Christmas Makes Me Cry

This Christmas, I am missing:

• a most beloved pastor and our little inside joke about the Christmas Concert
• friends with whom I once spent Christmas until things changed and we drifted apart
• the child who insisted on singing "beneath they deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by" instead of despite my attempts to correct "beneath" to "above"
• my grandparents (three of them; I never met the other one); one grandmother came every Christmas; the other grandparents lived further away so we saw them less often
• a small, enthusiastic shepherd who made a little bow to the congregation on his way out one concert

There is some achiness at Christmas, and more surrounding the concert because I have so many memories of past concerts and people who are no longer around (some just left the church; others are in heaven now).

But I am also thankful for:

• the family I spend Christmas with and who are really family to me now
• this year's Christmas concert with close to 90 enthusiastic children and our annual chance to remind (or teach) people about the birth of Christ and the gospel
• the child who is trying so hard to behave because he wants to be a shepherd
• the little guy who decided that he would be a Scripture reader this year and is faithfully practicing reading his part
• having a church family who love and support me

From Matthew West, a song that helps express my feelings:

Christmas is Coming!

My mum has been asking for my Christmas list (although she started that in the summer, so that's not a really good indicator).

I have started planning the Christmas Concert. There will be an announcement in the bulletin on Sunday, but people have already been talking to me about their roles.

Most importantly: It's snowing properly outside! Not just a few flakes that barely reach the ground before melting, but a proper layer of snow. And yes, I know it won't last, but it's here right now.

So, one of my favourite Christmas songs for you:

Because Sometimes You Don't Feel Joyful and Triumphant...

Christmas!!!

 Yes, yes, it's been forever, but I'm starting to organize the Christmas concert, so it's time for....

A Hymn for Christmas

8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

Luke 2:8=20 (NASB)

Almost Christmas!

I mean, Christmas Eve is practically Christmas, and this afternoon I'm heading off to start the celebration of Christmas with friends, so I guess we could claim that it's Christmas. But if I did, then I wouldn't have an excuse to post this song, from one of my favourite versions of A Christmas Carol!

A Hymn for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:1-7 (NASB)

A Hymn for the Third Sunday of Advent

6 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:6-13 (NASB)

A Hymn for the Second Sunday of Advent

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:1-5 (NASB)

A Hymn For the First Sunday of Advent

1 But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

2 The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
3 You shall multiply the nation,
You shall increase their gladness;
They will be glad in Your presence
As with the gladness of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4 For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.
5 For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,
And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:1-7 (NASB)

Still Christmas

It seems I still haven't got Christmas out of my system (or my playlist), so here you go:

Christmas

I know it's well past Christmas (or a really long time until Christmas, depending on how you look at it). Too bad. This is my blog, and I want to talk about Christmas.

I spent Christmas with my oldest brother, his wife, their 6 children, and my parents. It was good. There was a lot of noise and a lot of food, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. My youngest niece and nephew were happy to have a playmate who would ignore the other adults sometimes and play with them, someone who would let them climb and stand on her, someone who would play with Lego or make paper jewelry for Barbies. I loved seeing them all, and I'm glad I went.

At the same time, Christmas with them meant that I didn't spend Christmas with other family members, or the Edmonton families that I usually spend Christmas with, or the church family whom I spent Christmas Eve with last year. I missed all of them.

I realized, when I was thinking about this, how richly blessed I am. There were at least 4 places that I would have loved to spend Christmas, and where they would have loved to have me. God has given me so many people to love and be loved by. Happily enough, I can see most of them throughout the year (at not-Christmas).

Also, here's a Christmas song I discovered this year.

(And also, my YouTube play list is all messed up thanks to a month of listening to Christmas music. I don't think I'll ever convince it that Christmas is over. Random Christmas songs are going to show up all year.)

Merry Christmas

Yesterday I spent the afternoon and evening with friends from church. They let me be part of their families, and we just had a nice time together, and while the crazy ones went caroling in the very cold, I stayed in to watch the little ones. I read them stories, and when the baby woke up, I got to hold him and tell him how adorable and wonderful he is. It was a good day.

Later today I will join other friends for Christmas dinner and a long afternoon and evening of fun and togetherness. It will be a good day.

What I am remembering right now:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not, cannot, will not overcome it.

Merry Christmas, my friends.

Sunday Notes

Yesterday was Christmas Concert day (which is why I'm a day late again; there was enough to do yesterday). We had rehearsal in the morning, then the service, then home for lunch with friends, then a short break, then back to the church to do a dozen or so things before the concert started.

The concert itself went really well. Everyone did his or her part well, the children sang their hearts out (and looked adorable), and the candle-lit singing of Silent Night did not result in any fires. It was fun, and I'm very thankful for the entire team who made it happen.

I'm still tired this morning (I was awake a couple times in the night), and I'm happy that I don't have to think about the concert for another 10 months (that's my recovery period).

There are only a few days left of work, and then it's Christmas!

Sunday Notes

I did not yell at anyone during concert practice yesterday, which is amazing because I have my voice back and could yell now. I did smack them with a rolled up script on occasion. They wouldn't stop playing with the baby in the manger (and getting straw everywhere). They poked it and flipped it around (because it looked better the other way) and asked if it was necessary to change the baby's diaper. The chief angel tried to convince the other angels that they had to do what he did, the shepherds kept poking each other, and one of the Scripture readers wouldn't slow down (it was actually funny because he kept insisting that he was slowing down, but he kept reading at the same pace). I'm pretty sure they were all determined to drive me crazy, but somehow we made it through. Next week there is no practice, and then the weekend after we have the big dress rehearsal, the final rehearsal, and the performance.

In other news, life is pretty normal. I had lunch with my nephew and my brother on Friday. This is first nephew, the one in the Navy. He taught me about his job and how his training will look long-term. My other nephew is joining the Air Force next year (I think he's due to be at training in February or something close to that). This has already led to some good-natured rivalry between the two branches.

I had friends join me for dinner on Friday. They have a tall son, a small son, and a baby son. It was fun, especially since I got to hold spend the evening telling the baby son how adorable he is (he is very, very adorable).

Beyond that, life is moving along normally. It's only 3 weeks until Christmas, and I'll have a few days off then to relax.

Happy December!!!!!!

Sunday Stuff

Today was a bit different in that while I was at church, I wasn't participating a lot. I've been fighting a cold, and I was coughing a lot this morning. I thought about staying home, but it was the first Christmas concert practice, so I figured I should be there. By the time I left (at about 9:00), I wasn't coughing very much.

Anyway, I was needed as a "helper" in a classroom today as there was a teacher off sick. Mostly I was just needed as an extra presence, so I wandered in and out, taking care of stuff. I did a pile of photocopying for the concert (songs and lines), and sat in the Sunday School room and organized it all. Then, when it was time for the service, I decided not to try sitting through the service. I didn't have the energy to stand for singing, and I couldn't sing anyway (my voice is rather rough) (as a side note, no one would care if I sat down during the singing; at the most, they would worry that I was unwell). I also didn't want to disturb everyone if I started coughing. Happily enough, the service is piped into one of the Sunday School rooms (so parents have a place to bring restless children), so I hung out in there.

Practice went about as well as the first one ever goes. I was with the grade 5-12 students, trying to get them to stop talking long enough for me to give out lines and explain things. There were questions (that would have been answered if they had listened); plenty of "helpful" advice; and an attempt to convince me to use a real baby for Jesus (no, no, no, no, no!). We did get through the readings, and I understand that the younger children at least heard the songs (and some of them even sang). It's a start!

I have a bit of a different Christmas song for you this week. Enjoy!

Sunday Stuff

Today in Sunday School I learned that I'm not allowed to get drunk and start beating people up. I think, from context, that it's the people at church whom I'm not allowed to beat up, but I'll try to refrain from beating up anyone just to be on the safe side. Adult Sunday School rocks. I spend a lot of time wondering what I've been missing out on all those years of teaching instead of sitting in the adult class.

Today is the official start of Christmas Concert season. We had our meeting and got people signed up. As always, there are a lot of small children who will be part. One wee one kept asking if we were having the concert today, no matter how many times I said no; another one was concerned that they would have to guess at the words of the songs, but I put his mind to ease. This year is a bit different because I have a lot of older kids. I'm missing the chunk in the middle, aka, all the shepherds. I have angels and I have someone to play Mary, but most of the grade 5/6 kids aren't in it this year. I think I'll have to recruit shepherds from grades 7 and 8. And, as always, I need a Joseph. No one wants to be Joseph.

In honor of the start of the season, here is my favourite Christmas carol:

What Christmas is All About

This is a busy time of year. There are concerts and parties and family time and stuff happening all over the place. It's easy to get so caught up in everything that's happening that we forget why it's all happening. Then people get grumpy and complain about all the consumerism and how much they don't like Christmas. On the other hand, there are the people who reject all the outside stuff of Christmas and insist that we can only think about the birth of Christ and not have any lights or presents or fun.

I love Christmas. I love the lights, and the presents (both giving and getting), and the food, and all the fun and laughter. And I love "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" and "God with us", and the promise of salvation. And I don't think you need to separate the two.

For those of us, though, who are finding things a bit too stressful, here's a reminder of what it's all really about:




Now, take an hour or so out of your day and go watch the whole thing while you sit by a lit-up Christmas tree and enjoy some Christmas baking and hot chocolate (or whatever says "Christmas" to you), or wrap some presents.

Enjoy Christmas. All of it.

Christmas Concert Stuff

Tomorrow is the Christmas concert at the church, so today was dress rehearsal day. Except that we weren't able to do an actual dress rehearsal; we just did a "this is the best we can do; forget about the costumes" rehearsal.

This year's concert has been a headache from the beginning, and yet I've been remarkably calm (although I've been accused of being stressed and upset, but that's just when I've been herding children into one spot and trying to figure out how to deal with problems; it seems that when I'm trying to do 3 things at once and I'm talking talking to 3 groups at once I seem stressed, even when I'm not).

Here's the issue: In October, I emailed the elder with the plans for the concert meeting, the practice times, and the dress rehearsal time. He told me that he would confirm with the other elders, and a few days later assured me that the times were all good.

What no one told me was....

1. The day of the concert meeting, we were going to have coffee/juice/cookies to celebrate the church's 11th anniversary and the installation of the newest elder/pastor, and that this would happen during my meeting. 
2. There would be a baptism the week of the first practice. They did give 30 minutes between the service and the baptism so that there would be time for practice, but since I also help back stage for the baptisms, it was a rather rushed and busy day.
3. They were going to welcome all the new members with a fellowship meal the day of (and the time of) the second practice. I gave up then and cancelled the practice.
4. The elder would forget to check that we could use the church for the dress rehearsal (we're not in our own building quite yet, so we rent another church for our services and other stuff), and we would show up to find that the other church was having choir practice on the stage, and that they had a funeral scheduled to start before we were going to finish.

So we had the "dress" rehearsal in the atrium, which worked, but didn't give us the right amount of room on our "stage", or the right amount of room for the wings so they know where to come on and off the stage, or the piano on the correct side. I know that last part doesn't seem like a big deal, but I had a hard time explaining to one adult how things would be for the actual concert. She was convinced that they children would be coming on stage on the side with the piano because they came on the side with the piano today. It was a very confusing conversation, and why would I confuse the children by having them come on the other side (also, the children weren't confused because most of them remembered how it was last year, and that hasn't changed).

We'll see how things go tomorrow. If everyone is on time (ha, ha....like that would happen), I'll have about 20 minutes to make sure the children know where to stand and the adults know where to send them on stage.