Category Archives: Christmas

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen ~

…and gentle women!

 

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day;
To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.

Refrain

O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy;
O tidings of comfort and joy.

In Bethlehem, in Israel, this blessèd Babe was born,
And laid within a manger upon this blessèd morn;
The which His mother Mary did nothing take in scorn.

Refrain

From God our heavenly Father a blessèd angel came;
And unto certain shepherds brought tidings of the same;
How that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name.

Refrain

Fear not, then, said the angel, Let nothing you affright
This day is born a Savior of a pure Virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him from Satan’s power and might.

Refrain

The shepherds at those tidings rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding in tempest, storm and wind,
And went to Bethl’em straightaway this blessèd Babe to find.

Refrain

But when to Bethlehem they came where our dear Savior lay,
They found Him in a manger where oxen feed on hay;
His mother Mary kneeling unto the Lord did pray.

Refrain

Now to the Lord sing praises all you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas all others doth deface.

Refrain

God bless the ruler of this house, and send him long to reign,
And many a merry Christmas may live to see again;
Among your friends and kindred that live both far and near—

That God send you a happy new year, happy new year,
And God send you a happy new year.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone filled with comfort and joy!

Christmas Brunch…

Our ladies Bible Study had their annual Christmas Brunch and each individual group decorated their own tables.

 

There were traditional settings and

 

whimsical table settings.

 

 

This was our table. One of our leaders has this wonderful Goebel Nativity set. Each of us brought our own place setting for the table.  The Twelve Days of Christmas was the theme of our program and how it relates to Christ. I read this following paragraph on Christian History.net.

The “real” twelve days of Christmas are important not just as a way of thumbing our noses at secular ideas of the “Christmas season.” They are important because they give us a way of reflecting on what the Incarnation means in our lives. Christmas commemorates the most momentous event in human history—the entry of God into the world He made, in the form of a baby. The Logos through whom the worlds were made took up His dwelling among us in a tabernacle of flesh. One of the prayers for Christmas Day in the Catholic liturgy encapsulates what Christmas means for all believers: “O God, who marvelously created and yet more marvelously restored the dignity of human nature, grant that we may share the divinity of Him who humbled himself to share our humanity.” In Christ, our human nature was united to God, and when Christ enters our hearts, he brings us into that union.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Decorated and Delivered~

 

Dear’s Great, great Aunt collected postcards. These are some of her Christmas cards. I really enjoy Christmas Greetings. My goal last week was to get our cards out and get the house dusted and ready for Christmas decorations. On Friday my goals were completed and my cards made it to the post office. Ahhh…that feels good. By Sunday night all the decorations that I’m going to put out are out and the tree is decorated in a minimal way. Some years are like that. This weekend we are celebrating our anniversary with an overnight to Whidbey Island and I didn’t want these kinds of things to be weighing on my relaxation.

This morning I have a breakfast casserole in the oven that I will be taking to our Women’s Bible Study Christmas celebration. I’m hoping that the tables will be decorated and that I can share some nice ones with you.

Today is the day the U.S.A. was attacked at Pearl Harbor. A good reminder to thank God for those in the military and to pray that God will protect them and bring them home safe. Also that God will comfort those who have lost their loved ones in battle this year.

Hope wherever you are and whatever you are doing you have time to relax and savor this new day…

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.


Stepping Away…

…so I’ll be better prepared to gaze upon His glory!

 

I’ll be back sometime soon. Just don’t know when. I’m going to concentrate on our Christmas letter and getting the greetings out, family birthdays, our anniversary, and decorating the house. The tree arrives on Saturday and our son is traveling over the passes to spend some time here this weekend.  Hope all your preparations are going well. Blessings…

Starting Slow…

…with the Christmas decorating.

 

This sign was my one new purchase on the girls day out after Thanksgiving. It will be going up on the wall in our eating area. Here’s a little Christmas Prayer from Hilltop Verses and Prayers by Ralph Spaulding Cushman that helps me focus on what Christmas is all about.

CHRISTMAS PRAYER

Let not our hearts be busy inns,
That have no room for Thee,
But cradles for the living Christ
And His nativity.

Still driven by a thousand cares
The pilgrims come and go;
The hurried caravans press on;
The inns are crowded so!

Here are the rich and busy ones,
With things that must be sold,
No room for simple things within
This hostelry of gold.

Yet hunger dwells within these walls,
These shining walls and bright,
And blindness groping here and there
Without a ray of light.

Let not our hearts be busy inns,
That have no room for Thee
But cradles for the living Christ
And His nativity.

The Festivities Continue…

Get ready for photo overload. Today we are preparing for our daughter Katie’s 24th Birthday Bash!! Her actual birthday is tomorrow. In the meantime I’m posting lots of photos from our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Festivities. May God’s blessings continue…

 

Christmas Eve was quiet with just the 3 of us. We went to a Christmas Eve Candlelight service and shared our traditional meal together.

 

Christmas morning our tradition is to check out what Santa brought in our stockings, then move on to a great Swedish Pancake breakfast that Dear lovingly makes for us each year and then we exchange our gifts to each other. We missed you dearly Dan!!

 

Then our whole family heads to the Spiro’s for Christmas dinner. We met Dave and Jody 25 years ago when both our families lived in Ventura, California and we attended Bible Fellowship Church.

 

Dear and Dave

 

Our girls and Dave and Jody’s girls.

 

Grandma Mary the Matriarch of the Spiro Family. Isn’t she lovely at 80 something!!

 

Our dear friends Bob and Jan (Jan is one of my walking buddies and Bob is Dave’s brother) with their mom Mary.

 

Laura and Josh

 

Bridget and Laura

 

Katie, Josh, and Lucy

 

Laura, Katie, and Jamie

 

Katie and Josh

The Kid’s table…

 

 

The view of Puget Sound and the Olympics at Sunset…

 

Our family had a wonderful day from morning to night celebrating with family and friends the birth of our KING!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Merry Christmas to All…

 

From our house to yours we wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

С Рождеством Христовым (S Roždestvom Khristovym)

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Silent Night, Holy Night…

Silent Night

Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!

Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love’s pure light;
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

Silent night, holy night
Wondrous star, lend thy light;
With the angels let us sing,
Alleluia to our King;
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming ~ Hymn

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright, she bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

The shepherds heard the story proclaimed by angels bright,
How Christ, the Lord of glory was born on earth this night.
To Bethlehem they sped and in the manger found Him,
As angel heralds said.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere;
True Man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load.

O Savior, Child of Mary, who felt our human woe,
O Savior, King of glory, who dost our weakness know;
Bring us at length we pray, to the bright courts of Heaven,
And to the endless day!

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)

Words: 15th Cen­tu­ry car­ol (Es ist ein Ros ent­sprung­en); vers­es 1-2 trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by // The­o­dore Bak­er, 1894. Verses 3-4, Fried­rich Lay­ritz, trans­lat­ed by Har­ri­et Rey­nolds Krauth, 1875. Verse 5, trans­lat­ed or writ­ten by // John C. Mat­tes, 1914.

One Week from Today…

…all that will be left are the wonderful memories and maybe a little indigestion.

 

…hope you have time to relax on the last weekend before Christmas! Blessings…

I’m headed out to meet my NW walking buddies for our 6 mile walk in the rain!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.