Decenber 2009

Dec. 25th Merry Christmas, we attended the “Candlelight Service” last night at our church and it was great. The leaders of the church are so filled with the spirit and it overflows in the congregation. There were 3 services and each one had over 350 people in attendance. We have said for a while that we were so blessed in finding this place of worship. Today we were doing some cooking and baking for the Christmas dinner here at the resort, in the middle of it the stove stopped working and we had to cooking the potatoes in an electric roaster. It all came out alright and we were thankful that we weren’t preparing one of the turkeys. Jon’s sister and Brother in law came down from Orlando to enjoy the feast with us and we did have a great time. Debbie brought us homemade Whoppie pies (yum,yum) and a deviled ostrich egg; one egg filled a whole tray. We think that they were impressed with the dinner and the set ups, and as usual we ate way too much and we also brought a lot back home. As we sit back and reflect over this past holiday season we are so grateful for the person that we have helped in this time of the year, and it is that which gives us our most satisfaction. We thank you Lord for giving us your son to take away our sins and to make this a better place.

Dec. 23rd we have spent way too much time away for the journal, as we are busy doing a lot of other things. In the past month we bought 1 new window for the house and installed it. Right after Thanksgiving we needed to repair the heater part of the A/C to heat the house and in that time we had a cool spell, and of course it went down on a Saturday and no way to get the part till Monday. It was lucky that Jon could repair it. On Dec. 11 a group of nine went to a holiday concert featuring the Heartland Pops, Heartland Community Orchestra and Heartland Community Chorus, featuring traditional Christmas Music, excerpts from the Messiah and a grand finale of the Hallelujah Chorus. It was a very inspiring concert and helped to put us in the Christmas spirit. Also in the past month we went to Disney World and bought a residence pass, and what a good deal as the bad economy hit them as well in that we got a 12 month pass and it is good for 15 months, which will take us into March of 2011. The following weekend we returned to Disney for three nights as about 20 of our friends from PA, NJ & DE came down and we had a great time. They did have a problem getting back as a big snowstorm had moved into the area. Also in the past month we attended several functions with our church and it is good to get back into the group and help out as much as we can, we were very fortunate to find this church last year and they help the community a lot in this time of need. We still do our bowling, golf and other activities here at the resort, plus in the last few weeks we started to attend the card games in the evening, they usually have them on Monday, Thursday and Friday nights and play a lot of different card games. Around the house we are in the midst of cleaning the driveway as over the years it got very dirty with ground in rubber and oils, we would like to paint it in the future. We also need to get some weeding done before the weeds that over. Kathleen is doing better as she is now over her coughing that we think is due to allergies and at the present time she is having cataract surgery. Yesterday she had the right eye done and will get the left one done next week. Already she sees a big difference in her sight. We would like to wish everyone a “Merry Christmas” and a “Happy Holy Season.”