It's Beginning To Look A lot Like Christmas

Well, it's the most wonderful time of the year again!

I love Christmas!!! My favorite part are all the days leading up to Christmas Day.

I love listening to Christmas music, burning Christmas candles, watching Christmas movies with my kids, making cookies etc.

Growing up, my mom always loved Christmas, and she passed that love on to myself, and my two brothers. All three of us absolutely love this time of year! Our tradition has been to decorate our tree the evening of Thanksgiving Day. This year some of my family was coming to our house for Turkey Day, and so we decorated beforehand. Also, Thanksgiving night we were all going over to my brothers house, who lives in the same neighborhood as me, to celebrate his second daughters first birthday!!

Each ornament on our christmas tree has a special meaning.
Growing up my mom always bought each of us an ornament that in some way reflected/represented our year. One year she made me a Duran Duran ornament - ha!
I still love going to her house and unwrapping all the ornaments to hang on her tree. Each ornament tells a story :).
I have carried on this tradition with my kids. This year, P's ornament was a football, b/c this was his first year to play "organized" football. LH got a new Cinderella ornament, b/c she was able to go to Disney for the first time this year, and meet the princesses. I also got her a cupcake ornament, b/c this girl LOVES HER SOME CAKE!!!
My favorite ornaments are our Disney ones, because our family LOVES Disney!
I will have to do an ornament post sometime.
I got Randy an ornament this year that absolutely cracks me up, but it will have to remain a secret for now, because I am sending one to his brother and sister as well.

I couldn't get a good picture of our mantle for some reason, so this will have to do.
My WONDERFUL and TALENTED neighbor comes to my house, and helps me, actually she just does the bows for my tree/mantle etc. She also assembles my table arrangements! Is that not the sweetest thing? If anyone ever needs a decorator, and you live in the area, let me know, she is AWESOME!

This is the corner of my mantle.

Beautiful bow arrangement...tied up w/ love by my neighbor, Deanna.

I love anything animal print, so I was so excited to find these ribbon selections this year.

Zebra and Leopard!!!

Love that picture in the frame? HA!

The display on top of our tv armoire.

Pic of the dining room

Close-up of the arrangement on my dining room table.

Arrangement on my kitchen table.

Just a little something in the downstairs bathroom.

Entry way

Last, but not least, one of my favorite decorations of all....SWEETEST. THING. EVER.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!!

A very special day indeed

This afternoon, I recieved a text from Randy that said "Palmer said he prayed today with Mrs. Nabring and asked Jesus into his heart"...precious and priceless.
Palmer told me when he got home, that during their library time today, he was just thinking about it, and so he went over to his teacher and told her that he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart. What a blessing for him to go to a school, where he can speak this truth that was on his heart! What a blessing that he has a teacher who was willing to stop whatever she was doing and minister to and pray for the soul of an 8 year old little boy! What a blessing that he has such a tender little heart! God bless you my sweet little boy!
This is a very special day indeed!

Coach's 700th Win

On November 10, my dad, affectionaltely referred to as "COACH', not only by his players, but also by his grandchildren, won his 700th basketball game!

My dad, Garth Pleasant, has been coaching basketball for the past 38 years. He has been the head men's basketball coach at Rochester College (formerly Michigan Christian College) since I was 5 years old!

I have wonderful memories of growing up as a "coach's kid". I have been on many looong bus trips with my dad and his teams. Whenever I smell the diesel from a big charter bus, I automatically and with great fondness think of my childhood. As weird as it is, and it is weird, I actually love the smell of sweaty uniform jerseys (totally gross, I know). Growing up, my dad was responsible for washing all of the uniforms after each game, and my bedroom happened to be right next door to the laundry room...therefore explaining how I came to love the nasty jersey smell!

I was a cheerleader for my dad's team from 1991-1993. That time in my life holds many wonderful and precious memories! I cheered with Stephanie Perry (Barry), Karla Thomas (Brent), Carla Brown, Kimarie Fry (Graham), Lesli Palmer (Raymond) to name a few. We had some really fun times! I especially remember the Dallas trip, but that is an entirely different post altogether!

I recall so many of my dads players with great fondness. I remember the "early guys", like Hank Woodmore & Marvin Mathis (these are the early guys to me anyway). I remember Wayne & Noel, two players from Antigua, who would stay at our house during all the holiday breaks. I recall William Sayles and Roderick Edmonds (my huge teenage crush). I think about Eric Vaughn, Troy Rusnell, Willie Maul, Dwayne Tubbs and Anthony Foster who played on his first national championship team in 1989. I remember Kenyatte Baylor, Scott Muska, Kelvin Brown, Ty Clark, Jason Connely, Craig Koneszka and Rueben Cordova. A few of my favs would include...Mike Robinson, Josh Graves, Terry Leaphart, who I love like a brother, Johnny Pleasant, who is my brother, and Randy Speck, who I married (excuse the major run on sentence).

Although we all have different stories, backgrounds and lives, the one thing that we all have in common is the fact that we all love a man who has influenced and changed our lives for the better. They call him Coach, and I call him Dad!

This is my dad right after he won his 700th game.

In the locker room, talking to his team after the game.
I can guarantee that he reminding them that he has never scored a basket in any of the 700 wins, and that the victory really belongs to all of them!
He is probably also telling them that although it is fun to win games, that the most important thing to him, is that they all end up in heaven someday.

Palmer w/ my dad and the "Warriors"

Palmer with his Coach, and the winning ball!

Randy, Palmer and my dad.

My dad and his two assistants Klint Pleasant (my brother) and Brian Thrift.

This year will end my dad's coaching career. He has decided that he has gone on enough long bus trips and washed enough uniforms. Fortunately, his influence will live on in the lives of so many of us. I have been so fortunate to have had a dad who chose a career that brought so much fun and excitement into my life!

We love you Coach!

The Football Birthday Bash (still playing catch up)

This year Palmer wanted to do a "home party". So, we searched the internet and found all the cool stuff we could for a "home football party"!

All of the boys took turns having their picture taken in this football cut-out.

Boys being boys :)

They each got a t-shirt to decorate and make into a "jersey".

I just used plain white t-shirts, and fabric markers.

I cut out cardboard and placed inside the t-shirs, so the boys could easily color.

I also had cut out the number 8 (for his age), and traced onto each shirt beforehand.

The food table.

All foods were free of nut, dairy & egg due to P's food allergies (food did contain wheat & soy products, fortunately P is not allergic to wheat or soy) .

Snacks included:

Fruit

Raw veggies

Turkey sandwiches cut into the shape of footballs. I used a small amount of frosting to make the little white lines on top of the bread...they loved it!

(I use Boars Head brand turkey, and we purchase it from a local market that will completely clean their slicing machine before cutting turkey for us)

Regular & BBQ chips (Lays brand)

Cherrybrook Cake Mix (an allergen free mix that only requires a small amount of milk & butter. I use Rice milk or soy milk, and Fleishmans unsalted butter in this mix).

The homeade football cake!

I just use Pilsbury brand frosting which is allergen-free for P (it only contains soy).

We played several games.

1-We put 3 pop cans on the ledge of the front porch, and they took turns trying to knock down a can

2-They played a game where they came up with a category (ie: professional teams etc.), and then sat in a circle and randomly tossed the football to each other. Whoever had the football had to quickly name something in the chosen category, or they were out.

3-They also had a football game outside, as well as played a little football on PS3!

After they finished coloring their "jerseys", we painted their faces to look like football players.
All in all, I think it was a very fun afternoon!

Weekend in Mackinaw with my Besties

I spent one of the last weekends in October on Mackinaw Island, with my mom and two of my dearest friends, at an event called Winsome Women. This event is a huge gathering of christian women held twice a year at the Grand Hotel! There is no way to describe the Grand, other than to say that it is amazing! If you have never heard of the Grand, it is the hotel where the movie "Somewhere in Time" was filmed.

Like I said, the entire hotel is filled with christian women during this weekend of spiritual renewal. Each year they have guest speakers as well as entertainment. This year, the speakers included Ann Beiler (the owner and founder of Auntie Anns pretzels), John Piper (author of 90 minutes in Heaven), and Lauren Winner, my personal favorite (author of Mudhouse Sabbath). This years entertainment was Fernando Ortega, who is a very gifted and humble singer/songwriter. We spent part of the time in corporate worship, and other times in smaller break-out sessions. In addition to that, everyone is able to enjoy the amenities of the hotel...which are nothing short of FABULOUSO!!!

Taking our "taxi"/horse and buggy up to the hotel.

The room where my mom and I stayed. No two rooms are decorated alike! To the left of the bed, was a huge window, that overlooked not only the porch of the Grand, but also Lake Michigan...an incredible view!


Me and Lynne

Dinner in the Grand Ball Room

(L to R: Mom, Renne, Lynne, Kim)

Yummy appetizers...so many choices!

Lynne, me and Renee.

Not only are these two of my dearest friends, but I also get to work with these lovely ladies.

We are all christian counselors.

Lunch time is so fun, because a live band plays music, all the waiters run out, and everyone is served at once. It is such an awesome experience.

Another beautiful display...

A cute litte restaurant on Lake Michigan

Lynne and Renee getting ready to bike around the Island.

The following are pictures they took while on their adventure:

Me and Mom

The Grand Hotel Taxi

Love the sound of clopping horses!

We happened to be leaving the Island the same time as the speakers/entertainers. We asked Fernando and his family if they would be willing to take a pic with us, and they kindly obliged. It's a bummer that my eyes are closed :(, but oh well!

Waiting for the ferry to take us back to the city.

On our way home!

I wish I could explain what a wonderful time we had.

What a blessing it was to spend time worshiping and having fun with some of the people I love the most...I am beyond grateful!