I just love Christmas! I love getting together with family and having fun. I love all of the goodies. But most importantly, I love the reason that we celebrate!!
I try so hard not to get too caught up in all of the gift buying (partly because I really hate shopping) because I want my own personal focus to be on the Christ of Christmas, not the celebrations. When I think that the God of all of the universe chose leave His throne and confine himself to the body of a child and live and grow as a person, it just brings me to tears! He did that so that I (and who am I??) could have a hope beyond this life. What love and mercy!
I enjoyed having both of my daughters (and their husbands and David Riley) home for Christmas Eve. Jessica's husband, Rob, had to work, so he got Christmas Eve breakfast delivered to him. Liz and Dustin were running late (has something to do with staying up late with friends), but instead of calling to tell us, Jessica called Liz's friend, Dennis, who then proceeded to build this tale of L & D not coming in to Mt. Vernon until noon and that they wouldn't be at our house until around 2 p.m. Dennis is unfortunately a good liar as well as a practical joker. (Dennis and I had a conversation about the error of his ways on Christmas morning!!! He has repented, although he refused the sackcloth and ashes!) So, we finally sat down to a fantastic breakfast of teddy bear pancakes (a Christmas tradition), bacon, biscuits, chocolate gravy, and various drink options. Later that day, both of my brothers and their wives came in and we had our yearly gift exchange game. Everybody buys and wraps a gift that cannot cost more that $10. Then we put them in the center of the floor. Usually we draw numbers and the lowest number picks first. The next person can either "steal" that gift or chose an unwrapped gift. The person who gets stolen from, can then either steal a gift or chose another. The favorite gifts this year was a laser level with safety glasses and a large bottle of Nestle's Hot Chocolate syrup with pump. They changed hands multiple times.
Christmas Eve service at our church was so wonderful. The singing was great, but our pastor, Duane Kramer, preached a short, powerful sermon about making room for Christ. He said that the question was never "if" Christ would come -- Mary was pregnant!; or "when" Christ would come -- birth will always follow conception!; the question was "where" would Christ be born and "who" would make room for Him to be born. We face the exact same questions now, Christ will come again in the fullness of time, but is He going to come to where we are? and are we going to make room in our busy lives for Him to have a relationship with us??
Christmas morning, one of my favorite young preachers, LJ Harry, preached "The Miracle of the Message"! Liz and Dustin sang a song that had a line that said "It's no sacrifice, here's my life" . What a great message to hear when you think about the sacrifice He made for us!! Nothing we do is really a sacrifice in comparison!
Christmas afternoon was spent with my husband's family! I have the greatest in-laws in the world!!!
I hope everyone that reads my blog had as wonderful a Christmas as I did!
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