A weekend full of Grace and Salt...

Gingerbread and pine trees, saxaphones and saws,
shaded shepherds, prisoned leaves,
This weekend saw them all....

We had a very full weekend... Here are my little minions, right before the Christmas Program at the boys school.

(My kids chuckle when I call them little minions....It oringinates from the French word: mignon, which actually means "darling". Webster's definition is: a servile (slave) dependent, follower, or underling.)

Nicholas played the saxophone in the 5th grade band, which was the opening to the Christmas program. He then played a character named Matthew, who was a shepherd in the school play. The story was a play about...a play. :) He loved it when the shepherd donned sunglasses and did a jazzy number.

Cute little Tadpole sang part of a quartet for one song.....











































Saturday we packed up the minivan with Nanny and Papa too and went up to the apple orchard area to "hunt and cut" down our Christmas tree.

Nick, Anthony, Momma (me) and Grandpa all got turns with the saw. After some hard work and effort, Nick did the final push that timbered our tree.



After strolling about a bit and enjoying apple cider and a slice of pie, we came down the hill, with our catch tied to the top of the van and set about decorating...
















My lovely momma, aka Nanny!



















Tadpole, with a yuletide "cool" going on...














































My kids each have a special box of their own ornaments, with a new one to add each year. Part of the fun of decorating is rediscovering their treasures and deciding just where they are to be placed on the tree.



There was a little argument (more on arguments later) on who would put on the Angel tree topper. I am sad to say, rather than grace prevailing, she was enthroned twice.






































I already mentioned in another post that we celebrated the "Day of Candles" with Angela out on the driveway on Sunday night. http://sandeefamily.blogspot.com/2008/12/da-de-las-velitas.html




On Sunday we also put up the outdoor lights, and the kids raked their leaf pile off the lawn. I was sad to find my little minions fussing a lot this weekend. We talked about it, prayed about it, tried at times, and succombed at times.

I shared with them on Sunday, a verse from my morning devotions, Col 4:6: "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. "

We talked about our words to each other being full of Grace...meaning mercy, kindness, gentleness, overlooking what irritates us...and seasoned with salt. I mentioned how salt makes things more tasty, and also is used to make them last longer (a perservative) and asked why do you think God used salt with what we say?

Nick chimed in, if we talk full of Grace it will "taste" better to folks and the effect of our conversation will last longer. :) Yes, it will.

For rest of the weekend, things would pop-up where one or the other would chime in...that was full of Grace and Salt...or this needs more Grace and Salt.

That afternoon, Tadpole, raking the leaves with Mary, was getting pretty upset with her. She kept "squeeking" about the leaves being bad guys, and she was capturing them and putting them into the "jail" (The trashcan.) She kept repeating it and repeating it and repeating it and repeating.....as she has a tendency to do at times, and Anthony was getting more and more irritated and verbal with his irritation. I pulled him asside for a minute and whispered..Taddy, this is working in your favor...as long as Mary thinks she is playing and putting bad guys in jail, she is working hard to help you scoop up all the leaves.... The light dawned...he then joined in with her pretense. Every few minutes he would stop and say, "Mom. this is fun and is full of "glory"! " lol. He was trying to remember Grace and Salt, but put the word glory in its place.

But it was full of glory. When our conversation is full of grace, and seasoned with salt, it is full of God's glory.

Hope you have a blessed glory-salted week!