This Christmas

Today is Christmas Day. May you all be blessed today and every day. Today is not about the presents, the food, the glitter and the glitz but about something so much more important. Last night I sat in a Christmas Eve service and heard something that I have heard thousands of times but this time was a little different. The pastor said that we have these lovely nativity scenes that show Mary, Joesph, and baby Jesus in the center of a clean stable, quiet and serene. In reality, they were in a stall while people were going in and out, dropping off their animals, and hustling away to find a room or a party or whatever. They probably never even knew what was going on but the animals did because they were there. The shepherds were getting there as fast as they could as were the wise men but at the moment that Jesus was born there were a bunch of pack animals, a lot of traffic, and his parents. Are we going to fast to get to the parties, presents, glitz, and the glamour? Did we just drop off our stuff to hurry on to the next thing? In doing so, we may have missed that one split second miracle.

I know that I hurry around to get from one place to another and not just during the holiday season. My quiet time (time that God deserves and wants) gets shuffled to the back burner and as a result, I am like the people going in and out of the stable that night. I miss the little miracles that God has for me. I am going to make a more conscious effort to spend more time with God so that I don't miss the little miracles anymore.

I know that my family believes in Jesus and all that He has done, is doing, and will do. If you read this blog and you don't know what I am talking about then ask anyone, pastors, family, friends, etc. God sent Jesus to be born just for you and me and everyone and anyone. You just need to open your heart and let Him in. Have a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

"Merry Christmas"

Some of you know that I like to listen to Dr Richard Land's radio program while I'm at work. Today they discussed a report that just came out. It said that stores that advertise with "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" have higher sales. I guess the public really does know what time of year it is. He also played some interesting audio from Ben Stein. To hear the episode you can go to this web site and download the audio. He also mentioned in the second half of the show his required reading while he was in Princeton. I couldn't read fast enough to keep up.

2007 Grandview Christmas Parade

We went to Grandview last night to watch their Christmas parade. It was set to start at five o'clock. The staging area was behind the First Baptist Church, so we set up across the street from the Church. Aunt Sue had come to town with GranMa and GranPa so Lynne and Andy went to help her bring her two kiddos over. Andy had taken a college day on Friday to go visit a campus. Can you guess where they went? And yes, his shirt does say Ladyjacks on it.

The Grandview HS band lead the way playing Christmas songs. They have always had a very good band and this year was no exception.

Of course, you know me. I like cool cars. So this next group of pictures are some of the cool cars we saw in the parade.

There were, of course, many floats. Here are a few that the pictures weren't to blurry to share. It was to dark for non flash photography and to far away for a flash, but we did the best we could. Cousin Parker is somewhere on the boyscout float.

Every kid loves a firetruck! So this group of pictures will be dedicated to emergency response vehicles.

Then there was the main reason we went to the parade. GranPa had his golf cart decorated for the event. He and GranMa rode the entire route and then gave Aunt Sue and her two a ride back to the truck.

Lynne thinks this next picture is funny. Santa is riding in a cool car, but what's that hanging out of the drivers mouth? I guess he's a bad elf.

We had a little trouble with the boys before we left town. I guess they thought all those Maypearl boys in Grandview were looking for trouble.

We then loaded everyone into the van and headed to Wataburger in Alvarado to eat supper with GranPa and GranMa. It was a fun evening all around.

Deck the Halls

We didn't have any boughs of holly but we did have some lights we bought last year at the after Christmas sale at Walmart! Of course they didn't quite reach all the way across the porch so we had to buy one more string (that doesn't quite match) to finish the job. Man, I really need to clean off my porch.

The tree was up too so the boys went about putting all the ornaments on. We listened to the Trans Siberian Orchestra on channel 13 to put us in the mood.

Mom was in her jammies and the boys did all the heavy lifting. A little later the Bumble came by to put the angel on top.