Slideshow: Christmas Eve in Cowpens

family photo Sunday

This is our youngest grand-child's first Christmas. Sophia Martha is being held by great-grandma Martha.

Christmas at our house

Christmas morning at our house, 2008








We gathered around the tree on Christmas morning to sing carols and celebrate Jesus's birth. This was our first Christmas in our new home, and all of our children and grandchildren were with us. Also, this was Sophia's 1st Christmas.

family photo Sunday

Another favorite Christmas photo of my three sons, taken at their grandparents in SC in 1985 or 1986.

Christmas is a-comin' ...

Well, it has been just over a year since the Lord moved us from Jacksonville, Florida, to the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. We are still huge Gator fans, but we are in the minority, surrounded by Georgia and Georgia Tech fans. After renting a house in Duluth for a year, the Lord gave us the opportunity to purchase a home closer to our church.

So this Christmas it is our turn to have all of our children and grandchildren with us for the holidays. We are sooo excited and we are busily decorating the house. I finally put some lights up on the front porch last weekend. We plan to buy a live tree this weekend and decorate it just in time for Christmas! Joshua, Janelle and Brielle (2) will be driving from Pennsylvania. Stephen and Leah, Natalie (4 1/2) Meredith (2) and Sophia (8 months) will be driving down from Wisconsin. Brandon and Rachel will drive up from Jacksonville and Grandma Baggett (Winnie) will fly in from Texas after Christmas. After spending Christmas Eve in Cowpens with my parents and the rest of the Franklin family at Cousin Judy’s home, we will drive home (two and a half hours) to Georgia. We have invited our new friends, AJ and Jong and their son Eugene (2) to join us for Christmas dinner. They are a Korean family and this will be their very first Christmas.

Hope your Christmas 2008 will be great!

family photo Sunday

The only time it snowed during the 30 years we lived in Jacksonville was Christmas 1989. We were stranded at home that year, and we took advantage of the only hills in our area enjoying "sledding" at the BMX Bike track.

December Birthdays slideshow

'tis the season...

things that make you go "Hmmm"

>>>President Bush in an interview for Nightline on ABC said that his belief that God created the world is not incompatible with the theory of evolution (link)

>>>Columnist Gideon Rachman writes: "For the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible." (link)

>>>Statement about race at Bob Jones University (link)

>>>CIA personnel lied to Congress in April 2001 about a missionary plane shot down in Peru that killed a woman and her 7-month-old daughter (link)

>>>An anonymous donor gave a huge sum of $50 million to Wycliffe Bible Translators this week making it possible to translate Scripture for the last people groups still without the Bible in their native tongue more quickly. (link)

>>>This "One Preacher's Perspective" thoughts on President-elect Obama reads "Because the Bible says that leaders are “ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1), I do not believe there was any emergency meeting in heaven due to this turn of events." (link)

family photo Sunday

Somewhere in my memories...it appears that this was the year Brandon received no presents - just kidding :) ...Christmas 1992

enjoying the holidays

It always seems like Thanksgiving is the beginning of the holiday season around our home. We rarely decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving and this year will be no different even though Christmas is only three weeks away. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving day with my mom and dad and sister Loretta and her son's family, Kenny and Casey and Caden in SC. It is so nice to be only 2 1/2 hours from my parents now.

Caden is about 2 1/2 years old and now has a "big boy" haircut - he also entertained us by "playing" the piano. I took these photos after the meal so I missed getting photos of the men - they were unavailable:)zzzz

Special, Special! Read all about it! Meredith turns 2