Over the river and through the woods...

...to Mamie and Big George's house we go!

We spent the 22nd and 23rd with Daddy's family. From singing The 12 Days of Christmas to playing "Over" (hilarious!), we had some great family time with everyone.

The grandchildren in the family always dress up and "perform" the Christmas story.
We had a couple of the little ones back out at the last minute, but Win was happy to stand in as a Wise Man (and his wife, Liz, did a great job as a lamb, even when six year old "Joseph" accidentally hit her in the head with his staff.)

Delie, Anna, George, and I played some Christmas music at an assisted living home (Anna is behind the piano in the picture), and then I played the piano while all the grandchildren sang.

We've been taking music from the Smith family. Four of their daughters teach music, so George takes mandolin, Anna takes piano, and Delie and I take violin; all at the same time. Our teachers arranged a couple of hymns that we could all play together, and that has been very fun to do as a family.

This was our first time to have everyone together in several years, so we got a picture on the front porch.

~Joy

The 12 Days of Christmas

Hello Everyone!
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. December went by so fast this year, filled with get-togethers with family and friends. Here's a quick overview of what we've done over the last month:

We cut down two trees this year, but we don't have a good picture of the second.

The first turned out to be too big for our house - the living room looked like a forest when you first walked in - so we opted for a smaller one from the hundred that we planted a few years ago.

Oh, in case you noticed, Delie is taller than I am ;(

Our early Christmas present from Mommy and Daddy - a Snowball! Our three-legged Blue Heeler, Amos, died this summer, so we got a great Pyrenees puppy. Pyrenees are supposed to be great with children, chickens and goats, so Snowball met all our criteria.


On Christmas Eve, the boys camp out in our room, and in the morning we all sit on the front stairs and wait for Mommy and Daddy to come get us. All of us get what we call "Moss eyes" when we first wake up, and I think this picture really brings it out.



We took a two-night trip to Virginia between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Above is picture of ALL of the Moore, Moss, and Moody children in age order. Someone counted, and realized that we had exactly twelve boys and twelve girls in the house!

Our church came over for pizza on New Years Eve. We fellowshiped until midnight, and then some of us went outside to shoot some firecrackers - and some impromptu twirling under the security light :D

Hope ya'll had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

~Joy

So much to be thankful for...

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Mamie and Big George's hunting farm, about an hour's drive from our home, to eat lunch with 60+ friends and family members (to those of you who were unable to come, we missed you!)

We always take a long walk after Thanksgiving dinner down through their 300 acres. The weather was beautiful, and so was the scenery!

Delie took this black-and-white photo of Anna, Thomas, Samuel, and me walking down the trail.


William and James decided to take a nap in the stroller. I thought they looked cute with their heads leaning in opposite directions.



William sitting on some of the wood we - I mean they - split and stacked. George IV spent most of his afternoon chopping.

George signing the family Bible that all the Georges have signed.

We ended up sitting around the fire - or playing spotlight - after it became dark.

I hope ya'll had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Joy

George's First Doe

On Friday, George killed his first doe! (You can read about his first buck here.) He was hunting with Big George and they were able to see a lot of deer (even after he had shot his doe). They decided to process it in our yard and tan the hide to hang in the boy's room. I didn't get any pictures of him with the complete deer, but here's a picture of George and Big George (with Delie and William watching - William was fascinated with the deer) preparing to skin it.

The National Bible Bee, Nashville, TN

Back in November, our family was very blessed to be able to attend the National Bible Bee, held in Nashville, TN. Daddy's aunt and uncle let us stay in their home and we drove back and forth to the Bee.

The 2011 National Bible Bee and Family Discipleship conference's goal is to encourage fathers to lead their families in studying the Word. The competition- similar to the spelling bee- was amazing! Children in three different age categories Quoted hundreds of verses to win the prize. We didn't get any pictures of the competition, but it was very impressive!

Anna took this picture of James on the way there. Isn't he the cutest little baby in the world?! (But maybe I'm a bit prejudiced:) )

Samuel and Thomas eating lunch. A few of us were comparing the nutrition facts on our individual bags of chips, and Cheetos lost. ;)

We really liked all the Bible teachers that we heard at the Bible Bee. Besides Voddie Baucham(above), Doug Phillips, Kirk Cameron, Brett Harris, and John Stonestreet were some of the speakers there.

Some of our favorite musicians were there, too. We were glad to meet Nathan Clark George and the Wissmanns during the course of the Bee.

Something else that I really liked were the plays. A very talented family, the Hendrys, did four of them about Corrie ten Boom, Anna Jackson, Max Rossvally, and hymn writers Fanny Crosby and Ira D. Sankey (above). Their family writes the plays, performs, and does the costumes and music.

There were classes on how to interpret scripture into art by calligrapher Timothy Botts.

The Bible Bee also had a family fun room that George and Samuel enjoyed. Above, Samuel is doing the "Flying Turtles".

George on the rock climbing wall. Incidentally, he pulled a muscle and ended up going to the ER the day after we got home because we thought it was his appendix! We are very thankful and relieved.