14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
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A dusty road, a weary woman with a worried man...
A sleepy town, a simple stable where it all began...
An ordinary night transformed by light and angel song...
All leading to the tiny babe who planned it all along.
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Last night we went to a Gentri Christmas concert. It was great. I was planning on using this song before I went to the concert, just a different version of it. I found it on YouTube today – enjoy!
Somewhere in Your Silent Night
performed by Gentri (audio)
Somewhere In Your Silent Night (youtube.com)
All is calm and all is bright
Everywhere but in your heart tonight
They're singing carols of joy and peace
But you feel too far gone and too far out of reach
Somewhere in your silent night
Heaven hears the song your broken heart has cried
Hope is here, just lift your head
For love has come to find you
Somewhere in your silent night
From heaven's height to manger low
There is no distance the Prince of Peace won't go
From manger low to Calvary's hill
When your pain runs deep
His love runs deeper still
He has always loved you, child
And He always will
Somewhere in your silent night
Heaven hears the song your broken heart has cried
Hope is here, just lift your head
For love has come to find you
Somewhere in your silent night
Lift your head, Lift your head
Lift your heart. Lift your heart
Emmanuel will meet you where you are
He knows your hurt. He knows your hurt
He knows your name. He knows your name
And you're the very reason that He came
Somewhere in your silent night
Heaven hears the song your broken heart has cried
Hope is here, just lift your head
For love has come to find you
Somewhere in your silent night
Love will find you
Love will find you
Love will find you
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Oreo Pumpkin Cream Cheese Brownies
from Betty
1 box fudge brownie mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on box for cake-like brownies16Oreo chocolate sandwich cookies, coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 container (8 oz) Cool Whip frozen whipped topping, thawed
Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. Mix brownie batter as directed on the box for cake-like brownies. Stir in 1 cup of the chopped cookies. Spread in pan. Bake 24 to 27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 2 inches from the side comes out almost clean. Cool completely, at least 1 hour. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended, scraping down sides of bowl frequently. Beat in 1 cup of the whipped topping. Spread evenly over crust. Spread remaining whipped topping over top. Refrigerate for 2 hours. When ready to serve, sprinkle remaining cookies on top.
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I love Christmas trees covered with home made decorations. They keep the kid in me alive! Here are some simple ornaments you can make with your children, grandchildren, cub scouts, etc. Have fun, laugh together, enjoy being together, and make the memories happy ones. These ornaments will bring a smile to anyone's faces and are wonderful gifts for children to give.
Candy Train
You will need: one 5-pack of gum, a roll of life savers, a rollo, a caramel, a Hershey's kiss, and four red/white peppermint candies. Glue the life savers onto the pack of gum (the flat side). Then glue the rollo on the front of the life savers. Glue a Hershey's kiss on top of the life savers - in the front and a caramel on top of life savers in the back. On both sides of the train glue two peppermint wheels. This makes one candy train - great for ornaments.
Airplane Ornament
Make a candy airplane using one stick of flat (Wrigley's) gum, one package of "Smarties", and two life savers. Place the gum (wings) perpendicular on the "Smarties" (plane body). Use a rubber band to loop through one lifesaver (wheel) over the gum, through another lifesaver (wheel) and under the "Smarties."
Gumdrop Tree
You will need a 6" tall Styrofoam tree, a couple bags of red and green gumdrops, some u-shaped hair pins, toothpicks, and a miniature string of beads. Cut toothpicks in half. Insert a toothpick into the larger (bottom) side of the gumdrops. Starting at the bottom, stick the free end of the toothpick (with gumdrops already on) into the tree. Continue until the tree is covered. (Alternate method: glue gumdrops onto tree form.) Attach the beaded string in a "loose" fashion, fastening it to the Styrofoam with the hair pins. Finally, hot glue a miniature star or angel to the top. (I've also used royal icing to make an edible garland instead of using the pearls)
After you're done with these projects, go into your kitchen and dish up a bowl of ice cream with a topping of butterscotch (see what I mean about carrot sticks? LOL. They just don't figure in to Christmas for me (:-))
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Legend of the Stork
Mary lay in a stable in Bethlehem, with baby Jesus, surrounded by an assortment of birds and beasts that had come over to greet the Lord of the world. The wild animals stood far and just hoped for nothing more than a glimpse of the newborn King while the rest of the animals knelt down humbly beside the infant. Among those kneeling, stood a long legged stork with white feathers. He was moved by the sight of the baby King lying in the straw, with no pillow, to rest His head. Although the bird could not offer any crown or jewels befitting the baby King, his true compassion for Jesus made him give the ultimate gift to Him. He plucked feathers from his plumage and gave them to the child to be used as a pillow. This was the best pillow that the baby could ask for. Infant Jesus smiled with overwhelming gratitude and blessed the stork with undying glory and even today, storks are a symbol of births and are considered indispensable to baby-showers. Today, if one spots a stork flying in the air or on the roof of a house, it is considered a lucky omen as storks are now referred to as the patrons of 'babies'.
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The holidays can be a mixed bag of emotions. For some, it’s the most wonderful time of the year filled with family, friends and reasons to celebrate. It can be filled with light and love. For others, it may be a dark time – a time of sorrow, loneliness and pain. Almost 3 ½ million people died in the United States last year. Divorce, sickness, loss of employment, stress can all add to the darkness. There are things you can do which can help:
Remember your loved one, if you are suffering from loss. Allow yourself to say their name, to make recipes they liked, to put up ornaments they enjoyed. If you can’t stay at a gathering, then leave. There’s no need for guilt, just leave and try to take part in smaller, more intimate activities.
stay connected
eat healthy foods,
exercise
do some type of charity work
limit your time on social media
stay out of debt
talk to a close family member or friend about what you’re going through
talk to your God in prayer and know He will listen.
Find light where you can ~~ Marilee
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SURPRISE ENDING
by Irene B Harrell
I turned up the fur collar of my coat against a near freezing wind as I stepped from our warm station wagon into the bare dirt of a front year on the outskirts of our town. Our adult Sunday school class had chosen the address from a Salvation Army list in the evening paper and my husband and I had driven out to meet the family. The idea was to find out their immediate needs so that we could provide a Merry Christmas for them, and then, more importantly, to work with them throughout the year to try to make a real difference, a Christian difference, in their lives.
We had asked God to guide us to the right family, but now it looked as though the house we had chosen was going to be empty. No smoke came from the chimney and in the front door there was only a hole where the knob and a lock might have been, once. But we knocked, the rag of curtain at the window moved and a small face peered out. A minute passes and then the door was opened by a boy about eight years old.
"Hello," I said. "Is your mother home?"
"Mamma’s not home," he announced gravely. "She’s workin."
"Well, uh––is any grownup here with you?" He shook his head.
"Let’s step in for a minute," my husband suggested. "The house will get cold with the door standing open." The boy moved shyly back and we entered the tiny room.
I’ll never forget what we saw. There was a bed, sagging to the floor, the mattress oozing stuffing. No sheets, no blankets. A Bible lay beside a small chest of drawers in the corner. The stove used for heat was icy cold.
The boy who had let us in now stood protectively between two smaller children, a boy and a girl. Her oversized slacks were held together by a safety pin. All three youngsters were barefoot.
And there was a baby. He was lying on what had once been an upholstered chair. He was wearing a remnant of an undershirt and a diaper that hadn’t been changed for a long time.
I thought of my own warmly dressed children and my baby in her lovely birch crib with its clean white sheets and I started to cry. I’’d never really seen poverty before.
That afternoon we went back with blankets, shoes, diapers, food and clothes. Again the mother was not there.
The next day we finally found the mother at home. Her name was Virginia and the children, in order of age, were Arthur Lee, Violet, Danny, and the baby, David Ray. Virginia was a tiny woman. She answered our questions quietly and was not offended that we had come to help.
What did she need most? A refrigerator so the baby’s milk wouldn’t sour.
The class found a refrigerator, a bed, a crib, several chairs, sheets, more blankets. On Christmas, there were toys for the children and clothes and food for everyone. The wood stove was replaced by an oil heater that would not go out while the mother was away. The class pledged the money to pay the oil bill for the coming year. The family’s immediate physical needs had been relatively easy to satisfy. But what about the Christian difference?
Every week or two my husband and I would go to see Virginia and her family. Sometimes we’d carry hand-me-down clothing, or groceries, or books, sometimes we’d go empty-handed, just to visit. But she always gave us the same warm greeting. I remember the pride with which she invited me to sit down. She hadn’t been able to exercise that kind of courtesy before––when she had no chairs.
Frequently, our four older children went along with us on these visits, and occasionally we took the baby. I had to tell Virginia about our baby. German measles during my pregnancy had left little Marguerite deaf. When I told Virginia that the doctors said nothing could be done about it, I could see that she was deeply affected.
On our next visit she greeted us with shining eyes. "Oh, Mrs. Harrell," she said, "I believe God is going to make your baby hear! Don’t you feel it too? Can't she already hear a lot better than she could? I’ve been praying so hard ever since you told me. I know that she's going to hear!"
I just smiled at Virginia. She didn’t know as much about science as I did. I couldn’t expect her to understand that nerve deafness was not curable. Of course I had prayed for my child; but my prayers had been ones of thankfulness for her, not for healing. I took the doctor's words as final.
Marguerite was almost a year old when we first noticed the change in her. For a while we couldn’t believe it ourselves, but at last we became convinced that she really was hearing certain sounds. When we took her back to the hearing clinic for testing there was no doubt about it. Our daughter, whose nerve deafness had been pronounced complete and incurable, had begun to hear! In four short months her diagnosis had changed from "profoundly dear" to "moderately to severely" hard of hearing.
The doctors were amazed, but Virginia wasn’t even surprised. "God did it, Mrs. Harrell. Didn’t I ask Him for an icebox and a good stove, and didn’t He give them to me? There’s nothing He can’t do, if we just ask Him."
I stared at her, trying to understand faith like this.
"Mrs. Harrell," she said, "I’m going to keep on praying for the baby."
"Yes!" I whispered, "Please keep praying. Don’t ever stop"
It worked, you see, our Christmas project. It even accomplished the "Christian difference." Of course, the difference was in our lives, nor Virginia’s. But them, we’d asked God to guide us to the poor, and He generally knows where they are.
