"I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"--Not Stacks of Dishes

"I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas,"--not stacks of dishes.

Stacks of them. Piles of them. All over the counter and table. Every day.

All during Christmas season.

And we dream of all sorts of Christmas gifts and glitter and glitz and trees and sparkle and tinsel

and snowflakes.

And instead the kids track in dirt and the woodstove dribbles ashes, and our rooms are a mess.

Every day, even at Christmas time--especially at Christmas time--

we have to clean up and wash dishes and cook meals and exercise patience!

We go Christmas shopping and bring home bags of Christmas surprises--

and then we have to unload the van and clean out the orange peels and candy wrappers and torn chip bags and slimy banana peels and wrinkled up advertisements and store papers and dirt.

And we pull out load after load of laundry--and clean out the treasures the boys had in their pockets!

And try to get the kids to finish their schoolwork before Christmas break.

You catch your son doing art class instead of spelling and vocabulary.

  Occasionally there is a special treat like doughnut balls,

with the youngest rolling them in sugar.

Other times we make do with quick hamburgers from homegrown beef or wild elk,

and homemade rolls we found in the fridge from who knows when. And oven fries.

I think the glitter and glitz and houses full of ornaments are for grandparents--and maybe our day is coming. 

Until then, we are thankful to have a few adornments safely on high little shelves--like this one in Carrie's room.

 I love her tasteful decorations out of a little bit of nothing.

Below is a tree she made out of a tomato cage and greenery.

  Sometimes you'd sorta like to just get away from it all--and stick your head in a feedsack like our goat managed to do one day!

But how did Christ come that first "Christmas"?

In our culture, Christmas is no longer just one fun day with a Christmas Eve tree-decorating time.

It's a whole over-commercialized season, and it's easy to over-expect and feel a constant sense of disappointment.

So this ordinary Mom during a very ordinary Christmas season full of farm chores and messes and dishes and cooking for a constantly hungry family (Timmy is going through a growing spurt and is almost ALWAYS hungry) is always on the lookout for inspiration in the ordinary and humdrum.

The inspiration of Christ coming as an ordinary baby to an ordinary mother wed to an ordinary husband in an ordinary little town in an ordinary countryside...

That ordinary couple traveled to another ordinary town and slept in an ordinary stable,

and the angels came to ordinary shepherds, and they all lived rather ordinary lives for the next 30 years.

And so Christ still loves to come to the ordinary.

He loves to visit ordinary mothers in the middle of their ordinary tasks of dishes and laundry and cleaning and ironing and wrapping Christmas gifts. 

(These little ornaments were made by our dear Aunt Irina. I wish I could have had a chance to watch how she made them.)

God loves to bring surprising opportunities in ordinary circumstances--like Andrew Street, missionary in a difficult foreign land, wrote in the latest Christmas Missionary Herald, about using your dinner table as a tool for sharing Christ with others. (How I appreciated that article!)

Jesus, come to Your ordinary mothers and fathers and children this year!

Surprise us under ordinary--and perhaps messy--circumstances!

"Be with us now--in the middle of our stacks of dishes, in the middle of the the dirt we've just swept up, in the middle of rushes to meet schedules, in the middle of various frustrations--
Be with us now--Emmanuel!"

Christmas Collapse on Church Pew!

Last weekend found me terribly exhausted in between all the goings on, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

Sunday afternoon if you had peeked in the window of the Church of God Holiness in Littleton,

this is what you would have seen collapsed on one of the pews near the back.

Mrs. Anna Lucas is trying to gather strength for the next thing on the Christmas agenda--helping pick up a busload of kids for 3:00 Kids Club!

Because kids who haven't heard much about Jesus are pretty important at Christmas. 

It was quiet there in the church sanctuary. 

I love quiet sanctuaries, and this one had red velvet curtains to cushion noise.

It had a creche.

And I managed to find a Bible in a hymnal holder in the back of a pew so I could read a chapter before resting.  Yeah, I hadn't read my Bible first thing in the morning like you are supposed to do.

I had slept in till 7:45 because I had gone to bed half dead the night before.

Thankfully, Mrs. Lucas gives herself grace and I hope you give yourself grace, too, if you can't do everything perfectly every single day.

But when you do read it, value it and respect it and endeavor to obey it. 

I am sure God cares more about that than whether you read your chapter every single morning without fail.

The Durkees let us eat our lunch in the basement and rest a bit before going on to Federal Heights where we help with Kids' Club a couple Sundays a month.

In the morning worship time, things had been a bit different because Mr. Cruz who usually does the preaching could not be there, and his wife was sick. 

So there was just a song and Sunday School lesson, and afterwards a little time for the children

where I gave them all bells and had them play chords for Christmas songs.

I had them in groups, with the C, E, and G bells in a group for the C chord, 

the F, A, and another C bell in a group for the F chord, and a Bflat and D for a D chord.

I would point to the group when they were to play their chord.

It was a practice for Kids Club at Fed. Heights, so I would know what I was doing there since there would only be a few minutes and I needed to know what I was doing!

In the picture above you can see Mr. Durkee helping the two littlest children play their bells!

He is so good with the little children! He's a great grandpa!

And those little kids are so precious. 

Little almost-5-year-old Michaela sat down with Hannah and I couldn't help sneaking a picture of them with their arms around each other.

Well, I pulled myself off the pew and we headed off the half hour across the suburbs of Denver to Fed. Heights. 

We got there just in time to rush the little bells inside before Jonathan and I left with Christian Walker to go pick up kids.

The  Walkers had put together gift bags for the kids with Bibles for the older children, Bible story books for the younger ones, treats and little toys, coloring books, etc.

thanks to a church which had sent an offering to help with this project.

Jonathan got a picture of the first few kids on the bus, to whom I gave some elf hats as a sort of activity.

I try to keep some sort of conversation going while we wait for Christian to knock on doors and pick up the next batch of children. I tell them stories about our family going Christmas caroling with a horse with bells on it, and about going to the ladies' tea party, and about the mountain lion Rose saw up at the bluffs a few weeks ago which later we heard had mauled a horse down the way.

What a pile of children showed up this Sunday! The bus was basically full.
There were 20 altogether in service, including our three youngest and Walkers two, but that was still 15 from the community. 

You can probably spot me with my elf hat still on because I didn't have time to comb my hair, and I can only imagine what my hair would look like!

Holly is such a good story teller, and she told the Christmas story to children who may never have heard it before. 

I was talking to Joy Albertson a few days ago on the phone, and she was telling me that when she talks to women at the prison where she goes some Sundays, she finds out they have no idea what the real Christmas story is.

A young man they have befriended who works at Walmart had gotten saved a few months ago, but as Christmas time arrived, they found out he had never heard the Christmas story!!

Sunday 15 community children in Denver heard the Christmas story.

They heard about Jesus and the shepherds and the angels and the wise men.

Three groups of children played the chords on the little bells for "Happy Birthday, dear Jesus!"

Walkers had suggested that just our family play the bells, as they didn't think the other kids could do it, but with  my four oldest gone, I had to have more children help. I picked some older ones who were so excited to get to ring bells!

And then the gifts were handed out.  The Walkers weren't expecting so many children, so they weren't

prepared with enough bags! But they made do somehow so each child got something.

The boys were so excited.

Here's a photo of the children before they left for home.

It was a very fun and exciting afternoon!
Despite our exhaustion, we had made it through the day, and felt so rewarded!

Christmas Party with Friends!

Christmas is a time for children, and what better time to welcome and enjoy a new baby than at Christmas time!

Last week we were surprised and delighted when Sherilyn Cruz invited us to their clan Christmas party which Allen and Betty Durkee were hosting Saturday evening.

They were having tacos and burritos.

Their beautiful home was full of Christmas--and kids!

And what I liked the most was that although there were countless Christmas collectibles all over the place, the attention and emphasis was on the people.

Beginning with Jesus!

It was obvious that Jesus was loved and cherished and made much of here.

And so were little people!

Michael and Carmen's new baby received lots of attention--even by a certain father into whose arms the tiny boy was placed when a certain mother's unaccustomed arms grew tired!

 I appreciated so much how both sets of grandparents helped with caring for and paying attention to all the little children--helping feed them, clean up their disasters without complaining, care for the one who could hardly stop coughing, laugh and play with them, and have a whole tree full of ornaments personalized for each grandchild.

It was obvious that people--and love--and joy--

rather than things--and money--and discontentment--

were the basic foundation of this family's Christmas.

I spied a squeeze for a husband here and a hug for a father there and hug for a grown daughter there--

just lots of quiet, obvious love and caring that left my heart wanting to watch and learn and enjoy--because I want our home to be like that.

  It's so easy to get caught up in Christmas--and comparisons-- and forget to express our love to our spouse, child, parent, in-laws, and others. Giving gifts and decorating lavishly and following Pinterest and comparing our decor or celebration with others' is one thing;

 love expressed through touch, kind words, smiles, meaningful cards and notes, humility, honor, compliments, appreciation and thankfulness is quite another.
Grandma Durkee seemed quite, quite, quite content with their very own Christmas.

Here is the newest ornament for the 1-month-old baby.

Grandma Durkee let me admire all her beautiful and meaningful ornaments.

She told me about this ornament and that one, what memories were behind it, etc. 

I was glad I'm not the only one who enjoys a tree with lots of different, mis-matched but perfectly delightful ornaments that have memories, experiences, and people behind them.

This tree was the Grandchild Tree (the name I gave it). The Durkees purchase a new personalized ornament each year for each of the grandchildren. Then when they turn 18, the grandchild gets to have the ornaments or let Grandma keep them on her tree, whichever they prefer.

The dessert table was so luscious! I wish I could eat more sweets and still feel good, but I can't,

so I just enjoy looking at them and raving at how cute it all looks,  tasting one or two, and--

you guessed it--taking pictures!

They had a crockpot of the best cinnamon spiced cider I ever tasted in my life!

After the meal was over and Grandma Durkee finished (well she could never quite finish!) telling me about the different decorations, including quite a few Christmas collie ornaments in memory of their favorite collie, we all gathered in the livingroom for the White Elephant gift exchange. 

It's the first time in my life I ever took part in this game, and it was sooo fun, thanks to Grandpa Durkee who made sure it stayed full of laughter and pranks!

Everyone had taken a gift worth under $10 (or something they wanted to get rid of) which got put under the tree. Then Grandma Durkee pulled numbers out of a dish to give each person, and gathered them up again, and when you got your number called, you got to pick a gift. (Or have a little child pick one for you!)

 This is what Jonathan got the first time around!

Perfect match for Jonathan! We laughed and laughed!

I got a Santa Claus fuzzy blanket--and doesn't everybody know how Anna "loves" Santa Claus!!!!!

(Which is precisely the point of White Elephant gift exchanges!)

Well, the second time around, when you got your number called, you could pick anything you wanted from anyone, and they had to give it to you. 

Which didn't mean you would get to keep it, because as soon as the next number was picked, that next person could promptly turn around and take your thing--and you couldn't do anything about it!!!! :)

Well, then there is the third time around, and you still get to pick your choice all over again,

(you can also choose to keep what you already chose) BUT, everyone after you still gets to pick their choice--so you are sitting on pins and needles wondering if you get to keep your choice! The only person who gets the final choice is the person whose number gets called last.

That is the way this clan played it.
We had a hilarious time!

Michael ended up with a huge box of sidewalk chalk for age 4 children (which he decided was appropriate for himself!) and others "fought" over two sets of Christmas napkins in holders which seemed to do the most traveling back and forth between people to the tune of a great deal of banter.

I ended up with a heart shaped tray  which I thought was sooo charming.

Jonathan tried to keep a huge chocolate heart--but it was taken away by Grandpa Durkee (who was quite concerned about Jonathan's need to lose weight!) and replaced with this box of cheese, sausage, crackers and hot mustard--perfect for his lunches!

We had a very fun time, and on the way home we noticed the lights in Parker, so took a few minutes to drive through them.

For all his lifetime that Jonathan has lived here in Colorado, he said he didn't think he had ever driven through downtown Parker.

I loved this old church all lit up.

Sorry my camera didn't take perfect pictures!

But joy is found most in our own back yard--and home!

And in Christ most of all!