Merry Christmas!

I'll be taking the next couple of days off to spend with my boys enjoying our holiday traditions.  We have some dear friends getting married on the 28th and will be helping with that...Jeremy will also be playing that morning for the worship team at church.  I'll be back on the 29th with some very exciting news....guess what I'll be doing on Saturdays the months of January and February?

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of our celebrations and share them with you when I return on the 29th.  I'll be taking orders during this time but I won't be shipping out packages again until the 29th of December.

Remember, my Medicinal Herb Course is on sale for $15.00 through midnight the 31st.  What a great way to spend some of that Christmas money!  You'll save so much more than that by learning to make your own remedies!

Also, don't forget the soap naming contest...who wouldn't love free handmade, handcut soap?

We will be enjoying our traditional Snicky Snack night for our Christmas Eve while we watch It's A Wonderful Night. Siah and I will change our sweet and sour meatballs a bit this year.  We are going to try mixing some of our grass-fed ground beef with some of this family's wonderful sausage. Yummy!  Mom told me this morning that her cheese tray will be  all Amish cheese made with raw milk....yummy!  And of course, the centerpiece will be our special Hot Wings!  Lots of our traditional cookies for desert!  I can hardly wait!

The big highlight of the evening will be the search for Baby Jesus.  You can read about this Tradition of the Straws here.  The manger this year is overflowing with straws...we've had a lot of fun reaching out to other people in need during this holiday season and serving those outside of our family always brings fatter straws!  We have been able to help several families who needed food and other things this year. (If we didn't raise and preserve our own food we wouldn't have been able to do this!  We are thankful for a wonderful harvest  and our grass-fed beef!)  We like to call it "Ring and Run".  You know, ring the bell and make a mad dash out of sight.  We want their thanks directed, not to us, but to our Father who only used us as His hands and feet.  We were humbled to be able to do so.  I pray that our Father continues to give us the ability to help others as He blesses us....and we have been wonderfully blessed this year!

Our Baby Jesus will be hidden and the boys will have to search for him.  Whoever finds him is the one who gets to place him in the manger!  Even though they are older, this is still a very important part of our Christmas....I think each boy will continue this tradition in their own home one day.  I can just see it, many years from now, when hopefully there will be lots of grandchildren searching for Baby Jesus!

Our Christmas morning starts out with opening the stockings and tree then we have homemade cinnamon rolls and fresh squeezed orange juice.  Mom joins us for both....then after breakfast we head to her house and do another tree!  Mom likes to continue the tradition of going to Grandma's house for Christmas too. I think it is wonderful that she has the ability and desire to still do this...even though we live right next door to each other.  My oldest son always spends the night Christmas Eve so he is there for Christmas morning too.  I know these years are fleeting...once he gets married he'll want to establish his own Christmas traditions...I am enjoying this time that we still get to have him!

After Mom's tree, she serves a light lunch for all of us (what a relief not to have to rush and prepare another meal!).  Then I begin my final preparations for the big Christmas dinner.  I have much of it done ahead of time and my Mom always helps prepare many things so my load is not so heavy.  During the day we play many family games.  I join as the kitchen work allows.  I love this time.....pretty candles are flickering, Christmas music is playing, Mom and I are working and chatting together,  the boys are laughing and enjoying each other...and the smells emanating from the kitchen...heavenly! What more could a mama ask for?

My prayer for you, my dear readers, is that you will also search and find the Baby Jesus and come to understand that the shadow of  His cross lay upon that manger scene many thousands of nights ago....that our Savior was born crucified.....born crucified for you...so that you might live!


May you have a Blessed and Merry Christmas!