Merry Christmas.

Lost Christmas


Why wait till Christmas time again is here?
Why spend those precious hours in hectic ways
Doing the things that you could do all year
And let the noise of whirl of festival days
Drown out the angel's song? Why not take time
To lift the eyes to candles in the sky;
To walk some silent night, while carols chime
And hear the hush of wings brush softly by?
Take time to mediate: to catch the spell
Of childish trust, that simple faith you knew
When love was everywhere, and all was well...
The gift you lost may now come back to you.
Seek not for Christmas in the busy mart
But cradled somewhere in a trusting heart.

Rachel Van Crème

Gifts from God.

Christmas pictures are fun with my little ones, especially when they stay still for a little while...:)

Christmas week.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the goverment will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. {Isaiah 9:6}

Christmas is like 5 days away...wow, it sure is going fast. This is the Christmas week. The holiday starts today at our house. We had friends come in for breakfast, we went to see the Children’s Christmas museum, where different churches made little scenes from the bible period, around when Jesus was born. Girls really enjoyed it, especially the little 'angels'. I think they wished they were dressed like that.

There were roman soldiers... here is one with my oldest.

There were the wise men, the shepherds and also there were a lot of animals, goats, sheep, and rabbits. I guess when Jesus was born there were a lot of animals around him.

A lot of pictures didn’t turn out as well as I hoped, but some still will capture the memories for my girls. My girls said that they saw a 'real' Jesus, laying in 'real Mary's' arms. It sure is interesting to explain to them that its not real, but that Jesus was born long ago, but now this is just what people are dressed as Mary and Joseph, soldiers, and shepherds. That now we need to let Jesus be born in our hearts so He can live there and then we will be able to live with Him forever. It is a wonderful privilege for us to know that when we give our hearts to Jesus, we are going to be with him in heaven, and that nothing in this life can compare to what awaits us there.... I love it.

A gift of love.

Because of His boundless love,  
He became what we are
in order that
He might make us
what He is.
(Saint Irenaeus)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. {John 3:16}

Be glad. Be joyful. Be happy for a great Gift is coming to you! Its not a gift you can see or touch or unwrap. Its far more precious. Its the indescribable sense of awe and wonder that comes when the celebration of Christ's birth reminds us once more that long ago God gave his only son to us in a form of a newborn baby.
How astonishing that is! And now we feel the amazement and gratitude in the knowledge that if we let it, Jesus can make a permanent home in our hearts, filling us with a deep and abiding love.

Thinking Christmas in our hearts.

Every day we start by having Christmas in our hearts. We wake up and pray to God, we thank Him for sending Jesus to us, for his amazing love for us all, for dying for our sins. We listen to Christmas songs, we try to do a lot of winter things, like going to see the singing Christmas tree, buying presents and going to church, especially on Christmas service, cooking and a lot of baking. My plan this year is to take the girls ice scating, to the snow, and to enjoy other winter functions.

This is when we went to see the singing Christmas tree. Very entartaining, the girls loved it.

Looking for presents undernit the tree... where are they?

Decorating my house in subtle, simple decorations.

The three angels in my bedroom.

My own three little angels, sitting pretty for mommy.

And the three little angels in my girls room.

I hope your Christmas season is going well, simple, and I hope you are having a beautiful, joyful time.