When someone in your family has a birthday, it makes you want to do something nice for them. You want to make them feel special. It’s easy to tell someone “happy birthday!”, and it usually makes them feel good. But would we be willing to do something more?
We can have the right mentality about Christmas, but that doesn’t feel like enough, does it?
The older you get, the less exciting Christmas becomes. (My sincere apologies to all my readers who are younger than I am.)
You begin realize that it’s not necessarily the best time of year, it can be kind-of stressful, and there’s always that inevitable after-Christmas-let-down.
So when you get old enough to realize you shouldn’t center the season around presents and you’ll probably just be disappointed if you do, you were never crazy about the food or decorations, and you like the music but you can’t live off jingle bells–what next?
Well, you turn to what should have been our focus in the first place–Christ.
You don’t go to a birthday party just because you want the cake (I least I hope you don’t!), you go because you want to encourage whoever is having the birthday.
The last song on Rend Collective’s Christmas album is called “For All That You Have Done”. Jesus has a birthday because He was born to be tortured to death. He has done everything for us. Given us everything.
The least we can do is celebrate His birthday for Him.
Skyping with Becca and Spencer. Yes, they are playing the piano. Lucy loves music, and she was very excited to see she would have a piano at home! 🙂
And our visit to Shamian Island! It is such a neat place!
There were mini Terracotta Warriors everywhere!
Lots of photo shoots–mostly in wedding dresses.
I could not get over this girl’s hair:
And some photo shoots of this. I don’t know.
And I don’t remember how exactly I got this. I just remember Dad saying “Take a picture of her shoes,” and trying to. It turned out surprisingly good. They’re pretty shoes–though I would twist an ankle in them, most likely! 🙂
Not sure where this guy was headed. He didn’t appear to have an owner.
Blondies get lots of stares in China–and an occasional request for a picture together!
P.S. Did I mention that they celebrate Christmas in China?
Happy December!
Painting Chinese characters–with water. They’ll evaporate in a matter of hours, but he still does it.
This lady was a waitress at our hotel’s breakfast buffet and was incredibly sweet! She helped us figure out what to feed our girl, told us what Chinese kids often eat, and brought our breakfast up to our room our first morning with Lucy!
An in-country plane-ride to Guangzhou! Our sparrow had never flown before, and she was giddy with excitement! That girl is so brave!
I actually thought the food on the in-country flight was better than the American food! 🙂
Distinct. Something lost in translation, maybe?
P.S. They celebrate Christmas in China–big time.
The patiently-awaited pictures of our Christmas tree:
I realized this year what a neat stocking this was! Thank you, Aunt Kelly!
I am REALLY enjoying my camera! Here’s a couple random pictures I took around Christmas-time:
P.S. You guys should totally read this. It’s from the blog I linked to on Thanksgiving. Sobering (and convicting), but oh-so-good!
Happy Monday!
Which means tomorrow is. . . ! ! !
🙂
I realized this year how presents-oriented I was when it came to Christmas. Christmas wasn’t about Jesus for me; it was about Christmas songs, presents, food, etc. I realized this year that I needed to focus of Jesus. It’s incredible that he came to die. We give gifts on Christmas in memory of the greatest gift ever given… but the tradition is probably drowning out its origin.
We were out driving the other day and we went past this house in our grandma’s neighborhood that had more Christmas decorations out than you can IMAGINE! Actually, the whole circle was pretty decked-out, but one house was more buried than the others (they do that at Halloween too, but we DON’T stop to admire it). There were a few simple manger-scenes, but mostly the usual… ya’ know: Snoopy in a Santa-hat and jazzy penguins in fluffy ear-muffs kinda’ thing.
We slowed down so Lucy could see, and someone told her “Christmas.” I began to feel frustrated, because that’s not what Christmas is all about. The world can say what they like, but Christmas isn’t about talking snowmen or red-nosed reindeer. It’s about JESUS.
Nothing else.
Tell me: when did Santa get so BIG and Jesus so small? And how did we get from Saint Nicolas to Santa Claus anyway?
We were out driving around again and stopped (in our neighborhood) at a corner we call “The Garden House” where they had wrapped almost all their trees in Christmas-lights.
Dad and Lucy got out to look at them. And sitting there watching them (in the heated car 🙂 )I realized that this was nearer the mark: light.
Jesus is the light of the world. This whole celebration is about the smallest figure in our nativity-scenes. The baby.
Baby Jesus.
P.S. Could you all be praying for healing for us? Michael, Spencer, and I are all coughing… not to mention that we had an ER run today because M pulled the piano-bench over on his foot. It’s not broken, which is a miracle but piano-benches, after all, are piano-benches.
He got a boot while he was there, and he keeps saying: “It will help my owie get better! Doctor gave it to me…
He’s my FAVORITE Doctor!”
It’s not looking hopeful for those who like white Christmasses ’round here: it’s been wet and rainy, and not just bitterly cold.
Becca, Spencer, and I went to Panera a few days ago to pick up dinner. And I (always the unprepared one) walked to the car between my two older siblings in their parkas wondering if I was going to be warm enough in my new grey fleece (thanks grandpa and grandma!)… and if drenched tennis shoes are the end of the world as I trudged through the mushy grass.
I was also afraid that we were going to get in a wreck because the windshield was all fogged over. Trust me to expect the worst!
I’m also not prepared for tomorrow. I have presents for… three people and zero presents wrapped? Something like that. 🙂 I’m excited though and we’re going to make some prep-time tonight after the littles go to bed.
P.S. Can you believe it’s Christmas Eve???
I can’t believe I didn’t post earlier! I really meant to.
Last Friday was my 14th birthday. I can’t believe I’ve been in my teens for a whole year! We usually have our grandparents over on birthdays, but because of “cocooning” with Lucy we just celebrated quietly the seven of us.
We took Lucy to a Christmas-party yesterday–for less than half an hour. You can go to our family blog to read about what she’s been up to.
And I got a camera at aforementioned Christmas-party!!! I am SO excited! I haven’t gotten it out and figured out how to use it (aka given to my dad or brother and asked them what to do with it) but I’m really excited to! Maybe I’ll start posting pictures now! 🙂
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We cheated this year and got our Christmas tree at Lowe’s, but at least it’s real! We went real simple this time and just did lights, tinsel (because Lucy likes it), and red Chinese tassels. It’s lovely.
It’s been fairly warm here (hence the bike #FamilyBlog) which has been nice.
Merry Christmas!