A Mother's Christmas Story

My family got a very special Christmas present this year...a brand new baby! My sister had her 2nd daughter this morning at 7:40 am and she is a beauty - don't you think!?!?

I taught the kids in our church about the Nativity Story this past week and it hit especially close to home with my sister being so close to delivering her own little bundle of joy! What an amazing sacrifice Mary made to bring Jesus to earth for all of us! I don't believe that Mary is one that we should worship - that should be reserved for our God and our Savior. I do, however, believe that she is most worthy of our great respect and appreciation. I mean - not only did she risk her reputation, but she risked her life to bring this little one into the world! Most women in her situation - pregnant and unmarried - were stoned to death in that time. In fact, Joseph deserves a great deal of our thanks and respect, as well, because all it would have taken would have been a word from him and the community would have quickly stoned Mary without a second thought!

In addition - Mary and Joseph made the trek to Bethlehem which would not have been an easy one in the most ideal circumstances - much less with a woman who was 9 months pregnant! I mean - she rode a donkey for heavens sake! I can remember riding in a car being a bit miserable at that point in pregnancy...a donkey had to be nearly unbearable. She slept on the hard ground in the elements throughout the trip. I had an awesome quilted mattress during both of my pregnancies, but comfort was not easy to find even so! And then forget any cravings...she ate what they could carry and cook on a campfire - no midnight milkshake runs for her! To top it all off, she went through the toughest thing a woman can do - labor and delivery in a CAVE! I know some women insist on a natural birth, but Mary was the realest of the real women!! :)

Anyway, I'm thrilled to be a new aunt and so happy for my sister. The whole experience here at Christmas time really gave me a new understanding and respect for Jesus' mother - pretty cool!!

Hope everyone had a very blessed Christmas - I know we did!! :)

A CHRISTmas Story!

http://www.citizenlink.org/Stoplight/A000006125.cfm

Check out this short video...totally in the spirit of Christ's birthday !:)

This makes me happy!! :) Merry Christmas!

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"

My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth,and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her "world-famous" cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus?" She snorted..."Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad!! Now, put on your coat,and let's go."

"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second world-famous cinnamon bun.

"Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store,the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days.

"Take this money," she said,"and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.

I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for. I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, and the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out to recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't have a cough;
he didn't have a good coat.

I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat! I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that.

"Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly,
as I laid my ten dollars down.

"Yes, ma'am," I replied shyly. "It's for Bobby."

The nice lady smiled at me, as I told her about how Bobby really needed a good winter coat. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag, smiled again, and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) in Christmas paper and ribbons and wrote, "To Bobby, From Santa Claus" on it. Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially, one of Santa's helpers.

Grandma parked down the street from Bobby's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going." I took a deep breath, dashed for his front
door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his door and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

Fifty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker's bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were, ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were his team. I still have the Bible, with the coat tag tucked inside: $19.95.

May you always have LOVE to share, HEALTH to spare and FRIENDS that care...And may you always believe in the magic of Santa Claus!

Atheists' Holiday...

Love this!! :)

In Florida , an atheist became incensed over the preparation of Easter and Passover holidays. He decided to contact his lawyer about the discrimination inflicted on atheists by the constant celebrations afforded to Christians and Jews with all their holidays while atheists had no holiday to celebrate.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the long passionate presentation by the lawyer, the Judge banged his gavel and declared, 'Case dismissed!'

The lawyer immediately stood and objected to the ruling and said, "Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and many other observances. Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah...yet my client and all other atheists have no such holiday!"

The judge leaned forward in his chair and simply said, "Obviously your client is too confused to even know about, much less celebrate his own atheists' holiday!"

The lawyer pompously said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any such holiday for atheists. Just when might that holiday be, your Honor?"

The judge Said, "Well it comes every year on exactly the same date---April 1st! Since our calendar sets April 1st as 'April Fools Day,' consider that Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, in my opinion, if your client says there is no God, then by scripture, he is a fool, and April 1st is his holiday! Now have a good day and get out of my courtroom!!"

Yeah God!

Okay - so it turns out that my whole struggle with my friends' move must have been a little discernment after all! I kept my mouth shut in the interest of not upsetting my friends, but it was tough! Well, guess what - they told us last night that they're not moving right away after all! Turns out the people who offered my friend a job didn't fully disclose his responsibilities up front and it was not something he wanted to do when he got all of the details. Now they're going to wait until summer to move and he's going to take his time finding the right job for he and his family. I suspect that he will find something great with additional income and closer to his home. I just think God had their backs on this one and got them out of it at the last minute before they did something that wasn't best for them. I'm so glad it worked out. They'll still move and I'll still be sad when they do, but my prayer is that I'll be comfortable with it because it will be the right move at the right time! :)

Relax already... Santa is not going to morally bankrupt our kids!!

I felt that I needed to weigh in on this whole Santa issue - it frustrates me that it's such a big deal!! I respect those who choose not to play Santa, but I'm just not sure we always get the same respect in return. I have several friends whose families either don't celebrate Santa or whose kids have aged out of it. Three of their kids have told my oldest this year that Santa isn't real! Not because she asked them and they didn't want to lie - but because they just felt the need to tell her. I think it's about them knowing something that she doesn't and feeling the need to prove her wrong. GGGRRRR! I just don't know why this is such a big deal - if we want to celebrate with Santa - cool - if someone else doesn't - cool! It's a family decision and I'm not sure why anyone else gets to state their opinion about how my husband and I teach our children. They can surely have an opinion and they should make the appropriate decisions for their families, but let me have peace about the decisions I make for mine!

There's always an argument about something - Santa/no Santa, homeschool/public school, immunize/don't immunize, breastfeed/bottle feed...geez, I wish everyone would relax and just worry about raising their own happy, healthy children. Quit judging already!!

I gotta' tell you - we are a Santa family all the way! :) I just so loved the thrill of Santa growing up, that I couldn't not share that same fun with my girls. That's what it is to me - a great fun childhood fantasy that they'll someday treasure like I do mine! I just can't imagine that they won't see the joy and fun in what we're doing - I never resented my parents for it or even thought if it as them having lied to me! They just loved me and wanted to share that joy with me.

To us it's just the same as reading a book of fiction or watching a great movie about something impossible or even allowing them to pretend that they're something that they're not and never can be! :) I guess that's it - it's just a great big, fun game of pretend that we get to participate in with them.

I saw a response to a friend's blog that seemed to indicate that we can't possibly effectively teach our children about Jesus AND practice the Santa fantasy. Puhlease -just talk to my girls and you'll see immediately that they know the real reason for Christmas and that the gift receiving, Santa, Christmas lights, TV shows are all just to make the season a little more fun. Some people act as though Santa is almost satanic and that we are going to damage our children by doing it! I was raised with Santa and so was my husband, and I like to think we both turned out pretty good - with strong Christian and moral values. Heck, our church let's us teach and lead the teenagers - we must be fairly okay! I happen to know that even the pastor of our church and his family were Santa people, in fact, they took their kids to the "North Pole" (Boone, NC) every year to visit Santa when they were small. I tend to think they are pretty strong in their Christian walk and look to them as spiritual advisors, so I figure if it's okay for them, it's surely okay for me!

Mostly I just think we need to all chill out and enjoy the season with our families in whatever traditions we choose to create. I look back on my Christmas' with great joy and sentimentality and I hope that one day my girls will look back on theirs just the same and that my grandchildren will be visited by Santa! :)

Strugglin'...

So, I'm really struggling with some things and can't decide if I'm being selfish or my feelings are normal. Some very close friends of mine are about to move a long way away and I find myself feeling angry as the time grows close and that's not what I expected to feel. I mean - anger, why in the world would I feel mad at them for moving?!?!

I think part of it is that my daughter adores their daughter and is heartbroken at seeing her move so far away. This is the first time she's had to experience this type of loss and her sensitive little heart is just breaking. As a mom, I think my first reaction to my daughter having her heart broken is a need to "fix it" and this time I just can't do that. So now I find myself feeling mad that anyone would dare do something that hurts her - irrational, I know, but I actually feel mad! I find myself drawing away from my friends at a time when it seems logical that I should want to spend as much time with them as possible. It's not an intentional thing - I just feel myself breaking that bond - it's a weird feeling. I even feel a little uncomfortable in their presence - like there's a proverbial "elephant in the room". It almost seems like I yearn for their move date to come so that this part will be over and we can all begin to move on. You know - I think this is the first time I've ever had a really good friend to move so far away, come to think of it - I guess my not-so-sensitive heart is breaking a little, too and I'm not quite sure how to handle the emotions that I'm feeling.

The other reason I feel this anger and frustration is that in my spirit I don't feel that this is the right thing for them to do. So what - you say, it's not your life, what right do you have to say one way or other? I don't feel like I can discuss this with them, because, again, who am I to determine what they should do with their life? On the other hand, I feel like I'm not doing the right thing as their friend to sit back and watch them make what I feel is a mistake. I guess it's similar to watching a friend marry someone that you know is wrong for them - I did that once and my friend went through a tough divorce years later. Do I dare to think that I know what's right for everyone else? Of course not, I really don't, but I'm struggling with keeping my mouth shut when my spirit is SCREAMING "wrong move - stop - turn back!"

I would welcome any sage advice or thoughts... Bottom line - I love this family a lot and don't want to see them move away - so do you think that's why my spirit is screaming "stop" or is it possible that I'm discerning something real?