Room at the "inn"

When we built our home in 2005, we were empty nesters.  Instead of downsizing, we added 4 extra "guest" rooms in the basement.  We have always welcomed guests in our home.  The church might call us and ask if we can house someone, perhaps a staff person's parents.  We have also had a musician couple from Nashville, some missionaries and an ex-NFL player stay!  We LOVE having company come and enjoy hosting them!!

And of course, we made those extra rooms with our children/grandchildren in mind.  Jill's family was living in town at the time we built this home.  Later they moved 30 minutes away.  We figured having 4 bedrooms in the basement would be enough for the rest of the family to come for overnights.  Now that they moved to Wisconsin, ALL the children live out of state, so it is a little tighter than we thought.  One more bedroom might have been good.  I'll take you on a tour of our guest rooms.

The kids have given the bedrooms names:

Here is the "leaf" room, or sometimes called the "green" room.  There is a king bed in there.  It would be nice if we could have a king for each couple, right?  I think each one would like that!  I just put that quilt on the bed today.  

My mother's friends quilted it for her many years ago.  I just found it when I was going through bedding for the kids.  The ladies' names are printed on the underside.

This is the reason it is called the "leaf" room; Mindy bought that for me.  I love it!

 Josh painted those sunflowers!  The rocking chair was my grandmother's and she rocked my mother on it!  And I rocked my babies there too.

 Then there is the "teddy bear" room.

The baby photo was one that belonged in my Grandmother Geiger's home.

The teddy bears in the window belonged to my aunt and she passed them on to me.   Pooh Bear, laying on the bed belonged to Josh.  I got it from JC Penney's when he was a baby and he slept with it for many years.  Then he graduated to sleeping with Ewok and then with Alf.

The bed used to belong to Allen's great uncle.  It is a 3/4 size bed and we had to have a mattress made for it.  It was stored in the round top at the farm.  When I was pregnant with Jill, I asked Al's dad if it would be ok if we could refinish it and use it for Josh.  He let us have it and all of our children have slept on it.  Below is when it was Josh's bed.  Jill is in the crib.

Then Jill and Mindy shared the bed for awhile.

Not long after we had rescued that bed, the round top had a fire and burnt down.  All the other antiques, like the butter churner, in there burned.

 Round top being built

A fire destroyed it in the early 80's.

 Our 5 grandchildren - the children gave us these silhouettes for Christmas one year.

This toy box used to be my Grandmother Voran's.  I still remember playing with the toys in there when we came to the States on furlough.  The top was torn up so I sewed this quilt top for the lid when I inherited it when our children were little.

This is the "World " room.  For obvious reasons.

My Japanese friend, Mayuko Shono painted these pictures.  You can watch her on You Tube.  She is a fantastic artist!!!  She calls the big earth painting "Indescribable".   Here is what she wrote:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Genesis 1:1

God's work is "Indescribable."  All I can say is, it is truly BEAUTIFUL. 

 Look at this planet, called "Earth." 

It is absolutely Stunning, Gorgeous, Fabulous, Delightful...It is MORE than that.  

It is "Indescribable."

and you know what!?  This is our "HOME."

We are all on this planet Right Now, Right this Moment.

YES!!  This is simply telling us the TRUTH.

There is a "CREATOR," who made this planet with His Perfect Plan.

HE is Sustaining this tiny tiny planet Every Second with His Amazing LOVE.

We don't even need any proof or evidence to explain why.

Just LOOK and FEEL.

You will find the Only Truth.

My aunt who served in Mali, Africa and my aunt and uncle who were in 

Paris, France are in the photos on the bottom middle section.

My son made this picture for me - it is a picture of me when I was 5 or 6 and the land of Japan, my birthplace and growing up place is imprinted on it.  I had seen this idea somewhere and asked Josh if he could do that for me.  Japan will always be part of my heart.

I got this globe in Haiti when my granddaughter and I went there for a week to work at a children's school.

I love this little bird house!  

The red peg is right on the city where I was born!

The birds are from Peru.

Last but not least, there is the room I want to call the "family" or "wedding" room. 

 But do you know what the kids have called it???? 

  The "dead" room!! 

I used to have pictures of ancestors in the room since I have antiques in there.  And since they are all dead, the grandkids were creeped out by it.  They wouldn't even want to sleep here!  So I took down many of those pictures and put up wedding pictures.  

The newest one - Mindy and Jason!

This trunk came from Prussia in 1874.  Then it went to Japan with my parents.

The little chair used to be in my mother's church and she remembers sitting on those in Sunday School at St. John's Mennonite church in Pandora.    

The pitcher used to belong to Allen's grandmother.

 

  Okay.  I know some of these people are dead!   But, Dwight L Moody said the following:

Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead.
Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now;
I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house
that is immortal—a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint;
a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.

I was born of the flesh in 1837.
I was born of the Spirit in 1856.
That which is born of the flesh may die.
That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.

This is truth!  

I love those ancestor's sweet wedding photos!  So call it the "wedding" room, not "dead" room!!  I have heard them call it the "antique" room too.  And that's ok.

 I love this antique plaque from Al's grandmother.  

This bed belonged to my Geiger grandparents.  My children were born on this bed.

I moved the "creepy" old photos to our room.

Al's Great-grandparents Johann and Anna Goering

I LOVE that old photo!  

Someday, the grandchildren may cherish it too. 

These old pictures creeped them out too, but I love them!

And this one from Al's Grandma B 

Christ, our Shepherd, who holds us dearly.

Now that Jill's family live in Wisconsin, it would be nice to have one more room.  We can't complain.  Some families always have to share just one room!  Or the living room floor.  They have no other option.  But with pallets on the floor, we were able to put everyone in a room. 
Jill, Adam and Claire were in the Leaf Room.
The 3 older girls were in the Teddy Bear Room.
Mindy and Jason were in the World Room.
Josh, Staci and Eli were in the Wedding Room.

Even the dolls had their own room.

As we reflect on the birth of Christ at Christmas, we often hear that there was

no room in the "inn" 

for Mary and Joseph.  The word for "inn" is "kataluma", the word meaning "guest room"of a house, not an inn or hotel which is "pandocheion".

"Cultural expectations point to the likelihood that when Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, they would have gone to the home of an extended family member or village patriarch and asked to use their guest room for the night." ( from "A Visual Guide to Gospel Events", Martin/Beck/Hansen)  The guest room must have already been full, perhaps with other family members.

Or "Another option can be found in the culture of first-century Judaism.  Leviticus 12:1-4 makes it clear that when a baby was born the mother became ritually unclean.  Her status of ritual impurity also put the condition of the house and its contents at risk of becoming ritually unclean.  The stone cave under the house, however, functioned as a screen against the transmission of ritual uncleanness.  Therefore, remaining in the basement-cave (the place where animals were kept) may have been Mary and Joseph's decision in order to prevent ritual impurity from affecting the entire house." (also from the above named book.)

When we were in Israel, we visited a 1st century home. 

When you walk in, if you go down a couple of steps to the left, 

that was where the animals were kept overnight.   In the left corner is a manger.

Another example of a manger

If you went up the steps, there was the main living space.

This picture is from the upper floor, looking down on the main living space.

To get to the "kataluma," there were some steps going up (upper right corner).  This word "kataluma" is also used for the word for "upper room" when Jesus sent His disciples to find a room for the last supper.  But when the good Samaritan took the injured man to the inn, that word again is "pandocheion".   An inn.

Below are pictures my son-in-law took of the guest room when he went with Al in November.

I think our guest rooms were a bit more comfortable!  Some day we will be downsizing and then it might mean staying in an inn, for there will be no room in the guest rooms!

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!