MARY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Yes, you read it right. Today I heard a sermon that had this title. Don't you just love the way Mary was obedient and all that is written about her journey to obedience in Luke 1 and in Luke 2. I just love those two chapters and read them a few times over the year, but I think as we anticipate the celebration of Christs birth it becomes more special. I love the way she pondered it all and kept it in her heart. Just think how blessed she must have felt to be the chosen one to bring our Savior into the world. It must at times have been a bit scary, like when she had to tell her parents or Joseph and not knowing how they would react. It is amazing how God had already had a talk with Joseph. It reminds me just how awesome God is, in preparing things for us. It usually turns out that all the worrying and fretting we do is for naught as God has already prepared the way. I always look forward to re-hearing the journey through the old testament and how God had already prepared everything way back then. This year for the first time I realized Mary was a widow. If you notice, after a certain point in the New Testament, Joseph isn't mentioned and it is now believed that he was much older than Mary and had passed away. Isn't it awesome that our Lord became a carpenter so that he could support his mother and other family members? Even when he was at the cross, he thought of Mary and made sure someone was looking after her. That to me shows his love, not just for his earthly family, but for all of us.Feeree over at Widow's Christian Place has this video up today. If you are a widow, please start following her blog, it is awesome, so much help and ideas to help us through this stage of our lives.

Like Ferree, this too is my wish for you all at Christmas. Like you all, I will be busy over the next few days, so please make it your goal to observe, rejoice, and like Mary let us all ponder it all and keep it in our hearts.

Blessings to all. 

Jean

AN ANNIVERSARY OF SORTS

Today would have been Glenn's and my 36th wedding anniversary. To celebrate it, I dreamed of him all night. You know those dreams where he is there but doesn't talk and then all of a sudden he is gone and you wake up in a panic thinking he just left you. Too many of those dreams coming up to this day. I think they will go on for some time more as December is "The Month" for our family. His father passed away two days after our wedding. He was healthy when my mother-in-law left here to go to Calgary for the wedding and by the time she got home, he was gone. So my husband left for the funeral the next day (Tuesday) and arrived back on the Friday. I felt he had been through a lot during that week, so I arranged for him and I to spend the weekend at a local hotel. No sooner did we check in, than I called my sister to check on my two year old son, and low and behold, my sister-in-law had passed away. My brother came home from work to find her sitting on the couch where she had sat down to have a cup of tea and then died. So we chose to give up the weekend to help out as much as we could. They did not have any children and she was the love of his life so it hit him badly. On the Sunday, Glenn went back to work and had an accident. His forklift skidded on some ice and his hand got caught in between the forklift and some racking. So he was off work for a month. Things went smoothly for a few weeks then in January, I lost a baby. That was the beginning of our marriage a marriage blessed with fire. For those of you out there that think you can't possibly go through anything like that, well God says you can and you will and I am living proof of it. By the way, Glenn's sister introduced us on July 1st of that year and we married December 4th. No one can tell me that there is no such thing as love at first sight. God had it planned all along and I am so grateful for the husband he picked out for me. Glenn was kind, caring, gentle, a great father, grandfather, a hard worker and a thinker. I did not know of the influence he had here on earth for God until his passing and to this day, I am amazed at how God used a down to earth, quiet guy like my Glenn to further his kingdom. Thank you Lord!

The debacle of December did not end that year. Sure we had a few good Decembers, but a few years later my sister-in-law who lives in Texas, came home from work on Christmas Eve to find her husband and four month old son murdered. Of course as in a lot of investigations, the police thought she did it and had put her in jail until they checked out her story. In the meantime 3 other people in the same area were murdered that night. They realized they had a real killer on the loose and  kept her in jail over Christmas for her protection. That was a complete shock and still bothers us all to this day. I won't go into the details. She only vaguely knew this fellow.

Fast forward a few years and Glenn's mom goes to the hospital and they find gangrene in her. They bring her into a hospital in Winnipeg to investigate further. She has a problem with her gall bladder, but not bad enough for surgery. There is much prayer sent up on her behalf and when they investigate the gangrene further, they can find none. She starts feeling better and they decide the next day they will send her back to her local hospital. She  never made it through the night - it was her time.

That is our story of December and how precious Christmas is for us and how every year we are reminded in a real way just how much God gave to us by sending his son.

Blessings
Jean

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY.....

We had a batch of freezing rain go through long about 4:00 a.m.  Roscoe and I watched it for a minute before he decided he had to go bad enough to brave the rain. In my experience, most dogs do don't mind getting wet,dirty or stinky. Not Roscoe, he hates all of the above. So, when it is raining, I have to drag him down the block to get him to go. As I said before, he does the Pepe La Pew thing and dances down the street on his tip toes. Maybe I should enroll him in ballet classes, he certainly can get up real high on his toes.  I digress - back to the rain. Today most of the roads around here are closed or not recommended for travel, so the next best thing to do when the weather is like this is snowmobile. Yes, in spite of the the rain we still have lots of snow. In my neck of the woods, I am use to hearing the roar of the sleds as they make the trek to Co-op for gas. Usually though only a few drive up. The rest are on trailers going to parts farther north or east. Now, my town has recently opened a Tim Horten's (for US folk - sort of like Starbucks but much better). So today, it was funny to walk by Tim's and see the parking lot not full of cars and trucks, but snowmobiles. To funny. It will be interesting to see how the town handles that. I am sure Tim Horten's will not complain, as they are paying customers after all. I did not take my camera with me, but will try to get a shot of the snowmobile parking.

My oldest son and daughter-in-law became the proud owners of a new dining room suite a couple of weeks ago. Tonight is the big break-in. They are having the regular staff from my son's golf course over for their Christmas party. So only ten people, but eight of them are men. Should be an interesting night and I understand the food will be fabulous. My daughter-in-law is turning out to be a wonderful cook. I do wonder what is on for entertainment. My guess would be a re-run of what ever golf game is on today. By the way, they do have a party for all the staff, but it is usually held in the New Year, once all the courses are not so busy. They also do not have the party at their own course. The courses exchange their facilities for the parties. I think that is an awesome way to do things. That way, the kitchen staff get to attend also.

Meanwhile, my daughter has started her on-line University studies. She is going for a psychology degree. Her present position has made her very interested in this study and I believe she will do quite well working under that banner. To help pay for her endeavour, she has worked it out and will work one to three overtime shifts a month and within about a year she will have saved enough for the whole degree. I see your minds clicking and wondering how she can do that. Her shifts are 12 hour shifts and she is making in the vicinity of $70.00/hr per overtime shift, so you can see it isn't going to take many shift for her to have enough saved. Knowing her as I do, she will take a little longer than she thinks cause she usually gets the travel bug about once a year or so. That's okay though. You need some good downtime in your life also. While this is all going on, she is also renovating her house. Good thing she only lives with two cats - BooBoo and Marley. They don't complain too much when things are out of whack.

My staff Christmas party is next Friday night. In the past, I have only attended about every second year. Something else usually came up. Last year I would have loved to go and was planning to attend. However, at 5:30 p.m. I was still waiting for the rest of my belongings to show up. I had chosen that day to move and thought "no problem, the moving van is coming at 8:00 a.m. so should get me into my new place by 2:00. Stash a few bits and bobs, get dressed and away I go. Great plans.....as the saying goes. I think maybe in a way I sabotaged myself. That would have been the first Christmas Party without Glenn. Anyway, this year, my daughter-in-law started her own business of renting out chair covers, sashes, table cloths etc. and doing set ups for weddings. She has a lot of stock in her basement "office". Our Christmas parties are usually pretty plain Jane low key affairs. We usually go to a restaurant and have a dinner and exchange a few inexpensive gifts. One year we did play some minute-to-win-it games, but that is the extent of our excitement. So, I thought we should glam up the spread a bit. She is doing the set up and I am doing the centerpieces and other decorating. Today, I have been working on the decorations. I will take a picture once we get the room set up on Friday. I think it should be a good evening. Good food, good camaraderie and good relaxation. This will now be my first Christmas Party without Glenn. I am a little anxious over it, but as with all the other firsts - the before is worse than the actual doing.

On the Christmas front. Most gifts are purchased. I need now to make the gift bags - funny how those walk out the door every year, figure out what all to eat on Christmas Eve, and try to fit in a visit with my oldest grandson, and my husband's sister and her family. I think with Corrie and family, we will do that after Christmas. As for seeing my Cobi, well it better be soon! It feels like forever since I saw him, and in a way it has been. It was around the middle of October when I last saw him. Time sure gets away these days.

Hoping you all have an awesome weekend.

Blessings

Jean