And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those
with whom he is pleased!”
On the birth of Christ a very Merry Christmas to you and yours!
On Christmas Day 2022 Josh and Laura were the first to arrive at our house in the afternoon having flown into Spokane Airport and renting a vehicle for the 2 hour drive to our Country Bungalow. Our Colville kids had brunch and presents at their home with Jamie’s family. After naps they drove over just beating Andrew, Katie and Willow arriving on their 6+ hour journey over the Cascades and through Central and Eastern Washington. Once all the bags and cat accessories were managed we took a family photos before we sat down to our meal.
Prime rib, creamed corn, roasted vegetables (carrots, asparagus and brussels sprouts) and Yorkshire Pudding.
After dinner we sat close to the tree and Dear read from Luke chapter two in the New Testament which chronicles the birth of Jesus Christ and the temple presentation of Jesus.
We let the young ones open up their gifts first.
This tea towel was a special gift from Josh and Laura with a handwritten (in Russian) recipe of my mom’s printed on it. So thoughtful.
This was a stocking gift year. The only presents under the tree were for Addy and JJ. Katie loved her cat socks.
After presents it was time was dessert. Jamie, Addy and JJ baked and frosted a Happy Birthday Jesus Cake. Jamie made the Chocolate nativity decoration for the cake, too.
And that was a Christmas Day wrap! These blankets were a gift from Uncle Joshie and Auntie LoLo personalized with A and J’s name in bold letters and the background of the blanket says Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo love you!
A day filled with the Joy of the Lord, love and good food.
Next up…Boxing day.
May your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day be filled with lots of love and joy and a little ho ho ho!
This afternoon we’ll be at a Christmas Eve service and then come home and have some fresh hand made tamales for dinner.
By midnight tonight or a little after all our kids except for Andrew will be under our roof. Hopefully they’ll beat Santa here. Dear and I will be fast asleep by the time they arrive but we’ll let Katie greet the late comers and welcome them here.
Christmas morning we’ll open stockings first with a cup of coffee and then we’ll have our traditional Swedish pancake breakfast that Dear makes for us.
After breakfast we open up the gifts under the tree. This year after we read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2 we are going to have Katie read a very interesting article on some of the Christmas story that has been ingrained into tradition that might be on the urban legend side of things and not really historically and culturally accurate. Don’t worry we don’t have our knickers in a knot. We still know the best truth of Christmas is that God came down and we can now be lifted up to Him through what Jesus did on the cross for us.
After we open up our gifts I’ll start preparing for our Christmas dinner. We will have our traditional Prime Rib and Yorkshire Pudding with roasted root vegetables, creamed corn from scratch, and a salad. For dessert this year I’m planning on making an apple tart from apples off of Dan’s property in Eastern Washington.
Of course all through the day we’ll have our favorite Christmas Cd’s playing in the background. Knowing our kids while the roast is cooking there will probably be some games around the table.
Praying you know the real Joy of Christmas!
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
God bless us everyone…
This is an amazing proclamation that the angel and the multitude of heavenly host said in the hearing of the lowly shepherds. Can you imagine being one of those shepherds and seeing that angel and hearing this proclamation out in the fields that night?!
A very Merry Christmas to all and Glory to God in the highest!!
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Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.
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The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 