Getting ready for Christmas...

Kids are always ready for Christmas. Ours have already started planning their Christmas lists. It's June, for goodness sake. But I suppose if they're already getting geared up for the holiday season, we should be too.

What should we be doing? I'm glad you asked. Here are a few things to start pondering:

1. Budget. What will your Christmas budget look like this year? And, seriously, I do encourage you to have a budget. Christmas is the #1 season of the year for sending us into debt. Don't let it slip up on you this year. Plan now.

2. Get to work on handmade gifts. Unless you're giving baked goods -- and even then if you want to make/decorate your own containers -- you have a great opportunity to get started. Surf the internet for Christmas craft ideas. Head to the local paint-your-own-pottery store on a rainy summer afternoon and make gifts for friends and family before your schedule gets slammed with new school and church year activities. If you don't want to make your own gifts but love that handmade look, head over to Etsy and stand in awe of the artisans who sell their crafts there.

3. Shop early and save big. Many online retailers have Christmas merchandise on clearance NOW. Order those extra ornaments you need. Buy Christmas decor for teachers and neighbors in bulk. Choose your Advent calendar now, so that it will be in your house as the season nears. A few places to get you started are:

Terry's Village

Oriental Trading Company

Lillian Vernon

ChristianBook.com

Christmas People

ABC Distributing / LTD Commodities

4. Dig into God's Word and choose Scripture for your family's Advent devotionals. Don't wait until the last minute to throw together a family devotional; choose purposefully now based on the make up of your family. Is there a new baby in the house? Are the kids growing older? Will you be at home or on a mission trip? Will you be near grandkids? Is there a friend/co-worker/neighbor with whom you want to purposefully celebrate the season? Begin seeking the Lord for what He would like to do in your holiday season. When He speaks, take steps to make it happen.

5. Ponder how you might like to be a part of the Celebrating Christmas blog. We are up for new friends and we would LOVE to have you share the holiday season with all who read our blog. Email us at celebratingchristmas@gmail.com to let us know if you want to join in the fun for the 2009 holiday season. We need devotionals, tutorials, holiday reflections, gift-giving ideas, holiday traditions, decorating ideas, entertaining tips, ministry opportunities, and words of encouragement for the WHOLE holiday season... Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmastide, New Year's and Epiphany.

And FINALLY... in the way of an update... we asked you to pray for our friend Jenn's daughter, Charlotte, as she had her second huge heart surgery a few months ago. We are thrilled to say that Charlotte came through her surgery with flying colors. She has amazed her parents and doctors, exceeding everyone's expectations for how quickly and how well she recovered. She is doing great and we are all in awe of our Lord. Thanks for your prayers!

Praying for Charlotte...

Our sweet Friend Jenn (who wrote this and this and designed our Celebrating Christmas button) has a baby girl named Charlotte who has HLHS. She's going to be having her second BIG surgery on March 12th. Please join us as we lift them up in prayer. You can find updates on Charlotte's blog by clicking the button to the right.


Thanks for joining us in prayer.

It's Time ...

We took a little break and now we're rested and ready to get back to blogging. Come on over to Celebrate! and see what's in the works!

Click here to find encouragement for keeping Christ as the center of your day in the everydays and the holidays that happen throughout the year.

Celebrate! All year long ...

Happy Epiphany!!!

We hope that you are celebrating the King of kings all day long today as we remember the time that the kings from the east visited Him, bringing their gifts.

We're going to end our little blog season where we began and walk out the door we opened back in the middle of November. What a blessing it has been to celebrate Christmas with all of you. Thank you for all of your pictures and posts and comments and emails. We had a feeling that if a group of women who love Jesus got together for long, He would do something very, very special. Our God is so good!

Even though the Christmas season is officially over at the end of today, we encourage you to keep celebrating Jesus all through the year. Remember that holidays are really holy days. And if you want to get technical, every day is a holy day when you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

When we think of holy days, we think of the ancient times when priests would lead the people in celebrating their faith. In Christ, we are all priests:

But you are
a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people for his own possession,
that you may proclaim
the excellencies of him
who called you
out of darkness
into
his marvelous light.
I Peter 2:9

As we go forward through the rest of the year, we pray that you will "proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." Yes, that is our prayer for you. And we hope that you will take a minute and say that prayer for us too.

This blog will be largely inactive over the coming months, although we may surprise you with a post here and there. If you subscribe, you should get an email letting you know when new content is available. We hope you'll keep us bookmarked. Lord willing, we'll be back posting daily from mid-November through Epiphany again during the 2009 Christmas season. Believe it or not, we still have a few things our Friends have sent that we didn't fit in this year and we are looking forward to sharing them with you next year. And the ideas... we have had so many amazing ideas sent to us already for next year. You ladies are awesome with the ideas! Thank you!!!

Will you do us one tiny favor, though? We've got another little project in the works... a blog titled "Celebrate!" Check back here on February 1st for details and links that will lead you there. We're assembling a team of writers who will post periodically through the rest of the year, sharing devotional thoughts, crafts, decorating tips, traditions, organizational/planning strategies, party ideas and resources. We'd love to share the other holidays with you too. You see, we just can't help but Celebrate Jesus all year long.

See you soon! Many blessings and much love ...

Friends

Celebrating Epiphany...

It's not just a random end to the Christmas season, after which we can "officially" take down the decorations and go back to real life. Epiphany is a holiday celebration in its own right.

Going back to the book we mentioned in the second post of this little blog, 52 Ways to Make Christmas Special, let's take a look at what the author has to say about Epiphany.


Epiphany falls on January 6, the twelfth night of the twelve days of Christmastide. Indeed, Epiphany is sometimes called Twelfth Night.

"Manifestation" Epiphany literally means "manifestation" or "coming to light." It is the time set aside by the western church for celebrating the Magi's heeding of the message they perceived in a brilliant star in the east. The event is regarded as the manifestation of Christ to the Gentile world....

Epiphany is an excellent day to turn your meditative thoughts to the manifestations of the Lord in your own life.

Epiphany is also a day for recalling the gifts that the wise men brought to Jesus, whom they regarded as a new king. They presented gold, a symbol of kingship; frankincense, the incense that symbolized His priesthood; and myrrh, the expensive embalming ointment that symbolized His eventual death...

Gift Giving on Epiphany Epiphany is a ideal day for giving a special gift to someone you dearly cherish. Make your love manifest. In many Latin American countries, gifts are not exchanged until Epiphany. You may not feel comfortable doing that in your family, but you may want
to hold back one gift for opening on Epiphany. It may be a gift of a spiritual nature--such as a new Bible, prayer book, hymnal, inspirational book or journal, or a piece of jewelry or art with religious symbolism.

You may want to make Epiphany your time for remembering the clergy in your church with a gift. Thank them for being "prophets, priests, and kings" -- those who preach the word, pray for and minister to the people, and have spiritual authority--in your life and that of your local
church.

Epiphany is also a good time for making a trip to visit someone you haven't seenin a while. Bring tidings of great joy. Make your presence a gift to a friend or relative or homebound member of your church congregation.

Epiphany has many wonderful concrete and symbolic aspects to its celebration. Don't miss out by ending your holiday season too soon!

Since it IS a little late for holding back a Christmas gift until Epiphany, consider leaving a special written gift for someone you love... a blessing, a Scripture, a short note telling them why THEY are a gift from God to you.

THE gift...

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! ~2 Corinthians 9:15

I don't think anything in life is random. There is nothing that happens by chance. I didn't always think that. I figured that if I got to a stoplight and it was green... well, it just happened to be green. If I bumped into a long lost friend at the grocery store... hey, what a neat coincidence. I certainly didn't see life as being intricately scripted by God. And yes, I was a believer at the time.

Then one summer in a very special Bible study, we studied the attributes of God. I walked away from that study with a sense that every moment of life is a moment of Divine intervention. Whether it is a check that arrives in the mail just in time to pay a bill that's due or a phone call that delays me five minutes, making me miss being in a major traffic pile-up, I know for certain that God is sovereign. (By the way... if you've never pondered God's sovereignty in your life, I urge you to do so. It will absolutely blow your mind.)

So... today when we were taking down our Christmas decorations, we took a little break to sit down as a family and watch a little bit of a totally crazy old movie. Our Christmas tree stays up through Epiphany, so there it stood in the corner of the family room, untouched by the undecorating frenzy that was going on throughout the rest of the house. My daughter commented, "Oh no... I think we forgot a Christmas present." Sure enough, there was a present in a small box, wrapped in blue paper, still lying under the tree. I stared at it and then I remembered that it was one of the gifts our first grader had made in school. The tag said, "To Jesus." It was symbolic of our gift to Jesus for His birthday... our hearts. It struck me at that moment that Jesus wants us to give Him our hearts each day.

A little later in the day, someone had moved the present from under the tree and left it lying in the middle of the floor. I picked up the present to put it back under the tree and noticed writing on the wrapping paper. When I read the writing, I had another "epiphany." The wrapping paper said, "Jesus is the greatest gift." And, "Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving." Wow. I thought it was all about our giving our hearts to Jesus daily. Then I realized that it is all about Him giving Himself to us. How kind of our Lord to take me beyond myself and focus my heart on Him. It was no coincidence we didn't notice that present until today. It was a well-timed lesson from the heart of a loving Heavenly Father.

So tonight as I type this post about the days leading to Epiphany, the day of gift-giving, I treasure His gift to me that allows me to give my gift to Him. And another verse comes to mind...
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ~Romans 5:8

Three Kings Day...

In Latin America, the Epiphany celebration is called Three Kings Day. Although the exact tradition varies from country to country, what remains the same is the idea that the Three Kings visit children on the eve of Epiphany, bringing the good children candy and toys, while naughty children get dirt or coal. In some countries, children place boxes of hay or straw under their beds as a treat for the Kings' horses as they travel from house to house.

Earlier this week Walmart announced that the Three Kings would visit their stores in certain areas. Walmart is stocking toys for the holiday and children who shop at those participating Walmart stores will be able to have their pictures taken with the Three Kings on Janurary 3rd and 4th.

Not only is Walmart celebrating Three Kings Day, but Nickelodeon is premiering a special Three Kings Day episode of Dora the Explorer on Tuesday night, January 6th.

To read more about Three Kings Day, check out these sites:

~Three Kings Day in Puerto Rico

~Three Kings Day Traditions

~Dora's Three Kings Party

Getting together with friends...

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received the food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people... ~Acts 2:46-47

What a blessing it is to get together with other believers and celebrate faith and friendship. Christmastide traditionally was a time for parties and visits from friends and family. Even in modern times, kids are out of school and many people take the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day off of work, making it a great time to socialize.

Of course, if your week between Christmas and New Year's is like ours, it is usually filled with organizing and cleaning and resting from the frantic pace leading to Christmas Day. The last thing in the world we would do is bring others into our "transitional" homes... homes that are in transition from the holidays to the daily routine of life in the winter. But let's take a challenge. Let's purpose in our hearts to fellowship with other believers sometime during the month of January.

It doesn't have to be at some one's home, but there IS something special about coming together in a home. Make it simple. Let the guests help. Here are some ideas...

~Host an ice cream sundae dessert. You provide the ice cream and paper products and drinks. Ask your guests to bring their favorite sundae toppings. Enjoy a couple of hours of fellowship in the evening.

~Game Night. Invite guests to bring their favorite sweet or salty snack. You provide drinks, paper products and games. Set up different games in different rooms and play for about 45 minutes, then rotate 2-3 times. Games like Pictionary, Apples to Apples, Charades, Catch Phrase and Mad Gab are great for large groups of people.

~Movie Night. This popcorn-filled night is perfect for anyone. Select 5 or so movies appropriate to the guests you invite and place them in a non-see-through bag. Ask the guests to bring their favorite soft drink or juice and you provide the popcorn and paper products. Draw a red star with a Sharpie marker on the bottom of the paper cups. Whoever has the starred cup gets to select the movie of the night out of the bag.

~Keepin' Warm Night. Ask guests to bring new winter scarves, gloves or hats for a local charity like the Rescue Mission. Serve tea, hot chocolate and coffee with a variety of creamers along with warm brownies or cobbler and ice cream.

~Pizza Night. Prepare pizza dough and sauce and ask guests to bring toppings. Let the guests take turns creating their own mini pizzas and sampling each other's. You provide paper products and drinks, in addition to the pizza "bases."

The only thing that would limit your celebrations is your own imagination. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you entertain:

1. Think about what groups of people would be a natural fit. You don't want to create any awkward situations if you can help it.

2. You don't have to have a full dinner party to enjoy food and fellowship with friends. Make it simple so that you can focus on your guests.

3. Guests generally want to do something to contribute to the evening, but not all of them want to have to stay in the kitchen all day cooking to be there. Don't be afraid to ask guests to bring something to the gathering, but be careful to make it something easy and inexpensive.

4. If you plan activities like a movie or games, incorporate natural breaks in which people can leave if they need to go early. Otherwise, make certain to specify a start and end time for the evening.

5. Inviting families to evening events can be tricky. Make sure you have available a place where smaller children can go to change into jammies or even drift off to sleep. Diaper changing and nursing areas are also a nice way to make families feel welcome. Many high schools now require students to have a certain number of community service hours to graduate. See if you can find 2-3 high school girls who would be willing to earn community service hours by supervising a kids' room during the party.

We would LOVE to hear the ideas you have for fun, simple entertaining opportunities. Please take a minute to share...

Happy New Year!

Remember not the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth,

do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:18-19

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation.

The old has passed away;

behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

The other Christmas Book...

Of course THE Christmas Book that is the guide for the whole celebration is the Bible. You really don't need any other book to make Christmas happen. Meditating on God's Word and letting it dwell richly in your heart is the key to the most successful of all Christmas celebrations. And if you'll carry that habit with you into the new year, you'll find yourself not only celebrating Christ's birth, but you'll catch yourself celebrating the joy of knowing Jesus each and every day.

AFTER the Bible, the book that I find most helpful for the holiday season is The Christmas Book. You see, our church's women's ministry hosts a wonderful event early in November each year. It features breakfast, a devotional talk, wonderful music, and workshops designed to help women prepare their hearts and homes for the holiday season that goes from Thanksgiving through Christmas.

At that event one year, I had the blessing of attending a seminar by an amazing woman of God name Debby. She is an interior designer and hostess extraordinaire. Although I learned enough to keep me busy for years to come, the one take-away that I went home and implemented immediately was The Christmas Book. Think of it as Holiday Headquarters.

Here is my Christmas Book. It is a two-inch, three-ring binder. The cover is courtesy of my youngest child.

Inside, The Christmas Book has dividers separating the different sections. The pages in each section are secured in page protectors to keep them safe and clean.

Here are two pages from the Advent section. Under Advent, we keep printouts of the Advent verses we use from year to year.

And here is a print out of Jesse tree symbols used as a kids' craft.

The recipe section holds ALL the recipes for the entire season, from Thanksgiving favorites to our Christmas Eve chili dinner to our Christmas Day Big Family Meal. Christmas cookie recipes, quick and easy meals for the hectic December schedule and actual menu plans are included in the recipe section too. As Debby pointed out in the workshop, if you go ahead and plan your meals from Thanksgiving through Christmas ahead of time, you can take advantage of the sales and shop very economically. Choosing your cookie recipes well in advance allows you to plan for teacher and neighbor presents as well as entertaining.

One of my favorite sections is the gifts section. I keep our master Christmas list in here each year... the list of who got what and our gift-giving budget. I write down teacher gifts and neighbor gifts and the years that we make those gifts, I snap a picture to remember what we did. But my favorite part of the gift section is the kids' Christmas lists that they wrote themselves. Such treasures!

All those Christmas workshops yield a wealth of ideas, so I have a section devoted to notes from that women's ministry event, as well as articles I find in magazines or online that deal with organizing and planning and strategies to keep Christ in the center of Christmas.

We have a section for Christmas cards and letters, where we have placed a copy of each letter we've sent out and each card. We keep printouts of names and addresses of people to whom we send cards. This year, we started a new tradition and put the Christmas letter on our family blog. I'll print it out and put it in the book too.

An entertaining section holds copies of party invitations and plans for gatherings we've hosted and attended. Plus some ideas we'd love to try in the future.

The final official section is for decorating and crafts. It holds pictures and directions that we've found in magazines as well as photos we've taken while out and about during the holiday season. It is our headquarters for future creative plans and our handbook for "how we did that" so we can do it again in years to come.

The Christmas Book allows me to be purposeful during the holidays. When I plan well, I have time to spend in fellowship with my sweet Savior and time to enjoy my family and friends.

I even have secret plans for the plan book. Since The Christmas Book is as much a history book as an organizational tool, I have all our family traditions from devotions to recipes to parties in one place. When my daughter marries, I'll give her a Christmas Book of her very own, complete with copies of the devotionals and recipes we've used over the years. She and her husband will make their own traditions, but she will carry to her new home a legacy from her family. While I'm at it, I think I'll make a couple more for my daughters-in-law too.

Un-decorating...

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

Psalm 139:13-14

Well... that's a pretty bizarre Scripture for a post about taking down Christmas decorations and organizing the attic. Granted, it's not what you'd expect, but hang close for a little bit.

While the season of Christmas continues through Epiphany, life marches on and we are off work or out of school or have help at home on a schedule that is often beyond our control. Some of us had all the decorations down and stored away by the end of the day, December 26th. Some of us will hurry to get trees and garlands down before January 1st so we can start the new year with a clean, organized house. Some of us will take down lights and put away the Nativity sets next weekend. And some of us... well... some of us will still be eating off the Christmas dishes right on into February... or March. Maybe the last of the decorations will be down by the time the bunnies come out. Maybe.

There is really no one set time or way of un-decorating a home that is better than another. God made you exactly the way He intended to make you. Sure, we live in a fallen world and are fallen beings, but the bottom line is that He created some of us to want it DOWN as close to 12:01 AM on December 26th as possible and some of us not to care whether there's a Santa on the side table in July. Where the rubber hits the road is in whether we keep Christmas in our hearts by focusing on Jesus daily like we did during Advent, no matter where the decorations are sitting.

At some point or another most of us are going to pack up the pretties and when we do, here are a couple of ideas to make the season of celebrating Christmas 2009 a little easier.

When you pack up everything, put your Advent calendars and wreath in a separate box from the rest of the decorations.

And as you store everything away in your attic or basement or closet, make sure you put the Advent box ON TOP and if possible IN FRONT of all the other boxes. Then, no matter where you are in your Christmas preparations when December 1st rolls around, you have everything at your fingertips to start the celebration.

A little planning in the present promises big rewards for the future.

Neat ideas we tried this year...

We hope your family had a chance to try a few new things this season that added to your holy-days. We would LOVE to hear from you about the neat ideas you tried this year.

Here are a couple of ours...

One of the things we did in our family is to help mitigate the schedule mania of Christmas programs and parties was to eat off of paper plates on the evenings we had out-of-the-house commitments. It made cleaning the kitchen a breeze and left us cleaned up and quiet in the evening, when we did our Advent devotionals along with our family prayer time.

As the after-Christmas sales ARE in full effect, it provides an opportunity to stock up on the things we can use for next year ... like paper products.




Another neat thing that we discovered this Christmas season has been the "guest wall." We took a large vinyl tablecloth and cut it in half. Then we taped it to a wall using painter's tape and placed a small table with a cup of Sharpie markers on it next to the vinyl banner. Our guests signed the banner and now we have a record of who has been by to celebrate Christmas with us. What a great idea for New Year's and birthdays and anniversaries and bowl game parties too!

What were your new ideas this year? Please take a second to share.

Twelve Days of Christmas...

Thanks to friends who are sending neat emails and the ease of finding information on the Internet, I thought it might be fun to take a look at the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Let's face it, if it weren't for the song, most of us in the U.S. wouldn't have a clue about the existence of Christmastide.

Modern tradition has us following the schedule set by retail merchants, instead of old church tradition. Have you noticed that? If left to the secular schedule, everything we do centers around decorating and buying presents from the beginning of October through December 24th. We get the 25th off to spend time at home and rest up for all those after-Christmas sales that keep us hopping and retailers' merchandise liquidating until the beginning of the new year.

Not that there's anything wrong with a good after-Christmas sale, mind you. Taking advantage of the discounted decorations and paper products and seasonal gifts gives us a head start on next year's celebration and also helps us be good stewards of the resources with which the Lord has blessed us.

But let's not jump on the world's little wagon and forget that this is our season to celebrate. The Savior HAS come. He was here on earth in the flesh. He did what the Father said He was going to do. He paid the price in every way for all the things in us that fall short of His perfection. Once and for all.

That's where the "Twelve Days of Christmas" carol serves as a great reminder of the continuing sacred aspects of the season. Here's a quick run-down of what tradition (albeit debatable) holds to be the deeper meaning of each gift given on each day.


On the ____ day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

1st ... a partridge in a pear tree ... Jesus! We celebrate His birthday on Christmas Day.

2nd ... two turtle doves ... the Old and New Testaments which reflect the love of the Father for His people

3rd ... three french hens ... the three virtues of faith, hope and love (I Corinthians 13:13)

4th ... four calling birds ... the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John which proclaim the Good News of Jesus to the world

5th ... five gold rings ... the books of the Torah (or Pentateuch) ... Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

6th ... six geese a-laying ... the six days of creation

7th ... seven swans a-swimming ... the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit .. prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, mercy (Romans 12:6-8)

8th ... eight maids a-milking ... the Beatitudes ... Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted (Matthew 5:3-10)

9th ... nine ladies dancing ... the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)

10th ... ten lords a-leaping ... the Ten Commandments ... no other gods before me; do not make idols; do not take the Lord's name in vain; remember the Sabbath to keep it holy; honor you father and mother; do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not covet (Exodus 20:1-17)

11th ... eleven pipers piping ... the eleven faithful apostles: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas the son of James (Luke 6:14-16)

12th ... twelve drummers drumming ... the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostles' Creed (which vary in different versions):

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

And the biggest blessing of all? These gifts come from our True Love!

Here are some additional resources on the Twelve Days of Christmas...


Twelve Days of Christmas devotionals

Twelve Days of Christmas coloring sheets for kids

Twelve Days of Christmas, the song

Lights!!!

We love Christmas lights. Blessedly, around where we live, most people keep their homes lit up until New Year's. If you didn't get a chance to drive around and see the Christmas lights before December 25th, then go ahead and go out now! Remember that the Christ of Christmas is shining in our hearts now and for all eternity... celebrate!!!

The Celebration Continues ... by Shannon

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation.

Psalm 5:3 (NIV)

In our family, the Christmas season didn't end until the magi arrived. No decoration could be removed until Epiphany … the tree stayed up, all ornaments were left untouched, and the stockings were even returned to the hearth as if Santa never came. Just as the season of Advent was our recognized period of waiting for the Christ child to arrive, the span between Christmas Day and Epiphany was time to wait for the three kings (yep, I know now it wasn't necessarily three and that they were magi not kings, but I didn't know that then!).

I always felt like something was missing when I visited friends' houses in late December and early January and saw the Christmas decorations cleared away so quickly. It made my heart sad to see the twinkling Christmas lights go dark on the 26^th. I felt like shouting, "It's not over yet! The season isn't complete! We're supposed to still be waiting!"

And yet how often do I hurry on with my life, living as if Christ didn't come or at least isn't relevant today? I am so hasty to move into the rest of the week once Sunday has passed, or to dive into the next season once Christmas or Easter is over, or to simply rush into my day after a brief morning devotion. I rarely allow myself to sit and wait in expectation before the Lord as the psalmist did. Just as I was sad for my friends to miss out on celebrating Epiphany like my family did, what is God sad that I'm missing today? What blessings would I see if I would only wait?

Christmastide! ...

Let's go back and take a second look at what Jan Dargatz wrote about Christmastide in her wonderful little book 52 Simple Ways to Make Christmas Special...

The grand celebration of Christmastide, the twelve days beginning with Christmas Day. It is during this time that Christians around the world have traditionally "made merry" with joyous abandon. Christmastide is a time for family and friends, for singing and feasting, for sending greetings and hosting parties. It is a time for rejoicing that heaven has struck a path all the way to the very gates of hell and has invited every human being to walk upon it toward everlasting life.

Today is the first day of Christmastide! Celebrate!!! While we contemplate the darkness of the world before Christ and our need of Him in our own lives during Advent, today we celebrate! He has come!!! God sent a Savior!!!

I hope sometime during the day you've taken the opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior with "joyous abandon." What a treasure He is!

We're going to stay together celebrating the Christ of Christmas through Epiphany, January 6th, so please... stay with us for this most festive, joyful part of the season.

Jesus is the Savior ...

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swadding cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those
with whom he is pleased!"

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

~Luke 2:1-21

Awaiting the arrival of the Savior...

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them a light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
. . . . .
For to us a child is born
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:2-3, 6

Perfection ... by Shannon

I usually decorate our Christmas tree. My husband, Lee, helps, but he asks me where everything should go. (Although, I must admit that somehow his Santa-with-a-shotgun ornament – yes, he's a good ole Southern boy – always ends up aimed at the deer ornament, and that has never been my doing!) This year was different; this year I had a helper: Jocelyn, who will turn two in January.

Before this year, our Noah's ark set of ornaments were always grouped near each other; this year, Noah is nowhere near his wife, the lion can't see his lioness, and the other pairs are all in places that Jocelyn deemed best (including the penguin who is hanging from the nightlight in her bedroom). In previous years, our plain ball ornaments were placed in the recesses of the tree to make it look fuller (especially this year, since our artificial tree is beginning to show that it was a great deal when we bought it as newlyweds); this year, Jocelyn decided that all the ball ornaments needed prominent positioning, since one of her favorite words is "ball." No ornament is where I would have placed it (except for her, my, and Lee's baby's first Christmas ornaments; those I placed near the top as usual), but it's beautiful. Special. Perfect. In a word, it's us. And I love it.

The biggest difference, though, is in how the ornaments were treated. I have my favorite ornaments, those with special meaning or memories or those that are just prettier. I usually hide some less favored ornaments in less conspicuous places, like the back of the tree or its interior, and reserve special spots for my beloved ornaments. This year, though, every ornament was beloved. Jocelyn carefully examined each, lovingly kissed each, and painstakingly selected the perfect spot for each.

My friend, isn't that the message of Christmas? God so loved the world (each of His "ornaments") that He sent His one and only Son so that whosoever believed in Him would not perish but have eternal life (a perfectly picked spot on His tree). He doesn't have favorites. He doesn't hide some of us away and show off others. On our tree, the ornaments this year were the same ornaments as last year; their monetary value didn't change. But, in how Jocelyn treated each, their worth did. When Christ came, the value of each person didn't change. But, as He paid the price for each of us, our worth was changed forever. Now that's worth celebrating! Merry Christmas!

Friends' Brunch ... by Melanie

One of my favorite traditions for the last 15 years has been the Friends' Brunch. Having been in a Bible study that had fellowships which encouraged sharing what we had learned and how we had been changed by studying God's Word together, I was struck by the richness of fellowship with women that I didn't even know that well. I thought what a blessing it would be to have that kind of sharing with friends with whom I had a history, but didn't get to see as often during the year. That began the tradition of gathering friends (new and old) for a brunch in the weeks before Christmas to focus on Christ.

At the brunch, everyone has an opportunity to share specifically a lesson the Lord has taught them over the past year. After we eat, there is a spiritual prompt for sharing, such as,

*What has God taught you about Himself this year?
*What atribute of God has been most precious to you this year and why?
*How had He encouraged you through His Word?

Each year, it is an encouragement to hear ones so dear share of God's sovereignty and faithfulness in joys and in sorrows.

In the first years I cooked all of the food, used the fine china and silver... but now many bring a dish to share. The sharing time is more important than the food---but the food is always good! Who doesn't love a brunch?!

Each year I pray for some visual reminder that each woman attending can take home with her -- sometimes it's a verse on a pretty card or bookmark. One year we made attribute ornaments together. One of the first years we each wrote down on a piece of paper what we were giving to Jesus for His birthday that year. Each of us had a small box and we used those scraps of wrapping paper (that never fit anything you wrap, but you still don't' want to throw them away) to wrap our gift to Jesus to put under the tree or in a place that it would be seen to serve as a reminder that we are celebrating Jesus. Each year God is faithful to bring to mind some little goodie that points us all to Jesus to share with each of those who come.

As we focus on Him, we are all encouraged.