Just popping in for a moment to let you know that the silence on my blog is good, not bad.  We’re busy preparing to celebrate the birth of our Savior, and hope you are too!

Blogging might not resume until sometime after the new year…then again maybe it will.  If you’ve been here long, you know how well I do at sticking to schedules.  If you haven’t been here long, you could spend the time you would have been reading new posts and review some old ones instead.  Or you could step away from the screen and make cookies.  Or clear a path through the stuff-bomb on the floor.  Whatever works best for you and yours.  I’m not judging, because I love all 3 ideas.

Remember my Bah, Humbug post, in which I confessed that I don’t like the holiday season?

Since then I have come across a couple of articles that have helped with my attitude.  In some cases, authors formulated what I had been thinking and trying to say far more clearly than I did.  In others, I was simply forced to rethink things in a different light.  Either way, I was ministered to, and I hope you will be.

G.K. Chesterton:

“Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.”

By Rachel Jankovic, author of Loving the Little Years (which I am currently reading and loving!)

…Christmas is the ultimate celebration of the material. Because Christmas is the time when God became man. Word to Flesh. Unfettered spirit to the hazards and joys and stresses of physical life. Think about it. Some people want to filter the material out of Christmas and morph it into some pure ethereal spirit religious day. And some people want to filter all the spiritual out of it and make it simply a holiday celebrating the purchasing power of plastic. But the power of Christmas is when spiritual and material meet. And it always has been. That is the joy of the season, that is the good news, that is the laughter and the paradox and the earth-shaking magic of Christmas. The infinite Word became a physical baby.

It wasn’t like that first Christmas was a time of quiet reflection. Mary and Joseph were on a huge last-minute trip. And she’s big pregnant on a donkey? Think of it. It sounds like the worst travel experience of all time. No room. No bed. No privacy. Baby coming. Not just any baby either — one Mary knew was the Messiah. Angels? Shepherds dropping in? You think she felt dressed for that? I doubt Mary had time to throw together a cheese platter. She was in a barn, forced to place the King of kings — her Lord — in a trough. And I doubt her livestock roommates were quite as cute as they look in the storybooks.

The truth is, that’s what it’s like when the Spiritual becomes Material. When God became Man. It’s not easy, because it turns the world upside down, a true cataclysm of joy…read the rest

 

From C.S. Lewis’s God in the Dock:

Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn’t go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business to have a ‘view’ on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is
highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone’s business.
I mean of course the commercial racket. The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condemning it. I condemn it on the following grounds…read the rest

And a quote from my wise and understanding husband:

I think too many Christians stress about the (false) dichotomy between the spiritual and material aspects of Christmas. It’s a FEASTing season where we give good things to our families.
Relax, it’s OK for the kids to be excited about the food and the presents. They represent tangible manifestations of God’s blessings. When God give you are present – a raise, a bonus, a great deal on something you want, don’t you get excited? When you do that for your kids, shouldn’t they?
I think so.

It’s official, at least in our house.  Thanksgiving has passed, and the Christmas music marathon has begun.

Among other things, we’re debating what sort of Christmas tree to have this year.  Yes, we usually have a tree.

When we lived in Ohio, we nearly always did the traditional pilgrimage through the bitter cold and snow at the local Christmas tree farm, with a borrowed bowsaw in hand and all the little ones frolicking around.  We would cut down the biggest, fattest, heaviest tree in the farthest corner of the tree farm, then drag it 1/2 mile back to the car while the cold wet whimpering kids lagged behind.  Then we would dig the car out of the snow, drive home at 15 mph, and try in vain to cram the tree through the front door without breaking or cutting off half the branches.

Ah, memories.

While there is some sort of Christmas tree farm near us now, I’m not sure what we would find there besides much nicer weather.  I’ve seen the trees that grow around here, and it’s not pretty – although we’d probably have absolutely NO trouble fitting them through the door.  We could fit most of the trees here through the door in the little plastic playhouse on the front deck.

A part of us cries out for the real tree.  That part is mostly the part under the age of 18, but I have to admit that I love the smell of a real tree, and anything else feels just a little bit like a cop-out.  There’s something nostalgic about real trees – even more so when you cut your own.  I don’t think less of others who opt for artificial trees, but I do think less of the phony trees themselves.  I have spent so many years loudly proclaiming my disdain for artificial trees that it’s humbling to even admit I’m tempted.

But tempted, I am.  We are.  Artificial trees have come a long way, and they don’t look nearly as bad as the ones I always made faces about.  I could almost tolerate a nice one with lights built in.  Just think how easy it would be.  Just a trip to the shed, and a quick easy setup.  No staring at 500 trees trying to figure out which bare spots will work with our furnishings and ornaments.  No long, slow drive home, hoping it’s still on top of the van when we get there.  No struggle up the steps, no searching for a saw to cut an inch off the bottom, no search for the tree stand that always ends up being too small or missing a piece anyway.  No worries about watering, and dropped needles, and fire hazards, and disposal.  Instead of an all day affair, The Tree would be 30 minutes of happy family time followed by snacks.

See how happy we would be?

The initial investment for a nicer artificial tree is much higher than the price of a nice big cut tree, but it would pay off over time – if we didn’t change our minds and decide we hated it after the first year.  We could buy a cheaper one as a trial the first year, then upgrade next year, but what if the cheap one convinces us that we hate artificial trees when we might have actually liked a more expensive one?

See how difficult this decision is?

More than one year, we have skipped the tree altogether.  This made me very happy, but it also made me feel like Scrooge every time I chuckled with glee at the absence of pine needles on my floor.  My joy came at the expense of others.  Never mind.

I’ve always wanted a live, potted tree that would spend most of December out on the deck.  Then it would join us indoors for a few days right around Christmas, and we would plant it somewhere in the yard where it could spend years growing into a real tree with deep meaning for our family.  Its brothers would join it year by year, and someday we would have an entire row of majestic trees in varying sizes from Christmases past, each reminding us of the joys of being a family.

Isn’t it beautiful?

The only problem with this scenario is that we would never remember to water the newly planted trees, and they would each die a long, slow death before being joined by a brother.  Our row of memories would be death row.

Not such a pretty thought after all.

When we were first building our house and the walls were just bare drywall, we used floor enamel to paint a big shiny green tree on the wall.  We used pushpins to hang all of our regular ornaments right on the wall.  Even garland was strung from side to side.  It was fun and quirky, and we thought it was very pretty, though the old cellphone snapshot didn’t do it justice.

This year, in addition to the options already mentioned, we’re considering another fun and quirky alternative.  Let’s keep it a surprise until we decide whether to use the idea.

If you do Christmas trees, what sort do you usually do?  Why?

Did you enter our huge Vision Forum giveaway yet?  Just think how much Christmas shopping you could do with those gift certificates!  Please consider blogging about the giveaway – I would love to have as many entries as possible to encourage them to do more giveaways in the future!

On our schedule for today:

Taste of Home’s Flag Cake, made extra big in a 10×15 pan instead of 9×13.  Kaitlyn created this piece of art from scratch instead of a mix, and says it was easier than it looks.  She’s modest.

Some fashion fun

Thumbs are reserved for a special purpose:

We’re off to Mother Hen’s house for a cookout and fellowship, but first we read the Declaration of Independence in its entirety, complete with commentary by Dad.

Complete text of the Declaration of Independence

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness…read the rest.  Now, so you don’t forget.

10 Things You Might Not Know About America’s Independence

We Are Not a Democracy: People often associate democracy with freedom. We hear this word used all the time by our politicians, by our neighbors, even sometimes by our educators. But the fact is we are not a democracy. We are a republic. Our Founding Fathers deemed this an important distinction to make and discussed the matter quite a bit. In the end, our Founding Fathers claimed that a democracy was both extreme and dangerous for a country as it would most assuredly result in the oppression of the minority by the majority. Take this one example from Founding Father, Elbridge Gerry: “The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy.” And Thomas Jefferson said that democracy should never be practiced outside the limits of a town. Our Founders were very wary of power no matter who had it and thus limited it as much as possible — this is why we have such a unique system of checks and balances…read the other 9, especially about the Pledge of Allegiance.

Wikipedia on the Declaration of Independence

What’s on your agenda today?

Perry is 5 today, and he’s feeling his age.  He was all business  when he came into my room early this morning for some work clothes so he could go with his dad.  After a late-night party he woke up in shorts and a polo shirt, but he knew that wouldn’t do.  Even when I grunted something about his shirt still looking clean, he was unconvinced.

“Mom, I need a button-up for work.”  And jeans, definitely jeans.  A shiny new cap gun in a leather holster just doesn’t hang right on khaki cargo shorts, and the boots and spurs would look all wrong.  The boy needed jeans and a button-up for work.

Going to work with Dad is part of the birthday tradition in our house, but rumor has it one of the guys at work also provides chocolate birthday donuts.

Like his sister yesterday who had a birthday yesterday, he opted for a high-end lunch at an establishment with an atmosphere appropriate to the occasion at hand.

Of course they both conducted themselves with the utmost dignity.

And because it’s the big event in his life right now, a few shots from Perry’s upcoming gig as a young Sinatra impersonator.  He plans to lip-sync “You Make Me Feel So Young” at our church talent show in a couple of weeks.  Last night was his first semi-public performance, in front of his grandma, a few aunts and uncles, and some cousins.  Call me biased, but I think he’s going to be the next YouTube viral video.

The boy has talent.

Look at him croon.

Now’s he’s belting it out, caressing the microphone.

Oh, it’s the smolder.

That’s my boy.  He makes me feel so young!