Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ

I hope as we approach the Christmas holidays that you are celebrating the birth of our Savior.  I guess I am not into the “politically correct” version of this holiday (or Holy Day).  I AM celebrating the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and proud of it.  

I’ve been trying to download some photos I have to share, but can't get those that I took to load.  But I can download the ones our son sent.  He was sharing what we are missing in Wisconsin this time of year.  It's beautiful....but I don't think we miss the cold that much.  The beauty, yes, the cold, nope!  But we are glad Dale has shared some of the gorgeous scenery with us.  He likes to take pictures and we like to see them.   

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Radio 4VEH (where our English church meets).  There were somewhere near or over 50 people.  We never really took a count.  I had a picture to share, but... it didn't download.  We had LOTS of great food and even had some Haitian dishes with it.  A great meal and a great message by one of our missionaries.  

Many, many years ago, one of our pilots wives sent down a children's Fisher Price manger set.  This year, she added more pieces to it.   Originally it was for Abbie.  Now Savanah loves to play with it.  (Along with Abbie).  She lines up all the people in the set, and then the animals behind them.  Then takes one at a time, moves them up to Jesus in the manger and tells them, "That is baby Jesus, see Him?"  Then that one is moved to the back of the line, and the next one is taken up to see Him.  She plays with it for a long time.  And at least once a day goes through the same thing.  She thought she should be able to play with ALL our manger scenes... I told her nope, the one on the shelf I made in 1978 and it's breakable.  So, she has decided the only one she can play with is on her table.  

We have pretty much come to the conclusion that she will not be home in Canada for Christmas.  But we are hoping it won't be too long after that when she will be.  She talks about Mommy, Daddy, Ruby, Lexi and Natalia (who she simply calls her baby), all the time.  We have photos printed out for her that she carries around and shows everyone who comes through the door.

We are doing small Christmas bags for English church again this year.  Lots of little things in it that have Jesus on them.  Bracelets (one really nice one, and one of the plastic ones), necklaces, pencils, tiny tablets of paper, well lots of things, and of course candy... with the story of Jesus included.  Vero helped me finish bagging everything yesterday...we did 48 bags this year.  We also use these as a challenge for those receiving them to share...we try to put 2 of several things, one to keep and one to share and also share the love of Jesus with people.  We had some awesome testimonies last year from it.  

We are praising the Lord for all He is doing and all He has done for us this whole year.  Through each and every struggle, through each and every victory, God has been at the center and has guided and walked with us.  Isn't He an AWESOME GOD?  I often wonder how we got through things before we knew Him.  And looking back...we had a really hard time making it.  And we had no joy, no victory just surviving.  That has changed so dramatically since the Lord came into out lives and we have turned things over to Him.  So, praising HIM is at the top of our daily list of things to do.  And keeping Him close is a daily thing now.  I hope and pray that you are at that place where you can walk and talk with Him as you do with a friend.  If not, know that He is waiting for you to reach out and take His hand and become a close friend and closer family.  

So, I'll close with a very heartfelt  MERRY CHRISTMAS and may He be the center of your celebrations!!