Happy Birthday Jesus!

I am by no means an extremely spiritual person, but I do believe in Jesus Christ and love going to church.  I went to Discovery United Methodist growing up and then to West End Assembly of God in high school, but was absolutely horrible about going in college and the three years since.

Recently, Gaines and I have started going to First United Methodist Church in Waynesboro and even though we've only gone three times, it's the kind of place with the kind of people that make me feel like I've gone there my entire life.  I absolutely love it and find myself looking so forward to Sunday mornings.  The pastor Sam Vernon is wonderful  and does such a great job of telling funny, relatable stories to get his message across.  I wanted to share one from last week that really helped me understand the REASON FOR THE SEASON.

He started his sermon with a scenario that went something like this:

Friend 1: Hey man!  I am so excited about your upcoming birthday.

Friend 2: Oh thanks. Yeah I'm...

Friend 1: Great. Well let me tell you about what I have planned for your big day.  I'm going to decorate my house in red and green and put up a lot of lights and have my favorite kind of music playing.  This is all for you remember, aren't you excited?  And then, I'm going to buy my family and some of my closest friends gifts. I've been planning them for a while and have spent a lot of money.  Oh, sorry man, I know it's your birthday and all, but I just don't have any left over money to buy you a gift.  But feel free to stop by my place so we can celebrate, because remember this is your big day and I love you, man.

This short, simple little story completely put Christmas in perspective for me. I get so excited about the Christmas decorations and the Christmas music and the Christmas cards and the Christmas parties and the Christmas presents, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying any of these things.  But all too often I am Friend 1.  I get so caught up in the planing and celebrating that I forget He is the reason for Christmas.  It's all about Him.  It's His birthday.  It's because of His sacrifices that I am here.  I want to invite Him into our home this Christmas season and glorify Him in all of our celebrations.  

I found this YouTube video on someone else's blog a couple days later, and it instantly added to my new perspective.  I used to think the Advent Calendar was just a countdown to Christmas that included a daily piece of chocolate, but this (again short and simple) video helped me realize the countdown is about "commemorating the birth of Jesus, preparing for Christ's return, and welcoming God into our lives every day." 

Merry Christmas and may we keep Him in our hearts all year long. :)



"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

-John 3:16

Christmas Cards

Merry Christmas from the Turners and the Storys!!!

 P.S. Every day for the last month I have rushed to the mailbox after work to see what Christmas cards await inside.  I had every intention of making a cute card holder like these from Pinterest...

 but figured our 'fridge worked just as well.  It's full of lots of our favorite people and I love it! 

If you're on there, I plan on having you stay all year. :) 

Christmas Break

Today officially begins my 16-day Christmas Break (thank goodness!!).  I can't wait to enjoy every second and am especially excited for the following ten things...

10. Sleeping in

9. Wrapping gifts

8. Listening to Christmas music nonstop

7. Catching up on movies (and maybe reading...and exercising...)

6.  Visiting D.C. between Christmas and New Years

5. Bringing in 2012 with my best friends

4. Celebrating Christmas with Gaines' family

3. Celebrating Christmas with my family

2. Spending my first Christmas with the hubs

1. Celebrating His birthday

What are you excited about this time of year? :)

BC Victory

One of the things I've grown to love about living in a small town is the sense of community pride, especially when it comes to sports.  There is only one high school in the entire county, so when the football team made it to the GHSA AAA state championship playoffs at the Georgia Dome, the town went crazy.  For the past week, it seemed like everywhere I turned I saw signs that cheered on the Bears and every time I walked down the hallway, I heard my middle schoolers excitedly talking about the big game. 

  

The Bears played Peach County on Saturday and....

WON 28-14, bringing home the State title in football for the first time in school history.

We celebrated in homeroom today with doughnuts, and there will be a parade honoring the team on Saturday.  Gotta love this place.  :)

Caught Red Handed

Happy Weekend!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Last week you saw our Christmas decorations and shortly after we got our tree, which we searched for at the best Christmas tree shop around.....Lowes. :)

Once we picked out the perfect tree, we brought it back to Waynesboro and introduced it to its new home...

...and just love how our first married Christmas tree turned out!

Each year Gaines' parents gave him an ornament (I love that idea!), so we had a lot to decorate with, in addition to ones we had received and bought the past year in anticipation of filling our first tree. 

Here are some of our favorites:

Wait, wait, I'm sorry.  I left out my favorite one:

 How cute is he??!

Anyways, here's another view from the inside:

And a couple from the outside:

It's the prettiest tree we've ever had. ;)

Cash

While it was sort of depressing to see our dawgs play on Saturday, it was super fun to meet Jason and Caroline's new "dawg" and watch him play at our house on Friday night.

Meet Johnny "Cash" Blackburn...

He is the sweetest, calmest, cutest puppy I think I've ever seen.

And here's Cash with his mommy and Aunt Kathryn:

P.S. Gaines and I would be happy to babysit any time. ;)