4th of July

Our celebration was, in some ways, quieter than in the past. We didn't throw our usual BBQ "party", mainly because I was a fuddy-dud this year. So we were pretty much it, and our house and yard seemed almost empty. It was a smaller group that climbed to the roof of the office to watch the fireworks.

Because it was so overcast, the fireworks show was quite a disappointment. But our own homemade smoke bombs and pyrotechnics, the handiwork of Child #4, were quite fun. He's been experimenting with smoke bombs in an attempt to "perfect" them. Probably the biggest disappointment is that we haven't come up with a way to color the smoke in order to make them as bright as the commercial ones. But what we lacked in color, we made up for in size...especially with this one, shown right after it was lit.

It begins to burn.

The smoke becomes more impressive.

We begin to think that maybe it was just a tad too much. I'm glad I was up on the roof, above the smoke.

We did manage to highly amuse some young boys nearby. After that, their colored smoke bombs seemed almost boring. But we decided that maybe we might not be in the biggest hurry to set off another supersized one...

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Mother's Day

It was wonderful. The day started with quiet time and some phone calls: one to my mother and one from Eldest Son. Then, one by one, the rest of the family roused themselves out of bed. We prepared a delicious brunch together that included homemade cream biscuits and country gravy, scrambled eggs, waffles, and some of the best fresh local strawberries ever, topped with whipped cream.

Ah...

Then we just hung out as a family, enjoying each other's company, and trying to come up with a plan for the rest of the day. Several ideas were nixed because we didn't want to take the probably-coming-down-with-chickenpox children anywhere that they might infect anyone else. (In fact, we had a lively debate over whether the spots on one child were actually pox or something else. Besides, shouldn't he be feeling more sick than he is?)

We finally decided to head down to the beach with our assortment of vehicles: truck, two dirt bikes, and two quads, with the idea of the boys finally teaching me how to ride a quad. They were full of eager encouragement. My first ride, on relatively flat sand, was not much fun for me. The crazy thing seemed impossible to steer and control. I couldn't seem to get the hang of the thumb-controlled throttle. Every time I hit the smallest bump or incline, I was sure that I was going to fall off or crash. My second ride went much better --- I was actually getting the hang of the thing. Then I took a break so that we could head into the dunes and watch Child #3, who is really no longer a child, fly over dunes with his dirt bike. I couldn't decide whether, as his mother, I should be proud or alarmed at his accomplishments. After that, it was back to safer sand so that I could get in more riding. I think the boys were hoping that I would catch on to their enthusiasm. "Soon you'll be riding on the dunes!" they claimed. Haha. I putt-putted along, like a little old lady, while tiny kids zoomed past me on their quads. I fully expected some random 4 year old would take pity on me and stop to offer me tips.

After a fun afternoon, we headed home, and the family prepared a delicious dinner. We also looked at the pictures we'd taken just hours before at the beach. To my shock, I saw some pictures of Youngest Child, Baby of the Family, flying through the air on a quad at what looked like an alarming distance from the ground. He might be turning 11 soon, but he's still my baby. Sigh...

But, all in all, it was a great day. One of the highlights, besides all the fun and good food, was discovering that Child #4 is now taller than me. That means that half of my children have passed me by. That's a good thing!

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Epiphany

I have a confession to make: years ago, I introduced the celebration of Epiphany into our family for all the wrong reasons.

Let me try to defend myself. In my husband's perfect world, I would decorate the house for Christmas as a birthday present for him, in October, at least a week before Halloween (which we don't celebrate, by the way). Then I'd leave the tree and all the decorations up....forever. Instead, each year in the real world, when it was time to pack everything up, he would become grumpy and complaining. He would enlist the kids in his attempts to make me feel like some sort of horrid grinch who was destroying Christmas by insisting that the decorations be gone sometime in January.

So then I came up with the idea of softening the blow of packing everything away by celebrating Epiphany. We would have a delicious feast, enjoy the last of the Christmas goodies and music, have a time of family worship centered on the theme of Epiphany, and then pack everything away.

It worked out well for some years. Then, one year, my husband complained, "Why do you insist on ruining my celebration of Epiphany by packing away the Christmas stuff?"

I'm beginning to suspect that this could lead to us having an Epiphany celebration followed, days later, by some sort of made-up household holiday, which I would then be accused of ruining by insisting we pack everything away. But if we didn't have the "holiday" and just tried to pack stuff away like normal people, there would be complaints about that!

Sigh. I can't win.

Yesterday's celebration of Epiphany was wonderful. And, yes, the tree, lights, and all the decorations are still up. Somewhat on the spur of the moment, we invited some new friends to join us for a mid-afternoon dinner. Only Daughter and I then rushed out to plan and shop for said dinner, and then dashed back home to prepare the simple feast. We set the tables and waited eagerly for our guests to arrive.

After dinner, the younger boys all went out to play and have mysterious boy adventures, while the rest of us sat by the fire, enjoyed good strong coffee, and opened our hearts to each other. I've been thinking a lot about Christian fellowship lately, and about what it means to be part of the Body of Christ. This was part of the theme of our conversation. One of the odd things about Christianity struck me during our wonderful visit. As followers of Christ, we can be wounded, suffering, grieving, discouraged --- and yet rejoicing at the same time. It all has to do with looking at Jesus, with sharing in His sufferings, with yielding to Him.

I wish I could say that I always did that. But I'm in awe of those who have every reason for bitterness, every reason to be angry, every reason to wallow in self-pity --- and yet do not fall prey to any of that.

My grandfather used to say that it was a good thing for every Christian to suffer heartbreak, that it was the only way for us to become compassionate.

I wish our walk with Jesus was not so fraught with pain. But I am thankful for a Savior Who came to bind up the broken-hearted, and I am thankful for friends in whose lives He shines forth.

And I am thankful for the Church, for His Body. Yesterday afternoon and evening was not an official "church meeting". But there were more than two or three of us, and we were gathered in His Name, and He was there. And it was wonderful.

New Year's Eve

Our "New Year's Eve Bash" has become somewhat of an annual tradition, and this year was the best one yet. We hold an open house, with people beginning to arrive around 7:00 pm. This year, lots of them brought food that, combined with our taco bar and table of "munchies", made quite a delicious spread. We played games, hung out, visited, had fun.

Our house was already full of guests: Eldest Son, home from college, his delightful girlfriend, my sister-in-law and her three children, my parents, my aunt and uncle, etc. Then came a delightful assortment of our friends. It was great!

At about 10:30, a bunch of us gathered in the living room area for a time of reflecting back over the past year, looking forward to the new one, and praying together.



This special time of sharing and prayer is something I look forward to all year, and it meant a lot to me to hear how much it blesses our guests as well.

About a quarter to midnight, we ended with a song. Then we grabbed our coats and headed outdoors to bring in the new year in our traditional way --- with trumpet blasts, noisemakers, rockets, and more. Then we headed back inside, turned on the music, and celebrated!


Someone mentioned to me that our gathering had a number of the elements of church. Even though we were an eclectic group, and many people hadn't met before then, others of us had known each other for years --- and people remarked about how we all just "felt like family". As we reflected back over the past year, there was much praise given to God. Scripture were quoted. People were encouraged. Even before then, there had been ministry going on, as people talked together. There was prayer. There was worship. There was fellowship. There was food. And there was joy!

We've been thinking, as a family, of opening up our home like this more often. Well, on somewhat of a smaller scale, but with many of the same wonderful elements...minus the noisemakers and rockets...

I'm eager to see what the Lord does this year.

Between the years

[Yes, it's been a looooooooooooong time since I last posted...]

I'm sitting in my nicely decorated living room/dining area (we have one of those open floor plans) and enjoying Christmas music, our tree, the decorations, etc. In our extended family, this time is known as "between the years", and we drag out the celebrating as long as we can. Our immediate family sometimes gets downright fanatical about it, celebrating Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, the Second Holiday --- and then tacking on our made-up Third Holiday --- before going on to celebrate New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Epiphany, and whatever other "holidays" we can pretend fall between all of those.

This year has been somewhat subdued. About a week before Christmas, Youngest Child announced early one morning, "I think you should rush me to the hospital". While I thought that was a bit alarmist, I did agree that he needed to see the doctor. Turned out he had bronchitis which was quickly turning into pneumonia. The next day, it was Child #5 who had to go to the doctor, for a milder case of the same sickness. Soon it seemed that all of us were sneezing, hacking, coughing, blowing our noses, etc.

I've assembled, over the past three years, a growing assortment of Christmas and generic winter music on my laptop, and we've had fun streaming this to the stereo over AirTunes. At least I've had fun. I think some of my children have questioned my musical tastes a few times.

We've enjoyed some delicious meals.

It's been wonderful having Eldest Son home with us.

We're gearing up for our annual New Year's Eve Bash. Hopefully my cough and extremely low level of energy will be things of the past by then.

Hope everyone else is enjoying this time "between the years"!

Paint ball ban lifted

Only Daughter faints in horror on Christmas Eve, while her younger brother reacts to his present with delight.

Almost Christmas

We've been working feverishly today with last minute Christmas preparations. This morning several of us did the last of the grocery shopping. Then it was back home to clean the house. It seemed that everyone was going hither and yon. A few had to make various mysterious trips into town, presumably for presents. The younger guys baked batches of cookies.

Now most of the work is done, except for what has to wait for tomorrow. The place already looks festive, with the dining table set for tomorrow's dinner. The kitchen needs some more work to get everything put away, but I'm too tired to deal with it.

I've been listening to Christmas favorites all day long, while doing laundry, cleaning, and other chores. It's hard to believe that we will begin celebrating tomorrow; I feel as if the distractions and busy hectic nature of the past month has kept me from really getting as ready as I would like to be.

Merry Christmas everyone!

My baby brother

Happy birthday, Steph!

I was 11 years old when he was born, and our family was changed forever. He was the cutest baby I'd ever encountered -- until my own were born years later -- and he grew into a hilarious, wonderful toddler and young child. His mission in life seemed to be making sure that things never got boring in our household. Stories about his various escapades are legendary in our extended family.

Steph seemed so different from Sam and me. We were shy, awkward and nerdy, while our younger brother charmed the little old ladies in the church, traded kisses for dimes and quarters, purposefully got lost in stores just for the drama of having us all paged, and turned the kindergarten portion of the school Christmas program into "Stephan and his back-up choir".

We were too shy to ask for directions and information, while Stephan thrived on talking to everyone everywhere.

I've never met a child like my younger brother. He was, in some ways, a bundle of contradictions as a little guy. He could be an annoying pest and prankster at times, and yet he could also be a classy little charmer. Most three year old boys, for example, make a mess of eating an ice cream cone and couldn't be trusted drinking out of expensive, fragile stem-wear. Not Steph -- his table manners were extraordinary, and he could be such a delightful little gentleman.

Stephan brought an exciting new vitality to our family when he was born. I'll never forget "kidnapping" him out of his crib and trying to hide him in my bed. (His giggles always gave him away when my mother would come searching for him.) He taught me not to take myself so dreadfully seriously during my teenage years. He put up with my awful experimental cooking and pretended that he actually enjoyed the meals I forced upon him. (That, of course, prompted my theory that children don't have taste buds.) He was deluded enough to think that I was beautiful, even during my most awkward adolescent moments. Steph loved my silliest stories, inspired me to create ridiculous games, made me laugh, and alternated between amusing and horrifying me with his creative ability to turn mundane events into fascinating tall tales that he would then spread far and wide. (No, I never threw up on the Thanksgiving turkey, contrary to what Steph told his entire school.)

As Steph grew older, I discovered how much he added to the adventures I had been enjoying for years. Ah, what I wouldn't give to turn back the clock, just for a day or two, and relive some of the weekends spent together...

But it wasn't just in his childhood and teens that Steph proved himself to be the best little brother in the world. He is a wonderful uncle to my children, and he has given me some of the most adorable, wonderful, beautiful, delightful nieces and nephews in the world.

Steph has so many traits that I admire (and lack). He is generously hospitable; I'm convinced that I could drop in unannounced with my entire family in tow, and Steph would joyously feed us all and put us up, without the slightest hint that we might be inconveniencing him. I am so proud of all he is achieving in his career with BMW, where he has found an outlet for so many of his gifts and talents.

My baby brother has grown into a loving husband, a devoted father, a wonderful man. But, as a big sister, I'll never forget the excitement I felt 37 years ago today, when he made his way into our lives and hearts, and how cute he looked when I first got to see him. I was full of dreams then for what we would all do together, but I had no idea how wonderful that little baby would turn out to be.

Easter dinner

Here we are at our Easter table, which was pronounced "girly" by some of the boys, about to dive into our feast, which included roast leg of lamb served with a creamy mint-horseradish sauce, wasabi potatoes, two different vegetable dishes, a mixed salad, and rolls.

It was all quite delicious and enjoyable. Maybe next year I'll set the table with pastel blue tones.

So much for not being a "kitchen wife".

Easter Morn

We have already been to our Easter Sunrise Service, and have come home to change into nicer clothes for our regular service. The leg of lamb has been prepped, and is in the oven. The table is set, all festive with new table cloth (the boys pronounced it the "girly table" because of all the pinks and pastels) and our "Sunday china"; the house is almost ready for celebration; classical music is playing over the stereo; and I am enjoying this brief moment of peace.

Resurrection Sunday --- my favorite day of the year. Soon I will be at church again, singing the glorious Easter hymns, my heart full of joy and bittersweetness.

He is risen. He is risen indeed.

I know Christmas is over, but...

A friend of mine passed on the link to this story: The Queen's Return

Actually it is far more than a Christmas story. It is a great example of the genre of fan fiction, and is a must read for any Narnia fans, as it poses an answer to the question of what happened to Susan.

I read it out loud to the kiddoes yesterday, and they really liked it. It was a bit of a tearjerker, at least for me. Great story. Captures the essence of C.S. Lewis.

Christmas is officially over

Epiphany is past. The tree, decorations, outdoor lights, and Christmas CD's are all packed away. The last Christmas carol is playing on my computer as I write this. Almost all the Christmas cookies and candies have been eaten.

The living room looks sadly bereft and barren. I'm trying to tell myself it is simply an empty canvas, awaiting my creativity.

Since the last bit of Christmas music has now been played, here is the final "Top Five" of my personal playlist this season:

1. Christmas Light --- The Wakefield Players
2. What Child is This? --- The Wakefield Players
3. A tie:

• These Are Special Times --- Celine Dion
• Christmas Bells of Germany
• O Come, O Come Emmanuel --- The Wakefield Players

4. Another tie:

• O Holy Night --- Celine Dion
• Christmas Eve --- Celine Dion
  

5. Yet another tie:

• Another Year Has Gone By --- Celine Dion
• In the Bleak Mid-Winter -- The Wakefield Players

While I listened to a quite eclectic mix this Christmas season (Eldest Son and I took turns hooking our laptops up to the stereo, plus we played an assortment of CD's) these were the songs that I ended up playing the most.

Christmas is winding down...

The house is still decorated, and we're eating off of my favorite holiday tablecloth, with nice centerpieces and all, but we're also back to our non-holiday schedule. Well, except for Eldest Son --- he's still home from college, until tomorrow.

This weekend, we'll be packing away all the Christmas stuff. It's a task no one likes very much. My husband always gets grumpy and bugs me about leaving the tree (an artificial one) up longer. This makes me grumpy. Each year, I get more impatient during the whole process of getting everything boxed up, and I purpose, "Next year I'm not going to put out as much stuff!" But then next year rolls around, and out everything comes.

It's kind of predictable...yet another tradition...

Stocking stuffers

While we're on the topic of Christmas...

I mentioned stockings and stuffers in a previous post. Yes, I know it is logically inconsistent to do stockings when we don't do Santa. Jump all over me if you like, but I have two very good excuses:

1. It is my husband's fault. I'm just being submissive.
2. It is my mother's fault. She was even more illogical than I. We always received what she called "stocking stuffers". However, these were small gifts which were never stuffed in stockings, but were wrapped and put under the tree. And we opened them on Christmas Eve. Why did she call them stocking stuffers? I have no idea. There were no stockings, except for the ones on our feet --- and all that was stuffed into them was...well...our feet.
   

Santa

Wow. I had no idea that some people were so defensive about doing the Santa thing. There is a huge brouhaha over at "CentuiOn's" blog, ever since Frank Turk wrote:

And don't start me on so-called "Christians" who don't "do" Santa. Jerks!

Whew. Talk about ethnocentric!

Apparently he thinks that Santa Claus is an integral part of the Christmas celebration and an integral part of our faith. It's all rather mind-boggling. I have never encountered this position before.

I commented:

Mr. Turk, you wrote:
"Santa is a culture issue, and as Christians we are called to renovate the culture. In that, when we are running away from renovating the culture, we are neglecting the most essential public testimony of our faith."

Until reading your blog, I did not realize that anyone thought that Santa was so integral to our faith. Very interesting.

I consider myself a Christian in the Biblical sense. My parents are far better disciples than I am. My mother's parents have had the privilege of, at gunpoint, being forced to choose between Hitler and Christ. They, of course, had made their decision long before that day.

God spared their lives. They did, however, experience persecution and loss. Discipleship cost them.

They never confused discipleship with having Santa as part of their Christmas. St. Nicholas, rather than the American Santa Claus of the obese and quivering belly, was a part of their cultural heritage but not part of their Christmas celebration, which tended to be far more centered on Christ.

You can do Santa all you want. You can call me a jerk all you want. You can question my Christianity all you want.

But as for examples of discipleship...I'll stick to those who stuck by Jesus, rather than those who chose to muddy the water by defining Christianity as "Jesus AND Santa".

Your argument and testimony are, at best, unconvincing.

Later on, I added more comment:

" Rebecca:

Why celebrate Christmas at all? What's your not-so-arbitrary reason for doing so?

Is celebrating "Christmas" on December 25th any less of a "myth" than the icon of a jolly fat man in a red suit? Why or why not?"

First of all, we let our children know that the date of Christmas was not chosen because it is known to be the actual birthdate of Jesus. We don't make a big deal of it; we just mention it. No long drawn out history/logic lessons that rob anyone of their fun!

We don't pretend Christmas Day is actually Jesus' birthday. And we talk about what is myth and what is real. Maybe our little kiddos are a bit more astute than some, but this kind of stuff can be explained to them fairly easily, without resorting to lectures.

Besides, we don't celebrate the typical American Christmas. We tend to place more of an emphasis on Christmas Eve, followed by the 1st and 2nd holidays.

The American Santa Claus myth simply doesn't fit in. The myth is silly and meaningless to me and easily separated from Christmas --- but maybe that's because I didn't grow up with Santa being a part of my Christmas celebrations.

My husband grew up with it, and he remembers quite clearly the one day when he was told the truth: no Tooth Fairy, no Easter Bunny, no Santa Claus. He decided then and there that he would level with his own children and would not mislead them into believing a host of little...dare I say it?...things that weren't exactly true.

You see, Santa really didn't enter their home through a window. (His parents had to think fast when he pointed out that Santa couldn't come down their nonexistent chimney.) The presents really came from his parents and grandparents. No reindeer ever landed on their roof or in their front yard. There was no Rudolph guiding the sleigh to their house. Etc., etc. His parents had, in his mind, misled him.

So, for this and a host of reasons, we don't do Santa. My husband didn't want our little ones to ever ask him, "So what else did you fool us about?" Call him a great cosmic kill-joy who is waving white flags while shooting real Christians, but there you have it. He knew that, if his children ever asked him a question, he would have to answer it truthfully --- and not hide behind some sort of philosophical smokescreen of "What is truth?" and "But C.S. Lewis said...!" Kids, at least ours, are more concrete than that. Did Santa really bring their presents or not? Putting on a Santa suit and saying, "Why, yes, a fat man in a red suit did bring your presents" isn't what my husband would consider being truthful, because it wouldn't be answering the real question.

Oops...my previous comments were cut off without my realizing it. To finish:

We have, however, instructed all of our children about The Santa Game, and they knew better than to ruin the game for other families. So your little ones won't be disabused of their notion that presents come from a guy who manages to do the physically impossible in one night rather than from real people who love them.

I also wrote a humorous anecdote about Halloween, but it's probably best left off.

Astute readers of my blog will no doubt point out, "Wait, you hypocrite! Didn't I read something about stockings and fake soda cans? What's up with that?"

Well, yeah, we do the stocking thing. I didn't do it growing up, but my husband brought his knitted cutesie stocking into marriage, and his mother made a few others to match. In our house, everyone knows that we put the "stuffers" in the stockings. The kids put stuff in each other's stockings, and they usually get us up on Christmas morning with joking demands that we fill their stockings.

Is there some great Christian symbolism that we attach to the stockings? Nah. It's just fun. (That may surprise Mr. Turk. He seems to find it difficult to grasp a Santa-less Christmas that isn't dour and fun-less. Perhaps he needs to get out more.) We also don't claim some great Christian symbolism behind what we eat for our Christmas Eve dinner; we just enjoy it.

But people who open their presents on Christmas Day instead of on Christmas Eve? I mean, really! Are they truly Christian in the Biblical sense of the word? Just kidding...

Holiday revelry

It is now officially the Fourth Holiday. Actually today has that designation, as far as I know, only in our household, and only somewhat facetiously. But we are in mild holiday revelry mode even now, enjoying that time that the Germans refer to as "between the years".

We kinda like to drag out the celebration of Christmas.

The festivities began on Christmas Eve. During the day, we were feverishly busy readying everything. By 5:00, we were all decked out in our holiday finery. Our recorder quartet quickly practiced our Advent medley one more time before we headed out the door to our church's Christmas Eve service.

As always, the service was beautiful, and ended with all of us circling the sanctuary, holding candles, and singing "Silent Night". (I sang it in German...my private tradition...maybe someday I'll post the story.)

Then it was back home again, with a slight detour to enjoy some Christmas lights along the way. Our house is pretty well decked out this year as well, and it was wonderful to come home to all the lights.

Dinner was my traditional rolled chicken breasts that are seasoned and stuffed somewhat differently each year. This is not the traditional fare of my childhood, but it has become our neo-traditional fare.

Since it was Christams Eve, we were going to have a fire in the fireplace. Who cares that it was unseasonably hot, to the point that the weather reports had all joked about the summer weather? Who cares that we were all about to expire from the heat in the living room? There would be no breaking with tradition!

The present opening was fun, as always, and then we settled in to playing with the new toys, nibbling on an assortment of "munchies", and enjoying how beautiful everything looked by the light of the fire and the many candles.

Usually the children are allowed to stay up as late as they wish on Christmas Eve, but this year we wanted them to be able to rouse themselves in time for church, so we urged the younger ones to be in bed by midnight.

I was the first one up on Christams morning, but I was quickly joined by one or two of the little ones, whom I had to send upstairs so that I could fill the stockings. Then I was getting all the sleepyheads out of bed, taunting them, "If you were good little Americans, you'd be long up, clamoring for presents!"

"We are Americans!" protested one child, "but just not at Christmas!"

The older four kiddos were bewildered and amused to find cans of Dr. Pepper in their stockings. "Caffeine! I can really use this today!" said one. Then it turned out the cans were really "safes", designed to hide small valuables. Our daughter found this so hilarious that she took her "soda can" with her to church to show to friends.

Church, of course, was wonderful. I wish we always had Christmas Day services, no matter what day of the week...

Then it was home again, to prepare the Christmas feast, which featured delcious pork chops cooked in a pepper peach glaze.

My parents arrived that evening, in time for a buffet of "munchies" and snacks. The next day was what the Germans call the Second Holiday, and featured more feasting and celebration. Although there is no "Third Holiday", we still had one, and our stuffed cornish game hens were absolutely scrumptious!

I'm enjoying the fact that I've pretty much cleared my calendar and am able to hang out and enjoy this time, while gearing up for the new year.

Hope everyone else is still celebrating!

Christmas caroling

There was a Christmas over 25 years ago that came in the midst of some turmoil and uncertainty. There had been strife at our church, and a grab for power had resulted in my father making the prayerful, sorrowful decision to resign. We were still living in the parsonage while trying to decide what to do next. My parents were attending the church of one of my father's friends. I was visiting various churches in somewhat of a one-woman ecumenical movement.

I wasn't particularly thrilled with church. As a preacher's kid, I had seen the dark side. Now my father had been horribly wronged; he had resigned out of his love for God and for the Body of Christ. My respect for my father was at an all time high for that point in my life. My respect for the church was at an all time low.

It was not a time when I was walking as closely with God as I should have been. Instead of bringing all my hurt feelings to Jesus, I allowed them to fester and harden within my heart. It was a lonely time.

One evening before Christmas, I had just returned from some sort of secular holiday gathering of workmates. The house was as empty as I felt. I don't recall quite what I was doing when the doorbell rang. There stood a woman from the church. She said simply, "We came to sing to you."

I stepped out onto the porch and saw that the entire front yard was filled with people from church. They moved closer and began singing Christmas carols. Suddenly they were no longer "the people who betrayed my father" or "the people who lacked integrity" or "the people who didn't support my father". They sang, and as the wonderful Christmas carols filled our neighborhood (these people could sing!) I...well, I had to forgive them their failings. After all, it dawned on me as I looked into their faces, most of them had no idea what had gone on. They missed us. I missed them. It was Christmas. They came to sing about Jesus.

It sounds horribly cliche, but my heart was melted by their singing of carols. It's a memory I treasure.

And it's really the story of Christmas, as we remember how a Great Light came into the darkness. As I stood on my porch that night, my brothers and sisters in Christ reflected that Light into my cold, darkened heart. They showed me Jesus.

May His light and love shine on all of you this year, no matter what darkness you may be in. May His joy and His grace do more than warm us --- may He truly set us free to worship Him.

Christmas Top 5

Here are the songs I'm listening to most often via iTunes on my computer (which I have now figured out how to connect to my stereo):

1. Christmas Light -- The Wakefield Players
2. What Child is This? -- The Wakefield Players
3. O Come, O Come Emmanuel -- The Wakefield Players
4. Christmas Bells of Germany
5. In the Bleak Mid-Winter -- The Wakefield Players

Guess I really like that Celtic stuff...

Taking Christ out of Christmas

At a recent Christmas program I attended, a local pastor found a need to warn several times, quite dramatically, that "they" are trying to steal Christ from Christmas, take Christ out of Christmas, or some variant of this theme. It seemed a bit over the top to me.

In light of that and the announcements of church closures, I found the President's recent address rather interesting. Apparently he hasn't received the memo that Christmas...er, uh, the Winter Holiday of Your Choice...is supposed to be all about family and sacred present unwrapping, rather than about Jesus Christ.

President Bush's 2005 Christmas message:

'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel' which means, God with us. — Matthew 1:23

More than 2,000 years ago, a virgin gave birth to a Son, and the God of heaven came to Earth. Mankind had received its Savior, and to those who had dwelled in darkness, the light of hope had come. Each Christmas, we celebrate that first coming anew, and we rejoice in the knowledge that the God who came to Earth that night in Bethlehem is with us still and will remain with us forever.

Christmas is a season of hope and joy, a time to give thanks for the blessing of Christ's birth and for the blessings that surround us every day of the year. We have much to be thankful for in this country, and we have a responsibility to help those in need. Jesus calls us to help others, and acts of kindness toward the less fortunate fulfill the spirit of the Christmas season.

On Christmas, we pray for freedom, justice, and peace on Earth. We remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and for our freedom, and we ask for God's blessing on their loved ones. We ask God to watch over all of our men and women in uniform. Many are serving in distant lands, helping to advance the cause of freedom and peace. Our entire Nation is grateful to them and prays for their safe return.

Laura and I send our best wishes for a blessed and merry Christmas.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Think what you will about our President (this post is not some sort of political statement) but at least he gets what Christmas is really about.

[Thanks to Mateo at Calculated Ramblings for pointing me to this story.]

My new top five list

Here's my latest top five on iTunes:

1. What Child is This? --- The Wakefield Players
2. Christmas Light --- The Wakefield Players
3. O Come, O Come Immanuel --- The Wakefield Players
4. Christmas Bells of Germany
5. Let it Snow, Let it Snow --- Bing Crosby