I miss my Santa

I have been missing my Santa this Christmas. It took me by surprise. Memories have flooded over me the last week and I realized that my Santa is gone. I have felt like the little girl that wrote Santa she would have a blue Christmas without him in the movie, The Year Without a Santa Claus. I have really identified with that tear that wells up in her eye and falls hitting the letter that she is writing to Santa as she sings I'll have a Blue Christmas without you.

My Santa loved Christmas. He would always be smiling and happy with a wonderful laugh when Christmas came around. I can never remember one Bah Humbug from my Santa.

My Santa and Mrs. Claus would always pick an angel off the Christmas tree at the mall. Santa would look for all sorts of things to place in the gift box; clothes, toys, books, always a Bible.

He loved to get ready for Christmas by trimming the tree. Some years we had artificial trees and other years we had real trees and my Santa always made it fun. He would string the lights ever so carefully and then let Mrs. Claus and me put on the ornaments. Then he would bring out the tinsel. You could not just throw tinsel on, it would be placed on one piece at a time. The tree would be beautiful and we had such good times trimming our tree. My Santa even brought home an ornament that you could plug in and it would chirp like a bird in the tree. It was almost a contest to see how long we could leave it on before it got on every one's nerves. Even when Christmas was over, he had nerves of steel and actually enjoyed taking the lights off the tree and placing them back in the cardboard box just like they came from the factory!

My Santa shaped Christmas for me, in ways I am only beginning to realize. My Santa spent hours teaching me how to wrap gifts as we watched Christmas shows on t.v. He was very meticulous on cutting and taping and placing bows and name tags. Mrs. Claus says they could actually go around the world and still look perfect. I love to be able to take the time to wrap a gift Santa's way. My favorite time to do it is while watching Christmas t.v. shows like Rudolph, all the Santa movies, and my Santa's favorite- Charlie Brown.

My Santa loved to spend time with friends and family. He would work on invitations for hours and invite the people that he worked with over every year for a huge breakfast. He loved it! He would send them home with recipes that he and Mrs. Claus had made for the occasion. He had a special spice tea recipe that he mixed every year. I think, maybe, I should try to find it.

Mr. and Mrs. Claus would always go to the Sunday School Christmas party and I would always tag along. Santa taught Sunday School for years and years. He loved being around the people in his class and always looked forward to spending holiday time with them. A white elephant gift was always involved and Santa could be very devious. I always had such a good time at these parties and I was often the only kid.

My Santa was from a huge family and they would always have a Christmas Eve party. We would travel to my grandmother's or aunt's house with the car packed with gifts and food. I could hardly wait to get there, and when we did, we would crowd into the house with children scampering around, excitement in their faces as they got to see their cousins and awaited the gift opening ceremony. The adults laughed and talked and enjoyed each other. It was always a joyous occasion with tons of food and gifts! It was hard to leave, but Santa had to get home with a full night ahead of him.

My Santa always left great gifts. He always picked out great gifts-he was Santa! He left my stocking filled with nuts, oranges, toys, and a huge peppermint stick. I love peppermint! I couldn't wait to break it with the hammer. Santa left me notes. I remember the note he left me when we had put maraschino cherries out for Rudolph. Rudolph loved them and they helped his nose glow!

Santa would take me to Christmas music at church. He sang in the choir for several years and later he did the sound. Most importantly, he told me about the true reason for Christmas. He told me about the baby Jesus, the Christ child born in Bethlehem. He showed me with his actions what Jesus' birthday was about. He worshiped the Christ child and lived his life spreading happiness and joy.

As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.

Proverbs 27:19

Fat Charley's Angel

Meet Beth, she is the angel that sits on top of our tree this year. My daughter named her Beth, short for Bethlehem. She is a new addition to our Christmas decor that my daughter brought home from school on Friday. I have to admit, I was surprised that she would get to make an angel in school, public school, where everything is to be censured and politically correct. She must have thought I was losing my hearing because I asked her twice where she had made it. I said in disbelief, "You made this at school?! What if someone didn't believe in angels? "

"Everyone believes in God in my class this year. Only Ian doesn't believe in the devil."she replied. I just looked at her.

"What do you want to do with the angel?" I asked.

"Put it on top of the tree!" she said like she couldn't believe I was asking. I was in shock, okay! I marched over to our tree, Fat Charley, and plopped that angel on top where only a bow had been placed because nothing else fit. Beth fit perfectly! I just had to take her picture:) I am not really sure how Beth slipped through the public school system to end up on our tree, but God does. He is always full of surprises!



This is a nativity set that my mother-in-law gave us last night. She had it in a box and was trying to find a home for it. I unwrapped it and found it to be little children! How sweet! Children are so innocent and have that childhood faith that allows them to love the baby Jesus. It allows them to make angels and decorate their goody bags with manger scenes and the Star of Bethlehem without worries of being politically correct. That is the way it should be.
Even Jesus had to deal with politics. He certainly did not meet any one's political agenda! That baby, born in a manger, under a star, while cattle lowed near by, and wise men traveled afar, changed the world forever. No matter what the kids get to make in school or what is said in class or what is written on money can ever undo what God has done by sending His son to earth to become Savior to the world. They can try, but they can not change what Jesus has accomplished.
We will just have to seek to live for Jesus a little more, wish more people Merry Christmas and show our love to others so that they will know that Jesus loves the little children and all the people of the world.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones

but has lifted up the humble. Luke 1:52

My Christmas Miracle

Off to the store I went with a grocery list in hand. Toilet paper topped the list since we only had half rolls in each bathroom with no backup and I had work the next day. I hopped in my car and pulled out of the drive and had just gotten around the corner when I felt gravel under the right tires and lost control of the car. I struggled to get the car under control and just as I thought I had, the car whipped away from me, spinning backwards towards a deep ditch. All I could think was the ditch was coming and my car would flip. The car was tilting and I was bracing myself for the flip, when the car stopped. I was alive, the car was sideways, and I was shaking so hard that I couldn't think straight. I was afraid to move, what if the car tipped and flipped? So I sat still and reached for my phone. As I was thanking God, I called home. I knew my husband was in the garage with his ear buds in and my daughter had been finishing her bath so of course I got the answering machine. I left a message-what else! I am so glad God does not have an answering machine! I called again as I was thanking God, my daughter picked up wanting to know the details of the conversation I was planning to have with her DAD! I finally convinced her to give the phone to my husband without telling her anything so I could hear the sweet noble calming voice of my husband.
"I'm scared!" I said as calmly as I could without crying. I went on to tell him that I was sideways in a ditch and it was a miracle I did not flip. But, I was stuck! I couldn't get out, I had no footing. If I opened the door, the car would either flip or I would fall into the deep ditch. I waited as cars zoomed past in the night, waiting for my husband to rescue me. I could hear voices and rolled down my window, two men had stopped to make sure I was okay. They waited with me until my husband arrived, helped me get out of the car from the other side, and helped my husband get the car out of the ditch. Chivalry is not dead! Thank you fellas!


I had several angels that night, the one that God sent to keep me from flipping over in a ditch where I may have been hurt or even killed and probably not found for several days, and the wonderful men that he sent that stopped to help a damsel in distress!


I have to tell you, I felt like Fat Charley in my last post. I lost my footing but God picked me up, dusted me off, and I walked away shaking and praising God without a scratch on me! It sure felt good to stand on good solid soil! I told my daughter that God's angel helped to stop my car from flipping and that He was watching over me. Over all of us. According to my husband, we are all going to church Sunday to thank the BIG GUY! This has been my Christmas miracle! What's yours?

I must have read this scripture twenty times that night....

If you make the Most High you dwelling--

even the LORD, who is my refuge--

then no harm will befall you,

no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels

concerning you

to gaurd you in all your ways;

they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot

against a stone.

Psalm 91:9-12

Fat Charley isn't fat, he is fluffy!

Fachrist

Fat Charley fell over again! I stumbled out of bed this morning, stepped over the dog sleeping in the middle of the hallway, and made my way to the little girls room about 4am. I heard a huge crash and the sound of ornaments breaking as I rushed in the living room with the dog right behind me. Fat Charley was in the floor and water was reaching to the far corners quickly. I made a mad dash to stand Fat Charley up, almost slipping in the water as I dodged the ornaments on the floor. My husband heard me holler for him and came calmly considering it was the middle of the night (at least for a Sunday morning) and brought in towels and offered to hold the tree while I wiped water and investigated the problem underneath Fat Charley. Once I finally got some water sopped up, I flipped over like a mechanic under a car in order to see the stand and Fat Charleys trunk. You know, I found that Fat Charley has some body image issues, Fat Charley is really skinny. He isn't fat, he is fluffy with long arms. His trunk is so small that all four screws were completely screwed in and two of them were almost touching. He just slipped out! Now he is one of the fattest trees with the skinniest trunks I have ever seen. I don't know what kept a good wind from blowing him right over at his Christmas tree farm, except that he had a purpose to be a Christmas tree for our family as we celebrate Jesus' birth. So we got our Fat Charley up and tied him with strips of fabric to the tree stand so that he would have extra support and hopefully won't fall over again. My husband picked up the ornaments and put them in a basket until morning. I found one that was broken, but I glued it back together. My daughter found Rudolph still hanging on the tree without ears or a tail(we can't find them) but she loves him still.

Fat Charley, like many of us, is not perfect. Fat Charley like us, may look put together with our ornaments and lights shiny and bright, but we may feel like our feet are standing in water and we are going to slip out of our tree stand at any moment. Then we slip, our ornaments and garland fall off or break, and we are covered with the water we slipped in and needles are covering the floor. I can only imagine how humiliating this is for a Christmas tree, it is even worse for us prideful humans. Even though my husband and I were able to pick Fat Charley up off the ground, man can't always fix what is wrong with man,only God can. God can pick up the pieces, He can dust you off, dry you off, straighten your garland, and put your ornaments back together. He will make you a new creation, a person stronger and closer to Him.

Only He can give you a firm foundation that is not dependent upon screws and strips of cloth, He will have you standing on good solid soil!

"What we need now is a little holly!"

The whole earth is full
of his glory~Isaiah 6:3b

I have always liked holly. Christmas decorations with holly are high on my list of faves! I always enjoyed drawing the little green leaves and berries on pictures and envelopes that I wanted to give that certain Christmasy feel to. While I was growing up, my friend, Sharon had holly bushes in her yard. I wanted some of those so bad but we had other weird green bushes surrounding our house. It wasn't until I moved away that my Dad planted holly bushes. I had grown, married, and moved to Florida where we bought some land with a small home.

One of the favorite things about my little piece of land down here in Florida is our holly tree. Even my husband likes it and I can't say that trees fall high on his things to contemplate. They do mine. It is just beautiful when it is loaded with beautiful red berries which conveniently is during Christmas time each year. I have used cuttings in wreaths and centerpieces many times during the holidays, this year, I have it around my advent candles on my table.

It is amazing how God has planned his creation to shout His glory, to celebrate Christ's mission and accomplishment. It's like I can hear this holly tree of mine as it shouts praises to Jesus as His birth is celebrated. I like to just look at it and say "Thank you Jesus, for all you did! Happy Birthday!"

One of my favorite authors is Stephen Lawhead and I recently read his book Scarlett. I got really excited when I read what Friar Tuck had to say about holly! I wrote it down so I would always have it, and so I share with you! So get that favorite picture of Friar Tuck in your head and read this with an English accent!

"What we need now is a little holly! The prickly leaves remind
us of the thorns our dear Lamb of God suffered with silent fortitude, and the red berries remind us of the drops of healing blood he shed for us. The tree remains green all the year round, and the leaves never die- which shows us the way of eternal life for those who love the Savior"

~Friar Tuck

Scarlet

by

Stephen Lawhead

Bah Humbug

"Bah Humbug"Saturday's party left all of us exhausted. I admit it, I was grumpy and sore Sunday morning, so I stayed in bed. As I laid there in my bah humbug mood, I remembered the pastor preaching last Sunday about being too tired to come to church during the Christmas season because of all the other stuff going on. I thought I would go but I didn't get very far. I could barely stand, my back hurt, my legs hurt, and I still had the headache that I had gotten immediately after the party the afternoon before. So home we stayed because Haley was tired too. She however got a burst of energy and my husband took her for a bike ride, which was later regretted(They took 2 loops which is about 3.5 miles). I stayed home and went back to bed. When they came back, the bah humbugs were in the house again! They just come in when you are not looking. We were growling and grumping like we were Scrooge himself! The house was a mess and we still needed to make room for our tree.

We finally made it out of the house clean and neat to go find our tree with camera in hand. I look forward to finding a tree each year and the pictures that come along with it. I discovered when people are tired and cranky the pictures tend to reflect it.

We arrived at the place Haley had chosen to look for a tree. We walked up and they had a giant Santa Claus that you could take pictures with and we got a few. We were then off to hunt for our special tree. Haley took off, scampering down the aisles of trees and finding pine cones on the floor along the way. She found the manger scene and we took a few pictures, then she saw it. She saw the tree that she wanted-love at first site with a tree. She was stroking the branches and bonding with the tree!!!! It was a eastern white pine and she wanted it. It was all wrong. It must have been 10 feet tall, we would have had to knock a whole in our roof since we have old low ceilings. She didn't care it was too big or cost $100, she just wanted that tree. She said we could put it outside. What???? When we said "No!" with reasons to back our no up, she teared up and cried, over a beloved tree. You would have thought that it was a hurt animal the way she carried on. Bless her little tender heart, we wished we could get it for her. We took her picture in front of the tree so that she could always remember it, I even said that maybe we could find one to plant, she kept crying. We dragged her away and kept looking. We finally found a tree that my husband and I both liked, she wouldn't even consider another. The one we picked was cute and fat! We paid for our new fat tree and went straight home. In the truck she cried, wanting to know why it was so unreasonable to get the tree she wanted-at this point it was the exhaustion of the party and the 3.5 mile bike ride talking, so we just decided to feed her and let the cry fest run it's course.

We got home and put the tree in the stand and filled the base with water and paused to eat dinner. After we ate, we put the Santa Clause movie in and I started to put the lights on the tree. I was trying to lighten the mood and create some Christmas spirit to chase the bah humbugs away. It was working, we were enjoying the movie, we had just named our tree "FAT CHARLEY" when I was reaching for the light socket and Fat Charley fell over. Water went everywhere, I am screaming for help and towels. The Bah Humbugs were jumping up and down, slipping in and mopping up the water, and struggling with Fat Charley to get him out of the base and back in again straight. If ever in the world there was a time to say BAH HUMBUG, it was at that moment. We finally got Fat Charley steady and watered, I sat down and relaxed and watched the movie with Haley before carrying on with the decorating. Towards the end of the movie, Haley and I started once again to decorate our chubby Christmas tree and we enjoyed ourselves. She got a kick out putting the garland around Fat Charley, especially since he didn't fall on top of her. We had no more chaos, only Christmas cheer as we hung our ornaments on the tree. May Fat Charley sing for joy in its purpose of a Christmas tree.

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;

Let the sea resound, and all that is in it;

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them,

Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;

They will sing before the LORD, for he comes,

Psalm 96:11-13

Happy Birthday Haley

We have been as busy as an elf in Santa's workshop this past week! This has been the busiest week of the year since our daughter, Haley was born eight years ago. December 8th is her birthday and every year we juggle preparing for her birthday and Christmas. We can never seem to get our tree until after her birthday, which is probably a good thing. That way we can separate her birthday from Christmas, but then we find ourselves racing to get it done.



I started the week out by working every other day and then attending a Christmas dinner at church. On Friday night after a long day at work, I was rushing to get Haley's birthday party ready for Saturday at 1 o'clock! I started to panic when the birthday cookie wasn't coming together as expected and I had to start over by pulling the Pillsbury dough boy tube of gingerbread out of the fridge to make a new cookie(Beaker shaped) for the Mad Scientist party. I finally got ready to ice the cookie when I couldn't find my icing tips! Ugh! So I decorated the t-shirts for their lab coats into the wee hours of the night, they turned out very good-thank goodness. I got up early Saturday morning and went to Walmart to get icing tips, came back home iced the cookie, and we finally went off to breakfast, I was starving!


We had not even tested the experiments out, just gathered supplies, so I had to hurry over to my Mom's to get everything set up and ready. I heard my husband comment about a million times over that 16 hours how unprepared we were and he would wonder aloud how we were ever going to pull off such a feat!?! You can just imagine how helpful that observation was, but we(my mother and I) had planned, gathered supplies, and tested, but the clock just ticked faster as my husband was watching the tube of wonders (t.v.) and waiting for 1 o'clock to attend the party. We finally badgered him into coming over to help! He did a great job ordering the pizza and entertaining the kids until it was time to start.



I have to admit, we had a great party. We had neat and messy experiments for the girls to do, a bounce house, and we put dry ice in the punch-too cool. We finished the party off with diet coke and mentos explosions. This was very fun and the girls loved it. My hypothesis was that the girls would have fun with the diet coke explosions. I did not realize the other equation that occurred:

excitement( bounce house and experiments)+sugar(cake and punch)+experiments(diet coke+mentos)= Diet Coke Incident.



It was during the spray fight that I heard squealed, "This is the best birthday party ever!!!!" Ahhhh, the sound of squealful, joyful, little girl happiness. What more could a mother ask for, except for her baby to be blessed.

Blessings my eight year old wonder!

Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them.....When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. Matthew 19:13, 15

Mary Christmas in the midst of chaos

My dog is in the doghouse. He actually ran like a wild thing into some one's home today. His excuse was that there was a cat and that he is responsible for chasing cats. I didn't get the full story because my husband was so mad he could not see straight, except that it was a fiasco. My daughter and I however, were able to laugh which only made my husband madder!

My daughter is in the doghouse because she got in trouble at school today for talking and got her color changed to yellow. If she was yellow, Thomas(our dog) must be on fire-engine red. The problem with that is dogs are color blind! My daughter, however, confessed as soon as she got in the car. She wanted to know if I was mad. I told her I was going to let her Dad be mad about that because we already had unresolved issues from the morning get-to-school routine!

Tonight, she gave me a good laugh as we were coming home from swim practice. Out of the blue, she says, "Mommy, I know why they say Merry Christmas!" I thought, this should be good, "Why is that?" I asked.
"You know, mommy Mary!" she said.
I had a good laugh over that one, I almost didn't want to tell her any different. I am so glad that she is looking for the Christ child and his Mommy Mary in Christmas. My goal this year, is to make sure that my family is really getting the true meaning of Christmas. It is such a sad thing that we are in a society that is so politically correct that we now hesitate to wish or write Merry Christmas and we even have to search through all the Happy Holiday cards to find a Merry Christmas card.
The birth of a baby that gave mankind a gift of eternal life has given us the chance to celebrate a True Christmas. One that we create to honor Him. It doesn't matter that Dec. 25 is not His actual birthday or that it took the place of a pagan holiday, what matters is what we do with it. We choose to celebrate Christmas, not just a holiday. We choose Jesus.
I was given this Sunday:
It is true that Jesus is the reason for the season. It is also true that when I accepted Him as my Messiah, I became a reason for the season. I am the reason He was abused, pierced, crushed, and silent. I am the reward and honor for His sacrifice. I am His birthday present.
So......

Mary Christmas

I am so glad that God chose Mary to give birth to our Savior!

Can you imagine being Mary, talk about getting to sit at our Lord's feet, she got to stare into His eyes and watch him while he slept. Can you imagine what He must have mused over as a child, what were the things He said that made her laugh? What joy she pondered in her heart!

My Advent Calendar

The Christmas season has started! Lights are twinkling and fir trees are seen tied on tops of cars as people head home to decorate each bough. Today is the first day of December and my Advent calender starts today.

My mom made my Advent calender when I was small. I have fond memories of counting each day and getting to remove a felt ornament that stuck to the felt tree. I now have it hanging on my wall for my daughter but the felt ornaments don't stick anymore. So I have been searching for tidbits of information and small little ornaments to hang on this tree with little pins. In the process, I have found some fun things to share, some even with your kids. My blog will have its very own Advent calendar! So click on each day to be taken to a link that has something special for that day. This calendar will however, go through Jan. 6 Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas and my wedding anniversary.

1-25 is ready to go. I am still working on the 12 days of Christmas!

Merry CHRISTmas!!!!!!

DECEMBER

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

JANUARY

1 2 3 4 5 6

The twelve days of Christmas is now ready to go. I got a little behind, so the the first of the 3 of 12 days are lumped together. I found a little fun, a little fact, a little devotion, and a few pictures to boot! Hope you enjoy.