Merry Christmas!

Hard to believe that Christmas is 2 days away! Even harder to believe is that all my shopping and prep work is done!! I just have to wrap the gifts and hope to have that done by noon.

David and Rachel arrived from Michigan in the wee hours this morning, and after a late brunch we're all heading to Elizabeth and Troy's for an over-night visit. They also plan to come here for a few days beginning late afternoon Christmas Day. Karen (my sister) and Wayne will be coming for Christmas dinner and family time following church, so things are getting exciting around here.

Last Sunday evening was our church's Christmas Celebration which was very nice. People volunteered to do special music or readings and these were interspersed with explanations of some of the names of Christ. As Ed briefly talked about a name and its meaning, someone added an ornament they had made to represent that name to the Christmas tree. This idea came from our CBM friend. Thanks, Ellie!

After the service everyone followed us to our home for an open house - our Christmas gift to our church family. We really enjoyed the evening of visiting and, of course, eating!

My tip for the week is one for desperate times. We have a fireplace but choose not to burn wood. I found a nice fireplace candle holder (at an estate sale for $3, of course) but the candles were really burned down into the middle. You couldn't even see the flame anymore! Soooooooo, I cut them off almost level with the wick,

Big chunks at first . . .

and then shave it level.

used a lighter to smooth the tops,

Yes, there's actually a flame!

and voila - "new" candles! Think of the money I saved ; ) !!

 I love candlelight - everything looks good when you can't see all it's details and flaws! So that's what we had for the open house.






I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Don't forget to plan time to remember what it's truly about.