So much to say, and so little time. Instead of trying to do a recap of 2011 or even a recap of last week (though you might see them in the future!) I’d like to close out 2011 with this prayer for 2012 (thank-you, John Piper!).

Lord, grant that we will love Christ above all things. And may we spend our pilgrim life learning to love this world les and heaven more. Put us out of taste with the delicacies of the devil, and give us a liking for the solid joys of Christ. Guard us from the allurements of the lodging of this journey, and fix our eyes on the end. And so, Father, make us useful to this world, loving, helping, serving here, while leading people up to God.
In Jesus Name,
Amen

I’ve been sticking pretty close to the office this month at Rockin’ C Ranch. I helped them catch up with their filing (like since about August!), and then I attempted to clean the different offices. Considering that these offices are located in the barn, you can only imagine what an endless job that is. But I gave it my best shot, and if nothing else, everything looked nice and shiny for a day or two. I even managed to throw out some 2010 Catalogs. Pretty radical, I know. But last week I was asked to actually help with some office work. That usually makes me pretty happy anyway, but when they said they were looking for some help with an e-mail marketing blast – then I really knew why we had been led to this camp for our December project! I’ve been using the same program they use for the last 7+ years and while I’m no expert, it was a delight to be able to raise my hand and say “Hey, I can do that!”. Then they taught me how to register campers for New Year’s Eve Camp (what a great idea and much more fun than a babysitter!) and introduced me to “Camp Brain”. As geeky as it sounds, I love learning new computer programs, and it was fun to not only learn how it worked (well, on a limited basis at least), but to then be trusted to actually Do It! All week I have been the “Hello, Rockin’ C Ranch, this is Stephanie, how can I help?” girl  and it’s been fun! The best part is that if they ask a question I don’t know anything about, it’s so easy just ask them to call back after Christmas!  Ah, the sweetness of being a Volunteer!

But wait – it gets even better.  On Tuesday our boss asked me if I would mind taking pictures of their cabins – inside and out.  Really?  You want me to walk around with my camera and take pictures?  If you insist!!!!!

I love my job!
While my job has been primarily focused around the office and the barn (don’t forget that feeding the barn-kitten job), Gary’s jobs have been all over the place!! I don’t know all that’s he’s accomplished, but I do know he’s worked on bunk beds (and you can see from the cabin shots there are plenty of those), made new lighting fixtures for the bath houses and lavatories, cleaned off roofs and then cleaned off the decks that were covered with the mess from the roof! He’s tightened (or repaired) toilets, repaired electrical fixtures, and made award plaques!

So it’s been a good month all around! A couple of really fun weekends in Waco, a nice quiet (but productive) weekend at home and great people and fun tasks here at the Ranch. God is so good to us!

I’ve vacuumed and dusted, changed the sheets and washed the towels. I’ve even (finally) hung my Christmas Wallhangings.
Must be time to hit the road!! Early tomorrow we’ll be heading to a lovely campground in Waco where we’ll be spending our Christmas break. In case I don’t get back here before then – may you all have a Blessed Christmas, and may this celebration of the birth of our Savior bring to mind His great sacrifice on our behalf.

PS – If  you would like to see all the Cabin shots (exterior and interior) here’s that set.

If you’d like to see a couple more “project” shots – check ‘em out HERE.

And if you wanted to know how the turtles were doing….

it was another great day on the log!
 

After back-to-back fun filled weekends in Waco with Lara, it was good to spend a nice quiet weekend just hanging around home. Friday was cool and drizzly so we took off to town and did our errand running. Nothing too exciting there (though I did get off my final Christmas boxes! Yippee!!!) – just takin’ care of business. But Saturday dawned crisp and clear and after I spent a little bit of time taking pictures, we got to work with the main chore of the day – replacing the slide topper/awning.
Pictures first, though —–



Sure was a purty mornin’, doncha think?
This little kitty has become my buddy (one of my Sower jobs is to feed him/her in the morning).


“Get with it, lady – where’s my breakfast?”
I digress….
On to the awning chore. We’d been nursing this awning along for the last several months (it had started to tear, and was quite temperamental as we would move the slide in and out). This month we finally bit the bullet (Merry Christmas to us!), and ordered a new “topper”.

See – no awning over the slide. The replacement awning is in that tube on the ground.
This definitely was going to be a two ladder, two person job.
But first, the new brackets.

And then…

“Steph? Can you come out here? Time to get up on the ladder…..”

(Ok, so this is a little posed. But there was no one to actually document the work, since we were both (mostly) working.) We really could have used a third person to be inside working the slide,

but without too much fanfare, the task was accomplished!

Good to go!

The day had remained so lovely, that I couldn’t resist a little more camera time down by the lake. This time the turtles sunning themselves caught my eye.

As I tried to get a little closer, they scattered and disappeared into the lake. I continued across the bridge where I was once again struck with how much East Texas in late December looks like Pennsylvania in October -

As I was clicking away on the bridge, I noticed the turtles getting brave once again.



“Come on up, guys, the coast is clear and the sun is fine!”


Ah, the sunshine was pretty irresistible for lots of creatures that afternoon….



I won’t bother you with pictures of Gary & I napping. But trust me, it happened!

If you’d like to see additional picture of the ranch, check them out HERE! (Fair warning, I really like that bridge over the lake!)

Last Saturday was the “2nd Annual-ish Cookie Baking Extravaganza”. (It was the 2nd annual-ish because, as you might recall this is what her kitchen looked like last year. No cookie baking here!)

But this year she was back on track. Not only on track, but with two ovens, thanks to the “summer kitchen” out on the porch (leftovers from her old kitchen)! The recipes were chosen, the invites were out, and the stage was set.

This was the plan – Lara would get all of the ingredients, and make up most of the cookie dough ahead of time and have everything ready to go Saturday morning. Everyone pitches in $10.00 and after a day of baking, they all go home with 6-8 dozen fancy Christmas cookies! It was a great deal – and it was great FUN!
Lara got 4 different recipes (4 batches of each) ready Friday night.

And the cookie bakers arrived Saturday morning and the real fun began!

Let me tell you, there was some heavy duty cutting and rolling and dipping and decorating going on!


First cookies were in the ovens by 10:30AM, and the last batch came out at 6PM. Now that’s a full day in the kitchen!

And I think when all was said and done, only two trays of cookies got a little overdone and didn’t make the distribution cut. Not bad for the total number of cookies that were baked (about 23,879 I think).
If you’re looking for some great Christmas cookie recipes, here are links the the recipes we used-
Toffee, Homemade Thin Mints, Cinnamon Roll Cookies,
Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies, Italian Wedding Cookies, Raspberry Shortbread Thumbprints , Sugar Cookies, White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies,
Soft Gingersnaps.
Phew, that there is a lot of cookies.

And what, you might ask, was Gary doing while we ladies were being kitchen mavens?


He was happy as a clam, building a wood rack for the new fire pit, and then enjoying the pit as he burned all the scrap from the fall projects!

Definitely a good weekend for all involved!

If you want a closer look at the pictures in the collages (along with a couple other random shots) feel free to check them out here.