Category Archives: Christmas

December 13, 2012 · 12:34 pm

St. Lucia Day

Went up to Birdies’s this morning.  Some traditions, even if they started later in life, are a good thing.  She decided that she could carry on for one more year.  Goodness knows she has earned her rest from this but we keep showing up and she feeds us.

We had no lovely young Swedish maiden with a crown of lights on her head this year but there were cardamom buns and cheese and good coffee.

Then I went and exercised faithfully to offset the extra calories. 

Now I should be studying form exam in the morning but it is very hard to get into a studying kind of mood.  Must though.

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December 23, 2011 · 9:35 pm

Semi-retirement perks

I was only in the dental office one day this week, only spent one real day at the church plus a few hours here and there.  The rest of the week I have been getting ready. I have been able to clean a bit in my office at home – much needed.  Wrapped all the presents.  Usually I’m doing that last minute while yelling at everyone to stay out of the bedroom.  Since no one else was homeI got to do my wrapping this year on the dining room table. Way better than the bedroom floor.

Tomorrow the kids come home – except for Rachelle, Asen and Ronin (sigh).  They will be home in a couple of weeks though. 

We should be 22 around the table(s) tomorrow night.  Then we all will head over to the church for the candlelight Christmas Eve service.  Back home after for our gift opening.  We will be up very late I suspect.  Sunday morning we will (Leo and I at least) get up for a casual breakfast/Sunday/Christmas Day service.  It will be good to worship our Saviour with the other brave souls who venture out.

Then I will crash and just chill out the rest of the day.  If I get my way.

 

It would have been nice to have some snow for Christmas but they are predicting +2 or so and I suspect not much snow will remain.  Shouldn’t complain – better than –40.

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December 17, 2011 · 10:38 pm

Accompanied by a dancer

Today started off with suture removal.  It had been 5 days and I figured that since she said 5 to 7 days that meant my little incision would have been pretty much healed up.  I’m afraid my pristine beauty has now been marred by my rushing things.  The incision –the one up by my hairline – opened up.  I am now closed up with superglue and a bandaid.  Not quite what I had intended but that is how life goes I guess.  Nice to have a Dr hubby on mornings like this.

Started cooking the meat for tourtiere and finished off my writing for the Advent Candle lighting tomorrow. Then a little ballerina arrived.  She was dressed all in pink and we began what ended up being a day spent together.  We all went out to choose trees and threw three of them on top of my little Matrix with the car top carriers.  Delivered them.  Went for lunch at McD’s and then for groceries.  Interesting, grocery shopping with a 3 year old.  She decided that she needed a bag of marshmallows.  She wanted to ride in the cart, then out of it, then hung on behind for awhile.  She held the list and we did manage to get everything on it and make it to church for music practice in time. 

At worship practice we were treated to an hour of interpretive dance and attempts to help Birdie play the organ.  Mrs. Birdie was most tolerant, bless her.

One week left till Christmas.  Lots left to do I’m afraid. 

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Filed under Christmas, church, grandchildren, Songs and Music

December 16, 2011 · 10:13 am

Let the Holidays Begin

I have just uploaded my final paper for the New Testament class I have been taking.  This last assignment was a doozy – an exegesis of Heb.6:1-8.  Now even my computer thinks it is supposed to write in Greek!  I keep having to correct it and remind it that its default is English – Please. 

Anyway, it is done.  Now I am free to do all the preparations I need to do before Christmas.  Tomorrow we go buy a tree and set that up.  I must take out my pork and get it ready for tourtiere.  There are many items on the grocery list to go shopping for.  And then I must sort out the gifts and see what I am still missing.  Leo’s arrived yesterday.  I do love on-line shopping.

Yesterday was a particularly good day at our house.  Rachelle called – she was promoted to manager of her store.  Sara got her acceptance letter to SAIT for Respiratory Therapy. Zaka came over for a sleep over and got to play Wii mini-golf with Grandpa and Nan.  Nan made his first ever foray into the world of haute cuisine – Brownies for his class potluck.  And I was putting the finishing touches on my paper.

Today, I am indulging in some of the many treats at the office as I write this.  Too many of those by far.  I hope I don’t gain too many pounds over the next two weeks.  I plan to enjoy those two weeks anyway.

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November 27, 2011 · 4:09 pm

Want to Help Others This Christmas?

Sometimes there are just good things to support that come across one’s radar.  There are a couple of projects that I have become aware of in the past few weeks.  One is the Aviva funding competition for Harbour of Hope.  If you haven’t heard about this one yet, check out Jordon’s post about this worthwhile project.  Click here to read about it and then please go to the Aviva site, sign in and register to start making your votes.  It really does only take a few minutes of your time. 

Today at church we became aware of another worthwhile project.  Family Futures of Prince Albert is launching a fundraising project “Unto Us A Child Is Born.”  This is a program that gives support to  young mothers and children. Mothers with young children in need receive support so they can be better parents and understand better how to feed and nurture their children.  I can’t think of a better way to honour Christ on his birthday than to help children get a better start in life.  It is not a Christian organization however I think that when a group targets Christian churches as part of their fundraising and we respond generously we state loudly that we care for the least among us in Christ’s name. 

Another group with which I am involved is Fresh Start Ministries.  This is a compassionate ministry with the Nazarene Church but they gladly let others join them in reaching out to the hungry and homeless people of Prince Albert.  In fact I am chair of their board.  I know that we can use funds to help distribute hampers and small gifts to the homeless.  We are just a small organization but the opportunities for service to these people is huge.  If you need a good local charity to support send me an e-mail. 

These are just a few of the opportunities to get involved.  If they are not enough for you then get over to one of the groups that sponsors children overseas like World Vision or Compassion and send a little extra their way.

We already have enough stuff to put under our trees at Christmas time.  Lets spend some of our excessive wealth on others that really need it.

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December 20, 2010 · 3:08 pm

This waiting season

Advent is drawing to an end – to the climax of Christmas day when we celebrate the birth of Christ.   I thought I would share the final essay I submitted for my Theology class since I now have been marked on it and that bit of anxiety and waiting period is over for me.  If you want to read it all, click on  continue reading   (sorry for the American spellings – the school is USAian).

We Wait in Expectation

Almighty God, give all of us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.[1]

Recently, I was asked to reflect on the purpose and meaning of Advent with some young children from the neighborhood around our church. The children had no idea that a season of Advent existed. Their preparations for the coming season of Christmas were centered around what they wanted from Santa not on the coming celebration of the birth of Christ. Anticipation and waiting meant counting down the days till Santa came.

Continue reading →

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December 19, 2010 · 11:37 pm

Seven

tourtieres made and meat for the eighth ready.  I am short one pie shell. 

Tomorrow – last minute shopping and pick up some groceries.

Do some housecleaning and make a trip to Salvation Army or Value Village for a drop off.

Reading.  Much, much reading needs to be done for my January class.  And then there is the prep for preaching on Jan. 2.

It will be a busy day,

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December 10, 2010 · 7:02 am

A Pretty Good Shepherd

Kim at Connexions offers a story – and a pretty interesting one – that is timely at Advent.

How like this shepherd we are.  More like this one than we are like the Good Shepherd.

Food for thought. Enjoy.

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Filed under Christmas, Reading, Theology

December 29, 2009 · 4:31 pm

A Christmas Review

In past years I was on here posting stuff almost daily.  Not sure what has happened.  Maybe it is a sense of disconnect from you real people out there and less of a need to write stuff out to myself.  I’m not sure.

Christmas has come and gone and we had a good time here in our home.  All the kids and grandkids were home, all but Rachelle, Ronin and Asen from Toronto.  The house was full and noisy and the kids had fun.  It was fun to watch them interact with Ronin on Skype.  Seeing Rachelle and family helped ease the pain of separation – more than just a phone call.  Seeing has great value in communication I guess.

Dave, Annette and kids stayed for most of the week.  I love having them around even if the house gets to be a mess. They are just easy to be with and sit around and watch TV and play games with. 

Today Leo was back at work and I joined him, Eric and Michelle and Kimia for lunch at Shenanigans.  Leo got me a new phone image

that was Bluetooth compatible so that I could set up a hands free connection for the car.  We stopped and got one problem with it sorted out on the way to lunch.  Now I have to learn to use this new phone.  I don’t know if I really like it.  It does too much and although it will be nice to download ringtones and maybe take a picture or two, it does more than I really need or want.  The keyboard is nice for texting – which I do occasionally – so that feature is nice.  But I spent hours trying to figure out stuff and if the learning curve is too steep for my purposes, I wonder if I will just hate the thing and hardly use it.  It also is very square and does not feel nice in my hand – kind of clunky – so I don’t know.  Functional things should have some aesthetic value besides functioning.  Shouldn’t it feel like it fits my hand?  Maybe I ask too much.

The rest from work should allow my thumb to heal up. It is still very sore when I do certain things.  Holding a pen is still quite painful.  and holding a pen is very similar to how I hold a handpiece unfortunately.  I guess I must have torn the ligaments around the Metacarpophalangeal joint.  It will have a few more days to heal before I have to get back to work and I suspect I won’t let it slow me down too much. 

Other than eating too much and being generally quite lazy, a lot of my free time has been spent studying.  In two weeks I travel down to Chicago for an intensive seminary class on the missional church.  I will enjoy the class but there is quite a lot of reading and a few book reviews that I must get ready.  I plan a stopover in Toronto to visit Rachelle.  I sure hope the extra security becomes more efficient so that I can take a carry on and not have to spend 6 hours in line.  Maybe it would be faster to rent a car and drive from Toronto.  I guess I will just need an extra measure of patience. 

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December 23, 2009 · 9:55 pm

The Night Before The Night Before

Last day of work today for a week and a bit.  We finished off the day with a couple of emergencies that walked in to the office at the very last moment.  One fellow I could not help.  My sore hand had been working hard on some fillings and I just did not think it was wise to start an extraction that I might not be able to finish.

So the end of the day was spent catching up on all the last minute shopping, some gifts, some groceries, filled the car with gas and printed off some pictures I need for gifts.  Then I realized that I no longer had my VISA card.  It was not in its customary slot in my wallet. 

I don’t think there is a feeling that is much worse.  I need that card when I travel in January.  There would barely be time to replace it and there are all those accounts set up that I would have to remember to change.  So, my mind began backtracking the events of my afternoon – when had I used it last, etc.  And I realized I had l left it in the chipreader following one of my purchases.  What were the chances of it still being there two hours later?  I almost gave up before returning to the store.  But, I thought I’d better at least give it a try. 

So glad I did!  The person minding the till was still on duty and there was my card.  Wonder of wonders!  Thank God it was safe.  Made my day! 

So, now there are just gifts to wrap, food to cook and a bit of relaxing to do. 

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