Christmas in Illinois

Even though we had to come home a day early to avoid driving in a snowstorm we had a wonderful Christmas in Illinois.  First Santa came early to our house. (To avoid the Christmas Eve rush I'm sure!)

Some top rate gifts were to be had.  I mean you can't go wrong with a calendar with a different Chuck Norris-ism for each day of 2013....because you know..Chuck Norris can taste lies! :)

The winner for Aaron......ANIMAL!!!!

We headed off to Illinois where we got to see most of Dusty's extended family and had a nice visit with my Grandpa Lusk

Rachel with the thing that was at the top of her list.  A digital camera.  (Wonder where she gets that interest.) 

Then off to Peter & Mychele's new house on Christmas Eve.  For Levi's 1st Christmas he had his own group of paparazzi!

Time for nap time with Aunt Heidi.  This is where I discovered the magical power of "Let It Be" by the Beatles.  Put the kiddo right to sleep!

A full couch of grandkids!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

You've been "RACK'ed"!

What?? Sounds painful!  Not really.  Our Wednesday morning bible study finished up for the year last week.  Today we decided to meet for lunch together.  But first we decided to go out and do some random acts of kindness...or in this case Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.  Get it?  :)  Heather whipped up some yummy hot cocoa and cider.  The plan was to hand it out to the Salvation Army bell ringers.

I also made up some cards with a couple of verses on it and Christmas greetings.

We stuffed these in ziploc bags with $1 or $1.25.  We planned to tape these to vending machines.  So we loaded up our loot and headed out in Stevie the Dodge Journey.  (Car's name courtesy of Lisa Herrera.  Bonus points if you can make the connection)

Our plans hit a minor snag when we realized that there were NO bell ringers out at 10 am on a Wednesday morning.  So our 1st stop was at Wal-mart.   Carol and I taped some baggies to the vending machines and also left a hand written post-it note on the mirror in the ladies restroom that said, "You are special....You are beautiful!  Merry Christmas!"  While out in the parking lot Sarah & Heather left notes on car windows with Christmas greetings and a candy cane.

 Next stop...Meijer (still trying to find bell ringers....our hot cocoa is not so hot anymore!)  We ended up stopping a cart boy and offering him cider.  He looked at us funny and said that he was good.  We explained what we were out doing and that we couldn't find any bell ringers.  We changed our offer to some cocoa and that did the trick.  We left him sipping some lukewarm cocoa looking slightly bewildered!   Who knows where we would end up!

We spent the next hour trekking around Avon.  We left notes with money tucked into the toy bins at the dollar store for a kiddo to find.  We handed out quarters to Aldi's shoppers for their carts.  I left one of our baggies with the cashier at McDonald's with the instructions to give it to the next person who came in an ordered a coke or coffee.  (More slightly confused looks!)  We pulled up to a construction worker handed him a note and told him to have a soda on us.  We held doors open for people, returned carts, and had a wonderful time zipping around the town with Christmas songs playing on the radio.

A soda, a candy cane, a quarter, a smile.....it may not seem like a lot.  But to a world where evil and senseless violence exist (as we have so painfully been reminded this past week) that's full of people who need to know there is a God who loves them it may be just what they needed.  God's word says that we are to be a light in a dark world.  It's not hard...it just requires that you go. :)  Merry Christmas!

Santa for a Senior

Thanks to my friend Stacy, our family participated in a new project this year...Santa for a Senior.  Our local Walgreen's had these ornaments out on a tree with a gift list for a senior in a nursing home.  Nothing extravagant; simple things like lotion, socks, & puzzles.  We grabbed a couple and made the rounds at Wal-mart and picked out gifts for these wonderful people.  Wherever they happen to be....Merry Christmas from the Hackney 4!

School Program

Time once again for the all-inclusive school holiday program.  Tonight's selections included a traditional negro spiritual, a song about Santa, a traditional Swedish song, a Hanukkah song, topped off by "Here We Come A Wassailing".  No songs about Baby Jesus!  Disgruntlement aside....the kids were super cute and Rachel had a solo part with some other students.  I also managed to keep my streak alive of picking one of the few seats in the house where there would be a microphone between me and Rachel. :)

Shepherds, Sheep, and a Savior

Yesterday was the Children's Christmas musical performance at church.  Rachel played Mary and had a few lines.  All the kids did a fantastic job!  They had been working on the performance since September and all of their hard work showed.

Mary and Joseph :)

Packing it in!

Tonight was our little "Hackney 4 Packing Party" for Operation Christmas Child.  As you may know I am a year-round volunteer with OCC and this week is national collection week.  We have been busy at our church receiving and packing up boxes from the Brownsburg area.  This year I had been buying items when I would find them on sale or clearance.  As a result we had quite a pile of goodies.

We started out the evening by hitting a few stores to fill in a few gaps and then it was back home.  After turning on some Christmas music and praying that God would guide us to put just the right stuff in the right boxes we started packing.  And everyone got in there to pack. :)

We ended up packing 12 boxes (including Rachel's box for Awana)  I still have some items that we will add to other boxes.  So much fun!  I'm glad I thought ahead this year and picked up stuff along the way.  Now to add our family photo to the boxes and take them to the church to get them started on their journey.

To learn more about Operation Christmas Child or to find a drop-off location near you, visit 

www.samaritanspurse.org/occ 

The October Recap

WHAT?!?!?!?!?  Only one post in October and that was the 1st day of the month.  Terrible....horrible....pathetic!!!  Or maybe indicative of the crazy month we had.  The kids had 2 weeks off for fall break.  I had a ton of photo shoots.  We squeezed in a trip to Illinois and St. Louis.  So here's a photographic recap and a promise to try to make November a lot better blogging-wise!

The month got off to a fast start with Aaron's 15th birthday.  Then there was the Mission Possible Music Fest to raise money for next year's youth mission trip.. Aaron and Reality 3:16 got the festival off to a rockin' start.  Aaron and his friend Joel also kicked it with a little rap as well.

We participated in the Indianapolis Buddy Walk for the 4th year.  Always a fun time with our buddy Allison!

The leaves turned early this year!  So it was a mad rush to get all of the photo shoots in before they were all gone.

 Photo shoots like this one where I get to borrow the cool car for a prop

And fun shoots like this one...

All that and I didn't even get my family's photos done.  I think we'll go for winter family photos in the snow this year!

We also rooted for the St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs with my nephew Levi....sadly that didn't work out like we planned.  There's always next year.

Speaking of Levi, we got to spend some time catching up with him and Peter and Mychele.  Little boy's not so little anymore!

We spent a few days in St. Louis relaxing

And also a trip to the Great Pumpkin Patch was in order

I had a great time photographing an Operation Christmas Child packing party with some great kids that were graduates of the St. Vincent NICU and four Indianapolis Colts players - Winston Justice, Seth Olsen, Drew Stanton, and this guy, Jarraud Powers.

We finished up with Halloween.  Aaron and the band played for a church up in Lafayette.  The boys all ended up in suits for their costumes.  We have Micah as Code Name 47, Bryson as James Bond, Aaron as Paul Ryan, and Joel as Mitt Romney

Rachel, Dusty, & I met up with the Painter & Bohrer crews for our annual Papa Murphy's feast followed by the dash through the subdivision to collect a stash of candy.  This year's crew...

To sum up........I'm tired!

So we'll kiss October good bye and try to do better next month!

Happy 15th Birthday Aaron!

October 1997

newborn

October 1, 2002

5 years

October 1, 2007

10 years

October 1, 2012

15 years

Happy 15th Birthday Aaron!

Date with Daddy

Tonight was the ChickFilA Daddy Daughter Date night.  Time for Rachel to dress up and have dinner with her daddy.  There was chicken, the cow, photos by "you know who" and limo rides!  Fancy!

Rachel loves that cow!

Into the limo for a quick spin

And me...I spent my evening with my camera and the cow! :)