My Christmas workout

Amazing weekend! I seriously don’t think I could have had an more awesome Christmas weekend..... Let me do a breakdown, a glimpse at my heart.

Friday: Had to work :-( My hubby shut down for that day, so he got to play hookie and call me a few times to “remind me” that he didn’t have to work, and I did. ~ Did I ever mention he was a brat? :-) I did get to bless a wonderful woman at work that day though.. My hubby and I had prayed about what to get her, and from the look on her face, and the tearful thanks followed with “you have no idea how much I needed this”, HE was right on it... Again! God is so faithful!
Friday: (night) went shopping......... yeah, not real bright. We got all the men & women from the Libre house’s their Christmas gifts, and some few extras for people that were coming over to spend Christmas with us. Came home and did some prep cooking for the meal on Saturday.

Saturday: We slept in til 8:30...... First time I can remember sleeping in...........well for a LONG time! We drank coffee, sat around for a half hour then began to cook. I have to brag here for a minute. MY MAN CAN COOK!! :-) plus he is downright gorgeous in the kitchen! We made 2 types of chili ~ his famous sweet chili and my new white chili.
We were at the ministry office by 10:30 and at 11:00 toys-for-tots dropped off their packages... we had 29 families gifts stacked in one of the back rooms waiting for pickups at 1:00. This year thru the jail chaplaincy our ministry“adopted” 15 kids and delivered Christmas gifts to the children of inmates. During the tv interview, toys for tots called and asked if there were any other kids that we knew were not being helped. So that’s how we got linked with T4T. What a God send! @ 11:30 was our Christmas banquet for all the volunteers in our ministry which was huge, since we had us and the helpers from JC and T4T there too! It was awesome! God fed the multitudes and had leftovers of course! Everyone was laughing, telling stories, and sharing what God had done in their lives this past year.
At 1 the wives, husbands, grandparents of the inmates started arriving.... I got to do what I love... Talk. :-) While they waited in line, we laughed, talked and got tons of hugs from women who were amazed getting the phone call the night before saying “come pick up Christmas presents for your kids! All free” Some cried, some just smiled... All were told WHO they were from. Tiny gifts from God who sees them in their time of need.
After the gifts were passed out.. And everyone went home, except the men & women in our homes and us.... we delivered 13 huge boxes of food to families in need. The whole bed of Sim’s truck was packed out with bags of apples, potatoes, boxed pizzas, the boxes stacked high, and frozen packages of omelet mix to be baked on Christmas morning. Home after home, we drove around and God put it on our hearts of different families. One, I had been ministering to for a while.... she’s young, has a little one,.... and always seems so embarrassed with how her family acts whenever I come over. Her aunt, grandma (who live downstairs), etc all try to “play the system” and ask for anything and everything to be given to them. She has never asked us for a hand out, never even taken anything that I try to give her but say “oh they need it worse than me.” when they have literally snatched it from my hands. Today I was determined. I knocked on her door and could tell she was surprised and happy to see me on a day I normally am not there. Behind me stood 6 men with arms full. She looked at me, them... and started bawling. She yelled up for her husband and said “Omgosh, hurry get down here, the church people are here and you wont believe what they have!” I grinned as this “standoffish” girl fell into my arms and cried. She hugged me, laughed, and cried more. I told her Merry Christmas and that God wanted to bless her. Her husband looked stunned and like he was about to cry when my husband hugged him and said “Merry Christmas, man! God is good!” The groceries streamed up the stairs and our men & women grinning like crazy. Afterwards, and a few more hugs from the shocked young mom, we left with her still standing in the window of the door waving, a baby on dads shoulders. Our men & women were quiet, happy.. Grateful.... at peace with what God had done in that young family.

You know, those “men & women” I speak of are a lot of X’es... x-gang bangers, x-drug addicts, x- prostitutes, x- pimps, x-dealers, etc.... That day... when I looked at their faces in the van afterwards... when all the boxes were delivered to shocked families........ I saw just what the Blood of Jesus can do in men & women with a past.

Saturday night: (we didn’t get done til almost 7 pm) we went home and kicked back.

Sunday- we went to church. Oh, one family of our jail ministry kids we adopted and delivered presents to last week has yet to miss a service.. They are absolutely the sweetest kids! They barely know me and all three are just loves! The two girls 9 & 5 just squeeze to my side wherever I am sitting and the 8 yr old boy just hugs on me and always is on the other side! The first day I took them to church the little one was on my lap and the two were plastered to both sides of me in the pew. They are so starved for a woman’s love. Sunday, when I picked them up they were standing out on the porch waiting grinning when the big blue van pulled around the corner. Jumping in they piled me with “gifts” little crafts that they had made for me. As I looked the one eyed santa I about cried. Such love these babies have, and pure gifts they give so freely. It breaks my heart knowing that they starve for someone to see worth in them. I of course cherished my gifts, and they beamed at each other and me as my teen sons spoke of the artistic abilities they have. Did I ever tell you how proud I am of my sons? They have an amazing heart of God!

Sunday after church: went seen Rocky movie... was GREAT!

Sunday night went to pastors house... then went home and opened up gifts with our family...the kids got tons of clothes, Me too! :-) my hubby has style too, lol... more so than me! I let him dress me.

CHRISTMAS: we went picked up the men & women from the home, dropped off brownies and juice for the “feed the homeless”~~ our ministry does it on Thanksgiving day, and another local one does it for Christmas... switch off. And went to our house. The guys & gals opened up the gifts... which some of them had a tough time keeping their composure... I never really thought about it til writing this... that it might be because some had never had anything to open before on Christmas or a family to spend it with. Some of these guys & gals come from an upbringing that statistically they should not have survived! We ate tons... kids all came over... parents came over......... we laughed, joked, ate some more..... and had a BLESSED birthday party!
******* I have a nativity scene that I painted... took me two years to finish..... My youngest son (13 yr) was excited about being able to put Jesus in the manger on Christmas day.
OH-- did I mention that I got on the scale Christmas night and wanted to wing it out the window? I weigh 170!! OMGOSH!! Sim and I have desided to get BACK into the workout and will start doing 45 minutes every night downstairs... together...... oh boy. If anyone remembers just how graceful I was when I was dedicated in my workout........yeah... this will not be pretty. :-) but we have insurance. & a blog to tell about it! LOL