Advent Begins ~ O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

 

The first candle (purple) “CANDLE OF HOPE” means His promise and hope. We can have hope because God is faithful and will keep the promises He made to us. Our hope comes from God. (Romans 15:12-13)

The lyrics echo se­ver­al pro­phet­ic themes. The ti­tle comes from the well known Isai­ah 7:14: Be­hold, a vir­gin shall con­ceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Im­man­u­el. Im­man­u­el is He­brew for God with us. The Rod of Jesse refers to Isai­ah 11:1: There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jes­se; Jesse was the fa­ther of Da­vid, se­cond king of Is­ra­el. Day-Spring comes from Za­cha­ri­as, fa­ther of John the Bap­tist, in Luke 1:78: The day­spring from on high has vis­it­ed us. Thou Key of Da­vid is in Isai­ah 22:22: The key of the house of Da­vid will I lay up­on his shoul­der, which in turn re­fers to Isai­ah 9:6: The gov­ern­ment shall be up­on His shoul­der.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Refrain

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

Refrain

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

Refrain

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Refrain

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Refrain

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

Refrain

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

Refrain

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Refrain

And That’s A Wrap…

or…the rest of the story. These are Polaroids taken mostly by Jamie, Katie’s Maid of Honor, at the shower. Before I show the rest of the photos here’s what’s happening around here and we’ll title it Yes, it’s possible to accomplish anything while feeling like a Zombie…

Thanksgiving: We had a wonderful celebration at Dave and Jody’s house with about 50 or so people. Pictures coming some time in the future.

Black Friday: My sister Lana and I continued our tradition of going to Goodwill on Black Friday. We had no problem finding a parking spot and we got some really good bargains. Everything was 50% off. My best purchase was a Tumi computer backpack (when new $260) used for $25. I’ll be using it for travels to North Carolina on Monday. Lana bought a beautiful Tommy Bahama linen jacket with the tags still on it ($160) for $20.

Packing: After Goodwill Lana started the daunting task of trying to pack 6 suitcases with all of Katie’s clothes, coats, shoes, hats, scarves, gloves, makeup, jewelery, etc. etc. My sister is a master at packing. We were able to get those cases as close to 50# each as we could. We have one more suitcase to go that I can put some of my stuff in, too. One of the 6 cases also has Andrew’s civilian clothes.  Now we just have to figure out how Katie and I will be able to manage 7 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons, and 2 backpacks. I’ll be stuffing my pockets with cash to tip Porters!!

Mailing: Today we are mailing all Katie’s media to North Carolina. She doesn’t want to be without her favorite books 4 large boxes worth and her favorite DVD’s and CD’s 4 boxes worth.

Family: We are getting in as much family time as we can before Katie and I take off on Monday.

Cookbook: So much great cookbook news. If you’d like to enter to win a cookbook click on the link and leave a comment at Mennonite Girls Can Cook. Lovella and Anneliese are demonstrating the Hazelnut Roll today at noon on Global T.V. in B.C.  If you live in B.C. tune in!

Offline: I’ll probably be scarce around here for a couple weeks. I’ll try to visit and see how you all are doing…

Myself and Lana showing our guests where the food is…hilarious.

Katie with her brother, Josh.

Katie with our Daughter in law’s mother and grandmother.

Girlfriends since forever…Katy K., Jamie, Katie, Kristen, and Heidi.

Blessings on all your preparations for the “Most Wonderful Time of the Year”

I’m looking forward to preparing a place in my home to honor the King of Glory when I get back from North Carolina!

Photos Shared…

The following photos from Katie’s bridal shower were taken by her long time friend Christie. Christie was one of Katie’s friends from our church here in Seattle that we attended for 20 years. Christie now lives in Alaska with her husband and 2 little girls. She was in Seattle visiting family just in time for Katie’s shower. What a fun treat it was to have all Katie’s Sunrise girlfriends together with her on this special day.

Kristin, Christie, and Heidi. Jamie is the 4th girlfriend from Sunrise and she’s taking the photo.  I’ll share more photos from the shower that Katie’s Maid of Honor Jamie took soon.

Leftover Turkey?

Try this Toasted Turkey Sandwich that’s simple to make. To see the method head over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook today…

Thank you for all your kind thoughts and encouragement about my Crown trauma. My appointment yesterday was a breeze and having the permanent crown put on was so much easier than being fitted for it. I can bite into that sandwich with no problems whatsoever! Hope you have a great Wednesday!

Love Watching…

…my little visitors and other randomness.

We are being threatened with flooding rains today. We’ll see what happens.

Today I’m getting my temporary crown replaced with my permanent one.  I’ve been encouraged that this will be nothing like my last appointment so I’m optimistic. While I’m out I’ll take care of getting what I need for my contribution for the Thanksgiving gathering we are having on Thursday at the home of dear friends. Our son Dan made it home from our family Thanksgiving time to 14 inches of snow at his home.

How are your Thanksgiving plans shaping up?

Thanksgiving Came Early…

…at our house this year. As I think over the last few years this early celebrating has become somewhat of a tradition. When you have adult children that are hither and yon you learn to seize the moment when you come together and celebrate.

There were eight of us at our early gathering.

My turkey was ready earlier than expected. No problem because everyone was ready to eat early.

Thanksgiving food is such a nice shade of golden beige. Hilarious. I do not feel the need to add something green like a salad because there is never any room on the plate anyway. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it! To solve that pesky “something green” problem I used a green tablecloth and green goblets!

Our kids, my sister and her husband, Dear and I made up the 8 guests. When Josh prayed for our meal he also prayed for our missing family member who is overseas serving his country and all of us. We missed you Andrew!

One week and Katie and I fly to North Carolina. Time will tell how often I’ll be posting the next month. If you don’t see anything new around here you know I’m busy checking out a part of the country I’ve never been to before, helping Katie find the things to make her new home comfortable, and getting ready for Christmas.

Hope life is treating you well. For those of you in the states a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

Love Lifted Me ~ Hymn

Matthew 14: 30-33(NASB)  But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshipped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!”

Rowe and Smith wrote this song in Saug­a­tuck, Con­nec­ti­cut. Ac­cord­ing to Rowe’s daugh­ter:

“How­ard E. Smith was a lit­tle man whose hands were so knot­ted with arth­ri­tis that you would won­der how he could use them at all, much less play the pi­a­no…I can see them now, my fa­ther strid­ing up and down hum­ming a bar or two and How­ard E. play­ing it and jot­ting it down.”

Love Lifted Me

I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,
Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,
But the Master of the sea, heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.

Refrain

Love lifted me! Love lifted me!
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me!

All my heart to Him I give, ever to Him I’ll cling
In His blessèd presence live, ever His praises sing,
Love so mighty and so true, merits my soul’s best songs,
Faithful, loving service too, to Him belongs.

Refrain

Souls in danger look above, Jesus completely saves,
He will lift you by His love, out of the angry waves.
He’s the Master of the sea, billows His will obey,
He your Savior wants to be, be saved today.

Refrain

James Rowe ~ Howard E. Smith

Ht: Cyberhymnal

FFF ~ Thankful for…

It’s time to join Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for our favorites from this past week. So many things to be thankful for. Most likely this will be the last FFF I will be able to participate in till late December.

1. Just getting ready for our Thanksgiving meal which we are having early this year makes me thankful. My decorations are very minimal this year but it was good to clean up and to decorate. I love sitting and relaxing in my home when it is really clean and organized.

2. Our son Dan drove across the Cascades on Wednesday to spend a few days and to be here for our Thanksgiving meal. I’m thankful he made it across the pass safely when several cars were spinning out in the snowfall. Our son Josh drove over to see his brother and sister for the evening. I was sitting on the couch enjoying being with our 3 adult children enjoying each other. These times get fewer and farther between with their lives going in different directions.

3. Our daughter Katie is getting to the “oh my gosh I only have this many days before I move stage” and this makes her chatter. It’s been good to take care of lots of last minute stuff with her.

4. I’ve been cooking so much for crowds these days that Thanksgiving preparations seem like a breeze in my head so I’m enjoying the relaxation of this new feeling. My family does not want surprises on Thanksgiving but just want the traditional goodies. This makes for a very predictable and known cooking process…

5. One of the biggest blessings of this last week was planning, preparing, and enjoying our daughter Katie’s bridal shower last Saturday evening. It was so great to see so many old friends of ours and Katie’s. Katie was showered with love and gifts. Prayers on her and Andrew’s behalf were so precious. At the end of our evening the power went out. Thankfully we already had several candles lit and gathered up more to give us more light. My sister Lana walked people to their cars with a flashlight because it was so dark outside with no streetlights.

What is making you thankful this week?

Don’t Forget…

Time for Miss Jenny’s Alphabe-Thursday. We are on the letter C. C is for cute cookies or corny cookies or candy corny cookies.

You could have fun making these funny looking turkey cookies for Thanksgiving!

Bought my turkey and all the ingredients for the trimmings. All the cooking will be happening on Saturday because our family will be celebrating Thanksgiving early. Our Canadian neighbors celebrated Thanksgiving a whole month ago!

Since C is our letter this week I’ll share that I just finished a deep cleaning of my kitchen. Now I can mess it all up again on Saturday when I chop chop chop and stuff and mash and cook all the goodies for our celebration!

What are your plans for Thanksgiving?