Light

We celebrate this time of year with light. As I look around at all of the beautiful lights, I am reminded of the Light of the World that we are celebrating. We are honoring the birth of Jesus who is the Light of the World. He came to show the way to a relationship with God our Father. His birth was celebrated by the light of a star and angels over 2000 years ago, and today we still honor his birth with lights. I pray that as we see the beautiful lights, we are reminded of our Guiding Light, Jesus Christ.

Lights on the trees:
Lights on the houses:

Lights lining the walkways:
The luminarias are one of my favorite decorations. I think that they are so beautiful.

Greatest Gift

Today I celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Many years before he was born, prophets said that he would be a "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6) He is all of these to me. The prophets wrote of his birth, his life, and his death. He was born as a baby, lived a perfect life, and died for me. He fulfilled all that had been prophesied about him. He is true, He is King, He is Lord of my life.

As I give gifts to friends and family today, I am reminded of the greatest gift that was given to me. "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10)

Tamales

In my family we have a tradition of eating tamales for dinner on Christmas Eve. Christian, Carina, and I spent a few hours last night making them. As with most activities that the three of us do together, the evening was filled with much laughter.

Christian is in charge of the meat sauce.

Carina is in charge of the corn husks.

I am in charge of the masa.

Then we all work on making the tamales.

Christmas Tea

Every year I host a Christmas tea for a few friends from high school. This is one of the only times that we all get together. The time is filled with much laughter, sharing, and good memories. It is so fun to see how things change over the year. Some of us are still in school, some are working full time, and others are full time mom with beautiful children.

Joy to the world

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 world, 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.

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.

Right now this is my favorite Christmas song. This song is filled with so much truth. The Lord is come! He is the ruler of all things in heaven and earth. My Savior reigns! He is the commander in complete truth and grace. The beauty of these two interwoven and displaying His glory, majesty, and splendor. He loves me!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

When I was little we would drive up to Northern Arizona the weekend after Thanksgiving to cut down our Christmas tree. It usually ended up lopsided, too big, and too fat for the house and sometimes they looked a little bit like Charlie Brown's. But it is so hard to judge size when you are out in the forest. But they were always special because we had picked it out.

Let's see, there was the year that we had a REALLY thirsty tree. It drank a lot of water. Unfortunately, it was actually the carpet that was 'drinking' the water and not the tree. The stopper in the tree-holder-thing had come out and so the water was actually all over the living room floor. Yep, the day was spent soaking it all up.

Oh, or there is the year of the falling Christmas tree. It fell over not just once, but twice. And then we tied it down with bricks. They were 'new' ornaments that year.

And then there are the ornaments. My brother, sister, and I always race to see who gets to put there hand-made ornaments from elementary school in the front and center position. There are the ornaments made out of marshmallows, paper plate angels, and shredded wheat wreaths. Ah, the fond memories. There is also the ornament made out of cookies that someone took a bite out of when it was like 12 years old. Gross, but it sure makes for a good story. :)

But I love the memories. Aren't they what make this time so special?

12 days of Christmas

My family used to select a family (or some years multiple families) to give 12 days of Christmas. We would buy a Nativity set that contained 12 pieces. Then late at night we would deliver a piece of the Christmas set and the verses from the Bible that went along with the piece. For twelve mornings the family would find a surprise on their doorstep. On Christmas Eve the family would receive the final piece, the baby Jesus, to complete the set.

This was so much fun! There was the one year that we gave it to all of the families in House Church. I remember driving all over town with my Dad and siblings for deliveries. We enjoyed getting to bless other families in this way.