New Year's Traditions Anyone???

New Years is coming up and I was just wondering if any of you have any fun New Years Traditions.
Today I asked Daniel what he did for New Years growing up. He said that they used to watch old home videos. That sounds so fun. Funny that after 7 years I'd never asked him. When we first got married our New Years included youth events and count downs at the churches we attended.
My grandmother made sure that we all ate Black Eyed Peas for New Years. :) That was always fun.
Anyone else have any fun traditions???

Big Radio News

Welllllllll......Daniel's song God In Me was on K-Love today (Christian Music's biggest radio station)!!!! This is huge!!!! We are soooooo excited. WE do not get this station though.....but Deborah and some friends from Memphis called and let us know it was on- the first time around noon and the second time around 8:09pm!!!!! K-Love is all over the United States, but not around Clarksville or Nashville.

This is the first step in Daniel's songs going public and we were waiting to see if any radio stations would actually play it. They had told us that there is a big lull in music around the holidays and that from Thanksgiving to Christmas they don't play many regular artists stuff and especially not new artists. BUT TODAY IS DEC. 26TH!!!! So as they wrap up Christmas music they chose to play Daniel's tune!!!!

We are stoked!!!!

Is it blogworthy?

That is the question I asked Daniel last night about this topic. Just a few months ago blogworthy would not have even entered my vocabulary, but now it has. And he said yes this topic was definitely blogworthy. :) I tried to tell him that my blog readers were mainly girls and might not care about the topic, but he said I should so here goes....I BEAT SUPER MARIO!!!! Daniel got a Wii for his birthday and we have been playing. My favorite is the old school Super Mario game from back in the day. My thumbs were programmed and I was able to remember all the warp zones and secret places for coins and extra men. Whew hew. We played this week with our family at Daniel's parents and I was gonna show off a little. Daniel made a big deal about me being so close to beating the game that I felt a little pressure, but I was up for the challenge. I got to level 8-4 (the last level) without dying and I had 10 men!!! I just couldn't seem to get it though and took a break while Daniel's brother and family left. I came back to it later and I beat it!!! I rescued the princess and saved the day!!!! It was very gratifying!!! Now on to the new games. yippee!!!

Christmas Time is Here

Last night we had the Grace Community Church Staff Christmas Dinner. It was so much fun. We were all sitting around one of our co-pastors house and the door bell rang. It was a family from our church caroling. What a treat! The little girl is in 2nd grade and is in my small group on Sunday mornings. She was expecting to sing for 4 people and ended up being on stage for 21 people!!! She was very nervous, but did a great job. As she was singing she spotted me and waved real big. My heart did a flip flop. When they finished she asked if she could come give me a hug. So sweet!!!

This morning I'm subbing and one of the children said that Christmas is only a week away and they were counting the days. They are so excited. Time goes by so quickly these days that I hadn't really realized Christmas is almost here!!! I've been done shopping for a while and am very proud to have all the gifts wrapped under the tree.

Celebrate, enjoy and most of all make the most of every moment!
We got some exciting news regarding Daniel's songs and radio play, but I'll save that till after Christmas.

later,
Emily

Nativity Nonsense

I got a new Nativity and already had a perfect place picked out for it in our living room. I didn't pay that much attention to it in the store, but was very excited that the baby Jesus didn't look funny. Honestly some of those baby Jesus's just don't look right at all. But not my Nativity. It has the perfect baby Jesus! I wouldn't buy a Nativity at all last year because of this very reason.

Tonight when I got home I was thrilled to unpack it an put it in its special place. That is when I noticed that my Nativity wasn't actually Biblically correct. There was a baby Jesus in the manger, a Mary bowing down, three white bearded guys bringing gifts, an angel, and a white bearded guy with a staff- I declared that the guy with the staff was Joseph and colored his beard brown so he would be the right age. Daniel says it's still not correct because the shepherds aren't there. Not sure what to do about that one.

Nativity makers should read the Bible first to make sure that they have all the people in place and the right ages of those included. :)

That's better than my last Nativity. One year I opened the box and there was no baby Jesus to be found. Not sure what happened while they rested in the box in the attic all year, but from one Christmas to the next it seemed that my baby Jesus ascended up to heaven. :) Merry Christmas!!!

C A N C E R

What a foul word. I hate it. It disgusts me.
We just got word that Mrs. Carolyn, Daniel's mom, has stage 4 cancer. It is Gall Bladder Cancer, which is rare and has already spread to the Liver. It is inoperable and she will begin chemo on Thursday. Her husband of 37 years is having a hard time hearing these words. Her daughter, who went through cancer 3 years ago is having a hard time hearing these words. Her sons are having a hard time hearing these words. And I am having a hard time hearing these words. We all are pretty shaken. We are crying out to the God of the Universe saying wait, surely not, please move, please change this diagnosis, please help, please heal. Because we all know that we are not worthy of seeing a miracle, but we all know that He is able to provide a miracle.

My quiet time this morning included these verses where Daniel pleaded for God to change His mind towards a city. Tonight I can relate to Daniel's tone in his pleading with God on someone else's behalf.

Daniel 9:17-19 "Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name."

Rules to the game Compatibility

When we were either newly married or nearly married we played a game called Compatibility with our friends Andrew and Haley. (Who is a faithful blog reader.) :)
Daniel had told a story to some friends at church that this game made us see how easy it is to miscommunicate when one person says one thing and the other person thinks something totally different. It proves that husbands and wives don't always see eye to eye. We had wanted to play it again, but couldn't find it anywhere. Our pastor's wife said that they had it and we could borrow it anytime. We ended up playing it last night with the Daniel Doss Band and wives/fiance. It was a lot of fun. Each person gets a deck of cards with pictures on them. Then there is a word or phrase in the middle that you have to think of (such as happiness). You rank a few cards and then see if you and your partner matched any. (one person put a pic of the cross, while another put a pic of a baby.)

Totally fun, but I totally made up the rules. The board has numbers, but I couldn't figure out the logic....5,5,5,5,5,5,4,5,5,5,4,4,5,4,5,3,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,3,2,4....that's not a pattern. Those numbers are on an inward spiral to the finish spot in the middle. I just told them they could move one space closer to the finish line if they got a match and two spaces if they got a perfect match (a match in the correct order). Not sure if those are the rules. Sooooo if anyone out there has this game or knows the rules please help me out. I'm wanting to play it again this weekend, but would like to be better prepared while I'm explaining it. They totally should have written the directions on the box. That makes so much sense! :)

Dallas Traffic Vs The Garmin

WOW! We just got back from Dallas, TX and the traffic was not intimidating at all, thanks to my parents Garmin (GPS). We were able to get anywhere we needed to go and as long as we trusted it and followed it's directions we were good to go. I saw all the roads and overpasses and whew it looked confusing, but we just followed the red arrow and we got to our destination. It was amazing. If you've never used one you should try one out. We typed in a restaurant and directions popped up. We got stuck in traffic and up popped a detour. We wanted to go to a mall and we were able to see where the closest mall was. On the interstate we could see how close the next gas station was. And on and on and on. It was incredible and made our trip much less stressful. Less arguing about do we turn here or at the next light or what does that road sign say. It was wonderful and I highly recommend it!

Happy traveling!

Great Sermon

Today was great at Grace Community Church in Clarksville, TN! Do you ever have those mornings where you just want to stay in bed? I was totally feeling that this morning, but boy was I glad I got up and got going. (I am the Worship Pastor's wife so I don't get the privilege of staying in bed that often. ha) Anyway the sermon was wonderful and very challenging. You can check it out at www.gcomchurch.com
Chad talked about three things that fight against us at Christmas- 1. Time- fitting everything into the already busy schedules we have.
2. Obligation- getting gifts for those that we are obligated to without any meaning at all.
3. Deception- trying to be the perfect little family without out any troubles in the world, but reality is that we are not as perfect as we seem.

He ended by reminding us of the focus of Christmas- Christ's birth instead of the all the distractions.