10th Day of Christmas Giveaway…..with Leah DiPascal
Attention Weight Loss Wednesday gals….Do not fear! We are still checking in today. Just scroll down past this 12 Days of Christmas interview to see our WLW post. After, of course, you’ve entered today’s giveaway!
We are hitting the homestretch people! There are just three Proverbs 31 gals left for me to introduce you to this year in our special series. NOTE: If you are just joining us in our 12 Days of interviews and giveaway goodies, click here to get caught up. You can enter to win the prizes on any of the 12 posts until midnight EST on this coming Sunday, December 13th.
Today, you get to meet a pretty important woman at Proverbs 31 Ministries (not to mention a pretty woman too!), especially to our radio show co-host Renee Swope. Leah DiPascal is Renee’s personal assistant. Basically that means she is half of her brain :-) (And with all Renee has going on in her life right now, she could use that half a brain!) She is eagerly helpful, constantly prayerful and adds so much to the ministry of Proverbs. She is one of those gals everyone wishes were her friend and I am fortunate to count her as one of mine.
So now, on our 10th day of Christmas, meet the sweet Leah DiPascal:
Leah is a very ordinary woman who serves a very extraordinary God.
She loves teaching God’s life giving Word to women of all ages. One of her heart’s desires is to help women understand who they are in Christ and teach them how to experience a more intimate relationship with Him. Leah lives in Charlotte, NC and is a wife to Keith and mom to Brody (14 yrs) and Carson (10 yrs). She also has the incredible privilege of being on staff with Proverbs 31 ministries as assistant to Renee Swope.
Leah loves to travel with her family, play tennis, to go shopping with friends, and enjoy a homemade latte with her husband every morning. She teaches a women’s Bible study and serves on the executive message team at her church.
You can email Leah at [email protected] to connect with her. She also is on Face book under Leah Hofmann DiPascal or she’d love for you to visit her blog at www.LeahDiPascal.blogspot.com
Leah, Can you share a Christmas tradition the DiPascal family has enjoyed over the years?
Sure! Each year our family receives Christmas cards from friends and family. Most of them include photos which we really enjoy. It’s amazing to see how everyone changes from one year to the next.
We place these cards in a basket and each night during dinner time someone gets to pull a Christmas card. We’ll share a special memory about the loved ones in the photo and then pray for them before eating. The following day, I’ll email that particular family and let them know that we prayed for them.
It’s a great way to focus on others during the Christmas season plus, it’s a lot of fun and our family really looks forward to it each year.
What activities do you most look forward to doing with your family at the holidays?
We love going to Christmas concerts. There is a huge church in our area that hosts one every year. The production includes over 300 singers, a full orchestra, drama, dance, and live animals. It is spectacular and helps our family focus on the birth of Jesus and why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.
Our oldest son is also in a teen choir and they have Christmas productions every year. It so touches our hearts to see over 150 teens singing praises to God and rejoicing over the birth of Jesus Christ.
Do you have a favorite movie you watch at this time of year?
Our family loves to watch movies together. Friday nights are movie nights in our home and during Christmas time we always watch “Elf” and “Jingle All the Way”.
You are offering a wonderful prize today to one of our cyber sisters. Can you tell us about it?
Yes, I’m so excited about my give-away. I love clothes and always enjoy having something new in my closet to wear. So, I’ve decided to give away a Proverbs 31 t-shirt today. It’s one of my favorites! If you’d like to take a peek, just click on the link below. The winner will just have to let us know what size to send.
http://shopp31.com/awomanwhofearsthelord-t-shirt.aspx
Thanks Leah for stopping by today and for the great giveaway!
Okay gals, since Leah is giving away an article of clothing, leave a comment today on the most memorable item to wear you ever gave or received at Christmas. Maybe it was a sweater, a piece of jewelry or a crazy item given as a joke. Perhaps it was a treasured article of clothing you opened as a child. As always, if you can’t think of something or have cookies burning in the oven and little time to comment, just say, “I’m in!”
I’ll start.
Hands down, the item to wear I most remember was when, in 1976 as a sixth grader, on Christmas morning I got a pair of white go-go boots.
Man did I look snappy wearing those shiny, stretchy, chunky-heeled wonders to Hayes Middle School that first Monday in January 1977 ……in 4 feet of snow!
Kinda hard to see white, knee-high, go-go boots in 4 feet of fluffy white snow. But I still hoped Benji Rivera would notice how hip I looked and ask me to the mid-winter dance.
How about you? Any special item to wear that you remember?
Wearing-a-Holiday-Smile Blessings,
I’m in
My mom used to make clothes for me when I was little. She taught herself how to sew and did pretty well but sometimes had a bit of trouble gauging the size. When I was in fourth grade she made a pair of blue and white flowered PJs that turned out to be absolutely enormous. The whole family joked that we could have worn them together. Christmas night we went to visit my great-grandparents, like we did every year, and Grandma gave me a pair of red-and-white striped flannel jimmies that she’d made with a small Santa appliqued on the top. When it turned out that they fit perfectly and she’d never even measured me, Mom never heard the end of it!
I still have those striped jimmies and am hoping that my daughter can wear them this year. Grandma has been gone about 12 years now, but her legacy – and her jimmies! – live on.
Every Christmas, my husband and I pledge to not getting anything real expensize for eachother. Well one year, he did not obey the rules. As a family we were opening presents, and he opened the one from me, new hankerchiefs. Well then he came in with mine and it was a red winter mountain hardware coat. I loved it! The kids commented, “mom got a coat and dad only got something to wipe his nose with!”
When I was younger my mom made me a pioneer dress. It was red with little flowers on it. I looked just like the Ingalls girls. This year my mom found the dress and is fixing it up to give to my little girl. I know she’ll love it!
Tinsel… yes you heard right… tinsel. My mom would put me and my cousins hair up in a bun and wrap pretty red, silver or gold tinsel around it. We felt like Christmas ourselves!
I’m in.
At some point in the late 70’s, I (like every little girl) dreamed of a rabbit coat. My parents refused and although I begged and begged, they continued to say no. I was both shocked and delighted when my grandmother presented me with a rabbit coat for christmas that year!
I was old enough to enjoy the joke when my mom cross stitched a picture later that year for my grandmother that said “when momma says no – ask grandmother”.
I knitted a scarf for my daughter and gave it to her as a Christmas present. She still has the scarf and wears it proudly to school, telling her friends that her mom made it just for her.
And, this year, she has asked me to make her lots of scarves…for the fashion statement (not necessarily the warmth).
My engagement ring on christmas eve
UGGs – best boots ever! No more frozen toes for me.
In 6th grade, my mom bought me a really special and beautiful Christmas dress with a black velvet top and plaid taffeta bottom. I loved it! But then I spilled nail polish remover in my lap and had a huge hole in the skirt! I was crushed…however we were able to get out the sewing machine and fix it by taking in some of the billow-y skirt. Whew!
On the Christmas after both of our children were born my husband gave me a special piece of jewelry with that babies birthstone. They were special gifts that help me remember their first Christmas.
I’m in!
I’ve received both diamond and pearl earrings over past Christmases. I don’t wear big jewelry, so I alternate these two pair throughout the year. I LOVE their simplicity and love that they were given in!
Prayers and blessings,
Rebecca
It would have to be my diamond ring that my husband gave me to ask me to marry him!!
I am usually cold up here in our frozen landscape. A couple of years ago I saw a vest in a catalog that looked very cozy warm and stylish all at the same time. I showed it to my husband. He kind of grunted at me. Guess what was under the Christmas tree? I opened it (still in the shipping package) and pulled out the vest. He just looked at me and said, “And you thought I wasn’t listening.” :)
The item that I treasure the most is a gold initial with a tiny diamond hanging on a delicate gold chain – the necklace was given to me by my dad many years ago…dad was a big giver, but he usually took us shopping and picked out what we wanted…on this particular year the necklace was a big surprise and it is something I have always cherished.
We also did the Christmas Eve pj present which now looking back is a tradition I enjoyed and have started with my daughter and nieces.
Every Christmas Eve each of my girls get to open one gift (always new Christmas PJ’s) and then they wear them to the midnight Christmas Eve service at church. My oldest is 9 and I’m not sure how many more years I can get her to wear PJ’s in public :)
I remember a dress I received from my godmother in first grade-I LOVED that dress and fortunately, my mom saved it and it now hangs proudly in my closet! I remember wearing it with white cable knit tights and black patent leather mary jane’s. I was all that!
I’m in!
I dont remember just one special item but every year I would always receive new Christmas pajamas every Christmas Eve. I always got to open one present and it was always pajamas. Not too exciting as a kid, but as I got older it was a special way for my Mom to make me feel special. Now that my Mom is gone it will be up to me to carry on the tradition for my kids.
When I was in high school my mom splurged and bought me a beautiful sweater for Christmas. I wore that sweater until it fell apart!
I received my favorite pair of Christmas earrings from my grandma when I was about 10 yrs old–very small Christmas trees. They were so cute and sparkley. :)
I received a silver and gold pin from my dad in the shape of a wing, with a beautiful letter talking about how I would start to hear the wing beats and I needed to follow them and leave the nest (it was my sr year in HS Christmas). I still have the letter and the pin and it always makes me teary.
Our 10th Christmas together my husband surprised me with a beautiful blue sapphire (my birthstone) and diamond ring. Twenty-three years later I still wear this ring every day and seldom take it off. It is treasured as much as my wedding band and engagement ring are. Merry Christmas.
Michele