Christmas

Christmas -- the celebration of Christ's birth by Christians worldwide, has come and gone already!  It hardly seems possible that 2012 is days away!
We had Bob's daughters and their families, as well as Bob's mother, over the day before Christmas to celebrate.  It was a lot of fun watching the 2 3-year-old grandsons opening their presents, especially their "Toy Story" and "Cars" chairs, which they absolutely loved.  It was a relaxed visit, greatly appreciated after the hustle and bustle of the week.  We also received a surprise, but I can't say anything about it just yet!
My husband and I went to our Christmas Eve church service, at the end of which candles were lit by everyone as the lights were dimmed.  The lighting of candles to me signifies the spreading of God's love as all the candles are lit from the Christ candle; as the flame was passed and multiplied, the sanctuary glowed with a soft light, candles flickering in hands and casting dancing shadows across our faces.  As God's love is shared, it too spreads light and ejects the darkness of the world.
After we came home, Bob and I had our simple gift exchange.  Our big gift was a Wii console for ourselves.  I gave Bob a Nascar game for the Wii so he can drive like a mad man from the safety of the sofa in our living room!  Bob gave me a copy of "The Message" Bible, which I had requested.
After a relaxed breakfast and reading of the Christmas story from the Bible the next morning, I spent about 5 hours in the kitchen, baking cinnamon bread for my kids/grandkids, making another batch of candied citrus peels (requested by my son and son-in-law), and baking dinner rolls from scratch.  Around 1:45 pm, we packed the trunk full of presents and drove to my son's house in Raleigh, where I and the presents were deposited so Bob could get his mother from her apartment to spend Christmas with us.  I hadn't been in the house but a few minutes when Niland and Benny were pulling me and telling me that I had to go upstairs to the great room to see the "surprise."  They were bursting at the seams to show it to me, so up the stairs we went.  I couldn't believe my eyes!  My son (and I didn't know about this ahead of time) had built from plywood a "firehouse" indoor play area, complete with ladder, 8' slide, fire pole, and a rock wall (which had yet to be installed).  The plywood sides created a 4x4 box that was about 9' tall; the ladder/steps took one up to the platform or floor of the second level, which was about 5' above the ground, where the kids could either go down the slide or out onto the platform to access the fire pole!  Beneath the upper platform was another 'room' with an arched entrance, and I was encouraged, and I complied, to crawl in there and sit down on a beanbag chair!  There is a peaked roof on top of the unit, so the top platform is also a room in which the kids can play.  Needless to say, they love it! 
Dori, John, Luke and Cami arrived shortly, and Bob returned with his mother, gifts were passed out, and we watched the kids have more fun!  Being with family on holidays is so important, and we're so blessed to have all of our children close by!
Nate cooked a beef tenderloin wrapped in some sort of salty bread dough in the oven -- it was so yummy!  Luke devoured a dinner roll immediately -- I think it's his favorite food at our family dinners -- and we had scalloped potatoes, salad (2 kinds), braised brussel sprouts, and carrots, followed by several selections for dessert. 
We said our goodbyes by 7:15 pm; the boys were exhausted, John and Dori had to pack for a trip to Chicago the next morning to visit John's parents, and we had to take Mom home.  After we left Nate's place, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights decorating the outside of homes in the area before taking Mom back to her apartment.
After we returned home, we tried out the Nascar game on the Wii for about an hour.  We laughed so hard at the "announcer's" comments when Bob would crash into the wall or spin out on the track.  I can see how the games are addictive!
And now we're looking to quietly celebrate the New Year -- first on Friday evening by having dinner at Steve and Martha's house -- this is becoming a tradition, but usually we do it on New Year's Eve.  However, Ricky and Julie, another couple that celebrates with us, have to be at church early the next day, so our celebration will be Friday evening instead.  And Saturday, we're going to have a simple evening meal at our house with some other church friends, Gladwin and Doris, at which time we'll also celebrate Bob's 64th birthday!  Yes, he's a New Year's Eve baby! 
As we approach 2012, we pray for peace, not only personally, but globally.  We pray for hearts turning back to God, our Creator, and we pray for the blessings of God to rain down on His people around the world.  I'm expecting God to do great things in 2012, but He's already done the best thing He could ever do -- He sent His Son Jesus to redeem us!  Nothing comes close in comparison.

Happy New Year to all my blog readers around the world!

Cookies - and a Scare!

Baking Christmas cookies for family has become a tradition.  Years ago when my children were small, I'd bake sugar cookies, the kind you cut out, and let Dori and Nathan decorate them with colored frosting, which they "painted" on.  Sprinkles and a variety of candy decorations were added to the frosting before it dried, transforming the lightly-browned cookies into colorful, festive treats. 
This past Saturday, I spent the day baking those sugar cookies.  Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the day.  But for my husband's help, I would have been more exhausted!  Sunday afternoon five of the grandchildren came over to decorate cookies -- Cami (9), Niland (4), Wilson and Cooper (3), and Benny (2).  The kitchen table was stacked with plain cookies in 5 places, so each child had their own stack on which to work.  Excitement permeated the air as the kids looked at all those cookies!  We mixed up the frosting, and the fun began!  I know Cooper ate more sprinkles than he put on his cookies!
We were especially glad to see Benny as Friday night had given us a real scare.  Bob and I had gone to a Christmas party for some kids, put on by an organization in our church, and afterward, we drove around looking at the Christmas light displays and one in particular that had thousands of lights synchronized to music which could be heard on a radio frequency.  While there, we got a phone call from my son, Nathan, who was at the emergency room with Benny.  He'd had an allergic reaction to something that he ate.  His entire body had blown up like he'd been pumped full of air, and his breathing had become labored.  Nate and Bernette called for an ambulance, which arrived within minutes, and Benny was taken to the emergency room and treated enroute.  When Nate called me, Benny was receiving medication through an IV and had just fallen asleep. 
Bernette had left a harried message on my cell phone about an hour earlier, but I hadn't heard it ring due to all the noise at the party, and I hadn't checked my phone for messages when we left.  Once I listened to Bee's message after I spoke with Nate, I called her and prayed with her and for Benny.  Niland, their 4-year-old son, had witnessed the paramedics taking his brother in the ambulance, and he was very upset, standing at the window and asking his mother when the ambulance was going to bring his brother back home.  I could tell Niland was distraught when I spoke to him in an added effort to assure him that Benny would return, but in daddy's car, not the ambulance.  And they did return home around 2 a.m.  Benny's swelling was down, and when they woke Niland up to tell him Benny was home, Niland hugged and hugged his little brother.  Benny is currently taking steroids and is undergoing tests to determine what caused the severe allergic reaction.  It was indeed a frightful incident, especially for Nate and Bee -- and 2-year-old Benny!
But back to the cookies -- Benny's attention span was rather short Sunday afternoon, so about 45 minutes after they arrived, Nate and Bee took Benny and the baby, Julian, with them, leaving us with the 4 other children.  After most of the cookies were decorated, the kids played outside, running through the dormant flower gardens and playing on the swing set and slide.  Later, we refilled our bird feeders, and when I mentioned to Bob that I'd have to clean out the seeds from between the slats of wood on the deck, Niland said, "Yeah, you'll have to do that later, Nana, 'cause you have children to watch!"  He was so right!  While warming up inside and snacking, they watched 2 short videos.
Nate and Bee returned around 4:15 to get Niland, and then I took the rest of the grandkids on a walk through the neighborhood, looking for birds' nests in the bare trees and watching the ducks that were paddling in the small pond down the slope along the road. When we returned to our house, the boys played while I finished decorating their cookies and packed them in boxes for transport home.
After everyone was gone, Bob and I finished decorating the remaining sugar cookies -- they taste better with frosting!  Which is sort of like life -- it tastes better with 'frosting.'  Family and friends are the 'frosting' that sweetens our life.  And if they are the frosting, God is the 'cookie', the foundation from which flows all the sweetness of family and friends.

Decorate a cookie this Christmas.  And then turn around and hug the sweetness that God has put in your life.  I'm so very grateful that our family can still hug our little Benny!

An Angel, a Shepherd, and a Lamb

An angel, a shepherd, and a lamb -- all were present during the first Christmas night, and all played an important role in the Christmas story.  If you haven't done so, pull out your Bible (hopefully you're blessed with having one) and read the Christmas story again.
The shepherds were the lowliest of people back in those days.  Left to watch sheep both day and night, they were a hardy bunch, and I can envision them being scruffy, gruff, and tough.  They had to be to protect their precious, defenseless sheep from predatory animals and from the pitfalls in the rough countryside.  Sheep, dumb animals at best, were easily frightened and would scatter in different directions, making the job of the shepherds particularly challenging.  And thus they were out on the hillsides on a cold, dark night when an angel of the Lord appeared in the sky overhead, causing the shepherds to tremble in fear!  Suddenly, their dark, peaceful night had exploded in blazing color, dazzling light, and a voice from heaven.  I can only imagine what they thought as they covered their eyes and fell to their knees, terrified at the sight before them.  Fear quickly turned to joy when the news the angel delivered registered in their simple, yet trusting, hearts and minds.  The Messiah had come!
God chooses the simple things of this world to spread his Word, and this past week he used little children to do just that.  Three of our young grandsons attend the same preschool located in a Baptist church.  Their Christmas Program was on Monday, and the parents and half of the grandparents of all three attended.  In fact, there were lots of family members filling the auditorium.  All of the approximately 30 children, ages 3 and 4 years, were simply dressed as angels, shepherds, or sheep.  Niland was a shepherd; Cooper was a sheep; and Wilson was an angel.  I thought it was neat that they were three different characters.  They sang three songs, jingling bells during "Jingle Bells", and they blessed everyone who was there.  Cameras clicked and recorded videos for this grand event, a reflection of that night thousands of years ago when an angel, shepherds, and sheep were chosen to be part of the greatest story ever told. 
The photos attached show our grandsons and the other small children during their performance.  Oh that we could be like them, enthralled and captivated with the season -- not for the commercialism -- but for the birth of the Savior of mankind -- Jesus.

As you prepare for this special season, my prayer is that each of you keep the real meaning of Christmas in the center of your heart and mind.  After all, Christ is Christmas.

Hectic Season!

WOW!  I thought I'd be able to post a blog every week since the last one, but things have turned hectic, or maybe they've just remained so.  One thing that has consumed my time has been editing my book, "Amanda's Hope," which is going to be published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishing.  I'm very excited about this as the book will be professionally produced and marketed nation-wide.  Now that the book has been checked and made as perfect as I can get it, I need to submit it on-line, and I estimate that process will take about 2 hours.  Once I complete the on-line work, I'll have a proof in hand in a matter of weeks. 
We also hosted our church group's Christmas party last Saturday, and I took off the day before so I wouldn't be pressed and stressed; however, preparations still went down to the wire.  The thing that set us back was the fact that the Christmas tree we had purchased the Sunday before and left outside in a bucket of water had a crack up the trunk when we went to put it up, so we had to take it back and get a new one. Fortunately, the place was only 2 miles down the road.  We put the lights and beaded garlands on it, and when our guests arrived at 6 p.m., they helped trim our tree.  I had roasted a turkey, and the rest of the meal was potluck, and the food was fabulous.  I had chosen games to play after dinner, and we had so much fun with one that involved Christmas songs -- laughed so hard!  We had 21 people plus us, so 23 people in the house.  As guests were leaving around 10:15 p.m., Iwas in the kitchen cleaning up with a few other ladies when we heard a crash and a large collective gasp from people in the living room -- our Christmas tree, all 8.5 feet of it, had fallen, breaking glass ornaments and spilling water everywhere.  I couldn't even look at it, I was so upset; all the ornaments that had been placed on the tree were hand-made, and I didn't want to know which ones broke.  Several people helped clean up the mess, the tree was righted, lights hanging everywhere, and our house finally emptied.  The tree must have been heavier on one side because there was no reason for it to come down; my daughter told me later that their tree had fallen on Christmas day last year for no apparent reason, too, so I guess it does happen.  The tree was trimmed again on Sunday, and I don't know which ornaments were lost, but my 3 hand-painted blown eggshell ornaments survived.  I made them in 1990 and was glad that they somehow made it through the crash.  One fell off the tree, and the other 2 stayed on, but none broke!
Shopping for Christmas presents has been slow; some has been done on-line and some in-store.  I took Tuesday off to spend the day with my daughter and daughter-in-law, doing a little shopping and having lunch.  So nice to be able to spend time with them - and the baby, who is now almost 8 months old and sporting 2 teeth!  After lunch, my daughter-in-law Bee and I went and picked up her two older boys from preschool, and then I went to their house and spent about an hour playing in the leaves piled up at the curb.  The weather was warm -- about 73 degrees that day -- so no jackets were needed, and Niland and Benny had a grand time throwing leaves on me and trying to cover me up.  Great memories!
Around 3 p.m. I headed to the bank, then got my hair cut, and then did a little more Christmas shopping.  After lugging everything home, I made a turkey potpie from scratch -- yummy - and a great way to use some of that turkey left from the party.
Our warm weather exited our state on Wednesday as a line of very heavy rain and high winds blew it out and ushered in cold weather.  Being a person who's lived in the North most of my life, I still find it difficult to realize that Christmas is a little more than 2 weeks away because it's been so warm!  Cold weather helps!  But this blessed time of year when we celebrate our Lord's birth has crept up on me, and I'm so unprepared!  Things I still must do (mostly because I like to!) -- make fudge, sugar cookies, and loads of caramel nut popcorn! 
Last year we had the small grandchildren over to decorate Christmas cookies, and they will come again on December 18, so I'll be baking all day Saturday to have enough cookies for 5 grandchildren to decorate and take home!  And tonight my husband has his Christmas Concert for this barbershop chorus, and Sunday the group sings at Pullen Park in Raleigh, which has been renovated and features a 100-year-old merry-go-round and a miniature train, but it's only supposed to be 45 degrees on Sunday, which means by the time they sing at 4:30, it's going to be COLD!  Guess I'll wear my ski pants to stay warm!
We're still trying to arrange how to get with all the family Christmas weekend -- they have spouses and other members to consider, too -- so things are hectic, to say the least.  But in the midst of all the hurried activity, we must all remember the real reason for the season -- Jesus Christ came to earth as a baby to save mankind. 
Take time to dwell on the true meaning of Christmas.  Without His coming, there would be no celebration at all and no redemption for mankind.