Ringing in the New

Happy New Year’s Eve Day!  Things are all a-flurry at Teacherperson’s house today as we prepare for our big New Year’s bash.  Last year, we had 121 people. The year before, 108. What will this year bring?  I’ve laid in a stock of 2 L sodas, five bags of ice, over 200 cups and paper plates,  two boxes of brownie mix, and fixings for pancakes for everyone who stays over. Lord willing, our guests will bring the rest of the food.

What will we do? Play games, chat, eat food, laugh, and generally have a fine time.  I’m excited to use my new Christmas camera which takes panorama shots, so I can finally get everyone in a room during the ball drop into the picture all at once.

If you don’t have anything going on, feel free to join us! Oh, and enjoy your Leap Second!

 

Links to previous years…

Happy 2008!

Happy 2007!

Happy Christmas to All!

And to all a good day! Er, good night?  Ah, here it is, Christmas Eve day. We are all iced in, and I’m glad we’ve no place to go. Well, we are planning to go to our church’s Christmas Eve service tonight, but if this ice keeps up, I think it would be unwise.  When you can’t make it to the car without falling down, then you might just want to stay home.

We had a lovely Christmas time with my dad’s family last night. My stepmom is an excellent cook, so we were fed well. Plus, we just had a lot of fun visiting.

Today, we have done this and that around the house. We are all eagerly looking forward to the last load of laundry being dry so we can have a Christmas Eve Afternoon family bonding time of sorting nine loads of laundry.  The kids are more excited about that event than about Christmas morning, I bet!

The kids who want to are planning to open one present later today. I’ll have to think about what we have for supper–no special feast planned as of yet.  We’ll read Luke 2 and some will sleep downstairs under the Christmas tree. 

 

Shooting the Wise Men

Saturday dawned fair and bright and was a perfect day to get together with my brother and his family at my mom’s for our yearly Christmas Celebration O’ Fun.

I got to my mom’s around noon, and I was irrationally starving. I had a decent breakfast, but I could have eaten the north end of a southbound skunk. Thankfully, the food my mom had lined up was a bit tastier.  Did you ever read a description of a feast in a book and think, “Wow. I wish I could have been there!”  Wish on.  Shrimp, lasagna, ham, stuffed shells, salad, pickled eggs, hot rolls, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate mousse thingies, candied walnuts, cookies, peanut M-n-Ms…mmmmmmm.

 

After we foundered ourselves, it was time for Cousin Pictures in Front of the Tree.  This year, they even posed with Grammy Peep and PapaJohn.

 

Once the torture of being photographed was over, it was time for…presents! My sister-in-law made me a gorgeous quilt.  It has on it key dates in TGD and my life together: when we were born, our first date, marriage, kids’ birthdays, homes purchased, jobs TGD has held, etc.  The first square says, “All because two people fell in love” and the last one says, “And the best is yet to come.” 

All the children scattered to put together new Lego sets or to find more food or a football game.  Grammy Peep soon called everyone back to tell them a story she wrote. Here are the essential details, although it’s my version of the tale, not hers exactly.

“Today, I’m going to tell you the story of this nativity set. (The one at her feet.) Many years ago, Grandma and Pop Pop got several boxes in the mail from Aunt Edie. Most of the boxes were marked, “For Christmas,” but one box was labeled, “Open now.” Inside the box was this nativity set: Mary and Joseph and three Wise Men. But there was no baby Jesus. We thought this was strange, but then we thought that Aunt Edie was going to have them open a box with baby Jesus in it on Christmas day. That was just the sort of thing she might do.

Christmas morning came and all the boxes were open, but no baby Jesus!  I (Grammy Peep) called Edie and said, “Where’s baby Jesus?”  She laughed, thinking I was joking, but I explained to her how the nativity had arrived with no baby nor a manger. “But, Jesus was there,” she insisted. “I wrapped him up carefully and put him in the bottom of the box.”  When the box was opened, Grandma and PopPop must have thought the wrapped baby was just a pile of packing material.

I called them and explained that Jesus was in the box.  “But, we threw that box out weeks ago!” they cried. 

And so, we don’t have a baby Jesus for our nativity. We’ve looked and looked to find one, but none seem to match the set.

How many of us throw out Jesus?  Instead of keeping Him the focus of Christmas, we toss Him out with the wrappings.”

It was a great story.  And then, we shot the Wise Men.

Gockle had just gotten a Nerf 20-shot gun thing earlier that day.  After the story, somehow a Wise Man got pegged. We all thought this was pretty funny and had a competition. Who could shoot down all the Wise Men?

Mary and Joseph were exempt from the carnage, but the poor, unnamed Wise Men were fair game.

We had a first round, and if you shot down all three Wise men, you made it into the finals.  Gockle, Uncle Brad, Cousin Em, and Hunter were vying for the title. 

The winner?  Cousin Em who only took 12 shots to knock down all three Wise Men! (That’s her dad, Uncle Brad, pouting beside her.)

My mom, who has a little bit of everything, quickly got her hands on three medals for our awards ceremony.  Someone even hummed The Star Spangled Banner. (Unfortunately, if you had a giant head, the medal didn’t quite fit over it…)

After that rousing match which left some “physically and emotionally drained and needing a nap,” the Christmas Charades game was brought out.

Cindy Lou Who?

 

As if this weren’t enough laughter and fun in the day, LibbyK and Cousin Em went to the computer and made some Elf Yourself movies. (http://www.elfyourself.com/)  If you’ve not yet seen a movie or made one yourself, I highly recommend it for some free holiday laughs. Just a hint–when choosing your pictures, pick faces with expression: anger, silliness, surprise, etc.  Smiles are great, but when an angry elf appears and starts doing the Charleston, it’s hilarious!

Although the evening ended on a somewhat damp note with the toilet breaking and overflowing onto the downstairs computer, we really enjoyed the day.

May your Christmas be as merry and bright! And may Santa not shoot you with a Uzi tonight.

    

PersonifiCATion

Wild Jungle Cat hangs out on human tree branch

Like most folks, we give our critters nicknames. Lately Little Miss has been calling Jasper “Pastor.”  I though it was just a rhyme for his name until today.

 

A Day to Myself

Do you get much time alone? Too much time alone?

Are You 3%?

This afternoon, we participated in Angel Tree with the Youth Group. What I enjoy most about the way our church does Angel Tree is that the teens get the opportunity to share the gospel with other kids when they deliver the presents. 

A lady in my Sunday school shared the statistic that 97% of Christians will never share the gospel with another person.  Wow. That’s sobering. But, how many times have I shared this month? This year? This lifetime? What a joy and blessing it is to give teens the opportunity and mandate to share with someone else!

How about you? Who are you sharing with? Have you ever sat down and shared the message of salvation with someone?  One way that I have “sneaked in” sharing the gospel was to tell someone I needed to practice my testimony and sharing Christ. (Which was totally true. I did and do!) I then got to sit down with the person (a friend or relative) and explain salvation without all the pressure. It was just “practice” after all! 

Don’t let fear rule you. You’d tell where you got the best bargains for Christmas shopping, wouldn’t you? Or if someone were giving away free $100 bills, you’d let everyone know. Why not share the love of Christ? It’s not our job to convince people. We just have to be faithful to share.

Ezekiel 2:4-7
“I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’ “As for them, whether they listen or not–for they are a rebellious house–they will know that a prophet has been among them.

 ”And you, son of man, neither  fear them nor fear their words, though thistles  and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions; neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house.  “But you shall speak  My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.

Ice Day!

As Relient K would say, “Let It Snow, Baby. Let it Reindeer!” 

Books and Jax

Today it is rainy, therefore I am going to eat a donut. What are you doing to celebrate your weather? 

Merry December!

Ho, ho, ho!  Where did I go?  Thank you for asking about me and telling me that you missed my vague ramblings.  I have missed hearing of your lives, and perhaps I will be able to get back into the routine of reading and commenting on your wonderful entries. Also, many thanks for the kind birthday wishes. It was a great day, and you can read about it below. I decided to post a few long entries instead of one super-huge one. Now, you can read a lot, a little, or none at all. Aren’t you just so lucky?

Yesterday, the kids and I Christmased the house. I still have so much downstairs back in the boxes. I really need to purge things.  I say that every year, though, and I am just too lazy to do it.  Story of my life. Oh, to be content with little instead of being controlled by much!  The kitten is having a wonderful time with all the new toys–a tree, tinsel, lights, pine garland. It’s so much fun!

LibbyK, Gockle, and I went to see The Nutcracker last week. This was a special performance. It was A Central Pennsylvania Nutcracker and featured actual names from the history of Centre County (where I live) as participants. Instead of Clara/Marie, it was Anna Thompson, a mysterious daughter of local notables from 100 years ago. There was no Mother Ginger. Instead, a horse and buggy pulled up and a dozen Amish children piled out! There were several other changes, which made it special. 

Do you attend any special Christmas plays or concerts?