Our family arrives

Christmas Eve day I ran to Prairie Harvest and got some peppernuts.  

 Wouldn't this be so much faster than the original way?

 I sent Jill the recipe that was Ruth Jost's (an amazing Mennonite cook!).

 It takes a lot of time to roll out the long strips of "rope" and cut them.  Jill and Hannah did a great job!  I've become a lazy cook and just bought them. 

We watched our kids' Christmas Eve program on-line.  Would have loved to have been there to see the family do their version of "Emmanuel"!

A co-worker of Al's invited us to their church for their services so we ran into Wichita.

 After that spectacular program, we went out to eat.  I had looked on-line to see if there were any restaurants open on Christmas Eve, and sure enough, there were a few!  We went to Red Rock Canyon, which we love!

Our tradition for after Christmas Eve services is to go out and see lights.

 When we got home, we listened to our church's service.

Since two of our children work at churches, they are not able to be with us on Christmas Day.  Sometimes we don't have our Christmas until January, but this year, everyone was able to come soon after!  We spent Christmas Day alone and in the evening, went out to see lights in our town.

 We got this text from Jill.

This led to more texts about what it was really like to travel in the 80's:

Staci:  Tell her in the 80s we had curvy roads and no arm bands.  I did more puking to go visit family than I want to recall!   That's what I remember about 80s traveling!

Josh:  Tell her in the 80s the only things to do in the car were stare out the window bored out of your mind, pester your siblings by crossing the imaginery line, read a book, or well....that's pretty much it.

Jill:  True, but we got to ride backwards in the back of the station wagon and stare at drivers behind us...and lay down all the seats to lay out sleeping bags...and in the conversion van we could turn around the seats to face each other.  We traveled in style!

And we got to put pins in the ceiling of the car to hold the fabric up...oh wait, we still get to do that.

On the 26th, Mindy and Jason were the first to arrive from Colorado!  We went to Back Alley for pizza!


After 7, the Wisconsiners arrived!  Although it was Claire's bedtime, they let her unwind first.  She played with the Russian nesting dolls that my parents had gotten when they went there.  All the kids have loved playing with those.

 And of course, a little wrestling with Papa before heading to bed!

 More Christmas fun to come!

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!