Preparing

Our kids went back home 4 days ago.  Christmas is over, the house is back in order.  And now I can reflect and share about it.

Preparing for the celebration of the Day of Christ's Birth included parties with my dear friends in my Bible studies.  In my "older ladies" class, I taught the lesson from Kristi McLelland's "Luke in the Land - the Incarnation"; how Jesus brought His kingdom to the earth.

In "The Sacred Romance" by Curtis/Eldredge, it is stated this way:  "Under cover of the night, He stole into the enemy's camp incognito, the Ancient of Days disguised as a newborn.  The Incarnation, as Phil Yancy reminds us, was a daring raid into enemy territory.  The whole world lay under the power of the evil one and we were held in the dungeons of darkness.  God risked it all to rescue us."

                                                        Everybody brought lots of goodies.

This treat is called "Kansas fenceposts after a snow storm". Easy to make and fun to eat!

My young mother's group had a party also.  We always have a gift exchange finding used things that we no longer use at home and re-gifting that.  I also gave a devotional on the gifts we receive from God.  Can you think of what He gifts us?  Are you grateful?  Do you know that even affliction can be a gift as it can draw us closer to the LORD as we lean on Him and find strength in Him.

Getting ready for our 3 kids and their families to come, there was lots of housecleaning to do and making 11 beds; several singles, 1 full, 2 queens and a king.  Luckily we have a study and 4 bedrooms in the basement.  And 3 company bathrooms, although they used ours too. It took me several days of preparation. I decided that next year, I will hire someone to help me!  It was exhausting!  But also joyfilled with anticipation of all the kids coming!

I always send out Christmas cards.  We have written Christmas letters for many years and one of our gifts for the kids was to put saved copies of them in binders for each family.  History of our family through the years. When we first began to type these up, it was 1982, pre-computer days.  I did have an electric typewriter though.  And I made copies for them either on the church xerox machine or maybe at Dillons.

Our gift to each other was a Reverse Osmosis water purification system.  I do not like the taste of our city water.  So many minerals!  Ugh.  I was so excited that the workers could install it before our family came!  Before, I used 2 pitchers to filter it twice before I deemed it ok to drink.  Ok, call me a water snob. 

I made several batches of Uncle John's peanut brittle.  Allen helped me make some peppernuts (pfeffernusse), German Mennonite little bite cookies, a traditional snack we eat every year.  Quite addictive!  Here is one recipe that you could follow if you want to try making them!

On Christmas Eve, we went to our church for the service.

And afterwards we did our traditional of driving around town looking at lights.

On Christmas morning, I was enjoying the quiet before the house is filled with 16 people and lots of laughter and noise!  They would begin coming on the 26th and 27th.  

Christmas is the day we celebrate when Christ was born (We know it wasn't that day.  More likely in September.)  

His hands were so little.  Do you suppose Mary counted each one and tenderly held them, kissed them?

Then He grew up.

He came to die for us.  His hands were pierced for us.

"This is real love - not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."  1 John 4:10

I have taught part of this verse to the 3-5 year olds at Awana Cubbies in a song.  

To the tune London Bridge:

    God loved us and sent His Son, sent His Son, sent His Son,

    God loved us and sent His Son.  1 John 4:10

King Jesus became a very vulnerable baby, grew up and died in our place.