Lots of Christmas Pictures

Christmas

Click on the picture to see the slide show.

Can you do this?

Michelle attempts The Rectangle.

Merry Christmas!

A Star is Born

"The Womanizers"

Can't buy me love!!!

Pretty woman, walking down the street. . .

Come and Behold Him!

Anyone who has ever had a baby knows the world becomes a friendly place when you have a baby in tow. Strangers in the grocery store, the post office, or the mall, who would otherwise walk right past as though you didn’t exist, suddenly have the time to stop and chat. They even do a bit of flirting—making silly faces and funny noises—hoping to get a gurgled chuckle or a toothless smile from the little one perched in the shopping cart.

I wonder if it wasn’t something like that when Joseph and Mary arrived at the temple to dedicate their baby to God. As the young family entered, two senior citizens waiting inside turned their heads. If they were anything like folks in the canned vegetables aisle, their faces brightened and they moved closer, just to catch a glimpse of the baby the youthful mother was carrying. . .

Maybe this Christmas we’ll all stop, if only for a moment, to come and behold the baby, to share the peace of Simeon and enter the joy of Anna. Come, let us celebrate the light that has broken through our darkness.

Read the whole article from Carolyn James' Whitby Forum.

Christmas peeled back

Christmas will come anyway this year, as it always does. From some of the notes Frank and I have received during this difficult time, I’m beginning to think that Christmas is just what grieving people need—not because it distracts us from our pain or provides some jolly (but temporary) antidote for depression. Rather it is because sorrow, as one friend put it, “peels back Christmas to the bare essentials” and intensifies our focus on Jesus and why we needed Him to come. Maybe in our troubles, we have even greater reason to celebrate His coming—for only in Him do we have a solid hope that one day He will wipe away all tears.

from Carolyn James

Big, Bright Light Show

Half a million lights decorate downtown Rochester for the Big, Bright Light Show. It looks a little like Las Vegas at first - so MANY lights! But I think maybe I kind of like it. It looks so festive!

Upside Down Christmas Tree

The upside down tree allows more room for presents underneath, and you can put it in a small space, say, between a couple of chairs. This might be sort of practical, but I think it's also sort of weird. You can read more about it here and here.

Ho ho ho

Christmas season in Chicago

At least someone has their tree decorated!