Getting ready for Christmas

What do you do to prepare for Christmas? When do you begin? I've been reading some of your blogs and so many of you seem to have it together when it come to getting ready for Christmas early. Your trees are up, your houses are beautifully decorated and the Christmas baking is well underway. Some of the mothers whose blogs I follow are conscientiously preparing the hearts of their young families for Christ's advent. I am inspired by their spiritual creativity in this important task.

I have managed to do some Advent readings for my quiet time this year and I actually spent a day baking cookies. You can go to http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/ for the recipe for Christmas Cranberry cookies, Jam Jams and Oatmeal Shortbread. However the rest of the Christmas prep just always seems out of reach. I wish my DH and I were a little more organized and better plan ahead-ers.

To set things back even more -this year we started some house renovations in November and what with getting our furnace hooked up (see blog post for Nov 3/08) and business trips and a week at our daughter's in Saskatchewan, plus the every day urgencies, the reno's are still not finished. We decided to put hardwood in both the master bedroom and the dining room. It was so good to get rid of that old shag carpet! Here's a picture of the carpet that is still on the stairs and in the living room. (that's on the long list of future projects!)That green and rust coloured shag was all the rage back in 1976 and has stood up well but it is time for it to GO! We tore the carpet out of the dining room and replaced it with this.

Then we painted 2 walls "Garrison Red and the other 2 in "Moccasin" and put some pot lights in the ceiling. That involved pulling up the carpet in the bedroom above and dismantling the floor! You know how one reno always leads to another? I'll post 'after' pictures of the bedroom when we get the molding and trim up.

We then put up crown molding and baseboards. We also changed the amber glass shades on our antique light fixture to cloudy white ones and spent 2 hours polishing it up. Here is how the dining room looks now.

The painting on the wall is a soft pastel done by my aunt, Barbara Boldt who has a studio in Fort Langley BC. You can see some of her work here: http://www.barbaraboldt.com/ Here is another view of the room.

So far, that's all we've done. There are still some switch plates and switches to be changed and the odd bit of baseboard to put up. It will come. I'm just so grateful that we've got this far. I love the way the room looks now and that hardwood floor is so easy to keep clean.

We're celebrating Christmas with our oldest son, wife and 3 kids and youngest son and wife this coming weekend so the rest of the reno work will have to wait. There is a Christmas tree to put up and decorate, outdoor lights to set up and stairs to decorate. There's also the rest of 2 ABC books to finish for our 2- 4 year old grandboys. (I'm quite sure that won't get done on time.) Oh yes, there is the small matter of completing the gift buying and wrapping. Thankfully we're doing Raclette for Christmas dinner so serving dinner will be easy. (I will try to remember to take pictures so I can share it with you)

All that to do and here I am blogging. Oh my, does this woman have her priorities in order? I'm afraid not! Now it's off to bed and on to a busy, busy day tomorrow.

Messiah

I just returned from experiencing a wonderful performance of

"The Messiah"

It was presented and performed by

Calvin Dyck's Songs, Strings and Steps,

the Central Valley Academy of Music,

Valley Festival Singers (Tony Funk director)and

Pacific Spirit Choir (Gerald van Wyck director).

The soloists were Charlene Pauls, Laura Pudwell, John Bacon and Willy Miles-Grenzberg.

Because Harv was still out of town I had an extra ticket and invited my dad to join me and our friends G & E. I did have an ulterior motive for going to this particular performance. Our youngest son is part the Valley Festival Singers. I am so proud of his love of singing. He has an amazing Bass voice and seems to thrive on music that is challenging to sing.

South Abbotsford MB church was beautifully decorated for Christmas with lights and pointsettias and was filled to capacity with anticipation.

The 130 singers, orchestra members and soloists surpassed our expectations.

The familiar songs were performed with skill and emotion. I loved the way the conductor drew the music from the performers, melding them into one glorious voice.

"Comfort Ye my people", "the Glory of the Lord", "For unto us a Child is born", All we like sheep have gone astray" Lift up your heads" had me singing along

(under my breath of course).

"The Hallelujah Chorus" was an anthem of praise that lifted the rafters and had us all on our feet. The duet of trumpet and soloist in "The trumpet shall sound" was amazing and the closing "Amen" brought the whole evening to a majestic finale.

One thing I noticed as I listened to the music was Handel's use of silence to emphasize the words and accent the music. I love the fact that he used Scripture almost verbatim in the songs - each time I read those passages from Isaiah, I "hear" his glorious music.He was a master, who illustrated God's great plan of salvation in a way that stirs the soul and points us to Christ.

What a glorious way to begin the Christmas season.

Visit Vignettes

We had a lovely time visiting the kids and grandkids.

They live in a small town and enjoy all the benefits of a prairie lifestyle.

The library is in the old railway station with a section of track out behind it.

Main street is wide ( there are no mountains limiting space here)

with a dozen or so businesses and services.

The rink is closeby and very well used. Both my son in law and my daughter

are on hockey teams (there are 4 mens teams in this small town!) and

the boys are in skating lessons twice a week.

Grandson E can bike to school where he is in Grade 1. The school is K-12 and every child in town attends it. He's got a great teacher and I got to see his classroom and his schoolwork.

The town also has a seniors home as well as a home and workshop for the developmentally challenged where we attended their annual Christmas Craft Fair. I wish I'd brought my camera as the craft items made there are amazing. There were handmade quilts and table linens in gorgeous colours and patterns, well built, distressed, country syle furniture, angels and snowmen to adorn your home, stitched pictures for the wall and lots of Christmas ornaments and childrens' toys. I bought a couple of things for my Seattle grandkids.

One night during supper the power went out (120,000 people were without power that night) and we spent the rest of the evening playing with the flashlight and playing scrabble by candlelight.

We walked with the boys to the local hardware store where they bought gifts for Grandpa and Grandma and I bought tissue and gift wrap.

We got to babysit one night while Mom and Dad had a date night with friends.

Harv went ice fishing with our Son in law, the grandboys and a whole troop of other fathers and kids.

We girls played Scrabble, baked and made cards. And of course made our greatly anticipated mother/daughter shopping trip to Saskatoon. What a great place to shop. The shops there are different than at home and it's always alot of fun to do it with my daughter.

With the boys, we read books, made pizzas, built Lego,

played Uno and Scrabble (Grandboy E is very good for Grade 1) walked to town,

wrestled and cuddled. All fun for Grandpa and Grandma.

We also celebrated Christmas one day - We used the advent devotional booklet

"The Colours of Christmas" as our focus on Christ's birth.

It's excellent - tying in the whole story of God's love from
Creation on with activities for the children.

It was so much fun watching the boys open their gifts.

Their eyes shone and hugs and thank -yous were liberally distributed.

For Christmas dinner we did Raclette.

For the boys, who hadn't had it before, it was fun and exciting

to cook their own dinner at the table.

(I may have to do a post on Raclette someday.)

It's been a favourite of ours ever since our Swiss neighbours introduced us to it.

Now it's time to go home. Harv left yesterday, traveling south to Swift Current and Regina stopping at Potash mines and wind farms on the way. I have an appointment at home tomorrow so I'm flying home this afternoon.

One Christmas celebrated - two more to go.

That's the way it is when your children are married with a spouse's family

to celebrate with as well.

It works well for our family - every other year we get them all at our place on Christmas day.

This year is the "in-laws" turn and our Christmas is when

we can best arrange it with each of the children. That's fine by me.

We are just so thankful for our children and their spouses and familys. How blessed we are.

Trip to Saskatchewan

Harv and I left Monday evening last week to go and pay a long overdue visit to our daughter and her family in Saskatchewan. We took the Yellowhead Hwy. through Clearwater, Jasper National Park, Edmonton and Lloydminster. We had great weather with no rain or snow and the highways were clear which always makes the trip more pleasant. I love traveling this route. The scenery was spectaular as usual with snow icing all the trees through the mountains.

In Jasper, we once again saw alot of wildlife. We missed the picture of the bears but these fellows posed nicely for us.

What more can one ask than to see, not only God's handiwork - mountains, meadows, rocks and rivers but also his wild creatures . Then to top it off, He paints it all around with a pallet of glorious colour. Absolutely wonderful!

From Psalm 104:

Praise the Lord... O LORD my God how great

You are!
You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens;

You lay out the rafters of Your home in the rain clouds....

Mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels You decreed....

You make the springs pour water into ravines so streams gush down from the mountains.

They provide water for all the animals and the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

The birds nest beside the streams and sing in the branches of the trees.

You send rain on the mountains ...You fill the earth with the fruit of your labour....

The trees of the LORD are well cared for...

High in the mountains are pastures for the wild goats and the rocks form a refuge for the rock badgers....

You made the moon to mark the seasons and the sun that knows when to set.

You send the darkness and it becomes night when all the forest animals prowl about.

O Lord what a variety of things You have made. In wisdom you have made them all.

The earth is full of your creatures... Every one of these depends on You to give them their food as they need it. When You supply it, they gather it. You open Your hand to feed them, and they are satisfied.