Wednesday is Christmas Day At Our House!!

The family has all gathered for Christmas. As always the center of the meal will be chicken and dressing. Here is Sue Ellen preparing the pot for baking. Everyone was in the kitchen offering advice.









Jesse made sure it was done right!









The chicken is in the oven ready for baking.











The kids play on the computers while the chicken and dressing bakes.










It is ready for presentation.

The table is ready.

The sweet potatoes look just like I like them.









Lynne made corn salad.








and rolls.





We also had green beans and mashed potatoes. The meal concluded with pumpkin pie, ice cream and cheese cake. I didn't eat any supper!

Stubborn Black Dog

Monday night Black Dog was feeling fine. He was running around jumping and playing and chasing the cat. Tuesday morning he was nowhere to be seen at feeding time. I searched for him all morning but did not find him. We went to Long John Silver's for lunch and when we returned home he was lying in the yard looking very bedraggled. He seemed to barely have enough strength to stand up. I was able to get him to take his medicine and eat some food. By evening he was acting more normal but I chained him to keep him at home.

Wednesday morning I removed the chain and he immediately headed for the highway. I called him back and replaced the chain. He was stubborn about taking his pills today and kept spitting them out. Finally he swallowed most of the medication. Guess I will have to keep him chained until the call of the wild diminishes.

Christmas memories....


I remember....

" 'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house..."

I had a colorful storybook telling that story when I was a child. We must have read that story several times a night as Christmas approached but at age 4 or 5 there was a line that was difficult for me to understand.
"As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,"

Not living near the coast I had no understanding of a hurricane and what was that about meeting an obstacle and mounting to the sky?

On my Christmas Eve trip to Wal-mart this year I experienced the dry leaves flying around as if before a wild hurricane and as I walked across the parking lot to the front door I saw a plastic shopping bag start at ground level and mount to the sky right up the front wall of the store. A perfect picture from "The Night Before Christmas"!

Clement Clarke Moore wrote this classic poem for his children on Christmas eve in 1821. A family friend liked the poem and submitted it to the New York Sentinel newspaper the next year and they published it on Christmas eve in 1822. From that day on we have had a description of Santa Clause that has shaped our thoughts of Christmas. But the picture of Santa Clause was only a word picture for many years. It was not until 1862 that we had a visual picture of Santa. In 1862 Harper's Weekly newspaper published Thomas Nast's drawing of Santa Clause. Several of Nast's drawings included an image of Santa. In one of Nast's drawings in 1863 Santa was holding a bag of toys and he has been bringing a bag of toys ever since that time.

Candlelight Service

Our 6 pm worship service was very good. The Christmas story was told from the scripture by various families in the membership. We enjoyed singing carols and hymns, observed the Lord's Supper and concluded with a candle lighting throughout the sanctuary which was almost filled with worshipers. After Kirby's annual presentation of "O Holy Night" we sang "Silent Night" and greeted lots of friends and their family members who had come home for Christmas. Yes, there were lots of hugs exchanged. It is a very special season.
Merry Christmas to all ...