In these Twelve Days of Christmas...what should we be doing? We spent four, count them...FOUR weeks in Advent preparing for the joy of Christmas and now we have twelve days to celebrate! One tradition that I have always been fond of is to leave the decorations up until at least Three Kings Day - or Epiphany. After getting married to someone that starts to decorate on Thanksgiving (or before), that means Christmas cheer in the presence of lights, trees, ornaments, and nativities is going on over a month and nearing a second. Yet, there still seems to be immense joy in being surrounded by the reminder that Christ was born for me, you, all of us. Christ came into our world and lives so that we
An update from my last blog: My tree is up (thank you Dave) I have several creches set up, including a new Amish Nativity. (I couldn't resist when shopping in Lancaster County) My Advent wreath had been up for several weeks. I even remember to light the candles occasionally. I have a wreath on my front door The presents were sent to Denver in plenty of time for Christmas arrival. They usually get sent in time to arrive just after Christmas. This is probably the most "decorating" I've done in years. And to the typical question "are you ready for Christmas” I have provided my standard reply: “I’m as ready as I'm going to be." Some short items: I am thankful that the church's single and homebo
As we look towards Christmas and how a lack of room at the inn caused Mary and Joseph to welcome their baby on the outskirts of town in a stable...I invite you to ponder the words of a monk named Thomas Merton. Room in the Inn Into this world, this demented inn in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ comes uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, His place is with the others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power, because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied status of persons, who are tortured, bombed
When I was a kid I loved getting everything decorated for Christmas. There was the full-size tree with lights, ornaments, and tinsel. I would spend hours making a popcorn chain for the tree. There were the two large blue-spruce trees outside to put lights on. The figurines in the front window were switched for Christmasy ones. The advent wreath was made and the manger scene carefully set up. In hindsight, I was probably the only one in the family excited about decorating for Christmas and everyone else just humored me. Once I left home Christmas decorating was reduced to a wreath on the door and changing the figurines in the front window. My excitement for decorating my own homes has varied.
