Bittersweet

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The icing on the cake...the Christmas to the Eve...well, actually,

the Christ to the Christmas!

Ever since I can remember, it has been family tradition to read the Christmas Story together before I go to bed on Christmas Eve.  Once I got old enough to read well, Mom and Dad let me take over the reading.  No matter how old I get, it still gives a sense of peace to the night, just as Christ was born to give peace to the world.

 

"For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.  And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  Isaiah 9:6

 

"...I bring you good news of great joy that will be to all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord...Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests."  Luke 2:10-11, 13

 

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins...they will call him Immanuel--which means 'God with us.'"  Matthew 1:21, 23

 

How sweet it is to celebrate the Savior who gives us all these wonderful things that come along with Christmas.  I am so glad to have come to understand that there is more to Christmas than getting gifts.  I am proud to say that I have received the greatest gift anyone could ever ask for, and it will never spoil, get boring, break, need new batteries, run out of gas, need replacement or repair, or become too small to wear.  He fits in my heart and soul all year long.  All it takes is faith.

 

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" 

2 Corintians 9:15

I just love the Christmas season and spirit and story so much, I wanted to post the beginning of this post to match the end of the previous post!  Especially since it goes from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day.  Those are some of the most beautiful verses of Christmas.

 

Mom loves to take pictures of me (and obviously I love pictures to commemorate things), and I love pajamas, so there I am getting ready to open my stocking!

And this is what came out of that stocking!  Mom and Dad know me so well.  I got a TCBY giftcard (and a Sweet CeCe's one later; Mom just hadn't gotten to the store yet to buy it), fuzzy socks, an ipad stylus, sharpies, Carrot Cake Clif Bars, and Dad snuck in his own surprise:  hanitizers from Bath and Body Works!  He even did so well that one of them is a bunny rabbit on skis!  Too cute!

My stocking itself is a gift because it has my favorite word on it!

Delivering presents to my parents and watching them open them is almost as fun as it is to open the ones for myself.  I love to see them happy!

Dad's new golf club got a nice wrapping:  bow on a stick.  But really, how would you wrap a golf club?

"I woke up like this."

Mom doesn't like to get her picture taken, but I do it anyways.  She was thrilled with the calendars my dad got her:  one of kittens and another of siberian huskies.  He also got her some B&BW!  What a man to be seen shopping in that store!  He may be relatively quiet, but he is the most thoughtful gift-giver I know!

Mom got me this coffee flavor along with some matching Williams-Sanoma pecan pumpkin butter and spiced pecan pumpkin bread!  That store may be expensive, but they have top-notch products for your kitchen and your stomach!  We go in there usually just to explore and enjoy looking around, saving purchases for special occasions.

I had been seeing this brand of body care called YesTo, and put it on my wish list for a while, even hinting to mom that it would make a good stocking stuffer.  Shoot, I even followed them on instagram and got mom coupons for it.  The grapefruit was my top choice of what I wanted to try first, mainly because of the color.  Appearance gets my attention on products.  I also think it is neat that each different collection is based off of a different fruit or vegetable!

Here are the bigger gifts I got:

a Life is Good ski shirt

running calendar for my room

new cold-weather running top

Just Dance (which is basically Christmas gift tradition now)

my own copy of The Purpose Driven Life, the book my group does for Bible Study (a life-changer for sure!)

A daily Peanuts calendar with comics, pictures, quotes, etc

Chacos (a half-surprise; I saw them on the porch the day they were delivered, but was still surprised with the color)

and a Ninja! (a true surprise!)  I had no idea that I would get that, but it is perfect!  I use it literally ever day.  Little did mom know how great that gift would be. 

The Chacos and Ninja were my favorite (and most applicable/most used) gifts I got this year!

Tradition:  breakfast together while watching A Christmas Story.

I made sure to get the picture at the best part.  Tongue frozen to the pole. 

I triple-dog-dare ya.

Matching fuzzy socks for the occasion, too

I didn't set this up.  It woke up like this, too. 

It's a holdiday dessert tree!

I put my Ninja to good use right away!  I made eggnog dessert after our (another tradition) of Christmas dinner spaghetti!

These comics are simple, sentimental little notes to think about.

I titled this post Bittersweet because that's really how I feel about the holiday.  I love it so much, but it is so sad to see it come and go so quickly.  All the activities that lead up to this one day are almost better than the day itself.  Once it is here, it's so wonderful and fun, yet sad at the same time because it is over!  I am trying to let the good times overflow as we go into the end of the month and the rest of winter, not as bitter, but as sweet!



True holiday memories don't come from the gifts we receive, which wear out and get lost or forgotten, but we really remember the experiences we go through!

 

I hope your Christmas was a blessing to your family, and that you got some wonderful gifts, material and intangible!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

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I remember being a little kid and looking forward to this day like there was not another thing to bring so much excitement in the whole world.  It seemed like the day would just drag on and on until time to leave for Mamaw and Papaw's.  I spent time coloring and keeping up with where Santa was headed and where he had already been on my favorite Christmas website, emailsanta.com.  I always looked at the countdown clock, found coloring pages to print out, wrote Santa a letter, always amazed by how quickly he responded, and looked through pictures of the North Pole.  Since I've gotten older, things aren't quite the same.  I definitely don't have to worry about any day dragging out; the time passes faster than I can count it!  I'm not so concerned with all my new toys I'll get, but with the feelings that come from celebrating and the joy that comes from Christ.

 



While working on a poem for a multi-genre essay for English, I remembered a poem that I had written several years ago about Christmas and decided to go find the old notebook that I had written it in.  Reading back over it, I realized how true those things still are years later.

 

Christmas

 

Christmas is the best time of the year!

Can you believe it’s already here?

Minds are running wild.

Memories of being a young child

Receiving the toys,

Filled with simple joys,

Wondering what goodies Santa would bring that night.

 

The Christmas morning sight

Fills everyone with delight.

Only crumbs of cookies for Santa and munchies for the deer

Left to show that he really was here.

Memories made on these days

Will stay with me always.

But now that I’m older

With more knowledge on my shoulder,

I can realize there’s more:

“Christmas doesn’t come from a store.”*

Santa and his elves

Are just decorations on the shelves.

Another character actually steals the show.

 

This is a beautiful truth that I know.

Once a long time ago

God promised His Son

Would come and be the One

To die to save us from sin

Then come alive once again

While still being human like you and me.

 

Virgin Mary met an angel

Who said her son would be Immanuel.

Although she and Joseph weren’t yet married,

By God the baby would be carried.

They left for Bethlehem to be counted,

But a crowd at the inn had already amounted

Leaving the expecting couple in the stable.

 

That night Jesus was born.

Shepherds and angels came to adorn

And worship the Savior, Prince of Peace,

King of Kings, the true centerpiece.

Jesus is the reason

For the season.

 

I pray that today

We all remember the way

This glorious holiday came to be.

Not about you and not about me.

Please don’t lose sight

Of that beautiful night,

But share the true joy of a gift we can never lose.

*From the book/movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”

I don't get to go to my Mamaw and Papaw's house as often as I would like to, but every time I do, I wish I could stay longer!  When I was younger, I would spend the night, and I miss those peaceful days!  Out in the country, you can't help but relax.  I've always thought Mamaw was a great cook, too.  She doesn't think it's anything special, but that's okay; it doesn't have to be.  I think everything tastes better when it comes homemade from family.  No lie, though, her vegetables and pies are what I look forward to more than presents when we go to visit!  Now she makes extra of the things she knows I love, just for me.  Two years ago, I went down to their house extra early on Christmas Eve so I could help cook everything and get some of her recipes.  I've got the one for her pies (sweet potato--my favorite-- pumpkin, and squash) that I hope I can make as good as hers to share with my family in the future!

(Green beans, corn, ham, and carrots aren't the only foods Mamaw and Papaw fix, but that's all that would fit on my plate at the time.  They also make some killer broccoli casserole, cornbread, dressing/stuffing or whatever you want to call it, and mashed potatoes.  She also makes oatmeal pie and two flavors of fudge.  My dad isn't a big veggie pie person, so she buys a key lime pie or homemakes a lemon meringue pie for him to have with his fudge.  Grandparents are just so sweet and thoughtful!)

On Christmas Eve, I always get a little start on the gifts that I will get for the year.  It's not a lot, just from the grandparents, but that's enough to add suspense to the holiday!

My Papaw knows that I like to get little goodies from him, and this time he hit the bulls eye!  I am not a candy person, but the one candy I can't get enough of is candy corn!  Thankfully, it's not just a Halloween treat anymore either.  There's this little Amish market in Bulls Gap, not too far from where they live in Whitesburg, called Yoders that my Papaw shops at a lot.  I've been wanting to go there for a long time, and it is on my bucket list!  Local stores always have some of the neatest, handy, and unique items.  This time, he gave me a whole container of holiday candy corn and even had some different shaped candy corn!  I had never seen any that wasn't in the 3-color triangle, but these were in trees, snowmen, and bells!

These are the superstars!

Granannie doesn't get to go out much anymore, but we all were really hoping that she would feel up to coming to Christmas Eve with us.  We picked her up and dropped her back off that night no trouble!  It wouldn't have been too fun at Regency on Christmas Eve, so I'm so glad she got to visit with us!

Regency definitely got the place decorated really nice!  This snowman was there to greet us at the front door.

I loved this simple sign, reminding us that we should be filled with the spirits that Christmas gives us all year long.  That would make this world such a more wonderful place.

Seeing this town scene set up reminded me of the ones we used to have at home.  Mom got rid of all those decorations many years ago, but I always enjoyed looking at (and sometimes playing with) the wintery scene.  

As we were heading out, I could see this gorgeous, huge tree lighting up the dining room.  This is the best Christmas decoration picture I got all year!

People just love to give Granannie gifts and snacks, but she just can't use and eat them all, so she let's me go through and take what I want.  This little muffin was dried up, but it made an awesome decoration, so I took it home to put with my gingerbread house!  Whoever made these was so creative.  It's a chocolate-cherry, Hershey Kiss mouse!

The icing on the cake...the Christmas to the Eve...well, actually,

the Christ to the Christmas!

Ever since I can remember, it has been family tradition to read the Christmas Story together before I go to bed on Christmas Eve.  Once I got old enough to read well, Mom and Dad let me take over the reading.  No matter how old I get, it still gives a sense of peace to the night, just as Christ was born to give peace to the world.

 

"For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.  And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  Isaiah 9:6

 

"...I bring you good news of great joy that will be to all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord...Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests."  Luke 2:10-11, 13

 

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins...they will call him Immanuel--which means 'God with us.'"  Matthew 1:21, 23

 

How sweet it is to celebrate the Savior who gives us all these wonderful things that come along with Christmas.  I am so glad to have come to understand that there is more to Christmas than getting gifts.  I am proud to say that I have received the greatest gift anyone could ever ask for, and it will never spoil, get boring, break, need new batteries, run out of gas, need replacement or repair, or become too small to wear.  He fits in my heart and soul all year long.  All it takes is faith.

 

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" 

2 Corintians 9:15