Tag Archives: Christmas

Sabbath Rest – Sing We the Song of Emmanuel

This may not be on your list of favorite and familiar Christmas Carols – yet!
Hope you enjoy this new Christmas Hymn-
Sing We The Song Of Emmanuel
Song by Keith Getty, Matt Boswell, and Matt Papa

Sing we the song of Emmanuel
This the Christ who was long foretold
Lo in the shadows of Bethlehem
Promise of dawn now our eyes behold
God Most High in a manger laid
Lift your voices and now proclaim
Great and glorious Love has come to us
Join now with the hosts of heaven

Come we to welcome Emmanuel
King who came with no crown or throne
Helpless He lay the Invincible
Maker of Mary now Mary’s son
O what wisdom to save us all
Shepherds sages before Him fall
Grace and majesty what humility
Come on bended knee adore Him

Go spread the news of Emmanuel
Joy and peace for the weary heart
Lift up your heads for your King has come
Sing for the Light overwhelms the dark
Glory shining for all to see
Hope alive let the gospel ring
God has made a way He will have the praise
Tell the world His name is Jesus

Glory shining for all to see
Hope alive let the gospel ring
God has made a way He will have the praise
Tell the world His name is Jesus
Gloria, gloria
Gloria, gloria
Gloria, gloria
Gloria, gloria

Tree ‘sup

I’m going to be honest here. In the 17 Christmases we have enjoyed during our time ‘on the road’ I have never done much Christmas decorating. It’s not that I’m against it – oh no! Back in the day (i.e. living in PA in our 1860s farmhouse), I was all about candles in every  window, white lights in the pine trees that lined the road, garlands around the bannisters and sprigs of holly and evergreens peeking out from picture frames. Oh, and ribbons. Lots and lots of ribbons. Even though we didn’t put our family tree up until Christmas Eve (shocking, I know!), I decorated a small Victorian themed tree in the front parlor early in the season and I loved adding small ornaments to it each year. Ah, yes – I truly loved decorating for Christmas.

But since we’ve been traveling, we’ve only rarely been in our RV for Christmas Day.  If we are at home for Christmas, it’s only because we haven’t yet traveled to see some set of kids and grands somewhere.  Our Christmas morning filled with warm sticky buns and fuzzy slippers and jammies all day happens some days later in the cozy family rooms of our kids. So most years I pull out my shoebox full of Christmas items, and at least put out my two nativities and sprinkle some cherished ornaments around. This year I’m feeling kind of stumped. We won’t be here for Christmas, but we won’t be with any of our kiddos either. We’ll be ‘self-quarantining’ down on the coast of Alabama (Orange Beach to be exact) in a lovely condo overlooking the Gulf. And while we’re looking forward to that (in a way), it seems so un-Christmas-y that I’m having a hard time feeling the desire to decorate.  So far, the shoebox has remained under the bed.  But not to be a total Scrooge, I finished up the little Christmas tree wall hanging (made with scraps from all those stockings I made!) so I can officially say – the tree ‘sup!
Christmas 2020

You know, just writing this up has made me a little nostalgic for a bit more Christmas decorating. That shoebox might just come out from under the bed after all! I’ll keep you posted!

Mondays are for Memories – A Teen Challenge Christmas Story

Since we are heading back to Teen Challenge next month I was looking through some of my posts from back during the time we served there in 2007 and 2008. I found this one that reminded me about what special times those were! Here’s…..
A Teen Challenge Christmas Story – (original post date 01/06/08)

Homemade Cookies. Fudge. Bags and bags of candy. Hot chocolate mix. More Candy. More Cookies. Lots and lots of goodies arrive at Teen Challenge over the Christmas holidays, sent by parents and grandparent of the students. But let me tell you about one box that arrived for one of the 1st platoon boys with Happy New Year wishes for the staff and students.
It came from NYC – overnight UPS. Inside the box were 2 large bags of cooked rice, 2 large bags of red beans and rice, 4 containers of what looked like baked beans but with some added goodies, a pork roast and a bag of gravy. (Oh, and a couple bags of mini-chocolate bars!). The food arrived still a little frozen, so we put it right in the fridge and figured out what day we could serve it. Gary & I were “on” for New Year’s Day, so it seemed the perfect chance to serve this food that had traveled so far and had come with such love. But since we weren’t exactly sure how it all “fit together” we called the son in to act as our guest chef. As would be the case with most 14 year olds, he really had no idea how it “fit together”, but he offered what advice he could and was pleased to be part of the process. Since I had to add some rice to the dishes, I asked him to give it a taste, since I really had no idea what it was supposed to taste like (not being an expert in red beans and rice!). Little did I know it is against regulations for the cadets to taste any food before it has been served, so he refused (very politely, of course!). After much persuasion and assurances that he would not be written up, he finally took a spoonful of the rice. One taste and with his eyes closed, a smile spread across his face.

“It tastes like home.”

So thanks, Mom and Dad, for sending that little bit of home. And for letting us share it with 40 other young men who were longing for “home”.
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All the “boys” are back from their Christmas break, we’ve said good-bye to our Sower friends who were here in December, and ten new Sower couples have arrived for January. Should be an exciting month – especially if Gary gets to start some of the A/C –Heating work.

And if tomorrow’s Monday – it must be spaghetti and meat sauce day!

Merry Christmas!

I know, I know – we haven’t even made it to October yet so what on earth is this Merry Christmas stuff! Well, in our world it always pays to plan ahead (as much as you can in this crazy year of 2020!). Since we’d decided to change up Christmas this year and stay south, I wanted to try and ‘deliver Christmas’ to the kiddos when we visited each family in September.  And as timing would have it – this was the Christmas Stocking Year.
Toby’s family already a good supply of GramMade Christmas stockings –
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But the addition of Everly in June necessitated a new one. For once I was thankful I had kept the leftovers from that project years ago, and was able to complete the set!
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It’s up to Toby to make a bigger hanging board!

Down in Waco, I’d also been staying on top of the Stocking situation. Josiah and Abigail had been gifted Christmas stockings as wedding gifts, so as each little boy was added, I was able to follow the style, even if the fabric choices were a bit different.
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The green one was one of the original wedding gifts, the two red ones belong to Weston and Taran. (Although I can’t find a picture of Anderson’s I’m pretty sure it does exist!) This year I made one for Deacon (who unbelievably turns ONE next month) and also one for Georgeanne ( Abigail’s mom – aka MeeMah – who lives with them!)
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To help tell them apart, I put a fancy ‘grown-up’ lining in MeeMahs!
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I think (so they tell me) that completes the sets for that gang!

Meanwhile, in Gahanna, there were NO GramMade stockings at all!
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Since I was starting from scratch with that household, it was fun make to each one a little different while keeping the basic style the same!
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(They really are all the same size – it’s just a weird perspective!)

To complete my Christmas sewing, I even made a little Christmas Tree for us –
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Now I just need to get it quilted and bound before December!

This year we also went with the Family Christmas Gift concept- and did our best to have them arrive while we were visiting.
Trampolines!!
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The one in M-ville arrived after we left, but it looks like it will be put to good use.
We were able to work together to construct the one in Waco
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and it’s been a great hit down there too!
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In fact, according to a text I received yesterday, this is happening….
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“All day, every day!”

I’m feeling all kinds of Christmas love!

Mondays are for Memories – National Lazy Day

Did you know that today was National Lazy Day?  I’m not sure how that actually translates in our world, but I looked back at a day that had Gary in a chair more than he was on a ladder, so that seemed pretty close to a Lazy Day to me! Here ya go –

Dec 26, 2013 – Making the most of it

Since we wouldn’t be spending Christmas day with our kids and grands (although there are only 5 more sleeps till we’ll be there, hugging their necks!) we decided to plan something special for the day. We packed up our favorite picnic goodies, loaded up the folding chairs and headed to the beach! Fortunately, there IS one only about a hour and a half away!
Christmas Day on SPI-2
South Padre Island – here we come!
The weather was a bit on the cool side (though compared to Minnesota, I guess it would seem quite tropical at 65!) and the sky was more overcast than sunny, but still we had a lovely day!
Did you know that all public beaches in Texas are also considered public roads? Yes, for a small fee ($5.00), you can drive right down the beach. Crazy, isn’t it!?
Yes friends and family, we're driving on the beach on Christmas  day! Merry Christmas, everyone!
While we were looking for the perfect picnic spot, we did spot some hardy folks taking their Christmas swim –
Christmas Day on SPI-3
but I confess there was never even a moment that I wanted to join them. They were very young. Or very crazy!
We passed lots of fishermen, including these guys who definitely weren’t in the very young department,
Christmas Day on SPI-4
so they must have been in the very crazy group. Brrrrr…. (and put a shirt on for goodness sake!!)
It was really neat to just drive down the beach
Christmas Day on SPI-5
and we finally came to the spot that Gary deemed the perfect truck-bed picnic spot.
SPI Christmas 2013
Christmas Day on SPI-6
It was early for lunch, so Gary got all settled in with a book and I set off with my camera to try and capture the day. First I headed back toward the dunes –
Christmas Day on SPI-8
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Sand is so incredibly fluid, isn’t it? Does that make any sense?
Christmas Day on SPI-14
After a bit of dune exploring, it was back to the waves for me!
Christmas Day on SPI-17
(Just as a side note – this is a such beautiful area it was distressing to see so much trash peeking up through the sand or mixed in with the shells. Grrrrrrr.)
Christmas Day on SPI-22
And another young/crazy person in the water. Christmas tradition, maybe?
Although I love the big picture shots
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I also love getting up close and personal with some of the interesting things along the shore –
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There were lots of the beautifully colored Portuguese Man O Wars washed up (another reason why staying out of the water (in my mind) was a good idea!)and the little shells stuck to the branch had something moving inside of them. Every now and again an “arm” would stick out!
As I was headed back to the truck
Christmas Day on SPI-29
the trusty phone rang and we got to do some Face Time with T&T and the Ohio grands.
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Ah sweet technology!
After that came lunch! And with lunch came the neighborhood seagulls!
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Whatcha got? Huh, huh, anything for us??????
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Such fun company!
As the clouds thickened,
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it seemed time to get things packed up and head back to the paved road.
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I did have to make it very clear that regardless of who CAN park on this beach, we were NOT going to bring Lizzie with us next time. No sirree, that isn’t going to happen on my watch!
We decided to drive to the end of the road (going north), but we were glad there wasn’t too much traffic –
Christmas 2013 - SPI Road End
since there wasn’t too much road available!

It was a really fun day! Just enough 4-wheel-driving to make it interesting, but not too much risk of needing a tow! Lots of fun with the camera (and practice with my new 50mm lens I got for Christmas :)) and perfect timing with the weather –
Christmas Day on SPI-48

Add in calls from all the kids and then home in time for a quick nap before we indulged in leftover picnic goodies for dinner (i.e. I didn’t have to cook!) and it can be firmly stated that it was a fine day. Not a traditional Christmas in any sense of the word, but one that we are very thankful for nonetheless! Hoping that yours was filled with joy also!

(I won’t even confess to the number of pictures that were taken today, but along with the ones in this post there are just a couple (;)) more HERE! I really pared it down, honest!)