12 days of Christmas: Final “Give”away

Monday, December 20, 2010 Posted in Give Away

Happy Monday! Time for a new giveaway. It’s the week before Christmas and I’m sure everyone is busy. Despite that I hope you can find a bit of time to participate in this final giveaway.

For myself, alot of our Christmas festivities have already happened. We celebrated Christmas with Daryl’s family last night, and with my family last weekend. We will be taking a trip to NY to my family for Christmas weekend, but other then that, we really don’t have anything else….well, there is the work banquet in Jan. and an extended family thing on New Years, but that’s it. Alot of stress is off my mind and I am determined to relax and just enjoy this week and weekend. Daryl and I were on a committee at our church to do the Christmas breakfast, which we had yesterday morning. I always love Christmas Breakfast at church, so I was glad for a turn to help out with it, to celebrate Christmas with our church family. So now that that’s over, i really have nothing to stress about:-) We haven’t given Abbi her gifts yet, but she has received so many nice things from various family members, I think I might just pack up her gifts for her birthday in a few weeks here:-)

So, yeah, back to that giveaway! I think this is the best one yet!! We are going to give away………..chickens! Yep. Chickens. Before you think I am completely off my rocker, you don’t get to keep the chickens. But they will be given to someone else, in your name.

Are you getting any idea what this may be about yet? Here is an excerpt from the website of Gospel for Asia:

The Poorest of the Poor

Spread across South Asia is a forgotten people group too numerous to count. They’re despised by their countrymen and viewed as subhuman. Even the shadows they cast are believed to be contaminated by their filth. They are the Dalits, the “Untouchables” of South Asia.

Their life is valued at less then the animals whose dung they clean from the streets. Banned from the rest of society, they find employment removing trash, discarding animal carcasses and cleaning out latrines and sewers.

When you purchase items from the Christmas catalog, you’re choosing to send more than a chicken, a cow or a sewing machine. You’re sending hope that can forever change a life.

…”For the people of Asia, the gift of a pair of chickens is a chance to earn a steady living. The eggs produced by the chickens help provide food for a family. Imagine a little, malnourished child becoming stronger everyday because of this simple gift.”

I always love the idea of these gift catalogs that various organizations set up over the holiday, where you can give a cow, or goat, or chicken, …or water buffalo to a family in asia, or wherever, who needs it much much more then you do! I wanted to do a giveaway that was more along the lines of actually “Giving away”, rather then the acquisition of another piece of stuff…
Here’s how it will work. You leave a comment. For every comment left, we will donate $.50 towards purchasing a chicken for an “untouchable” family in South Asia through Gospel for Asia. $11 purchases a set of two chickens. So the more comments this giveaway receives, the more chickens will be purchased:-) The winner of this giveaway will have the gift given in their name.

I will leave this open until Wednesday Morning.

I am always intrigued how people ‘come out of the woodwork’ as it were, for a giveaway, so I hope to see this giveaway become the biggest one yet:-)

Ways you can leave comments:

1. for answering my question.

2. for every time you link on your facebook/blogs. pls. leave seperate comments for each time.

3. if you are not a friend of Daryl Musser photography on Facebook, do so, and then leave a comment telling us so.

Just a little background about the thoughts behind this giveaway:

Seeing Abbi learning about Christmas this season, leaves me very challenged. She is only two so Christmas to her is what she sees and hears basically. Everywhere we go, she sees lights, and santas, and bling and trees, presents and more bling, it was AMAZING to me how she very quickly began identifying these things with Christmas. “kifmus” as she says. There is not alot tangible about the real meaning of Christmas for her to get her little brain around. I realize that it’s part of her age too, but it kinda bugged me that most of what she “sees” at this time of year really has nothing to do with what happened that night 2000 years ago. I realize as she gets older she will understand the nativity story better, but still, I was like ” how do we communicate the real meaning of Christmas to her?? I read a blog somewhere this season that made me think, the point of it was “Christmas is to our children, what we communicate to them to be” along the lines of our children only know Christmas as what we teach to them it is. So if we fly around, harried and stressed all season, to cookie bakes, and shopping, and get-togethers, and dinners, and HAVE to decorate the house perfectly, and spend a ton on perfectly wrapped gifts, then that is what our Children will think Christmas is about. If we keep our house calm and quiet, and make our times together meaningful, then that is what they will know Christmas to be. Experiences, rather then stuff, is what really matters to kids anyway.

And the challenge to me this season was how do we make Christmas not so much about ‘stuff’, but more about experiences, and times together? How do we keep all the chaos and rushing to a minimum? How do we stay calm and peaceful and focused on the REAL reason for the season, which has nothing to do w/ most Christmas traditions?

If you have any answers for me, that is what you can leave in your comment. Have you done anything this season that focused on the real reason for the season, and left you feeling calmed and peaceful and not rushed and stressed? It can be anything. And props to you if you have been able to keep your Dec. calm and peaceful. And if you enjoy the hustle and bustle and craziness, take no offense at this post, please:-) Also if my little rant/soapbox schpiel up there was confusing, I’m sorry, I hope you can kinda get the gist of what I’m trying to say here:-) I think that is all the disclaimers I need to add:-)

by musser

73 comments

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December 20, 2010 - 5:25 pm Twylene - We have a 14-month old foster daughter and I agree with you, Thelma, it is hard to explain to someone this little what Christmas is all about. I guess I think about it even more with the fact that she may or may not go back to her mom - leaving me with possibly a limited time to teach and train. Thankfully, she has this fascination with a nativity scene we got in Haiti years ago. It's all clay and the figures cannot be moved. Although I don't let her carry it around, she'll point to it, wanting me to hold her as we look at it together. It has reminded me more often I think to be aware of the real meaning of Christmas and pray that part of this story will stay in her little mind forever!

December 20, 2010 - 5:26 pm Amber - I love the thought of Christmas being to my children what I make it. This year has been so much more relaxed than previous years. My decor is simple, I'm not volunteering for so much, and I did most of my shopping online. Merry Christmas to you! And a great give away! :)

December 20, 2010 - 5:31 pm Wanda Hurst - Great idea, we are collecting S.S. $ at church to buy cows. Great way to teach children about those who do not have much. God bless you.

December 20, 2010 - 5:33 pm Janae - Well, our December has been hectic and our 2.5 yr old has caught on to all the excitement as well. I found a childrens book on the Christmas story at the Goodwill and she enjoys hearing the story, I'm hoping some of it is sticking with her!

December 20, 2010 - 5:35 pm Marilyn - I think this is a great giveaway! I always like to help in this way during the holidays, I have so much when they have so little and this is the least that I feel like I can do to make their life a little better. Great idea. =) I for one am not stressed about the holidays coming up but then again I have no presents under the tree and don't intend to do any shopping. We have started a new tradition of exchanging names for our birthdays instead of Christmas presents in our family and it makes Christmas so much more enjoyable for me! No hectic shopping with unbearable long lines.

December 20, 2010 - 5:44 pm Margaret - Love this idea. And yea I agree I hate when the holidays are rushed. We don't do exchanged Christmas gifts with either of our families. We try to get our children a little something, but my hubby said something to me the other day that made think & I'm thinking of asking him if we do our gift thingy New Years Day!!! Then we won't have to worry about "our family" time being all rushed 'cuz of all the other get togethers!

December 20, 2010 - 5:57 pm Amy - Awww... I like this giveaway, Thelma! his past year has been extremely rough on us financially. Gifts are nil this year, so that alone has made a big difference in this time of the yera not feeling as hectic! In years past, I've done Christmas shopping all year.. splitting up what I need to get per month and that also made it really nice. We also have a family in church that is probably having it even harder then we are and as we boxed up extras we had around the house, we talked to our children how important it is to share and give when we have the opportunity. They enjoy helping out and I think it's a wonderful thing for them to get involved in at a young age.

December 20, 2010 - 6:08 pm Sheryl Chavarria - I think this is a great giveaway idea! It is what the true spirit of Christmas is about. God bless you and have a Merry Christmas!

December 20, 2010 - 6:25 pm Heather - What an awesome giveaway! I've been thinking this year a lot about what we can do to share the meaning of Christmas with others rather than just keeping it within our family. We also have a 2 1/2 year old and I keep wondering how much he catches onto the real meaning of Christmas time. I bought a tiny Nativity set that he can play with, hoping that helps get the story into his mind. My husband's family is getting a box of goodies, games, books, etc together for a family in a local church that has had a tough year and we plan to Christmas carol and take the box to them tonight. My sons (2 1/2 and almost 1) may not understand everything this year but I hope if we do this type of thing every year it will bring the true meaning of the season to them.

December 20, 2010 - 6:26 pm Naomi - This is a great idea!! It is truly more blessed to give then to receive!

December 20, 2010 - 6:32 pm Louise Zook - I hope you get a ton of comments to this one! =) Giving gifts through Gospel for Asia has become one of our family's favorite traditions. Each year we gather around with all the kiddoes and let them all chosse something to give to a needy family. It's so much fun!! The boys love seeing how many Bibles & tracts they can get with just a few dollars. Blessings, & Merry Christmas! ~Louise

December 20, 2010 - 6:43 pm Sierra - I like your idea for this giveaway. Serving the poor is always something I like to do although it does mean some sacrifice. But we as Americans have so much that we can easily afford to give away at least something. Plus, by giving we are portraying God's love. May they all come to know Jesus!

December 20, 2010 - 6:52 pm Anna Mary G - this is a GREAT idea. We are not rushed to get ready for Christmas. We don't do gift exchange with my husband's family and that is where we spend our Christmas every year, with his family. There's no hussle and bussle to get ready for Christmas. It's after Christmas is over that we have the bussle and bussle to get ready for New Year's Day. I don't do much decorating either, and most years my Christmasy stuff gets put out after Christmas is all over. We have a 3 1/2 yr old and he's really starting to catch on to stuff so hopefully he'll get the real meaning of Christmas this year. I have a little nativity set that I'd like to get out and so he can see it and we can talk about it.

December 20, 2010 - 6:52 pm Anna Mary G - linked to fb

December 20, 2010 - 6:59 pm Janette Wolfer - great giveaway!! this year i was able to help our church ladies pack bags with some items such as fruits, hot cocoa mix, kleenex, writing pad, etc. for some elderly, widow or widower. as i delivered the gifts to my neighbors i was able to visit with them. they all had lost their husbands and were lonely. i felt so blessed and good to have done something for someone else:) truly it is all about giving!!

December 20, 2010 - 7:02 pm Ginger Fox - When you find the answer, let me know!

December 20, 2010 - 7:10 pm Cheryl - We're trying to figure out too, how to keep Christmas simple and to focus on Who it is about. What a neat giveaway!

December 20, 2010 - 7:13 pm Tina Horst - I don't have any great answers about how to teach small children about the real meaning of Christmas, but I am trying. I think the fact that I have done alot of my Christmas shopping online has eliminated some of the usual Santa questions and gift craziness. I am so excited to participate in this giveaway because we had a sermon on the doctrine of non accumulation at church and I found it quite convicting. I want to become more of a giving person and less materialistic. I feel quite peaceful and joyous in spite of everything going on around me. Merry Christmas to you,Daryl, and lil Abbi! ;)

December 20, 2010 - 7:16 pm Tina Horst - I posted on facebook!!

December 20, 2010 - 7:48 pm Marylou - Love this contest! And your post to go with it was great! I think Christmas can too easily be sidetracked off the celebration of Christ. Our family has done very little in the line of gift giving over the years. I think it keeps my Christmas much simpler. To me it's more about spending time with my family. And this year, since we were together over Thanksgiving, Christmas will be fairly quiet. Also a welcome thing. :) I love Christmas decor but I rarely put much up.

December 20, 2010 - 8:19 pm Jo Yoder - I tend to be a bit "grinch-y" this time of year...I hate all of the pressures & expectations of the season, none of which have ANYthing at all to do with giving honor to the Savior. I love Christmas but I want to celebrate it quietly...and somehow that just never happens, I always end up stressed & frustrated in the week before Christmas. I'll admit, this year I've kind of given up on trying to get the "real meaning" of the season through my boys' heads...because no matter what we say or do, all that they can think about is the gifts they'll be getting. Something needs to be changed before next year or I'll boycott Christmas altogether!! (half kidding) I love Margaret's idea above...and I'll be checking back to see what others suggest. Thanks for doing this for-real giveaway. What a God-sent idea!

December 20, 2010 - 8:29 pm Jo Yoder - I put a link on facebook.

December 20, 2010 - 8:30 pm Jairia - Great idea! I found a fisher price nativity set this year and I have it on the coffee table where the children can play with it. My 4 yr old is really starting to understand more about Christmas and that it is more than just presents, etc. We went to a drama about the story of Jesus' life and she really liked that. I enjoy getting gifts for people, but we don't go all out money wise. I love decorating for Christmas, but most of it is more winter than Christmas and I end up leaving it out for several months. December is definitely busier than most months, but I enjoy it and definitely don't feel stressed. I love this time of year!

December 20, 2010 - 8:30 pm Jo Yoder - Also linked to this on my Xanga pulse.

December 20, 2010 - 8:45 pm Sharon - Awesome giveaway idea!

December 20, 2010 - 9:13 pm Dorothea Troyer - Well, the post above by Jo pretty much took the words out of my mouth. I totally love this time of year, but hate the buzz and really hate shopping with no ideas. Make that REALLY. I could skip the whole gift thing. And somehow programs, whether it's school or youth, and being responsible for the details, have a way of jamming up this time of year, and while totally fun, leave one thoroughly exhausted and minus millions of brain cells. Would love a snow so deep we'd be house bound for a week!:)As for extras, my theory is: make that candy in March when winter feels long!:) Or forget it all together! So can't say I have many answers but two things are a must... sleep and time with God. Otherwise everyone feels like Scrooge and is unpleasant to live with, thus ruining any quality family time there may be. So kick back to a slower gear... today can't be repeated... make memories, live it well! Excuse me while I go take a good dose of the medicine I just prescribed...

December 20, 2010 - 9:17 pm Freida - You're right- this is the best give-away yet! Awesome idea! I do not like that Christmas tends to be so crazy busy, but I'm not really sure what to do about it either. :(

December 20, 2010 - 9:21 pm Charlene - This is a great idea for a giveaway, I enjoyed Christmas Caroling, not sure if it has anything to do with the real reason for the season but it left me feeling peaceful for taking time to reach out to others,

December 20, 2010 - 9:23 pm Marylou - Linked on Facebook.

December 20, 2010 - 9:49 pm Rachelle Zook - One way to keep it simple, our parents never gave us big gifts, but usually gave a gift to someone else in need (usually Christmas in a Shoebox) or something else we came up with.

December 20, 2010 - 10:06 pm Janelle - I have no answers for you. My son loves to listen to "My Bible Friends" and it has the Christmas story in it and he can recite the first little bit of it, now I guess I have to explain why Jesus came as a baby. How much does a 4 year old understand about that? I love giving gifts, so I enjoy this time of year! This is a wonderful idea for a giveaway! God Bless You for you kindness!

December 20, 2010 - 10:08 pm Sierra - I am on FB again so I decided to leave another comment even if it is a small one.

December 20, 2010 - 10:09 pm Janelle - linked to FB

December 20, 2010 - 10:12 pm Rhonda - Thanks, Daryl and Thelma, for this heartwarming giveaway! It esp caught my attention because I live in Asia, and this part of the world has captured my heart. Christmas over here is basically celebrated by Christians only which makes it seem more special. My favorite part this year was sitting in a friends house singing Christmas carols knowing that her Buddhist neighbors were listening very intently! I was reminded that Christmas is all about Jesus and making His name known!

December 20, 2010 - 10:16 pm Shannon - Your words, "How do we stay calm and peaceful and focused on the REAL reason for the season..." I wish I knew. I have been stressed the last while, too much work, and that in turn leaves my family stressed. Under all the running around,I think it has to begin with me. How can I teach my children something that I don't have myself? I can I instill in them truths that I have completely missed? If I am not focus on Jesus at this time of the year, they'll know and why should they? I truly believe it has to begin in my heart, I in turn can teach it. ~We never had a lot of gift growing up so that hasn't been a huge deal to me, I don't do a lot of shopping, just something small works, and I really want to keep it that way. I think the more I buy, the more they want, the more I stress myself. The girls don't seem to be all that worried about their gifts, hoping that lasts. :) It's each to his own tho, if shopping is relaxing you and giving is your gift, then by all means do so! Just take it easy on the stressful stuff. ~Today while we drove we sang "Away in A Manger" and after each stanza we talked about the words and what they meant and what happened that night. We talked about how to sing the song in a meaningful way and when we were done Reagan says, "I know what it means now!" I'm hoping that little by little as they grow, the true meaning of Christmas will become part of their heart.

December 20, 2010 - 10:45 pm Marilyn W. - It's our tradition to have a Christmas eve candlelight supper with my family which is very special for us to be together cause I live a few hours away from my family. But 2 years ago we put aside our selfish desires and invited my widowed aunt and her children to join us. This year a couple from the community who live in a motel and have virtually nothing and no family are invited to join us...I know that's really how Jesus would want us to celebrate His birthday, by doing what he would do if He were on earth....

December 20, 2010 - 10:47 pm Heidi Musser - Agreed, this is definately the best giveaway yet! It is hard to get a toddler's attention away from all the "glitter" of Christmas and to focus on the humble true meaning of Christmas. We usually try to do several projects as a family for those in need, and that is always fun to put food parcels together, wrap bundles, donate toys or clothes, etc. Thanks for doing this giveaway, God bless you for your thoughtfulness!

December 20, 2010 - 10:58 pm Virginia - This is such a great giveaway idea! I keep hearing the radio blurbs about Gospel to Asia and have been thinking that it would make a perfect family gift project instead of a name exchange. We all have plenty, and really don't need the extra gifts at Christmas. We don't go all out with presents, but even so, this would be a way to change someone's life and open the door to give them the gift of Christ himself. This year's Christmas has been relatively calm for me, for which I am grateful. I did not decorate for Christmas, had no Christmas present shopping to do, and no Christmas banquets to attend. And I must say I did not miss it. At all. I hope your Christmas is cozy and bright and, most of all, joyful!

December 20, 2010 - 11:12 pm Judith - Beautiful. My son is only 3.5 months old but I am challenged with what will we be teaching him in the next few years!

December 20, 2010 - 11:13 pm Judith - I 'liked' you on FB.

December 20, 2010 - 11:41 pm Anna Miller - First of all- beautiful giveaway! You have the true Christmas spirit. Our family participates in the Angel Tree program, which is very rewarding for or children to give a gift that they themselves would love to have, to a child who is less fortunate. Also, just tonight, our church caroled for our neighbors- one family lives in a barn, yes, a barn. They smiled the entire time we were singing and told us we brought magic to their Christmas. Another lady told us we made her Christmas alot brighter and didn't know that she would be brought so much joy tonight. Experiences like this are so good for my children. Blessings to you and Merry Christmas!

December 20, 2010 - 11:47 pm Elissa - Great giveaway!!! This year instead of exchanging gifts with my husband we are putting it towards an anniversery trip that is taking place after New Years. We will have memories after all the things would have been forgotten.

December 21, 2010 - 12:44 am Verda - Great idea! My best advice is just to sit down and drink tea in the morning, afternoon, or whenever it suits you best. It's such a good time to reflect on life, and calm you down if you've been stressed out.

December 21, 2010 - 1:23 am Holly - We are going low key this year and do more instead of giving more. one thing we really love doing is driving round to look at Christmas lights. We are on the scope for people who have honored the reason for the season and displayed a nativity scene. For these houses we all cheer and clap.

December 21, 2010 - 2:38 am Julia Miller - thats awesome! reminds me of a great song "Give this Christmas Away by veggietales--pretty good!-

December 21, 2010 - 4:31 am Jennifer - For us it took moving out of a large Mennonite community where we were inundated with family dinners and church functions over the holidays. Now, I know that isn't a good solution or even feasible for a lot of people, but it's changed the holiday season for us in a lot of good ways, the main one being simply more leisure time to savour the season and remember that it's about a lot more than gifts and family get-togethers (although we still love those things).

December 21, 2010 - 10:07 am Lanita - I love this giveaway! I have no answers for your question. It seems like it's been busy, busy around here.

December 21, 2010 - 10:13 am Elsa - Very meaningful giveaway! Thanks for doing it!

December 21, 2010 - 11:11 am cretora kline - Great give away! We have 6 children, 9 yrs and younger and this year we decided to have them exchange names among themselves. Typically, they all want to buy for everyone in the family and its just not practical-at all. Since my sister is also living w/ us, she joined the exchange, making 7 names. They pulled $10 from their spending jar and we all went to WalMart for 30 min. (its a mile from our house) We split the children up among the 3 adults to shop (DH, me and sis)and they got to pick out whatever they wanted for their sibling. Talk about beaming eyes and non stop chatter the whole way home! They were thrilled! And it was so simple and fun.

December 21, 2010 - 11:57 am Bethany - I think this is a great idea! Makes you realize the real meaning of Christmas... giving/showing Christ to others. May you have a Blessed Christmas and New Year!

December 21, 2010 - 1:21 pm ~Rachel H~ - Fantastic giveaway idea! More people should get the memo and do giveaways like this one. God bless you as you strive to teach/train your daughter His principles! :)

December 21, 2010 - 2:44 pm Shaunda Stoltzfus - Love the giving going on here...I want to be part of it, so I'll say a few words. I think the hectic-ness of the season has as much and maybe more to do with the spirit of my soul than the actual things I'm doing. Sometimes I can do a lot/be gone a lot and my spirit is at rest and my focus is on Jesus. Other times, I may have very few obligations to meet and my spirit feels rushed and anxious or just simply self-focused. Having said all that, I am still all for simplifying the Christmas season. For me, that means less decorating this year than what I've done in previous years and simpler food items. What is giving fancy food to the neighbors all about if I am stressed and mad in the process? I'd rather give a plain chocolate chip cookie that has been made with love....

December 21, 2010 - 2:58 pm Heather S. - love this giveaway!! I teach the 4-8 year old class at our youth outreach in town, and several weeks ago i was doing the Christmas story. I asked them what we celebrated at Christmas and they came up with a list that included santa, presents, winter coming etc. They were nearly dumbfounded when i told them it was the day we celebrate Jesus' birthday! For me, this is what made Christmas more meaningful this year..sharing the REAL reason of Christmas with others, even if they were just little kids :)

December 21, 2010 - 3:34 pm Elaine Hurst - Love the 'give' away. My niece is in the hospital with leukemia, that has really kept my focus on being thankful for health ect. &apprectating the small blessings we so easily take for granted. We sang at a nurseing home this year & i'd love to take some gifts (which could easily be children's toys they are willing to part with) to a hospital too. But I know those things could be done any time of the year.

December 21, 2010 - 3:51 pm rosita - we skip the gift giving and keep the holiday decor very simple. for us, the highlight of Christmas is getting together with family and occasionally caroling on Christmas Eve for elderly people.

December 21, 2010 - 3:55 pm Lindsay - this is an awesome idea! This Christmas I am especially thankful for health. Last Christmas my mom was in the hospital for a week with blood clots on her lungs and we spent Christmas day in the hospital. For me, giving to charities and people in need as well as gifts to family helps me remember the real Reason for the Season.

December 21, 2010 - 3:57 pm Christy - Well, this year we moved into the heart of poverty, and we're seeing Christmas a whole new way. Last night we went into the nice part of town for a "snowfall." Steve was like, "This [stores with expensive clothes and decor, gobs of lights, people walking around in hundreds or thousands of dollars in one outfit, so much stuff...] is really pretty, but it seems so wrong when you see the whole picture." I don't think it's just about giving stuff to the poor even though they appreciate it more, but about sharing JESUS. I'm just saying. I don't have the answers, but I'm thinking about it all in a new way. Otherwise, a big thing for me is doing what brings joy and not stress. It's okay to say no! to events, to baking, to decorating for one year. Only do what will enhance your holiday spirit and not sap it.

December 21, 2010 - 4:09 pm Lisa E - It's hard to explain but we got put in our place this Christmas. On the 12 my husband's grandmother passed away (kind of suddenly-long story) anyway. With family coming in from all over (quite literally) we were forced to put all Christmas preps (such as baking cookies, shopping, wrapping, etc) on hold. What an amazing way to share the story of Jesus and Heaven with our boys, then to explain that Great Grandma got the best Christmas present ever, by getting to go to heaven and be with Jesus. This seems to have hit home and the boys are in awe (in a special and almost surreal sort of way) about the fact that Great Grandma is in heaven with Jesus for His birthday. Providing questions such as will they eat cake? is she all better? is she happy? is Jesus happy? is Jesus coming here? and many more. This occurrence has truly brought Christmas to life. yes we are making cookie plates to share with neighbors who don't know Jesus, yes we are reading the Christmas story, yes we are exchanging gifts. But this year Great Grandma taught one more lesson when she left the earth. We wouldn't have chosen to go through this but we are grateful for the opportunity it has given us to share and slow down and just enjoy what we have knowing the is a greater gift yet to come!

December 21, 2010 - 4:11 pm Lisa E - Linked it to my FB!

December 21, 2010 - 4:21 pm ~Rachel H~ - I posted to my blog!

December 21, 2010 - 4:23 pm Kendra - Love this idea. It's my longing to have my lil' girls grow up KNOWING the real meaning of Christmas first and formost, and the gifts, etc... just an added blessing. I really need to work at this myself too. I too easily get wrapped up in celebrations/traditions and think everything's gotta be perfect. I love giving...makes me feel good. We enjoy giving food/clothing to organizations/through our church. A highlight we do with my family is instead of exchanging gifts each child makes a bundle (baby, health, ect..) for poor children. They love doing it. I can see it makes them feel good.

December 21, 2010 - 4:27 pm Kendra - linked to fb.

December 21, 2010 - 4:37 pm Sierra - I hope you get a lot of chickens!!

December 21, 2010 - 5:32 pm Shannon - Linked to facebook

December 21, 2010 - 7:55 pm Rosalyn - I linked on facebook.

December 21, 2010 - 7:56 pm Rosalyn - I don't have an answer to your question but it was fun reading all the comments. I'm glad their so many people still wanting to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and passing that on to their children.

December 21, 2010 - 7:59 pm Rosalyn - I already "Like" you on facebook. Hope you get lots of comments on this giveaway!

December 21, 2010 - 7:59 pm Gina P - This is really Christmas

December 22, 2010 - 5:45 am Rachel - A great way to give a gift to Jesus, the One who deserves the true birthday celebration & gifts!

December 22, 2010 - 8:31 am Sierra - These people are in my prayers.

December 22, 2010 - 8:31 am Sierra - Linked on facebook

December 22, 2010 - 4:26 pm Lindsay - linked on FB

December 23, 2010 - 10:36 am Heidi - I wish more people would know the true meaning of Christmas. Too many people are scared to try the idea for fear they wouldn't like it. And of course, we're all so very selfish. My husband and I would like to set up a family tradition of this nature instead of giving gifts each year to our children.

Photo Contest Winners!

Saturday, December 18, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized

Okay!! Finally time for the conclusion of the photo contest. We loved getting these entries, but also realized Christmas season may not be the best time to host a photo contests. Lots of people have lots going and no time to round up needed things for this type of photo contest. At any rate, we are very grateful to these creative souls who took the time to whip something up ! I wish we’d have space to feature all the photos cuz I know it took up some of your precious Holiday time to take these, my apologies to those we had to leave out, I really really hate to disappoint all the kiddies who are looking for their picture online!

Find the ugliest Christmas Sweater. Have someone wear it, take their photo in front of a plain white background. Have them hold a sign saying Happy Holidays. Embelish as needed:-)

Props to Kayla Groff for getting this together. I would agree, that is an ugly shirt:-)

A picnic in the parking lot of McDonald’s. Include food, 6 people, a makeshift table and pillows.

Props to these guys for being brave enough to do this! I’d love to know how many odd stares you got:-) Did the baby enjoy the cheeseburger? Jolene Martin submitted this one.

Line 4 children up. One must be wearing winter boots. One must be wearing a scarf. One must have a gift bow attached. And one must be wrapped in gift wrap.

This category was by far the most popular, seems to me alot of people had 4 kiddos, winter boots, scarves and gift wrap handy, and oh the cute things they did with it:-) Kuddos to everyone who contributed a photo in this category. Again, I am so sorry we can’t show all the pictures, cuz there was alot and I’m sorry to disspoint those kiddos. That said, here are a few of our favorites.

This first one took the prize with all the cute babies, the gift bow hairband and festive scarf. Very cute, I know how hard it is to get 4 toddlers to sit, appear happy AND all look the same direction! Amazing:-) this one was submitted Jolene Martin

Here are a few honorable mentions. I must say, I waffled between the winner picture and this next shot for awhile. There’s so many fun things in this next picture. The one thing that just makes me laugh every time I look at it, is the big gift bow bowtie! Oh and the HUGE hunting boots the boy is wearing, along with the carefully crafted gift wrap dress and headband, very very clever!! Thanks Rachel Hurst.

Thanks Amy Zeiset for this fun contribution as well. Looks like these girlies were having lots of fun with this, I love the little foot kick happening there.

Take a family photo on the hood of your car. Someone in the photo must be wearing PJs.
Quite cute, Thanks Rachel Hurst for submitting this one.

I must do an honorable mention here. This photo came all the way from Asia!! Thanks Arlin and Krista for taking the time to submit this one. I am loving the short sleeves and green grass.

Thanks everyone for playing along and contributing, even those who we were not able to feature! I wish so bad we could make everyone a winner!! Everyone did a good job!

The winners again were:

Kayla Groff

Jolene Martin

Rachel Hurst

Jolene Martin

If you all would email me and let me know which prize you would prefer, actually tell me your top two choices. I am giving them out first come, first serve, so who ever gets an email into my inbox first, get’s first choice. Again, the email address is darylmusserphotography@dejazzd.com.

Thanks again for contributing!

by musser

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Giveaway #2 Winner!

Saturday, December 18, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized

Thanks everyone for leaving me comments about their Christmas music. Now I have a few songs I’m going to be checking out on Youtube and maybe even a few albums too. I forgot to say, I do love Pandora when it comes to Christmas music, like you guys said, you get a little more variety from that.

Soooo we have a winner!!

The random generator picked Amy! This is amy’s comment:

I listen to Christmas music year around. Love, LOVE Christmas music and I’d agree with you about nixing the old songs turned to “newer versions”. Sorry, you can’t beat the old ones! I pretty much like all styles… a pretty big variety.

If your name is Amy and you left that comment, pls email us at darylmusserphotography@dejazzd.com and leave us a way to get that CD to you:-)

For the rest of you, check back later today to find out the winners of the photo contest, Monday, there will be a squeaky new giveaway, and Wed? The finalists for the wedding giveaway!!!! CANNOT wait to share the three stories with you! I get warm circles around my heart everytime I think about it:-)

by musser

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12 Days of Christmas-giveaway #2

Thursday, December 16, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized

Okay this turned out to be later today then I was planning, but it’s still Thursday so away we go!

Let’s talk about Christmas music. I want to know what do you love? What do you hate? Are you turning the festive tunes already in October, or are you one that groans inwardly when the radio stations cheerfully announce they will be playing Christmas music from Thanksgiving until New Years??

For myself. I like it. In small amounts. I definitely need a break from it on occasion, so I do not have it playing all the time, and sometimes I’d rather just hear stuff other then Christmas music on the radio. There is only so many ways you can play those old familiars. I do enjoy the ambiance it can give a gathering or room when you want to set an especially festive air. Or when you’re decorating for Christmas, or baking Christmas cookies, or wrapping Christmas gifts. Times like that definitely need a yuletide soundtrack!

My tastes in Christmas music definately range towards the classical. I love the old traditional Christmas carols and arrangements. My biggest pet peeve is pop groups who take old songs and try to make them cool and modern. My other pet peeve is the songs that get played way. too. many. times. Anything along the lines of “chestnuts roasting” and “lovely weather for a sleigh ride together” and “sleighbells ringing”. Oh, you know the type. those are the ones I get slightly sick of by Dec. 26th.

My favorite song this season is prly this one by Joy Williams. LoveLoveLove the message. I know I have others that I enjoy, but right now, my mind is totally drawing a blank!

So for the next couple days I want comments about Christmas music. It can be your top favorite song/s. Your pet peeve about Christmas music. Your favorite Christmas album. How often you play christmas music. Whatever you want to tell me about it.

In return for your participation, I am offering up Susan Boyle’s New Christmas Album. I’m guessing you know her amazing story and if not, google is your friend:-) Amazing amazing voice. Beautiful music. I want this album for myself:-)

If you want it, comment away. I am again going to use random integer to choose the winner, so if you want to increase your chances of winning, go ahead and link this post, and then leave me an additional comment saying you did so, thus increasing your chances of being selected. I am going to leave this open until Saturday morning.

by musser

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December 16, 2010 - 10:37 pm Lisa E - Absolute Fav. Christmas song is "This Baby" by stephen curtis chapman!

December 16, 2010 - 10:45 pm Tresa - i do get weary of christmas music when they try to play it from thanksgiving on!! my favorite christmas song, it christmas shoes by newsong. beautiful song with a teary message!!

December 16, 2010 - 10:50 pm Sierra Herr - I don't normally start listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. And once I do start I prefer to listen to the radio because it has such a wide variety of songs/versions of songs. I do enjoy listening to CD's as well, but the songs can get kind of old after a while. I love to listen to Christmas music as I do homework and other stuff.

December 16, 2010 - 10:52 pm Sierra Herr - I shared a link on Facebook.

December 16, 2010 - 10:53 pm Patricia Kreider - One of my favorite Christmas Songs is I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by Casting Crowns.. along with other favorites- Mary did you know? and Oh Holy Night...

December 16, 2010 - 11:05 pm Ginger Fox - I like Manheim Steamroller. My mom always played them at Christmas, and now Christmas isn't Christmas without it.

December 16, 2010 - 11:06 pm Misty N. - Right now my current favourite Christmas albums are ones by TSO. I just went to their concert last night. Amazing stuff!

December 16, 2010 - 11:20 pm Marylou - I start listening about the middle of November. But I do take breaks from it. And by Christmas I am pretty much finished listening to it! My favorite Pandora station is Christmas Canon Remix. One of my favorite CDs is an old one from Boney M, a pop group from England. Otherwise, I mostly stay on the classical side of the music. Although I will admit to liking the occasional "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas". I would love to have Susan Boyle's cd. :)

December 16, 2010 - 11:26 pm Marylou - Linked on Facebook :)

December 16, 2010 - 11:30 pm Kendra - I really do love Christmas music, but I don't start listening to it till Thanksgiving. I don't have many CD's and my girls always change stations or turn the radio off so I use Pandora online so the girlies can't reach it. I just do the praise and worship/contemporary Christmas line and love the variety it gives me. Favorites this year are - Mary, did you know. and Love came down at Christmas by Jars of Clay.

December 16, 2010 - 11:30 pm Kendra - linked on fb.

December 16, 2010 - 11:31 pm Elissa - I love Christmas music! Could listen to it from Thanksgiving till New Years and not bat an eye. Love Pandora, classical is great and I think I have a bit of a crush on Bing Crosby and his "I'll Be Home for Christmas"! =)

December 16, 2010 - 11:32 pm Elmina Beiler - My favorite album is Casting Crowns Christmas, but I love it all. I play Christmas music of all styles in my house, beginning the day after Thanksgiving till New Years. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire... bring it on!

December 17, 2010 - 12:02 am Virginia - I love Christmas music. Love with a capital L! There have been times that I got it out in July, just for a few days, and then put it away until closer to Christmas. Most times, though I make myself wait until about Thanksgiving. Most of my teen years we listened to Christmas in Velvet by ReGeneration, and every year that's my first go-to. Followed closely by the City on a Hill compilation, and Welcome Christmas--Christmas Around the World (a dollar store find!) I think I add to my Christmas collection every year...

December 17, 2010 - 12:05 am Virginia - linked on fb. (Oh, and I forgot to mention a new song that I love: Where's the Line to See Jesus?)

December 17, 2010 - 12:25 am Janae - I'm like you, I like Christmas songs to a certain degree. I get pretty sick of the ones that they play over and over on the radio but I really enjoy the Christian songs and hymns. I think my favorite Christmas album ever is by Gospel Express, not sure if they have more than one but this was from quite a few years ago. Some of my favorites are "O Holy Night" "He is the Lord" "Glory be to God" and "The Little Drummer Boy".

December 17, 2010 - 12:43 am Christy - I used to LOVE Christmas music, but the last two years I'd rather listen in small doses. "O Holy Night," Silent Night," and "Little Drummer Boy," are some of my favorites when sung by certain groups (classical style), but other groups sort of ruin them in my opinion. My heart was forever changed when I first heard, "Mary Did you Know," so that's at the top of my list, too.

December 17, 2010 - 12:46 am Janelle - I really enjoy Christmas music. I love music period. I think my favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night by the Mormon Tabernacle Singers & The Kings Singers. So beautful!! I also listen to the radio so I can get a variety of music. I like the crazy ones like Dominik the Donkey, and the hippopotamus one, etc

December 17, 2010 - 2:29 am Julia Miller - I looove Christmas music n listen to it early (with breaks of course;) i like the old beautiful hymns-nothing like just singing my heart out along with a good cd! one i realy like is Christmas Shoes and my favorite this year is "All I Really want for Christmas" by Steven Curtis Chapman.. yea i like the serious sad stuff...

December 17, 2010 - 7:32 am Tina Horst - I pretty much agree on what you said Thelms...I usually hate it when they try to make the classics sound all pop and I do get tired of the really overplayed songs. I think my fave song is The Christmas Shoes by i forget what popular Christian artist and the song I Heard the Bells on Chistmas Day. I also love pretty much anything by Manheim Steamroller.

December 17, 2010 - 7:51 am Lydia Jo Martin - Well, thanks to our record player and tons of Christmas records we are well supplied with Christmas Music this year. I really love Christmastime by M.W. Smith. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVrQkgLM-PQ

December 17, 2010 - 9:12 am Jolene - My favourite carol is 'O Holy Night'. Celine Dion does an amazing version of it, but can be mutilated by way too many others! A pet peeve of mine is Christmas music playing before December. I love Christmas, but in moderation please!! :-)

December 17, 2010 - 9:13 am Jolene - And I linked this on FB... :) I love you guys, great job!!!

December 17, 2010 - 9:17 am Amy - I listen to Christmas music year around. :) Love, LOVE Christmas music and I'd agree with you about nixing the old songs turned to "newer versions". Sorry, you can't beat the old ones! I pretty much like all styles... a pretty big variety. :)

December 17, 2010 - 9:18 am joanna - i love Christmas music but not until after thanksgiving, & once Christmas is done, the corresponding music should be also. as does all my music tastes, so do my Christmas selections...Trans-Siberian Orchestra, traditional carols, Mannheim Steamroller, Michael W. Smith's "Christmastime," etc. i agree w/ you for sure about the remakes of the carols; the groups very rarely do the songs justice. =( not sure i have a true favorite song, but some of them would be "Christmastime" by MWS, "Christmas Canon" by TSO, "Joy to the World," & "O Holy Night."

December 17, 2010 - 9:20 am Amy - linked to FB

December 17, 2010 - 9:20 am joanna - just put a link to this on my fb page

December 17, 2010 - 9:28 am Jo Yoder - I love Christmas music, but I play it only between Thanksgiving & New Years! I have a stack of CDs of all different genres. Online, I go back & forth between Moody's Praise & Worship channel and their Sound of Majesty channel, depending what mood I'm in. A friend of my husband lent us Susan Boyle's CD and I've been listening to it in the van during school drives. Beautiful music, easy to listen to, easy to sing along. Some fresh, new songs and some old, familiar. Her voice is just divine!

December 17, 2010 - 9:32 am Jo Yoder - Also linked to facebook.

December 17, 2010 - 9:35 am Jo Yoder - And I posted a link on my Xanga pulse. I want that to own that CD, can you tell? ;)

December 17, 2010 - 9:36 am Jenell - I do love Christmas music, however don't listen to it all the time. Since I have kids I appreciate silence more than I ever did :) But there is nothing like great big flakes of snow falling...the wind whipping it into great big drifts... and a cup of hot cocoa in your hand to make me pull out the Christmas music no matter what time of year it is.

December 17, 2010 - 10:58 am Rhonda - My two favorite albums this year are by "Jewell"and "Point of Grace"! I love a huge variety of Christmas music but only from after Thanksgiving thru Dec 31st! Merry Christmas

December 17, 2010 - 11:00 am Marilyn - I love Christmas music but definitely have to do it in smaller amounts. I can't listen to it straight for a whole month. Usually by Christmas I have to listen to CD's because all the radio stations are full with Christmas music and by that time I am starting to get tired of listening to it. My all time favorite Christmas song is Silent Night, sung anyway by anyone, I LOVE it!

December 17, 2010 - 11:04 am Freida - I like Christmas Music, but by New Years, I'm ready to enjoy my other music again. I do tire of it. My favorite album is Casting Crowns' Christmas album and my 2 favorite songs of all time are Silent Night and Oh Beautiful Star. There is just something about those old time classics. Susan Boyle is great and I would love to win her album. :-)

December 17, 2010 - 11:08 am Freida - linked on fb.

December 17, 2010 - 12:00 pm Amber - My fav. is "O Holy Night", sung by Lonestar. Also love "Mary did you know?" I love Christmas music, but get tired of new groups destroying songs as they were meant to be sung.

December 17, 2010 - 12:00 pm Amber - Linked on facebook

December 17, 2010 - 12:16 pm Lisa - I Love Christmas music and never really get tired of it! I'm always excited when WDAC starts playing it. I love Manheim steamroller, Gospel Express, and the traditional carols. Anything that you can sing along with, not different versions that aren't familiar. Christmas music really puts you in the spirit when shopping too!

December 17, 2010 - 12:27 pm Michelle - I love Christmas music, but I usually wait to listen to it until after Thanksgiving. I miss our choir (at my old church) SO VERY MUCH at Christmas time. We did a partial program every year and every single year we sang, "O Holy Night" and the "Messiah." and about three other songs. Somehow it doesn't feel the same not to be singing. I love Derrick Johnsons Christmas arrangements, too. They have that fun, happy vibe. I would like to find a song we sang in choir one year called "On the night when Christ was born" sometime. It has three verses and talks about a reed, a thorn, and a tree and has whispers of foreshadowing about the Cross. It is hauntingly sad and yet so beautiful.

December 17, 2010 - 12:46 pm Michelle - I linked on fb

December 17, 2010 - 12:58 pm Gina P - The little Drummer Boy is our familys favorite this yr. My 8 yr old sang a solo at church and gave it 100% ( I was so proud)

December 17, 2010 - 1:15 pm Ruby Showalter - I just LOVE Christmas music and can listen to it almost non-stop until Dec 25! I'm with you on Joy Williams' song!! Absolutely beautiful. My favorite album is Casting Crowns "Peace on Earth".

December 17, 2010 - 1:30 pm Jairia - I love Christmas music! I usually pull it out before Thanksgiving. I like alot of different types of Christmas music. Don't know if I really have one favorite song.

December 17, 2010 - 2:09 pm Elaine - I love variety in Christmas music. Everything from Go Fish to classical (as in listening to the entire Messiah!). We start Thanksgiving Day, and listen to it till January.

December 17, 2010 - 2:32 pm Anna Mary G - Oh I love Christmas music! One of the reasons I so love the Christmas season! I can hardly wait until Thanksgiving when they start playing it on the radio. Just found out last week that there's a station that plays only Christmas music over this time, 101.3 the Rose. I think it's a soft rock station but the Christmas songs they play are all types of music. Used to have Martina McBride's Christmas CD but seem to have lost it a couple years ago! So disappointed. Should just buy another one! Some of my favorite songs are "Christmas Shoes" (LOVE that song!), "Mary Did You Know" (runs a close 2nd), I Heard the Bells, and so many others! By New Year's I'm starting to get tired of some of the songs, but overall I could listen to Christmas songs all year long! :) I love music! Mostly hymns, and classical.

December 17, 2010 - 2:33 pm Anna Mary G - linked on fb

December 17, 2010 - 2:34 pm Anna Mary G - oh and how could I forget! We LOVE "Little Drummer Boy". Think my fav group that sings it is "Garments of Praise".

December 17, 2010 - 2:48 pm Anna Mary G - just linked you to Xanga too.

December 17, 2010 - 2:54 pm Cee Miller - This year my fav has been Josh Groban's Christmas album, Noel

December 17, 2010 - 3:17 pm Linda - I love Casting Crowns "Peace on Earth" After Thanksgiving I play christmas music most of the time.

December 17, 2010 - 3:17 pm Ronica - The Christmas music that plays at our house is a Gospel Express Christmas CD and TSO.

December 17, 2010 - 4:02 pm rosita - I love Christmas music. I play it in December and any other time of the year that I get the urge to hear it. I thoroughly enjoy Derric Johnson's music.

December 17, 2010 - 5:25 pm Cheryl Burkholder - I love Christmas music. I love Charlotte Church's "Dream a Dream" album. She's got an amazing voice. I would love to have a copy of Susan Boyle. :)

December 17, 2010 - 5:28 pm Cheryl Burkholder - I linked to FB.

December 17, 2010 - 5:34 pm ~Rachel H~ - I love Christmas music...like one of those people that digs it out early, or sings carols in June. :) That said, I do get annoyed at constant Christmas music. Especially pointless "Christmas" songs that you hear in stores, etc. I love old carols some of my favorites being "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "O Holy Night," "Silently O're Bethlehem." A more modern favorite is, "While You were Sleeping" (it's so relevant) by Casting Crowns. The Mercersburg Community Chorus (complete with a full orchestra and 1-4 professional soloists) gives a Christmas program every year. It's amazing and one of my favorite parts of the season!

December 17, 2010 - 5:45 pm Karen Rohrer - I absoluteily love Christmas music.

December 17, 2010 - 11:44 pm Michele Newswanger - my favorite Christmas song is How should a King Come?

Season of Giving- 12 days of Christmas winner!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized

I’m happy to announce the winner for our first 12 days of Christmas giveway. I did end up using the random integor to choose a winner because each and every one had a great answer and so I couldn’t say one was better then the other! I enjoyed hearing about each of you all’s little traditions. Thanks for taking the time to answer. I The random integer thingy came up with #12, which turned out to be Lisa! One of our very first brides back in the day……:-)

She says: “The idea of christmas traditions has been a hard one here. I grew up in a non-church going family so we had a tree, stockings, santas, reindeer, lights, etc. My hubby on the other hand had very little traditions. So…what we have come up with after 5 years of marriage, lots of tears, and some compromise is….We each have a manger that gets filled with small gifts (mostly practical). The children get new pajama’s on Christmas eve. We started an advent calendar this year which seems to be going well. We also have a nativity the children can play with and then our nativity (willow tree ) Anyway…that is about it for us!!!! Enjoy!”

Like your idea of the advent calender Lisa, might just have to borrow that on in years to come!

Lisa, please email us and let us know how to get your prize to you at darylmusserphotography@dejazzd.com. Thanks!

Okay, so that’s it for tonight. Check back tomorrow when we do it all over again:-)

by musser

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Season of Giving–12 days of Christmas!!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010 Posted in Give Away

Hey all! So I haven’t been as regular on this blog as I had hoped! Let’s just say this is one crazy season, as I’m sure you are fully aware! I feel like it’s just speeding by and I haven’t even really had time to enjoy anything. Not that I’ve even been to the mall….well, yeah, I guess there was that one night….but yeah, between some renovation projects and hosting my whole family here at my house this past weekend, that has just been making life insane!! I am looking forward to next week, I hope I can take life a little easier again:-)

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So, we are loving the entries for the photo contest, we will be closing that tomorrow and sharing the results and announcing the winners in a day or two! So if you haven’t entered, get that camera out and give it a go today!! I just want to say there are certain categories that have no entries, so if you pick the right entry you will be a guaranteed winner!! I’m not saying which one though! Seems certain ones held peoples interest just a little more!

*edit* I just made out an official little schedule for these next 12 days so I don’t confuse myself:-) Anyway, I am going to keep the photo contest open until Friday night, so that gives you a bit more time if you just now learned about it. I will post our top favorite images on Saturday and the winner on Sunday. Thanks for participating!!

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As far as the wedding giveaway, we’ve gotten several amazing entries for that! Of which we are very excited. We’d love a few more so if you’d still like to get a story in, there’s still a bit of time for that! You have until the 21rst of December.

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And now, I want to kick off the 12 days of Christmas festitivies!! I want to do a few giveaways over the next 12 days, plus announce the wedding entries and winners, and also the winners for the photo contest, so check back every day!

Let’s talk about traditions! Since Daryl and I have only been married 6 years and parents for one of those Christmas’ we are still kinda establishing Christmas traditions as a family. We don’t have very many, and I don’t really want the holidays to be about this huge overwhelming list of things that needs to get done in order for Christmas to be celebrated properly! That said, it’s also fun to have things to look forward to each year….and we’re slowly doing a few things every year that seem to be a part of Christmas now.

1. Setting up the Christmas village on top of the entertainment center. A few years ago I must have been kinda gung-ho about these villages because I accumulated a bunch of stuff. I still think it’s cool, but not sure I’d spend the money for one now. But since I have it, we’ll enjoy it. We love how the lights and houses sparkle on a dark winter night. It def. brings a cozy Christmas feeling to our living room. This year, Abbi loved putting stuff up on the display and checking out all the miniature things on the houses, so that made it really fun.

2. Setting up a small nativity, that Abbi can play with. This is a newer tradition since we have her. I couldn’t wait to pull it out this year and see what she has to say about the miniature figures. She liked it, I think:-) The other day she was saying “baby Jesus”, so that was kinda cool:-) I love for her to have a hands-on display of what Christmas really was.

3. Cookies. Ok. So I don’t do too much baking and candy making during this season, cuz really, who needs all those extra calories setting around, but there are a few favorites that are musts during this season at some point! One is Peanut Blossoms. I know prly everyone else and their uncle also makes these but they are just so good. And then, my husband’s favorites, Sour cream sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles. You can about taste calories in these, but they are so good, they’ve become my favorite as well. Oh, and then there’s chocolate covered pretzals for a candy! I really could care less about most holiday candies, but choco pretzals?? yes please!!!

4. Here’s one that I HOPE becomes a tradition!! This past weekend, when my family was here, my brother brought his smoker along. He is learning how to smoke meats. He’s done some amazing pulled pork and ribs for us in the past, and now this season he’s been learning how to do turkeys!! He says technically, it would be BBQ’d turkey, not smoked, because the temp he uses is higher then smoking. Ahem. anyway. He smoked the turkey, after we had brined it in Pioneer woman’s fantastic brine recipe!! Can I just say, that is the way to fix a turkey!! I am going to have a hard time enjoying a baked turkey now that I know what a turkey CAN be!! It was melt-in-the-mouth delish and we ate every bite and licked the platter clean! Oh and then, here my brothers clean off the bones. Yes, it really was that good!

Then there’s the sea food chowder and cheesecake w/ my family….that’s always yum too….

But now, I will quit going on about us, tell me YOUR traditions!!! I want to hear them all, no matter how silly! See we are still in need of a few more traditions here, so I might borrow a few:-)

I will keep the comments open tomorrow and Thursday, I will announce the winner. I think for this giveaway I will pick the winner. I was debating between the random integrator and picking, and decided I want the fun of choosing!

You will win:

I wouldn’t’ say this is a tradition, per say, but this is one movie that I like to watch sometime during the holiday season. I think it’s a great telling of the nativity. Of course, no Hollywood production is perfect, but this one speaks to me. It takes away the romanticism of the stable birth, and really shows how little Mary and Joseph prly had, and how amazing the events of that Bethleham night were. So yes, you will recieve your own copy of this movie.

Tell me about your favorite holiday tradition!

by musser

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December 14, 2010 - 12:25 pm Melanie Beiler - My family always decorated the house for Christmas as soon as the fall housecleaning was finished, sometime during Christmas vacation. The ultimate climax of this event was unpacking our beautiful nativity scene. That's definitely my favorite childhood Christmas tradition! Now that I no longer live at home, it's special to go back to my parents' and have a sleepover with my sisters in the living room on Christmas Eve.

December 14, 2010 - 12:40 pm Rebekah Martin - Our three favorite traditions are 1) making a gingerbread house together as a family. sticky sugary family FUN! 2)getting our our two Nativities. One to look at and one for the kids to play with. 3) getting our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving and then decorating the house for Christmas that weekend too.

December 14, 2010 - 12:42 pm ~Rachel H~ - My family usually listens to "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens(audio), every Christmas Eve. We also have a stained glass nativity scene...handmade and given to us by a friend. It's been around since as long as I can remember. :)

December 14, 2010 - 12:43 pm Char - LOVE the 12 days of give aways! Ok,for me I am all about keeping it simple so I have time to drink hot chocolate and really soak in the season!;) However, there are a few things that I love and truly make it feel like Christmas. For me, a must is a homemade wreath. LOVE the mixture of fresh greens! Love creating my own masterpiece. Started this years ago with my mother....it will always remind me of her!

December 14, 2010 - 1:14 pm Cindy - oh this is fun! i will be checking back to read what other people do! our family favs...let's see. probably our keychain tree. to the untrained eye it looks like a bunch of tacky keychains all hanging on a little tree. but to Our Family, it is thee most beautiful tree ever! :) instead of buying souvenirs when we travel, we purchase a keychain from that place instead! not only is it cost effective, the kids LOVE unpacking each one and reminiscing about good times. {so they actually are remembering something besides the bickering in the van!}

December 14, 2010 - 1:15 pm Maribeth Herr - Well our family started the tradition a couple years ago of everyone opening a gift Christmas eve... It always makes the anticipation of getting presents a little more bearable Christmas eve. =)

December 14, 2010 - 1:16 pm Dorcas - Love to keep it simple too. Tradition that i love, getting together on Christmas Eve w/ my family and eating seafood, and sometimes staying overnight (we dont' do this every year).

December 14, 2010 - 2:00 pm Lucy - Tradition #1 Visit the park bench in Rittenhouse Square where my husband proposed to me 3 years ago. We were actually gonna go tonight, but decided it's too cold. That will have to wait till after Christmas. The Christmasy sparkle remains in the park till New Years, I believe. Tradition #2 make a trip to Texas to visit the relatives. Tradition #3 (started 6 years ago when I moved to Philly)Go to the Wannamaker Building to here the organ and see the Christmas light show. Tradition #4 Christmas Caroling.

December 14, 2010 - 2:04 pm Twylene - I always love getting out the Christmas music on the day after Thanksgiving including a tape recording of some records I grew up with - what is it about music that can just transport you back to 20 years ago - the sights, smells and feelings? Also love how my family recites the Christmas story out of Luke 2 and sings Christmas carols together.

December 14, 2010 - 2:13 pm Lydia Jo Martin - Seafood and steak dinner with my family Christmas Eve or whenever it works. Gifts. This year we have Christmas music on the record player, that has been fun. Not sure if the novelty will wear off. I have very fond memories of baking and decorating cookies on Christmas Day at my Grandma's house just months before she passed away. This year we're hoping to do a pajama party and sleepover in the living room Christmas eve. -Love Christmas.

December 14, 2010 - 2:22 pm Amy - Here's one I started within a few years after Carl and I got married. I give him "12 Days of Christmas". :) he gets something each of those 12 days up to Christmas whether it's replenishing his sock drawer, notes tucked in different spots for him to find, cleaning his truck inside/outside,a book from his fav. author, something romantic... :) I think I look forward to it as much or more then he does! Hoping that this will rub off on my daughters and be something they initiate with their husbands when they marry... someday in the far-off future! :D

December 14, 2010 - 2:54 pm Lisa E - :D the idea of christmas traditions has been a hard one here. I grew up in a non-church going family so we had a tree, stockings, santas, reindeer, lights, etc. My hubby on the other hand had very little traditions. So...what we have come up with after 5 years of marriage, lots of tears, and some compromise is....We each have a manger that gets filled with small gifts (mostly practical). The children get new pajama's on Christmas eve. We started an advent calendar this year which seems to be going well. We also have a nativity the children can play with and then our nativity (willow tree :)) Anyway...that is about it for us!!!! Enjoy!

December 14, 2010 - 5:10 pm LaDonna Nice - 1. A tradition started by my family growing up was that my dad made a manger and we would wrap one of our dolls up and put it in the manger and put the gifts around it. I had told my husband about this in passing and our first Christmas I heard him pounding away out in the garage, and what I saw brought tears to my eyes. My hubby had see somehow how important this tradition was to me growing up and decided to build one and keep the tradition going. Now my three year old get's all excited when we bring out the manger each year. 2. We make lots of chocolate covered goodies, candies and cookies and so that we don't get fat on all the calories:-) we separate a lot of them on plates and pass them out to our neighbors and some of the older people in church. This has been a great way to get to know our neighbors and to spread some Christmas cheer their way, and to teach our children the joy of giving. We have more like the decorating and the Christmas programs and going to see the lights in town and of course our own Christmas as a family where we read the Christmas story and pass out gifts, but these are two of the real special unique traditions that we have.

December 14, 2010 - 5:11 pm Cheryl - We always have shrimp with my family. My family also does a box for someone in need. It's fun to bless them with items you know they can use. I want to start a tradition of sleeping all together around the fireplace next year after we're moved.

December 14, 2010 - 9:19 pm Christy - We alternate holidays with our two families. Two years ago, the 3 oldest grandchildren--then 4, 2 and 2--recited a verse and sang a song together. None of us live close together, so they each learned it at home then said it together. Very cute. This year they will be 6, 4, 4, 3, 3, and 2. We're adding a couple verses to the one they said the last time from Luke 2. I can hardly wait. We videoed them the last time and I think this will be soooo fun to watch them grow through the years. The singing, especially will get better and better as they learn to stay on key then learn parts... Fun.

December 15, 2010 - 12:46 am Carmen - reading the Christmas story, chocolate fondue and sparkling grape juice the night we open gifts. hand delivering homemade goodies to our neighbors - as a family. I think it would be fun to start a tradition (at least while the children are young) of making/decorating a birthday cake for Jesus. Thanx for doing this Thelma! I reading your thoughts too. Abbi with the nativity set is darling!

December 15, 2010 - 2:11 am Julia Miller - caroling christmas songs.. a few years ago i watched the movie "Christmas Shoes" -it was a hit by me, seeing the love and miracle around Christmas time and makin that my goal. and now i watch it every year. I found out it has a sequel- "Christmas Blessing" - so i've added that on one my tradition:)

December 15, 2010 - 8:38 am Twila Henry - We have been parents for 12 Christmas' and we still don't have a lot of traditions. But we do have a few... Christmas Eve we watch "It's a Wonderful Life" and then all sleep in the living room, under the glow of the lights. The kids and I bake cookies and take them to neighbors and others who have blessed us through the year. And we read the story of our Saviour's birth on Christmas Day. I enjoyed reading others comments! :)

December 15, 2010 - 9:07 am Anna Mary G - Loved reading the other comments...some brought tears to my eyes, like the sweet husband who made the manger for his wife, etc. Christmas was never a largely celebrated day as such in our house growing up. Yes, we celebrated Christmas but the gifts and such came on New Year's Day so that we children wouldn't get the idea that Christmas was all about gifts, etc. Christmas morning Mom sets out all manner of special breakfast things that we didn't usually get - cream cheese and bagels, donuts, pop tarts, fruit, instant oatmeal, and then everyone can get up whenever, and now that some of us are married, we show up whenever and have breakfast. She does this on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Ever since we were dating, we spent Christmas with my husband's family. We all go to WV, now MD, to his sister's family for an exotic meal. They don't give gifts or do any decorating so that's the extent of the tradition there. The real traditions come on New Year's Day. Does that count? For the past 5 years Dad takes all of us (over 20 of us now w/ all 11 children, 5 spouses, and now 10 grandchildren!) out for breakfast on the Sat before New Year's Day, this year it'll be on New Year's Day. Then my family gets together either at Mom n Dad, or at 1 of our houses and we exchange gifts. This will be the first year that we'll be renting a place cause we are getting to be too many for our houses. For as long as I can remember we exchange names on Thanksgiving and then you're supposed to make something for the person you got, whether it's a motto, or a blanket, or even a plate of cookies,or a giant "Hershey Kiss" using a funnel and melted chocolate, nothing extravagant. It's something that I always look forward to and love! And now for our own little family, we decided to carry over the idea of not having gifts on Christmas, so New Year's Eve we open our gifts and then after that we have some friends over for a New Year's Eve party.

December 15, 2010 - 9:09 am Anna Mary G - Oh, and I do so love the "Christmas Shoes" song. Listen to it over and over again every Christmas season, and it brings tears to my eyes every time! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the love that lil boy had for his Mommy! I pray that my lil boy would be just like that sweet lil boy! :)

December 15, 2010 - 9:48 am Gina P - Right after Thanksgiving, my husband takes me and the kids up in the mountain hunting for red berries to decorate with. Another tradition I started with the kids, I bought this tiny nativity scene along with a book- "All God wants for Christmas" then every night I hide one of the figures and they all try to find it, after its found we place it on the shelf and I read the chapter pertaining to that character. they love it. Thanks for doing this Thelma, I am sure you are busy too.

December 15, 2010 - 10:46 am Jenell - For our family...we don't have a lot of traditions for our own family besides reading the Christmas story before opening gifts; right now it is in Bible story book form because of the children's ages. Oh, and it wouldn't be Christmas without having a cookie baking day at least once. Somehow the floor ends up as colorful as the cookies :)With my family, the main traditions that we have center around food...we always have the same menu every year...ham salad sandwiches, pretzel salad, mocha punch...and lots of other junk that you have to have at least once a year :)...oh, and date nut pudding and eggnog at our Beachy family gathering is a must:)...and the holidays don't seem complete without the annual fish fry on New Year's Day at my aunt's house. But I loved reading about other peoples traditions and it gets my mind working on simple things we could do to make it even more special for our young family...the chocolate fondue idea would go over especially well here:) And I loved the 12 days of Christmas idea for your spouse...how neat!!

December 15, 2010 - 10:47 am Elmina Beiler - The older the kids get, the more fun it is to have holiday traditions as a family. A new thing we started this year is an advent calendar, where they get to add a new piece to the nativity every day in Dec. We always make chocolate candies and cookies. The kids esp. like doing the cut-out cookies. On Christmas eve, we have a formal meal with china and everything. Then we exchange gifts and read the Christmas story. After that, we always watch "It's a Wonderful Life." Last year, the girls took a liking to the Nativity Story movie and now it's our new favorite! I need my own copy tho. as I'm tired of renting it over and over. Thanks for doing all the special give-aways, Thelma. You are such a generous person.

December 15, 2010 - 11:07 am Juanita Yoder - One of my favorite Christmas traditions at home was... Mom always made a big gingerbread house! We could hardly wait to decorate it with all kinds of candy! Then we had to wait till Christmas Day to tear it apart. Even though we are older and all have children of our own, we all still look forward to it as much as the grandchildren!...and now Grandma fills the inside with little toys for the grandchildren,too! :) As far as our little family- Enjoy decorating the house the wk-end after Thanksgiving! Bake cookies, go driving and looking at Christmas lights, and try go see a living Christmas nativity. Then Christmas morning we have all to ourselves to open gifts and have a special breakfast before we had off to family gatherings.

December 15, 2010 - 12:21 pm Cindy Fox - Our main tradition is to have a big ol' slumber party in the family room. We did it before we had kids and now the girls join us and love it! And we also often do something very easy, like pizza for supper that night. Something thats not a lot of work, but that we all love. Can't wait to do the 'slumber party' here in BD this year! =) It will be different for sure!

December 15, 2010 - 12:37 pm Kendra - we are still developing christmas traditions too. christmas eve. (or whenever it works best) we eat by candlelight. i used to do a big meal/feast, but i'm gonna start doing it simple - soup and sandwiches. then, my husband reads the christmas story to the girls before we open gifts. this was a huge tradition when i was little - dad ALWAYS read the christmas story from his Bible before opening gifts, and it became special to me. oh and, i like to let the girls were their pj's - fun. my husband also just found a love for cutting greens and creating wreaths/swags for decor. so i think we'll make this a tradition also. he's a landscaper so anything to do with real plants he loves. i'm loving reading all these. gives me lots of ideas. i like the idea of a nativity scene, gingerbread house......

December 15, 2010 - 12:48 pm Gloria Fuhrman - One of my favorite books to read to the children sometime over the holiday is The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado. This particular story has a beautiful message about each of us, no matter how unimportant we may feel, having a special place in the heart of Jesus. Well, this year, Christian's kindergarten teacher (at our local public school) sent a notice home to parents giving us the chance to share a bit of our own favorite parts of Christmas with their classroom. I saw this as an awesome oppurtunity to plant some seeds into the hearts of his little classmates. His teacher, whom I've often suspected to be a christian, was so excited when she saw what I had brought along to share, she quickly grabbed stuff together to help the children make lamb ornaments to take home as a reminder of the story. I felt so blessed to be able to share Jesus with each one of those precious little souls! ....after all, THAT IS what Christmas is all about!

December 15, 2010 - 1:26 pm Priscilla - For as long as I can remember, our neighbors (well not our neighbors anymore now that we moved 1.5 yrs ago but we still consider them so) who lived in the center of town would invite the whole town and any friends & relatives to come to a Christmas Eve party at their house. She always decorates her house to the max! She has food & drinks in every room and everyone has such a good time. It doesn't matter if it's an old friend or a new neighbor, everyone talks and eats til late into the night. If we didn't get to go to her party each year, it wouldn't be Christmas Eve! I would love to be like her someday! :)

December 15, 2010 - 2:25 pm Lisa - On Christmas Eve we read the Christmas story and open presents. The past two years we made cookies and decorated them with our boys. Other traditions I look forward to each year are Christmas caroling, baking & exchanging cookies with my sisters, the music (I never get tired of hearing it!) and all the family togetherness.

December 15, 2010 - 2:40 pm Jane Kauffman - When our family celebrates christmas we always get taco bell in for supper (so mom doesn't have to cook) we read the christmas story from the Bible and exchange gifts then the whole family sleeps on the family room floor together. :)

December 16, 2010 - 12:06 am Patricia - We're only married 4yrs and no children yet here, so we haven't established to many traditions as of yet. One thing we like to do is have a light candlelight meal of special sandwiches, salad, and soup on Christmas eve before exchanging gifts. There's also the regular fun thing of decorating, cookie exchanging, etc. I also really liked the 12 days of Christmas idea for your spouse! Enjoyed all the great ideas everyone is sharing!

Season of Giving: Photo Contest!!!

Friday, December 3, 2010 Posted in Give Away

Okay, you have been looking at our pictures all. year. long. Now it’s my turn to see yours! How about a little photo contest???

And not just any photo contest. A fun photo contest. I won’t be looking at the lighting, composition, focus points, blah, blah, blah. Granted those things, done right, make a much more pleasing photo, but this particular contest is about fun and creativity. I’m looking for spontaneity and originality more then technicalities. So you don’t need to own an SLR to participate, use your point and shoot–or iphone, whatever you’ve got, works for me:-)

I have here a list of things you can shoot. There is no limit to anything. You can enter each one five times if it pleases you to do so.

Your options include:

-You in your favorite winter attire. Somewhere in the photo there must be a sign that reads the current temp in your state, and also the name of your state. Also in the photo must be a decorated Christmas tree.

-A picnic in the parking lot of McDonald’s. Include food, 6 people, a makeshift table and pillows.

-Find the ugliest Christmas Sweater. Have someone wear it, take their photo in front of a plain white background. Have them hold a sign saying Happy Holidays. Embelish as needed:-)

-Take a family photo on the hood of your car. Someone in the photo must be wearing PJs.

-Line 4 children up. One must be wearing winter boots. One must be wearing a scarf. One must have a gift bow attached. And one must be wrapped in gift wrap.

There you go. Shoot away, then email us your results. You prly want to down size your image if possible.

oh right, and if there’s a contest, there needs to be prizes!!! Here are some goodies. Each of us selected a prize to contribute:

From Daryl. From one of his favorite photo geek stores (image compliments of Photojojo). He got one for himself and wants to share one with you. These mugs are sooo authentic they look just like L lens–our favorite lenses to use. Trust me, it’s just as awsome IRL as it is on the photo.

From me: A workout DVD, from one of my favorite makers of workout DVD’s. I was going to say favorite trainer, but she’s not really my favorite, or my trainer, so we’ll not go there. But yes, her DVD’s bring me results, the kind of result you might want after this holiday season!

From Abbi. A bundle of Usborne books: titles yet to be decided. Usborne books are awesome. Keep them for yourself, or give them as gifts this Christmas.

And then, from all of us, 2 photo sessions. Again, use them for yourself, or give them as gifts for the holidays. Senior, family, newborn, whatever. Except for wedding, of course.

So. There’s 5 options, and 5 prizes. When we announce the winners, the first person to respond gets first choice, ect. ect.

We are going to leave this open until December 14th, which will then start the 12 days of Christmas, and we have a bunch of other goodies to celebrate then.

So play along (Pleasepleaseplease:-) ). I must admit i am slightly nervous cuz this is the first time doing something like this, and I’m a little worried everyone is too busy shopping and baking Christmas cookies and no one will enter and it will just end awkwardly, and that’s just embarrassing. On the bright side, if that’s the case, I’m keeping the mug for myself, I like it that much.

The email address again is darylmusserphotography@dejazzd.com.

Also, just a reminder about the wedding giveaway, continue to spread the word! There’s some good stuff coming in, so we’re excited there will be a happy couple on Christmas day.

by musser

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Season of Giving: Wedding Coverage giveaway!!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010 Posted in Give Away

Welcome to December! The season of Christmas, snow, and giving. (okay, so maybe we’ll skip the snow part, but who doesn’t love a white Christmas?!)

Daryl and I are still crazy busy trying to get all of our 2010 Weddings and Family sessions out the door, hence the silence on this blog lately. BUT now it’s Christmas season, and time for some FUN!!!! We hope you check back here often cuz we have lots of goodies and fun stuff planned. We had so much fun with our first giveaway, we want more, we want a whole month of fun-ness!!! Granted of course, we will not be giving something away everyday, and our gifts will have to be a fraction of what the last giveaway was, but we hope that does not deter you from stopping by every day to see what is happening AND to join in the festivities. The more the merrier is always true!!

For the first day of this Season of giving extravaganza, we are giving away the biggest thing we’ve ever given to anyone—usually only our siblings are recipients of this gift, but in this case, someone you know might be the lucky one:-) We are SO excited about this giveaway and really really really hope that it doesn’t fall flat on it’s face and no one participates. That is always awkward after all:-)

We are giving away, for the wedding season 2011, 1 free wedding coverage. Yes. A complete day of wedding coverage, the edited prints, and travel fees to get to the event (that’s within reason, of course. If you are from Alaska. eh, maybe you could pitch in a bit to get us there? ) So yes, there are no strings attached, no taxes, no obligation to buy anything after the fact, nothing. It’s completely free.

Here’s the scoop. We are closing up another amazing wedding season, and year as a family. We have been so so SO blessed this past year, both with Daryl’s steady job, and preatty much perfect health-yeah there was that little mono incident, but that is all for the whole year. However, we know that is not the case for some people out there. We realizing there are people whose 2010 have been less then steller, there’s people out there who have been out of a job, or who are dealing with hard hard times because of health problems or other issues.

With that in mind, we want to give back in some way, and what better way then to bless some one, or in this case, two someones, who may not be able to afford their dream wedding because of circumstances beyond their control. We think that perhaps there may be a couple or two out there who have had to deal with more then the average wedding-planning-couple.

Now. To pull this off we need your help. We can’t find these people on our own, so that is where you come in!! Can you help spread the word??? Send emails, link this, post this. Whatever. Is there any couples you know who deserves free photography for their wedding??? Maybe YOU are part of that couple. That’s fine too. We really don’t want to embarrass or humiliate anyone through all this, so yeah. be comfortable with saying, “hey, I think we qualify!”

So then, Email in the story of a couple who really deserves free photography for their wedding. Don’t feel bad sending your own story! Please also attach a photo that is about 900px with to the email.

Again, here’s what we’re looking for:

A couple who has a wonderful story or who has overcome great odds. The more you can tell us about the couple, the better. You know we all LOVE a beautiful story, so go ahead, throw in the how-we-met details and all that too.

The couple must be getting married somewhere in the US in 2011 on a date that we have not yet booked.

The couple must be willing to appear on this blog and have their story on this blog

The couple must not be able to afford a lavish wedding.

What we are not looking for:

A couple who is having an expensive wedding and who just wants to win something for free

A false story

Couples planning destination weddings in exotic places (if you can afford that, you can afford a photographer of some kind). It is also too expensive for us to include travel fees to exotic destinations. I realize some people will not agree that destination weddings=money as costs can be less, but generally when people can afford to have a wedding, however small on a beautiful island, they could have had a very small simple wedding at home for less. That isn’t about need, it’s about choice.

The specifics:

SEND IN ENTRIES TO darylmusserphotography@dejazzd.com NO LATER THAN December 20, 2010!!!!

Daryl and I will go through the entries and post the top three choices on December 22nd.

The top three stories will then be reviewed and voted on by a select group of trusted people. We will not have a say in the final descision. We will post the winning couple on CHRISTMAS DAY!! -

SO again, we need your help. Please email this link out, nominate a deserving friend, and spread the word– we want a really wonderful, deserving couple. We can’t wait to read all the entries!

by musser

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David + Lauren e-session

Wednesday, November 3, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized

Just wanted to break the silence and share a few images from David and Lauren’s engagement session. Life is crazy here trying to get all the fall weddings and photo shoots edited, so I keep putting off blogging, hence the lack of pictures. That aside, Enjoy! We had a great time with this couple one Saturday not so long ago, and are really excited about traveling to DE in the Spring for their big day.

by musser

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1000 friends giveaway Winner!

Friday, October 22, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized

Wellwellwell, today is the big day:-) But not so fast, i want a captive audience for a little while longer:-)

I think yesterday was my favorite comment day of all 4. Loved reading your answers, your life quotes, your plans for the day, your dreams. I was touched w/ how many of you have a heart to help others, whether adopting abused or developmentally challanged kids, or opening a house for orphans or battered teen girls, or stopping sex trafficing–seems like alot of you carry a passion for needy people in your hearts. I loved the off-beat dreams too–the opera singer, climbing high mountains, being a stunt equestrian rider, writing a book, running a marathon (ditto that), a country midwife, a place for kids where you would teach them to be producers rather then consumers (liked that–ALOT!!). I feel those of you who want to own a coffee shop, restaurant or downtown studio….i feel that dream too, of creating a place where people can gather and have cozy times. I guess I didn’t share my dream….and after reading all of yours…hmm…..I would say all of the above:-) With the exception of the opera singer–just don’t feel that one:-) But really, i think being an interior designer would be so much fun, that and adopting a few babies somewhere along the way.

LOVED the quotes. I guess I like quotes. A personal one of mine is “Be kind, every person you meet is fighting a battle”. Also taped on my computer screen right now: “To whom much is give, much shall be required”. I must say my top favorite quote from all of yours is “Fear is temporary, regret is forever”. Thanks Elaine–Loved that!! I even dreamed it last night, in regards to speaking up at a restaurant to a manager about a meal I didn’t receive….huh? I never did get the meal, and the dream just went on and on and I was hungry.

I think the most unusual daily activity that occured yesterday was Gloria who choked at work and had to recieve a heimlich. I don’t think that happens every day:-)

Okay, why do i get the feeling that you are thinking “why doesn’t she just get one with it?!?!” Did I guess right?? First, I want to tell you how we decided, so you know we tried to be as fair as possible. First, we printed out allllllllllll the comments from every post. Then I went through all those pages, giving each a number, so that the comments where you answered my question, and said you linked on FB or whatever both in the same comment, numbered those twice so that you could get your two entries….Then, we used random.org an integrator generator online, to produce us a number, and that was the winning number. Originally, i was going to print them out, cut them all apart and throw them in a basket and do a manual honest-to-goodness drawing, but I guess I had no idea the volume of people that would respond. That would have taken me a night and a day to cut up all those comments!!

So.

As you know, we reached our 1000 friends on Facebook, which was our goal!! Thanks for helping spread the word about this via your facebook, we so appreciate it.

we gained 142 friends

777 comment entries

which equaled 17 pages of comments all printed out:-)

Random.org gave me the number #505

which was………….

Joanna Beiler!!! with her entry on who she would meet for lunch “I think it would be Cindy or Holly, I miss seeing them this time while we’re home from Romania. It doesn’t seem right”

I think if anyone deserves to win this, it would be Joanna:-) She and her husband are serving in Romania, being houseparents to a houseful of teen-age orphan boys….kinda like what some of you dream of doing, they are living out IRL. Plus she is a mom to three littles besides. They are actually home on furlough at the moment. The thought did cross my mind earlier, “what if someone I know wins this???” and that is what happened! I’m happy for my friend, but at the same time cringing because I hope no one is upset that someone we know won this. So I just wanted to make sure you know this was not staged. At all. That is why I explained how we did this, so you know it was all above board here:- ) (okay, now I’m making a huge drama out of it all, I’ll stop) Joanna, we will have to work out the details, I will message or email you sometime today. I don’t suppose you’d have any pictures you’d like done up on a gallery wrap, do you?

To the rest of you: Stayed tuned. We are cooking up something for the Christmas season, so you will have more chances to win things. I really really wish we could have given away, like 5 or 10 or 20 of these, that would have been super fun!

At any rate, Thanks for playing!

by musser

11 comments

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October 22, 2010 - 8:41 am Jennifer - What a fun giveaway, Thelma! I loved how you did it. And you're right--Joanna so deserved this one.

October 22, 2010 - 8:46 am sarah beiler - Joanna does deserved this one. they are special people. Marcus is my husband cousin. that is just awesome!!!!!

October 22, 2010 - 8:59 am Virginia Beachy - Thanks for making this a fun giveaway. I love it that the winner was someone you know. I was actually a dormie of Joanna's at SMBI away back in 2002. And your little girl is absolutely adorable!

October 22, 2010 - 9:16 am Shannon H - Congratulations to Joanna, sounds like she is a very deserving winner!!!

October 22, 2010 - 9:23 am Michelle - Aw, I am SO happy for her!

October 22, 2010 - 10:47 am Sandra Ramos - I think you guys did an awesome and fair job at organizing the give-away... it was so much fun to participate in! Congrats to Joanna, kinda funny knowing the winner; her husband is my mom's 2nd cousin so tho i haven't ever met Joanna, I know of them. blessings on your day!

October 22, 2010 - 11:29 am Hadassah - I had such fun with your contest. Congratulations to Joanna!

October 22, 2010 - 1:13 pm Joanna Beiler - I cannot believe it! I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!!! I never win online giveaways, and I've entered in some that have been at a much smaller scale. Wow, thanks so much!!! Now I need help deciding which of those great images I should get printed. i still can't believe it... I love you guys!!

October 22, 2010 - 4:42 pm Anna Mary Good - Thanks for doing the contest! Congrats to Joanna! And I'm looking forward to the next contest! :)

October 22, 2010 - 6:38 pm Gloria Fuhrman - This was a lot of fun...I'll look forward to your Christmas give away!

October 22, 2010 - 8:45 pm Gina P - That's so awesome~ thanks for making this interesting-

Daryl Musser Photography

Welcome to our Blog!

12 days of Christmas: Final “Give”away

The Poorest of the Poor

Photo Contest Winners!

Giveaway #2 Winner!

12 Days of Christmas-giveaway #2

Season of Giving- 12 days of Christmas winner!

Season of Giving–12 days of Christmas!!

Season of Giving: Photo Contest!!!

Season of Giving: Wedding Coverage giveaway!!

David + Lauren e-session

1000 friends giveaway Winner!

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