ouradventcheer

It has been a doosy of a day. I won't bore you with all the minute details, but this day has been very full, and full of ups, and downs.

On the upside, We were able to do #ouradventcheer today, and you can see it on twitter and instagram. But if you don't go there, we blessed a dear friend who happens to clean my house with a Christmas tree. Ivy is a single mom, and cleans houses for a living. She has very little time for herself, and we thought it would be fun to get her a tree today so she wouldn't have to waste time doing that, so she could just go home and set it up and decorate it. She was so excited, and I was going to post video, but....

On the down side, as I was working on editing the video, somehow my computer crashed. It must have gotten a virus or something, and although I can still use facebook, it is running very s-l-o-w-l-y and will not load video. And, I am writing this from my hubby's computer because I cannot even access this website from my Macbook. So I guess I will be going to Experimac tomorrow morning to see if they can salvage it. Yuck.

And that wasn't the worst of it.

It is still so surprising to me that I can be so encouraged one day, and write inspiring words about Being still and Knowing God, and so sad the next. 

Whew! The first week of December just flew by! We had a whirlwind of activity. On December 3rd, we drove up to Kennedy Space Center, to view the launch of NASA's latest endevor: Orion. If you haven't heard, America has kicked it up in the space exploration department, and is testing Orion to go back to the moon, and beyond. It was so exciting- and so disappointing. The launch failed, as we sat in the bleachers waiting. And waiting. And waiting. We got to KSC at 2:45 AM. Yes, thats right. I said AM. We were on the bleachers by 3:00 AM. And the launch was scheduled for 7:05. So we sat. It was a bit windy and chilly, but all was a go. Until there was a boat in the "danger zone". So they delayed. And then the countdown began again. But then the winds were too high, from the wrong direction. And then, a valve failure. And then, the window of opportunity was gone before we knew it. So at 9:45 AM, we walked back in the Saturn 5 building (along with 16,000 other people) to await a bus to take us back to the Visitors Center and parking area. Then we drove the 3 hours back home. Only to rinse-repeat the very next morning. We got home at 4:00 PM, and got up again at 1:00 to leave to go back. To sit on the bleachers until 7:05. Then the launch actually happened without a hitch. Actually, it was a little anti-climatic. It was not as spectacular as the other launch we saw earlier this year. But it was amazing to be there for this historic day. I am so glad we went.

So, you may ask, "Why did you go?" 

Good question.

Faith celebrated her 14th birthday on Friday, December 5th. And it was the only thing she really wanted for her birthday. And you see, she wants to be an astronaut and someday go to the ISS. And Josiah wants to design and build rockets to take us there. So I have to go. I want to go. I am so blessed to be able to go.

And I lost so much of my life a few years back when the sorrow overtook me, that it is my joy to be able to go. 

Welcome to Day 2 of our Advent(cheer)! As I said before, God gave me this idea to do an act of kindness every day for the month of December leading up to Christmas. We will probably continue through the 12 Days of Christmas, which ends January 5, which is Epiphany. Want to know more about the 12 Days of Christmas? Check here http://www.12daysbook.com/ for the great book my dear friend (the one moving to NC :( next summer) and I wrote.

 Today we took homemade cookies and fudge to our friends at Tijuana Flats, where we eat lunch almost every Tuesday. (Tuesday is "Taco Tuesday" where you get two tacos, chips and a drink for $5.49. They're yummy and filling and it doesn't break the bank!)

The cookies we made are the delicious recipe I found on http://thepioneerwoman.com/ She featured them several years ago on her Christmas blog. But they actually came from http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/  They are delicious, easy to make, and the cookies she makes are absolutely the most fun I have ever seen. Her royal icing is perfection, and she shows how to make "flood" icing that works exactly like she says it will. It is a great website for the cookie baker in anyone.

The fudge we made is the kind made from marshmallow fluff, just the recipe off the back of the fluff container. I have made pounds and pounds of fudge in my lifetime and that recipe has never failed. I suppose that it why it is called, "Never Fail Fudge." We added walnuts to some, but left some plain. It makes 5 pounds(!) so there is plenty to share! (The picture is only about half of what we made. I had already shared some yesterday at Vinceramos, and my kids have been munching on it all day!)