Advent

Jingle Bell was apparently inspired by the "Nutcracker" last night.  Here he is, dancing in front of the Rat King, Clara, the Nutcracker and Uncle Drosselmeyer.  Madison is continually amazed at Jingle Bell's antics.  The nutcracker collection is up today, although it probably won't go out until tomorrow.  We have about eleven or so nutcrackers - by no means a massive collection.  We don't really need anymore, honestly.  It's just that every so often, you see one on sale or something.  The ones in the picture above are unique:  the three to the left (Drosselmeyer, Rat King and Clara) are from a production of the Nutcracker that Mommy and Daddy went to at the Fox Theater some time ago.  We got them as a souvenir of sorts.  The one on the right is a rather fancy one, an old one and a gift from Nana.  It was made in Germany, and is the real deal.  Some time ago, Daddy got a few from the Bombay Company when they were on sale.  He rather liked them.  At yesterday's performance, I saw a few as well - but used self control!

So today was church in the morning - and a special service at night.  We spent the few hours in between at home, watching "Olive the Other Reindeer," and going to the PNC website to check on the current 2013 value of the 12 Days of Christmas.  This year, it's up 7.7% to something like $23,000.  That's right:  $23,000 to purchase all the items listed on the Twelve Days of Christmas.  The website is always fun, as it offers things to do for Madison.  This year, she could design her own partridge in a pear tree, or her own maid-a-milking.

By the way - update on the Gävle Goat:  it's still there.  And the snow looks fantastic, doesn't it?  I'm sure it feels a whole lot less friendly, but from the safety of a webcam thousands of miles away, it's all rather picturesque!

Tonight before bed, we lit another candle for Advent.  Mommy got the candles ready, and we spent the few moments before bed putting up our nice Nativity set.  We haven't brought out the nice one in some time, so it was good to see it again.  It's in the bonus room on top of the fake fireplace, nearby the new tree.  There's a wonderful story to this Nativity set - it's an empire, really.  We have about seven or eight buildings, all sorts of shepherds, soldiers, Wise Men, villagers, priests and the Holy Family of course.  There are plenty of livestock, wells, bridges, chariots, swords, shields, pottery, flower bushes, palm trees, etc.  Like I said, it's an empire.  Daddy wasn't prepared to go out and buy an uber-expensive sort of Nativity set, but I've always liked these large scale ones (although there's not much room to set it all up right now).  Anyway, just before we lost our last K-Mart here in Gainesville, Daddy and Mommy found exactly what we were looking for:  a really nice, really large Nativity set.  And it was after Christmas, and it was incredibly cheap.  We easily saved over $100 on this thing.  It's impressive.  And now part of it is set up - Madison saw it for the first time tonight, helping us put all the pieces in place.  She knows who the people are involved, and knows where to put them.  It's pretty sweet.  We had two candles lit the entire time, and soft Christmas music playing in the background.  It was one of those very nice Christmas moments.

We went upstairs and did her two advent calendars up there before bed, and before you know it, another day is done.  There are not many days left until Christmas, are there?

As for church this morning, we used a Christmas movie that Daddy also made a devotional entry for.  Everyone at KidPak enjoyed it this morning - the movie was "Elf."

DECEMBER 8 - "Elf"

Buddy is not an angry elf. He’s upbeat, and always smiling! He’s always singing and quite happy, isn’t he? Things happen to him that he probably doesn’t like - he keeps getting hit by taxis, for example. Escalators are scary, and raccoons are even worse. A Santa impersonator that smells like beef and cheese even tried to beat him up! But no matter what happens, he is always joyful.

And there is so much to be joyful about. Most of us have food, places to sleep at night, protection, school, church – the list goes on and on. And yet how often to do we choose not to focus on being thankful for these things – and instead focus on the stuff we don’t have?

The Bible is clear in 1 Thessalonians 5:16, where it tells us, “always be joyful.” In the movie “Elf,” you can see how Buddy’s joy is contagious: it spread from one person to the next and to the next – and that’s how Christmas was saved. The entire city of New York is filled with enough Christmas spirit to power Santa’s sleigh.

There is a lot of power you can get from being joyful: the Bible tells us the joy of the Lord is our strength. Now you don’t have to start singing in the middle of a department store, but you can start with a smile and a happy heart. When we start thinking about all of our blessings, it’s easy to have a merry heart – one that is always joyful.