First, I hope all had a wonderful Christmas, and are looking ahead to a great 2010, Happy New Year!
This is the first day back to work for my husband, who took a vacation week off. We spent it at home, going out on a few day trips, eating out a lot, resting, and enjoying the holidays and a couple of family birthdays.
This year for the first time in a few years, I mailed Christmas Cards, including a Christmas letter that I do each year. As I do the cards, I read all the letters from past years, which brings back many fond memories…have always wished that I’d taken up journaling, but this is the next best thing.
This morning I sat down with several cards that were still sitting under the tree and hadn’t been added to the pile we’ve received by mail over the past weeks, and started reading each one. Some were to my husband, I don’t always take the opportunity to read his cards from our children, feeling at times like it’s something between the children and him, but today I did…and have to say I found myself in tears reading the wonderful things they wrote to and about him…and then reading what they wrote in my own cards. It made me appreciate my husband more, looking at him through my children’s eyes…and myself more, as I often go through the “if only” kind of thinking…if only we had done this, my son would have a great job right now, if only we had done….and the list can go on. But reading cards like the one my son wrote reminds me that we have given him the best thing he will need as he faces lifes challenges, a deep understanding of what the true meaning of CHRISTmas is all about, and the impact that can have on his life.
Then I went and gathered all of the cards received over the weeks, and put them in a basket where they stay throughout the year…all other cards received that year are added to the basket. As I was doing this, I realized I was adding to last year’s cards as well, it seems like it wasn’t all that long ago that we received last year’s Christmas cards.
When my husband and I were dating, and in our early years of marriage, we would go into New York City each year to hear a performance of Handels Messiah, it was performed every night for a week, if I remember correctly, and one night was a sing-along. We never went to a sing-along, but I would like too…hmmm…maybe it’s not to late.
In recent years we have been going to hear a beautiful performance of the Messiah done by the Cathedral Choir at a church 1/2 hour away from us…the choir is made up of people like you and me who have a basic ability to sing, professional singers for the solo parts, a chamber orchestra, and organist. This year’s performance was exceptional.
I love the Messiah, the music as well as the Man Himself. I always say it is what I want to be hearing as I pass from this life to heaven. Here is a nice series of video’s explaining the meaning of the Messiah and playing well-known pieces from the Messiah using beautiful pictures and scenes.
A man is explaining it in human terms, and some of the things he shares do not take into consideration the complete context of the Bible, I’d suggest you enjoy it, but also verify that what you are hearing is true in the Bible…for example (you’ll know why I’m explaining this after you listen), Jesus did not earn the position of sitting at the right hand of God when he died for the sins of mankind, He was God come down to dwell among man…fully God, fully man…a mystery hard for our human minds to understand. See John 1:1, 2 - “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made.” and verse 10 “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him…” All of the gospel accounts of Jesus are good, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Also, Jesus death was not a universal death for all of mankind as these videos seem to indicate, it was conditional, we know this because John 3:16-17 tells us ”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Romans 3:23 tells us that “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”….what greater gift can one receive at Christmas than the gift of salvation and eternal life by repenting of our past sins and believing in what Jesus did on the cross for us…this is the reason Christ was born, so that those who believe in what He did for them may have a loving relationship with God, free from guilt and condemnation, because of the blood of Jesus, and why “Jesus is the Reason for the Season”.
I remember the Christmas…or was it birthday? when my sister got an Easy Bake Oven. She is 8 years younger than I am, so it was one of the earliest models. The first models were like what you see pictured on the cover of the book featured in this post, and turquoise in color.
I have to admit I felt a little envious….and probably did all I could to have a chance to cook something with her little oven, at least once. Toys were getting pretty advanced at this point, I mean an oven that you could actually bake miniature little cakes in with small bakewear and utensils….all from the heat of a light bulb, kind of amazing when you think about it…and I imagine the safety restrictions on the newer Easy Bake Ovens are a zillion times stricter now…it’s amazing we all survived to this point without all the toy safety restrictions they have now:-)
Once you had one of these ovens, you had to buy your cake, frosting, and cookie mixes from then on. I can remember each of us in our family of 6 getting a teeny tiny piece of whatever my sister baked. I don’t remember whether it tasted that good, but it’s just another memory from times gone by that pops into the head, that leads to other memories.
A couple of nights ago they were playing “The Sound of Music” on television, so I started rummaging through some old VHS tapes looking for our old copy of the movie so we could watch it commercial free…haven’t purchased a DVD of it yet.
While looking through the pile, I came across our copy of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” which, of course, brought back a flood of memories for both my husband and myself. For me, it was simply the fact that I enjoyed watching it when I was young, and we enjoyed watching it together with our children when they were young. For my husband, it is the stories his mother would tell about knowing the family of the person on which the character, Lucy, was based.
We talked about the movie when we were gathered with family for dinner this Christmas, and my brother-in-law asked “Did you ever notice that Linus puts down his security blanket when he says ‘fear not’ when he explains to Charlie Brown the true meaning of Christmas?” He’s right!
I am late posting Christmas wishes this year, but take a look at this little clip I found on YouTube of Linus sharing what Christmas is all about with Charlie Brown, and may I wish you the joy of the real meaning of Christmas not just one day of the year, but every day of the year!
This is a simple memory that just popped into my mind as I was digging through my cleaning products getting ready to clean the bathroom and came upon a bottle of silver cleaner.
When I was a child, each year at Christmas we used the good silverware, and each year, it needed to be polished. There was also the silver salt and pepper shaker. I remember my grandmother being present for this, as my grandparents came from a suburb of Boston to spend Christmas with us each year.
We would sit around the table, and rub the pink silver cleaner into the silverware and other silver items that needed cleaning for the meal, that was my part of the job. Then I suppose it was rinsed, and then we took a clean, dry cloth and rubbed each piece into a shiny luster.
It’s funny how the simplest of things can bring such memories. We don’t use real silver in our home, and I imagine it is a thing of the past for many, but maybe I’m wrong? Do you use silver and fine china for your special meals?
