God is with us

Matt 1:23

23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

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Christmas is a celebration, and there is no celebration that compares with the realization of its true meaning — with the sudden stirring of the heart that has extended itself unselfishly in the things that matter most.”

-Howard W. Hunter

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A Little Bit Of Christmas"

A Little Bit Of Christmas (Official Music Video) - Mat and Savanna Shaw with Jim Brickman - YouTube

This year
I'm gonna make sure
That I don't let a moment go by
Where I don't tell the ones I love
How much I love them

This year
I'm gonna let go
Of the mess and the stress and the rush
And pay more attention to the beautiful stuff

Look all around
Everywhere you look
There's a little bit of Christmas
There to be found
Everywhere you look
There's a little bit of Christmas
Smiling faces, joyful sounds
I believe it all year round
We could use a little bit of Christmas
We could use a little bit of Christmas

This year
I'm gonna pray
For the ones who lost their way
And remember, for the grace of God, go I

Each year
From here on out
I'm gonna count my blessings
And raise my voice to the heavens when choir sings

Look all around
Everywhere you look
There's a little bit of Christmas
There to be found
Everywhere you look
There's a little bit of Christmas
Smiling faces, joyful sounds
I believe it all year round
We could use a little bit of Christmas
We could use a little bit of Christmas

Look all around
Everywhere you look
There's a little bit of Christmas
There to be found
Everywhere you look

Look all around
Everywhere you look
There's a little bit of Christmas
There to be found
Everywhere you look
There's a little bit of Christmas
Smiling faces, joyful sounds
I believe it all year round
We could use a little bit of Christmas
We could use a little bit of Christmas
We could use a little bit of Christmas

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TRADITION

We went to a Christmas party last week. Santa called various people up and asked them about their favorite Christmas memories. Dana B remembers playing “Oink, Piggy, Oink” with her family. Everyone would sit in a circle. One person was chosen. They would stand in the center of the circle, blindfolded. They were spun around several times, then given an empty wrapping paper tube. They would swing around with this tube trying to make contact with someone. When they did, the person had to oink (or make piggy noises) If the blindfolded person guessed who the “pig” was, they got to trade places with them and that person became the new center. She remembered years of playing this game and laughing. Christmas has room for laughter and building new family memories. Another fun game is the Candy Cane Game. You play it sitting around a table.  You need small candy canes with hooks on them, a chopstick for each person and a stocking hat set open on the table in front of each player. Each player must then place the chopstick in their mouth, place their hands behind their back and try and hook as many candy canes on their chopstick as they can and transfer them to the stocking. If they are young, give each player one minute, separately. If they’re older and you’re into mayhem, let them all play at the same time! There will be chaos. The player who gets the most candy canes in their stocking wins! All players get to keep the candy canes the capture so make sure you get enough! ~~ Marilee

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RECIPE

Pumpkin Delight from Diane M

1 cup flour

½ cup butter, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 sugar free whipped topping tubs

1 cup milk

1 t. vanilla

2 packages sugar free white chocolate or vanilla instant pudding mix (3.4 oz)

15 oz can pumpkin puree

1 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice

Cut butter into flour until well mixed. Press into 9 by 13 pan. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Cool completely.

Mix cream cheese and vanilla in a large bowl. Fold in 1 tub whipped topping and spread on the crust.

Whisk together 1 cup milk, pudding, spices and the pumpkin until creamy. Spread over the cream cheese layer.

Top with remaining whipped topping and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

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The Man and the Bird
As told by Paul Harvey

The man I’m going to tell you about was not a scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family and upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn’t believe in all of that incarnation stuff that the churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn’t make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus story, about God coming to Earth as a man.

He told his wife I’m truly sorry to distress you, but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve. He said he would feel like a hypocrite and that he would much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. So he stayed and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then he went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper.

Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another ... and then another. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against the living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled outside miserably in the snow. They’d been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter they had tried to fly through his large landscape window. That is what had been making the sound.

Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures just lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter. All he would have to do is to direct the birds into the shelter.

Quickly, he put on a coat and galoshes and he tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light so the birds would know the way in. But the birds did not come in.

So, he figured that food would entice them. He hurried back to the house and fetched some bread crumbs. He sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail of bread crumbs to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs.

The birds continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them but could not. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around and waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction ... every direction except into the warm lighted barn.

And that’s when he realized they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me. That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Any move he made tended to frighten them and confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

He thought to himself, if only I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe warm ... to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see ... and hear ... and understand.

At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind.

He stood there listening to the bells, Adeste Fidelis, listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas.

And he sank to his knees in the snow ...