Once again, I find myself thinking "geez, it's been a LONG time since I updated our family blog". I have let other things get in the way. I mean, even our former pastor and wife who is now serving in Africa find time to update their blog page almost EVERY day!! Surely I can find the time to update this at least once a WEEK!!

I admit I've been feeling a little down with seeing them already serve where they know God has lead them, and wondering when 'our turn' will be. I know He has the timing all worked out, I just have to be patient. (yeah, right!)

December is a busy month between activities at the BSU and activities at our church. I joined the handbell group last January, so this is my first "Christmas" season playing. And I must say they are a busy group! But I love playing so it's all good. This week we kick off playing tonight at Springfield's monthly "First Friday Artwalk" which is in the downtown area. We are setting up at St Paul's United Methodist Church and will play off and on from 7-9. In between playing we will get to enjoy cookies and hot chocolate! (yum!!)

On Tuesday the 8th I will be treating my Mom for her birthday to a show at our church called "Uncle Phil's Diner".

The handbells then play at our local mall on Sunday afternoon the 13th. In addition to our church activities, I am once again involved in a choir for The Messiah Project's Christmas program on December 18th. They are also doing the opera "Amahl & The Night Visitor" again this year, but I chose not to participate in that this year with all the other things going on. The choir is doing excerpts from Handel's Messiah.

Our church choir is gearing up for a really nice music program on Sunday the 20th; and the handbells get to accompany one of the songs from that program as well. (by the way...you can watch all of the Sunday broadcasts on their website http://www.secondbaptist.org/index.htm just click on "watch live"!)

The bells play one last time on the 22nd at our historical courthouse; which is handy for me since it's just 2 buildings down from our Judicial Building!

In 'other news', our son-in-law lost his job at Hotels.com just before Thanksgiving (wasn't that nice of them!) and he's currently training to help deliver pizza for a new company that just opened up in town. We're praying that he will find something more permanent soon. Our daughter is still working at OTC part-time but they will be on Christmas break soon which means no work from mid-December until mid-January.

Our oldest granddaughter Sydney is now attending pre-school and loving it. She had a few problems at first getting used to the 'rules', but I think she's doing much better now. She is definitely a smart cookie!! Annabella is busy trying to learn all the things her older sister does, and is learning lots of new words as well. Here is Sydney at a recent field trip:

They went to the Nature Center.

Here is both sisters proud of their 'tower' that they've made:

Billy was able to go deer hunting this year for the first time in a while. After about 3 days, he finally shot one, but it got away and he never did find it. I told him they must have some good 'deer doctors' that fixed him up.

Chris is still attending OTC and working at Chick-Fil-A at the mall with my Mom. They work well together and have fun at the same time. It's a good company to work for.

SO, as you can see, we have been busy little Gradys! I doubt things will slow down soon, but as they say "that keeps you out of trouble"!