OUR CHRISTMAS CARD TO YOU

I thought I'd post a picture of our Christmas cards for those of you who aren't necessarily on our Christmas card list each year. I have a ton of AGD customers that I would love to send cards and thank yous to but of course there are just too many to count if I were to embark on that project. Therefore, consider this our "e-card" to each of you who didn't receive one in your mailbox. The top photo is our actual Christmas card that we mailed out to 75 of our dearest friends and loved ones. The photo of the kids below it is a picture that we also included in the envelope with the Christmas cards. Both photos were taken about two weeks ago so they are very recent. I thoroughly enjoy getting photo cards each Christmas so that I can see how much my friends children have grown up in the past year. It's amazing to see the difference in them from year to year.

As I said in my post yesterday, I am diligently working to finish up AGD orders before I head out on vacation. We head out on the 21st. I'll be reachable via email up to that point and while we are away. However, from the 22nd-January 4th, my response time to emails might be a tad bit slow due to the fact that we are away. Just bare with me if you are trying to reach me. Please allow me time to respond. Orders can be placed on the AGD website but they will not be shipped out until the week of January 7th once I've returned.

On another note, for any of you who are familiar with Michael W. Smith, (his music is playing in the background if you are on my actual blog page right now and not reading this update through an email), I thought I'd post photos of him today too. He is a phenomenal Christian recording artist that Brent turned me on to years ago. My hubby is a die hard "Smitty" fan and has been ever since I met him at the young old age of 14 years old. We always try to attend his concerts when he comes to Indiana. Brennen has been begging us to take him to one each time we've gone without him. Therefore, before getting to Sanibel Island on the 23rd, we are actually stopping in Tennessee on December 22nd to go to Michael W. Smith's Christmas concert there. Yes, we are taking both kids. I think Brennen will really enjoy it and Kenidi will probably go nuts. She loves music to begin with. I just know she is going to have a hay day taking it all in. Ironically, in the last year, Brent hired a sales executive who happens to commute back and forth from Texas every few weeks to their main office here in Indy. This employee's cousin is actually married to Michael W. Smith's daughter. So...as you can imagine, when Brent learned of that connection, he about fell over. It is actually thru the help of this employee that we are able to attend his sold out concert as we pass thru Tennessee. He and his cousin pulled their strings and got us in on the VIP list for the concert itself. I can't thank them enough. Brent has been on cloud nine since learning of the plans and I'm beyond excited. The concert will be a great prelude to Christmas before settling in there in Florida. Another employee actually got Michael to sign a CD of his for Brent this past Christmas. They shipped it to us and when Brent opened it up, you would have thought that he'd died and gone to heaven. I keep teasing him and calling him a "groupie" because he loves Michael's music so much. (I do too though) He has always been inspired by his songs and considered his work an amazing tribute to Christ. If you remember correctly, he wrote the ever famous song for the family of Rachel Scott in tribute to her after her death in the Columbine shootings. The man is incredibly talented and his music never dulls on me. He has a true gift and a magnificent way of pulling at your heart strings and bringing you closer to Christ thru the words within his music. I couldn't decide which photo to post of him here so I just posted all three. Ha ha! The CD that Michael signed and had sent to Brent for Christmas last year. As we count down the next nine days before leaving, I'm trying to so hard to finalize everything and get my to do list checked off. I never knew being gone over Christmas would be such a dilemma. I think next year-should we decide to travel again over the holiday-we'll wait until at least the day after Christmas to leave. Ha ha! When my Dad found out we were going to be gone over Christmas, his exact words to me were..."That is just W-R-O-N-G!" Everything about that is just WRONG! he said. :) He told us that he had done that with me and my step-Mom one year when I was younger and that afterward, they swore they'd never be gone over Christmas again. He just might be right on this one. (It's not the first time in my life and I'm positive it won't be the last) Ha ha! I love you Dad!