December 29 Odds and Ends

Friday:  I took a bunch of pictures of "Christmas" stuff around the house ... in no particular order, here they are:

A few years ago I started making Origami ornament frames and inserting pictures of the grandchildren. The ones I put above my front window are from a few years ago ...

The ones on my side door are even older pictures of the kids ...

Below are the ones I made for the tree this year. I love these pictures of the kids.

Brendan at about age 2

Brendan, perhaps age 4?

Chris ... a few years ago!

Matt, quite awhile ago

Kaity and Belle ... last year?

Emma from her middle school years

Baby Aidan

Tiny baby Aidan

One of my favorites of
Kaity, 18 months

Below is the Kincaid Christmas tree my mom had in her house for so many years. She gave it to me several years before she died. It has 4 train levels--the top tiny train doesn't move at all; but the other three trains do move around their particular circle. Little village lights work, as well as the Christmas carols that play as the trains circumvent the tree. It's very nice, battery operated, and I get it out each year for the entire season.

This is a book I purchased at Baker's on the sale table prior to Christmas, "The Birth of Jesus". Each page is a 3D illustration. They did a super job with telling the Christmas story and illustrating it this way.

This is the beautiful Christmas ornament gifted to me by dear Erin. She was sad that I had no "holy" things at my house, and so she wrapped this up for me. We nearly threw it away before I had ever opened it! Christmas morning we cleaned up (threw away) all of the wrapping paper that was laying on the floor around the Christmas tree, not knowing that Erin's gift to me was in a little envelope she had decorated. Thankfully, she remembered about her gift before the trash was taken out AND I was also thankful it didn't take too long to locate it in the first bag of trash we checked. I love this little ornament given to me by dear Erin and will cherish it all my life. I have a lot of things in my little house that I consider "holy" but not in the same way Dylan's family does--but this blog is not to argue theology! 

This is my Advent wreath that I wasn't quite as faithful about this Advent. It was more special when I could share it with Emma and read the appropriate Scriptures out loud and light our candle each week. I love remembering those evenings with her very much. But I do love this "tradition" and will try to do better with it next year--even if I have to do it alone.

This is the Christmas nativity my mom bought for me when Diana was selling candles and other items a very long time ago--probably TWENTY. I think it's very pretty.

This is my Nativity Calendar. It looks almost exactly like the one I bought the year before Emma was born; but that one was getting a little bit frayed around the edges, and we lost one of the little velcro figures. I saw this one a few weeks ago at Baker Book House and snatched it up right away!

Oh! And look at all the beautiful cards that came to my address!

I LOVE Christmas cards so much. Within many of these cards were newsy letters from close friends. I keep all of the letters but not every single card--I would love to, but my storage space around here is limited.

There is a lot of difficult stuff for people this time of year--family heartaches, loss of family, world-wide crises, etc. but I love this time of year. CHRIST became human (forever) with the purpose of identifying with human beings, living perfectly as Son of Man and Son of God, and then laying His life down in the most humiliating of ways, going to Hell, and raising to new life so that I could be adopted into a family where I actually BELONG--and even though I am a twice-divorced, inadequate mother--to my heavenly Father, I am His dearly loved child, with all of my faults, failures, and sins right out in front of His face. Forgiven. Made clean. Given a new start. Faultless because of HIS righteousness. He has gone ahead to make a place for all who believe! That's what Christmas is all about and I am so thankful for HIM.