122 PEACE

A few of our Christmas decorations are actually up, the earliest I've ever up them up. This is mostly due to the fact that the closet under the stairs in the basement where they are stored no longer exists. Eventually the family Christmas stockings will hang from them, but for the time being, they sit in the window.

121 Dave and the Dumpster

Our friend Dave came over to help with the basement demolition. Working all day, Rich and Dave filled the dumpster with the rest of the drywall, all the 2x4's, old insulation,  most of the carpet and a bunch of junk from the coal bin. This part of the the  project is complete and Jake the plumber starts replacing the furnace on December 9. Thanks for all the help, Dave!

120 Construction Site, Philadelphia

119 Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving dinner at our house involves 16 people elbow to elbow at two tables in the dining room. It is relatively easy meal to have since everybody brings a dish. Janet brought the mashed potatoes everybody loves.  Angie brought green beans and the Peanut Butter Chocolate pie Madison requested. Stacey brought spiced squash and apples and a beautiful apple pie. I made the turkey, dressing, cranberries, pumpkin pie and chocolate pecan pie. Frank brought beer and wine. The only person not seen in the picture is Tommy, who at three is just a tad too short and is hidden by me.

118 Thanksgiving Pie

Chocolate Pecan and Pumpkin Pie ready for Thanksgiving.

117 Setting Sun HDR

116 Pen Cup

115 Hygiene Kits

St. John's WELCA group chose to collect items for hygiene kits to send to Church World Service and put the announcement in the bulletin.  The Sunday School took up the challenge and collected enough items for 14 kits.  I missed the assembly line they had set up to put the kits together, but Nick, Luke and Shane proudly show off some of the kits they made.

114 Rubber Band Collection

Everyday we take a rubber band off the newspaper and stick it in a jar.  The jar is now full and I'm not sure what to do with all the rubber bands. This is a macro shot of our rubber band collection.

113 Salad in a Box, Dressing in a Bottle

112 George Garnupful

Growing up, Rich and his best friend Eric created  monsters. From what I understand they did this for their own amusement and to torture Rich's little brother and sister. One of their monsters was a garnupful. I'm not sure what garnupfuls do, or what they look like, but Rich often refers to George Garnupful. I suppose he could look like this. Or maybe this isn't George Garnupful at all, but a dusty, deconstruction monster with bug-eyed goggles I call Rich. Hard to say.  

Dumpster update

It's full and not quite half of the drywall is out of the basement. They're coming tomorrow to take the full one and bring us another. We're hoping to have the basement gutted by Thanksgiving.

111 One of Eleven

Rich has a collection of guitars. This Hagstrom is one of eleven guitars that he owns.

110 Warning Sign

Just so everyone knows, Rich posted this warning sign on the basement door. We'd like to keep the dust downstairs and the door is slightly out of plumb for the nob to work normally.

109 End of the Day, Almost Tomorrow

This is the time I got home from the council meeting. I usually get home from a council meetings by 9:30 at the latest, but the annual budget meeting is always the longest of the year. 

108 Elmer

Elmer has been a fixture at St. John's for as long as anyone can remember. He proudly declares me his daughter and told my dad he would watch out for me. Fortunately for me he approved of Rich when he met him. At 95 he still attends worship every week.

107 Bible Study

The Bible study of Acts at the Synod Council retreat consisted of three questions. What is God doing? What are the people of faith doing, what is driving them and why? What is the purpose of the church? At the end of discussion the groups needed to symbolically show what the passage meant using cups and color pencils, then explain the sculpture to the other groups.  Our group was given Acts 10:34-48. The first part of this passage is a sermon by Peter. The second half says "the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word" and Gentiles who heard the word were baptized. Our sculpture has the cups pointing down, pouring out the Holy Spirit in baptism. The smashed cup is what happens when the Spirit of God falls down on us. Splat!

106 There Used to Be Walls

The Dumpster arrived and our goal is that the walls will be gone by Thanksgiving. After one day of work we realize the Dumpster might be a bit smaller than we need so we carefully stack everything leaving as little vacant space as possible. I'll be happy if all the old drywall fits.

105 Color Wheel

104 Stone Angel

103 Rosy glow

102 Gourds

101 Empty Trees HDR

100 Apple Pie

Dessert waiting to be served at the church's Ham and Turkey dinner.

099 Night Leaves

098 Chutes and Ladders

097 Fall Leaves

096 Election Day

095 Feed sack: The Edge of the Quilt

094 Halloween and All Saints

Halloween decorations on a grave at Northampton Memorial Shrine.

093 Hurricane Flag

The last football game the Liberty Hurricanes play every season is against the Freedom Patriots. 12,500 people showed up for the game, which Liberty won 20-14. Half time not only brought the two bands to the field, but also a team of skydivers with Liberty colors landing on the field. Both bands were great. Both teams have a spot in the District 11 playoffs, the first step to the state championship.