A Cheerful Christmas

Merry Christmas dear readers!

Yes, I know it's the day after Christmas but better late than never, right? 

We had such a blessed day with family and friends! Our church service was at 09:00 and Uncle Peet preached a wonderful sermon. It's amazing to celebrate and reflect on the Lord's birth which may have not specifically been on Christmas Day but it's the day we remember Him and celebrate His coming. My grandfather even sang in the service, he can sing and play the guitar really well! I don't mean to brag but it is true. 

After church, we laid the table and our guests arrived, there was a lot of food! The Lord really blessed us! For the main course there was roast turkey, gammon, leg of lamb and then we also had Mac & Cheese and Cottage Pie. The sides were roast baby potatoes, butternut and gem squash too. Then for dessert (the star of the meal), it was trifle and malva pudding with custard! It was all so delicious!!

Afterwards, we relaxed on the deck, there was a cool breeze blowing. This year, like last year, was quite cool, almost cold. It's very unusual since it's Summer here now!  

Blitzy felt quite neglected because all our attention was on the visitors and everyone was busy. She gets naughty when she wants attention! The other day we gave Curly a haircut and a well-needed bath, she looks so soft and fluffy now, like a little white lamb. She must've smelt all the nice food because she refused to eat her own dinner.

Oh, on a side note, my special Christmas edition of the Prairie Poodle books is on sale! Click here to view  

Have a wonderful week ahead!

God bless,

Sele'ha Mikhaila D 

        ●♡●♡●

We bought a bird bath

Curly after her haircut and bath

Decorations

Our mini Christmas tree

Our big Christmas tree!

The food....need I say more?

The table is laid 

Unhappy Blitzy in her/my room.

Blueberries & the Big 50!

Hey!

Christmas is the day after tomorrow! Say whaaaat?! Yep, I'm not kidding!! Where has the time gone...?

Anyway, my grandparents arrived on Monday and we have been having a blessed time together. Pssst....we didn't get a chance to put our Christmas tree up yet! It's been a busy month.

Oh, the teachers of Schulzendal Mission School in Malelane came to Claridge for a little visit. They had attended the conference at the mission and were on their way back. Did I tell you about the weekend?
Well, the Youth Conference began on the 9th of December and it went very well by God's grace. On Sunday, we went to the mission to celebrate 50 years of Revival at Kwasizabantu! The Lord is so merciful to us!
If you would like to watch that service, then please click here. In all, it was about 4 and a half hours. Though it was quite hot, it was such a blessing to witness it! There were many choirs, speakers, even a skit/poem and the brass band played, they also showed a little video about the mission and Uncle Erlo described the Revival time. Many dignitaries and international guests were present too. My parents even sang in the co-workers choir. :)

Last week was especially busy for Claridge, Caleb and my Dad made some sub-division signposts for the Dragonfruit fields, Oom Peet had a lot of paperwork to do too. We were trying to get everything in order to export the dragonfruit, the inspector came this week and by God's grace, Claridge passed! We are ready for international business!

We also harvested some blueberries with Oom Peet and Tannie Andra, it was a lot of fun! There were so many that were ripe, we picked and picked and picked....they're delicious! My Dad is keep hinting for me to make some blueberries pies......again.

Anyway, I must end off now, I'll update again soon! Have a blessed Christmas and New Year!!!

God bless,
Sele'ha Mikhaila
♡♡♡

More gorgeous roses!!

Lassie 

Kenzo 

This beautiful tree next to our chapel

Curly and Josh

My Mom made this delicious dinner, I love salad!!

We bought a well ornament and my Dad painted the tank beneath it.

We picked blueberries!

One of our dams, Sam the turtle was released here.

Hydrangeas! One of my favorite flowers :)

A tender sibling moment

50 years of Revival

Gifts and Greeting Cards

Greetings,

This week was hot! We had one cool day in between though. Oom Peet and Tannie Andra are due to arrive today actually, my parents are gone to fetch them from the airport.
Today it is already one week since my Uncle's funeral, time goes fast.
Christmas was my Uncle's favorite time of the year and he told my Mom that should he pass away during the festive season, we must still celebrate Christmas as normal. Of course, it won't be the same but we're so grateful that he is with the Lord.

Yesterday, my parents' clients blessed us with so many gifts for Christmas! There's loads of chocolates, cookies, truffles and also non-edible gifts too. ;) The Lord is so good, every year, we are blessed with lots of gifts.

I have been making cards lately, mostly Thank You cards, creative things really are my thing, I can never get bored doing creative stuff, whether it's crocheting, card-making, sewing, cross-stitching, painting, drawing...or anything else, I thoroughly enjoy it!
The roses are blooming like crazy, it's so beautiful!!

Wow, we have passed the 5 000 pageview mark and it's only December 8th! Thank you!

Much love in Christ,
Sele'ha Mikhaila
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

I didn't take many photos but here are the ones I did take.....

Beautiful

The gifts

The deck from a cat's eye view 

The cards I made

A Funeral in the Family

Hi there,

Well, this has been quite a week for my family. Readers, I'm sure you will remember my Uncle who was in hospital. For those of you who don't know, my Mum's younger brother, Brad, was in hospital since June this year, he was very sick. I don't think it's necessary to go into much detail about his health but I will mention that during this time, my uncle gave his heart to the Lord. It meant so much to us! In October, he was much more responsive and cheerful, we had blessed times together as a family. He was eventually transferred to another hospital in Durban but a couple days later, he became very ill once again.

On Thursday was my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary and we went to Durban to spend some time with them, they did not want a big celebration or anything like that, especially since their son (my Uncle) was not well. We went to visit Brad in hospital that day and he was happy to see us but he was in a lot of pain.
My parents visited him again on Saturday and Sunday too, we live about an hour away from Durban.
On Monday morning, at 04:55, Brad peacefully passed away in his sleep, he had multiple organ failure.
So, for this week, we went to Durban each day, just to comfort and be there for our grandparents and our cousin. Brad had only one son, named Joshua. We lived in Durban prior to Claridge and we grew up with Josh, he was like a brother to us. Though this is a sad time for all of us, we are comforted in knowing that Brad is with the Lord Jesus. We're so thankful that he was saved. It was also amazing to see how supportive everyone was, so many people sent messages or food or just spent time with my grandparents and all of us too.
The funeral was only yesterday because my other uncle was in Saudi Arabia and he still had to fly down. We don't get to see him often, only after a couple years or so. Anyway, the funeral went well and we're thankful. There was a whole lot of food leftover, it was so blessed. We gave so much away and there was still leftovers. Oh, Brad really wanted some flowers from Claridge to be incorporated into his funeral, so we brought some pink roses from our garden.

Christmas is around the corner, my Uncle really loved the Christmas season and being a part of the festivities. We will always remember him! I couldn't take many photos at the funeral, sorry about that but enjoy the photos from Claridge.

At home, Joshy, Blitzy and Curly did not appreciate the fact that we were away from home the whole week. Though, we came home each night, they were not happy at all!

Anyway, I must end off now,
God bless,
Sele'ha Mikhaila
♡♡♡

Beautiful roses in our garden

I took this photo last week and the roses hadn't opened yet but these are the same roses we used for my Uncle's funeral. 

This was also from last week, Blitzy did not want Curly in our room

Eventually Curly came in, not realizing that Blitzy was right behind her!

Surprise!

Joshy was not well last week

Sleepy Blitzy