Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you.  We sent this picture and one of Andrea with Santa to people by mail.  First time I've mailed out cards in I don't know how many years.  It was kind of fun.  I love the picture of Andrea singing in the Christmas play at church.  She sang her heart out.

Truth is, she was so sick on Saturday that we thought we might have to keep her home on Sunday.  Her eyes had that vacant, glassy look kids get when they are ill and we were concerned, so Robert said that maybe we'd best keep her in bed.  She looked at him and said, "No, dad!  I want to par-ti-ci-pate!".  You can't know how hard that was for her to say until you've heard her speak English!  We both laughed and decided if she could spit that out, she could surely sing.  She was the star of the show!  She smiled, looked at each person in the congregation and even got tears in her eyes once.  The kid is a natural and just loves the Lord. 

After the pot-luck, she went right home to bed, glassy-eyed again and ready to call it a day.  I'm so proud of her I could just bust!  I'm only putting in one picture, but I took 75!  Most of them look about the same, so go figure.

This is a special time for Christians.  It tends to be a time of reminder for me of the beginnings of my faith.  I think of His miraculous birth and am in awe that God set this all up for us.  It's also a time of memories that will never leave.

Each Christmas, my mother and her friend Kay would get together to wrap gifts.  It wasn't like I do now - slap the paper and a sticky bow on - it was a real work party.  The would get special papers, glue, glitter, sequins and ribbon on rolls.  They made their bows which were all hand-tied.  Their cigarettes would sit idly in the ashtrays and you could see the intensity in their eyes.  Packages were geared to the recipient, nothing random about their work!  They were incredible.  Mom always centered the picture from the paper, matched the seams, etc.  There was one I keep in mind - about the size of a piece of notebook paper in height and width - maybe 3 inches deep.  The paper was blue metalic with Christmas trees on it.  She centered the tree and shook white and silver glitter on the edges to make it look like snow.  I think I was about Andrea's age or a little older and I just kept looking at that package.  It was beautiful.

We also bought an advent calendar at church every year.  Each little door that opened had a Bible verse to read for the day.  As we shared those scriptures and the story and meaning of Christmas, mom and I were so very close.  My sisters were grown and we were the only ones left.  It was special for me then and a precious memory now.

I pray that we can make some precious memories for Andrea and that our grown children have a few that they will hold dear to their hearts at this time of year and always.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!