Christmas Space in December

Your world may be full of colors and sounds,
a mingled mass of light...

Your rooms overstuffed with decorations enough
to dazzle, to daze, to intimidate night.








Yet your soul shivers empty alone at the sound of your laughter, intense and contrived,
as you stifle the meaning of this Christmas day.

While a humble room a world away
sits dark and cold, yet strangely full--
A manger, a baby, God's love for His world,
has brought peace to those who remember.

Prepare a Place

Harry Brioche Prepare a place,
a quiet place.
Shut out all the clamor,
Wait there, alone 
He'll come

Moses built a heavy tent in the winds of howling wilderness.
Without was stench and the strident sound of a murmuring multitude;
Within, the smell of incense and the  quiet voice of God,
And Joshua with a patient face...listening.

David turned a crumbling cave into his sanctuary.
So while a jealous murderer scoured the landscape with his armies, relentlessly pursuing a one-sided war,
The psalmist cheered his weary soul with hushed and solemn songs in that
Hidden, holy place.

Manasseh, evil monarch taken captive into Babylon,
surrounded by dank walls of shadowed stone
caged up to face his own great wickedness
met God, and the cell became a refuge
more sacred than his once-consuming throne.

The mighty Nebuchadnezzar
Grass-grazing like an ox
While his million subjects turned their faces...
From the lunacy that locked him all alone into a raving world apart
Alone, he met the king of Heaven,
under a silent, dewy, dawn...and then he knew.


It need not be the finest hall
Gilded, jeweled and fragrant.
Just a place...a quiet place
where you invite a quiet chat
with your creator.
If you prepare the room,

He will visit.

Mary prepared an humble, little bed
A place of peace
In the middle of a turbulent night.
And God Himself came quietly to fill it
Slipping into the world
From an open door in Heaven
To meet mankind

Prepare a place,
a quiet place; shut out all the clamor,
And wait there, all alone with an open heart
Just wait...He'll come

Delicious

Cherry cheesecake, pumpkin pie, vanilla fudge,
Peanut brittle, gooey lemon pudding sludge
Nutter butters dipped in scrumptious chocolate stuff
Pumpkin rolls...heaven knows I've had enough.

For the cheery little cheesecake promptly settled in my chin
The vanilla fudge (I only had a taste)
And the wicked chocolate stuff
( tears are falling; this is tough)
Has been permanently added to my waist.

Our Sunday Scribblings Prompt was Delicious

Family Christmas

Well, we were all there (except for the North Carolina/Chicago seven) celebrating Christmas together with Mom and Dad. The living room was crowded; the food was much too delicious; the noise level like that of a patio cafe next to a roller coaster. It was great.



If you aren't family, you'll probably want to skip this one. I've noticed that videos about people you don't know are usually boring, and--even if you do know the people--not something you just want to watch over and over. Ah well. If you made it through this one, you might want to watch this other one, as Mim decorates an oblivious Zaya. From his reaction, you can see that he's probably used to this kind of distraction while he's reading a new book.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful...

And the weatherman was rightful




Outside or inside? You choose.





There were a few brave enough to enjoy the blizzard, but they only lasted for a few minutes--the wind, the chill factor, the white-out road conditions, the drifts. All in all it was appalling outdoors and cosy inside. So, not much of a choice, really.

Names of Christ Tree

Here's a tree created by my sophomores in the Life of Christ class. We are studying mostly from the book of John--all those "I Am" passages--so we decorated a tree with the names of Christ. You have to use your imagination a little, but if you can't figure them out, they are labeled.

Christmas Photo--Hazel's Bows

At Still Waters Run Deep, my cousin posted a Christmas picture of her twin daughters wearing party hats. This picture is proof that: "It runs in the family" and that "They are perfectly normal girls."

Beautiful Bows Handmade by Hazel...and a Tiny Bit of a Song for You

This Christmas all the packages at my parents' house looked like they had been professionally wrapped; It was Hazel again. She had spent hours making elaborate bows--flowers and teensy little bows inside of bows. Well, see for yourself. They were exquisite. Before we opened the presents, we sang together...twenty four voices in the den. It was great...well, I'm sure it lacked something musically, but for earnestness it was superb. After that we visited, or played "Sorry" or "Apples to Apples", or sneaked into the kitchen for little slivers of coconut pie (in the hope that multiple small slices would confuse the calorie count into making an exception to the laws of mathematics--a vain hope, I might add, but it seemed rational in the fog of the day.)

She Loves Video Cameras and Frilly Red Dresses

I've discovered a new program on my computer--windows movie maker. So far I've learned to string a bunch of little videos together, chopping off the endings which, in this case, are all the same: She bounds toward me asking: "Now can I see it?" So here are a bunch of videos of the granddaughter.

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

This Christmas carol is probably the oldest one we have on record. We know that it at least dates back to the 5th century and is taken from the Liturgy of St. James. I don't know who wrote it, or what it sounded like in the original Greek, but it certainly expresses the awe I feel at Christmas.

King of Heaven.
Came to Earth
To restore our hearts to Heaven.

Hallelujah!

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly-minded,
for with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.

2. King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
in the body and the blood;
he will give to all the faithful
his own self for heavenly food.

3. Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
as the Light of light descendeth
from the realms of endless day,
that the powers of hell may vanish
as the darkness clears away.

4. At his feet the six-winged seraph,
cherubim, with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

Speaking of Traditions

I've been thinking about Christmas traditions...because, well...it's that time of the year again. I suppose our most lasting family tradition was one started by my father and mother when I was about ten years old. Every Christmas Eve we went caroling in the nursing homes and the hospitals--just our family, and, as we all got older, some of the sons-in-law and grandchildren.

Dad played the accordion and walked behind us, and we sang as we walked up and down the halls. Occasionally, a family member would invite us into the room to sing for a loved one, and there were always people at the nursing homes who would sing along with the familiar carols. It was, and still is, good for us to think about others, and it was a fine thing to do together; it didn't take very long, but brought a bright few moments into the lives of those too ill or too forgotten to go home for Christmas Day.

Thanks, Dad and Mom, for making this a family tradition.
It has lasted over forty years.