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Looking out our windows this time of year, we can see it, the whole world bedecked in strands of lights, twinkling and blinking awake. Because we once lived in a dark land, a time before the warming hope of Christ, but now we celebrate the Light of the World who now shines the brilliance of grace upon us. We wake to wonder!

- from A Jesus Advent Celebration (day 13- Light to Warm Us) by Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience

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And for a while, I forgot that it is December.

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Instead of the regular study, we were asked to share the Lord's blessings in our lives this year.
Where do I start?
I barely know the words.

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First day of vacation.  No where to be, nothing special to do.  For the first day, that was a good thing.

Lately

Seen:  I adore all things Geninne.  Period.
(this- Galison)

Heard: “I’ve been climbing my whole life and I’m only at the bottom of the mountain…My hands cannot reach it and my mind cannot comprehend it, but my soul is going to get there one day.” -Christa Wells
Go here, and then click on #9, On the Mountain.
This song makes me want to get in the car, and get on the highway, and head straight into the horizon with the stereo turned very loud. 
Alas, no car, no highway, no stereo,
but I promise that in my head, I'm singing loud.

Read: I bought Bonhoeffer for my Kindle PC/Touch this morning.  I'm excited about that.
The Kindle software has been really handy since we don't have access to a many books right now. 
I love that I can highlight passages.  I love that it takes no room.
But here's what I don't like- I can't tell how many pages are left to read in a chapter...

Pondered: A pattern.  Reasonableness and gentleness. 
That's what I would like to be known for, too.

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A pretty twirly swirly dress and her first formal party, a Quinceanera.

Time goes by oh so very quickly...

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I saw it, and went back in to get my camera.  I was surprised it was still there, and that I got the picture, too.

(the Great Kiskadee)

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They didn't have to wear their uniform shirt today if they wore Christmas wear. 

It's good to have a spiffy tie for the Christmas party when your last name is Holliday...

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Why does a Costa Rican rental house have a Statue of Liberty in the window?

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Hope,
love,
friendship,
union,

... and coca-cola.

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One more day of final exams. 
We'll be thankful to be finished.

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He can still outplay the boy. 
:-)

God with us

From tonight's Advent devotional readings-

I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land.   I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.
Genesis 28:15

"God is with us in this season of coming and going and God is with us in these places,though we knew it not, at our tables and in our cars and down our street and in the unlikeliest, unexpected places, even in a place like the manger of a barn and we meet God today in a thousand places. Who knows it?"
- Ann Voskamp, A Holy Experience

(art credit:  Marc Chagall, Jacob's Ladder, 1977)

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It was the only candle we had, and then we took it out to save for the next time the power goes out. 

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walking home at dusk, the streetlights meld with the sunset.

Winter is where hope lies happy.

I haven't yet missed the coming of winter a bit. But this poem describes all the things that I do love about winter, and it makes one a bit nostalgic about the change of season...
enjoy.

(From the Bench at the Bend in the Trail)

I know that I should cringe
When I think of the muddy cold
Of winter in Tennessee.

But today, with my daughter
And her friend prancing
In the brown grass yard,
Crunching leaves, singing,
Rosy cheeked and rowdy
In the chill of Autumn,
Refusing their sweaters,
Drinking the dusk
Like a mug of cider,

I look to the early dark
Of winter with easy joy,
Because those are the days
We light candles, eat soup
And keep the water hot
For tea, or coffee, or cocoa
With those crunchy little
Marshmallows.

Those are the days
We wrap ourselves
In quilts my mother made
To watch our favorite movies.
Or we dust off the gameboard
And look out the windows
At the weak light and yearn
For past (or future) graces,

For dying days like this one,
Or days like last April
When I felt against my lips
How the new leaves
On the maples were soft
As a baby’s foot.

We find some peace
In warm pleasures:
In the smallness
Of our heated house
Beneath the vast
Mountain of cold air
Piled on us clear
To the stratosphere,
Trying to freeze us
In our lamp-lit hollow,
Our cleft of calm and longing
Where we tend the fire:
Memory of Autumn’s embers,
Coming song of spring,
Summer kicking in the womb.

Winter is where hope lies happy.

(credit to Andrew Peterson at The Rabbit Room)

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Fudge from the Junior High Bake Sale- it was very good, but reminded me that I miss my friend... 

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Once she talked to her teacher and realized that it would all be fine, she looked much happier.  I thought that is how it would work out.

 

(lots of great pictures at the December Photo Project)

outside...

The nicest thing about rain is that it always stops.  Eventually.
- Eeyore

It was raining when we went to bed,
and when we woke up, it was raining.
It was raining when we went to bed,
and when we woke up, it was raining.

And it is still raining.

They tell me that December is the beginning of summer.
I'm ready.

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The poinsettias and the party brightened up the day.

(December Photo Project at View From the Prairie Box)