8 More Sleeps till Christmas

I love this time of year - I'm on holidays, the house is getting cleaner and this week, we have started preparing the house for Christmas
The decorations go up.
The tree went up and we decorated it The Christmas stockings are hung. The Christmas letter is written and posted.
Christmas cards are arriving each day in the mail.

Menu planning for the Christmas break when everyone comes homeWe've been baking these.

And this house is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.But the thing I love most about Christmas is that it is a time for us to get together with family, with those we love to celebrate the greatest gift of all. The birth 0f Christ Jesus - our Saviour.

“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 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.”- Matthew 1:20-21

⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ^a]">[a] the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Luke 2: 8-14

It's an exciting time of year. There is a great sense of anticipation and many expectations in the air. But you know it is a season connected with death, a baby enters this world offering life and love to everyone. It is my all-time favorite holiday. Next to Easter, I can’t think of a day that has the opportunity to impact more lives or change more lives than these two holidays. Yet, unfortunately, these two holidays, the day God sent his Son to us and the Day His Son gave his life for us have also been exploited by commercialism and wordly viewpoints.

As we rush about, busily preparing for Christmas, let us remember why we celebrate this Holiday let us remember our Savior’s birthday.

It is my Prayer this Christmas, you will also remember that Christ is the reason for this season and I want to wish you a joyous celebration of God's grace to us in sending us his son Jesus. In 2010, may you realize your many blessings, and may you and your families also enjoy good health, peace and joy.

Chloe has one more day of work before she is on holidays from her new job. She loves working there - tomorrow they have a Christmas luncheon and then are all going to the movies in the afternoon. Her work environment sounds totally unreal - they are all so helpful and considerate of each other. They seem to get into the spirit of things too, all dressing in pink, Breast Cancer week, all putting in and buying gifts for needy children and families for Christmas. Today she decided to take in some Christmas baking to share with them. It went over really well. She dressed for the day also. She would love nothing better than to be there full time each and every day.

Today I spent the day with a couple of the girls from church and their daughters. They came over this morning for a card making day. We had such a good time together- lots of laughter, lots of chatting, and although I didn't really make any cards (just got my Christmas Cards written and posted) we had such a lovely time of fellowship together. We all ended up going out for lunch, and then came back home this afternoon for a little more fun and creativity.
Adam was the only young male amongst us but even he got into it and made a couple of Christmas Cards.
Brenda and Amy with their cards.
Karen and Amy getting motivated to start.
How any of us managed to work with all of this on the table is beyond me - the young girls did an amazing job with their cards. My only regret is that I didn't photograph them.

Finally for my benefit only, I need to document some photos from my son in law, Colin's trip to the Aria's last month. One of the highlights for Colin this year was an invitation to attend the 2009 Aria Awards last month in Sydney. He and Josh ( one of his band members) flew to Sydney the morning of the Aria's were put up in a big Hotel, picked up by a Stretch Humer, got the red carpet treatment and got to be present for this years awards. A dream come true for them. It was an amazing experience for both Colin and Josh ( our Pete's housemate) and it allowed them a glimpse of where they would love to be in the future.
That about wraps up this post -

So many things to be thankful for again this week.

1. Blessed by so many amazing girlfriends in my life.
2. A kind and helpful husband.
3. Working together as a family to get the house ready for Christmas
4. That we have the freedom in this country to celebrate the birth of Christ.
5. Christmas carols.
6. Cupcakes and chocolate balls.
7. Washing machines, and vacum cleaners - things to make our work so much easier.
8. Holidays.
9. God's grace to us in Jesus.
10. God's provision of a car for Bevan.