Happy New Year!

It was fun waking up to a snowy first day of 2008.

I hope you’re having a good first day of the new year.

ETA: Same tree, more snowfall.

Merry Christmas!

We had a beautiful Christmas Eve service tonight. (I guess technically that would be last night.) We sang a few favorite Christmas carols, were treated to several special performances, heard a story, then a short sermon and wrapped everything up with the lighting of the candles.

The sermon was a fresh reminder of why Jesus came, but I think the part of the service that sticks in my mind was when one of the pastors read a story of how “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow came to be. It’s quite an interesting story. You can read it for yourself here.

A rather substantial excerpt of the article:

The first Christmas after Fanny’s death, Longfellow wrote, “How inexpressibly sad are all holidays.” A year after the incident, he wrote, “I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace.” Longfellow’s journal entry for December 25th 1862 reads: “‘A merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me.” Almost a year later, Longfellow received word that his oldest son Charles, a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac, had been severely wounded with a bullet passing under his shoulder blades and taking off one of the spinal processes. The Christmas of 1863 was silent in Longfellow’s journal. Finally, on Christmas Day of 1864, he wrote the words of the poem, “Christmas Bells.” The reelection of Abraham Lincoln or the possible end of the terrible war may have been the occasion for the poem. Lt. Charles Longfellow did not die that Christmas, but lived. So, contrary to popular belief, the occasion of writing that much loved Christmas carol was not due to Charles’ death.Longfellow’s Christmas bells loudly proclaimed, “God is not dead.” Even more, the bells announced, “Nor doth He sleep.” God’s Truth, Power, and Justice are affirmed, when Longfellow wrote: “The wrong shall fail, the right prevail.” The message that the Living God is a God of Peace is proclaimed in the close of the carol: “Of peace on Earth, good will to men.”

Christmas Bells”
(The original poem, complete with all seven stanzas)

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead; nor does He sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Merry Christmas, friends and family!

Edited to add: I forgot that I ran across this earlier today. It’s a video of Graham Choo and Daniel Choo playing O Holy Night on their acoustic guitars. I have posted links to Daniel’s videos before. I subscribe to Graham’s blog but somehow I missed the post with this on it. Enjoy!

Christmas Adam

‘Twas the night before the night before Christmas and all of the Nicklebees were crashed in their beds, visions of blank calendar days danced in their heads.

We had a great time with my side of the family today. All of us except Mr. N, who had to work, and will have to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as well.

The Little Guy has been looking forward to this party ever since the last one. He and my Mom outdid themselves with the treasure hunt. The Little Guy loves to make up games and my Mom has had treasure hunts in the past so he begged her to let him come up with the treasure hunt. They put a lot of effort into it and it showed! The whole thing was far more orderly than it has ever been and all of the big kids weren’t trampling the littler kids. Gabe was in his glory!

The party was great fun, for the most part. We took next year’s Christmas card picture early.

Front Row (L-R): Homer, Pottawatomie Posey, the Brown Eyed Girl, and Dub. Back Row: The Little Guy, Peanut Brittle, and Mr. Noojen. (Looks like Mr. Noojen’s braces have done the trick!)

The Grandmother was very nearly hospitalized when her O2 level dropped through the floor. Then she stopped laughing and everything seemed to stabilize.

Homer was surprisingly cooperative. He posed for this mother/son portrait. I shall cherish it for years to come.

Peanut Brittle is always a good subject. Seriously.

Before I forget:

To Certain Clumsy and/or Impulsive People out there for whom everything seems to turn to ashes in your hands and disagreeable comments in your ears:

We still love you!! Sometimes we forgot that we’ve been there and wonder how one person can have such a long bumbling streak. We’ve messed up more times than we care to remember, though we should make a note of those times on behalf of others who may have the audacity to mess up in our presence, or in this case, mess up presents.

Stop being so self conscious about not ruining everything that you trip yourself up and make a bigger mess than if you had just relaxed and tried not to worry about stuff. Stop trying so hard and stop beating yourself up when you do mess up. God still loves you and so do the people who matter. We love you far more than the things you mess up. Sometimes we forget to look at the big picture and are impatient and thoughtless. We apologize for seeming to care more about “stuff” than about you.

Now wipe your tears, let’s clean up the mess together, and then let’s try to enjoy being together and celebrating the season, okay?

Big hugs to you from a clumsy, impulsive, forgetful person, on behalf of clumsy, impulsive, forgetful people everywhere,

Your Mom and Aunt

Christmas Eve cometh, and with it, more baking and cleaning and cleaning and baking. And then the Candlelight Service. I hope that you are as blessed as we are to attend a church that celebrates the birth of Christ with such joy and hope.

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More pics from SundayThe Toothless Brown Eyed Girl

Posey and Dub

Goofy Goobers

More Goofy Goobers

Stardate Tuesday

In case I never mentioned this, Dogs Rule.

Adelheid loves to have a stuffed animal. There isn’t an attitude around people or Noah with it so we let her carry around her favorite.

Last night I went shopping for some stuff I needed for the church Christmas thing tonight and saw that the dog toys were marked down. I picked up one that most resembled her old one. When I got home, I said, “Heidi! Come and get your dolly!” (I may have mentioned before that she reminded us of a little girl with a doll when she was a puppy, so we have always called her MFT (most favored toy) her “dolly”.) She came running and sniffed the thing for a minute and walked away. I called her back and offered it to her again and she took it and walked around the house with it. Since then, she has spent most of her spare time in her kennel with the thing.

The Church thing

We had a great time at our thing tonight. *Ella went with me, and my mother in-law brought 4 other people. That was cool. All of the tables were so pretty and each was unique. I have yet to see a table decorated the same way twice. One was actually mostly black! It was striking. Simple, yet interesting. (It was that hysterical older redhead, **Guinevere.) Our guests seemed pleased with the table so that was a relief. (I always worry about disappointing people when it comes to stuff like that.)

*The Asterisk still means what it always has, but I have to put something here so that I can get on with the double asterisk.

** Not your real name, either, but 10,000 blog points to the person, blogger or nonblogger, who knows where this came from, who said it and who she was saying it to: “I’m Guinevere _______. My friends call me Jenny. You can call me Guinevere.”

I was pleasantly surprised to hear my contribution to dessert being raved over. I made cupcakes using the Cocoa Crazy Cake recipe and the Vegan Buttercream Frosting. They did taste exceptional. I am not sure if it was because they were refrigerated, which I don’t usually do, or if it was the recipe change, or if they were that great.

If it had to do with the recipe change, this time I substituted the 1/2 C of shortening for Soy Garden. I was a little leery of doing that but I didn’t have a lot to lose because I had already started dumping ingredients into my mixing bowl. (Take it from me: THINK FIRST.)

Everyone at our table also really enjoyed the entertainment. Every song the singers sang pointed to Jesus. No one could walk away from there wondering what it was all about, or at least not knowing the Object of our celebration.

Speaking of Jesus

Something I read in my email today caused me to look through the Bible for answers. Flipping through, I read some verses today that were an encouragement to me. Maybe they’ll be an encouragement to someone else.

Hebrews 4:14-16

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Colossians 2:13-15

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Something I think about quite often lately is that satan doesn’t have to turn me into a baby eating devil worshiper to win; he just needs to get my eyes off Jesus.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Wrapping up November

What a month! It’s been a good one but a very tough one. There have been several great opportunities to be discouraged but there have been even more opportunities to thank God for His many blessings in my life.

NaBloPoMo

What a nightmare! What a burden for someone who doesn’t like to quit a project but who regularly runs low on creativity. And yet it has been a blessing! I have been forced to consider regularly that verse that says, (Proverbs 10:19) When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise, which carries over into all areas of life. (This is not to say that sin is present in long blog posts, but simply the likelihood is greater.) I am glad for that lesson but relieved that the challenge is almost over.

Nicklebee Notes …

We still aren’t sure when we’re getting our van back. There was more damage found when the adjuster went and looked at it yesterday. He actually jacked up the estimated damages on the original estimate. Hopefully everything will get fixed that needs to be fixed. And soon. Mr. N is guessing it will be at least another week and a half to two weeks before the work is finished. At least two more weeks?

Oh well. What can ya do?