I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with those you love remembering the birth of our Savior and Lord, who came from everything familiar, comfortable, right, and glorious to live among sinful people who would misunderstand and reject Him, in order to provide salvation for us.
By John R. Van Gelderen, sung by Mary Lynne Van Gelderen
Mystery of Christmas night,
Prophecies of old come true —
Infant lies in candle light,
Prince of peace in wondrous view.
Mystery of Christmas night
Shining forth salvation’s light.
Gift of God and hope of man,
King of glory born on earth.
God’s eternal master plan
Offers man a second birth.
Mystery of Christmas night
Shining forth salvation’s light.
Mystery of Christmas glow,
Shining still with saving light
Christ the Savior man may know
Miracle of Christmas night.
Mystery of Christmas night
Shining forth salvation’s light.
(Sound clip and download available here.)
Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.
I’ve been wanting to put a miniature Christmas tree on my dry sink for a long time, and got some components in previous years, but this is the first year I got everything I needed to complete it and actually put it up.
It’s a smidgen too tall for the space there — I think I might snip the top of it so the little star topper fits under the shelf. I love the tree skirt (half off at Hobby Lobby, as were some of the other decorations). I’m pleased with how it turned out.
I won from a giveaway Miss Sandy had at Quill Cottage this lovely Nativity decoration she made.
She has one she uses as a tree topper. I don’t want to put mine there but I haven’t decided exactly where to put it yet. But it’s lovely — thank you, Sandy!
I have a couple of Christmas pins, one a little more dressy and one more casual:
I got them both at an annual craft show when we lived in GA. That’s one of the things I miss most about that area. Unfortunately it’s a little too far to drive there just for this event, but I’ve been tempted.
And, finally, it has been a little while since I showed my “work in progress,” so I thought I’d do that today as well.
I’ve had to lay it aside to get other things done over the holidays, but I’m looking forward to getting back to it soon.
My college student’s last day of school was yesterday, and my youngest’s last day is today. My husband is working from home today and then off next week, so we’re about to enjoy some vacation time. I got a late start on Christmas tasks — I don’t know what kind of fog I was in, but it suddenly dawned on me that December was nearly half over and I needed to get down to business. I kicked it into high gear, and praying much and leaning on the Lord for grace, got out-of-town packages in the mail as well as the Christmas cards to far-flung relatives. I’ll finish the other Christmas cards today and have some odds and ends shopping to finish up. Last night was the last “official” event to go to, my youngest son’s Christmas concert at school. We do have a Christmas Eve service at church, and my anniversary is Sunday, for which my husband is taking me out to dinner Saturday night. We may go to one of the drive-through Christmas light displays nearby. I haven’t done any baking and hope to get some Harvest Loaf Cake made this weekend. But overall I am feeling good about the progress on holiday activities and looking forward to next week. Have a great weekend!
I mentioned in an earlier post about decorating the Christmas tree that “the island of misfit ornaments” was the designation my oldest son gave to some of our ornaments that were not quite picture perfect. Some of them got broken or misshapen over the years and we’ve just never gotten around to fixing them — I think when we get them out I’ll fix them some time during the season, and then when that doesn’t happen I think I’ll get to them before next year, but somehow I never throw them away. Others of them are just a little offbeat. But as we unpack the ornaments every year and ooh and ah over the pretty ones and remember the stories and significance behind several of them, we have a lot of fun with the “misfits” as well. I thought I’d show you some of them. I’ll forewarn you, though, that with teen/young adult boys, our sense of humor is a little warped.
This one used to be a little Nativity ornament.
We don’t hang this one any more. One year the roof broke off, and it looks like we lost Mary, or at least her head, along the way. My kids found this at the bottom of the box and were asking about it (I guess it has been so long since it was whole that they didn’t even remember it). As I was telling them what it used to be, Jeremy, my oldest, said it looked more like Abraham getting ready to sacrifice Isaac…
I mentioned in that earlier post that there was one angel whose head got separated from its body somehow, and the boys have done strange things with it every year since. One year they just hung the head as an ornament and placed another ornament that was a little hat on top of it. This is where it ended up this year:
I told them they reminded me of Sid on Toy Story.
These were little wax candle ornaments that we got our first Christmas together.
The brown-haired boy represented Jim, and the blond girl represented me. But one year they got a little melted up in the attic. I couldn’t even get them out of the plastic bags because they were stuck. I don’t know why I haven’t thrown them away. I put all my Christmas candles in a box in a storage closest now so they don’t melt any more up in the attic, and I keep these in with them.
I think one of the boys got this little misshapen bear at a school or Sunday School exchange. I don’t know what happened to him.
But they seem to have special affection for him.
Someone gave us this one year. Jason called her the octopus angel.
She looks a little depressed to me.
This was a little crystal angel whose lower end keeps getting broken off in pieces even though it is kept in its own little box.
This is what Jeremy did with it this year.
For those of you familiar with the BJU Unusual films, their logo was the angel flying with the video camera — this reminds me of that.
This is something Jesse made when he was little.
We have several kid-made ornaments like that that have their place of honor.
And there is nothing wrong with this one…I’ve just always thought it was a little strange.
Doesn’t every tree need a Hershey’s Kiss ornament?
Finally, I also told in that post about how we have a stray hook on the ceiling that the previous owners had, I think, a hanging lamp on. We’ve just never taken it out, and one year one of the boys put one of our snowflake ornaments on it. I fussed about it the first year, and then it became kind of a game every year to get it up there before I could say anything. I’ve accepted it now as one of our unique traditions.
You can also see in that picture that they put a little crown ornament I got on clearance last year on our angel tree topper.
I’ve always preferred that our tree be a meaningful family-oriented tree rather than a perfect decorator tree, but I’ll have to admit there have been some years I wished some of these remained in the box, or after everyone was done decorating I moved them to a less conspicuous place on the tree. But now I’ve pretty much embraced them as part of the fun of our particular tree decorations.
Do you have any offbeat or “misfit” ornaments?
Nannykim suggested I post some pictures of the “misfit ornaments” I mentioned the other day. I would so love to do that! I think it would be a lot of fun, and I’m in the mood for it. I’d love to do that today — but I must exercise self-disciple and get some things done. I’m kicking myself not so much because I am running behind, but because it is my own fault. So I am thinking maybe Saturday — though weekends are usually low blog-reading days for many — maybe early next week. If WordPress would support Mr. Linky I’d even think about setting it up where others could post links (but then that would be assuming that other people save their misfit ornaments like we do!)
This is a busy week — ladies’ group party was Monday (fun!), Jesse’s first basketball game was Tuesday (more on that tomorrow, hopefully), prayer meeting at church last night, Jesse’s piano recital tonight, then another basketball game tomorrow night. Plus some of my stuff to do from last week didn’t get finished then. So it’s been “lite” posting this week, though there have been some deep thoughts along the way. 🙂
During the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, my blog stats go way up because of several things I posted my first year of blogging. I had a lot of poems, quotes, etc. gleaned from several years of compiling our ladies ministry newsletter, and evidently people do a lot of searching for that kind of thing this time of year! I didn’t know some of you then, and I didn’t want to repost them but thought I’d post the links if any of you has time and inclination to look around. I’ll post some of my links first and then some other links around the blogosphere that have caught my eye recently.
My Christmas links:
Christmas links I have seen elsewhere lately:
One word about Christmas crafts: I see all these cute ideas during during December bur don’t have time to try them then. So the past few years I have made some in the week or two after Christmas. I’m still in the mood and the stores still have some Christmas supplies (though you could get the supplies earlier, if you’re afraid they’ll run out, and just make them when you can).
Happy reading!
Jewel at Down in My Little Valley gave me a Christmas Spirit Award with the following tag:
“The rules are to tag someone with this award that I know loves Christmas, and has Christmas spirit. They must link back to my blog to indicate where they were tagged, and they need to add 1 to 45 reasons why they love Christmas.”
1. I love Christmas first of all because it’s the time we celebrate the birth of our Savior: “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” (Isaiah 9:6).
2. Christmas music.
3. Christmas lights. OK, some can be a little on the gaudy side. But I love that so many people put lights outside their houses as well as in, and I love lights on the tree.
4. The Christmas tree. In itself it may seem a little strange to bring a tree inside and hang decorations on it…but I love it.
5. Christmas ornaments, little miniature decorations, often with a story of how it came to be, who gave it to whom, etc.
6. Christmas cards, the opportunity to send and receive greetings with friends and loved ones.
7. Christmas newsletters. Yes, I love them! I enjoy catching up with what’s been going on with people.
8. Christmas events. Though it does tend to make the calendar more full than usual, I love attending our kids’ plays, our Sunday School Christmas party, events in town, etc.
9. Christmas foods.
10. Time off. The kids are off from school, and my husband often takes a few vacation days.
11. Calling loved ones on Christmas Day.
12. Giving gifts.
If you love Christmas consider yourself tagged!
I’ve been tagged with a couple of other memes and was originally going to do them all together…but I think this one needs to stand alone. So I’ll do the others later on. This may be meme week as Real Life is incredibly busy!
No “Blue Monday” today. It wouldn’t take too long to put a post up for it, but I feel the point of those interactive memes is to interact, LOL! I have a whole list of things to get done today, so since I don’t have time to visit around for that, I’ll refrain this week. I’ve been by to see some of my regulars already and will see the rest later on.
We finally got our Christmas tree up this weekend. I say finally — it’s not terribly far into December yet. But when we had originally planned to do it earlier, it seems like we’re running late. We like to do it all together, so as long as we have family nearby to do it, we’ll arrange our time to do it together. It just gets so much harder as kids get older and have college classes and work obligations. So because of that we went to get the tree on Sunday, something we don’t normally do.
We have Grandma with us on Sundays through church and dinner and brought clothes for her to change into to go get the tree. She did that but then wanted to go home before we decorated it. I think she was just wearing out, plus she said even when her kids were small she never did much with decorating — her husband and kids put all the ornaments on the tree. I think if she had stayed she would have enjoyed watching the antics of the kids — it’s always a riot as they put the ornaments on. We always do some odd things — maybe it comes of having older boys. There is a hook in the ceiling that the previous owners had either a lamp or a hanging plant on that we’ve never removed. One year one of the boys put a snowflake ornament there. The next year I kept saying, “No, don’t put that there,” so now it has become sort of a family joke to get the snowflake up there before I tell them not to. We have weird traditions, I know, LOL! But to me that’s the best kind — the kind that just arise from the moment. Then we have this one angel that my husband and I bought our first Christmas together that came apart a few years ago, and I keep forgetting to either fix it or get rid of it (do other people do this? When we get ornaments out I find ones that need a little repair work and think I’ll get to it some time. Then when we put ornaments away in January I think I’ll get it next year. So they stay in the box unused — unless my kids get to them and find unique ways to use them. My oldest called them “the island of misfit ornaments.”) So one year they hung the head separately from the body. There are one or two ornaments that they do something “different” with every year. It sounds weird, I know, and it is. But it’s one of those things unique to our family.
At one point while we were driving home with the tree on top of the van, Jesse and Jason kept saying it was sliding. They had been talking about seeing the shadow of it while we were driving, so I thought they meant it looked like it was scooting backwards. Just as we were slowing down to turn into a parking lot to see what was going on, it slid off the side and was just hanging by the twine tied to the luggage rack on the roof. We could just imagine what people in other cars thought — a new way to transport your Christmas tree! The two older guys had cameras but didn’t think to take a picture. I would have loved to post a picture of the tree hanging down the side of the car with just the title “Ooops!”
So now the tree is up and the house is decorated and I feel all Christmasy. I love the pine smell in the living room and the way the lights look when the rest of the room is dark.
Last week was supposed to be my week to get lots done while this week has a lot of events to go to, but everything didn’t get done last week that I had planned — one task took longer than planned plus I didn’t use my time to the best advnatge earlier in the week. So…I’d best get to it. I had planned to do a couple of memes I’ve been tagged for, but I’ve chattered on so much I’ll need to save those for another day.
Happy Monday!
I have a husband and three sons. They’re not sports fans or hunters or golfers, but they do like technology and gadgets. For anything really technical I need to get the exact name, product code, etc., but these are some “other” gifts they’ve enjoyed receiving over the years.
1. USB Rocket Launcher plugs into the USB port of your computer. My husband has one on his desk at work that coworkers like to launch.
It has a series of buttons and levers, and people just can’t resist pushing and flipping them to see what will happen, despite the dire warnings. Of course, Jeremy and Jesse wanted to try it out.
When you don’t want to walk all the way to the kitchen for a cold drink. It holds one drink can.
4. Duct Tape wallet. Because guys can make ANYTHING out of duct tape.
5. Digital Temperature Fork. This is handy if your guy grills: a fork with a meat thermometer built in. Ours came with a set of grilling utensils. We got this from a department store (J. C. Penney’s, I think) one Father’s Day, but I ran a search for it and found several sources online.
6. Digital Bank
Ours, which we found in the men’s department at a store in the mall, is much plainer than this version from SlashGear, but there are several online. It keeps count of the total of the coins as you drop them in. I don’t know how you adjust it if you remove any — maybe that’s motivation not to!
7. Anything from Scottevest, a line of clothing designed to accommodate the wires and cords from electronic devices and all sorts of pockets and compartments. A couple of my guys had their jackets on their “wish list” for years, but they were kind of expensive, so all we ever got was this hat (you can click on the video link there to see where the compartments are).
8. Many of the above items can be found at ThinkGeek, the name of which speaks for itself. Lots of…interesting stuff there. It’s mostly a family-friendly site, but, as with all external links, use caution and discretion.
You can find a plethora of workable tips at Rocks In My Dryer each Wednesday.
I received this in an e-mail, and I think I saw it on someone’s blog, but forgot to note where. I added a few questions of my own at the end.
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Some of each. For the family it’s mostly wrapped packages unless something is an odd shape. For anyone outside of family it’s often a gift bag.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real so far, but after getting rained out of getting our Christmas tree when we’d planned to I am thinking more about an artificial one.
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually whenever everyone’s schedules can coincide. We like to get the tree and decorate it together as a family. I like the first Sat. in December. This year we were thinking about the day after Thanksgiving since everyone will was off then, but it rained on the day we were going to get it. This Saturday some of he kids works in the afternoon and others of us have events in the evening. So I don’t know when we’ll get to do it.
4. When do you take the tree down? By New Year’s if not before.
5. Do you like eggnog? I don’t, but Jim and the boys do.
6. Favorite gift received as a child. Barbie dolls, because my nickname was Barbie.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My step-father.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Jesse, my youngest.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? No. The closest I have is this little musical figurine my mom gave me.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mostly snail-mail, but a few e-mail.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received. Chocolate covered cherries (Bleah!)
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Some time after Thanksgiving usually, but not Black Friday!! When my mom was alive, we would tuck little things away for each other all through the year. I knew what kinds of things she liked and would buy them as I found them. With my boys now, as they grow their tastes and desires change, plus whatever new game or gadget they want won’t be available until closer to Christmas, so I usually wait. (More on gadget gifts for guys tomorrow!)
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I think I may have, though I can’t remember any specifics. I know I have given away Christmas presents I received but didn’t want without presenting them as a gift from me.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Harvest loaf Cake
16. Lights on the tree? Of course.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Too many good ones to have one favorite! But “In The Bleak Mid-winter” and “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” would be at the top of the list. I like the “Carol of the Bells” the first couple of times I hear it.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Stay home.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? No
20. Angel on the treetop or a star? Angel but I’d like to replace it with a star.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Crowds in the stores, over-full schedule
23. What theme or color are you using? Usual Christmas colors. We have a wide variety of ornaments and decorations — I never went in for a themed tree — but we do have a lot of snowmen.
24. Favorites for Christmas dinner. Ham, mashed potatoes, pies.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I haven’t thought much about it yet.
26. Do you have a favorite ornament, what? I have several favorites — it is fun to see them and recall the stories behind them as we decorate the tree.
27. Favorite Christmas special on TV? Charlie Brown Christmas would be tops, but also The Little Drummer Boy and The Grinch Stole Christmas.
28. Do you give gifts to extended family (adult siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins)? Family gifts or individual ones? Not cousins or aunts or uncles. I like giving to everyone, but it has kind of fallen off over the years. Even when we did it, it wasn’t reciprocated — it just gets too expensive, and not living nearby, we don’t know their tastes any more. But sometimes if we have a really good, inexpensive idea, we’ll go for it, like last year when we ended up with a lot of old family pictures and made a CD of them for everyone plus copied an 8×10 of my mom and step-dad for everyone.
29. Christmas parties? Our Sunday School class has one as does the ladies’ group at church. Only once or twice has my husband’s job had anything that involved spouses.
30. Do you bake Christmas cookies? What kind? We did decorated sugar cookies when the kids were little but haven’t in the last few years. I also make gingerbread teddie bears some years. They’re a lot of work, so I don’t do them every year, but I have been craving them this year. If I make them I’ll show them to you.
31. Special church services? There is always a kid’s play or presentation, an adult choir Christmas cantata, and usually a Christmas Eve service.
32. Christmas events you like to attend? Our town has a “Dickens of a Christmas” evening downtown where there are different groups singing, little plays or ballets in shop windows, etc. There are a couple of places with light displays that we usually drive through. That’s all I can remember we do regularly, but if something else comes up that we’re interested in and have time for, we’ll go.
33. Read the Christmas story on Christmas? Yes, my husband does, usually before we open gifts, usually from Luke 2 but sometimes from other passages.
Let me know if you do this and I’ll come by to see your answers!
(Graphic courtesy of the stock.xchng)
Jim set this up with the tripod and timer. In the first one, the camera missed him. In the second one, I’m blocking Jeremy. We should photoshop them together!
One of the many benefits of blogging I’ve reaped is a renewed interest in homemaking. I’ve wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom all my married life, and I am thankful the Lord has enabled that since my first pregnancy. But sometimes, especially when the kids were small, it was almost more than I could do just to keep up, much less get creative. Now that they’re older and a little more independent, I feel I am branching out creatively again, and I am so enjoying it. All that to say I just loved using little fall cookie cutters I found last year to embellish the pie with.
Sometimes I think, living with all males, that little touches don’t matter and won’t even be noticed, but everyone commented on both this and the table set a little more nicely than usual. I’ve started using tablecloths on holidays, and it’s funny (but good!) that they notice and think it’s special.
Playing Scrabble, Grandma’s favorite.
All in all a good day. We dozed a little in the afternoon and watched Kung Fu Panda in the evening with our leftovers.
The 12 lb. turkey ended up being just right: enough leftovers for everyone to have sandwiches or to heat up some turkey with leftover stuffing and mashed potatoes a time or two, and we had Turkey Bone Soup with the last of it tonight.
We were going to get our Christmas tree Saturday, but it rained off and on all day. We figured it would be too wet and muddy (the place we always go is out in a field), especially for Grandma, and then the tree would be too wet to decorate. I’m hoping Jason and his girlfriend don’t have to work too far into the afternoon next Saturday so we can get it then.
I’m enjoying the time off, lazing around mostly between dishes and laundry. The next couple of weeks are going to be really busy, so I am kind of soaking up the relaxation now. I did get a bit of preliminary work done this afternoon when we decided not to get the tree, so that helps a little.
This song by Rebecca J. Weston has been on my heart today:
Father, we thank Thee for the night,
And for the pleasant morning light;
For rest and food and loving care,
And all that makes the world so fair.
Help us to do the things we should,
To be to others kind and good;
In all we do, in work or play,
To love Thee better day by day.
Have a good Sunday!
Stray Thoughts 