Friday, December 23, 2022

Almost Christmas!

 Fourth Week of Advent. 

We are almost ready to celebrate Christmas.

We also just passed the Winter Solstice.

The days will be longer.  However.  As I learned from one of my best friends who now lives in Iowa, midwestern people have a saying, "As the days get longer, the cold gets stronger!"  We are finding this to be especially true this Christmas weekend.  Right now, our temperatures are in the negative numbers.  There is snow.  There is ice.  There is wind.  It's frigid!

It may be cold outside, but there is warmth in our hearts as we contemplate the reason we celebrate Christmas.  "I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."

And in keeping with warmth, I also focus on my weekly exercise of expressing gratitude and thankfulness with Friday Fave Fives hosted by Susanne.

1.  Obviously, I am thankful that I have a warm house with heat source.  Cozy blankets.  Warm sweaters and coats and mittens and hats.

2.  Our granddaughter PAL sang in a Christmas concert with the Arizona Girls Choir.  We were able to watch the entire concert after it was put up on you tube.  She is following in a long generational line of choral singers.

3.  My other granddaughter (I should call her Tall Girl) and Tall Boy came one afternoon and helped me bake cookies using my grandmother's sugar cookie recipe.  They chose the cookie cutters, so we have many dog, fish and cat cookies as well as trees and bells.  Then Tall Boy returned yesterday to frost them and to make the dough for HIS chocolate cookie recipe.

4.  Tall Girl and Tall Boy also accompanied us on our weekly visit with our friends at a local coffee shop.  How many teenage grands are willing to go to coffee shops with their grandparents and friends?  I was so happy they were interested--granted, the interest was probably partly mostly due to a promise of food...

5.  And of course, I am grateful for another year to celebrate ADVENT and CHRISTMAS!  Merry Christmas, everyone!

7 comments:

Deb J. in Utah said...

Hi Willow. So glad you are having a good Christmas season with your family. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Sandi said...

Merry Christmas, Linda!

Aritha Vermeulen said...

I love to read about your blessings.

ellen b. said...

Frigid is the word for sure. I'm so thankful that furnace is running and it's running nonstop...poor appliance. Stay cozy and warm.

Faith said...

Weirdly, it is NOT frigid here in Eastern NY. In fact, this morning it was pouring rain and a balmy 55 F!!! but...now it is down 29 F and lightly snowing with a winter wind advisory for our region. One daughter is safely home from work as her boss let them leave early and youngest girl is still working downtown and has a 30 min commute back to her apt. Am praying she arrives safely as it's getting icy. ugh.

LOVE that your grands helped you bake and went to the coffee shop with you. That's a true blessing.

Stay cozy and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Linda Hoye said...

Such a gift to spend time with your grands! Isn’t it wonderful that we have the technology to do things like watch them doing things from afar too? Merry Christmas!

Lynn and Precious said...

Merry Christmas to you. Thank you for stopping by our blog. Yes, I am in north central Ohio, where we have very little sunshine all winter long. Too much lake effect wind and weather. Thankfully, out in the country, we did not lose power and only got 8 inches of snow. I'm done for the winter, lol. Lynn and Precious