Advent Calenders

They come in all shapes and sizes.

Some are a bit more obvious as to what

Advent

they refer.

But apparently 

Chuckie The Advent Santa

is wrong.

 But I digress.

Advent calendars are one of our more clear signs
of the true meaning of the season but even
they have gotten skewed over time.
As a child I remember just looking forward to
the Santa at the end and the BIG piece of chocolate.

I think I'll take this Christmas to be more deliberate
with Ava and Maddie as we open the Advent bags in my
window, and put the ornaments inside the bags
on the tree,
and they enjoy the little treat in each one,
that the true treat we await
is the
Christ Child!

Untangling the Strands of Lights

There were a couple of years, well, maybe one - fifteen years ago, when we decorated with Christmas lights on our house.  The putting up part isn't so bad - find a nice day and just do it.  It's the taking down part I'm not fond of.  January isn't known for "nice" days.  Or at least what passes for nice in January is not the kind of weather I want to pry frozen strands of lights off the facade.






I am so grateful that others are the not as winter-phobic as I am - or if they are, they like Christmas lights more then they detest January.  Either way, I frequently take the long route home from work just to drive through the neighborhoods and view the lights.  I like the white twinklings ones and the colored racing ones and even the yards where it looks like the elves upchucked all over them.  From classy to tacky, I love Christmas lights!  They make me feel so Christmasy, even though I am still bah-humbug at actively participating in the electric fun.


It would be easy to say that the lights remind me of the light of the world born in Bethlehem.  Easy and kind of a cop out.  There are a multitude of lights and only one Christ child.  However, there were a multitude of the heavenly hosts singing Alleluia, announcing the greatest gift of all.

I wonder how many a multitude really is.  But if there was one angel for every light just in my neighborhood, and I think that would be a very conservative estimate - just think how their song would reverberate!  Now that would, indeed, be Joy to the World!

Ahhh, The Movies!

Christmas movies.

I love Christmas movies.

But I don't mean those made-for-TV kind.

My favorites are

National Lampoons Christmas vacation

followed closely by 

White Christmas.

But I have to get in at least one viewing of

Elf,

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (both versions)

and

Miracle On 34th Street (again, both versions).

In all of these, you would be hard pressed to find the

Christ.

But you know where I find Him?

In the (sometimes) quiet time spent with 

people I love.

Hunkered down with blankets 

and warm (or warming) drinks (wink, wink).

CHRISTmas draws us together.

We seem to crave community stronger this time of year.

God created us to be in community.

God came down to earth to be with us.

I'm not entirely certain God approves of my taste

in Christmas movies, 

but I'm sure He is smiling, 

watching down as His children 

come together.
( And maybe shaking His head a little bit.)

There they went, the Carolers...

I was going to say I have fond memories of caroling as a child - but I'm not sure that is accurate.  I definitely have memories of caroling - the leaders of the church youth group scheduled the event, complete with hot chocolate and cookies afterward - and my father was the pastor of the church.  So there you have it; I went caroling.  And with enough friends whose parents also thought it good for them, it really was an enjoyable time - a bunch of giggly, goofy, pre-teen to teen-aged girls and guys inflicting their vocal abilities on the public, one porch at a time.

When was the last time you had carolers show up on your doorstep?  It's kind of a vanishing tradition.  About 4 or 5 years ago I was at my bestie's house when a group of carolers greeted the opening door with song.  It spoke to me of Christmas, yes, but it whispered at least as much of childhood and innocence and simpler times.  Not that anyone would particularly want to hear my voice, but just sitting here now in robe and slippers, it makes me want to take Christmas to my neighbors (or torture them with it, depending on their degree of musicality).  What a rude alarm clock that would be!

It's not hard to find Christ in caroling - besides a round or two of Jingle Bells, the songs are mostly about Him.  Cold toes and noses attached to hearts intent on fun and spreading some Christmas cheer.  There is something of the very essence of Christmas in that act - a breaking into another's space for no other purpose than to spread joy - kind of like what the angels did for the shepherds.

Sigh, where is a flash mob when you need it?

Kosher or Dill?

My husband's family is from Germany. 

I mean, his mother and father both 

born and mostly raised.

So when my sister came across an ornament

in the shape of a pickle and was told it was an old

German tradition she naturally got one for 

my family's tree.

Only problem was, 

NO 

German person I know has

EVER 

heard of this tradition. 

Me thinks it was good salesmanship

on some salesman's part with

an over abundance of weird

pickle ornaments. 

But Gaye wasn't the only sucker, 

they sell TONS of these things!

LOL

So, how to connect a pickle, 

and the myth of a pickle at that!

to Christmas?

The story is a lie.

There's a lie woven into the Christmas story.

Herod was a liar, not a very good one, 

but a liar nonetheless.

He told the wise men that he 

would also like to worship the

Christ child.

Thankfully God intervened and had 

them travel home a different way.

Sorry 'bout ya, Herod.

God wins!

Again.

Still.

Always.

They are Hung with Care - Sans Chimney

Our family has a thing about Christmas stockings, and by "our family", I suppose, I mean me.  My grandmother made my sock.  My mother made my sons' socks.  I have made them for my grandboys and girlies.  And so it goes.  Once made, I love to stuff them, too, with odd trinkets that express my love for the person named on the cuff.  We don't have a picturesque fireplace to decorate, but they are indeed hung with care, and that's Christmas enough!

The origin goes that a poor family was in desperate need of money.  Nicholas (prior to his sainthood) wanted to give the money anonymously, so he dropped a bag of gold down the chimney.  It landed in a stocking that had been hung by the fireplace to dry.  Sidebar:  if indeed he was able to make the gold come to rest in the sock, I believe it would have counted as a miracles needed for his sainthood.  The story, though, does highlight the tale of an extravagant gift breaking into the mundane and changing lives as a result:  soggy footwear and golden coins when the need was greatest.

Two thousand years ago, what was more ordinary than a cattle trough in a rural setting?  What more extravagant a gift can be given than a King setting aside his crown, humbling Himself to live among us and show His love?  And oh how that gift has changed/transformed lives though the millennia, mine included!

Chimney or not, gold coins or oranges, how much more Christmas can you get?

Ding Dong

Bells.

They come out this time of year in sorts of 

shapes, 

sizes,

and purposes.

 Jingle bells.

They herald the advent of that 

jolly, round guy.

The Salvation Army bells.

They herald the advent of the giving season.

 The bells at church.

They herald the advent of 

our Savior.

Bells ring out!

They are loud!

They can't be ignored!

The angels that first Christmas 

had many the same traits.

So much so that the shepherds first reaction was fear.

I don't think any of us could fathom

the thundering of the angels. 

But the next time that Salvation Army

bell ringing gets intense, 

let it give you pause to ponder the 

angles and the good news they brought.