From one Advent to the next...

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Words: Charles Wesley

Christmas...

It's time -- Christmas Eve snuck up on me and is finally here. Time to go find where the Baby Jesus figure is hiding. (We don't put him out until the kids have gone to bed. Yes. Even though they are teens, we don't put the Jesus figure into the creche until Christmas Eve.)

So as I kick off my shoes, and wrap the last few presents...
as I try to remember if all the presents I've squirreled away are indeed under the tree...
as I figure out what we are having for Christmas dinner (no - I still haven't quite finished that task from last Friday!)
...in the bustle and busyness... I don't want to forget that God IS with us. Emmanuel.

He is Here.

Merry Christmas...
Deb

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.

O come, thou Rod of Jesse, free
thine own from Satan's tyranny;
from depths of hell thy people save,
and give them victory over the grave.

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death's dark shadows put to flight.

O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to thy tribes on Sinai's height
in ancient times once gave the law
in cloud and majesty and awe.

O come, thou Root of Jesse's tree,
an ensign of thy people be;
before thee rulers silent fall;
all peoples on thy mercy call.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind;
bid thou our sad divisions cease,
and be thyself our King of Peace.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Putting away Christmas

I hate doing it. For me, it's one of the more depressing chores of the year... putting away Christmas.

The brightness of the tree lights in the house and the ones on the bushes out front kind of help me get through the gloomy weeks of the start of the winter. It's a long time until spring. Or at least it seems that way to me.

But I looked at the calendar, reminding me that my classes start tomorrow and realized that if I didn't get things stowed THIS weekend, it would be many weeks before it happened with as much ease. And this year, I wanted to take time as I put things away to sort and think about what I wanted to keep, and what I was willing to send along its way to a donation center. I don't donate junk - that gets thrown away. Things that are nice, but either not my style or my preference... those are leaving. This week!

It took all of my free time this weekend. I didn't really mind too much. It's not a chore that people around here stand in line and say, "oh BOY! Let's take down the Christmas decorations!" It seems to be a "Mom" chore. Yes, I did conscript some help to haul boxes, and to take ornaments off of the tree, but most of the job was mine alone. So I had a chance to think... to pray... and while it did make me a little blue, it was also a good thing to do by myself.

Lest you think I have color coordinated boxes and bins... with everything in perfect rows and line up in segmented divider trays... I don't. I have made progress and every box is labeled on the side AND the top. I did gradually move us out of cardboard boxes to plastic storage bins. (There was just something about putting the Baby Jesus away for the year in a liquor box that seemed a little too bizarre. I mean, I know WWJD also means "Who Wants Jack Daniels?" but...)

Ah well...

The semester starts tomorrow. Part 2 of my internship begins this week. I'm starting a water aerobics class tomorrow (where IS my bathing suit??) and the list of "what must get done" this week is very long... But that's tomorrow's list.

For now... it's time to rest. And be thankful.

At Christmas I no more desire a rose,
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
But like of each thing that in season grows.
~ William Shakespeare

Love's Labour Lost

So to all... a good night!

Deb

And to all a Good Night...

Twas the Day after Christmas...
(I will spare you the bad poetry!)

I went out to get a shot of the sunset over the marsh and thought it couldn't get any more beautiful. And ten minutes later, it did.

Which got me to thinking...

There is always more God-beauty around the corner.

Advent is over.
The waiting is done.
And yet is not...

Merry Christmas
God's peace!!!

Deb

i can haz prezzents?

Merry Christmas!

(from all of us... including Polgara...)


moar funny pictures


Deb

Friday Five: It's Almost Christmas!

Rev HRod from RevGalBlogPals writes:

I have debated with myself for weeks about today's Friday Five.

• Self 1: It should be deep and theological.
• Self 2: But it's almost Christmas, it should be fun and warm and sweet.
• Self 1: But your last Friday Five was sort of silly. You should show your more serious side.
• Self 2: You worry WAY too much!

So after consulting with my fourteen year old daughter, we're going playful, pals o' mine! I love stories, so I hope you'll tell some about your favorite Christmas memories.

1. What was one of your favorite childhood gifts that you gave?
One year, one of my sisters and I were shopping for my mom. We were going to go in on a present together. We were walking ALL OVER the boutique of my family's choice (KMart) when we spotted this lovely animal. It was pink. It had rainbow-lined ears and a string tail. It was soft plush. It was a mouse. A BIG mouse. About 15 inches long. We thought it was beautiful!!! Mom HAD to have it!!! It was PERFECT!!! We bought it, carried it home, and with the help of a very surprised older sibling, wrapped it. What did Mom say when she unwrapped it? I don't remember. I am sure she said "thank you!" I know that she never would have guessed (unless our older sib ratted on us...) I don't know if Pink Mouse is still around.


2. What is one of your favorite Christmas recipes? Bonus points if you share the recipe with us.
That's a hard one. I think the "Chocolate Sugar Bombs" are now probably my kids' favorite. I like SIN-namon Rolls on Christmas morning.

"CHOCOLATE SUGAR BOMBS"

(I think they are called "Kiss Surprise cookies" but I like my kids' name better.)

1 cup butter, softened
40 Hershey's kisses, unwrapped
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar + 1 cup
2 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped nuts
1 tsp vanilla.

Beat butter, 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. At low speed, slowly mix in flour and nuts until well combined.

Shape into 40 balls, wrapping a kiss in the middle of each ball of dough. Completely cover the kiss with cookie dough. Roll between your palms to smooth and then place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 12 minutes at 375 degrees F until set. Do not brown.

While hot, roll in 1 cup confectioner's sugar. Set on rack to cool. When cooled, roll in sugar again.
To make these look Christmas-y, we have added green or red cookie sugars to the confectioner's sugar before rolling. I'd put up a picture but they have all been eaten!

"SIN"-NAMON ROLLS

**Note**
First, to do this recipe, you have to be making a batch of homemade bread (sorry). In a pinch you can get commercially frozen bread dough and thaw it. THEN proceed with these directions.

Take one loaf's worth of dough.
Divide it in half, and roll out each half on a floured surface until it is thin but still manageable. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over the surface.
Add dabs of butter here and there.
Sprinkle over the surface: chopped nuts, cinnamon candies or raisins - about 1/2 cup total.
Roll up dough jelly roll fashion and slice into about 1 inch slices.
Place slices, sides touching, onto a greased pan. Press down gently. Let rise.
Bake 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Makes about 1 dozen cinnamon rolls.

These freeze well, microwave well, apply directly to the hips EXTREMELY well.


3. What is a tradition that your family can't do without? (And by family, I mean family of origin, family of adulthood, or that bunch of cool people that just feel like family.)
I think it must be stockings. We start filling them now well before Christmas Eve. Everyone contributes little wrapped gifties. The night before we open them, I add the chocolate (...and if my kids are reading this, it's all chocolate with a coconut filling... ha!) We open them before breakfast Christmas morning.


4. Pastors and other church folk often have very strange traditions dictated by the "work" of the holidays. What happens at your place?
Wow. I guess there IS an advantage to working in a non-traditional setting. We will not have a Christmas Eve service this year; instead we are having a church-wide "Open House" for everyone at a local "mansion" which will include something for everyone.


5. If you could just ditch all the traditions and do something unexpected... what would it be?
Ummmm... personally??? Hire a cleaning service to come in and scour my home before and after the holidays. That would be fabulous.


But in any case - Merry Christmas. May God's joy and peace be yours...
Deb

On. The. Floor. Laughing...

OK, so if you need a laugh. If you want examples for your sermon of crass, tasteless, consumerism polluting the Nativity story...

Please visit this site! (Hat tip to RevAnne for finding this bit of amazing excess.)

And, if you have any of these nativity sets, I promise I won't laugh too hard when I visit your home...

Deb

All Is Well

All is well; all is well.
Angels and men rejoice.
For tonight darkness fell
Into the dawn of Love's light!
Sing alle,
Sing alleluia!

All is well; all is well.
Let there be peace on earth.
Christ is come go and tell
That He is in the manger.
Sing alle,
Sing alleluia!

All is well; all is well.
Lift up your voice and sing.
Born is now Emmanuel;
Born is our Lord and Savior!
Sing alleluia,
Sing alleluia!

All is well; Emmanuel,
Born is our Lord and Savior!
Sing alleluia!
Sing alleluia!
All is well...
[Michael W. Smith]

May you truly know this Christmas that all IS well...

Love from Above - and from our home to yours...
Deb

Just Desserts

As promised!! Two family favorites, which take lots of time but are enjoyed by all!

CHOCOLATE SUGAR BOMBS
(named by the kids)

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup finely chopped nuts
• 1 bag Hershey's kisses, unwrapped
• additional confectioner's sugar for rolling.

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl on medium speed until light and fluffy. At low speed, slowly add in flour and nuts until well combined. Dough will be soft but not sticky.

Shape with (clean) hands into balls around the kisses. Completely cover the kiss and compact dough so that it forms a smooth ball. Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes. Cookies should be set, but not browned.

Cool slightly on pan until you can pick them up in your fingers. Roll in powered sugar. Set to cool on cooling racks. When completely cool, you can roll them again.

Yield: about 40 cookies, give or take for sampling and hungry elves!


BUCKEYE CANDIES

• 1/2 pound butter
• 1 pound peanut butter
• 1 1/2 pounds confectioner's sugar
• 1 large brick (2-4 pounds) dipping chocolate

(NOTE: These weights are in pounds, not cups. You will need a kitchen scale.)

Mix butter, peanut butter and confectioner's sugar well. Roll into 1" balls. Place on waxed paper lined cookie sheets and set in fridge to harden. (Takes about an hour.)

Melt dipping chocolate in a double boiler or you can melt small quantities in a micro-wave safe bowl. Use candy-dipping sticks or toothpicks to spear the peanut butter balls. Leave a section of the ball uncovered by chocolate to make the "buckeye". Allow extra chocolate to drain. Set on wax-paper lined sheets to harden. (May need to put in fridge if kitchen is overly warm from baking cookies.)

Keeps best when stored in fridge or in a cool place.

Yield: unknown. I've never gotten an accurate count because of "quality control checkers" in my kitchen!


Enjoy! They are not fat-free or calorie-free -- but they ARE good!

From our home to yours-
Deb

Festive Foods Friday Five

FESTIVE FOODS FRIDAY FIVE

From the RevGalBlogPals: Well friends, we've covered advent, music, and movies/TV--but we here at F5 HQ would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that quintessential holiday topic... fooooooooood.

1. Favorite cookie/candy/baked good without which, it's just not Christmas.

• Chocolate Sugar Bombs as named by my family for the way I make the traditional "Russian Tea Cakes" (with a Hershey's kiss in the middle)! (Recipe in next post!)
  
• BUCKEYES candies - homemade - yummy - chocolate and peanut butter. YUM!

2. Do you do a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, both, or neither? (Optional: with whom will you gather around the table this year?) I will be curious to read the RGBP take on this one. WHO has time for a big dinner on Christmas Eve? Usually it's a fast meal, more of a "large snack" to tide us over until the after-service drop-in Christmas party at someone's home! Dinner is usually mid-day-ish on Christmas Day. Ham and other things which can bake on a timer in the oven, plus the afore-mentioned cookies! This year we dine with BBS's mom and our kids. Later in the week we will spend time with my family.

3. Evaluate one or more of the holiday beverage trifecta: hot chocolate, wassail, egg nog.

• Hot chocolate: What's not to like! YUM!
  
• Wassail: Not bad (if you've never had it, one could say it compares to the gluwein at the German Christkindlesmarkts during Advent, except gluwein is usually served hot.
• Egnogg: Yummy in coffee. I have been good and only bought the "low fat" this year (which is only 1,000 calories per sip instead of 5,000.) If brandy falls in your eggnog, so much the better!

4. Candy canes: do you like all the new-fangled flavors or are you a peppermint purist?
I am apparently living a sheltered life! Candy canes come in other flavors? EW.

5. Have you ever actually had figgy pudding? And is it really so good that people will refuse to leave until they are served it?
Yes I have and no it is not that good. I think they just needed another verse to drink more wassail.

Edited to add: Well, I am APPALLED with myself that I forgot to include a question about the crown prince of holiday foods--the fruitcake. Feel free to add your thoughts on this most polarizing holiday confection.

Ah, the fruitcake. I hear that people actually eat them from the box. My family's recipe is to open the tin, take out the fruitcake, wrap it in cheesecloth, pour a bottle of brandy over it (it absorbs it quickly), put back in the tin and stick it in the freezer until next year. Then it was sliced and passed around and generally ignored on the plate (except for surreptitious snorts of the brandy fumes...) We usually end up with Claxton Fruitcakes and they are folks who take their fruitcakes seriously... but NOT as seriously as the folks at "The Society for Protection and Preservation of Fruitcakes." (I mean, they must be either serious or seriously crazy! They bought their own domain name????)

God's peace and blessed Christmas to all of you -
From our cookie-saturated home to yours...

Deb

Life sucks... and then eventually you get past it

I had a chat with a friend last week about depression and the holidays. We have mutual friends who are so down on life right now that they can not find anything to be grateful about. Nothing. Nada. Not even a parking space!

It's not that I don't understand where these folks are right now. I do identify with them. I have lived through some lousy holidays. The Christmas we ALL got the flu (serially - stretching out over 2 weeks. Nice!) or strep throat. The season that my father-in-law was terminally ill with lung cancer. The time when I was out of regular work and temping for various companies and money was beyond tight. The year that the guy I thought I was marrying broke our engagement. The months that followed after I resigned from a church ministry position and felt like an utter and total failure because I did not "fit the mold" that was wanted. Not to mention some really sucky moments in high school and college...

My friend asked me, "well what do you do or say when someone IS depressed and tells you all about it during the holidays? Do you just say - 'life sucks and sometimes you get past it?' "

Good question. I think it would be more honest to say, "Life sucks and EVENTUALLY you get past it." I worry less about the verbally expressive, and more about the one who looks like they are scraping along by the bottom of life. At least the person who tells me he or she is depressed can muster up enough energy to express anger. Or sadness. Or worry. Or discouragement. But the last thing I do is tell them to "CHEER UP!"

I try to remember what it felt like to be in "that place" and how hard it was to be aware of God's goodness when everything was so... sad.

What helped me? Genuine caring hugs. Doing something for someone else (the best way I found to struggle out of the funk of the broken engagement was helping each month at a soup kitchen.) Crying out to God and pouring out my heart in my music and my writing. Avoiding the things which gave me the most pain (for instance, one church I attended asked all of the "singles" to babysit during the "family" Christmas Eve service. I only did it once... and refused after serving one year. I saw all these couples come to pick up their kids... and they were younger than I was! That just truly hurt too much.)

I made it through some pretty difficult days. Sometimes I didn't have the energy to shop. Or to bake. Or to go to parties. Sometimes my heart was too sore for feeling joy. Or for feeling anything, for that matter. Sometimes I felt like the problems were all because of me. Mea culpa...

And then, sometimes, I realized that it was not me -- it was life. In all of its imperfections, inconsistencies, and sin. People with their own problems, challenges and downright meanness. Many times it had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with simple "bad timing." Eventually, and in my own time, I moved past the pain.

I saw beauty crop up in the raw places of my heart... in the hard places of my life... in fact, I found joy in the places that one does not expect to find it. I saw order in seeming crazy disorder. I found peace in total chaos and fruitfulness in complete barrenness. But none of this was my doing. It was all God's.

Out of more guilt than desire, I kept reading my Bible. One of those dark December days, the words from Deuteronomy took on new meaning...

Israel, the LORD discovered you in a barren desert
filled with howling winds.
God became your fortress, protecting you
as though you were His own eyes.
The LORD was like an eagle teaching its young to fly,
always ready to swoop down and catch them on its back.
Israel, the LORD led you, and without the aid
of a foreign god, He helped you capture the land.
Your fields were rich with grain.
Olive trees grew in your stony soil,
and honey was found among the rocks.
[Deut. 32:10-13]

Life in those rocky times - ones of "stony soil" and "honey from the rocks" - those difficult times in my life made it clearer than ever that God's love for me went past my pain, my failures or achievements, my relationships or lack of them... I was just - completely and totally - loved!

I've never forgotten it. Hard times come and go. People disappoint. Physical bodies do strange and painful things... God remains constant. And that's all that I can tell anyone who knows the truth of "life sucks... and then eventually you get past it."

Often I stand on the edge of the light, afraid to believe, afraid to act, afraid that this story is too good to be true. But then in my better moments, when I listen closely to the story, move closer to the light, my fears seem to evaporate like an early morning mist, and I can believe again. I can believe that God who made all that is became clothed in our human flesh so that we might become clothed in God. I can believe that God claims me as a beloved child. I can believe that my days are in God's strong and tender hands. I can believe that life is good, beautiful, and eternal. I can believe that not only my days but all days are in God's good and able hands. I can believe, rejoice, and wait trustingly and expectantly for the unfolding of God's promise given so many ways and most clearly in the Advent story. Thanks be to God!

[-- Reuben P. Job in A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God]

From our home to yours...
Deb

Advent: Names of God (week three)

Week Three of Advent - Closer to the celebration, and yet so far...

We started this week with worship in the morning, a concert and party in the evening, and Harpy Girl off with friends to the "sing-a-long" MESSIAH at the Kennedy Center. (Yes, there is some parental envy on that one!) We'll also be seeing the National Christmas Tree on the Mall, and spending time with friends later...

Here's this week's "Names of God" for your encouragement and heart's feeding...

From our home to yours...
Deb

========= =========== ===========

December 17
Name of God: "My Savior"
Scripture: Luke 1:47; 2:11; John 4:42

December 18
Name of God: "Alpha and Omega"
Scripture: Revelation 1:8; 21:6; 22:13

December 19
Name of God: "Light"
Scripture: John 8:12

December 20
Name of God: "A Mighty Fortress"
Scripture: Psalm 18:2

December 21
Name of God: "King"
Scripture: Psalm 145:1; Revelation 17:14; 19:16

December 22
Name of God: "My Comfort and Shelter"
Scripture: Psalm 61

December 23
Name of God: "All-Consuming Fire"
Scripture: Deuteronomy 4:23-24; Hebrews 12:28-29

December 24
Name of God: "Emmanuel"
Scripture: Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23

December 25
Name of God: "Messiah"
Scripture: John 1:41; 4:25

Tacky Christmas lights

The Germans do it right. Whole towns, cities and villages are decorated for Christmas. Genteely. Softly. Beautifully. Electric "arches" in the windows cause a soft glow to fall on the snow and streets. The photo doesn't do it justice...

While the House of V is decorated (internally and externally) for Christmas, I would like to think we are remotely tasteful, if not boring. Yes, the 'net' lights I bought after Christmas are all white. And so are the ones in the garland around the door. They are still pretty. They don't blink. And they don't "race" or strobe, either. There's no blow-up figures or an electric Jesus on our lawn. (You can have one if you want, just don't make me. Please.)

After reading "Skipping Christmas" by John Grisham, we've been seeing the uber-decorated homes with new eyes. A yard with an electric snowman or Santa-stuck-in-a-globe causes someone in the car to yell "FREE FROSTY!" It seems to be easier than ever to be tacky. There are several overly decorated houses in our area. I saw one when I was out on errands last weekend. The house. The yard. The trees. Even a junker car was COVERED in lights!!! There were Blow-up figures. Icicle lights. Mini-lights. Big blinking lights. Unlike this house, no music was playing. But it had traffic backed up for a mile...

I'm not the only one seeing the tacky stuff everywhere. Just because I felt I bombed at the Friday Five this week, I offer instead the "Five Best Sites for Tacky Lights" for your surfing pleasure: (trust me, there are more...)

1. Anti Yawn's Guide on how to be truly tacky with holiday decorating (in case people need help? Yikes.)
   
2. Holly's Guide to Tacky Christmas Lights - a local wonderland outside Your Nation's Capitol! Complete with a map. I'm thinking this is not an honor...
   
3. This site proves that the USA doesn't hold the corner or tacky lights...
4. A great Tacky Light Tour! - and one of the first websites to catalogue the illuminated excesses...
   
5. Finally, in what is probably the greatest disservice to the Christ Child, is this display which features a prominent reminder of the supposed "Reason" why people do this in the first place... Lord Have Mercy...

OK, Martha Stewart doesn't live at my house, but I promise to never, ever try to get on one of these lists...

From our home to yours...
Deb

Friday Five: Yuletide Favorites

The RevGalBlogPals had a retro feel this week. I confess I am not a big Christmas movie fan. (Hope you still love me anyway...) Oh well - - here goes!

For this mid-December Friday Five, let's explore some Yuletide favorites.

1) It's a Wonderful Life--Is it? Do you remember seeing it for the first time?
Um... believe it or not, I've never sat through the whole thing without falling asleep.

2) Miracle on 34th Street--old version or new?
Well, I've read the book...

3) Do you have a favorite incarnation of Mr. Scrooge?
Mr. Spaceley from The Jetsons.

4) Why should it be a problem for an elf to be a dentist? I've been watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for years now, and I still don't get it.
I suppose it's as certain a career as being a mortician... (everyone has teeth and everyone dies...) But if you think about it, being an elf is seasonal work and then you can take long vacations. What's not to like? (And let's be honest, who really likes going to the dentist???)

5) Who's the scariest character in Christmas specials/movies?
My nomination: Any of them that are blue and talk in squeaky voices... YICK and EEK!!!!

(I will spare you all of the Smurf jokes...)







I will redeem myself with my next post... I promise!

From our home to yours...
Deb

The Nativity Story That Got Away...

From the HoneyBeez mothering and breastfeeding list...

Went to Abigail's school Christmas concert (no "proper" Nativity this year). Each class did a little something followed by a song or 2. Anyway, Ab's class did a Nativity scene, with Ab as Mary. How proud was I?). A few mins into their bit Ab promptly lifted her dress & shoved baby Jesus up it. The script then wandered away from what they'd learnt & goes as follows....

Joseph: "What are you doing?"
Mary: "I'm feeding our baby"
Shepherd: "Have you got a bottle up there then?"
Mary: "Don't be silly he's having milk from my booby"
Joseph: "That's disgusting"
Mary: "No, that baby milk they have in Tescos is disgusting. My baby's having proper milk"
Shepherd: "What's a booby?"
Mary: "Those sticky out bits ladies have"
Shepherd: "They're not boobies, they're nipples"
Mary: "No they're not, they're boobies"
Joseph: "So why can't Jesus have milk from a bottle then?"
Mary: "Because I haven't got a breast pump with me - you forgot to put it on the donkey"
Shepherd: "Can't you ask the teacher for a bottle to feed Jesus with?"
Mary: "No because this is the best way to feed Jesus. Anyway bottles haven't been invented yet & even if they were I've just had a baby so if you think I'm faffing about round Tescos to buy baby milk when I make proper milk in my boobies you can think again"

I felt a teeny bit sorry for their class teacher - she did try her best to steer them back towards their proper lines but she was laughing so much she didn't really stand a chance. The line about Joseph forgetting the breast pump finished her off - she slid to the floor & couldn't get up for laughing....


==================

NOW THEN...

To reflect on this story a bit... Recent conversations on an attachment parenting list I'm on (Parenting as Ministry) have led me beyond my usual ruminations of the Incarnation. Though I don't particularly like "In the Bleak Midwinter" (dreary tune by Gustav Holst and biblical inaccuracies aside) I had to go back and re-read a couple of the verses as posted by one of the group members...

Enough for Him, Whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, Whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

I was pregnant twice during Christmas - both girls were summer babies, so I wasn't "great with child", more like "great with morningsickness". But I remember during those pregnancies being in awe of the Incarnation. How was it that it was true - Eternal in the womb of temporal, of the Divine heart beating under His mother's? Mary's pregnancy led me to deep joy and thanksgiving for the Gift of the Christ Child.

Somehow, I never connected the dots and thought much about Mary's experience as a "mother" of a newborn - swaddling, changing, nursing and kissing the face of her Son.

Pretty amazing... isn't it?

From our home to yours...

Deb

P.S. Hat tip to Tot Rocket for the graphic!

Advent: Names of God (week two)

Week Two of Advent. No less busy than the first, and the rehearsals, concerts and parties are appearing on the calendar fast and furious. The coming celebration of Christmas is now, and not yet (in more ways than one!) Here's this week's snippets to think on as you run your errands, sit in traffic, and yes, find time to remember God in the mix!

From our home to yours -
Deb


December 10
Name of God: "My Refuge"
Scripture: Psalm 9:9, 46:1

December 11th
Name of God: "Shepherd"
Scripture: John 10:14; Psalm 23

December 12th
Name of God: "Son of God"
Scripture: Matthew 14:33; Luke 1:35; Revelation 2:18

December 13th
Name of God: "I AM"
Scripture: Exodus 3:14

December 14th
Name of God: "Mighty God"
Scripture: Genesis 49:24; Job 36:5; Isaiah 9:6

December 15th
Name of God: "Holy One"
Scripture: Psalm 16:10; 89:18; Proverbs 9:10; Isaiah 29:19

December 16th
Name of God: "The Lamb"
Scripture: John 1:29, 36; Revelation 7:10

Fa-la-la-la-la, La Friday Five

From the RevGalBlogPals:
Those of you who read my blog know I have a love-hate relationship with the 24/7 Christmas music we're subjected treated to in stores and radio (in the U.S. at least). It gets too sentimentally sticky-sweet sometimes, yet I find myself unable to resist it. Nothing says "it's Christmas" to me like John Denver and Rolf the Dog singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." So...

1. A favorite 'secular' Christmas song.
White Christmas -- only because I love the movie!

2. Christmas song that chokes you up (maybe even in spite of yourself--the cheesier the better)
Mary Did You Know? ...just gets me... no logic, I know.

3. Christmas song that makes you want to stuff your ears with chestnuts roasted on an open fire.
Hands down, the song that makes me want to say "gag-me-with-a-candy-cane" is the Carpenter's "Merry Christmas Darling" -- WHY does it still get airtime??? YEEEIIICK!!! (Then there's always "Christmas Shoes" which is... ugh... never mind...)

4. The Twelve Days of Christmas: is there *any* redeeming value to that song? Discuss.
Sure. Re-write the words HERE! At least you can practice your parts of speech painlessly...

5. A favorite Christmas album
Hard one... so many cheesy ones that get eliminated from the start! I'm going to go traditional with our CD of Handel's "Messiah" performed by Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields...

Now, I'm off to sing "Deck the Halls" as re-written by Walt Kelly of Pogo fame. (A song we used to sing and drive my parents CRAZY!!!!

Wally-wally-wash-and-Kalamazoo to U!

Deb

Flake-A-Thon

Create a snowflake! Or twenty! The more flakes that are created, the more money that Popular Front will donate to the Salvation Army for their programs and outreach ministries at the end of the year. You also get to do a shout out to friends and family too...

All it takes is a random click and drag of the mouse! Try it! See the snowflake I made for the RevGalBlogPals HERE! And for friends and fam - look HERE!

From our flake-y home to yours-
Deb

Christmas Meme

It's a Christmas Meme - just some fun things to share about your Christmastime traditions...

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Chocolate all the way... with whipped cream on top!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa doesn't do squat. I have to wrap them.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White - I know, I know, that's boring... but it's a long story... they were on sale, see... and...

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No... no particular reason... I just don't.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Whenever I can after Thanksgiving but before December 24th... There's no set time. It helps if it isn't freezing cold (like today!)

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Well, I never! There are holiday dishes that AREN'T desserts??

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Being with my whole family - grandparents, parents, sibs, and the happy madhouse of it all.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? There's a secret? What did he do?

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope. Usually I am still wrapping!

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Oh, it is a Ralph Lauren designer tree. Completely color-coordinated with computer programmed lights, plaid bows, matching ornaments and it rotates on a stand like one of those department store trees. ...NOT!! It has lights of many colors, lots of ornaments - some homemade, some gifts, some I just wanted for ME. It has silver 'beads' because one of the girls saw them one year and thought that they were pretty. It has a plug in star on the top from my family's tree.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Neither - I just deal with it. When it falls - shovel it. Drive carefully and play as much as I can.

12. Can you ice skate? I CAN... but DO I? Not any more - these knees are too old.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Don't know as I have one. I have been given many lovely things.

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Time with family, worship and probably sleeping in.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Definitely those tea cakes covered in powdered sugar... yummmmm!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Watching the kids enjoy the lights the first time the tree is decorated and turned on. And Christmas Eve when we celebrate the birth of the Christ Child.

17. What tops your tree? A star with lights. Hopefully not the cats!

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?
The Cradle Hymn. (The traditional melody is a Kentucky folk tune. You can find the music here! )

20. Candy canes: yuck or yum? Real peppermint ones? YUM. The ones that are red and white striped and taste like soap? YUCK.

21. Favorite Christmas movie? Charlie Brown

22. What do you leave for Santa? The credit card bills... he never takes them!

Your turn - re-post as "Christmas Meme!"

From our home to yours-

Deb