From my crazy friends and I to you. Merry Christmas!
~The Countess~
Tag Archive: Christmas
O come, O come, Emanuel and ransom captive Israel
Ransoming the captives. Movies and television shows are filled with story lines focusing on kidnappings and failed ransom payments. They demonstrate the demands, the negotiations, and the payouts. Over and over again the families are told not to contact the police, but the smart ones do. You see, when paying a ransom, you want the experts there with you to make sure that you get back your family and so that the bad guys get caught.
God ransomed us back. He created us. And then he bought us back with his own blood. We weren’t even innocent parties in our captivity. Instead we were active participants in driving ourselves away from God. And the penalty was death. So God paid the price. And he ransomed us back from exile away from him. What a gift he gave us. He gave up everything for us. That makes for a merry Christmas indeed.
~The Countess~
Christmas can be a difficult season. The “joy” of the season is often obliterated by the pressures and stressors. Consumerism often fills every thought. The meaning of the season is bandied about, and yet, how often do we really stop to ponder why we’re celebrating what we’re celebrating? I’ve had a hard time getting into the spirit of Christmas this year. My emotional reserves were depleted several months ago and I’ve been running on empty for quite awhile. I sometimes feel like I don’t even have the energy to worry about Christmas. I don’t want to deal with the added stress of unmet expectations.
My only comfort this Christmas is in Christ. All too often family and friends let us down, but God is always there. Here we are waiting, in need of a Savior.
O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O’er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O’er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
~The Countess~
I cannot believe that in 10 days it will be Christmas. Only ten more sleeps until Christmas. It’s a tad bit overwhelming. I’m not quite finished with my shopping. And I’m really excited. The things I’m really looking forward to this year:
Just spending time with my family. As us kids get older every year it seems harder for us to all spend time together. And that makes the time we do spend together more precious.
Meeting James. He’s my cousin’s British boyfriend. I cannot wait to meet him.
Watching my sister introduce Jon to the family. That’s her boyfriend and he’s the third Jon to be introduced as a significant other. And, it will be fun to make her squirm as he meets everyone.
Not being in school. I’m really enjoying this break. I’m savoring every class free day.
All this to say – Christmas is coming!
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
And I know I’m goin’ home.
Snow flake’s a-fallin’
My old heart’s a-callin’
Tall pine’s a-hummin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’.
Can’t you hear them bells ringin’, ringin’
Joy, don’tcha hear them singin’
When it’s snowin’, I’ll be goin’
Back to my country home.
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
And I know I’m goin’ home.
White candle’s burnin’
My old heart’s a-yearnin’
For the folks at home when
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’.
Can’t you hear them bells ringin’, ringin’
Joy, don’tcha hear them singin’
When it’s snowin’, I’ll be goin’
Back to my country home.
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
And I know I’m goin’ home.
Holly’s in the window
Home where the wind blows
The cane foam’s a-runnin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’.
Can’t you hear them bells ringin’, ringin’
Joy, don’tcha hear them singin’
When it’s snowin’, I’ll be goin’
Back to my country home.
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
And I know I’m goin’ home.
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
Christmas Time’s A-Comin’
And I know I’m goin’ home.
~The Countess~
It seems that with the holiday fast approaching that everyone in the blogosphere is relating their favorite family Christmas traditions. I figured that I would do the same. Christmas in my family has always been spread out for over a week. We would celebrate with my Mom’s extended family before Christmas, our immediate family on Christmas day, and my Dad’s family after Christmas. Having the multiple Christmas celebrations has helped to center the holiday around family. Each year the gatherings change as we cousins get older and married and people’s availability changes.
Some of my favorite Christmas traditions involve food, specific gifts, and family gift giving traditions.
Every year on Christmas eve, without fail, my family follows these practices. We start with a holiday dinner of Tex-Mex favorites. Tamales, Chicken Enchilada Soup, cheese dip, guacamole, and taquitos. We watch A Christmas Carol, we rotate through the Muppet Christmas Carol, the George C. Scott version, and the Patrick Stewart version. While watching the movie we start working on a Christmas puzzle. The puzzle tradition traces back to my Mom’s dad, who loved puzzles. The goal is to start the puzzle and it has to be finished before Christmas day is over. Some years we use new puzzles and some years we go back and recycle old favorites. Later in the evening we open one or two gifts. If my mom’s sister is there than she would give us ornaments that she hand-stitched to hang on the tree . The other gift was Christmas pajamas. Each year we would be given a pair of pajamas to wear on Christmas morning. We end Christmas eve by going into town for the 11:30 pm Christmas eve service at our church. When we come home all three of us kids would pile into my sister and I’s room to giggle and keep each other awake while waiting for Christmas morning. While we’ve taken to all sleeping in our own beds as we’ve gotten older, one tradition that stands strong in our family, is the way we wake up. Mom and Dad would always tell us that they didn’t want to here a peep out of us before seven am. And so, every year at promptly seven in the morning, we would start peeping. We would shout peep. And that we wanted our presents, and that it was Christmas. All without leaving our rooms. With the advent of cell phones we would call our parents and tell them that we wanted to be let out. After a few minutes of bantering, Dad would come get us and let us out to go start Christmas. The funny thing is that when we were little, none of us would really sleep, and we would be awake for forever watching the clock. And now we need alarms to get us up in time to start our peeping. After gifts we would eat some form of a breakfast casserole and then spend the whole day as a family just hanging out.
Another fun tradition comes from my dad’s family. Our Christmas gatherings include well over twenty people now. And yet, every year, we get together a couple of days after Christmas and open gifts together. And we open one gift at a time. With all of those people this activity often takes around 3 hours to complete. It is accompanied by good food. We also always have a wrapping paper fight while opening the gifts.
One final tradition that I love is the playing of Christmas music. When we were little, my sister and I used to listen to tapes as we fell asleep. It was either an attempt by our parents to keep us from talking or our way of making sure they couldn’t here us, either way we listened to music. And every year, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we would switch to Raffi’s Christmas Album. It never really felt like Christmas until we were listening to Raffi sing songs like Petit Papa Noel, Old Toy Trains, and Snows are a falling on Douglas Mountain. To this day, these are some of my favorite Christmas songs. And listening to the Raffi tape gives me a sense of peace and the holiday that nothing else does.
The main thing that I recognize from these traditions is that they are really about spending the time with my family. That’s why I love the holidays – it’s a chance to see everyone and stay connected by repeating traditions. What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?
~The Countess~
