Nana's cookies...just like hers

I made my grandmother's cookie recipe today. Ah, they turn out just like hers. I used to walk into her kitchen and look up to the top of the refrigerator to see if she had these in a container. Soft molasses cookies. Yum. Linnea and Will made the dough in order to make their annual movie character shapes, but they never did get around to baking them. So now we'll enjoy them just plain round with sugar....and remember Nana.

Holiday get together

All throughout the holiday season I want to get together with various and sundry friends who live nearby. I always want to do more than I actually do. We have a quiet Christmas with no family nearby, so I like to get with friends. It took me several tries, but I finally got a group together today. It turned out that both families have ties to a church I went to while in college, Walnut Ridge in Waterloo, Iowa. John Meyer grew up there and the other family, the Hamiltons have a brother-in-law who went there! Small world. Connections. I had a good time, and I hope everyone else did, too. I made lasagne. That's easy to do ahead of time and then the mess is already cleaned up. We just ate the leftover Christmas candy and cookies that were around. The time is always too short, though. Good times. Good food. Linnea leaves tomorrow, sad.

St. Stephen's Day/Boxing Day

We have The Chieftans Christmas CD. The second song is called, "The St.Stephen's Day Murders". It's a funny song about the day after Christmas, and the "carcass of the beast leftover from the feast" and sundry other things that happen the day after. Is this day called "Boxing Day" in a Protestant country and "St. Stephen's Day" in a Catholic country? Just wondering.

The working men, Denny and Andrew, are back in the workforce today. I got things tidied up and cleaned up around here after sleeping late. The other two are up, continuing to enjoy the academic break and watching Gilmore Girls 7th season that Linnea got for Christmas.

We enjoyed a relaxing Christmas day as usual. Nothing unusual. Took pictures with the new camera that Den bought me for Christmas, opened presents and had a lovely traditional Christmas dinner with our Christmas crackers, too. Only this year we didn't have Christmas pudding. We usually get it at World Market, but they didn't order any this year. We weren't too sad. Mostly everyone loves the lighting of it the most, rather than the eating. We watched a couple of our new videos in the evening. No football today. Hmm. Seemed unusual.

Merry Christmas!

Our celebration began last night, so here we are to say "Merry Christmas" to all you wonderful friends and family. The "children" aren't up yet, but everything is ready in anticipation. Isn't it great to see our whole family together?

Looking forward to hearing from all of you. Have a blessed Christmas Day!

Crazy Christmas Capers

Things get wound up around here about the time Mom says she's going to bed. I was downstairs last night and it sounded too fun up here, so I came back up. Here's what was going on around 11pm!

The Nativity Story

When I substituted last week, the teacher had me show this video to both of her Bible classes. It makes for an easy sub job to push a button on a DVD machine. I hadn't seen this yet, and I don't generally like Bible-based movies. I'd rather the images stayed in my head. However, even after watching this two times, I still wanted to show it to my Wednesday evening class at church. It was amazing. The story of the birth of Jesus became new, fresh and alive. It transformed from being just a story, to reality. We always picture Mary as a mature woman even while we say she was just a girl, which she probably was. I never really thought about the story itself past just what the words say. But what did Mary feel like being pregnant as a young girl? Did she tell her mother? Would her mother believer her? So she went to visit Elizabeth for three months or so. What did Joseph think when she returns obviously pregnant. We know he must've thought she had been unfaithful because the Bible tells us he thought he'd quietly divorce her. How crushed did he feel? Then the film shows how Mary gradually grows to love Joseph who probably had been chosen FOR her, not BY her. The birth is amazing. I cried every time. So if you get a chance to see this, it is well worth your time. The Christmas story will come alive to you. The fact the God himself became man with all our weaknesses, including that of infancy, will cause you to worship HIM.

Thou who was rich beyond all splendour, all for love's sake became poor.
Thrones for a manger didst surrender, sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.

Thou who art God beyond all praising, all for love's sake became man
Stooping so low, but sinners raising heavenward by thy eternal plan

Thou who art love beyond all telling, Saviour and King, we worship thee
Emmanuel within us dwelling, make us what thou would have us be.


Chip Stam writes: "This hymn was written at a particularly difficult time in the history of the missions to China. Missionaries had been captured by the communist Red Army and released in poor health after over a year of suffering. Others had been captured never to be heard from again. In 1934 the young missionaries John and Betty Stam (my great aunt and uncle) were captured in Anhwei and beheaded . The news of these sorrows had reached the mission's headquarters in Shanghai. Though this was a very dangerous time for both the Chinese Christians and the foreign missionaries, Frank Houghton decided he needed to begin a tour through the country to visit various missionary outposts. While traveling over the mountains of Szechwan, the powerful and comforting words of 2 Corinthians 8:9, "though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor," were transformed into this beautiful Christmas hymn."

Thought you might enjoy hearing about the background to the hymn. I did. If you click on the link, you'll see where I read it.

Alive and ...well....

I've been substituting full time all week for one teacher who joined her family in Florida..early! It's been good so far, but I am NOT getting anything done around here. I just don't feel like doing much once I get home. MOnday Will was hacking away at the two inches of ice and packed snow that still remained in the driveway when I got home, so we worked together on that for awhile. The sidewalk is still covered... He got a bad cold and hasn't felt well all week, but he has long quiet days to get over it while I'm gone. Yesterday a friend dropped off my fruit order and we had a quick visit over peppermint tea and Mom's sweet bread. Yummmm. I should get groceries, clean up around here, hack the ice off the sidewalk and front walk, ah, but it's cozy in here. I have to run out to church for several hours tonight, then one more day of subbing. Linnea arrives about the time I get off tomorrow, so that's convenient. Christmas shopping, hahahahahaha!! I've ordered some things. Will gave me a list yesterday. We'll see about what we can do Friday and Saturday. The weather doesn't sound too good, so maybe it will be a Christmas Eve rush. Our 28th wedding anniversary is Saturday, the 22nd. On a Saturday once again. We hope to go out with friends. We'll see what the weather's like.

We really enjoyed hearing the Messiah last weekend at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. Magnificent! It is really a worship service from beginning to end. The whole gospel story, all about Jesus. By the time I got to "Worthy is the Lamb" I was ready to stand up with my hands in the air! It brings tears to your eyes and a swelling in your chest just to hear those words and worship. Wow!

We also enjoyed another family get together. Seven of us grown-ups packed our car. Jenny, my sister came with us by herself. Will got there at 4am Friday after driving all night from Covenant, so he was with us. (The people he rode with were there, too!) Ron and Dennis thoroughly enjoyed being crazy together. Sometimes, one cannot even get a word of sense into them at all. Jen was trying to give directions to the college and they were messing with her the whole time. She's so good natured, she just sighs, and sits back in the seat. Oh, well.

I was a bit worried when we got up on Saturday and it began to snow. Andrew called and said it was bad here and that his friend's flight had been cancelled from Chicago. We started out and had wet and a bit slippery roads from LeClaire west a ways. DesMoines was wet and everything was dry from there on out! Yeah! Took us just a little longer than normal. I'm looking forward to a weekend at home with no Saturday afternoon practices and no out of town places to go!

Think I'll go tackle one of those jobs.....