December 25th, 2010 * 364 days until Christmas ...

Christmas Wishes from Someone too Lazy to Send Out Cards!

This
Xmas,
I would
like to put
up a tree in my
heart, and instead
of hanging presents,
I would like to put the
names of all my friends.
Close friends and not so close
friends. The old friends, the new
friends. Those that I see every day
and the ones that I rarely see. The ones
that I always remember and the ones that
I sometimes forget. The ones that are always
there and the ones that seldom are. The friends of
difficult times and the ones of happy times. Friends
who, without meaning to, I have hurt, or without meaning
to have hurt me. Those that I know well and those I only know
by name. Those that owe me little and those that I owe so much.
My humble friends and my important friends. The names of all those
that have passed through my life no matter how fleetingly. A tree with
very deep roots and very long
and strong branches so that
their names may never be
plucked from my heart. So that new names from all over may join the existing ones. A tree with a very
pleasant shade so that our friendship may take a moment of rest from the battles of life. "May the
happy moments of Xmas brighten every day of the new year". These are my sincere wishes.

December is such a busy month......sigh! I was able to see Connor get his Green Belt in Karate a week ago, and enjoyed seeing Skyla's Christmas program at school. They sang Christmas Songs from Around the World.

Congrats and Cheers to both of them! We are so proud of you.












Thanks to Heidi for helping Kloyie, Skyla and Laila decorate ornaments to put on Grandma's tree. I've decided to have them do something like this each year, and then just have a special tree with Grandchildren ornaments. They had paint, stickers, and rhinestones to decorate with.

Little known facts about St. Nick and his origin.

Today is St. Nicholas Day. St. Nicholas lived in the fourth century, and he was the archbishop of Myra in Lycia (which is now Turkey). There are all kinds of stories about him, but one of the most famous is that there was a poor man who could not afford a dowry for his three daughters, which meant they would have to be abandoned to prostitution. St. Nicholas didn't want to humiliate the man by giving him charity in public, so he left purses of gold in the man's house at night — according to one version of the story, he dropped them down the chimney, and in another, one of the daughters had set out her stockings to dry and the gold was put in them.

And so St. Nicholas, the bringer of anonymous gifts, inspired Jolly Old St. Nick, Father Christmas, and Santa Claus.

St. Nicholas Day is celebrated in many European countries and in American cities with German influence like Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. On the evening of November 5th, children put out their shoes, and on this morning, they wake up to find those shoes filled with small gifts from St. Nick — chocolates and cookies, fruit, marbles or other small toys.

D - E - C - E - M - B - E - R

D - Devotions
E - Everyday
C - Creates
E - Eternal
M - Meaning
B - By
E - Establishing a
R - Relationship (with Jesus Christ!)

Sometimes it feels like our days are full to the brim and that we have no time to squeeze in devotions. But, no matter what time we have to give (5 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour...), we need to do it. Sometimes our struggles in life look much bigger than they really are because our perspective is out of whack. We fail to remember that our God is BIGGER than any of our problems in this world. We feel defeated. So, we need to have the True perspective. Digging deep into God's Word will help us get just that - that God is BIG enough to take care of us and our measly problems!