Lily Grace's Advent Calendar!

Hello all my friends in "bloggy land"!  I am just getting SO excited I don't know what to do first! Today is the first day of December, and Mommie says some very wonderful things are going to happen this month and so we need to watch our calendar every day and see what is going to take place!  Mommie says there are lots of surprises in store for me, because this will be my very first Christmas!  I don't even know what Christmas is!  But she said we will learn more about it every day, and maybe you can come along with us and learn about it too.

The first thing Mommie said is we need to have a special calendar called an Advent Calendar. Do you know what that is?  Here's what Mommie said about it in her blog a long time ago:

(Click on the link for that original post by Mommie)

 "The Advent Calendars are now being opened one day at a time...Did you have one of these as a child?  I can remember having one that we eagerly opened each day as we counted down the days until Christmas...each little "open window" on the calendar gave us a new glimpse into preparing for Christmas...getting ready for the Baby Jesus to appear....the shepherds watching, the wise men traveling from afar, the angels singing, the star shining, the cattle lowing, Mary and Joseph preparing the manger...and finally the Baby Jesus making His appearance on Christmas Day!"

So I said to Mommie that I want to open a window every day this month leading up to Christmas too! Maybe that will help me know what this Christmas stuff is all about!

Every day I am seeing different things appear all around the house and everything is getting so pretty and fun and exciting!

Today I found these people singing in our kitchen! I asked Mommie who are they and what are they singing?

She said that these are "Carolers", people who gather together and go around to sing Christmas Carols on the street corners and in neighborhoods and churches and anywhere that people will listen to them sing.  These boys here look like they came from the farm or out in the country...

And then there are these pretty ladies who are also singing and they are all dressed up like they are from the city...

I asked Mommie, "What are they singing?"

She said they are singing a lot of different Christmas songs like these people did in this little book of Christmas carols...

They are singing this song right now:

"Joy to the World, The Lord is come!

Let Earth receive her King!

Let every heart prepare Him room;

And heaven and nature sing, 

and heaven and nature sing,

and heaven, and heaven, and nature sing!"

I said to Mommie that I think I've seen those last words somewhere before!

She said, "Yes, that is what those words say that are above the window in my little "Room with a View".

Mommie said that Christmas is all about when Jesus came to earth as a tiny baby many many years ago. She said that when He was born, there was no room for His family in the inn, (which is like a hotel), and so He had to be born in a manger (in the barn). She said as the days of Advent come along...the days leading up to Jesus' birthday, we will learn more and more about that special story a little bit at a time. So she said we should "stay tuned" and come back again to hear more of the story next time. She said we will try to write something almost every day if we can, but if not, we will do our best. Sometimes we get busy and can't write every day, but we will still tell the whole story by the time Christmas gets here.

Meanwhile, I want to learn more of those special Christmas songs and sing along with these carolers!

I hope they don't mind me joining in!

Do you want to come along and sing with us?

Come on! It will be fun!

Joy to the World!

Let's Go and tell the whole world!!!

P.S., Please watch for my next ADVENTures over the next few weeks.  You can see another great adventure HERE: Deck the Halls

Friday Foto Friends: Let Heaven and Nature Sing!

Good Morning to all our special Friends in "Blogland", as Mommie calls it! And especially to my dear Aunt Debbi and Indentical Cousin Tracie way up in Charleston!  I hope you are all having a wonderful Friday.  My Mommie said that normally on Fridays she posts a lot of pictures for something called "Friday Foto Friends".  She said that since this week she has been showing most of her pictures here on my blog instead of her blog, "Closed Doors, Open Windows", she thought she might as well do her Friday Fotos here too, because she said they mostly have to do with me! So we've been having a little adventure already this morning, and Mommie wanted to share it with you.

Mommie said that many of you will remember this sign from her previous home and now from her "Room with a View" in this house. It is a special sign that my big brother Benton made for her many years ago to put above her kitchen windows in their old house, and now it is perfect for over this window here.  Well, she said that today is the day to "Let Heaven and Nature Sing" for us!

Our morning started out early with running out to the back porch to hear the owl hoot again, and also to see the last few minutes of the full moon before it went out of sight until tonight.

I can just barely see it between those trees over there...and the owl never hooted again either, so we hurried back inside because

it was really really cold outside, and I was still in my jammies!

So while I warmed up by the fire:

Mommie was busy making blueberry pancakes, sausage and fried eggs!!! Wow! Daddy said that was a lumberjack's breakfast!  I'm not sure what a "lumberjack" is, but Daddy said it is a person who works really really hard chopping lots of wood so people can have fires in their fireplaces and can build things with the lumber! And so they like a big hearty breakfast before they go out in the cold and start cutting down trees and chopping wood all day long!

Mommie was using her special mug today that says "Let Heaven and Nature Sing", and that's what got us thinking about the birdies singing outside and stuff...

So after we ate our pancakes we went outside again and watched the geese in Still Waters Pond

They were so pretty!

Mommie said that you can't hear all the birdies singing in the trees that we can hear, so she took a video. I hope you can open it and listen to the birdies singing.  

Mommie said to never mind the traffic noise in the background because there is a highway on the other side of the pond and people were on their way to work and their cars and trucks make lots of noise.

But if you listen to the birdies you will enjoy hearing them. In this one the geese are swimming away from the shore, and Mommie said to forgive her for moving the camera around so much, but they were moving and she was trying to get the best angle to see them, and she kind of wiggled the camera too much and it might make you sick to watch the motion. I hope not! That would be awful!

I hope you enjoyed our little movies! We'll try to do better next time!

After this we got dressed to go take our morning walk in the woods.

I was happy to have my new jeans to wear to keep my legs warm, and Mommie made me a little hoodie sweater out of an old fluffy sock of hers so I would be nice and warm:

Isn't it neat?

Then we looked at the wild plum tree again and it is getting more blossoms every day, just like Mommie said it would:

On our walk something scary happened, but Mommie didn't have time to take any pictures. There was a truck coming down the road and a big dog was chasing the truck all the way down the road. Mommie was concerned that the doggie would see us and want to chase us as we were walking out in the open. Daddy was a bit ahead of us and couldn't get back to us very quickly if the doggie came after us.  But Mommie prayed the big doggie would turn away and keep following the truck, and guess what! That is exactly what he did! It's as if he didn't even see us walking there, and we were so relieved because he was a very big doggie and he could have knocked us both down!  Mommie said that Jesus was watching over us and sent His angels to protect us and keep us safe. I am very glad that Jesus takes good care of us. 

Psalm 91:11-12 says:

11."For He shall give His angels charge over you,

To keep you in all your ways.

12.  In their hands they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone."

After our walk Mommie and Daddy went to the grocery store.  I got to ride in the buggy!

 Well, after that exciting morning we are back home again and Mommie is going to fix us some lunch. She says we need to go ahead and get this posted so people will be able to read it before it gets too late, so I will say good bye for now, but we might still have some more adventures to share again tomorrow!!

Thank you all for making my first week here very very special.  I look forward to many more adventures with you!  Now, why don't you go out and listen to the birdies sing?  Mommie said the words "Let Heaven and Nature Sing" isn't just for a Christmas song! It's for all the time!!

"Joy to the World; the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King!

Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Saviour reigns!

Let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy.

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

And wonders of His love."

Bye Bye for now!

Love,

Lily Grace