Category Archives: Christmas

As With Gladness, Men of Old ~ Hymn

As With Gladness, Men of Old

As with gladness, men of old
Did the guiding star behold
As with joy they hailed its light
Leading onward, beaming bright
So, most glorious Lord, may we
Evermore be led to Thee.

As with joyful steps they sped
To that lowly manger bed
There to bend the knee before
Him Whom Heaven and earth adore;
So may we with willing feet
Ever seek Thy mercy seat.

As they offered gifts most rare
At that manger rude and bare;
So may we with holy joy,
Pure and free from sin’s alloy,
All our costliest treasures bring,
Christ, to Thee, our heavenly King.

Holy Jesus, every day
Keep us in the narrow way;
And, when earthly things are past,
Bring our ransomed souls at last
Where they need no star to guide,
Where no clouds Thy glory hide.

In the heavenly country bright,
Need they no created light;
Thou its Light, its Joy, its Crown,
Thou its Sun which goes not down;
There forever may we sing
Alleluias to our King!

Words: William C. Dix, 1860

He wrote this hymn on the day of the Epi­pha­ny, while sick in bed; it was first pub­lished in his Hymns of Love and Joy.

Christmas Home Tour ~ 2009

Welcome to the Tour of Christmas homes in Bloggy World. Our home is ready and waiting for your visit.

The reason there is a Christmas to celebrate with joy!

“I seem to see the Christmas Star that filled the world with light”

My clothes pin Christmas card holder is still waiting for greetings from near and far…

Grab a cup of cocoa and don’t worry about spilling…all the floors in my house need replacing.

Here’s a garland to remind you that you’re visiting the Northwest.

Joy is the theme of Christmas here. We want to feel the wondrous joy of that first Christmas.

Some of our Vintage Christmas…

This year my tree does not have all our ornaments on it. Just enough so it doesn’t look bare.

This will be the first Christmas in 28 years that our son Dan will not be here for Christmas.

We’ll miss his presence but we are happy for his new future and are looking forward to being together next Christmas…Lord willing.

We’ll all miss seeing your face Dan! We love you and miss you!

Every Christmas morning for as long as we all can remember Dear mixes up his mother’s recipe for Swedish Pancakes and cooks them for us all. He uses the 2 pan method so none of us have to wait too long for the next hot one!  How we all look forward to this tradition! Thank you Dear!

Last year after Christmas I was on a mission to find some substantial nativity sets since all we had was a tiny wooden one. We ended up with this more traditional one above and this one…

“As with gladness men of old
Did with guiding light behold-
As with joy they hailed it’s light,
Leading onward, beaming bright-
So, most gracious Lord, may we
Evermore be led to Thee”

Merry Christmas to all who visit here. Thank you for stopping by.  Blessings on you and yours!

You can visit other Christmas tours by clicking on these links.

Visit Rhoda for Home for the Holidays on the 10th

Visit the Nester for Christmas Tour of Homes on the 14th.

Visit Susan at Thoughts From Over the Rainbow on Tuesdays for Deck the Halls.

Found Another Christmas Party to Join

The Halls are Decked…

…as much as they will be this year. Every year looks a little different for us and we go with the flow. This is a less extravagant Christmas but still as joyful as ever! I’ll be posting my big tour tomorrow but here’s just a preview.

I haven’t done any Christmas shopping for my family yet! Yikes! I’m usually all done by now. I haven’t done any baking either but that can wait till next week. My Christmas cards are coming late so I’ll be scrambling to get them addressed and sent. Can you guess the theme of my Christmas this year?

She’s late for a very important date!

Hope all is going well with your preparations. Visit Susan at Thoughts Over the Rainbow to see some Halls all decked out already.

Frosty!

We had a very cold frosty morning in the 20’s and the frost hung around into the afternoon. Brrrrr…

My son and DIL delivered the tree and now all I have to do is put lights on and decorate it. It already smells more like Christmas around here with the tree in it’s place.

 

Christmas Star Table ~

It’s been a while since I participated in Tablescape Thursday so I’m happy to join back in this week. Please visit our fabulous hostess Susan at Between Naps on the Porch to see lots of tables set for entertaining.

Today I pulled out some of my Christmas decor which included two Nativity sets I purchased at after Christmas sales last year. I thought about the Wisemen that followed the star and said to King Herod “For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him”.  My star table is in honor of those Wisemen who were looking for this sign for years and were blessed with the fulfillment of that search by seeing Jesus face to face.

My chair covers are Santa Hats. I purchased them at Target after Christmas clearance about 5 years ago…

 

I’m looking forward to seeing your tablescapes this week. Thanks for visiting here…

Thou Virgin-Born Incarnate Word ~ Hymn

Thou Virgin-Born Incarnate Word

Thou virgin-born incarnate Word,
Begotten of the Father,
Blest Son of Mary, David’s Lord,
In Thy dear Name we gather.
As Thou hast promised, be Thou nigh,
And hear us as we testify,
“Thou art the Christ, our Savior.”

The herald in the wilderness
Prepares the way before Thee;
With him let us Thy Name confess,
With him let us adore Thee.
Grant that we hearken to his cry,
“Repent, the kingdom draweth nigh,”
And seek Thee, Christ our Savior.

Thou art indeed God’s holy Son,
Beloved of Him so dearly,
The mighty works that Thou hast done
Reveal Thy Godhead clearly:
The blind can see, the sick are healed,
The lips once dumb are now unsealed,
All power is Thine, dear Jesus!

Thou art our Peace, our Righteousness,
The Rock of our salvation.
Clothed in Thy garb of holiness,
We fear no condemnation.
Thy blood has cleansed away our sin,
Through Thee eternal life we win,
O crucified Redeemer!

Words: Anna B. Hoppe, 1920.

The Bagdanov Christmas Eve in Huntington Beach!

My dear parents, Moisi and Nadia Bagdanov, with their newest granddaughter Hope. This picture represents the oldest and youngest at our family gathering at my sister Vera’s home in Huntington Beach. My parents have 8 living very adult children and 7 of those children with all their children and one great grandchild were all together for the first time at Christmas since 1991. We have one brother whose family does not celebrate with us.

My kids with their grandparents (Baba and Deda).

Katie and her cousin Melissa (one of my sister Kathy’s daughters). My kids with their Aunt Lana and cousin Caleb. Levi and Joseph (Levi, Caleb, and Joseph are 3 of my brother Steve’s boys).

My brother Leonard’s family. Leonard, Mandy and Miss Hope! They flew in from Dallas to celebrate with all of us.

We decided to walk a few blocks to the beach to take some family photos. This photo is of our girls, 3 nieces and auntie Lana.

Our kids.

All the cousins and spouses of cousins. We are missing 8 cousins including spouses in this photo…

The Ladies!  Kristin (my sister Vera’s DIL), Melissa (my sister Kathy’s daughter), Katie (mine), Miss Hope (my brother Leonard’s daughter), Debbee (my sister Vera’s daughter) Jessica (my brother Steve’s DIL), Laura (my DIL), Michelle (my sister Kathy’s daughter).

The Gents! Caleb (my brother Steve’s #3 son) Ryan (my sister Kathy’s SIL), Jackson (my sister Kathy’s Grandson), Levi (my brother Steve’s #2 son) Joseph (my brother Steve’s #4 son) Timothy (my brother Steve’s #1 son) Dan (mine), David (my sister Vera’s son), Josh (mine)

The Newlyweds, Timothy and Jessica.

David and Kristin.

Jackson with one of his favorites, Debbee!

Katie down by the water. A storm was rolling in and we just finished our photo shoots before the rain started.

And here’s ellen b. having so much fun with Miss Hope!

Snowy Seattle or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride…

On Christmas morning at 7:00 A.M. we left rainy Southern California and arrived in Seattle to this. We had to trudge through the snow with our luggage. When we got inside we found out (much to our dismay) that the power was out!

We lit some candles and Katie pulled out her Christmas gift from the Bagdanov family gathering on Christmas Eve and made us …

some tea to help warm us up so we could relax and enjoy the snowy scenes.

 

The power came back on just as we were leaving to have Christmas dinner with the Spiro Family and friends. The freeways were clear but the side roads getting into neighborhoods made for quite a wild ride!! The gathering at the Spiro home was wonderful as usual. Good food, good friends, good fellowship!

I will be posting some photos from our Christmas celebration in California later. Today we had to shop and clean and plan for our little family Christmas tomorrow morning and then Katie’s 23rd birthday dinner tomorrow evening. The fun just never stops.

Come Sunday I’ll have time again to crash and recuperate and do some blogging. Trusting you all had a wonderful Christmas!