Yesterday I took a bus trip up to Lexington, SC, with a group from my sister’s church, to see the Christmas drama “This Man Called Jesus”.   I do believe it is the best drama that I have ever seen produced by a local congregation.  The staging, costumes, lighting, and sound effects were amazing.  The actors/actresses were obviously not professionals but they did an excellent job.  They had a cast and crew of over 400 people of all ages–from the very young (the infant Jesus) to the very old (not sure how old the oldest person was).    If you have a Friday night, Saturday afternoon & evening, or a Sunday afternoon and evening  free between now and Dec. 21, I would recommend you make the trip.   It truly is a wonderful way to remind you of the true meaning of Christmas.  Even if you don’t need reminding, it is worth it!  The drive took us between 1 1/2 to 2 hours on a big bus.  We arrived 2 hours before the 2:30 performance and there were already other tour buses there!  You definitely want to arrive early if you decide to go.  If you enjoy dramas….you’d love this one.  Words cannot even describe the staging they have….and they wouldn’t allow us to take pictures during the performance.  They even use live animals in the drama.  There was a camel (see picture below), a horse, a donkey (of course), sheep, goats, and doves.   There was a scene of the last supper and when the lights were brought up on that scene, the actors were “frozen” and it actually looked like the painting.  I’m telling you—they do an awesome job presenting the life of Jesus in this drama. 

Now, if you are reading this and you have young children and  are thinking, “This would be something great to do with the kids!”,  you might want to wait until they are a little older.  The scene depicting the crucifixion is quite graphic and includes loud rumbling sounds and lightening flashes.  (Not to mention the screaming that accompanies the whipping.)  The lights go out between scenes, so if you have a child afraid in the dark, they might not like this.

The church has a website set up specifically for the drama: www.ThisManCalledJesus.org   You can go to the website and see pictures and get dates, times, and location information.   For those of you that don’t live in the CSRA, you can find out how to get there from where you live.  There were folks there from all over the country.

I hope you enjoy this wonderful season as we focus of the birth, life, crucifixion, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The camel drinking from a Mountain Dew bottle after his performance.

The camel with his head higher...I guess to get that last drop!

Listen….Do you hear anything?  Neither do I…except for the “click” of the keys on the computer keyboard.  I am home alone and the house is so quiet!  I thought it would be nice to have the house to myself for a change, but it is not all that great really.  Especially late at night.  I may enjoy it tomorrow when I am getting my house cleaned, but right now it is too quiet.  (Actually, if I was in bed right now like I should be, I wouldn’t notice how quiet it is.)   All the quys are at a Father/Son Retreat until sometime tomorrow afternoon.   Tonight I actually watched a movie, uninterrupted, all by myself.  I could cry if I wanted to, or talk to the characters without anyone saying, “Mom, it’s only a movie!”   I will sleep to the quiet sound of no snoring and hopefully tomorrow will get lots of work done.   And then, by the time my guys get home…I will be very glad to see them!   I am sorry I do not have a picture to add to this post.  I will have to get my son to show me how to add pictures that I didn’t take myself.   Sweet dreams!

Hi!  Welcome back to my blog.  I want to take this opportunity to introduce you to my dear husband’s new blog site:  annfurthermore.com   His life long dream has been to be a cartoonist.  He has posted some of his newest creations on his blog and he wants lots of people to see them.  They are quite cute actually.  So, do me a favor (& him) and visit annfurthermore.com   Oh, and leave him a comment of encouragement while you are there!  Thanks!

Here I am with my dear husband at a ball in South Africa.

My four sisters took me to breakfast yesterday for my birthday.  We always have such fun when we get together and Saturday was no exception!   As usual, the birthday girl was lavished with presents galore.  (Is that redundant?)  Included in my “stash” were some of my favorite things:  coffee, dark chocolate, and frogs.  They were especially generous with the dark chocolate.  If I didn’t know better I would think they are trying to fatten me up!  By the way, did you know dark chocolate is good for you?  I got a package of Dove chocolates named “Vitalize” that has “energy releasing B vitamins…plus plant sterols to help promote a healthy heart”.  I should be really healthy by the time I finish eating all my chocolate.  Which could take me at least 6 months.  (Those of you that know me best will understand what I mean by that.)  It was a fun morning and I took pictures to share with you.  I hope you enjoy them.

Here we are at Cracker Barrel

YUM! (The little round chocolates are pomegranate.)

To add to my frog collection. (The one w/the crown is a card.)

The blue mug and the mug with the "P" I received from friends earlier.

Believe it or not, the pictures don’t include all the gifts they gave me.  Like I said, It was quite a stash.  I feel very loved and….I love my sisters!

If you live in the CSRA you may think I am going to talk about the Thanksgiving meals prepared and delivered to needy families by area churches.  I’m not.  The dinner of love I’m referring to is the dinner my sweet husband, Don, prepared tonight for my birthday.  To really understand how special that is, you have to know a little about him.  He is, I guess you would say, culinary challenged.  He hates (and I do mean hates) cooking.  To him, warming leftovers in the microwave is cooking.  I had to teach my sons, at an early age, how to cook so they could prepare a meal if I was going to be away.  (That’s no joke.)  However….Tonight Don prepared an entire meal for us.  He went to the store, bought all the food, and then baked the lasagna, washed the lettuce & tomatoes & boiled the eggs for the salad, and baked Texas Toast.  (He did ask Jonathan to grate the eggs & cut up the vegetables for the salad and my daughter-in-law to bake a cake.)  He even bought me a personal size vegetable lasagna! THEN…after the meal he cleaned up the dishes!  Now how’s that for a dinner of love?   My sons & daughter-in-law added to the dinner of love with their sweet gifts.  (I received $90.00 in Starbucks gift cards, plus other gifts.)  PLUS…Don bought me a bouquet of flowers.  I feel really loved right now.   It’s been a great day!   

Blowing out my candles