The Reality of Christmas. Think about it.

There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and carolers out in the snow. There'll be scary ghost stories, and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Ahhh! The Christmas season--I love it! I love the decorations, the sights, the smells, the music. I love it all. I truly think it is the most wonderful time of the year! When I was a kid, people used to tell me that I would "grow out" of Christmas and that the older I got, the less exciting the season would be for me. "Just wait until you're older when you have to drive in the snow and fight crowds to buy Christmas presents! Just wait until you have to frantically rush around at last minute to finish Christmas baking, wrapping presents, and cleaning the house for company! You won't think Christmas is so exciting then!"

All I have to say to those people is bah, humbug! I LOVE the busyness of the season! I love baking! I love finding just the right presents for my friends and family.  I love wrapping presents! And I'm pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. (It's my gift.) I love watching the shoppers pass by with their treasures! (I've always enjoyed people-watching.) I love going to Christmas programs. I love the music of the season. I love the lights. As I said, I love it all!

Maybe you're like me, and you love the Christmas season, too. Unfortunately, it's far too easy to get caught up in all the sights and smells and sounds of Christmas and forget the reality of Christmas. Oh, sure, we all appreciate the signs and decorations and Christmas cards that remind us, "Jesus is the reason for the season!"  However, how often do we stop and contemplate that statement? How often do we let the reality of Christmas really sink in and affect our outlook on the Christmas season? No Christian would deny that Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas, but are we inadvertently leaving Him out of our celebrations because we get too caught up in all the wonderful festivities that surround us at this time of year?

Don't worry. I don't believe at all that we should give up all the things we enjoy during this time of year. There's nothing wrong with these things. I'm just asking all of us to reflect--and I mean really, truly reflect--on what it meant for the world when Jesus was born. I believe that Jesus came to us as a little baby and grew up only to die in our place. But I'm like a lot of Christians: I believe it, but I don't always reflect on it as I should. It's very easy to believe something is true, but sometimes it's hard to make it a reality in our lives when it happened so very long ago.

This year our choir at church sang one of the most beautiful Christmas songs I have ever heard, "Candlelight Carol" by John Rutter. You can listen to it here. The third verse is my favorite:

Find him at Bethlehem laid in a manger:
Christ our redeemer asleep in the hay.
Godhead incarnate and hope of salvation:
A child with his mother that first Christmas day.

Just think about those words! I mean, really think about them:

Think about Christ our redeemer! According to the American Heritage Dictionary, to redeem something means "to set free; to rescue or ransom; to save from a state of sinfulness and its consequences; to make up for or compensate for; to restore the honor, worth, or reputation of." Christ redeemed us! We are unworthy to stand before the God of the universe. We are dirty, rotten sinners. We deserve to spend an eternity in hell. But Christ redeemed us! We don't have to spend an eternity in hell, separated from God! We can spend a glorious eternity in heaven, worshiping and adoring our Creator and Redeemer! Think about that.

Think about the Godhead incarnate! Incarnate means to be embodied in human form. The Godhead in human form! And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth! The Godhead incarnate: Christ as a little helpless baby, born to a poor, young virgin who had no place other than a feeding trough to lay her precious newborn. Christ spending 33 years on this earth, a fallen and wretched world, eventually suffering a death more horrendous and painful and humiliating than any of us will ever experience. Why would He be willing to do all of that for us?? Think about that.

A child with his mother that first Christmas day. Think about that and all that it encompasses this Christmas season.

O Holy Night

This post is for my Facebook friends who have been asking me to upload another dulcimer video to my FB page. Well, I've recently discovered that uploading videos to my blog is a WHOLE LOT faster than uploading them to my FB page! Sometimes it takes six or seven hours for me to get a short video clip uploaded to FB, but this took me only about three minutes!


"O Holy Night" has always been one of my favorite Christmas songs. This version I'm playing on my dulcimer was arranged by my favorite dulcimer player in the world, Larkin Bryant, who also happens to be my dear teacher. :-)

I was still learning the song when this video was made and I don't have any video editing software, so there are quite a few mistakes and I am playing it a bit too fast. But, anyhow, merry Christmas to my dear friends, and thank you for encouraging me in my attempts at learning the dulcimer. :-)

It's Beginning to Smell A Lot Like Christmas!

I love baking anytime, but Christmas baking is the best! I've already made a few of the Christmas "staples" with my roomies, but I decided to try a new cookie recipe tonight. These are called Ginger-Lemon Delights. The cookies are a sugar cookie base with molasses, ginger, clove, and cinnamon added. The icing is made from powdered sugar, lemon juice, and grated lemon peel. The "sprinkles" on top are crystalized ginger. The flavor is very exotic and is a little too rich for my taste, but according to my roomie, who really likes the cookies, "The taste hits your senses before the cookie even hits your mouth."

How to Get into the Christmas Spirit

Here are some pictures of some our Christmas decorations! And to think we actually thought about not decorating this year! Once we finished putting everything out, we were so glad that we did. It's amazing how having Christmas decorations up can put you in the Christmas spirit! If you haven't decorated your house for Christmas, do it NOW!! It's not too late! :-)

I love having a real fireplace with a mantel!

My favorite display

Our Christmas tree. :-) Among the three of us, we have just enough ornaments to decorate it.

Even the kitchen gets decked out for Christmas!

December Rain

I love going to sleep to the sound of rain. Tonight, as the rain hits my window, I hear the sound of a thousand horses galloping in the distance. I was inspired to write a haiku. :-)


Galloping horses
Tat-a-tat on my window.
My eyes close; I sleep.

Defining "Black Friday" to Foreign Exchange Students

I  have two foreign exchange students in my speech class this year. One is from Brazil and the other is from Germany. It's always interesting to hear their perspective on American culture. However, sometimes it's difficult to explain certain "Americanisms" to them.

The other day a few girls walked into speech class gabbing about how much they were looking forward to Black Friday. As my exchange student from Brazil listened in, I noticed a confused look on his face. Then I saw him mouth the words to another student, "What's Black Friday?" The other student couldn't tell what he was trying to ask him, so I piped up.

"Oh, are you wondering about Black Friday?"

"Mm-hm"

"Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving when the 'official' shopping season for Christmas starts. All the stores open extra early and they have really good prices, so the majority of Americans go shopping on that day."

"Oh. Okay. . . but why is it called 'Black Friday'?"

The other students in the class chime in, "Yeah! Why is it called that?"

I've never really heard why it's called "Black Friday," but the eyes of all my students were looking at me expecting an answer.  I decided to tell the students why I think the day is called "Black Friday."

"Well, I'm not positive without looking it up, but black usually represents death and my speculation is that it's called 'Black Friday' because people get killed on that day. I've heard of people who've been trampled to death by crowds of people rushing into Walmart to get the best deal on flat screen TVs."

A chorus of "Oh, yeah!! I heard about an old lady who got smooshed behind a door!" and "There was a man who got hit by a car in a parking lot, too!" and "Did you hear about the lady who . . . blah, blah, blah," swept across the room.

I looked over at the two exchange students. Looks of horrified shock and disgust had swept across their faces.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Uh, yes. Thank you."

And then the bell rang for class to begin.

I later found out that "Black Friday" is called such because it's a time when the stores bring in so much money, they are said to be "in the black," as opposed to "in the red." A few of my fellow teachers couldn't believe that I had given the reason I had to the students. I kind of felt bad after that because I was sure I had made America look horrible to these exchange students. HOWEVER, I don't feel so bad now because I found out that my definition of "Black Friday" was actually somewhat correct!! After doing some research, I discovered the phrase was coined in the 1960s by a police officer who had observed the horrible traffic accidents and mobs of people crushing other people on that day. It was only in more recent years that retailers decided to give a positive spin on the name by saying it was called "Black Friday" because sales were up so high on that day. Personally, I think the former definition is more fitting. :-)

The Perils of Making Hot Chocolate

This morning I woke up to a cold, dark, windy, rainy day and decided that today would be the perfect day for hot chocolate. My Facebook friends agreed, so I knew it must be a good idea. I tucked a couple packets of Kroger brand Dutch Cocoa into my purse to take along to school with me. (Kroger Dutch cocoa is much tastier than the Swiss Miss cocoa we have at school, in my opinion.)

I arrived at school and got all set up to watch my morning care kiddos; then I headed into the kitchen. I grabbed a styrofoam cup and emptied the contents of my cocoa packet into it. That was pretty easy. Then I took a spoon and headed around the corner to the hot water dispenser. I began filling my cup with the hot water. I must have been cold, because I got a shiver and my hand shook resulting in hot water pouring onto my left hand and down my sleeve. It was so hot that I quickly jumped which resulted in spilling all my hot chocolate down the front of my skirt and onto the floor. *sigh*

Naturally, I now have a dilemma. Do I run to the sink and flush my hand and arm with cold water, or do I first attempt to get the hot chocolate out of my skirt? Of course, I opted to save my skirt. I mean, I do have to wear it in front of judgmental high school kids for the remainder of the day! Fortunately, it's a black skirt, so it didn't take too long to hide the hot chocolate. So I got the hot chocolate out of my skirt,  got my hand and arm cooled off with some cold water, and got the mess cleaned up off the floor. But I still wanted hot chocolate. It's a good thing I was prepared and brought two packets!!

Let's try this again. Empty contents into cup--check. Dispense hot water into cup without spilling on yourself--check. Stir--check. Add marshmallows--uh-oh.

I don't always go for marshmallows in my hot chocolate (although I am quite the marshmallow connoiseur), but I figured after my ordeal I certainly deserved them. Mrs. Fleming knows I like marshmallows in my cocoa once in a while so she always keeps a bag on hand for me. (Okay, okay, I'm sure she doesn't buy them just for me, but it makes me feel special to think so.) Anyhow, I grabbed the bag of marshmallows. It had already been opened, but had been twisted shut with a baggie tie. I removed the baggie tie and started to untwist the bag. Before I knew what was happening, marshmallows were flying everywhere. (Did you know that marshmallows seem to have a little bounce to them???) Apparently the bag had been torn clear down the side and it only looked like it was closed up with a baggie tie. *sigh* At least the whole bag didn't spill.

Anyhow, after I cleaned up my mess, I carefully added marshmallows (the ones from the bag, not the floor) to my hot chocolate, which was now more like warm chocolate. So it took me a little while to get my hot chocolate made, and I had a few mishaps; but, boy, I must say that was some good hot chocolate!!