Putting up the New Year tree. Oh wait, trees.

A Christmas tree. Of course. Everyone has one. A New Year tree? Not so much. Two NY trees? Say again? What's going on?

Today I woke up happy, planning a project that wraps up an event we decorated a few years ago. I'd painted 12 5'X12' banners to fill the enormous foyer. We cleared out a nursery, hauling 60 firs (or was it 80? 12'-16' tall@$6 each, burlapped) to soften the corners of the banquet hall.

I smiled this morning, waking to thank God for the wonderful women who roped their husbands into helping unload those tall monsters off the truck. We had borrowed endless white lights and gauze from a church, and helpers wound them around clumps of tree bases.

The table decor cost less than $2 each. How? As we looked around the institution's storage closet, the wheels started turning. Candles. Mirror tiles aplenty (cliche, or...) 

W and I went to the river and loaded up 2 buckets of rock. Rinse, scrub. Ready. We were due to dig the moss off our garden path anyway. The morning of the event, I got out a trusty metal spatula and scraped three big baking sheets full of lovely, green mosses. Our shopping list was short: 

• 2 contractor sacks of small round pebbles from Home Depot @4 each
• Several packages of wild-looking mushrooms from Uwagimaya
• 10 bunches of orchids (Trader Joes, a dozen stems@$5)

On each table, volunteers put down a mirror tile ("water"), piled a few rocks at one end, hid the other edges of the tile with pebbles, and surrounded it with moss. We placed mushrooms in the moss, draped a few orchids, and put the candles between. It looked very "Northwest." (Wish I had asked the photographer to take pictures for my file.

I brought two banners home after the event. They lay rolled up for nearly a year until this morning. 

W, who hates heights, crawled up the ladder to mount them in the living room. With his laser level, they're, well, perfectly level, and at the right height (5" below the drapes, which looks like the same height due to viewing perspective.)

Thanks, hon. If I can dream it, he can build it! What fun to share happy memories and art on one day.

What do you think? And what's on your weekend "to-do" list?

Read more:

*He has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecclesiastes 8:11 NIV

*Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously,   and he will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33 The Message

*Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:5 NLT

105, almost 106!

W's Aunt Erna lived to within a few days of her 106th birthday. Yesterday I drove up to Canada to attend her graveside service. Eleven of us, three children, already in their 60s and 70s, a nephew and niece, spouses, a great-granddaughter, my mother-in-law and I. Standing at a little patch of earth to commit the ashes of a retired saint to the ground.

When her children moved her to Ontario 30 years ago, she agreed to go on one condition - she would be buried beside her husband in Chilliwack, BC. Her children honored her wishes. "Mom wanted to go home for a long time. She was looking forward to seeing Dad and her friends in heaven. She wondered why God would leave her and take younger ones with more living and ministry to do."

"She never had a bad thing to say about anyone, in all her years of ministry," said someone. "She was always positive, and that's probably one of the reasons she lived so long."

"She was interested in people and loved to stay in touch," said another. She wrote me letters until she could no longer hold a pen, into her 100s. She rarely forgot a name or person, and her mind was clear and sharp even as her body failed. Auntie Erna kept reading and learning until the end.

"She kept your Christmas cards on the dresser all year," her daughter told me. "You missed one year, and she made us call your mother-in-law to make sure you were ok. She worried that something had happened to you!" (I'd lost her new address when she moved into assisted living.)

I'll miss this lady a lot. She partnered with her husband to plant over a dozen churches for German immigrants to Canada, and was an amazing pastor's wife and mentor to many women in ministry. She also was the last placeholder of her generation in my husband's family, a constant prayer warrior, and faithful Christian. 

From across the miles and through family legend, she set a standard of faith and obedience that calls me into a closer walk with Christ. "Thanks, Auntie Erna. We're happy you got your wish to go home, but we'll miss you!" 

Read more:

*"But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!" Job 19:25–27 NEV

*For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage; for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it. Psalm 94:14-15 NEV

*May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 NIV