It has been over a month since my last post! November was a crazy month. I spent more time in Fayetteville in November than I did in Houston. As I am sure it is with everyone else, the first two weeks of December have gone by in a flash.
Hal and I are excited about spending our first Christmas together....as I have been known to do throughout my life I have been bugging him to death about what he is buying me for Christmas! He pulled one on me tonight....I thought he hadn't bought a gift yet, and I was picking at him, he got up and left the room and came back with a beautiful David Yurman cross necklace! I couldn't even talk!
Even more than being together and getting presents, we are excited to be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ! I went to a women's Christmas Banquet last week where the message was "Redeeming the Season." The speakers literally gave over 300 ways to help families center the Christmas season around celebrating the birth of Christ. Here a just a few of the many things I took away from the night.
- Purchase a box of inexpensive glass ornaments and write a characteristic of God on each ornament. Each night after dinner, place one of the ornaments on the tree and talk about who God is.
- Wait to open your Christmas cards each day until you are around the dinner table. As you bless your meal, pray for the families you received cards from. Hal and I have been doing this the last few nights, and are really enjoying bringing our friends and family before God's throne.
- The Christmas Nail-I purchased a three inch nail that represents the spike that nailed Jesus to the cross to hang at the center of our Christmas tree. Next year, it will be the first ornament we will hang on the tree to remember the tree that Jesus hung out to pay the penalty for our sin, and to remind us that Jesus left the manager and went to the cross.
Merry Christmas!
1 comment:
Lindsay, I would love to have more of the ideas that you got on celebrating Christmas. The ones you posted are wonderful. This year our church program went through the nativity story presenting about 30 names of Jesus throughout it. Steve put the program together and it was so exciting to go through Strong's and see all the names for Jesus. I have a lot of solid color glass ornaments I haven't used in a whle. I think I may write some of the names of Jesus on them and use them next year! Send me more ideas!!
Friday night we were invited to be the entertainment at a local nursing home (Alzh. Unit) Christmas dinner/party. Most of the residents had at least one family member attend. Steve and Dallas sang, Kyle and Dallas played the piano, and I read a few stories/poems. It was so sweet to see patients lost somewhere in time begin to mouth the words to Silent Night, Joy to the World, and even O Holy Night. Steve sang a couple of songs from Ray Boltz Christmas album, one being "O what a Beautiful Name"! We've been asked to come back once a month to minister to them. What a blessing! Sunday was our church program, and yesterday our homeschool group did a skit, songs, and piano instrumentals for the local AARP group at the Senior Citizens Center. It's been a busy week, but so refreshing to be able to present Jesus to these groups and church family. We are looking forward to being with MawMaw and PawPaw again Thursday evening and Friday before going on to Little Rock and returning home on Christmas Eve. This has been a wonderful year of shopping! The boys desired to use their own money to buy gifts for each other and either Steve or me before they ran out of money! The boys really put thought into the Angel Tree gifts we bought. It's exciting to see them truly enjoy and participate in the giving to others. Have a wonderful week and time in Mississippi! Stev will be in HOustonjust overningt on the 2nd and 3rd of January. If he comes for a longer stay, maybe we can come with him! Love ya! Aunt Kathy
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