Tag: Christmas

With a Grateful Heart

Today, I reach the end of my ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ series, but by no means have I reached the end of my blessings.  I barely scratched the surface of all the people, places and things I’m grateful for.  Each morning when I wake up, I’m thankful for my life, my family, my friends, … the list is never ending.

I had grand ideas to post an appeal for world peace in this final entry, beseeching each of us to ‘Just Love’ each other.  And I don’t mean the people who are easy to love, like your family, your spouse, your kids, your friends.  I mean the people who make you boiling mad, who make you foam at the mouth, the stranger (or country or ethnicity or religion or political party … you fill in the blank) that you verbally abuse or berate via status updates.  It’s not enough to wait for them to change or extend the olive branch.  It must start with us.  It must start with you and it must start with me first.

As much as I detest admitting it, the Beatles (and John Lennon in particular) got something right with ‘All You Need is Love.’  Jesus, though, is a hard act to follow:

He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence – and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

Luke 10:27 (The Message)

To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst.

Luke 6:27 (The Message)

I never said it would be easy (and neither did He).  I can do my small bit to bring about peace and hope in my small corner of the world.

And as we approach the season where we celebrate the Greatest Gift ever given to such unworthy recipients, I would like to share two final quotes.  The first I consider my ‘life verse’ and refer to it frequently when I need a reminder of where to keep my thoughts and the second is an excerpt from the lyrics of a contemporary Christian hymn that often plays as a soundtrack of thanksgiving for my mindscape.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

Philippians 4:8 (The Message)

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, “I am strong”
Let the poor say, “I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us”

Give thanks.

Give Thanks by Don Moen

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And I wish to thank all of you who stayed with me through this month of blogging.  I assure you I will now return to my regularly scheduled programming, meaning the occasional book or movie review with an occasional odd tidbit tossed in for some added vim and vigor.  I sincerely appreciate that you took the time from your busy lives to peruse my musings.  I pray each and every one of you has a wonderful life and spreads good cheer to all you meet.

Oh, one final suggestion.  I thought I’d share our family tradition (since the mid 90s) of re-watching the Muppet Christmas Carol each year around Christmas time. How can you go wrong with Dicken‘s classic Christmas story, A Christmas Carol, and Muppets?  The music isn’t half bad (I even bought the songbook) and the narrators are always good for a few laughs.  Once Derek, Royna and Rachelle arrive (two before and one after Christmas), we’ll sit down one evening and re-live the ‘good old days’ with Scrooge and Bob Cratchit.

So I’ll close with the lyrics to my favorite Muppet Christmas Carol song, written by Paul Williams, called ‘A Thankful Heart‘:

With a thankful heart, with an endless joy
With a growing family, every girl and boy
Will be nephew and niece to me (Nephew and niece to me)
Will bring love, hope and peace to me (Love, hope and peace to me)
Yes and every night will end, and every day will start
With a grateful prayer and a thankful heart

With an open smile and with open doors
I will bid you welcome, what is mine is yours
With a glass raised to toast your health (With a glass raised to toast your health)
And a promise to share the wealth (Promise to share the wealth)
I will sail a friendly course, file a friendly chart
On A sea of love and a thankful heart

Life is like a journey, who knows when it ends?
Yes and if you need to know the measure of a man
You simply count his friends
Stop and look around you, the glory that you see
Is born again each day, don’t let is slip away
How precious life can be

With a thankful heart that is wide awake
I do make this promise, every breath I take
Will be used now to sing your praise (Used now to sing your praise)
And to beg you to share my days (Beg you to share my days)
With a loving guarantee that even if we part
I will hold you close in a thankful heart

I will hold you close in a thankful heart

Expectant Waiting

Advent Wreath

For my twenty-seventh installment of my ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ series and the final (fourth) Sunday, I will focus on the season of Advent.

“Advent is a period of spiritual preparation in which many Christians make themselves ready for the coming, or birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ. During this time, Christians observe a season of prayer, fasting and repentance, followed by anticipation, hope and joy. Many Christians celebrate Advent not only by thanking God for Christ’s first coming to Earth as a baby, but also for his presence among us today through the Holy Spirit, and in preparation and anticipation of his final coming at the end of time.”  All About Advent, About.com

Being raised a Methodist, I remember with fondness the anticipation of lighting each successive candle in the Advent Wreath on each Sunday leading up to Christmas eve, when the final white Christ candle shone bright with love and hope. I even celebrated advent at home with my husband and children for a couple of years, but being empty nesters now, it’s harder to motivate myself.

For this first week of Advent 2011, I will share excerpts from the ‘2011 Advent Home Worship‘ by MaryJane Pierce Norton:

Hope

Advent is a time of waiting and of hoping. We wait for the day when we celebrate again the birth of Jesus. We hope that everyone will come to know God and to worship God.

God promised to send a Savior to the people. When we read the Scripture reading, we hear what the prophet Isaiah wrote about God. God is the potter who molds us. We know that the gospel witness is one that helps us understand that God is loving and just. God brings peace. This gives us hope. We anticipate again the birth of the baby Jesus remembering that Jesus helps us know God’s love for us.

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:8 (NRS)

Think about a potter. A potter takes clay and forms it in a way that is pleasing. That is what God is able to do with each person. We are reminded that we are all the work of God’s hand. How do we use these gifts that God has formed in us?

Dear God: Thank you for your son, Jesus. Thank you for the words of the Prophet Isaiah that remind us that you are the source of our hope. Help us to live each day allowing you to form us in a way that brings about your kingdom here on earth. AMEN.

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The Advent Home Worship also provides daily meditations and actions to take to convey hope to others.  For example, today’s item:

Tuesday, November 29, 2011: Is there someone you know who needs to hear words of hope? Make or select a card for that person and mail it today.

* * *

May all your days be filled with hope and love.

Three Wise Men and a Star

Happy Epiphany Everyone!  Did you enjoy your Twelfth Night celebrations?

For some ideas on celebrating the Season of Epiphany, visit Wikipedia‘s ‘Local Customs‘ section in the Epiphany article.

This evening, we’ll de-trim the Christmas tree and pack it and the decorations away for another year.  And perhaps today I’ll come home to a grouted tile entryway.  Terry and Rachelle (well, mostly Rachelle) prepped and cleaned the tile surface, but could not locate the squeagy we bought over two years ago.  So, this morning, they will venture out to Home Depot for another one.

The crochet project for Rachelle’s Brimmed Cap proceeds slowly.  I’m at the halfway point so it should pick up steam on the downhill run and be finished by the weekend.

To Eleventy and Beyond

Two weeks and last year since I sat down to compose an entry.  Half my offspring have come and gone (north then south)  mysteriously in the night.  Said goodbye to one of the best years of my life with some trepidation, concerned that 2011 can’t possibly exceed it.

After trimming the tree on Thursday the 23rd, I spent nearly all of Friday the 24th (Christmas Eve) preparing a family tradition — giving the gift of sticky buns to various friends.   I, of course, modify the recipe a bit (see previous link) and don’t bake them.  Rather, Rachelle and I deliver them with instructions on how to refrigerate, thaw, rise and bake them so our friends can enjoy hot out of the oven buns in all their sticky sweet goodness.

I asked, but did not insist, if anyone wanted to attend Christmas Eve services.  My inquiry met with less enthusiasm than I’d hope, so we spent the evening watching DVDs from Netflix (the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Price of Persia).  Oddly, we did not and have not yet watched the Muppet Christmas Carol, a Moss Family tradition going back a decade or more.  Perhaps Rachelle, Terry and I will watch it this evening.

Christmas morning, I took my time waking, since I knew my main courses for Christmas dinner (scheduled for one o’clock) wouldn’t take more than a couple of hours to bake).  Rachelle was next to awaken and by eleven o’clock couldn’t contain herself and insisted that grandpa arrive early (since I refused to let her distribute gifts until he arrived).  Once grandpa arrived, with his delicious pasta cucumber salad, Royna played Santa with Rachelle as her elf-like assistant.

The Christmas dinner menu consisted of a fresh green salad with my home made dressing (an off shoot of the dressing grandpa uses for his pasta salad), said pasta salad, a boneless turkey breast, a spiral cut ham, mashed potatoes (because Terry and I forgot to bake the potatoes), green bean casserole and fresh hot sticky buns for pseudo-dessert.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, conversing and even played a game of Catchphrase.  Grandpa returned home, everyone took a nap and I read a book (no surprise there).

The strangest and saddest event was Derek and Royna’s sudden departure around 9:00 p.m. that evening.  They had carpooled with friends from Texas the previous Sunday and now they wanted to hit the road back south – overnight!  The catch was Derek and Royna needed a ride to the UMKC campus (just a couple of blocks southeast of where I work five days a week in the Plaza Library building near the Country Club Plaza).  I agreed to transport them and they quickly packed.  Being a mother, I was concerned about an overnight return trip to Dallas and insisted that Derek text message me at 6:00 a.m. so I wouldn’t worry.  Their return trip was uneventful, he rememered to text me and Derek and Royna were safely home by 7:00 a.m.

Sunday the 26th, I filled up both Pontiacs and saved a dollar per gallon because I had earned over one thousand points at Dillons during the month of December.  I knew I’d be driving to work four days this week since my vanpool was on hiatus between Christmas and New Year’s Day (Hallmark closes during that week).  I don’t miss having to drive in traffic or fight for a parking space (at least the one I want to get) even though I arrive at work very early.

Monday and Tuesday swept by boringly but Wednesday brought a visit from Terry’s sister Bonnie.  She came to visit after dropping her daughter Katie off to visit friends.  We enjoyed her visit, and dinner at Famous Dave’s at the Legends.  Terry and Rachelle also met her the next day for lunch at Azul Tequila in Lansing.  Bonnie retrieved her daughter Thursday afternoon for the return trip home to the Cheney area.

Thursday evening, Terry, Rachelle and I caught a showing of the True Grit remake starring Jeff Bridges at Rooster Cogburn and Matt Damon as Texas Ranger Leboeuf and Barry Pepper and Lucky Ned Pepper.  Hailee Stanfeld gave an outstanding performance as Mattie Ross.   I highly recommend this movie, even though I’m not entirely sure it’s better than the original.  Watch either or both … you can’t keep a good story down.

Friday, New Year’s Eve, arrived.  The final day of twenty ten.  The only day that last week of the year I didn’t have to drive to Misery (er, Missouri) to work.  Rachelle intended to spend the evening with friends.  Terry and I thought about finding something at a local bar to participate in, but nothing appealed.  So, Terry invited Sean over and I took the dogs upstairs to relax, read and perhaps play a few hours with friends on Aardwolf, an old-fashioned text-based MUD.  Not surprisingly, I fell asleep shortly after ten o’clock, only to be startled awake by the boom of fireworks, dogs barking and my daughter text messaging.  I eventually returned to my dreams.

Early morning, New Year’s Day, twenty eleven, I’m startled awake, again, by the sound of hail stones dancing on my roof.  Did I just sleep through three months of winter and arrive to a Kansas spring thunderstorm?

Spent most of the morning reading a book, playing more Aardwolf and waiting for Rachelle to return home.  Later in the afternoon, Terry, Rachelle and I travelled to the Legends (twice in as many days) to watch the latest Narnia flick: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  We had to watch it in 3D (and pay a premium matinee ticket price for the privilege) but the movie was excellently rendered.  Again, you can’t keep a good story down.

Today, the second of January, two thousand and eleven, dawns crisply cold and clear.  I’m castigating myself for not dragging out the telescope to view Mercury and Venus this morning.  I’ve taken too long to write this blog post and missed the opportunity.  I spy a gleam of dawn to the east.

Have I resolved to change or achieve anything new as the year starts fresh?  Perhaps.  I have a few ideas that I’m still brewing and stewing about; just not ready to codify them publicly via this blog.

I’ll leave you with this thought for the day: various translations of Psalm 90:12

Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom. (NLT)

Teach us how short our lives really are so that we may be wise. (NCV)

Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well! (MSG)

Peace and may all your years, new and old, be happy!

Trivial Holiday Answers

Another Tuesday is upon me and I survived the Holidays … barely.  Last week, in my A Trivial Holiday post, I shared seven mid-winter holiday themed trivia questions, courtesy of Ken Jenning‘s weekly Tuesday Trivia e-mail service.

And now, the answers you’ve all been waiting for:

1. How many tiny reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh, in the poem that begins “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”? Eight tiny reindeer–Rudolph was a later addition.

2. What sitcom featured a character with the very festive full name of “Christmas Noelle Snow”? Chrissy Snow, Suzanne Somers’s character on Three’s Company, was saddled with that wintry nightmare of a name, for which at least three different explanations were given on the show.

3. Which of the three traditional gifts brought by the three wise men has the highest market value today? Frankincense and myrrh, being nothing but tree sap with vaguely aromatic/medicinal properties, retail for just a few dollars an ounce. Gold is about a hundred times more valuable.

4. Rod Carew was a Minnesota Twin, but who are the only *real* twins name-checked in Adam Sandler’s “Hanukkah Song”? Ann Landers and her sister Dear Abby. (Harrison Ford’s a quarter Jewish–not too shabby!)

5. Most commercial Advent calendars begin on what date? The actual dates of Advent move around, since the period officially begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, but the eponymous calendars typically just start on December 1.

6. “Christmas disease” is another name for the ‘B’ type of what disease, most famously suffered by Alexei Romanov? Hemophilia B was named for Stephen Christmas, the first patient in which it was identified.

7. What unusual distinction is held by these countries in this order, and no others? Spain, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia. These are the (modern-day) sources of the four “ethnic” dances in the second act of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker: a Spanish dance, an Arabian dance, a Chinese dance, and a Russian dance. When I first came up with this question, I thought there were a few more countries on this list, but it turns out the list just SEEMED longer when I took my four-ear-old daughter to The Nutcracker a couple weeks ago.

If you’d like to see this week’s questions, submit a comment replying to this post and I’ll see what I can do.

Merry Christmas (on the 4th day of Christmas)

A Trivial Holiday

Re-posting this from the weekly e-mail I subscribe to from Ken Jennings, which he coins as “Tuesday Trivia”:

Season’s greetings from Tuesday Trivia! Christmas and trivia go together like a creepy Bing Crosby-David Bowie duet, so we hope you enjoy this Christma-Hanuk-Kwanzaa-themed installment of our weekly quiz.

Now BRING US OUR FIGGY PUDDING!  We won’t go until we get some.  And some pudding.

THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS

  1. How many tiny reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh, in the poem that begins “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”?
  2. What sitcom featured a character with the very festive full name of “Christmas Noelle Snow”?
  3. Which of the three traditional gifts brought by the three wise men has the highest market value today?
  4. Rod Carew was a Minnesota Twin, but who are the only *real* twins name-checked in Adam Sandler’s “Hanukkah Song”?
  5. Most commercial Advent calendars begin on what date?
  6. “Christmas disease” is another name for the ‘B’ type of what disease, most famously suffered by Alexei Romanov?
  7. What unusual distinction is held by these countries in this order, and no others?  Spain, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia.

    8.  

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As with all good trivia, it would take you about 30 seconds to Google the answers to the first six questions above.  So you’re on the honor system here: no peeking, and only send in the answers you knew off the top of your head.  Answers will appear in next week’s mailing.

The seventh and final question every week is a “What do they have in common?” question, designed to be harder to Google.  As I arrange to send out goodies to high scorers, it will be on the basis of these seventh questions only.

Send responses to tuesdaytrivia@ken-jennings.com by noon Pacific each following Monday.  That’s also the address to contact if you missed the quiz one week and need to request a replacement.

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Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Jon