December 26 – “True Love’s Kiss”

The Christmas morning crowd at church was kind of small, around 20 hearty souls, several of whom had also attended the Christmas Eve service.  We abbreviated the service a bit so folks could spend more time with friends and family.  I would say overall it was a good time of worship. 

After church we were invited over to Lauren and Ed’s house for a Christmas lunch.  Apparently Cathy, Lauren’s Mom, heard what the plans were for said lunch and decided that they just weren’t “special” enough.  So she jumped in and changed things up.  Instead we had turkey and all the fixin’s.  Dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans (casserole and regular), and rolls.  Not to mention the warm apple pie and blueberry cobbler with Blue Bell ice cream on top for dessert.  It honestly felt like Thanksgiving.  They were planning an afternoon of games as well, but we took our leave early so we could spend some time with family.

And by family, I guess I mean, first of all, just Chris and I.  We exchanged presents before church, so we needed a moment or two to bask in the glory and excitement of our new stuff.  I got some underwear.  Just what I asked for.  No, really.  I’m not being sarcastic here.  I really needed some new underwear.  I also got a wallet and a movie (Sully.  It’s the one about the pilot who landed in the river.  Tom Hanks.  I like Tom Hanks).  And then there were the slippers.  Two pair of slippers, one for summer and one for winter.  The winter pair has the Superman logo blasted all over it.  I have to return them, though.  Both pair are too small.  The good thing, though, is that they came from good ol’ WalMart.  And we have to finish up some Christmas shopping anyway before Josh and Christi get here on Wednesday.  Chris got a pop up tent of her very own so we don’t have to constantly be borrowing Nathan’s.  we can also use it on our back porch on the scorcher days of August just around the corner.  She got a new cell phone charger for the car.  Our old one died.  And thanks to a combination of sales and coupons and a birthday giftcard from Palais Royal, she got a set of sheets for our bed.  We have a set or two that are about as threadbare as the underwear I have been wearing (Wait.  Too much information?).  She also got two books written by our friend Susan Feaster.  Oh, and the carving this year was … I managed to finish at the very last minute the names of our two latest additions, AnnaGrace and Ezra.  Ezra was a challenge, since he was born on the 22^nd, but with supervisory assistance from Micah and Josiah and Noa, I pulled it off with just one minor snafu.  But that snafu glued back on with no problem.  I even managed to mention the grandkids at the Christmas Eve service.  That’s kind of a tradition we have.  I somehow mention whatever I have carved at the service.  Chris has to try and figure out what the carving is.  Some years I have even written an entire children’s Christmas story to give her clues.  That didn’t happen this year, but I did get the clues in. 

After pondering our gifts (read here, collapsing for a much-needed Sunday afternoon nap), we drove up to LaMarque to check on Ezra in his new habitat.  His family seems to be holding up just fine with this new addition.  Noa regaled us with her ever-changing details in a story she was crafting on the fly concerning Anna (she got an Anna dress for Christmas, so she was wearing it, of course).  It had all the characters from the movie (which I still have not seen all the way through), and a few of her own.  As I understood it, Anna’s sister was some kind of evil super-villain with the power to freeze your heart and kill you.  Somebody named Christoph who wears “That one kind of hat like you wear, Daddy” works with the evil sister.  Take courage if you ever get frozen to death, though.  See, Anna/Noa herself had already been frozen.  But true love’s kiss from a snowman had fixed her heart and saved her.  “True love’s kiss can do that.”  Good to know. 

Philippians 1:3-6 says, “I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Father, thank you for taking it upon yourself to send us Jesus - your true love’s kiss.  Amen.