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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Safe Harbor


This is my third time attempting this post. I don't know why it's been so difficult. Our family really took the time to prepare our hearts for celebrating Jesus' birthday. We read scriptures, we sang songs, and we lit our advent candles. We decorated the house inside and outside (for the first time). We wanted everyone to know that we were celebrating something special. A few weeks before Christmas I spoke to my cousin in England who said he thought decorating was silly because it was just a neighborhood competition. That comment forced me to examine my heart and I was even more convinced that we were worshiping our Savior in a true and pure way.

We worshiped on Christmas Eve and had a wonderful fellowship after. I can't forget the wonderful Christmas play that the kids performed. It was so lovely. So after the thought-provoking message about receiving not just the Christ-child, but the crucified Savior as well, we ate, and ate, and ate some more.

Then we went home so the kids could open gifts from Grandma, who drove and hour plus to see their play. After she left, there was the mad rush to prepare dinner for my father-in-law and his wife. I decided on a turkey soup with dumplings for them and rolls on the side. I baked what seemed to be a billion Parker House rolls, four sweet potato pies, and two pear cakes with a cinnamon sugar topping. I made peppermint popcorn balls to share, and I finished a wall quilt that was donated to a mission house in Baltimore.

Sunday morning we woke up and it was a beautiful winter morning. The family had a quick breakfast while I finished the quilt and my husband read from the book of Luke. We allowed the kids to open two gifts of their choice before we had to leave. Our church, along with other Christians planned to meet at Rivendell House, a mission house in the inner city of Baltimore. We were a tad late as it took longer than I expected to complete the quilt, but when it was done, it was lovely to behold. Unfortunately I was in such a rush that I did not take a picture of the completed piece. I may be able to dig up a "work-in-progress" one. We'll see.

More to come on Rivendell later.

In the meantime, I pray that you will feel God's love and hear his voice more clearly in the New Year than ever before.

Peace.

Simocha

1 comment:

  1. I agree that we are celebrating our God in a special way.

    Society want to trivialize the Christian celebration into shopping or anything else they could to diminish Christ, but for us, we know why we celebrate.

    Glad you had a great time with your family.

    ReplyDelete