“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
white
traditional
Christmas cards are a tradition that I enjoy and cherish. Hope it doesn’t completely die out!
pine
Pine bough garland around our front door of our former home.
Currently at our home we are surrounded by evergreens but they are more of the fir variety and not pine.
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Hope all is well in your corner of the world as you anticipate Christmas and all that it means to humanity.
We’ve had this little tin for years and the scenes go well with the Bible verses from Luke.
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“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 great 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 swaddling 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!”
(Luke 2:8–14, ESV)
This last scene comes later in the Christmas events before Joseph, Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt to escape King Herod’s evil plans. The Wise men and Joseph are warned by God about Herod.
My little tin also has a scene with a Little Drummer Boy which comes from a popular Christmas song but isn’t in the Bible.
WE are having a high wind/rain event here in the PNW (Pacific Northwest) and our power has been knocked out a couple of times already. It will be an iffy day for visiting blogs. Our region is really being hammered!!
1. What’s one thing on your to-do list that you want to get done, need to get done, or that must get done before the year ends?
I want to make a favorite from our dear mom for our Christmas gathering, Roolyet. You can see the recipe here.
2. December 17th is National Maple Syrup Day…are you a fan? Do you like maple flavor in other food items such as candy, cookies, donuts, oatmeal, hot toddies, coffee?
We enjoy Real Maple Syrup on our Swedish Pancakes, regular pancakes, waffles, etc. I like maple bars, the donut variety.
3. Time magazine names a person of the year every year. The tradition started back in 1927 with a ‘man of the year’ but has since changed to recognize not only an individual, but also to consider the impact of a group, movement, or idea that most influenced the year. The selection is not always someone or something good (think Hitler in 1938 and Stalin twice).
This year they’ve named The AI Architects as their ‘person of the year’. What say you? Is this a good choice, an obvious choice, a logical choice? Who do you think should have been named person of the year?
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I think Time Magazine is sticking it’s head in the political sand or suffering from TDS syndrome in refusing to name President Donald Trump as the man of the year! Donald Trump definitely is on the minds of those who love what he’s doing and those who hate him and can’t get him out of their minds. Being on the minds of so many, he is a logical choice. Love him or hate him he is making an impact!
4. What’s a city, state, or country you’ve visited that you never care to visit again? Tell us why.
South Chicago. We made the mistake of taking a driving route from Wheaton college to the Chicago Museum of Art through south Chicago and it did not feel safe. The tension on the streets was palpable. I would never drive through there again.
5. Next Sunday (December 21st) marks the first day of winter (or the opposite if you’re living down under). What’s one thing you love about this new season?
We love Winter. All of our children were born in Winter. Christmas is in Winter.
Wednesday Hodgepodge is here again. Time to answer some questions From This Side of the Pond. Thank you, Joyce.
1. Do you struggle with the commercialization of the holiday season? What helps you keep your focus when the season’s busyness and commercialism start to take over?
I’ve had several years of Christmases to learn to focus on what is important. I can ignore commercialization. I need to focus on my own heart and mind and where I need to concentrate on the truth of what Christmas is. Look again with fresh eyes on the Biblical accounts and the wonder of the first Christmas.
Quoting from one of my favorite pastors who died this year: “Christmas is not about the Savior’s infancy: It is about His Deity.” John MacArthur
I’ll ask for help to focus my mind on my King and Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.
2. What’s one small thing you want to savor before the year ends?
All the things like twinkly lights and seasonal treats and stockings filled with little gifts.
3. December 9th is National Christmas Card Day. Do you still send Christmas cards? If so does yours include a photo or is it a more traditional card, or maybe homemade? How do you feel about the tradition of exchanging cards at the holidays? If Hanukkah is the holiday you celebrate in December do you send cards to mark the occasion?
I do still send Christmas cards, a traditional card with a photo and letter enclosed. I’m happy to say I was able to send them away on Monday the 8th.
4. What’s your least favorite holiday related task? What’s your favorite?
Least favorite is probably wrapping the presents. Favorite is buying the presents.
5. Let’s do a little holiday this or that?
shopping or wrapping: shopping
baking or decorating: decorating
eggnog or wassail: eggnog
real tree or artificial: real, although we’ve had to switch to fake
turkey or ham: prime rib
white lights or colored lights: white
ugly sweaters or matching pjs: ugly sweaters
peppermint or cinnamon: peppermint
presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Day: Christmas day
6. Insert your own random thought here.
I’m having a little surgery today to remove a cyst close to my eye. It is small and it shouldn’t be a problem but we have to drive to Spokane Valley for the procedure. I do not know when I’ll be able to come around to visit but I will eventually, Lord willing. Thank you.
A few words from Susannah Spurgeon on this day, Greg and my 51st Wedding Anniversary.
I can see two pilgrims treading this highway of life together, hand in hand—heart linked to heart. True, they have had rivers to ford, and mountains to cross, and fierce enemies to fight, and many dangers to go through; but their Guide was watchful, their Deliverer unfailing, and of them it might truly be said, “In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.”
Mostly, they went on their way singing…
Susannah Spurgeon
Update: Thank you, everyone for all your kind wishes. I appreciated reading each comment and your thoughts!
On Friday November 21st, I joined three ladies from our church for a trip to Spokane to hear Handel’s Messiah performed by Spokane Symphony and Chorale. The Performance by the orchestra and chorale was hosted by the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
Handel’s Messiah is an oratorio that tells the story of Jesus Christ through three parts: his birth and miracles, his passion and death, and his final glorification in heaven. Composed rapidly in 24 days by George Frideric Handel in 1741, the work uses verses from the King James Bible. Charles Jennens wrote the libretto, or text, (not Handel) comprising passages from the Bible. It premiered in Dublin in 1742 as a benefit concert and has since become a holiday staple known for its religious narrative and powerful choruses, like the famous “Hallelujah” chorus.
Messiah was originally conceived as a work for Easter, and its world premiere was given during Lent.
In July of 1741, Charles Jennens, who had written the libretti for two of Handel’s oratorios wrote the following in a letter to a friend–the earliest mention of Messiah:
“Handel says he will do nothing next Winter, but I hope that I shall persuade to set another Scripture collection I have made for him, and perform it for his own Benefit in Passion week. I hope that he will lay out his whole Genius and Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his former Compositions, as the Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah…”Few masterworks of Baroque music can rival Handel’s Messiah for its eternal popularity.”
We found our general admission seats and then we wandered about the cathedral which included climbing the spiral staircase to the gallery below the Rose window and some of the pipes of the organ.
While Messiah is a large-scale oratorio that takes almost 3 hours to perform in its entirety, it is not Handel’s longest work.
Few masterworks of Baroque music can rival Handel’s Messiah for its eternal popularity.
The U.S. premiere of the complete Messiah was performed by the Handel and Haydn Society on Christmas Day in 1818 at Boylston Hall in Boston.
I’m adding a couple YouTube videos to give you a hint of what we heard.
No. 17. Chorus: Glory to God
The presentation we enjoyed did not perform all 53 movements in the original Messiah but performed 45 of the 53. The Hallelujah Chorus is movement #44.
The performance on Friday did end with the last movement, No. 53 Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen. [Revelation 5:12, 13]
It was a grand location to enjoy this God honoring, Christ proclaiming Oratorio. Hallelujah to our Risen Savior!
I was thankful that Bethany drove for the majority of miles and that I only had about 5 miles to drive home at the end of our evening. I pulled into our garage at midnight! That is late for me.
I’m going to catch up with posting some quotes that spoke to me and I’ve written down in my journal over the last several months. Putting them here will help me find them easier.
The photos that I’m interspersing with them came from our drive to and from Spokane on Wednesday the 19th of November, 2025.
The first quotes are from notes in my Church History Study Bible related to Psalm 81 and 82 and 93.
“There is unconquerable opposition between us and God. Without a mediator there can be no communion with him.” Blaise Pascal
“Where ignorance reigns in the mind, there is confusion in the heart and life.” Thomas Boston
“There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is curiosity. There are those who see knowledge in order to be known by others; that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is love.” Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God.
” The time will come when all races of men shall own their God and accept him as their king. There is one who is King by right divine, and he is even now on his way. The last days shall see him enthroned, and all unrighteous potentates broken like potters’ vessels by his potent sceptor. The second advent is still earth’s brightest hope. Come quickly, even so, come Lord Jesus.” Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David.
“May the Lord appear in his church, in our day in manifest majesty and might, saving sinners, slaying errors, and honoring his own name.” Spurgeon
“The only reason God is our Savior is that he is merciful.” John Calvin
Psalm 93:1 The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.
“Faith is not just an exercise of the mind. It is a commitment of the heart that fundamentally changes the way you live your life.” Paul Tripp
“You may begin anywhere in the Bible and preach Jesus. You may begin at the first chapter of Genesis, or at the last chapter of Malachi, at the first of Matthew or the last of Revelation, and still preach Jesus, for he is the sum and substance of the whole Scripture.” Charles Spurgeon
“God is to be praised because he has not based his covenant of the forgiveness of sin on our merit but on his Word, and because he commands that it will stand firm and eternal, not falling when we sin, nor becoming valid only when we are godly.” Martin Luther
Today is Saturday before our Thanksgiving week here in the USA begins. This is a very busy weekend. Last night I attended The Messiah at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Spokane with three friends. Today we have 2 events at church to meet and learn more about a Pastoral Candidate and his family. Besides church on Sunday morning we have a Pie and Praise event Sunday night and I’m in charge of getting the pies out for everyone to enjoy. Whew! After Sunday we’ll have a few free days until it is full speed ahead with Thanksgiving Day and a house full here Thursday through Sunday. Life is rich!
On Tuesday November 11th I was able to capture some of the colorful night sky with my phone camera.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” Psalm 19:1-2
During this past week we got some photos of our loved ones via text. I am so grateful this kind of communication is available at our fingertips.
Addy getting a kick out of herself and her Skyjo skills! She was “getting ready for her victory dance”.
Katie and Laura on the other side of the mountains at ‘nail time’ that they enjoy together. Our westside beauties!
Woohoo! Look at who is Clubber of the month. Great job, Addy, memorizing all your verses! Baba and Gramps are thankful you enjoy learning about our God and Savior and storing up Scripture for your heart and mind.
Leaving off with a beautiful sunset viewed through the window at Addy’s Irish Dance studio on Thursday the 13th.
What are some of your ‘thankfuls’ this time of year?
Joyce From This Side of the Pond made this announcement; “ I’m hosting a link up here for anyone interested in sharing a Day In The Life post. These are always fun to read and help us remember all the ways we’re connected as we go about the everyday ordinary business of living. Hope you’ll join us!
Joyce’s plan going forward is to do these seasonally, so maybe four a year. Watch for the next date sometime in the early part of 2026.
This is the first she’s hosting and my first endeavor. I chose to share the events of my day on Veterans Day, November 11, 2025 which was Tuesday. I took a couple of the morning photos on Wednesday which show accurately what happened on Tuesday, too.
Up at 5am and my dear hubby makes my coffee when he sees my groggy face walk in.
Our Bunn coffee maker excels at a fast brew time.
Coffee in hand this is my morning first stop. Yep it’s still o’dark’thirty outside.
The rest of these photos were taken on Tuesday, A Day in the Life. 🙂
I had an early eye appointment in Spokane and we set out from our home at 7am. It was a foggy drive. It takes roughly 1-1/2 hours for us to get to Spokane. We arrived a little early for my appointment and since Trader Joe’s is across the street from the office we did a little shopping.
Check in and wait times were over the top on this day because the offices are introducing a new computer system, ugh. We did have a nice chat with a man who was waiting with us. Come to find out he had a connection to a couple who are part of our church.
With eyes dilated we stopped at Hobby Lobby (no purchase), Home Goods (2 small items purchased), and Costco for gas and to order new glasses (big purchase$$). We also bought a King comforter and some real maple syrup that were both on sale.
This is Master’s Brewery in Deer Park. We usually stop here on our way home from Spokane for a meal. Deer Park is about 20 miles north of Spokane and on our route home.
Stroganoff Soup was the soup of the day and we enjoyed it with a salad and bread stick. The daily soups at this spot are always excellent!
I’m adding many views from the road home from our lunch stop. We had about 55 miles more to go to get home.
These shots are from us coming down into Chewelah.
Chewelah is about 20 miles from Colville and it has the only stoplight we encounter once we are on Highway 395 from Spokane and before we reach Colville.
Coming into Colville. We love seeing the big C on the mountain along with the Cross.
Stopping to pick up mail even though it is Veterans Day and there is no mail delivery. LOL! That’s our home in the distance. We made it home at about 3pm.
We had a delivery to our front door while we were gone. It was a very heavy box. We drug it in and then emptied the contents in our entry and brought all the parts into one of our spare rooms. Assemblie will commence on Wednesday. Mystery will be revealed soon.
Greg had a meeting at church that started at 4:30. While he was gone, I worked on this tough puzzle. I’m a glutton for punishment.
Time to put my feet up and enjoy a little ‘Escape to the Country’ until Greg came home. I noticed that people all across the states were posting photos of an ‘Aurora’ event in the night sky. When Greg got home at 8ish, we went on the deck to try to capture some of the images.
This is one of my favorites. What an end to the day!
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” Psalm 19:1-2
Thank you for coming along for this day in my life.
It means honoring and obeying the laws of my country and doing whatever is in my power to insure the freedoms our founding fathers established. I love singing the National Anthem at sporting events. A little flag waving is good, too. Displaying the flag on holidays and other key times during the year.
2. September-October-November…your favorite fall month? Tell us why. If you live in the southern hemisphere use these months but sub spring for the word fall.
I’m cheating and naming something that is special to me for each of these months.
September ~ it always seems like the fresh start back to routine activities that make me feel grounded and we get to celebrate Greg’s birthday in this month.
October ~ where Fall colors shine the best and we enjoy the annual corn maze.
November ~ the Thankful month. gathering with family on Thanksgiving.
3. A song you love with the word thanks (or some form of that word) in the title or lyrics?
I’m sharing one of many songs that make me say thank you, Jesus!
My hymn of Praise shall always be forever Jesus! In Jesus I have sooo many reasons to say Thank You!
4. November is National Peanut Butter Month. Are you a fan? What’s the last peanut butter bite you had? Fill in the blank: peanut butter and _____________________ .
Oh, and you can’t say jelly.
It is peanut butter and honey for me. I had a piece of toast with peanut butter and honey for breakfast on Monday.
5. This week’s gratitude question-What event from this past year are you most grateful for?
The year started out with an epic surprise visit from Josh and Laura. We were having our local kids over for a birthday dinner on a Saturday. Dan and Jamie have birthdays 1 day apart and Josh has a birthday 3 days after Dan. Dan and Jamie arrived and 5 minutes later Josh and Laura came in the house with shouts of surprise!! It was such an epic surprise and so much fun to be able to celebrate all our January family birthdays together! I’m so grateful to God for the love he extends through our family.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Speaking of patriotism I’m copying a post here from 2011. This is from the Orange Circle Flag Ceremony, a weekly event, in Orange, California.
Before they lowered the flag and folded it properly Mark Wayland acknowledged 5 veterans in the audience that had served in World War II. One of the veterans was celebrating his 90th birthday and his family brought cupcakes for everyone at the ceremony. We got to sing Happy Birthday to him. This vet with Mark in the photo above, served in WWII, Korea, and the Vietnam War. He comes to the ceremony every week. It was great to meet him.
Mark also acknowledged a young bride in the audience who’s Marine husband was serving in Afghanistan right then…our Katie. He made her cry but the tears were good tears and then when the big burly Vietnam Vets came over to give her a hug with tears in their eyes we knew they understood and we cried some more. It was great to hear these Harley riders tell her they would be praying for her and Andrew.
Dear’s brother Terry and wife Christina with one of their 3 daughters with Katie and me. Christina got to know Mark while working with the Orange County School Board. She invited Katie and me to attend this ceremony.
I got the following information from an Orange County Register article written by David Whiting although my sister-in-law who knows Mark from working with him at the Orange County School board also filled me in about Mark and his giving heart, a Purple Heart retired Marine.
“Mark Wayland, Marine Vietnam vet, retired firefighter and Orange school board member, looks like a biker with his denim vest and bushy mustache. And he is. So are many of the men in the Circle.
Most are members of the Patriot Guard Riders. In particular, they ride to remember fallen military brothers and sisters and to ensure things go smoothly at military funerals.
With his black Harley Electra Glide decorated with Marine logos parked just 50 yards away, Wayland explains tonight’s mission.
Every Wednesday night, Wayland, his buddies, their wives, friends and supporters gather in the Orange Circle. They come to lower the flag at 6 p.m. and honor, as Wayland puts it, “those who are in harm’s way.”
What an honor to be able to meet these folks and to honor them and others who have sacrificed so much for all of us. Thank you Mark for all you do and may your sacrifices return to you tenfold.
ht: Orange County Register, David Whiting.
The Patriot Guard Riders honored our brother-in-law at his burial on Veterans Day in 2015.
Thanks for the time you took to visit this very long and wordy Hodgepodge. I’m grateful for all who stop by here.
This is the shirt I’m wearing today for the National Day of Remembrance of Charlie Kirk. Today, October 14th, would have been his 32nd birthday. The front and the back is shown above. It’s a small gesture of respect for his short life.
“His life was shaped by his faith and the idea that in America, debate and discussion are crucial to the betterment of our country. He believed in God, the American dream, the value of family, and the principles of our great nation.”
On Monday morning we woke up with the tops of our higher elevations sprinkled with snow.
I’ll be happy for the real snow to hold off until at least November!
On the other side of town, the first fire of the season was lit and enjoyed!
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 