Ponderings...

"{Christmas is} the season for kindling the fire
of hospitality in the hall,
the genial flame of charity in the heart."

Washington Irving

A must ...

for any fans of McAlister's tea. They have an ornament just for you and here it is!
Even with a"lemon wedge" floating in the "tea"!
Very clever, I say!
And only $4.99.

"Childlike Weekend"

Many of our Christmas "things" are for the Grands...for the children and for the child-in-me!
So love this Mickey Mouse arrangement my friend's sister made! Reminds me a bit when my college roommate and I wore Mickey Mouse ears to all our classes one day! Ah, those were the days! :)
Christmas really brings out the childlikeness in me and it certainly did last Friday night when Mike and I went as elves to our church Christmas party! (Sorry I didn't get a picture to share)
Was it dress up? No! Did Mike want to do it? Heck no! But he did it for me! Our church family loved it and we endured their laughter and teasing, especially Mike! That's why we did it...to bring a bit more laughter and just because I wanted to do something a bit different!
I dearly love to laugh! And I dearly love this Christmas season!

Of Nutcrackers, Dancing Flowers and such...

The stage lights darkened, costumes being put away, the Union County Youth Ballet has now finished their 19th annual Nutcracker performance.
We entered the magical land of dancing snowflakes and flowers, Queens of snow and sugarplum
fairies, scurrying mice and fighting rats, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Arabian dancers, and a host of heavenly angels of all shapes and sizes!
And I must say that each year , the performances have brought tears to my eyes. To see these youth from ages 4/5 to 18 years, dancing their hearts out with such spirit and skill touches me beyond words. It's a beautiful ballet and so beautifully done!
How I wished I could have hugged each and every dancer and told them how wonderfully they performed. Instead I just hugged our granddaughter and let her represent the others!
This is always a special part of our Christmas celebration ; Mike and I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Nutcracker countdown!

Two down and four more to go...

performances that is!

Here's Makenna with the Nutcracker...he's so handsome and she's beautiful!

School performances were today and there's one more performance tonight and three tomorrow.

Mike and I will go tomorrow night and hopefully Mike won't fall asleep...Ballet seems to have that effect on him...don't know why!

On the serious side...

Just finished a Christmas novella, "The Face of Mary". Even though it was a bit predictable in places, the Lord used it to "speak" to me...actually "correct" me.
At the beginning of the novella, there was a scripture opposite the page of the first chapter and it said, " For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

Read this last night and it began to tug at my heart. Didn't realize how hard it "tugged" until this morning.
You see, at age 58, it has been too easy getting caught up in my "outward" appearance...."wrinklely" neck, face, etc. I found myself becoming too concerned about getting older, well actually with looking older....hmmmm.
I've told God that I want to age the way He wants and no other way. Hey! Moses was 120 and his "natural forces were not abated"; Caleb led an army, fought and won at age 80 and Sarah, in her nineties was so beautiful that a king desired her!

I do believe in taking care of ourselves. The Bible tells us that our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit and yes, I want to be the best temple I can be but there is a balance to all this!
Rather than getting so caught up in our personal appearance, we should be working on our hearts! And the way to do that is by feeding daily on the Word, meditating on it, choosing to reflect the heart of Christ, showing his love to all who come across our paths. Several other scriptures went along with this...Proverbs 29:25..."The fear of man brings a snare..." being afraid of how people look at me, receive me...that attitude ensnares me, traps me and I could never be "good enough or pretty enough" for man. That's a "no win" situation!
Galatians 1:10b "...do I seek to please men?"
All I need to do is please God and how do I do that? By first receiving His most precious Gift-Jesus and developing a relationship with Him, by taking Him at His Word, spending time with Him, spending time in the Word allowing it to transform me, changing me into the image of Christ.

With His help I can change. I can enjoy the "journey" that I am on and work on what's truly important!

Betsey II Adorned and Miss Darcy