Brown Paper Bag

Check out the Brown Paper Bag Blog. She is giving away a vinyl machine from Silhouette through New Years Day. Go and check it out!

The title of Queen of Shelter Cove given by Abigail

I was awarded this title by my friend Abigail who has spent many evenings at Shelter Cove whether it was to bring or pick up Madeline from a spend the night with the girls, to eat dinner and play cards, which has now turned into Dominoes, to go through Corn Mazes, or for whatever reasons. Abigail I am so thankful for the friendship that we share, our children share, and our husbands share. We have had so much fun since we have moved up to the North GA mountains. There are many things that you and I have in common like loving the color green, shopping, UGA Go DAWGS!, TJ Maxx stores, our dislike of cooking and speaking our minds. But we have many differences to mellow out the likes. You are much more organized than I will ever be and I just have to accept that. You love your coffee and Hazelnut creamer and I will stick to my sweet tea. With the likes and differences I am so glad that God brought you and your family into our lives. Our life would not be the same without you!

Along with this award I'm instructed with a few rules as follows:
1. Thank and link back to the blogger that gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award on to 7 blogs you've recently discovered and enjoy.
4. Leave your recipients a note, telling them about the award.

7 Things about myself:

1. I am a nerd and I love school. At the end of 2011 I will have graduated with my fourth degree from four different schools: Young Harris College, Georgia Southern University, Piedmont College, and University of Georgia. That is also why I am a chemistry teacher so I can hopefully help others learn to love school (if only right).

2. I love the color green. I know most people think that means you love money but that is not the case. I like green because it represents living things. I do have a biology degree after all. I as well am a green person ( as some would say a tree hugger). I will dig plastic out of someones trash to recycle it. Sometimes I have to drive 20 minutes to take my recycling off or I take it with me to Athens when I go to class. If only all towns could have recycling centers like the ones on campus. I love to plant new trees. We are fans of Arbor Day and get a shipment of trees each year. When the girls were born and when we got married we planted a tree in Statesboro.

3. I love mission trips. My first mission trip was to Juarez Mexico during my first year at YHC. Rev Whitley made a huge impact on my life as well at Costa Por Cristo which is the ministry we built houses through. We built two houses within a week. God is good! The 2nd and 3rd mission trip that I went on was through my church PPUMC to Barahrona Domican Republic. I went there in 2001 and 2003. This was a medical mission trip. My team treated around 1200 people in several days. I learned so much about being the hands and feet of God during those trips. I can't wait to go do more mission work.

4. I want to go to Ireland and Switzerland one day. Don't ask me why those two specific places. Maybe Ireland because of all the green. Switzerland I always wanted to ski well enough to ski on the Alps. Hopefully I will get to one day.

5. I love the beach. All parts of the beach. I love the way the sand and sun tan lotion smell, the sound of the waves crashing, digging for sand dollars, finding shells, taking walks, reading a good book, and the relaxation of it all. I miss living an hour from Tybee but now I have the mountains and snow instead. I love it too!

6. I love love to read. This has not always been the case. The first time I learned to love reading was in the 3rd grade. I finally found a series that I loved. It was the Box car children, Nancy Drew mysteries and the Bopsy Twins. Now I read all the time. I got a gift card for Christmas to Barnes and Noble so I can go and buy a Nook. I love to exchange books too!

7. I am the daughter of the most High. You see growing up without a father I struggled to learn how to develop relationships with others. I think a father is who is supposed to teach you those things or I think I learned that in psychology class in college. Anyway once I developed my relationship with Jesus I knew that I did not need an earthly father for he was the only father that I need. Don't get me wrong earthly fathers are great. I am married to a great father of my children and they are super blessed but who can be a better father than the father in Heaven.

7 Blog Awards:

1. Sisterly blog awarded to my sister at the O'Dell family. My sister set up my blog when I graduated with my master's degree. Even though I am not as consistent as she is I am thankful for her doing this. love you sis!

2. Lindsey at Random Acts of the Bracketts. She is my reading blog buddy. If I ever want to borrow a book or share a book it is with Lindsey. Now you have to get an e-reader so we can one day share.

3. April at Life in the sham. April has been my longest friend up in the mountains blog. We were reunited after 7 years where we met at YHC. I am so glad God brought her back into my life.

4. Mindy at Ship Shop and Pop Pop: Mindy is my ten of us blog. Mindy has been my friend since the 7th grade and a part of the ten of us from high school. I love to read about her adoption process. Even though she is far away I can keep up with her. love you mindy!

5. Garrett News is the next one: Laura is the master mind blogger. We have yet to have a tutorial but I know when I need one she can help. I love to keep up with Sam and Jack on her blog. She is much more dedicated than I am.

6. Jessica, Mad, and Alex gets the roomate blog award. Jessica was my roomate my 2nd year at YHC. Mad and Haleigh are the same age and Alex and Zoie are close in age too. It is sad that we don't see them more often. We love that family!

7. Black Tag Diaries: Thankful thursday blog award goes to Julia. She is a constant reminder of how thankful I need to be. I love to see all her creative ideas that she has stolen or created. We miss seeing you Julia. Hope Kentucky is good to you!

Christmas Traditions

So I am copying my sister on this post. There are so many Christmas traditions that I grew up with that I hope are continuing to be passed down to my own children. My mother always made sure she did Christmas right. By right I mean knowing the true meaning of Christmas. When we were growing up we always went to Savannah to look at the gingerbread house and chestnuts roasting at the civic center. We always went to Christmas Eve candlelight service at Pittman Park church. We always went to see the real Santa in Augusta Mall. He was real because his beard was real. He was the one for Coca-Cola so you know he looked real. We always went and cut down a tree from the Wiggins tree farm or we got one from Lowes as we got older the weekend after Thanksgiving. We did Christmas at Mama's and then she would come to our house on Christmas morning. We would have some kind of breakfast dish that mom made on good Christmas china. And the rule was stockings were the last thing that were opened. I guess it was saving the best for last.

Now that I am married and have children I have tried to replicate these traditions and make our own for the Holland family. We as well get our Christmas tree the weekend after thanksgiving but thanks to our good friends the Black's we now go up into NC to O'Sage Christmas tree farm and cut ours down. Thanks Lance and Julia for the tip. This year we bought two trees and began the tradition of the UGA tree. I have always gotten UGA ornaments throughout the years but this year they have their very own tree. This tree is special because I am getting my fourth and last degree at UGA. The other ornaments come out. I have posted a few pictures of my favorite ornaments. The one picture is of Haleigh during her first Christmas in 2002. The pink shoe is in 2005 for Zoie's birth. The one from Gulf Shores is from my best friend Nikki who we took a beach trip with I think in 2007. The Biltmore house is a trip that Scott and I took two years ago for an adult weekend. The newest addition is the gold ball from Disney World. If you look closely you can see the Mickey ears. That was our thanksgiving trip we took this year. I will blog about that later. So you see our ornaments have such meaning to them and I love them.

The next tradition that continued is honoring our Saviors birth. We go to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at Bethlehem Baptist Church where we sing songs of his glorious birth. When we get home we read Luke Chapter 2 describing the birth of our Savior. We bake cookies and put them on a plate with a glass of milk for Santa. I then prepare the breakfast casserole to be ready for the next morning. On Christmas morning the girls usually have to wake us up. That was not the rule in my house growing up. We had to stay in bed until at least eight to let Teresa sleep. Now it is I who likes to sleep. Santa does not wrap the gifts for the girls nor did he when I was growing up. We started a tradition this year for the girls that there are three gifts from mom and dad to represent the three gifts for baby Jesus. If three was enough for Him then it should be enough for my girls. Those present are wrapped and under the tree. Just as when I was little, the stockings are opened last. Now that we are far away Mama does not come over but T and Hart do on Christmas morning. We usually see Mama at some time during the holidays.

The last tradition is to go see a Christmas movie the day after Christmas. We usually drive to Discover Mills and last year we saw Princess and the Frog. This year the family got the flu instead and we did not make the movie. Hopefully we can go soon. The girls want to see Tangled or Yogi Bear. We usually meet up with my sister and her family the weekend after Christmas to exchange with them.

As you can see there are so many important traditions in my life associated with Christmas and now in my own family's life. But the most important tradition is observing the birthday of Jesus. For he is the Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Holy Lord, Emmanuel, King of Kings, Lion of Judah, Jehovah the great I am, and Everlasting Father. He is the only reason of the season. Without Him it would not be Christmas. Let us always remember the reason of the season. The other stuff is just fun but He is everything!