The giving of gifts is not something man invented. God started the giving spree when he gave a gift beyond words, the unspeakable gift of His Son. ~Robert Flatt
Christmas Eve service is at 4:30 pm tonight, but we will not be there. The Princess has a cold with a slight fever and is lying on the couch alternately coughing, sneezing, and sniffling. She has been working for weeks on the song "Still, Still, Still" to play for the Christmas service tomorrow and I am not sure she will be able to go and even more concerned about her performing it well if she did. Of course, everyone there would be happy for her to play it after Christmas as well since it is such a lovely lullaby type of song.
I was looking forward to our church services this evening and tomorrow. We planned our entire Christmas around it. Today we are making our Christmas dinner, which we planned to eat around 2:30 PM. I froze the apple pies I made this week to bake one later today. My husband put the turkey in a brine overnight and it is now on the grill. I made the best sweet potato casserole I have ever made...not too sweet with pears and pecans in it. I never measure; it is a go-by-taste kind of thing.
Last night my husband and I wrapped presents until 2:00 AM and the Princess and I finished her daddy's this morning when he was out finding a replacement for our broken temperature probe that he uses for the turkey and I for my yogurt. We are ready...almost.
Tonight we will be up late again. We will be removing our twenty-some year old TV and replacing it with a cherry wood console and a modest flat, wide screen, HD TV. We will be adding our new Wii and DVD/Blue Ray Player. The TV, Wii, and Player are all Netflix ready and as of last night we have Netflix too. I tried it on my computer and was very happy with the selection and the definition. We hope to connect everything while my little Princess sleeps and have it all in place in the morning as if Santa brought it.
Yes, she still believes or, at least, she likes to pretend she does, it is hard to tell. She has a close friend, who is also homeschooled, but their family do not have anything to do with magic or Santa, so I think the Princess is just playing along with us at this point. Still, she wrote Santa three letters, one about what she would like, and then one for my husband and another for me. She asks for things she thought we would like, which was sweet, but not necessarily what we desired.
Anyway, the plan was she would see the new entertainment center first thing in the morning and we would go on to church--we are having a real birthday party for Jesus with cake, ice cream and games instead of a service!--then opening presents afterward, but that may all be different now. I almost wish we had it set up today so she could watch some new things while she is lying to rest and heal, but we have done without this sort of thing so long and she can watch DVDs. She did watch a few yesterday and this morning, but has chosen not to for now.
I am torn about the TV thing, though. We have been without TV service for about eighteen months and now we spent all this money for one. However, I do like watching what we wish to see on demand without commercials and we are running out of options with the DVDs we have. We also went for the Netflix DVD option. This service is so much cheaper than a regular TV service. Still, I am hoping we use it wisely.
This evening we will read the story of the Christ child’s birth. Then we will open vials of frankincense and myrrh oil essences to smell them before placing them in the Nativity set under the tree at the front, before the presents. This is a set I hand painted years ago. For gold, we use a gold plated bracelet. We do this to remind us that Christmas is in celebration of the birth of our Savior and that we only reason we give and receive presents to each other is because He was given these gifts.
I think it has helped my daughter to place more importance on the Gift more than the gifts and it has worked well for she has asked for very little in the form of presents all of her young life. The Princess decided to place a red sign on our front door under the wreath. It reads: We may have very few presents under the tree but the one in the manger is bigger than all the presents in the world combined.
I was looking forward to our church services this evening and tomorrow. We planned our entire Christmas around it. Today we are making our Christmas dinner, which we planned to eat around 2:30 PM. I froze the apple pies I made this week to bake one later today. My husband put the turkey in a brine overnight and it is now on the grill. I made the best sweet potato casserole I have ever made...not too sweet with pears and pecans in it. I never measure; it is a go-by-taste kind of thing.
Last night my husband and I wrapped presents until 2:00 AM and the Princess and I finished her daddy's this morning when he was out finding a replacement for our broken temperature probe that he uses for the turkey and I for my yogurt. We are ready...almost.
Tonight we will be up late again. We will be removing our twenty-some year old TV and replacing it with a cherry wood console and a modest flat, wide screen, HD TV. We will be adding our new Wii and DVD/Blue Ray Player. The TV, Wii, and Player are all Netflix ready and as of last night we have Netflix too. I tried it on my computer and was very happy with the selection and the definition. We hope to connect everything while my little Princess sleeps and have it all in place in the morning as if Santa brought it.
Yes, she still believes or, at least, she likes to pretend she does, it is hard to tell. She has a close friend, who is also homeschooled, but their family do not have anything to do with magic or Santa, so I think the Princess is just playing along with us at this point. Still, she wrote Santa three letters, one about what she would like, and then one for my husband and another for me. She asks for things she thought we would like, which was sweet, but not necessarily what we desired.
Anyway, the plan was she would see the new entertainment center first thing in the morning and we would go on to church--we are having a real birthday party for Jesus with cake, ice cream and games instead of a service!--then opening presents afterward, but that may all be different now. I almost wish we had it set up today so she could watch some new things while she is lying to rest and heal, but we have done without this sort of thing so long and she can watch DVDs. She did watch a few yesterday and this morning, but has chosen not to for now.
I am torn about the TV thing, though. We have been without TV service for about eighteen months and now we spent all this money for one. However, I do like watching what we wish to see on demand without commercials and we are running out of options with the DVDs we have. We also went for the Netflix DVD option. This service is so much cheaper than a regular TV service. Still, I am hoping we use it wisely.
This evening we will read the story of the Christ child’s birth. Then we will open vials of frankincense and myrrh oil essences to smell them before placing them in the Nativity set under the tree at the front, before the presents. This is a set I hand painted years ago. For gold, we use a gold plated bracelet. We do this to remind us that Christmas is in celebration of the birth of our Savior and that we only reason we give and receive presents to each other is because He was given these gifts.
I think it has helped my daughter to place more importance on the Gift more than the gifts and it has worked well for she has asked for very little in the form of presents all of her young life. The Princess decided to place a red sign on our front door under the wreath. It reads: We may have very few presents under the tree but the one in the manger is bigger than all the presents in the world combined.
~ My Lord, help us to give gifts with a loving heart and to use our gifts wisely and to always be thankful for the Gift you have given us. Please heal my daughter so she can attend church service on Christmas Day. ~
