Checking this off the Christmas list

xBought some gifts

xMade some cookies.

xGave some cookies away.

xAte some cookies.

xSang some Christmas songs

xGave a Christmas card (sorry only two so far :()

xGave a couple of Christmas gifts

xMade snowflakes and hung up

xPrayed for loved ones and unloved ones

xPracticed a new song

xGot tears in my eyes a few times

xEnjoyed the fresh snowfall

xRead the Christmas story

xWore Chrismasy clothes

xPlayed with preschoolers and told them the story of Jesus’s birth and helped them make Christmas decorations with pipe cleaners and jingle bells. One for each of them and one to give away. Took them out to give them to the AWANA commander’s wife. They giggled and skipped there and back.

xTold the story to elementary school kids and played some guessing games about the story of Jesus’ birth. Helped them make a stab at making the world’s longest paper chain. I don’t think it was the world’s longest but it was pretty long. Then gave it to our minister. He grinned and wore it around after the church service!

xCheered on two little boys dressing up as shepherds for the Sunday school play as they waited nervously for their part of the play.

xPut the candles in the star shaped candle holder on the table on a platter, added some sticks of cinnamon to be our Advent wreath.

xSang more Christmas carols with my shut in friend

xMade two paper chains with her and snowflakes.

xStood in the henhouse and repeated to myself slowly,”But Mary wasn’t ready for Christmas either. Jesus was born in a place like this.” Stood there a little while longer and tried to let that sink in a bit more.

xSang more Christmas carols with my shut in friend and threw in a few other familiar hymns.

xWatched Chicadees dance on the bird feeder and on icicles.

xGot excited, and a little nervous, about a Christmas party hubby and I are invited to. Got a little excited and a little nervous about a song we are supposed to sing as a family on Christmas eve. Got a little sad that not all of the family will be able to sing it.  Oh I’m to the part of Christmas when I get tears in my eyes sometimes and a lump in my throat sometimes as it comes barreling at us. It’s a fun,sad, busy, happy, gallop and it’s a bit nerve wracking especially when I come home and think about all that could be done and all that is done and all that is not done. But it’s a lot of fun when I’m with kids and it’s sad too when I hear them asking not knowing much about about the real meaning. Jesus is the heart of Christmas 🙂 And it’s happy and sad when my shut in friend can sing almost all the words of Away In the Manger today and knows that Jesus loves her and that she loves Jesus. Maybe, sometimes ,maybe I feel like the time I spend with her, slowly slowly, slowly trying to find the link to what is possible with her is the best part of my Christmas this year. But then when I’m with those fast little preschoolers scrambling madly around the room giggling about hitting a ball with a noodle and grinning when they manage to twist a pipe cleaner around a jingle bell then I think that’s the best time. But when I’m home and my hubby and offspring are excited about a new Christmas song or joking with me about the lack of a Christmas tree. They were joking about trying to stack up folding chairs in the living room to decorate today!! I think that’s the best part of Christmas.

I guess the truth is there are lots of best parts, aren’t there?

Advent begins in a whirl

 

Began here and ended here the first week of December.

Mom in law helped a lot with set up and tear down

 

Advent means getting ready and I got ready in a whoosh this year. As soon as the dishes were cleared from the table, the leftovers stashed away we packed up my mom in law and dashed back up north, with a brief stop to hold grandkids and hug kids on the way. Then right away I began digging out the props from hither and yon to fill the market scene with interesting items.

It’s a market in the time of the birth of Christ which is the setting for the announcement of the census which sent Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem to be counted. Which is, of course, the reason Jesus was born there and not in Nazareth. It’s a fun project to begin the season with and I enjoy looking into what would have been present. No potatoes, or corn they were from this continent. surprisingly there were melons,cucumbers,green and all sort of other kinds of beans. There were also root veggies, but I didn’t locate any info on what specifically they would have been. Grains, barley, rye, wheat and rice and nuts such as pistachios and almonds.

There were also other merchants selling meat,cheese, eggs, deer hides, clothe, pottery, wooden bowls and fuel.  Most of the merchants were left to the imagination in this scene. There is only one actor portraying the part of a meat, cheese and egg seller.

Well now that the reenactment is over and the cleanup has been done. It’s time for the next things, as soon as all the props which we brought home and placed in piles around our downstairs are stashed away again.

On with Advent!! The getting ready for Christmas season. A fitting time, you know, if you have ever been in the position of anticipating a birth! There is much much excitement over the getting ready in advance of the birth. And any mother can tell you that in the years after she remembers that anticipation as much as she remembers the birth itself! Then again there is always some getting ready every year before a birthday celebration itself. The child may not notice that but any mother can tell you that she does lots of prep leading up to each and every birthday. They don’t just get celebrated effortlessly. So Advent, the season of preparation to celebrate the birth of Christ is a very realistic celebration. Much like Spring is to Summer. And I definitely love Spring!!!