Our Church and Special Music

I know that many of you are curious as to what our church looks like from the inside. So I snapped just a few pictures the other day for you.

Ths is the front of the church. Our alter is made out of stone and when we go up for communion we make a circle around the alter.

We are decorated for Christmas so you can see the tree and the advent wreath. We truly feel blessed to be members of Concordia Lutheran. The people here have made us feel right at home.

This is a video of Ansir singing with Pastors children. Pastors children range in age from 15yrs to 7 years old. They are all learning Latin and will be singing Oh Come all Ye Faithful in Latin for Christmas day. I know that the video might be hard to see because we had the lights off and you might not be able to hear Ansir very well. We are trying to get him to sing louder so hopefully Christmas moring he will sing out loud and strong.
Oh yes you may want to pause the music player to the right so that you can hear the video.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Childrens Christmas Program!

I have directed many programs while I served at Zion in Rapid City. This year was my first time directing the program in a small church where only about 25 -30 children were present. This presented many challenges such as not every one showing up for practices, Children not learning their parts and just adjusting to how things are usually done. I had my doubts as to how it would turn out. Our program was scheduled for last Sunday but was canceled to very frigid temps. I am talking -40+ and 13" of snow. So we rescheduled it for last night. All the children showed up except for two. I was thrilled. We made some last minute changes to the prayers (good thing the child who was reading them is mine so he could practice before) to change them from morning to evening prayers. The children knew their parts and sang the songs beautifully. At one point during the service when we were talking about the time came for the baby to be born. the little boy who played Joseph yelled out "OH NO She's Having a Baby!" It was a nice touch and got a chuckle out of the congregation. I don't know why I ever worry about howthese things will turn out. The Lord had his hand in it from the beginning. After all we were telling His story the greatest story on earth!

A blessed Christmas to all of you,

Reading Challenge!

When I was growing up reading was the last thing on my mind. Since becoming an adult and a mother I have found a new joy in reading. So now that I am a big girl I figure I can accept this challenge that my sister has joined. I however will not be doing this alone. I will be challenging my son who is 12 to also read 100 books. This I am sure will not be a problem for him. He loves to read. In fact many nights he will read much later than he is supposed to be reading. However I don't think he has ever fallen asleep with a book in his hands like my sisters little angels. Take a look.

Sweet dreams little one!

If you would also like to join in the fun just click here.

Christmas Carroling

Ansir and I had the opportunity to go Caroling with our homeschooling group. We had a great time and a great turn out!

Here you can see Ansir singing away! His voice has gotten much lower than it used to be and it sure sounds great!

This is a picture of some of the residence that we sang to. We went to 4 or 5 homes in our area. The residence loved the music and seeing all the kids.

This is another picture of the group who came to carol.

After we finished singing to the residence we wished them a Merry Christmas and told them God Bless You. Many of the carolers including Ansir and myself also shook their hands and visited with them for a short time. Ansir commented on how sad some of them looked. Many had tears in their eyes as they remembered Christmases past or rellished in the attention. Unfornuatly many of our elderly persons do not get many visitors. We should all remember these wonderful people in our prayers. If you have the chance please go to a home near you and visit with the residence. Let them know that someone cares!

Decorating For Christmas

Christmas is one of my absolute favorite holidays. I wait eagerly for the day after Thanksgiving so that I can start dragging out my decorations. There is something about the lights and the trees and of course the music. They remind me of the majestic birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. For if he He would never have been born we would have no hope!

Here is Ansir as he carefully places the ornaments in the correct places.

As you can see he has grow so tall that he must kneel to decorate the bottom half of the tree!


I have placed my nativity below the tree to remind us of the reason we celebrate! All I need now is a stable for them to fit in!



Here is the finished tree. I just love the tree because it has many decorations to remind us of the greatest gift of all.


The angels remind me of when the came to Shepherds to announce the birth of our savior Jesus Christ!


The Crosses remind me of the sacrifice that Jesus made for me. He gave me eternal life in exchange for his death!

This year we were able to have two Christmas Trees. We put this one down stairs and placed all the other decorations that do not match my theme on this tree. Being a teacher you collect many decorations during the Christmas season! I don't think you can see it bu this tree also as colored lights!


These are the Snow Babies that my mother has given me! they are so beautiful. I was not sure where I would put them this year. Then I remembered the cupcake holder I have. Surprising it holds them very well. I do think I will get some batting to put beneath them just in case they should decide not to stay in their places.

My only delema is that I am missing a box of decorations. I can't find our stockings or the garland along with many of my snow men decorations. I pray it is here but I am afraid it has been left in the storage shed!