Christmas at the parsonage

Had a good time at the parsonage last Sunday night. Some were not able to make it. We still had a good time.  Lots of goodies with potato

soup, turkey and vegetable soup. It was nice to have help with the soup. John grilled cheese sandwiches. My girls had helped in making some of the goodies.  A lot of singing and laughter. So happy to have everyone there. I even had someone threatening to take my frig with them.  He 't follow thru  when I promise to take the good stuff out. LOL  Guess someone else wanted to join our party. He knocked on our door with his drinks, took one look and decided there was more than one house with a lot of cars.  This had happen the day before too(not with the drinks) I guess this cul ti sac can get crowded during the seasons.  I love where we live. Its beautiful up here with all the Christmas lights all around.

Christmas taditions

When I only had 5 grandchildren under the age of 6 things were done differently.  I would bake enough cut out cookies and have a cookie decorating day.  Usually there was always one child in a high chair and ate more frosting than they decorated with.  They all had a dozen cookies to decorate and take home.  Sadly, I am not sure if any of them remember doing that.  Coming back, things have changed.   Those little bodies have changed into adults and teen agers.  Some have jobs. Family dynamics have changes, more granchildren , more have been added to the family. This years adults, parents,children join in making goodies for Christmas. This is a time of the year we can share the joy  and peace of christmas with our family and others. Those that have no family, loney, sick or the aged. Like we sang Sunday-" Come on ring those Bells "

 

Guest Mckenzie Sletmoe

What does Christmas mean to me?

That was the question I was asking myself when I was asked to do this post. I thought about happy memory's and sad memory's, but I still didn't have a topic to right about. Then I prayed and asked God "What do you want me to write about?".

As always he gave me an answer, last Sunday on December 11, 2016, I got this card before the service: 

 

 

And it made me change my question, instead of What does Christmas mean to me? It became What does Joy mean to me?Because the root of Christmas is Joy. So I was thinking and I couldn't seem to write how it felt in words and then suddenly it came to me from a scene in a story that C.S Lewis wrote called Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I'm going to paraphrase the scene because it's really long, but basically what happens is that Prince Caspian, Princess Lucy, Prince Edmund, and their cousin Eustace are on a voyage and they sail through a dark mist. They find a castaway who tells them that the fog its self is an island of nightmares. Then it happens, everyone's nightmares are coming to life. Everyone on the ship is screaming in fright, Princess Lucy is in the crows nest and she calls out to Aslan for help. Suddenly out on the bow they all see a great light that is hanging around the neck of a great albatross. It circles around the crows nest and with a loud screech it flys off being a beacon of light for them to follow. When it circled around the crows nest and screeched, it said words that only Lucy could hear. It said " Courage, dear heart" and in that moment as the reader I got a sense of calm,peace, a feeling that every things going to be all right. That is what Joy means to me and that is the Joy Jesus came to earth as a baby to die on the cross. So that everyone can have that kind of joy.