Trip Journal - Our Last Day

Wow, I really feel behind on blogging! There are so many things to write about (and probably several I promised to share a while ago and never did) but I will have to content myself with taking one thing at a time. :-) So, before sharing about our Christmas and New Years, I'd like to finish writing about our trip to San Antonio that we took in October! :-)

Our last full day (Sunday) in Texas was spent at our new, good friend's house - the P. family. We were so grateful for their hospitality, and had such a fun time getting to know them! They have nine children, and you can check out their fun blog at The Pennington Point.

 

Patience and Lydia drawing together . . .

Hope, Faith, and Grace (my pen-pal) working together in the LOVELY kitchen (all four P. girls are so sweet and fun to be with - why can't they all just live in MN?) . . .

Caleb and Jacob playing Wii?

Daniel and Elijah, Noah, and Adam (not necessarily in that order!) playing Monopoly (little Levi was elsewhere).

Now Grace and I have called each other "Anne" and "Diana" (from the Anne of Green Gables series) for quite a while, so we just HAD to take some snapshots of us dressed up like those old-fashioned, lovable characters!! Although, the funny thing is, Grace is much more like Anne than I am in personality . . .  but since I have the red hair, alas, she is doomed to be Diana forever. :-) Nevertheless, my kindred spirit and I had a BLAST doing the photo shoot and she shall be my bosom friend as long as the sun and moon shall endure!! 

 

 

 

It was SO hard to leave the next morning. :-( Texas is a wonderful state, and the people and weather are so warm! But don't worry, I don't plan on moving down there . . . I don't think I could enjoy a winter or Christmas without several feet of snow!! ha ha

We are so thankful for God's blessings on our trip, and Lord willing, we are already looking forward to the possibility of attending the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival next year!

Bryant Family Blog

Head on over to the Bryant Family Blog to check out their giveaway! Also, I would strongly encourage any young ladies reading this to check out the King's Blooming Rose Ministries website - Sarah Bryant is the editor of the KBR magazine, and I have enjoyed getting it for many years! It is a very encouraging, godly magazine for young women of all ages!

More coming soon about our family's Christmas . . . .

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!! May God bless you all richly as you seek Him in 2011!

Merry Christmas From Our Family to Yours!

 

Isaiah 9:6
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

And the Winner is . . .

Actually, before I announce the winner, I just want to encourage my readers to look at the comments for the giveaway post, and if you haven't seen the movies people suggested, click on the links and find out more! I've seen most of those movies and they're GREAT!

Okay, now for the winner of The Alzen Family - Live in Concert! :-)

The winner is . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .

Congratulations Hayley! Just leave me a comment with your address (and I won't publish it) and I'll get the DVD out to you as soon as I can! I hope you enjoy it! :-)

Trip Journal - Saturday

Sorry it's taken me so long to finish writing about our trip to San Antonio - life has been busy around here, and the rest of this week is going to be crazy with playing/singing at nursing homes and other things going on! What are some things keeping you busy this season?

On the last day of the festival (Saturday) we watched some more movies, visited with friends, and that evening, attended the awards ceremonies! A lot of people were dressed very fancy, and it was neat seeing the ladies in their modest, beautiful, formal dresses. Actually being there, live, at the awards ceremonies was an amazing experience - something I'll never forget! I sat on the edge of my seat as I waited to hear who the winners were in each category (and I'm just mentioning a few below - go to http://www.saicff.org/ to see all the categories). You can visit Doug Philip's blog (and scroll way down) to see some live footage from that night.

 

In the "young filmmaker" category, Small Talents won, and it looks good, but we never did get around to seeing it because there were SO many movies to choose from!

In between announcing categories, musicians played and George Sarris performed again (below is the man who played an important role in Ace Wonder).

The Penny was the winner of the Best Feature Film Award, and it sure deserved it!! We did see this film, and I HIGHLY recommend it!! The storyline was very complicated (but not hard to understand) and tight. The acting was really good, and the cinematography was great! For an independent film (directed by Nathan Webster, pictured below) . . . all I can say is . . . WOW!! Check out the website at http://www.thepennyfilm.com/. There were some other really good feature films there as well. We didn't see all of them right there at the festival, but I would recommend Standing Firm, No Greater Love (for older kids or adults), The Runner From Ravenshead, and Live to Forgive. We didn't see Sybil Ludington at all but that one looked good too.

The Runner from Ravenshead won the Audience Choice Award by 400%!!! They sure deserved it! :-) As far as I know, they were the only film there to get a standing ovation in the MIDDLE of the movie! (below is a picture of the family that made it)

It was very touching to hear the acceptance speech of the $101,000 grand prize winner (watch it HERE)! The Bowers family made Agenda: Grinding America Down and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!! It was well done, and very informative! Check it out at http://agendadocumentary.com/.

 

 

After the awards ceremonies, we enjoyed visiting with lots of people until at least midnight - right there outside the building! Yes, it was that nice outside! :-)
One of the funnest things was meeting Gator Moore (the main actor in The Widow's Might and now in Ace Wonder). By the way, Ace Wonder was a GREAT film! It was so neat being able to see the world premiere (it was a rough cut, but still was very good). The acting was great, the storyline was very interesting, and Gator completely carries the show - I can't wait to see the final cut on DVD!

Next time I'll share some pictures from our last day in Texas with our new friends! Until then, don't forget to sign up for my giveaway!! :-)

GIVEAWAY!

It's time for another giveaway! I've had hardly any time to be blogging lately, but I hope to get a post up soon about the last few days of our trip to Texas! :-)

This time, the giveaway is for . . . .

Check out the family website at http://www.alzenfamily.com/. Go HERE to see the fun trailer! Taylor (Lacheln Designs), over at Surrendering My All, designed the very professional cover (thanks to Taylor for the nice picture of the cover)! :-) Thanks Taylor for all the work you put into this! And of course the Alzen Family was a HUGE help as well - you can check out their blog HERE. If you don't win the giveaway, I do have copies for sale on my website (http://www.gloryandgrace.com/).

Here are the rules:

IF YOU WANT TO BE ENTERED ONCE, leave a comment on my blog and share about your favorite Christan film(s) (and leave a link to the website/trailer if possible).

IF YOU WANT TO BE ENTERED TWICE, do the above AND write about this giveaway on your blog (with a link to this post) and leave a comment here with the link to your blog.

The giveaway will be closed on the night of Sunday the 19th of December, and the winner will be randomly chosen and announced the next day (maybe you'll get it in time for Christmas!).

Story Without Words - Our Christmas Tree