Home Tour, Advent 2008

Yesterday Alli and I had fun putting up Christmas decorations. Our family tradition is decorate our Christmas tree on the last Saturday of the church year - which was yesterday. That's the day that we get out our Christmas decorations and get the house all dressed up for Christmas. We listen to Christmas music and have hot chocolate while we work. It's fun! Even though Advent doesn't technically start until today, I like to have the house looking like the season for the start of Advent.

Here is our finished work:

The Advent wreath with the first candle lit


In the dining room. Notice that the teacups that Debbie gave me have pride of place *smile*.

We put up twinkle lights throughout the house. It gives off a pretty glow.

More twinkle lights...

The mantle with stockings. Its hard to see in this picture but there are little baby Christmas trees on the mantle amongst the candles and pinecones.
Snowman collection.

And Santa collection.

And finally the tree. We have a wimpy little tree! I have it loaded down in lights and ornaments in an effort to bulk it up *grin*!

What does your house look like? Let me know if you put up any pics.

To my American friends

Joining with you today to give thanks to God for all His good and gracious gifts, chief among them the salvation that He has won for us through His Son's perfect life, death and resurrection. All thanks and praise be unto God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Advent 2008

Can it really be Advent in just over a week?


I don't know if it's because there's snow on the ground already or what, but it's starting to feel like Christmas is coming! The last few years we have scaled back drastically on our Christmas preparations and celebrations. I'm positively embarassed by the ridiculous amount of time, effort and $$$ we used to spend on Christmas. We went WAY over board. And when I say "we", I mean "I". Because my husband always felt I went overboard (and told me so), but he is a patient man, and even though he could have said "enough!", he let me figure it out on my own.





Oh, but Advent! I love this time of year. I love the whole "anticipation" aspect of it. Now understand, in years past I would have been baking and decorating and shopping and wrapping (and shrieking at the kids as I got more and more frazzled) in an effort to make "this Christmas the best ever".


Oh man. What was I thinking?


The "best Christmas ever" was 2000 some odd years ago in Bethlehem. Nothing I do is gonna top that one!


You know, my intentions were good. I just wanted to make things "special". I never meant to let things get so out of hand...but somehow it had the effect of obscuring the Child in the manger. He was there, but kind of in the background. And the thing of it is, if you had asked me I would have told you that for me, CHRIST was at the centre of Christmas. (Well sure He was, but he was wrapped in so many layers of tinsel and bows and paper that no one would blame you if you came to the conclusion the the Saviour was incidental to the "big day".)


Ah, well. I stand ever in His grace and mercy. And I may be a slooow learner...but He's teaching me.


So, Advent.


Well, this year I mean to focus on the four Sundays in Advent. Beginning November 30 I'd like to make a special meal each Sunday and invite a few last minutes guests from church over to fellowship with us. I am looking for a new Advent wreath because my old one is just about falling apart. We have an Advent devotional booklet to use to guide our devotions.


I'm also going to handwrite Christmas cards to friends and family. As many as I have time for. I may miss a few people on my list. I'll get them next year.


That's all I have planned. I hope to simply savour the weeks leading up to Christmas - with anticipation, yes, but for the coming of the Christ...not the coming of the "big day" where I show off for all my guests. Whatever else I may do - Christmas baking or decorating, or whatever -those things are what will be incidental. At least I hope so. Because I am still learning you know.

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated

Ahem. Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it? I had to check to see the last time I posted and it was back in December. Yikes, time flies when you're sick, doesn't it?

Actually, I've been back on my feet since New Years Day and we had a great New Years party that day. It is a tradition in my mom's family to have a New Years Day celebration and in recent years we've been having it at our place. We had a sit down dinner for 25! (Yes, I am bragging, *smile* because for a while I was afraid we'd have to either order pizza for our guests or just cancel the whole thing, but thankfully I recovered in time to be an unsick hostess.) I didn't have to do all that much anyways; my dad cooked a big, huge ham and brought it over and I made a bunch of casserole type side dishes ahead of time and all we had to do was heat 'em up in the oven. My Aunt Trudy was a HUGE help to me. This was her first time ever to my home - she lives in Australia and though she visits a couple of times a year she always stays with my folks or my Oma. It was a real pleasure to have an entire day with her and I enjoyed her visit immensely.


So. Does anyone besides me still have their Christmas decorations up? No? Just wondering...


Today I had to go to "Software Licensing Bootcamp" at Microsoft in Toronto. Oh man, I wish I had brought my camera! There was this one guy sitting across from me who looked just like Bill Gates! It was so funny. Actually, I know it's stereotypical, but there were a lot of geeky looking guys there. And about 95% of the participants were male - I was one of only a handful of women. Anyways, now I have to do some studying and write a Microsoft exam and then I will be "Microsoft Certified" as a licensing specialist. Are you impressed? (rolling eyes)


So did I tell you all that I am planning to meet a blog friend next weekend? You'll have to guess who it is - and it's not Debbie this time. I'm not sure if she wants it public or not. I'll let ya know.


Oh yeah. I totally missed my two year-blogging anniversary on Boxing Day (January 26th for you non-Brits/Colonials). Are you supposed to do something special for your 2 year anniversary? A meme or something?

Oh, speaking of memes, Dapoppins tagged me for one. I have to list 5 Material Wishes and 5 Spiritual Wishes. Then I have to tag 5 others. I think I might skip the tag others part since I'm kinda late doing this, but here are my wishes:

Material Wishlist

1. World peace, of course.

2. An unlimited supply of chocolate, ice cream and pastries (the good stuff too - not the cheap no-name brand stuff, but Lindt chocolate and Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Krispy Kremes hot out of the oven!).

3. A turbo-metabolism so I don't gain weight from all the chocolate, ice cream and donuts.

4. My bed is getting a bit lumpy, so I'm gonna say a new mattress. Preferably one with a pillow-top. In a beachside condo. Somewhere tropical. You know, just the basics.

5. A hopped-up, pimped-out laptop with all the bells and whistles and Internet service right on the backbone.

Spiritual Wishlist

1. World peace, of course. (Ok, now I'm just being silly.)

2. A Bible, translated into every language known, in the hands of every person on earth.

3. The Holy Spirit, working faith in the hearts of each of those people.

4. That the Lord would come.

5. That I may worship at the throne of the Lamb, forever.

If you'd like to do this meme, please go ahead.

I'm off to bed now, because clearly I need some sleep!

Home for the holidays

Or I guess it would be more accurate to say quarantined for the holidays.

Yes, the flu has made it's appearance in our home. Alli came down with it on Saturday and each day thereafter another one of us has succumbed to it. This is the first day since Christmas that I have felt almost human again.

I also wanted to let you know that my Oma had her surgery. She is recovering well from the surgery itself, but it does not look like the procedure has helped her feet. She may not lose her feet (ie. have to have them removed) but she will almost certainly lose the use of them. Still, I am praying for the best possible outcome.

Hope you all had a good Christmas. I am going back to bed!

Silent night, holy night

Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:11

The long wait for Jesus

"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope." Psalm 130:5

Sometimes I think I must live under a rock or something. I've been reading references lately to Christmas being "controversial" amongst Christians and at first I thought "HUH???" I mean I know that JW's don't celebrate Christmas, but there are real, actual Christians who think it's wrong to celebrate Christmas?? Okay.....

Well, I for one am going to go on record as coming down on the side of Christmas. Christmas good.

Yes, ok, I know that commercialism and secular trappings have all but obscured the true focus of the day, but there IS a reason why we continue to celebrate Christmas folks. And I know that you're thinking that it's because it's Jesus' "birthday"...but that's not really the reason either.

We celebrate the day of the Saviour's birth because it is a reminder that God keeps his promises.

Do you remember when God first promised a Redeemer to fallen mankind? It was back in the Garden! (Genesis 3:15) Adam and Eve had God's promise that her offspring would restore them to their former relationship with God. I wonder if they were disappointed when their children were born and one after another they realized that this one too was not the promised Saviour? Still, disappointed though they may have been, the hope of the Saviour didn't die with Adam and Eve. The hope was passed on down through the generations, and even when there was only one man and his family on the earth who trusted God's promise, yet the hope lived on. How many years passed between that first promise and the coming of the Messiah? I don't know off the top of my head. I suppose I could google it and find out exactly, but it was, what - maybe four or five thousand years? A long time, anyway. If after all that time you decided to give up on the promise, really who could blame you? And many did give up.

But then along came Jesus.

Here we are some 2000 years after Jesus' first coming. We are in the season of Advent, waiting for Christ's return. And it has been a long wait. There are so many times when I've looked at the world around me and wondered, "Why do you tarry, Lord?" Sometimes I get discouraged too...but not discouraged enough to give up on the promise. I'll never give up on that promise.

It's not that I'm better or more faithful than those who gave up. It's because of Christmas, you see. Each Advent I wait, and each Christmas hope is renewed. Christ has come. God keeps his promises.

Jesus is coming again - this He promised. Until He comes, we wait, and while we wait we celebrate Christmas as areminder that God keeps his promises.

My Christmas Wish List

All I want for Christmas is this.

Lest we forget

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

— Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, May 3 1915

Make this cranberry sauce. You will be so glad you did.

No one on my side of the family serves turkey with cranberry sauce. I'd never even heard of it until I got married and the first time I served turkey my in-laws were like, "Where's the cranberry sauce???" My husband had to run down to the corner store and buy a can of this revolting jellied cranberry stuff. I had a hard time looking at the stuff. but it made my in-laws happy, so whatever.

But there's still a part of me that just squirms at the thought of serving something that plopped out of a can to a guest, so a few years ago I went hunting for a cranberry sauce recipe. I found a good, basic recipe (cranberry sauce is ridiculously easy to make from scratch and soooo much better than revolting-jellied-plops-canned stuff) and over the years I've tweaked it until I have what is possibly the world's most delicious cranberry sauce. I even eat it. It's that good.

So for your upcoming Thanksgiving, please, I beg you. Put away your can opener. Spend 10 minutes making this stuff. You will not be sorry!

Basic Cranberry Sauce

1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
4 cups fresh cranberries

In a saucepan, cook the sugar and water until the sugar dissolves and the mixture boils. Add the cranberries and simmer for about 5 minutes until the cranberry pop. Remove it from the heat and let it cool completely. It will get thicker as it cools.

To Die For Cranberry Sauce

1-1/2 cups sugar
1 orange
1/2 t grated ginger
1 peeled and chopped pear
1 peeled and chopped granny smith apple
3 cups cranberries

Put the sugar and ginger into a saucepan and grate the peel of the orange into the pot. Then cut the orange in half and squeeze all the juice you can into the sugar mixture. Cook until the sugar dissolves and the mixture boils. Add the apple and the pear first and cook for one minute then add the cranberries and cook until they pop. Cool the mixture. It can be served cold or room temperature, but I prefer it warm.

Turkey Day Menu

Beth thinks I forgot the rutabaga - did not!! I simply didn't cook it yesterday. C'mon now, what is turkey dinner without rutabaga?

Here's the entire menu if you're interested:

~ turkey with onion, sage & garlic dressing
~ ham
~ mashed and gravy
~ carrots & rutabaga
~ red cabbage
~ green beans
~ my famous homemade cranberry sauce
~ rolls & butter

Pie and ice cream for dessert...if anybody's able to eat more after all that.

Beth, the red cabbage? I always used to make it from scratch but shhhh...this year I bought some canned stuff. I tried it earlier this year and I can't tell the difference. But if you were to make it, you braise thinly sliced red cabbage and grated apple in wine vinegar with brown sugar, onion and cloves. It has a sweet and sour taste. I remember you were skeptical when I told you it's my favourite Christmas dish, but it really is tasty!

Canadian Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. Thanksgiving Day is actually on Monday, but many folks celebrate it on Sunday. That's what we'll be doing.

We always have a special church service on Thanksgiving Sunday - it will be a full "high church" service with special attendants and special music. A candle bearer (carries the Christ candle), a crucifer (ie. cross-bearer who carries the processional crucifix), a Scripture-bearer (carries the church's big old Bible - it's HUGE), the acolytes, the choir and the Pastor and the Vicar will process and recess through the church at the beginning and end of the service. There's a particular order that they come in and out, but I don't know much about that. I assume that there's some symbolic significance but I don't know what it is. (Andie, does your husband know?) Anyways, it's very "pomp and circumstance" and it always gives me goosebumps. As they process and recess, the rest of the congregation sings a hymn, usually something familiar and beloved so that everybody just belts it out. It's very stirring.

The choir will be singing the introit and they will accompanied by the bells. I am playing two bells for that! I've never done it before, but they needed extra people and I got asked. I have a very simple part, but I'm really looking forward to it! Neat, huh?

After church I am having a bunch of people over for turkey dinner. It looks like I am going to have to barbeque my turkey though! It's supposed to be close to 80 degrees tomorrow and there is no way I'm going to run the oven in that heat, especially with so many people in the house. I'm making the mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and red cabbage today (yes Beth, RED CABBAGE, mmmmm) and hopefully that'll keep the heat down to a manageable level on Sunday.

There's 18 people coming over - some relatives, some friends from church - I just kept on inviting people. I LOVE to welcome people into my home. I just love to fuss over them and make them feel comfortable and welcome and special. I will pull out all the stops - use my best china and linen, prepare a special meal, make an extra effort to clean my home ahead of time - when I have guests in my home. I want to convey to my guests that I am honoured and humbled to have them in my home. To me that's what hospitality is. Not the "look at all the nice stuff I have" Martha Stewart brand of hospitality that puts the focus on the hostess, but a humble "I am honoured to have you as a guest" kind of hospitality that puts the focus on the guest. In the New Testament, the Greek word for hospitality, "philoxenia", means "loving strangers". That's the kind of hospitality I strive for.

Oh gee. I just reread this and that sounded really braggy of me. That's not what I meant at all! I was just trying to explain how I try to live by a Biblical principle in my life. Which of course I probably fail more than I know...but I try...and I rest in His forgiveness when I fail.

On Thanksgiving Day, when we try to enumerate all that we are thankful for, His forgiveness is, as always, at the top of the list.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

July 1st is Canada Day

Eternal Father, Ruler of all nations, on this day when our country celebrates its birth, we thank You for all spiritual and temporal blessings enjoyed in our land. By the power of the Holy Spirit, our hearts are turned to freedom from sin and death that You alone graciously give through Jesus Christ. Amen.

O Canada! Our home and native land!

True patriot love in all thy sons command

With glowing hears we see thee rise,

The True North strong and free!

From far and wide O Canada

We stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!

Guess who's coming for a visit??

Uncle Ben

&

Hooper Ham!

Otherwise known as Ben & Sam.

This is a cute story:

My brother Jeff has to travel from where they live in Ottawa out to Calgary for his work. While he was gone for about a week one time, Sam and his mom devised a game where she would tie a dish towel around his shoulders and he would become...Super Sam!! Except when Sam said it, it came out "Hooper Ham".

So my brother comes back from his business trip and he's in the kitchen making dinner when Sam comes running in with a dish towel in his hands shouting "HOOP-er HAM! HOOP-er HAM!" and thrusts the dishtowel up at his father. Jeff has no idea what this is all about, but good father that he is says encouragingly to his son, "Yes Sam, it IS a nice towel isn't it?"

Sam tries again. "Wanna be HOOP-er Ham, Daddy!" and offers up the towel again.

"Oh, I see, you want to help with the dishes, do you little fellow? Well come on up and you can help dry."

This is too much for Sam. He collapses on the floor sobbing sadly, "No daddy, I Hooper Ham."

Finally four-year old Ben comes in from the family room to see what the commotion is. He quickly determines that Sam wants the towel tied on his shoulders and clues his father in. Jeff, bewildered, ties the towel on and Sam, happy now, takes off in imaginary flight.

"I HOOP-er HAM!"

Ben and Sam will be appearing at their Aunt Anita's house for a limited engagement this Canada Day weekend.