A casual dinner & pink Christmas trees

I had my Bible study group over for a casual 'potluck' dinner last night. We meet at my house most Tuesday nights and since this was our last meeting before Christmas we decided to have dinner. I provided dessert - my apple crisp (I had made two, one for me, one for my new neighbor). I also made a very easy hors d'oeuvre. I took Boursin cheese (the pepper flavored one) and poured Bonne Maman strawberry preserves on top and served it with crackers. It is always a huge hit and you can't get much easier than that!

I set a very simple table - we are a casual group - but I think it is nice to use cloth napkins and I just happened to find an entire box filled with acorn ornaments earlier in the day when I was going through my Christmas decorations that I had forgotten all about. I purchased them a couple of years ago after Christmas for a dollar or two. They made the place settings feel a little more special and everyone got to take home a little gift.

Our group spent the year reading through the entire Bible. Last Christmas we all got 365 day Bibles that had a passage for each day of the year. It was set up with a passage from the Old Testament, a passage from the New Testament, a Psalm and a Proverb to read every day. It starts at the beginning and goes in succession all year long. It is only about 15 minutes of reading a day. It was a great Christmas gift to give out because you can start reading it on January 1. I gave one to a lot of my family and friends. I thought it would be nice to all be reading the same thing at the same time. You know, like a great book club.

It was really amazing reading the entire Bible including all those passages you usually skip over. I know that the Bible is the number one most read book in the world (3.9 billion copies) but I wonder how many people have actually read it fully - not just parts of it. Reading it in its entirety was fascinating; it is filled with so much history and since it was in an "easy to read" translation a lot of it read like a novel that I didn't want to put down (some days I would have to read on). I would highly recommend it to everyone. Here is the specific Bible we read and if you are interested in finding out more about it or want to purchase it, click here: 

My sister, Patti sent this to me today - she is a photographer so of course she always has her camera with her (although this was actually taken with her phone). She had gone up to her camera store to get some supplies and this was in the store next to it. She thought I would appreciate it especially in light of the announcement of the new color for 2011 (Honeysuckle ... basically hot pink)! 

© Prizler Photography

How very cute is that? Later in the day I ran into this one at Borders:

Are you smiling? I think maybe this is a "sign" ... a pink tree for next Christmas? ;o) ha ha!