Christmas to a "T"

I think most of us have come to realize there is a time for everything.  Right now is time for blogging.  The cat threw up on the satellite dish receiver so the TV's out.  I can't find the book that I have been trying to start for the last couple of weeks.  The Christmas turkey is in the oven.  Dinner at 4 today ~ three days after a biscuits and gravy breakfast welcoming Christmas morn with the girls and Wayne.  The fire is burning in the fireplace.  So let's get these fingers to tapping........

For all the rush it took to get it off the ground Christmas certainly checked out as quickly as it checked in. Last minute print jobs that wouldn't spool.  A lot of hours spent fretting over whether or not the bulletins would ever get done.  And the final straw;  Noon o'clock the day before Christmas Eve, Pastor finding a missing T in "Christmas" right smack dab in the middle of the opening page of each of the 700 bulletins printed for the 5:30 Christmas Eve service.  Not only did the innards need to be re-run, we had to take them apart and rebuild them with the covers to make them right.  And that was with another 600 for the 4 'clock service waiting in the wings.  I have to tell you, I learned more about printers in the last two weeks than I ever really wanted to know.  And, I can run all kinds of booklets, going from 8.5 x 11 to 7 x 8.5 and back again.  In color;  or do you need black and white?  Don't want to make your bulletin covers, I know just the perfect store to take your order for pre-mades.  And I also learned that I do really work in a slice of heaven here on earth.  Even with snippy lips and snarls from some (we are all human, you know) the crew I work with gets my nomination for best support and certainly best encouragers.   And my Boss, He gets the star.  

Yes, I could have let the bulletins go out ~ most people would never have noticed.  But I would have known.  And it would not have been good enough.  It's kind of like the feeling the little drummer boy probably had when he could only offer to play his drum for the Baby.   And so, to honor Him,  my co-workers and I rebuilt the bulletins and no one ever knew the difference.

I hope yours was a Merry celebration, too.  

g

Christmas Eve

 "Arise, shine, for your light has come, 

       and the glory of the LORD rises upon you."

Isaiah 61:1                                  

Christmas countdown continues.  

May your day be full of Him.  His Peace, His Comfort, Counsel, Wisdom, and Joy.

Off to church...or is that back to church I go.  Listen closely at 11pm, I'll be ringing out one of you favorite Christmas carols.

Hear the bells ringing,,,,,,

Not Really Christmas But...

It's here.  Christmas is.  Tomorrow there will plenty of children tucked into bed with the proverbial visions of Christmas plums dancing in their heads.  Do we have Christmas plums anymore?  Aren't plums a fruit of summer?  Oh wait, now that I think of it, those are Sugar Plums that dance, huh.  Geez, Louis, whatsthematta with you?  

To my friends and family that I have not greeted with the well wishes of a Merry Christmas, to you, Merry Christmas.  Every year it seems that I slip further behind in my "to do list".  No tree this year.  That's right.  No tree.  I was going to do it, you know buy a "fake" one.  I had my mind made up.  But then I saw the $200.00 price tag and choked.  I mean, really.  Why buy a 6.5 footer when the stupid thing is going to last for the rest of your life and you have a space for a 9 footer.  But not for $200.  I just don't want a tree that bad.  I can not do $200.00.  I could just wait until after Christmas and hit the sale, but you know, that just adds to my Christmas tree angst.  Really, buying a fake tree on sale?????  Is that really enough for our Savior's celebration?

But then it is not about the Christmas tree at all, is it?  Or IS it?  Seems as though it just may be as there are those of "mine" that are upset over this dilema I really have struggled with for a couple of years now.   In the past, I have always broken down and paid some stupid, really stupid, high price for a real one and dressed it up.  And many of those years, we did not have the money....but we did have plastic.  A real tree with a plastic card.  What an interesting concept.  Kind of symbolizes where many of us are now in today's economic sitchiashun.  No, we are not having a tree this year.    

How about just a decorated mantel and a Nativity creche.  I don't even have that much done. But I do have 350 11pm service bulletins, 700 for 5:30 and 7:00, and will have another 600 for the 4:00 contemporary service hopefully today.  That's another story.....I'll get to that, maybe after Christmas.  

I will leave you for now with this:  Celebrate the birth of our dear baby Jesus.  Look to the life He gave for us ~ the one that redeemed our very own.  Watch for His return.  

Oh come, Oh come, Emmanuel.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty

Isaiah 61:10 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

I can not believe how quickly the time flies. Either I am old (don't even think it) or I am having a whole lot of fun. As Christmas draws near I am really feeling the pinch at work. I had no idea so much went into the Christmas events ~ from setting up and taking down chairs, to making sure the platforms are in position, coordinating ushers and acolytes, bosses and pastors..... And that is not even consdering the "paper products", bulletins, invitations, announcements......

So with all that, my prayer today is that each one of us be given an extra dose of calm and peace as we work through these days approaching the celebration of our dear Savior's birth. Advent. He is coming! He is. How exciting it will be when the Christmas Present of yesterday returns for us.

O come, O come, Emannuel.

Peace

hey so how are ya?

Its 8:30pm.

We went to a new store today. Today was the grand opening of Fresh and Easy. It's being billed as a "community" store. Prices seem alright. The store itself is small. Real small. But it is across the street from Costco, where I spend way to much money on way to much food, which will allow me an option that is close by and will keep me out of Albertsons. It has now been about 10 weeks since I have been in THAT store. So, Fresh and Easy, appears to be semi-health concious. Fresh, somewhat organic, but they sell dog food too. Milk and eggs seem to be decently priced. I think I can live this. Check one out in your neighborhood.

So I checked in with Dr. Thyroid today. Can't say I learned much of anything from him. He was not impressed with the fact that my skin is so very dry it hurts or that I burned my face using an exfoiliating cleanser (I loved the shake of his head like I was retarded) or that I have gained 8 lbs in 3 weeks. All of these are symptoms of low thyroid but he insists I am still high. However, he did give me a higher dose ,,, so that I don't go to the bottom before I begin rising. Somethings I just don't understand.

lovin' every minute of it................