Merry Christmas

Many of you have already seen this but I had it saved in my to be blogged file and I love it so I'm going to post it anyway! Merry Christmas!

http://www.youtube.com/user/AlphabetPhotography

Merry CHRISTmas

Twas The Night Before Jesus Came

Twas the night before Jesus came
Author unknown

Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.

The children were dressing to crawl into bed
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head
And mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the late slow while I took a nap

When out of the east there arose such a clatter
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter
Away to the window I flew like a flash
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash

When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be the day!

The light of his face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like he said!
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth
I cried when I saw him in spite of himself

In the book of life, which he held in his hand
Was written the name of every saved man
He spoke not a word as he searched for my name
When he said, "Its not here" my head hung in shame

The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to his Father above
With those who were ready he arose without a sound
While all the rest were left standing around

I fell to my knees but it was to late
I had waited to long and thus sealed my fate
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight

In the words of this poem the meaning is clear
The coming of Jesus is drawing near
There is only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the bible is true after all!

Christmas baking

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is to give out goodies to friends who have been a blessing to us through out the year.

This years treats included Rosettes, sugar cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, vanilla covered pretzels, peppermint bark, peanut butter fudge, and sugar cookies. This year I found these cookie tray kits at Target. It made such a pretty package and presentation. As we all know the presentation is just as important as the treats!



My grandmother always had Rosettes at the family Christmas Eve celebration. When she passed away this was one of the traditions that I really wanted to maintain for my family so I ordered the irons and through trial and error began making these delicate little treats. It was several years after my grandmother passed away that I discovered that she never made the rosettes! She had found a woman in town who made them and she BOUGHT them!
I still chuckle about her little secret whenever I make them!



I had so much fun with the sugar cookies this year. I chose a day when everyone else was gone, put in Christmas movies and went to work decorating. The little gingerbread men have snowflakes for buttons. The Christmas trees have little peppermint candy canes nestled in the frosting. The yellow stars sparkle with silver sprinkles. The snowmen had holly buttons with red eyes, nose and a sprig of holly poking out of his hat.

Christmas baking is a labor of joy for me! I had wanted to add something new to my trays this year but I ran out time. There is always next year!

Advent Traditions

Our family practices a family alter during the normal course of the year. We attempt to have a daily time of bible study, prayer, and singing. During the advent season this brings on special meaning as we prepare spiritually to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Advent marks the beginning of the Christmas season and lasts the four Sunday prior to Christmas. This year Advent began on November 30th. Advent is a Latin word that means, "the coming". It is a time of anticipation. We have two traditions around the advent season that are both family favorites.

The advent wreath: The advent wreath is a circle symbolizing the continuous life we have in Christ. The three purple candles symbolize repentance. Most advent readings will walk through the scriptures explaining WHY we need a savior, beginning with original sin in Genesis. The final fourth pink candle shifts us from repentance to celebration. We have a Savior! The center white candle would be to show the purity of Christ.

The first Sunday is the candle of Hope. Morning reading: Psalm 146, 147

Evening Reading: Psalm 111, 112, 113, Isaiah 1:1-9, 2 Peter 3: 1-10, Mathew 25, 1-13

The second Sunday of advent we light the candle of Hope as well as the candle of peace.

Morning reading: Psalm 148, 149, 159

Evening Reading: Psalm 114, 115, Isaiah 5: 1-7, 2 Peter 3 11-18, Luke 7: 28 -35

The third Sunday involves lighting the candles of Hope, peace and Joy

Morning reading: Psalm 63, 68

Evening reading: Psalm 103, Isaiah 13 6-13, Hebrews 12: 18- 29, John 3 22-30

On the fourth Sunday we light all three purple candles as well as the pink candle of Love.

Morning reading: Psalm 24, 29

Evening Reading: Psalm 8, 84, Isaiah 42: 1-12, Ephesians 6: 10-20, John 3: 16-21

An additional White candle representing Christ could be placed in the middle of the wreath and lit on Christmas Eve. We are not home on Christmas Eve so we have never done that.

Morning Reading for Christmas Eve Day: Psalm 45, 45, Isaiah 35: 1-10, Revelation 22: 12-17

Evening Reading: Psalm 89 1-29, Isaiah 59: 15b-29, Philippians 2: 5-11, Luke 1: 67-80

Another tradition that we follow during advent involves this advent calender. I made it when the kids were small and it has been used every advent since. There is a daily bible verse for ever day of December that matches one of the symbols. We also sing Christmas carols. This has gotten more and more fun as our son is now able to accompany us on the guitar or the piano. It helps drown out some of our off key singing! Both the girls have beautiful voices.

Here is another idea for a cute advent calender!

http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/2009/12/advent-plans.html

Family Traditions

A tradition is the handing down of beliefs, values, actions, and customs to the next generation. Some of the traditions that I practice with my family are actions and customs that were handed down to me by my grandparents and my parents. Those long standing traditions have been a part of my holidays for as long as I can remember. At one point or another, probably as a younger adult I questioned the necessity of some of those traditions. Take for instance the family Christmas photo. As a young child this was the most dreaded part of Christmas eve. My grandparents had five daughters all whom had married and had children. My great grandparents were still alive and needless to say taking all those family photo in all the possible combinations took FOREVER! We just wanted to get to the presents. We already had to eat and wait for all the dishes to be washed. It was taxing to wait for your gifts, sometimes lasting until 10:00, which then had to be opened in the appropriate age order. By the time I was a young adult, I did not mind the wait, I just hated having my picture taken. By the time I was married with children I found myself standing in line and saying, "Yes, you have to have your photo taken!" We never got toys from my great grandparents but my grandmother was a wonderful sewer and every year we got new pajamas, made by her, sometimes with a matching housecoat. We looked forward to those pajamas and once opened everyone immediately put them on. My mother buys our children new pajamas. Our children look just as forward to getting them as I did and like myself as a child, put them on immediately upon opening them. My great grandparents passed on and so have that set of grandparents. We now gather at my mothers for Christmas eve. Somethings, like the tradition of having our family photo taken and of opening gifts in order of age have stayed the same. They are traditions.

Other traditions in my family were started by us with no intent of making them a tradition. They just became. For the last five or six years we have gone as a family to a local tree farm and picked out a tree. Two years ago we started cutting our own tree. Christmas morning we fix a BIG breakfast and invite the grandparents and various others to join us. It is a big production that is talked about all year. I inadvertently started a new tradition last year when we changed our answering machine message to a Christmas carol read by paragraph from each of our family members. In this category you know that things have become a tradition when any variation in theme results in weeping and wailing from your children. This could even be over something as simple as the placement of the Christmas tree!

Other traditions are intentional. We chose them and we intentionally made them to pass down our beliefs and values. When I became a Christian the focus of my Christmas holiday season radically changed. As such, I felt like this must be reflected in our celebrations during the season. One of the traditions that I started involved a wall hanging of a Christmas tree with 25 felt pieces, each bearing a symbol of Christ. Starting on December first we read specific passages of Scripture pertaining to that symbol and sing a hymn. The children take turns hanging the symbols onto the tree. For many years that was the only time our family had what might be called a devotional time together. It was and still is a sweet time of togetherness and worship. We have since added an advent wreath to this tradition and enjoying lighting the candles and following an advent reading through the month of December.