A few of our Mirror Lake ladies got together for our first annual Christmas Goody Swap at the home of Sally Lyle. We each brought enough of our chosen treat for snacking before lunch, enough to send each participant home with a dozen or so of those yummy treats and a copy of the recipe. I gathered my treats and headed over to Sally’s house. Sally’s house was beautifully decorated for the Christmas season. Gunnar, the plot hound was a wonderful host to Ellie Mae, a visiting pup. We especially loved the poster Sally’s family had worked together to color. Sally had it framed and displayed over the fireplace. How sweet! Sally prepared a delicious lunch for us. We enjoyed the food and the fellowship. Ellen brought a special treat for us—coconut cake. It was as delicious as it was beautiful! Sally had us all try this fun Christmas game—identify the Christmas song. I got all but one! We took a selfie in front of Sally’s Christmas tree... ...and loaded up our goodies to take home. What an enjoyable treat of a day! I hope we continue this new tradition. Thank you, Sally!
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This year I decided to give very special gifts to my adult children, Phillip and Jennifer, to honor their dad who passed away on October 14th. Phil was a wonderful Bible Study teacher. He had been teaching at our church in Highlands for a couple of years. Prior to that he taught for decades in Alabama. Phil would dive into a book of the Bible and teach it scripture by scripture. He worked on his lessons from Sunday night until Saturday night each week. Phil wrote his lessons by hand using different colors of ink to emphasize certain points or scriptures. So when I pulled out stacks of his past lessons, I knew I had to do something very special with them. I wanted to have them bound into two books—keeping his handwritten lessons as the pages in the books. So I visited several businesses and explained what I wanted. I was discouraged when each business said they could only spiral bind the pages and put plastic covers on. That wasn’t what I wanted at all! I started calling businesses I found on the Internet and I asked multiple friends for recommendations, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. Then one day I decided to google “book binding Asheville NC.” And up popped a promising lead....Azalea Bindery. And as I read on her website, I knew I had found the perfect place. I immediately called Mary Carol and explained what I wanted. She said this type project was exactly what she loved doing. I made an appointment and started gathering everything to take with me. Mary Carol said we would design the books together. The next day I drove to Mary Carol’s house. She had turned her garage into her studio. Mary Carol was a joy to work with! I decided on a bonded leather cover, selected beautiful marbled paper for the inside of the books, and chose a bronze imprinting for Phil’s name. I asked Mary Carol if we could use one of two photographs for the first page of the book. She suggested I use both photographs for this project—-one for an embedded photograph on the cover and one as the first page of the book. Perfect! In the picture below, Phil’s Bible is opened to his favorite verse—Romans 8:28. It is displayed on a trunk by his favorite chair along with a craft he made years ago. A wooden cross is embedded in a rock with the word “Tetelestai” painted beneath the cross. Tetelestai, uttered by Jesus on the cross, is translated “It is finished.” It can also be translated “Paid in full” and, during Jesus’s time on Earth, it was written across a bill once the debtor had satisfied the debt. Mary Carol suggested we add Romans 8:28 to the photograph and she set to work on the computer to show me how it would look. I left with a detailed invoice and a hope that these books would be what I envisioned. Weeks went by and then Mary Carol called to tell me the books were ready. I drove back to Asheville wondering how the finished books turned out. I was ecstatic! The books are beautiful! Look how precious... I hope my children will cherish these books as much as I do. Merry Christmas, everyone!
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Phil & SharonMarried 40 years and hoping to enjoy many more! Archives
December 2019
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