gift wrap and find an Instant Pot!  We were exclaiming over the fact that it said "Wifi" when our excitement turned to dismay.

The beautiful Instant Pot was majorly dented on one side.  Upon closer inspection we saw that the box (above) was dented too.  I said to Dick,  "I guess Amazon workers are as crazy busy as postal workers."

Jeremy got right on it, and two days later there was another box on my porch.  It was not dented, and here's my beautiful Instant Pot!  Wow!  There's so much to learn and so little time right now.  I tried one thing so far.  But I have so many friends who love theirs, including Jeremy, so I know I will be using it a lot.  Thank you, Jeremy and Mike!!!

Sunday was a huge day.  We went to our 9:00 service at GBRV.  We experimented with my camera on our friend Gale's tripod because we wanted to get a video of the cantata in the afternoon service.    Here are two videos from our morning service.  

I just love leading worship with these excellent musicians.

Almost every Sunday I get to do an offertory with Brenna, my flute player.  She is TOP NOTCH, let me tell you.  Here is Bach-Gounod's Ave Maria.

From there we went to Calvary's service.  Afterward we did another photo shoot at the Christmas tree in the lobby since Austin was missing last week.  Hunter was in typical two-year-old mode, so it was truly an adventure.  Here is a really good one.

After I took about twenty pictures of them and we were ready to wrap it up, a sweet lady offered to take a picture of Dick and I with them.  I'm so glad!  I love this so much!  I call it "Merry Christmas from the State College Stauffers!"

Dick and I had a little bit of time to go home and relax before we went back to GBRV to get everything ready for the 4:00 performance of our cantata, "Good News from Home."  Let me tell you, this service surprised me and filled me with joy.  This has been a difficult season for me on several fronts.  Here in this choir I have been really sad about losing a few excellent choir members due to "church strife."  And then on top of that, Judy, who had agreed to accompany us so I could just direct,  suddenly passed away a few weeks ago.  I felt a bit of a "whatever" attitude about this cantata the past few weeks.  

But God took my "whatever" and turned it into "wow!"  The church was almost full, the choir did a GREAT JOB, people loved it, and we had a potluck meal afterward that was wonderful!  

Here are videos of two of our songs.  This was the first one.

I loved this one, "Make Room for Jesus."  I had hoped to have Anthony do the verses as a solo, but he is having some vocal cord issues, so all the men sang the verses instead.  They had fun being the innkeeper!

The choir gave me a gorgeous poinsettia arrangement as well as a beautiful nativity scene, which I will show later.  This was a look of total satisfaction after the service!

Here are a few pictures I took during the potluck afterward.  Lori and Austin came for the cantata and the meal.  Anthony stayed home with Hunter because his nap went too late.  There were also a few of my exercise class friends there.  That was so special!

While we were busy with our weekend, Lisa was having a big weekend in Florida.  She hosted the Track Football Consortium, normally held in Chicago, at Sophie's school.  It included workshops with a number of top coaches as well as actual workouts with student athletes.  I just love these pictures of Sophie.  This girl is almost 100% muscle!

As I mentioned, the choir gave me this beautiful nativity scene.  I LOVE it!!

Now I have four.

Top left:  from Michaels a few years ago.

Bottom left: a gift from Manheim Christian Day School many Christmases ago (missing one wiseman's head!!)

Bottom right:  the one I got from my friend Judy's things the other weekend with the very tiny baby Jesus, since the original one was missing, haha!

I love them all!

Yesterday Jenn sent me some cute pictures and videos of Bianca's nursery school Christmas program.  Here she is being an "angel."

I have one more really short video.  Last evening Lori had shopping to do for a party she will be hosting, so I picked up Hunter from daycare for her.  He REALLY wanted to come to Grandma's house.  So even though I had to play piano at our GBRV advent service, we decided Grandpa could babysit him till I was finished.  Dick took this ADORABLE video.  I just couldn't stop laughing when I saw it later.  

Time to get busy now.  Lori is hosting her department Christmas party this evening, so I'll be going over there to help her get ready this afternoon.  No choir practice this evening for the first time since September!  Oops, that's incorrect.  We had one week off because of that big November snow storm and then the next week off because of Thanksgiving.  We will be having praise band practice however at 8 pm this evening.  

If I'm not back here for a whole week, I wish you a very wonderful Christmas!

Christmas cookies, Christmas decorating, Christmas pictures, Christmas blunders

I realized last week that my comment feature was asking commenters to prove they're not a robot.  So I went into my settings and figured out a way to get rid of that.  Hope that makes commenting less of a hassle!

Thursday, December 6
When I finished my last post I mentioned that I had a lot of piano practicing to do before our choir practice that evening.  It was a long practice because our praise band always practices afterward for Sunday morning.  But my day was not finished after that. 

The church was having our annual cookie sale Friday and Saturday, and I had signed up to make oatmeal chocolate chip.  So when we got home from practice I got right to mixing up the dough, but I had forewarned Dick that I might need his help to stir in the last of the rolled oats.  I was just too tired!  He's a good man!

Friday, December 7
I baked the cookies the next day while I also made Chicken Tikka Masala and rice for Anthony and Lori.  Then I delivered all my goods, lol!

Saturday, December 8
Saturday was a stay-at-home day.  Dick had put up our Christmas tree the evening before and had brought all the decorations in from his shed.   So I decided to be completely comfortable in my red robe and my flash orange sneakers AND my glasses.   I was a sight to behold, I'm telling you!!  I posted on Facebook that if anyone knocked on my door I was not home, haha!

I took this silly Snapchat picture and joked that I thought I should at least do my hair and makeup!

I was a happy camper at the end of the day.

Do you remember the Disney puzzle that Destiny worked on a few times, the one with the curlicue edges that Miki and her friend Kicki finally finished when they were here from Sweden in July?  There was one piece missing, so Miki MADE a piece to fit and you could hardly even notice it.  Here's the completed puzzle.

WELL!  On Saturday when I was rearranging our puzzle and game shelves, a puzzle piece fell onto the floor.  I looked at it and was sure it was that missing piece!  So I enlarged the above picture until I could clearly see the piece that Miki had made, and it was indeed the exact shape!  How crazy is that???

Sunday, December 9
On Sunday morning we went to our 9:00 AM service at GBRV and then to Calvary's 10:45 service.  They always have a big Christmas tree in the lobby and I wanted to get pictures in front of it afterward.  This one cracked me up, because Hunter had been hamming it up and I was sure Dick was watching him.  I said, "Don't look down."  Does he obey me, or what???  LOL!!

That's better!

Austin had already been taken to a Ninja workshop, but I got some pictures of the rest of them anyway.  Hunter is such a barrel of fun and cuteness!

We had the boys for Sunday afternoon.  Austin was working quietly on making some origami boxes and a treasure chest.  Dick watched football.  Hunter napped and so did I.  Perfect Sunday afternoon.  (Boy, you know you have thin hair when the Christmas tree lights shine through it!)

My friend Judy's husband donated some of her things to the church to sell at the cookie sale.  I got a beautiful nativity set for $5.00.  But when we got it out of the box we discovered that something was missing!

Baby Jesus!

My friend Peg said she had an extra one that I could have.  He's a really tiny baby Jesus!  Isn't it a lovely set though?

Tuesday, December 11
I know that many of you already read on Facebook my ridiculous story from Tuesday.  But I'll post it here for the rest of you who did not. 

“Thank you” to the woman whose coat I inadvertently borrowed for about an hour this afternoon. 

Upon leaving Geisinger at Scenery Park after a Dr. appointment, I put my hand in my pocket and thought, “Why did I have a plastic bag in my pocket?” No idea. 

I was hungry so I went to the drive-through at Taco Bell and got a taco salad, then sat in the parking lot and took my good old time eating it and making a few phone calls. At one point I looked at my coat sleeve and thought, “I was sure my coat sleeves had cuffs.” And that plastic bag in my pocket - when I pulled it out I realized it was some kind of rain cap. How in the world did I pick that up when I had gotten my coat off the rack?? Still no idea. 

Then I went into Weis for a few groceries. Once inside I decided to zipper my coat, but the zipper looked and felt different. For some reason I put my hand in my pocket again and was surprised to find a handful of cough drops in there. Not even the kind I use. And then I looked down at the whole coat and thought, “This isn’t even my coat!” And I suddenly realized I had taken the wrong coat from the rack after my doctor appointment. 

I felt horrible and walked right out of the store, drove to Geisinger, and went straight up to the checkout desk where the coat rack is. I was relieved to find my own coat still hanging there. I held the other one up and walked to the checkout desk and the girls started laughing. Thankfully the rightful owner of the coat was a good natured person who figured it was a mistake and told them to call her whenever it was returned. 

And in case you’re wondering, and I know my husband and my siblings are, both coats were dark green.

My sister Doris thinks I need an assistant, hahaha!

Well, that's all for this time!  I've got LOTS going on the rest of the week.  

RIP Judy; our first weekend of December

RIP, Judy Densevich

I mentioned in my last post that next time I would share about my friend Judy who passed away suddenly last week.  Judy was one of the people who very warmly welcomed us to Fillmore UMC when we first visited the church right after we moved here in 2010.  She was the pianist/choir director and was delighted to have us in the choir.  

Practices were held in her lovely home around her grand piano.  She always had a wonderful variety of snacks and drinks set out for us in her kitchen.  It was like a party every Thursday evening!  And speaking of parties, she hosted them for every occasion that came up - birthdays, baby showers, bridal showers, you name it!  Giving gifts was her love language.  For each cantata we sang she had wooden plaques made for each of us.  I have four of them hanging on the wall here in my den.  She loved to cook and bake, and did so for many church and community events.  And I'm not just talking about Fillmore.  She was actually a member of the Episcopalian church and her husband Frank was a member of the Catholic church, but they freely contributed time, food, and help to any church.  Judy had had a career as a brilliant mathematician and classically trained pianist and was now in her retirement years teaching piano lessons, doing private math tutoring in her home, and playing piano for churches.  

At the end of 2013 she decided to step down from her job as pianist/choir director at Fillmore, which was a huge disappointment for the church and choir.  I agreed to help out till they found someone else.  I was very much involved as praise team leader at Houserville House of Hope at that time.  But as it turned out, I figured out how to make it work doing both churches because of the difference in Sunday morning services times and different practice evenings.  She still subbed for me from time to time.  

One thing I have always struggled with is directing and accompanying at the same time.  For my cantata this Christmas I had asked Judy if she would please play piano so I could just direct, and she agreed.  I was delighted at the prospect of finally being able to stand in front of my choir to direct.  

So it was a terrible shock to hear the unbelievable news last Monday that Judy had suddenly passed away Sunday night.  I attended her funeral at the Episcopal church in Bellefonte on Saturday morning and finally met her very lovely children and grandchildren, all of whom live in other states.  My heart ached for her precious husband Frank.  They were a team who did everything together.  He would come to Fillmore with her and was our choir's most ardent fan.  His frequent comment was, "You hit it out of the ball park this morning!"  It's really heartbreaking to imagine him without her.  Here's a sweet picture I took of them in 2010.  Judy will be seriously missed by many, many people and organizations.  But no one will miss her as much as dear Frank.  

Saturday, December 1

On Saturday evening Dick and I went to hear the Essence 2 Gospel Choir, a volunteer community choir directed by Dr. Tony Leach, who just retired from his music position at Penn State.  Lori and I really, really, really want to join that choir, but so far have not figured out how to commit ourselves to the Sunday 6 PM practices.  She and Hunter were there too on Saturday evening, and we both agreed again that we need this in our lives.  Maybe next fall?  (Members can join only at the beginning of each Fall season.)  I finally took a picture when they started the last song, only to realize that the choir members were filing out into the audience greeting people as they continued singing.  It was a dramatic ending as their music surrounded us, but I didn't get a good picture of the choir.

Sunday, December 2

On Sunday morning I enjoyed the ambiance of the Christmas tree as I waited for the service to start at GBRV.  And in case anyone is having trouble with all these churches I talk about - GBRV stands for Greater Buffalo Run Valley, which is the name of the three churches (including Fillmore) which have joined as one church.  

When we got home from church and it was finally a milder, non-rainy day and also a day that Dick could not go deer hunting over at Anthony's place, we decided it was our chance to get the outdoor Christmas lights up.  What a great surprise to discover that apparently I had bought a whole lot of bows on clearance at the end of last season!  I remember that we were thinking our bows were looking faded and orange last year.  

I haven't gotten any picture of our outdoor lights, but they look just like other years.  Here's one from 2014.

When that was finished we went to pick up Austin.  He loves antiques!  And we were taking him to the antiques jackpot, haha!  Old Sled Works. We have passed it so many times but never went inside.  Since we would be meeting up later with Jenn and the kids at the winterfest, we decided to go earlier to take a look around Old Sled Works.  WELL!!!!  We had 45 minutes before they closed at 5.  But we needed HOURS!!  What a totally fascinating place!  And HUGE!!!  I had no idea that building after building, all of them connected, were part of that store.  Austin was in antique glory!  He found a few things to buy, but what he really was looking for, antique keys, eluded us.  When we checked out at 5 we found out that they do have antique keys in a part of the store that we had not had time to browse.  So of course we must go back sometime!

I think Anthony and Lori should buy that private road sign!  Lori would have a hard time with that speed limit though!   The soda fountain just opened this past weekend.  Next time I want to sit there and order something!

When they closed at 5 we met up with Jenn and the kids at the outdoor winterfest.  It was not extremely cold, but it was drizzling lightly.  It was a great community event, especially geared to children.  Hot chocolate, cookies, tables for painting rocks, for decorating cookies, free children's books, a fire for roasting marshmallows, Christmas caroling, and Bianca's nursery school class sang too.  

Bianca had been so excited to sing with her class, but when it came time to actually get up on the wagon, she had tears.  She agreed to get up there if Jenn stayed with her.  Here's a video we took, and if you look closely you can see her sweet face every now and then.  She WAS singing back there.  She just didn't want anyone looking at her.  How different can a sister and brother be???  Sammy thrives on people watching him, lol!!  

Soon after that we said our goodbyes and made the trip back to State College.  After taking Austin home we stopped at Weis for a few groceries.  We cracked up when we saw this clearance rack at the very back of the store - pumpkin spice EVERYTHING!!  Do you think that idea got a bit out of hand this year??

And that's all for this time!  I've got lots of piano practicing to do today now that I need to both direct and accompany our cantata on the 16th.  Thankfully, Good News from Home is not a difficult cantata and I'm really good at improvising with guitar chords.  

Our Thanksgiving Week, Days Nine, Ten, and Eleven

Sunday, November 25

On Sunday morning I was up at 5:00.  I had put some pork roasts in the slow cooker overnight,  and they were done to perfection.  Just fell apart as I shredded them with forks.  I put the shredded meat back into the slow cooker with some of the broth and barbecue sauce.

We went to church at GBRV.  We did not go to Calvary's service afterward as we often do.  Instead we came home and Dick got things packed up to leave for the hunting cabin.  I sent some of the pulled pork with him, as well as rolls, cole slaw, and chips.  He and his brothers and dad and some nephews would be spending the night and also Monday at the cabin and in the mountains hunting deer.

I had told Anthony and Lori to drop off the boys here for the afternoon.  I even got a bit of a nap!  Austin wanted to look up patterns for making dice.  He spent a lot of the afternoon on that.  Hunter was drawing  - trying to make triangles!  

I got the cutest book from an Usborne Books party that Ashley had online the other week.  It's called "All Better" and each page has an animal with a boo boo.  There are heavy-duty bandaids inside the front cover of the book that the kids can put on the boo boos, then they say, "All better!"  Hunter LOVED the book.

Austin continued making die (yes, he informed us that that is the plural word for dice) after we went home that evening.  Anthony took this picture.  One of them has 30 sides!

I did a good clean-up around here after the boys left, because I was getting more overnight guests!  Around 10:30 PM Ray and Destiny arrived!  Ray came up here to go deer hunting at Anthony and Lori's place.  We all had been disappointed that Destiny couldn't come for Thanksgiving due to her Walmart work schedule, so he had told her that if she could get off Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday he would give her a ride.  I was SO HAPPY to have her here!

Of course the first thing she wanted to do was play games.  First we played Dominoes, then Mancala. 

I made up a bed on the couch for Ray.  He relaxed over there while we played games.  He's addicted to the same game on his phone that I am right now - Wordscapes.   It's almost as good as Scrabble.

Then Ray really surprised me as I heard some music coming from the couch.  He was playing a Native American flute!!  I didn't even know he had one.  It sounded so beautiful!  I have read since that the Native American flute is used in music therapy.  I'm not surprised.  Listen to this!

Monday, November 26

On Monday morning I got some church music prep done while Destiny slept in and Ray was hunting.  Actually, he didn't last long.  It was a miserably cold, rainy day.

Around 1:00 Destiny and I went to Get Air, the trampoline park.  Lori brought Austin.   They had so much fun.

Lori and Anthony and the boys came to our place for dinner - pulled pork sandwiches.  Dick got home from the hunting cabin too.  It was not a good day for hunting because of the rain, but Dick enjoyed being with his dad and brothers for this annual tradition. 

Destiny was working on homework most of the evening. 

After Anthony's family left, Destiny and I got started on the next project - the gingerbread house.   We had fun doing it together, and we were happy with the way it turned out.

Tuesday, November 27

On Tuesday morning Destiny did more homework while I did some work at the computer.  I helped her sometimes with her homework too, but I was no help with math.  We texted Anthony for some help, and he did not disappoint!  I did enjoy her psychology homework.  

We had a list of things we wanted to do the two days she was here, and time was running out!  Making cookies was next.  

And after that it was Nails by Destiny.  She did mine complete with a gel finish.  Ray was back from hunting by then, so she even trimmed his nails.

Then they packed up to leave around 5 PM.  Destiny and I had to get our selfie first!  

So that was the official end of our Thanksgiving!  I felt a mixture of sadness and relief.  And also, I had so much to catch up on and even more do for the upcoming weeks.  

One thing I did not mention here was that on Monday I had gotten the devastating news that my friend Judy Densevich had passed away suddenly on Sunday.  I will write more about her and her funeral in my next post. 

Wednesday, November 28

Here's a picture I took in my kitchen on Wednesday.  It was a very windy, mostly cloudy day, but occasionally the sun would suddenly come through the clouds and brighten my whole kitchen, as though someone had turned on a light.    I do love my kitchen and am very thankful for it.