Christmas In the Air

It's Christmas!!!!

My favorite time of year as we celebrate the wonderful and miraculous birth of our Savior. Every year for the past 40 plus, I've been a part of the Christmas Pageant at Houston's First Baptist Church. Gerald Ray started it all, and his legacy continues today under the leadership of John Bolin. What a privilege to work with both of these talented men. This year the theme of the First Section was classic Christmas movies. I couldn't believe the reality of the scenes from It's a Wonderful Life, Grinch, Charlie Brown's Christmas, Polar Express, Frosty and of course White Christmas. The story of Jesus' birth, life and death never changes, and those are depicted so beautifully in music and drama.

Here's a picture of our youngest son Mike and his three children with  me in front of our Jack-in-the-Box from the show. Drew Walters hid under that big head. I lost my camera so I didn't get any pictures, but lots of people said they'd share with me.

Christmas is a time for families and reflection on God's blessings through the year as we approach the end of one and the beginning of another. Our family is spread out, so we'll have two Christmases in order to be with them all.

Christmas is also a time of giving and sharing with others. One of my favorite things to share is with a shoe box or two full of toys and gifts for some child in the Franklin Graham Operation Christmas Child. We also share with toys for our church mission's Christmas Store where parents can come come in and "buy" toys for their children. It's a time of sharing food and I love giving food gifts. If you scroll down to last Christmas, you'll find some great recipes for sharing this Christmas.

Traditions abound this time of year, and one tradition we had was to put up the tree on our middle son's birthday, December 10, but now, with them grown and in their own homes, our tree goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving so we can enjoy it longer. At the very top are the ornaments from our first Christmas together 54 years ago. Here are my 3 favorite ornaments today.

The gold one goes back a long time and the pewter one to the left of the green one came last year.  

What Christmas traditions do you have? I'd love to hear about them. Do you have any favorite ornaments? Tell me about them and your name will be entered in a drawing for my Christmas book, Christmas at Holly Hill.

Clayton Barlow wants to prove that he’s changed after five years in prison. Even as he is accepted by more and more people in town, he still doesn’t fell worthy of Merry Warner’s love and doesn’t want to hurt her reputation as a fine, upstanding school teacher. His willingness to risk going to jail again in the attempt to free a young girl from bondage finally convinces the town as well as Merry that Clay is a man of courage and deserves their respect. As the trust grows, so does his love for Merry, and the love she once had for him returns as they pledge their lives to one another and to one lonely child. 

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