Carmi Christian church Senior Christmas Banquet

What a joyful time we had singing for the Senior Fellowship group from Carmi Christian church for their Christmas banquet. We spent our meal in great Christian fellowship and enjoyed talking with those of like precious faith. The Christmas atmosphere and the beautiful decorations all added to the moment of it all. Our Christmas music went well with all of the festive red shirts that the audience was wearing. We enjoyed our time!

Babies Have Arrived!!!!

What joy it is on the farm when babies commence! The sounds in the barnyard are ones of delight! After a correct prediction on Rachel's part, Cinnamon, a Nubian goat had her babies Thursday, December 20th, early in the morning. She gave birth to twins, one black and white buckling, and one brown and white doeling. Baby goats are so sweet! We all are very excited and know that the babies are in good hands, as Cinnamon is a very protective mama.

Baby rabbits are being born as well. Two does had their kits last week, and are raising them quite well. They are starting to get a little fur on their bodies. How cute!

HMHD Catered Christmas

This morning we arrived at HMHD cafeteria to provide music for their catered employee Christmas meal. From 11-1p, employees took their various lunch hour breaks and enjoyed a catered meal while the McDaniel Family provided instrumental as well as a Capella music.
There were Christmas gift drawings and prizes for the employees, part of which were the beautiful wreaths adorning the various walls and windows.We had a splendid time playing and singing for the good folk of the hopsital!

Reminiscing at WMCL

"The Cuz," better known to Southern Illinois listeners as Cuzin Eddie, invited the McDaniel Family to return to sing on his morning radio show on WMCL 1060 AM.


We walked through the door early Thursday morning and were greeted by the familiar smiling face of Edna. We forgot to bring our camera and so found a few pictures in our archives to share.

Cuzin Eddie had his old time radio in progress at the time so we waited and caught up on the latest news with Edna. Soon, it was our time to go on the air!

We were greeted by Cuzin Eddie and his Re-creation Players and set up the instruments and readied our music while we reminisced about the "good old days" when "Miss Rhonda" co-hosted the Cuzin Eddie show and Trey, Amanda, and Rachel all helped as needed in production and live entertainment. It was a wonderful season of opportunity for the McDaniel Family to volunteer and serve the community and the Southern Illinois listening area.

We sang a variety of Christmas and winter songs to kick off the season and laughed and enjoyed our time spent entertaining and reminiscing with good friends.

Hamilton Memorial Nursing Center Christmas Party

Santa Claus is comin' to town, and his first stop was at Hamilton Memorial Nursing Center on Sunday, December 9. Our family was invited to sing a few Christmas carols in expectation of the arrival of Santa Claus who was bringing gifts to all of the residents. All of the resident's families had gathered to help them celebrate the spirit of Christmas and were visiting merrily with each other as we sang a few numbers. Here Comes Santa Claus rang loud as every one helped us sing, calling Santa Claus in bringing gifts for all. What joy it brings to give gifts!

CHEHC Homeschool Christmas Party

We had several in attendance December 8, at the CHEHC (Christian Home Educators of Hamilton County) Christmas Party.
We enjoyed a delicious carry-in meal with a wide variety of food, plenty enough for all.

Some of us enjoyed singing Christmas carols around the piano awaiting the many special presentations that had been brought by the various families.


Some little fingers got into the swing of things while we were passing time.
Trey had Luke help him with drawing out names to determine the order of presentations. What a fun way to see who would go next!

Stephany and Sarah

Callie, Corey, Cord

What wide variety of talent was soon seen as person after person presented their work before us.

April

Piano selections, readings, memorization work, and string instruments all took part in the evening's entertainment.

Luke

Macie and Sarah

Samantha

Stephany

The crowd waited patiently to see who would give the next presentation. . . .

April, Alec, Austen, Alijah, and Anthony

Christian

We had never had this many presentations in the past and were delighted with every one!

After a rousing chorus of the 12 Days of Homeschool, the gift exchange came next. Every girl makes a homemade present for a girl, and the boys likewise. It is exciting to see the different capabilities that were used to make these works of art. Thanks, Ken, for sharing some of your pictures!Afterward, we laughed and conversed with wonderful friends until it was time to head home. What an enjoyable night!

Winter's A'Coming!

Cool weather has set in. Several days ago we awoke to glistening frost covering everything in sight. It was beautiful!The weathermen are predicting snow on Thursday. The beautiful snowflakes falling down remind us of God's wonderful creation. When we are creating things, we can only imagine a limited number of patterns, but of the millions upon millions of snowflakes that fall everywhere, our awesome God chose to make every one unique.

The Christmas season is upon us. Our cabin is decorated, except for the tree. Hopefully we will cut one this weekend. Mrs. Coyote looks festive in her Santa hat.

For many years we have searched for a manger scene that has a removable baby Jesus. We are so excited to have finally found one this past year. Our manger remains empty until Christmas morning in great expectation of the arrival of the Christ-child. After we read the Christmas story first thing on Christmas morning, it is with anticipation that we find Him filling the manger. Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas! He is the one we look forward to on Christmas morning as everything at Christmas-time centers around Him. If He hadn't been born, we would have no hope of salvation! Our God is good!

Building in the Barnyard

Trey's at it again! Creations are happening in the barnyard and the carpenter has been busy at work. The new hay feeder/grain trough that Trey recently built for the equine is working great, and they love it!

They are so happy!

He has begun construction on a grain storage unit and things are progressing quickly. It will be handy to have a place to store our grain. We could have put up a grain bin, but we love this grainery plan because it matches the old-fashioned atmosphere of our barnyard so well! It isn't finished yet, but Trey is busy, busy, busy!

A visit from the McDaniel's

It is always exciting to expect company! After our day of Thanksgiving, we were awaiting the arrival of Dennis, Adele, Jesseca, Jeremy, their foreign exchange student Yair, and Doris, Mark's mom who were to due to reach their destination of Providence Prairie! The dusk was setting in as they pulled up the lantern lit lane. After unloading their belongings, they settled into the warm cabin where the wood stove was keeping things toasty. After supper, word-find puzzles and a variety of head-gear started our evening of fun and visiting!!!Four-Men-On-A-Couch, quite a mind boggler, filled the cabin with laughter and hilarity as each team attempted to unseat the other team and get four of their members on the couch! Although hard, it was very fun. Guess who won the first game! And the next game, and the next, and the next, and, well, . . . . . . .
the boys finally won one game!Guesstures followed before heading off to bed.After a delicious country breakfast the next morning, everyone decided to traverse to the barnyard to visit the animals.
Molly and Polly obligingly gave rides. What fun!The Pioneer games in the barnyard were fun for everyone! And of course we employed the Pioneer family painting!

Oh no! The baby's crying!

Ahh, this baby is sleeping peacefully.

That evening, a variety of games were brought out again with several sets going at once. Avalanche, Scrabble, Tri-ominos, and Yahtzee were just a few! (Have you guessed that our game closet was recently completed?)

Mark was the Yahtzee champion!

After a fun filled weekend, we worshiped together Sunday morning. The service being over, we said our goodbyes and our company headed away on their six hour trip home to Ohio. What a grand time we had visiting with the McDaniel's!