A party, peppernuts, and presence (and presents too!)

 Sunday morning started out a little foggy.

 We went to church in the morning and then took a nap before heading out to Al's sister's house.  Our extended family Christmas was in Little River this year.

 Many of the family were not able to come.  It gets harder as the family gets larger.  Ashley and Chris were there from Texas!

 James and Katie brought their dog along.

She is a real beaut.  I don't much care for dogs - have had one too many attacks in my life - but she was very sweet and I even petted her a few times!   She was always right by you if you had any food at all.  She even enjoys raw carrots!

Julie had some games for us to play.  Like Name that tune.  Not where you play part of it on the piano until someone guesses it, but a phrase from a Christmas song was given and you had to guess what song it was.  For example, if it was "the silent stars go by", what song is that? 

(Seems like Chris has given up.)



  It is "Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem".   Gayle won the game and received a little prize.

 Julie had told us to bring a pair of socks that had been wrapped.  Then she read a Christmas story that had the words "Left" and "Right" in it.  If she said either of those words, you had to pass the gift right or left.  At the end, you kept the gift that you ended up with.

A fun family time!

On Christmas Eve day, Al had to work at the hospital.  I did some house cleaning since our kids are coming this week.  Then I ran to a shop downtown to use up a $5 off coupon that would expire that day.  The aroma of this place!  Lots of peppernuts or pfeffernuesse cooking!

 If you make these German little Christmas cookies at home, most people do not have an automated machine.  It takes lots of time to roll them out and cut them.  My daughter and granddaughter made some!

When Jill asked me for a recipe, well, there are lots of different ones from the several Mennonite cookbooks I have.  But I knew I could trust Ruth's recipe!  She was the BEST Mennonite cook!

When I got home it was time to watch our kids on-line!  Our daughter's family were having 3 Christmas Eve services in Wisconsin and at 2 of them, there was a prelude before the service, where several from the congregation either sang or did instrumentals.  Their family played "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".   LOVE that we can watch even though we are miles away!!  Maybe they will perform for us at our family Christmas!

Jill also did a piano trio piece and Adam her her both accompanied other groups.

This Christmas Eve, a couple of Al's co-workers had invited us to their church for services there, so we went off to Wichita.  

It was a pretty amazing service!  The invitation to accept Christ was compelling and my prayer is that many gave their lives to Him.  Wouldn't Christmas take on a totally different meaning?  Emmanuel - Christ with us.  Not just about Santa and gifts under a tree,  No.  That is not what it is about at all.  Christianity is NOT about trying to be good and hope that God accepts you.  He gave His life for you - what a gift!! - and loves you so very much.  It doesn't matter if you don't think you aren't good enough.  None of us are!  Christ came into the world to save sinners!  Accept that He loves you!  That Baby came to die for you and take that penalty for you.  We cannot get to heaven on our own merit.

I wasn't sure any restaurants were open Christmas Eve, but there were!  We chose Red Rock Canyon, one of our favorites and they were busy!!  We shared a delicious meal and still had some to bring home.  

Afterwards we drove around town looking at Christmas lights.

When we got home, we watched our church's Christmas Eve show on-line.

"We celebrate the Light that penetrated the dark world."

He is the Light of the World!

And today is Christmas.

Our Christmas will be celebrated later this week after all the children arrive from the north, the east and the west!   We can celebrate the coming of  the Lord any time of the year, not just today!   (His real birthday wasn't this particular day anyway.  The shepherds were out in the field and that would have been anytime between end of April and end of September). 

 He came for each of us.  Jesus changed history!  Can you imagine this world if Jesus had not come?    That was my reading in "Streams in the Desert" today.  Read it here.

“Look! The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.” —Matt 1:23

There is no better gift than to have Him with me!  Always!

He never leaves us nor forsakes us!!

His present is His presence!

More celebrations!

 These next 2 celebrations took place at our house.   As I was cleaning the house for the company, I realized that our blinds needed cleaning.  I was able to do all of them except these in the stairway.    My sweet husband willingly helped me!

I spent some time with cooking.  Al's dad used to make these chocolate covered peanuts.  And my Uncle John made the BEST peanut brittle!  I made both plus some other goodies.

Recipe for the peanut brittle:
In a 3-4 quart Pyrex dish, stir together:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
dash of salt
Add 1 1/2 cup raw peanuts.
Microwave on high 4 minutes.
Stir and microwave 3 more minutes.
Add:
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Microwave 1 minute
Remove from microwave and add:
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
Stir well and spread on warm cookie sheet that has been greased or sprayed with Pam
Spread as thin as possible.  Be careful!  It is HOT!
Cool 30 minutes and then break into pieces.

*****

On Saturday night, we had a Japanese fellowship.  We had invited several Japanese but not everyone was able to come.  The original intent was to show an American Christmas for Japanese.  Last year we did this for Thanksgiving.  As it was, most of those students or Japanese were not able to come.  Conflicts or illness popped up.  But everyone did have some kind of connection with Japan.

A couple of us were MKs.  That's Missionary Kid if you don't know.  We grew up in Japan.
One couple are missionaries back in the States on furlough.
There were 3 young ladies who have spent some time in Japan and plan to go back to serve there.
There were 3 Japanese women.  Two are married to Americans, one being a Japanese/American.  One is a student at the local college who also brought along a friend, who is part of her host family.  And there were kids too.

We can seat 22 around our Amish made table.  It has lots of leaves we can add!

There was American food and some Japanese food too.  What a fun time we had.  Both languages were spoken, back and forth.

 
I made these little poppers for each person.  It is based on the M&M story:

Kaori-san read a "kamishibai" Christmas story in Japanese.  Andy translated it for those who didn't speak Japanese.

New connections and friendships were made.

You could tell we were all "Japanese" at heart.

We took off our shoes in the "genkan" (entryway).

For the next party, we took a few leaves out of our table.  It didn't need to be so long.  We had had 21 guests on Saturday but would only have 11 for Sunday evening.  Our friends came at 5:30 and we went caroling!  We each had one person we picked to sing for and drove around to various homes for that.  I forgot to take pictures - sad ;(  

Afterwards, we came back to our home for soup and goodies and for lots of laughter and fellowship.

 As Christmas gets closer, one thing I really enjoy is getting Christmas cards and letters!  When the season is over, this stack will make it to my bedroom and I will pick a card each day and pray for the family.   I got that idea from someone many years ago and I have kept up that tradition.

Our next party is with my husband's siblings.  And then we wait for the arrival of our family from 3 states!  Can't wait to hug on our grandchildren!

Celebrations at Christmas

'Tis the season!  

What fun to enjoy Christmas parties with friends!

My first party was with Sarah and our young mother's Bible study group.  We met in the fireside room at our church.  Of course, we had to light the fire for ambiance!

See the presents by the fireplace?  We each looked for an item at home that was still in good shape, but perhaps you don't use it, but someone else might!  These gifts were numbered and we were all assigned the same number as our gift and had to write down something about ourselves that others might not know.

     "I can wiggle my ears."  (Yes, she proved it.  I can also do it!)
     "I was bitten by a bear and lived to tell about it."
     "I wanted to be a CEO of a big company."
     "I grew up in the country in a 2 story yellow house (then she added "in Nebraska" and that gave it away! - Andrea!!)
     "Loves to bake at Christmas time."
     "Have a scar on my back from the doctor cutting me in utero during a c-section."  (YIKES!)

The person who guessed who wrote it, got the present from that person.  It was such a fun and enlightening game!

The bear story?  Me.  OK, it was at a petting zoo and the big bear that "mauled" me, err, nipped at me was a little bear cub.  But it makes for a good story!  And the CEO?  She now has her own wedding venue so is, in fact, with her husband and their friends, the "CEO" of this!
   
Lots to eat and just have fun!  We missed Hannah, but she was getting ready for the arrival of a new born baby - who is now here!!  Congratulations to you and your family!!!

 This year we studied "HisStory", a look at the Bible as a whole story.  I was in my 20's before I connected all the dots.  I could tell you details about many of the stories of the Bible, but didn't realize it is all really one BIG story!  There really is a story line!  So we did a book by book look at how these books look toward the Saviour, the ONE we are celebrating this Christmas!

A children's story book Bible that explains this one continuous story is:

For our gift to the moms, we got them this book, "Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing", which is one I am using along with my Bible reading. 

The wife of a friend of mine who was in my class in Japan had it posted on her Facebook page when she was diagnosed with brain cancer.  I asked her about it and she shared with me about it.  She taught art at our school in Japan and I think the pictures really spoke to her, but the words too!  You would think it is a children's book, but it is GOOD for grownups!  I read a page at a time and it really speaks to me!  Little nuggets of truth from the Word.  Thank you, Lois, for directing me to it!  Rick and Lois were such an encouragement to thousands as they walked this path.  They kept trusting in God's perfect plan and had such peace.  Lois died in August.  Please pray for Rick as he seeks God's direction for him in the coming years without Lois at his side.

The next day I had a party (Christmas brunch) with my Old(er) friends at Sally's house.

 Her house was decorated so very pretty!

 After eating, we had our Bible study.  We have been going through a Women of Faith Bible study on emotions.  A couple of ladies led it for the most part and they did an excellent job of leading us to the One Who holds us in our circumstances, whether difficult or joyful.  A couple were missing this day because they are walking in hard times and just were not able to come.

 These friends of mine have been so much fun!  And such prayer warriors too!  How they love the Lord and I am learning each week how to draw closer to Him.

I will post about some more parties in the next post.