Mele Kalikimaka!
December 25th, 2006 | No Comments »(Merry Christmas!)
I may actually come back and blog more later, but suffice to say that yesterday was a good day. The morning servce here at St. George's had four families and 16 people, and the evening Christmas Eve service was packed (I was hearing numbers discussed in excess of 75). The kids did a great job bringing us the word of God and the refrain from "Go Tell it on the Mountain" (with bells). The Advent Bush is now a Christmas Tree, fully decorated and lit. Some people said that seeing it all decorated and lit would make me smile, and as I walked home in the dark from church last night to see it framed in the doorway… They were right.
Last night Zoe and I did the gift thing. Zoe got me a box from Hickory Farms and a 19″ widescreen LCD external monitor, now serving as a second for my laptop. I got Zoe some cat grass (hardly a balanced exchange), but she also did well from the eastern part of the family. Ari, Molly, mom and dad all sent Zoe something this year. She's taking to some of it more enthusiastically than others. I've had to find the fuzzy mouse several times, and she's back at hurling it around the room this morning.
I came away with some neat surprises. An AC/crank/solar powered radio, which will be perfect for those long power outages folloing earthquakes. And just kind of fun to play with all year round, too! A blood pressure monitor that fits on one's wrist (113/68 last night). I'll tuck that in the car and see what my BP is right after a run. I'll put it in the car organizer that came, that will also hold the assorted "stuff" that I'm always moving from the back seat to the cargo area when I have passengers. This way it'll be much easier and neater! There was more, all of it pretty cool.
Christmas, though, isn't about the "stuff" accumulated, as fun as that all can be. It is, primarily about Christ, but also about family. And although those that share DNA with me were thousands of miles away, the St. George's family was together in so many ways yesterday! Zoe's family, too… And as I type this she's abandonded her mouse to come sit, draped over my arm. Purring!
That's one of the great things about being Christian. No matter what earthly family we have, we've all been adopted into that little family that couldn't find a place to give birth, that huddled around a manger to witness the first days of the most wonderful gift the world's ever been given. And, through that gift, adopted into a much, much larger family.
Mele Kalikimaka, blog family!
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In the news, I ran across this article today, and thought it interesting. Some of the points he makes are the reasons I avoid some news services (on TV, mainly) and choose others.