Thursday, December 23, 2010

Christmas

This picture goes further down. I accidentally deleted it. There's no moving around of pics with this program. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm not starting over!
I thought it would make for a fun blog to post pictures of the Camp Daniel missionaries' Christmas decorations. Some of us have been hording decorations for decades, while others are just starting to collect some holiday items for their homes. I think we all know which category Tony and I fall into!

So this is like a Camp Daniel Pictorial Tour of Homes. Free of charge.

Jo and Tony have Christmas decorations everywhere. It was hard to decide what to take a picture of! Anthony liked this new wreath that Jo has on the wall. To me, this picture is iconic Jo. She changes this hutch for every season, continuing the tradition that her mom started when she had it. Every item is Christmas, and the pieces have been collected over many years.

Moving on to our home. We have a regular Christmas tree in the living room, but this is my special antique tree, which sits between the kitchen and hall. Charlie Brown wouldn't have been given such hassle, had he brought home this aluminum beauty! We bought it at an antique shop in Crystal Falls, MI. It was a real find, as I already had many antique ornaments. Every one of the 180+ ornaments on the tree is antique.



More old stuff in our living room. All silver and red. Some of it is new. I specifically remember buying the snowman and the house (both in the foreground). We were with Greg and Kitt Cleereman, in Chicago, in January. We went to Marshall Field's (now Macy's), where the Christmas leftovers were 90% off. I was like a crazy person! I just remember Greg sitting there looking at me like I was nuts. Well, maybe just a little.


Jen and Marceaux have a real tree. They were going to put it outside, but it kept blowing over in the wind! So it's literally in the middle of their place. On the tips of the branches are pieces of popcorn that are "glued" on with a doughy paste.

This stocking hangs outside of the Bury's. It's a pretty arrangement that Jen's mom made.



Onto the Hartley House. They have a nice tall tree in the living room, but I felt like the deer had a bit more character. Other taxidermied critters in the house with Santa hats: fish and smaller deer mount.

The top pic goes here. It's probably the largest nativity in the county! The very top has the traditional nativity characters, and the rest of the shelves have more of a supporting cast of towns people, Roman guards, angels, etc. When Tony and I did craft shows, Tony made stables for nativity sets. We bought the sets, and he built the buildings. We bought Fontanini brand at wholesale and sold the many many pieces that they offer. Well, after we finished doing the craft shows, we had many pieces left, so they now take a place of honor in the dining room of the Hartley House!

This is a close up of Molly's pretty Christmas tree. It's all silvers, blues and purples. Pretty impressive for her first tree!

But even prettier than her tree is the way she lit up the exterior of her home.

The Kelly's are the only one with a proper fireplace for Santa! Those are some big stockings. I bet the kids picked them out!
Have a Merry Christmas, from all of us at Camp Daniel.
Who knows, maybe next blog, I'll show all of the snow we've shoveled!











Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Thursday, December 9

This blog will focus on what Jen and Marceaux have been doing the past week or so. They often go about their business with such quiet dedication, that what their doing gets sometimes overlooked on the blog. Well not anymore!

We begin two Sundays ago. Sunday is, of course, Mega day. Jen is a megaphone (worship leader) and Marceaux is in charge of security. After church they, along with Molly, went to the Mandich's for an Able Church meeting.

On the following Monday, Marceaux did a bible study with the Hartley House guys in the morning. Later that day, he finished sheet rocking his "Ham Shack" (the kids old playhouse, which will be for Marceaux's ham radio). Jen worked on "Miracle of Camp Daniel" book. She's been putting together the stories and history of Camp Daniel. She also organized and labeled all of the braille books of the Bible that are in the conference room. Jen then went through the basketball uniforms for the Able Attack Special Olympic team, check to see what we have and what we need for this season. Jen also did some therapy on Tim's shoulder recurring shoulder injury.
We have a staff meeting every Tuesday morning. After the meeting, Marceaux, Tony, Tim and the guys all worked to get the old plow truck onto a trailer and brought to the plow shop. The plow was taken off of the truck and installed onto Tim's truck, which actually runs.
Tuesday is Able Family Night. Twelve players participated in their first basketball practice. Roger Weid is the head coach, and Jen and Marceaux are both assistants. They had additional coaching help from Brian Suess and Bill Woods. After practice, was the pizza and Bible study time, during which 25 people participated.

On Wednesday morning, Marceaux did another bible study with the guys. Then he and Jen spent some time cleaning out the basement of their place. They are converting it into an "art cave/studio". They hauled in a large work table and hung shelves for supplies. Afterwards Jen worked on Tim's other shoulder, which is also injured. Jen also added to the Camp Daniel book that day, and did laundry. She spent some time in counsel with DJ, whom has been going thru some hard times. Marceaux finished his portion of the thank you cards from their wedding. He knocked out 40!

Thursday morning brought another Bible study. Jen worked on preparations for Friday night's Able Church. She also spent a long time counseling with Lori, DJ's girlfriend. She then had a fun night out with Molly, Karol and others at a Sushi restaurant in Green Bay.

On Friday, they left camp early to get to Green Bay, where they visited with some members of the Able Church. After Able, they brought the guys to Jen's parents house to spend the night before the big Special Olympics Bowling State Finals, which were early Saturday morning in Wausau. The guys placed 7th. After bowling they headed back to Green Bay to help with the clean up from the Mega Movie. After cleaning that mess, Jen, Marceaux and the guys, went to a concert at St. John's in Howard. They saw an acapella group that only uses their mouths for the instruments. Right up DJ's alley. The guys all had a great weekend. It was like a mini vacation for them. All thanks to the Bury's.