"And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger." Luke 2:7.
"The wonder of Christmas is its simplicity - nothing of the pomp and circumstance of life." That came from the weekly prayer guide sheet provided with our bulletins at the Christmas Eve morning service, as did all the Scripture quotes I'm using this week. What's truly meaningful for me about the "wonder of Christmas" observation is that it pretty much sums up the past couple of days. Our family isn't all that big, at least as regards our little concentric circle that gets together on the holidays - my parents and brother and his wife, the WGH's parents, his brother-in-law and his wife, our kids and our younger nephew. This year we enjoyed the company of the brother-in-law's mom as well - they lost his Dad this year and we thought it would be good for her to spend some time as part of our family. We sat in a circle in our living room last night after dinner and opened presents, just going around the circle in turns, and I couldn't help but think how lovely the simplicity of it all was. Little Bit got designated to lead the pre-dinner blessing, and she did us proud - thanking God for giving us his Son, our family and the opportunity to be together to celebrate His birth. In spite of all the busy-ness and rushing around and hullabaloo that commercialized Christmas has become, the whole reason for its existence in the first place is still alive and well in our hearts.The gift exchange is always entertaining - the reactions, the smiles, the laughs. The title of this post is printed on my new sweatshirt - a present from the WGH's brother-in-law and his wife. She said she saw it and immediately thought of me. Gee, I wonder why? ;)
Nephew #2 stayed the night with us - just to hang with his cousins for a day. The in-laws left this morning; my parents will be here until tomorrow, then are coming back next week for New Year's and a visit from my very youngest nephew, who lives in South America with his madre, my brother's ex. We haven't seen him in about five years, since he was three, so we're looking forward to the visit. We're just hoping he speaks enough English that conversation will be possible - my Spanish is a little rusty!
The rest of this week is strictly devoted to getting some work done on my JT-prompted To-Do List. We're going to start the New Year on the right foot.
Read a book. Enjoy whatever down time you get this week. Be happy.
=) JB
1 comment:
WBH's brother-in-law's wife says you're welcome! And thanks for the invite, companionship, family and fun. And also for inviting my mother-in-law so she wouldn't be alone for the first time. she appreciated it as well. you handled the dinner situation much better than i would have! love ya
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