by John Schoenheit
The New Testament teaching that Christians are not “under the Law” has often been misunderstood to the end that the directions given in the Old Testament have not been studied or applied. Although it is true that the Christian is not under the Levitical statutes pertaining to sacrifices, ritual cleansing, etc., the fact is that there are many laws of God written in the Old Testament that believers today need to obey. This teaching explains how the Christian can separate the laws that were “done away” in Christ from the ones still applicable. It gives special attention to the Ten Commandments and how they are to be applied today.
Okay, I won’t sing anymore – after all, you need those ears to hear your loved ones exclaim over their awesome gifts Christmas morning, right?
We put our tree up Sunday. I put the thing together, Kevin strung the lights, the boys decorated it, and I finished it off with icicles.
It’s a hodge-podge tree and I’m TOTALLY cool with that. Our tree consists of homemade ornaments, or ornaments we received as gifts, picked up at local events or simply went out and bought specifically for that year. All of our ornaments have a story and the kids and I enjoy pulling them out every year and remembering how and why we have those particular ornaments.
I took some pictures of our ornaments last year, I’ll take more this year. I’ll post the pictures and tell you the story behind them (and if I can’t remember the stories exactly, I’ll fill in the blanks. I’m really good at filling in memory blanks – aren’t I mom. hehe).
Other than our Christmas tree? The only other Christmas decorations we have around the house are the advent calendar and stockings, hung up by the fireplace, of course.
And that’s it.
I used to decorate more, but the more I put out, the more I have to put back up later and I’m too lazy to bother with it.
It looks like we’ll be spending Christmas Eve with Kevin’s family and staying home Christmas Day. My parents are driving to my brother’s house on Christmas Day and since that’s the only time we can all get together (my mom has to work the weekends and my brother and sister have to work during the week) and Kevin doesn’t want to drive six hours on Christmas Day (three up there, three back), then we won’t be able to make it this year. I’m trying to talk my parents into coming over one night for dinner at our house and have a mini-Christmas, but I haven’t heard back from them yet.
It’s so hard to get everyone together when we all live in different cities and everyone has to work around their work schedules.
But Kevin and I have decided we are not going to stress over the holidays anymore. We used to divide Christmas Day up between my family and his family and it just sucked – we spent the whole day on fast forward, rushing through our family Christmas in the morning, going to my parent’s house for brunch, then watching the clock and going over to his parent’s house for a late lunch/early dinner.
That’s honestly no way to spend the holiday. So now, I’m trying to talk the families into celebrating Christmas on any other day BUT Christmas Day so we can all have our time to relax and actually enjoy the holiday.
I haven’t been too successful. And now all of the kids are getting older, leaving home and establishing their own lives and relationships, so it’s all changing again anyway – I imagine the dynamics are going to be completely different in a few years.
I spent the entire day planning, shopping and buying Christmas gifts. I haunted Amazon’s Cyber Monday sales and I must say, I landed some pretty sweet deals. In fact, Kevin and the boys are DONE, I’m happy to report. All I need are some stocking stuffers and Kevin and I are going out tomorrow to shop for new computer chairs for the boys. Other than that?
I’m done.
Not that I would dream of rubbing that in your face or anything.
*ahem* 😀
Bring it on, December.
Christmas song #1 Wonderful Time of the Year by Barlow Girl
Write From Karen 